Preservation

Not since the High Priests of Thebes labored lovingly over the corpses of Libyan Pharaohs has there been such big news in the embalming business. In Manhattan last week, Dr. Carlos Jose Rodriguez Fernandez, a Venezuelan dentist, announced that he has concocted "a fluid which will destroy putrefaction from the face of the earth." He has the well-preserved carcasses of a donkey, a dog and a 1,500-lb. horse once ridden by Venezuela's late President Delgado-Chalbaud as mute monuments to his success.

Until he gets a patent, Dr. Rodriguez will only say that his fluid is a fast-acting dehydrant and powerful disinfectant. It can be injected intramuscularly intra-arterially, or simply sprayed on the body to be preserved. According to Dr Rodriguez, it will be useful in preserving bodies on a battlefield, in criminal investigations, in autopsies and, of course in embalming. Medical schools will be saved the expense of pickled cadavers.

Charles E. Renouard, "Dean" of American Embalmers" and founder of one of the country's best embalming schools has put the Rodriguez formula to the test. "I'm an antique in a dead business," says' Renouard, "and I don't care what's in the liquid as long as it works." A well-preserved 82 himself, Renouard used the formula on 20 bodies, even kept ten of them for a week in a well-heated room. "Dr. Rodriguez," said he, "has made a real find."

Dentist Rodriguez sees little danger that indiscriminate use of his fluid will upset the earth's nitrogen cycle by cutting town the supply of decaying animal tissue. His formula, he admits, may never attain such worldwide acceptance.

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