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


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