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A sample of 60 morticians completed the Revised Death Anxiety Scale. Their responses were compared with scores on that scale from 136 men from other occupations. The funeral directors' death anxiety scores were surprisingly high. Perhaps they are less able successfully to repress death fears because of constant occupational exposure to issues related to mortality.
A group of 60 middle-aged morticians at a professional seminar in the midwestern USA who completed a multidimensional sense of humor scale scored significantly lower than another group of 136 men from other occupations. The difference between the two groups appeared almost entirely on scale items having to do with humor generation or creativity.
Recently Thorson and Powell reported in this journal that morticians scored significantly lower on a multidimensional sense of humor scale than another group of similarly aged men from other occupations. These findings differ markedly with some in 1991 from a 2-yr. ethnographic study conducted with morticians and funeral directors in four states regarding how they managed the stigma associated with their occupation.
Archaeological excavations carried out in two ancient cemeteries (1657-1844) of Notre-Dame-de-Québec Basilica in old Québec City allowed us to analyze the skeletal remains of more than 175 children who died before they were 10 years old. The proportion of infants is higher than expected according to the parish registers presumably because archaeologists recovered the remains of infants whose death had not been recorded in the registers. Two peaks of mortality have been noted: among the newborns and between one and two years old. The observed bone lesions lead us to believe that prenatal stress and rickets might be responsible for these high mortality rates. Although the samples from the two cemeteries were contemporaneous and drawn from the same community, there are some significant differences from the morbidity and mortality standpoint, tentatively attributed to the fact that most of the children recovered from one of the cemeteries were the victims of an epidemic while those from the other cemetery died in normal circumstances. This study shows how the analysis of skeletal remains can shed light on pathological conditions which otherwise would remain undocumented and how paleoanthropology opens new perspectives of research on diseases and death in the past.
The authors present the oldest historical case of a so-called beaten-copper cranium. The typical pattern was identified on a skull from a child, probably a boy, who died at approximately 6 years of age and was buried in a provisional cemetery used during the siege of Hanau, Germany, in 1635 and 1636. Morphological and radiological analyses of the severe digitate impressions ubiquitous on the child's endocranium support the diagnosis of chronically elevated intracranial pressure due to hydrocephalus.
This study of a mummified head from the British museum by high resolution computer tomography and 3D reconstruction illustrates, without mutilation of the specimen, some aspects of mummification of the head; namely the extraction of the brain through the nose and filling the cranium with linen like material, packing of the oral cavity and the presence of false eyes. These findings alone allow one to date the mummy to no sooner than the 20th dynasty, a time when this custom was at its peak. ENT aspects of the mummification of the head are discussed.
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The role physicians assume when patients die at home is nebulous and ill defined. Beyond the traditional function of providing comfort and condolence to family members, the physician's duties are directed toward how our society deals with the bureaucratic and legal aspects of death. Statistics are maintained regarding the numbers of deaths in municipalities and states and the causes of death, and those numbers are used by individuals and organizations for a multitude of legal, medical, and political purposes. The state also has an obvious interest in uncovering and prosecuting crime. The physician has a vital part to play in providing essential medical information for those record-keeping, statistical, and legal purposes. Physicians need to be mindful of the important functions being served when they are asked to complete death certificates and to report cases and provide information to the medical examiner. As with many other physician activities, the information we provide about our patients' deaths serves a singular societal need; thus, we should view that function not as a burden but as a vital aspect of the enriching and enobling work that is uniquely ours.
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