Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1906, (In two parts), Part II

Chargé Jay to the Secretary of State.

American Legation,
Constantinople, April 3, 1906.

No. 1347.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the department’s No. 1043, of March 12, 1906, inclosing a copy of a letter from Mr. James S. McCarthy asking if the body of person who died in the United States will be permitted to enter Syria for burial there, the person having died of a disease which is not contagious, and under what conditions this permission will be granted.

In reply I beg to inclose translation of a letter addressed to the dragoman of this legation by the secretary of the Ottoman board of health giving the rules governing such matters.

I have, etc.,

Peter Augustus Jay.

[Inclosure.—Translation.]

The Secretary of the Ottoman Board of Health to Mr. Gargiulo.

Constantinople, March 31, 1906.

Dear Mr. Gargiulo: In accordance with your request, I have the honor to communicate to you the conditions required for the transport of a body.

Bodies exhumed must be placed in a lead coffin, itself inclosed in wooden bier.

The lead coffin will be made with plates of this metal at least 3 millimeters thick, thoroughly soldered together.

The exterior coffin must be made of oak or of any other wood equally solid; the walls must be at least 4 centimeters thick; they must be fastened with screws and kept in place by three clamps which can be tightened.

Bodies thus placed will be put into contact with disinfectants, in order to avoid the escape of noxious gas from the interior to the exterior.

When the disinterment is taking place, if the coffin is found to be complete and in good state of preservation, it will suffice to open it and to introduce a mixture in equal parts of well-dried sawdust and of sulphate of zinc (or of sulphate of iron). The body will be entirely covered so as to fill the lead coffin, which when closed will be placed in the wooden bier on a layer from 3 to 4 centimeters thick of the above-mentioned mixture.

If at the time of disinterment the frame is found open or deteriorated, one must, after having taken out the body or its remnants, place them in the lead coffin, on a thick layer of the mixture specified above, and cover them over as above stated, to avoid all shaking in transportation, after which the lead coffin will be soldered up.

The principal coffin must be sealed up with the health authorities’ seal.

It is of course understood that the body must be accompanied by a certificate giving the name, age, sex, nature of the disease, as well as all the details of the placing the body in two coffins.

As the second wooden box in oak or other wood is generally an expensive and ornamental box, in order not to deteriorate it, it is often the custom here to place this second box in a common white wooden packing case bound with three steel hoops that may be tightened.

In this event the health authorities’ seal should be affixed to both boxes.

I am, etc.

Zitterer.