Alfredo Salafia

Alfredo Salafia (November 7, 1869 – January 31, 1933) was a Sicilian professor of chemistry, and also a noted embalmer and taxidermist of the 1900s.

In December 1920, he embalmed a little girl, Rosalia Lombardo, in Palermo, Sicily at her father's request. She currently lies in a glass topped, sealed coffin in Palermo's Capuchin friary catacombs (Catacombe dei Cappuccini), and is available for public viewing as one of the best-preserved bodies there. The formula Salafia used to embalm her, found in his handwritten memoirs, involved replacing her blood with a solution of formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin.^{[1] [2]}

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