# Dead things in airtight caskets **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 11, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434 "2012-09-11T21:44:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434/21 "2012-09-12T15:12:18Z")
> [@AndrewL](#): > > Mummies are deliberately treated before death to desiccate the tissues, and often packed with salt and other absorbent materials to deliberately draw any remaining liquids out. I hope you mean **after** death (and before burial). ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434/22 "2012-09-12T15:13:53Z")
Did you know cremation “ashes” aren’t the ashes you find in a fireplace? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434/23 "2012-09-12T16:02:11Z")
Funnily enough I was just listening to a podcast about John Paul Jones (the admiral, not the Led Zeppelin bassist). He died in Paris and was buried in an unremarkable cemetary, the site of which was built over many times. In 1899 General Horace Porter, the US Ambassador to France, decided to go looking for Jones’ body. After six long years and a lot of digging and money they found Jones’ corpse preserved in alcohol in a lead-lined coffin in remarkably good shape. It now lies in a fancy marble and bronze sarcophagus in Annapolis. ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_X2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90db22/32.png) [@Karen\_X2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_X2)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434/24 "2012-09-12T16:28:22Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > So then…nobody knows? > > Has nobody shaved a dead monkey and put it into a sealed clear acrylic box for observation? I’m thinking I may just have a webcam idea–I’ll make millions because I KNOW folks will want to see it (when they think nobody’s watching them). It’s already been done. Just not sure if this is real, so make your own judgement. [http://seemerot.com](http://seemerot.com) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434/25 "2012-09-13T05:42:47Z")
Seemerot is definitely a hoax. There have been artists that have encased animal carcasses in glass, but the only examples I can think of have been vented via ducts to prevent gases building up and leaking directly into the gallery space, so they probably were not anaerobic ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434/26 "2012-09-13T06:47:12Z")
It’s my understanding that the exorbitantly-priced “hermetically sealed, water-tight” caskets are not as wonderfully sealed for eternity that the funeral industry presents. As for what happens in the box while it is still sealed, look up “coffin liquor.” I’m not crazy about cremation, but I could approve the proverbial pine box. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![jmrcm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@jmrcm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmrcm)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434/27 "2012-09-13T07:22:42Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I wondered about this when I went to see Napoleon’s tomb in Paris. It is a big marble sarcophagus, on a plinth under a dome, where tourists can go view it. I hate to think what is actually inside. ☹ The weird thing, is he may be intact. He was slowly poisoned with arsenic. There are accounts of the first time he was dug up, and apparently he was intact. If there was enough arsenic in his tissue there’s a chance there was enough to act as a preservative. ---
**Author:** ![core\_dump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@core\_dump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/core_dump)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434/28 "2012-09-13T07:33:30Z")
I will take a NON-airtight casket any day of the week. There’s nothing better than a freshly embalmed corpse with some earthy overtones. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-things-in-airtight-caskets/634434.md?page=1)