<P> Interest in, and demand for, embalming grew steadily in the 19th century largely for sentimental reasons . People wished to be buried at far - off locations, and mourners wanted the chance to display the body for visitors to pay their last respects to . Another motive behind embalming at this time was to prevent the spread of disease while being able to prepare for burial without unseemly haste . After Lord Nelson was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar, his body was preserved in brandy and spirits of wine mixed with camphor and myrrh for over two months . At the time of his state funeral in 1805, his body was found to still be in excellent condition and completely plastic . </P> <P> Alternative methods of preservation, such as ice packing or laying the body on so called' cooling boards', gradually lost ground to the increasingly popular and effective methods of embalming . By the mid 19th century, the newly emerging profession of businessmen - undertakers - who provided funeral and burial services - began adopting embalming methods as standard . </P> <P> Embalming caught on in the United States during the American Civil War, as a result of sentimental issues involving foreign officials and servicemen dying far from home, and the need for their remains to be returned home for local burial . This period starting at about 1861 is known as the Funeral period of embalming and is marked by a separation of the fields of embalming by funeral directors and embalming (anatomical wetting) for medical and scientific purposes . Dr. Thomas Holmes received a commission from the Army Medical Corps to embalm the corpses of dead Union officers to return to their families . Military authorities also permitted private embalmers to work in military - controlled areas . The passage of Abraham Lincoln's body home for burial was made possible by embalming, and it brought the possibilities and potential of embalming to a wider public notice . </P> <P> Until the early 20th century, arsenic was frequently used as an embalming fluid, until it was supplanted by other more effective and less toxic chemicals . There was concern about the possibility of arsenic from embalmed bodies contaminating ground water supplies . There were also legal concerns because people suspected of murder by arsenic poisoning could claim that the levels of poison in the deceased's body were a result of post-mortem embalming rather than evidence of homicide . </P>

When did embalming start in the united states
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