X-Message-Number: 6262 Date: Sat, 25 May 1996 02:10:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Ben Best <> Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Permafrost and the Franklin Expedition There may be many grounds on which Permafrost Burial can be discredited, but the Franklin Expedition is not among them. All of the 4 members of the Franklin Expedition who were buried in the Arctic had been undergoing decay aboard ship for extended periods before burial (one was covered with rat bites). Considerable autolysis occurred to these bodies before they were ever put in the ground. All of this and much more is described in great detail in THE PERMAFROST PAPERS, most of which I wrote about 5 years ago. I am in the process of constructing a WEB page for the CRYONICS SOCIETY OF CANADA, and I will try to get THE PERMAFROST PAPERS onto this page within the next month (it will take much longer to get all of the illustrations, though). I will try to make an announcement when I feel that the new WEB page is roughly presentable. My current bottom line on Permafrost Burial is that I very aware that Permafrost temperatures are not low enough to stop tissue degredation (and, in fact, can contribute to it). Almost from the beginning I have recommended Permafrost Burial ONLY as an adjunct to Chemical Preservation, isolation from oxygen and humidity and (perhaps) desiccation. My biggest concern with this preservation method at present is that there are no existing groups that are prepared to give good Chemical Preservation at the time of declaration of death. My other concern is that I am hard-pressed to say what good Chemical Preservation IS. And in some sense I am not even sure what good Cryonics Preservation IS. That is why I am trying to understand the BRAIN -- as a prelude to studying methods of best PRESERVING it. -- Ben Best () President, The Cryonics Society of Canada Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6262