摘要：This paper examines the debates and controversies around the hygienic management of corpses having arisen in Europe since the 1850s and, most particularly, during the next three decades on various international medical and health congresses. The main debates revolved around the so-called “rational burial of the dead”. The issue comprised varied matters, namely, provisions to regulate the establishment of cemeteries in the green areas round the towns; use of effective chemical disinfectants; diagnosis of “real” versus “apparent” death; procedures for the identification of dead bodies; alternative systems to burial, and so on.
