Largest waiting mortuary

In Germany, the influential physician Hufeland considered putrefaction to be the only reliable sign of death. As a result, corpses were incubated in special hospitals for the dead before burial, in order not to risk being buried alive. The largest of these waiting mortuaries was located in Munich, circa 1880. It had a ward for the rich and a ward for the poor, each with three rows of 20 corpse beds – room for 120 corpses in total. The lifeless "patients" had their fingers and toes tied to an alarm system connected to a powerful bell, so that the slightest movement would trigger the alarm.