Morgue
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A morgue is a building or room (as in a hospital) used for the storage of human remains.
Probably because it is in a sense where the "dead bodies" are kept, the term morgue is also used to refer to the room where newspaper or magazine publishers keep their back issues and other historical references.
The word is predominately used in American English, mortuary being more common in British English. It originally referred to a building in Paris, France, the Morgue, where bodies were kept until identified. The term morgue is derived from French morguer, to look at solemnly, to defy. The term was first used to describe the inner wicket of a prison, where prisoners were kept for some time, that the jailers and turnkeys might view them at their leisure, so as to be able to recognize them when occasion required. Relating to dead people, the name was first given to a building in Paris which in the middle of the fifth century was part of the Châtelet and was used for the keeping and identification of unknown corpses.
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Morgue or mortuary cold chamber
There are two types of mortuary cold chambers:
Positive temperature
+2/+4 °C which is the most usual for keeping the bodies a few days or a few weeks, but does not prevent decomposition of the corpse, which continues, albeit at a slow rate.Negative temperature
-15°C/-25 °C which is usual in forensic institutes, especially for bodies which have not yet been identified. At these temperatures, the body is completely frozen and decomposition totally halted.Usage
The mortuary cold chamber is used to keep the deceased as long as is necessary for identification purposes, or prior to post-mortem examination, or while awaiting burial.
In many countries, the family have to make the burial within 72 hours but in some countries, (in Africa, for example), it is usual that the burial takes place some weeks or some months after the death. That is the reason why some corpses can be kept as long as one or even two years at the hospital or in a funeral home. When the family has enough money to organise the burial ceremony, they take the corpse from the cold chamber.
Morgues have been constructed in all large cities in the United States; in Boston (1851), in New York, (1866), in Chicago, (1872), etc.