The concept of morgue has its etymological origin in the French language. Specifically, we can establish that it derives from the French word “morgue”, which was originally known as the cell in which prisoners were processed before their imprisonment took place.
However, this term evolved and now, today, refers to a place intended for the storage of corpses before burial or cremation .
It is a refrigerated site so that the bodies do not corrupt while a judicial investigation or some type of scientific study is carried out. These procedures mean that the remains cannot be transferred to the cemetery within the usual deadlines, which is why it is necessary for them to remain in the morgue.
The morgue is often located inside a hospital , although it can also operate in another building. Many times a body is taken to the morgue for an autopsy to determine the causes of death of the person.
When an unknown individual is found dead, it is common for them to be sent to the morgue until they know who it is. Those who could know the identity of the deceased should go to the morgue to complete the corresponding recognition.
Suppose that, in a car accident, a 46-year-old man dies. Because he does not have any documentation on him and the witnesses to the event do not know him, the subject cannot be identified and is therefore taken to a morgue. Several hours later, a woman who reported her husband missing is asked to go to the morgue to try to recognize the victim who died in the accident. Upon seeing the body, this woman identifies it.
Depending on the refrigeration provided in the morgue, corpses decompose more or less quickly. In a room with a temperature of up to 4 ºC , a body can remain for a few weeks with decomposition that develops slowly but continuously. If the temperature is reduced to -10 ºC or less, putrefaction is very limited.
In the same way, we cannot ignore that “Morgue” is the title of a film directed by Paraguayan Hugo Cardozo that was released in 2019. It is a horror film that tells the story of a man, Diego, who works as a security guard and who one night ends up locked up in the morgue of the Encarnación Regional Hospital. There he will experience a series of paranormal events that will make him spend some truly terrible hours.
In the field of literature we find the work “The Murders on Morgue Street”. This is a story written by the great American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849). It can also be found as “The Murders on Morgue Street”, it was published in 1841 and is part of the police and horror genre.
This work by Poe is considered the first detective work in the history of literature and tells that an amateur detective, named C. Auguste Dupin, has to take charge of the investigation of two crimes that have taken place on the aforementioned street. It is about the crimes of a mother and her daughter in their Paris apartment.