In the original, four ounces of lime is recommended, and we have given this dose in our first edition; but it has since been found by doubling it, the preservative is less pasty, and less difficult to use, more abundant and equally good.

M. Simon thus composes the preservative, but he adds to it a certain quantity of corrosive sublimate, and of camphor dissolved in spirits of wine. The camphor, thus incorporated with the preservative, does not volatilize so easily as when used in powder.

When used, a sufficient quantity is placed in a small vessel, and, with the aid of a hair pencil, it is moistened with water and spread upon the piece to be preserved.

Some naturalists, fearful of the danger of the daily use of arsenic, have endeavoured to replace this preservative by another composition, but have never succeeded in obtaining results equally advantageous; but, nevertheless, in order to render this work as complete as possible, and to facilitate new researches, we thought that we should at least, indicate here, the different processes which have by turns been imagined.

In my cabinet of natural history, I have indicated, under the name of soapy pomatum, the following composition:

M. Mouton de Fontenille proposes a tanning liquor thus composed:

Boil the whole, except the alum, which is not to be added to the liquor until withdrawn from the fire; it is to be put into a well corked vial for use.

M. Mouton thus uses his liquor: when an animal is skinned, and the skin divested of grease as well as possible, the internal surface is to be moistened with the tanning liquor until it is perfectly impregnated; if it be a dry skin, it is to be moistened in the same manner until it is softened.

An author has recommended, under the name of antiseptic powder, the following composition:

The whole to be reduced to a fine powder and well mixed.

We advise that powdered arsenic never be used, because, by volatilizing, it might penetrate the lungs and cause mortal ravages.[N]

The preparor Nicholas recommends, in certain cases, a composition which ought to be here mentioned, not to advise the use of it, on the contrary, to advise the rejection of it; for far from driving off the insects, it attracts them; he calls it gummy paste.

Other preparors, without passing any thing over the skin, confine themselves to the use of the following powder:

The whole to be finely powdered and well mixed.

Some amateurs content themselves in passing over the internal surface of the skin they wish to preserve, a good layer of melted suet mixed with a small quantity of corrosive sublimate; it appears that they have obtained some advantageous results, which authorises further experiments; it has been remarked, that suet is never attacked by insects; perhaps, if it were combined with some mineral matter less dangerous than the sublimate, results as satisfactory as those from the arsenical soap of Bècoeur might be obtained.

Such are the preservatives which have been employed in France, but which do not possess, to any extent, the efficacy of the arsenical soap of Bècoeur. It appears that the Germans employ others to which they attribute the same qualities, which appears to us very doubtful in all cases: they may be mentioned here.

Naumann, in the first place, gives a method which appears to us vicious, although he invokes in its favour his own experience. After having said that the best method of preserving is to close hermetically, stuffed animals in boxes, he adds: “I do no more for skins which are to travel in boxes, than powder them with the following composition:

“Of lime decomposed in the air, and finely sifted, two parts; of saxony tobacco, also sifted, one part.”

Hoffman approves of, and recommends the following powder:

The librarian of Jena, M. Theodore Thon, proposes the following powder, as better for preserving animals in the open air.

To be powdered and mixed. Before employing this powder, give a layer of essence of pine, (turpentine,) in order that it may adhere better to the interior of the skin. If the latter be very greasy, add an ounce and a half of lime decomposed in the air and sifted.

Among the preservatives which this naturalist has investigated, we find a very simple one, which he says, is very effectual for mammifera: the following is its composition:

The same naturalist recommends another composition as very good, and which I think would be worth making a trial of for large animals, which would be very expensive done with arsenical soap. Very fat bitumen is to be melted, in a strong solution of soap-water, until the whole forms a sort of clear broth; the interior of the skin is to be endued with this mixture, which costs very little.

Preservatives in Liquors.

Liquors are employed in baths, in lotion, in friction, in injection, and finally, in permanent baths, in which certain objects are always to remain; we shall now treat of these four methods of preservation.

Of the Bath.

In many animals, and particularly in the mammifera, the skin has such a thickness, such a degree of intensity, that the arsenical soap can not penetrate it sufficiently in order to preserve it perfectly; it is then that the bath becomes an indispensable operation. In penetrating the skin which is left to macerate a longer or shorter time, the preservative molecules with which it is saturated enters all its pores, and preserves it for ever from the attacks of insects.

The following is the composition of the bath employed by the naturalists—preparors of Paris.

This mixture must be boiled until it is all entirely dissolved, and when the liquor has cooled, plunge the skins into it; those of the size of a hare, or thereabouts, need not remain longer than twenty-four hours; those of the larger animals must macerate a longer or shorter time, according to their thickness; from eight to fifteen days would not be too long for a buffalo or a zebra. At the museum of Natural History of Paris, they very rarely make use of this composition; they are satisfied to macerate the skins in spirits of wine, which they keep in hogsheads for that purpose. Without attempting to criticise this method, which may have its advantages, we think that they might, perhaps, in this particular, follow the English naturalists, and add, like them, a small quantity of corrosive sublimate dissolved in spirits of wine.

Nevertheless, as we ought to be impartial, we should mention here the dangers attendant on the use of this terrible mineral, so much boasted by Sir S. Smith, president of the Linnean Society of London. When there is occasion to mount a subject prepared with sublimate, whether it has been employed in powder or in solution, in arranging the animal there arises a dust, which penetrates the nostrils, and may cause serious accidents. Arsenic, though much less energetic, is not even free from this inconvenience. Thus it is only with much precaution that preparors should handle preparations in skins which they receive from foreign countries, the substances used in the preparation of which they are ignorant.

Let us now pass to the other preservatives in liquor, less generally employed, at the present time, although some of them may be very useful. The following is the tanning liquor which I have proposed in the Cabinet of Natural History:

An ancient author, the Abbe Manesse, composed his bath in the following manner:

Liquors employed externally as lotion.

When an animal has been mounted or prepared, and fears exist less the insect should attack it, this may be prevented by washing its feathers, its hairs, or its naked skin, with one of the liquors which we are about to indicate. Animals exposed to the open air have, above all, need of being thus treated, and yet, by an inconceivable negligence, many amateurs permit their collections to be devoured, for the want of employment of a means both simple and easy.

1. The essence of wild thyme, has been recently advantageously employed; in using it the feathers or hairs of an animal are to be raised every little distance by a long needle, and at their bases, that is to say, the skin, is to be touched by means of a hair pencil with a drop or two of the essence, and when this has been well imbibed, the hairs or feathers are to be replaced, their extremities, never being in contact with the liquor, cannot become tarnished.

2. Essence of turpentine has been recommended by almost all authors, and yet, when made use of it is perceived with astonishment that great inconveniences result; it never dries upon the feathers, which it greases and soils in spite of every precaution, the spots spreading and enlarging like oil; besides this, it forms a species of glue, which arrests and fixes the dust in such a manner that no subsequent effort can remove.

3. Liquor of Sir S. Smith.—This intelligent English naturalist, president of the Linnean Society of London, having turned his attention to the preservation of prepared objects, already classed in collections, has concluded that there cannot be a more efficacious means employed than the following liquor.

In large animals it is applied by means of a sponge, which is passed at different times over the whole exterior of the animal, until it is perfectly impregnated, and the liquor has penetrated to the skin. In small animals a hair pencil is used, and the operation is performed in the same manner. Whether the individual submitted to this practice be recently prepared, or whether it has long remained in a collection, it must be permitted to dry perfectly before placing it in a cabinet.

In France this dangerous composition is replaced by the preservative in very small quantities diluted with water.

4. The bitter spirituous liquor, recommended by other authors, is thus composed:

The whole is to be subjected to cold infusion for several days in a vessel hermetically sealed, frequently shaking the vessel during this interval, and allowed to strain through unglazed gray paper; when it is thought that the infusion is done, it must be put into bottles equally well corked, and used after the same manner as the preceding.

5. Varnish is employed only on the naked skin of reptiles and fishes, to which it restores a portion of its splendour; it must be absolutely colourless, and perfectly transparent. In order to obtain it thus, it must be prepared by dissolving fine and new turpentine in spirits of wine, which must themselves possess the qualities above mentioned. It is to be applied with a pencil of squirrel’s tail, or the tail of a martin, and the object is left exposed to the air, sheltered from the dust, if it be wished to hasten its desiccation.

Liquors employed in Injections.

Injections are more generally employed for the preparation of the eggs of birds, for which it is desirable to secure a long preservation; although by a very bad method, they have also been used for the desiccation of very small animals.

In order to decompose the flesh of a fœtus already formed in an egg, recourse is had to a strong solution of a fixed alkali, of soda, of tartar, or to ether.

Liquors, in which objects are preserved which do not admit of drying.

The qualities which a liquor ought to possess, in which objects of natural history are placed, are, independently of that of preserving from decomposition: 1. to be colourless, that they may not tarnish the contained objects; 2. not to attack by corrosion the proper colours of the object; 3. to be perfectly transparent, that the contained objects may be visible through the vase which encloses them; 4. the power to resist frost, in order that they may not break the jar which holds them.

1. Spirits of wine, of from fourteen to eighteen degrees of the areometer of Baume, appears to be the liquor which best fulfils all these conditions; the other alcohols, such as those from potato, from grain, from sugar, &c., have the same qualities; but a serious inconvenience is the high price of all of them, and this reason alone is an inducement to look for other compound liquors, capable of replacing them with more or less advantage.

2. Nicholas recommends the following composition:

The English naturalist, George Graves, in a work published in London, seven years ago, indicates a liquor which has much analogy with the preceding:

The following is the method of preparing this mixture: the alum is pulverised and put into a vessel capable of resisting heat; water being heated to ebullition is poured upon the alum; when cool, it is to be filtered through gray paper, and then mixed with alcohol. The same author recommends another liquor, thus composed, but of which the mixture is made cold.

4. The Abbe Manesse, after various trials, more or less successful, has published the result of his experiments; he proposes as the best liquor, one composed as follows:

The water used should be distilled, so as to be freed of any foreign matter; the alum should be the most transparent that could be obtained, and the salt also should be purified before use. The liquor may be made cold, but it is always better to boil it, with the precaution not to add the spirits of wine until it has cooled.

All these liquors are inferior to spirits of wine, inasmuch as they are liable to freeze.

After having given this long list of the known means of preserving, and given in detail the representation of authors, it remains for us to judge of them, to determine their merit, and the degree of confidence that ought to be accorded to each, under the triple point of view of the preservation of objects of normal anatomy, of pathological anatomy, and of natural history.

1. Process of desiccation.—It can be of no utility for pathological anatomy, because it changes entirely the aspect and texture of parts, and in most cases it leaves no traces of the alterations which it is important to know. For normal anatomy, these preparations are, and always must be, from the simple fact of desiccation, a feeble resource, and really much inferior to the artificial subjects of M. Azoux; for this ingenious preparation, if it has many of the faults of dry anatomy, the objects are not so deformed as scarcely to be recognised.

Further, each of the preparations which tend to desiccation has its particular inconvenience: thus those of the deuto-chloride are numerous, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, and as have remarked in this the authors whom we have cited. We may add that the salts of mercury, of copper, and of lead, which, in combining with gelatine, form, it is true, an inalterable compound, have a great affinity for hydrosulphuric acid, and that there results from this affinity, a necessary deterioration of the objects, colouring them black. Sea salt does not possess durable preservative properties; and its affinity for water even facilitates the decomposition of the dried subjects which contain it. Alcohol is, doubtless, a good means, but it requires to be frequently renewed, until by its affinity for water it absorbs all which the organs contain; but alcohol costs forty cents a quart, and loses always by evaporation. Besides, parts thus prepared, are not less deformed than other dried parts, when subjected to desiccation.

The naturalist finds in the soap of Bècoeur, in other preparations containing arsenic, the deuto-chloride of mercury, alum, &c., sufficiently good means of drying or of tanning the skin and other animal tissues. But, as M. Boitard has remarked, these preparations are not without their inconveniences.

What have I to offer the anatomist who believes in the utility of dried preparations, to the naturalist whom a real necessity often forces to recur to them? My liquid, employed as a bath or injection, without either danger or inconvenience, and which costs only two or four cents the quart.

I shall give here an example of injection; a corpse is injected by the carotid with from five to seven quarts of the acetate of alumine at 20°, and containing in solution about two ounces (fifty grammes) of arsenic acid. Four days after this injection, if it is intended to prepare the large and small vessels, inject by the aorta half a quart of a mixture, equal parts, of the essence of turpentine and essence of varnish; finally, make a single cast of a hot injection of a mixture of suet and of rosin, in equal parts, coloured with cinabar for the arteries, and with a black or blue colour for the veins. Then, the corpse, or the part of the corpse which it is intended to preserve, is prepared and dissected at leisure, according to the wish of the operator.

When the body has been injected, as above described, the preparation which is made of it easily dries in the open air from the month of May to the month of October; during the winter it is necessary to deposit it in an oven, or in a heated chamber. When the desiccation is slow, or the moisture is excessive, the byssus sometimes develops on its surface, but this may be washed off, and a layer of varnish will prevent new vegetations. This preparation will be certainly superior to any contained in cabinets of anatomy.

In support of this assertion, I will cite an authentic fact, that of a woman whose body was submitted to the examination of the commissioners of the Institute and of the Royal Academy of Medicine, appointed to prove the value of my process.

On the 10th of May, 1834, a woman died in the wards of M. Majendie, at the Hôtel-Dieu; the body was injected the next day with the acetate of alumine; at the termination of this operation, it remained fresh until the 15th of January, 1835, when it dried without experiencing any alteration. The commissioners of the two Academies made experiments upon this body, at different periods. On the 15th of January, 1836, M. Guèneau de Mussy, to assure himself of the state of the cerebral substance, demanded the head to be opened, I profited by this occasion to take off the hairy scalp. The same day, M. Breschet, desiring to know what would result from the exposure of this corpse to the open air, it was suspended beneath the shed of the dissecting rooms (ècole pratique.)

Ten months after, in the month of November of the same year, it had not experienced any alteration. At this period, M. Gaucherant, inspecting overseer of the ècole pratique, wishing to terminate the experiment, the body was sent to the cemetery.

The right arm and forearm, the only parts remaining untouched, after the experiments of MM. the commissioners, were amputated by myself. I preserve this piece, as well as the hairy scalp; I can show them to anatomists to be compared with all the preparations obtained by other processes; none of them, I am convinced will be pronounced comparable to mine. The hairs remain so firmly attached to the scalp, that a strong pull will not detach them; I am quite sure that the injection has penetrated even to the capillary tubes of these organs; my experiments upon cats, dogs, and birds, have demonstrated the penetration of my liquid into the horny organs, hairs, or feathers, which clothe the skin of these animals. These facts will demonstrate all the services which it is capable of rendering naturalists. Finally, no process of tanning could give to the internal surface of the skin an aspect more satisfactory than that which offer other preparations deposited in my cabinet.

2. Preservation in liquids.—The different preservative liquids produce effects very different from the process of desiccation; however, all those employed up to the present day, possess serious inconveniences, as any one may be convinced by reading the very commendable passages which we have extracted from the pamphlet of M. Dumèril. We shall point out some others which he has omitted.

(a.) Nitric Acid, the only one of all the acids, that can be of any use to the anatomists, preserves well, it is true, the preparation of the nerves, hardening their structure, and increasing their nacreous white colour; but it deteriorates all the other structures, it dissolves the gelatine, softens the muscles, and deprives the bones of their calcareous salts; it cannot be other than deleterious to objects of pathological anatomy, and natural history.

(b.) Alcohol, is more serviceable than any other liquor in use, but its high price renders its employment almost impossible for objects of normal anatomy; it hardens and sensibly alters objects of pathological anatomy; and these alterations, however trifling they may be, and unimportant to regular anatomy, are serious for the physician, who cannot have too exact an idea of the progress of disorganization in the living tissues. If alcohol is eminently useful for natural history, its costliness renders it impossible to extend the use of it as far as the interest of science demands.

(c.) Diluted Alcohol, to which is added the deuto-chloride of mercury, is a less expensive liquor; it preserves accurately enough the labours of the naturalist and anatomist, but it is not sufficiently faithful for a pathological anatomy. The same may be said of the hydro-chlorate of soda, the hydro-chlorate of ammonia, the muriate and nitrate of alumine added to alcohol.

(d.) Alum, which we have seen figure in many of the adopted formulæ, is, nevertheless an unprofitable means of preservation. Extensively used in commerce, and employed from time immemorial in dyeing, it has only recently attracted the attention of preparers. This salt, to which the new chemical nomenclature has successively assigned the names of double sulphate, triple sulphate, acid sulphate of alumine and potash; has been experimented upon by myself, and has not answered my expectations. I have investigated the cause of this failure, and think I have found it; in analysing this compound, for every hundred parts I have obtained

One hundred parts of this salt contains 10.86 of alumine. At the temperature of 12° centigrade, five hundred grammes of water dissolves thirty grammes of salt, from whence it results that a pound of water contains in solution only eighteen grains of alumine; from whence I have suspected that the little efficacy of alum for the preservation of animal matter, depends on the too small quantity of alumine in the solution. A fact convinced me that I was right: twenty-four hours after the immersion of a corpse in a bath containing the acid sulphate of alumine, I have observed that all the alumine was absorbed by the animal matter. Finally, the experiments which I have tried with the salts of alum, more rich in alumine, and more soluble in water, and the happy results I have attained, authorizes me to say: alum is a bad means of preservation, because it is not sufficiently soluble, and does not contain enough alumine. The reader will naturally again recur to the subject when we come to the exposition of my researches.

Sect. 3.—Means of preservation applied to each tissue.

In our first paragraph, we have passed in review the different preparations which ought to precede the application of preservative means; in the second, we have seen these numerous means, and we were compelled to deliver an impartial judgment. It remains for us to explain here how anatomists have applied them to the tissues taken separately. We shall abstain from relating the preparations which precede the application of preservative means, because they are foreign to the subject which occupies us, and would uselessly prolong a discussion already too much extended.

1. Fibrous tissues.—Articulations, aponeuroses, tendons, and ligaments.—The process generally adopted is due to M. J. Cloquet, in nearly following the method employed by the tanner, he has succeeded in preserving the suppleness of these tissues.

“The following,” continues he, “is the process which I have adopted.

“Dissolve four pounds of muriate of soda and a pound of alum in ten pints of water: the articulation, which has been carefully dissected, must be allowed to macerate fifteen or twenty days in this lie; paying attention to move it frequently in the solution, to press and twist its ligaments, and, above all, to strike it lightly with a little mace of light wood. These manœuvres are intended to render them pliable, to separate the fibres, which permits the salts to penetrate more easily. Withdraw the articulation from the solution, dry it for four or five days, taking care to move it occasionally, and still to strike it with the little mace; then put the articulation into a very concentrated solution of soap, (a pound to three pints of water,) handle, and strike it again for seven or eight days, the time necessary for divesting it of salt, and permitting the soap to penetrate the ligamentous fibres, to take the place of the salts. At the end of this time, that is to say, thirty-six or forty days after the commencement of the operation, wash the articulation in a weak lie of carbonate of soda, (an ounce to two pounds of water,) after which it is to be dried.

“By this process, which may be modified in various ways, ligament may be obtained perfectly supple, of a yellowish or grayish colour, resembling chamois leather, very resisting, and permitting the joints to execute their ordinary movements.

“I have prepared, in this manner, the articulations of the shoulder, of the knee, of the fingers, and of the vertebral column. I repeated my experiments with the intention of obtaining a more expeditious method.

“The articulations may also be preserved perfectly supple, by keeping them immersed in a mixture of equal parts of olive oil and essence of turpentine.

“2. Osseous tissue.—The different preparations to which bones are subjected in order to preserve them, are maceration or ebullition, and then bleaching.

“Maceration.—When it is desired to obtain the bones very white, it is necessary to choose, as far as possible, a thin or infiltrated corpse, of an individual of from thirty to forty-five years, or thereabouts, dead of some chronic disease which has not altered the structure of the bones. Consumptive bodies are the most proper for this kind of preparation. The subject being chosen, it is roughly stripped of its muscles and periosteum; the sternum is to be detached by dividing the costal cartilages where they join the ribs; the members are to be separated from the trunk, in order that these various parts may be more conveniently placed in a trough, which is to be filled with water, and disposed in some place where the putrid emanations cannot produce any inconvenience; the bones must be constantly kept covered with water, which must be renewed every four or five days in the commencement, and at more prolonged intervals towards the end of the maceration.

“The anatomist should watch over these macerations; and it is only when all the fibrous parts separate easily from the bones, or the inter-vertebral fibro-cartilages, and the yellow ligaments separate readily from the vertebra, that the skeleton should be withdrawn from the bath and cleaned. For this purpose, he collects with care all the pieces, and places them in clean water; he cleans them by removing with a scalpel the fibrous parts which may yet adhere, and by rubbing them under water with a very coarse brush; he then places them on coarse linen to dry them.

“Ebullition.—Boiling water is often resorted to for preparing the bones of the skeleton. After having roughly separated them from the soft parts, they are placed in a kettle of water, and subjected to ebullition for six or ten hours, according to the subject. The action of the water is increased, and the fibrous parts more accurately stripped from the bones, as well as the grease, by placing in the kettle, an hour before the end of the operation, potash, or soda of commerce, (sub-carbonate of potash, and of soda,) one pound to eighty or a hundred pints of liquid. After having carefully removed the grease which swims on the surface of the water, the bones are to be withdrawn and plunged into a new alkaline lie, warm and very weak; clean them with care, as in the preceding case, separating exactly from the articular surfaces, the swollen and softened cartilages, which remain adhering to them: the bones being clean, they are to be washed frequently previously to drying.

“In employing ebullition, we have the advantage of preparing the bones more promptly, and in a manner less insalubrious than by maceration. Nevertheless, this mode of preparation has its inconvenience: 1. Bones which are boiled, become, in general, less white than those which are macerated; the blood coagulating in their pores, leaves a brown tinge, which it is often impossible to remove; 2. They commonly retain a greater quantity of medullary matter, which, by becoming rancid, soon gives them a yellow colour and a very disagreeable odour; 3. Ebullition is not applicable to the bones of young subjects, in which the epiphyses are not yet adherent; it acts upon their gelatinous texture, and despoils, in part, the short bones and the extremities of the long bones of the compact layer which envelopes them. This last inconvenience is manifested even in the bones of adults.

“Dealbation, or bleaching of bones.—In order to obtain macerated bones perfectly white, several processes are employed: 1. The best method consists in placing them upon the grass exposed to the united action of the air, the sun, and the dew, as is practised in bleaching linen, wax, &c.; care is to be taken to turn them every fifteen days, in order that they may bleach equably; two or three months of such exposure is sufficient, particularly during the spring, to give them a brilliant whiteness. 2. The bones may be exposed to the action of chlorine, either liquid or gaseous. In the first case, they are to be plunged three or four times daily in a lie which holds chlorine in solution, repeating this operation for ten or twelve days; in the second, they must be steeped in water, placed on a hurdle and covered with cere-cloth or gummed taffeta, they are then to be exposed over an earthen pan, in which has been placed suitable proportions, of muriate of soda, oxide of manganese, and sulphuric acid: from time to time this mixture is to be slightly heated. 3. In place of gaseous chlorine, the vapour of sulphuric acid may be advantageously employed, as is done in the arts of bleaching wool, silk, &c.; sulphur is slowly burned beneath the hurdle, upon which has been placed the moistened bones; the alkaline lies may also be used for the bleaching of bones although they do not appear to me so advantageous as the preceding means.

“3. Cutaneous tissues.—Deprived of grease, and of subjacent cellular tissue and exposed to the air, this tissue inclines to dry. The human skin may be prepared by the aid of several processes analogous to those of tanners and leather dressers. A lie has been recommended composed of two pounds of common salt, four ounces of sulphate of iron, and eight ounces of alum, melted in three pints of almost boiling water; the skin divested of its grease, is plunged into this solution, agitated for half an hour, and macerated for a day or two in this liquid; the lie must be frequently renewed, then the skin is to be withdrawn from the bath and dried in the shade.

“4. Cellular tissue.—Authors have successively employed de­sic­ca­tion, in­suf­fla­tion, tanning liquors and alcohol, for preparing the cellular tissue; although the method given by them as preferable, is the preservation in an aqueous solution of nitrate of alumine, to which is added a small quantity of spirits of wine.

“5. Synovial and serous tissues.—The first is much more easily preserved than the other; an accurate dissection, expulsion of the synovial liquor, kneading, and desiccation, are the means used; the operation is finished by the application of a preservative varnish. The same practice is applied to the serous tissues, but with less success; its proximity to organs eminently putrescible, such as the brain, the lungs, the liver, renders its dissolution more imminent, more difficult to prevent.

“6. Encephalon, spinal marrow, nerves.—We have already spoken of the property of nitric acid, to give consistency to the nerves, without causing them to lose any thing of their pearly whiteness. Anatomists generally avail themselves, for the preservation of the whole nervous system, of the alcoholic solution of corrosive sublimate. After twenty or thirty days immersion in the bath, these organs are withdrawn and exposed to dry. As communicating a remarkable density to the encephalic mass, a solution of sugar in brandy is much praised: it is a method recommended by Lobstein, chief of the anatomical department of the Faculty of Strasbourg.

“7. Arterial vessels, veins, and lymphatics.—The interesting details which have been furnished to us by the pamphlets of M. Dumèril on the subject of injections, will enable us to dispense with much further developments; the vessels injected and preserved, as we have seen, are dried and preserved in alcoholic liquors.

“When the object is to prepare the vessels of the bones, some care is exacted to render visible their passage through the bony frame; after having filled the vessel with a coloured injection, the piece is to be placed in a diluted mineral acid, which, in dissolving the calcareous phosphate, leaves the vessels in position, and clearly visible through the gelatinous portion of the bone.

“In causing this mucous body to dry slowly and in the shade, it will acquire the necessary transparency to manifest on its cut surface (endued with volatile oil and varnished) the distribution of the vessels which penetrate the bones. These pieces may be preserved in a collection, either in the open air, after having been plunged into an alcoholic solution of arsenical soap, which dries quickly without bleaching; and to which essence varnish adheres very well; or if the piece is small, it may be suspended in a jar of volatile oil, luted with care; in this latter case, the injection must have been made with gelatine, and not with fatty matter.

“8. Muscular tissue.—The process of Swan, or rather the discoveries of Chaussier, furnish the means of preserving the muscles by desiccation. Nevertheless, another method is recommended by authors; after having prepared the vessels and the muscles, the preparation is to be placed in a mixture of alcohol, lavender, and essence of turpentine; it is to be left for several days in this liquor, and then exposed to a warm and dry air; when desiccation is complete, a layer of varnish may be applied.

“9. The preservation of particular organs, such as the heart, the lungs, the eye, &c., differ but little from that of the organs which we have just mentioned; they are always to be either dried, or deposited in an alcohol bath. The lacrymal ways, says M. Breschet in his excellent thesis on the preservation of anatomical subjects (Paris, 1819,) are less easily preserved, although the lacrymal sac, nasal canal, the lacrymal points and conducts, offer more difficulty in their preparation than in their preservation, which may be accomplished by liquors, or by desiccation. The lacrymal canal, and its excretory canals, can only be seen on preparations in spirits of wine. Finally, the following are some passages from the same work, upon the means of preserving the embryon and the fœtal envelopes.

“It is useful to preserve the embryons and fœtuses at different periods of gestation, in order to study the successive development of each organ.

“The egg, considered in its various periods of incubation, can only be preserved in alcohol somewhat weakened, in order that it may not harden the membranes. Kirschwasser, in which has been dissolved the nitrate of alumine, forms a limpid liquor, in which the egg may be preserved without any alteration. In order to demonstrate the development of these organs, many parts may be injected; thus, during the earlier periods, the pedicle of the umbilical vesicle admits mercury, which is introduced by a small glass syringe, the tube of which has been drawn fine in the blow-pipe: this injection ought to be made on the side of the vesicle, and sometimes the metal may be seen passing into the intestines.

“The omphalo-mesenteric vessel ought also to be injected. The urachus should be opened, and its communication with the bladder should be shown on one part, and with the alantois on the other. All these parts are to be kept separate from each other, and attached by means of small pins to a plate of wax. In the fœtus, near the term of gestation, those vessels which establish the communication between it and the mother, are to be injected.

“The bones of the embryon, after having been injected, are to be placed in oil of turpentine, without its being necessary previously to place them in a weakened acid.

“As regards the envelopes of the fœtus, and the placenta which it may be intended to preserve after an accouchment at full term, injections of different colours are forced into the umbilical arteries and veins; this injection should not be too delicate, or pushed with too much force, otherwise it will pass from one of the vessels into the other. These two parts should be allowed to soak some time in an aluminous water, or, what is better, in a sublimated alcoholic solution, then place a hog’s bladder in the cavity of the membranes, blow up the bladder, and thus expose the parts to the air for desiccation; after which the bladder is to be withdrawn. The membranes, with the placenta, may thus be preserved, by placing the uterine face of the latter sometimes within sometimes without the cavity of the membranes. These same parts can be preserved in liquors. Finally, some persons make use of the method of corrosion to prepare and preserve the placenta.”

It is useless to advance here new observations; those which have been already presented on the occasion of preservation, considered in general, are equally applicable to the present. It will be perceived in the following chapter what means I propose to substitute for them, as meriting the preference.

CHAPTER VIII.

GENERAL PROCESSES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF OBJECTS OF NORMAL ANATOMY, PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY, AND OF NATURAL HISTORY.

EMBALMING.

A portion of my researches has been submitted to the examination of commissioners, appointed by the Institute, and by the Academy of Medicine.

After long and repeated experiments, MM. the commissioners, have been unanimous upon the utility of the processes of preservation which I propose, and in particular my process for the preservation of subjects for the amphitheatres, the only one for which it was important for me to obtain a definite sanction, recommended by the Institute, is applied to the dissecting rooms of Clamart, with a success that every one may witness.

The faithful and complete exposition of the numerous trials which I have attempted, will furnish me, in this chapter, the occasion of indicating the most efficacious means of preservation for objects of pathological anatomy and of natural history. And, as it is incumbent on a man of study, disinterested in all that concerns science, I will give publicity to the result of my labours, the composition of the different liquids, and the mode of using them.

As for my process of embalming, I have thought that it ought to remain my property, and that one exclusively addicted to chemical studies was more qualified than the physician to subject it to those modifications which each particular case requires.

I have secured a patent of invention; for my method differs essentially enough from the preparations which I indicate for the purposes of anatomy.

It is necessary, in effect, to preserve to the tissues in embalming, a freshness and suppleness which is lost by desiccation, at the end of some months, in the subjects injected for the use of the anatomist; it is necessary, above all, to secure to the body, in this latter case, a more prolonged preservation: the facts which I can show, will prove that I have attained my end.

1.—Preservation of bodies for dissection.

My experiments upon gelatine have conducted me to the knowledge of some one of the constituent parts of different animals. I had studied the action of chemical agents habitually employed in the arts; the labour of the tanner, or leather dresser, of the parchment maker, the fabrication of glue, which I have practised on a large scale from 1819 to 1828, have equally furnished me with valuable data.

In 1826, my attention having been arrested by MM. Bègin and Serrulas, on the preservation of objects of pathological anatomy, trials were made at the Val-de-Grace.

In 1828, M. Alphonse Sanson, disposing himself to prepare a cabinet of anatomy, at the request and for the use of some English gentlemen, proposed to me to occupy myself with the question relative to preservation, which obliged me to make some researches; but it was not until 1831, and at the solicitation of M. Strauss, an anatomist of well known merit, that I undertook serious and continued labours upon the preservation of bodies. From this moment, I employed all my attention and cares to resolve this question.

The researches on the preservation of bodies demanded the re-union of different circumstances, without which it would have been impossible for me to have attained a satisfactory solution. It is easy to conceive, in effect, the great difference which ought to exist between the action of any given liquid upon some scruples of animal matter, and its action on an entire corpse; I ought to confess, also, that without the extreme courtesy of M. Orfila, who placed at my disposition, at the practical school of the faculty of medicine, all the objects of which I might stand in need, it is probable that it would have been impossible for me to have arrived at positive results. I encountered some difficulties, some resistance, and even something more, on the part of some scientific notables, and also of some ambitious subalterns; but I have surmounted all.

This work on the preservation of bodies ought only to be considered as the suit of that in which I have treated of the preservation of alimentary meats. It is only the circumstances of which I have just spoken, that have determined me to finish this work sooner.

It is well known that the study of medicine should be preceded by the study of anatomy, which teaches the knowledge of the organization of the human body; but this study is difficult and presents numerous dangers. The study of the organs exacts time; their dissection is tedious, especially if intended for demonstration. In this case it almost always happens that putrefaction seizes the subject before the preparation is finished; for, at a temperature above fifteen degrees, it is impossible to preserve a subject more than six days; under this temperature, that is to say, from 0 to 10 degrees, the longest time one can dissect is twelve or fifteen days. But the corpse always exhales mephitic miasmata before all the organs are putrefied, and this emanation of gas is certainly the cause which most frequently determines typhus fever, so destructive to a portion of our studious youths.13

Before exposing my own researches upon the preservation of bodies, it was necessary to examine the researches anterior to mine; it will have been perceived by what precedes, that they were of no service to me.

Thus, in viewing all that has been effected on this matter, I can find no indications excepting the processes employed in the arts.

In our works of chemistry applied to the arts, I have often been able to prove, practically, that muscular flesh, perfectly isolated, easily dries. When it is mixed with gelatine, it easily experiences, on the contrary, putrid fermentation. Geline14 is the animal matter, which, all circumstances being equal, putrefies the easiest; and which, forming the organs of animals, experiences an alteration more or less prompt, according to the prevalence of a greater or less quantity of water of composition present. Always, then, when we succeed in preserving from putrefaction this animal part, the other parts will be disposed to desiccation. My researches have conducted me to this conclusion.

In order to find a method of preserving bodies, and animal matters in general, it was essential to examine the action of chemical substances to which may be attributed properties which produce upon the constituent parts of these matters an immediate action; it is necessary also, that they should be easily procured, and that they be of a moderate price. I am satisfied that acids do not preserve animal matters; they disorganize them more or less promptly, in direct proportion to their concentration. Many weak acids, among others hydrochloric acid, at five degrees, may be employed to dissolve the calcareous salts from the bones; nitric acid also, at five degrees, may be brought into use in some particular cases; for example, when it is wished to study the nervous system; but then the bones are softened, the geline is in part disorganized, the muscles are discolored, and become flabby, as well as the viscera; the nerves only remain of a pearly blue, strongly pronounced.

Arsenic acid has a very marked action on animal matters; I shall make it known without delay in my second memoir upon gelatine. It preserves bodies well, but appears to favour their desiccation. In the details of experiments made under the surveillance of the commissioners of the two academies, I shall cite the effects produced by the employment of this substance. Acetic acid preserves flesh only by drying it. This acid weakened, or vinegar, retards putrefaction, softens the bones, as well as the muscles, which are discolored by its action.

Concentrated lies dissolve all animal matters; weak alkaline solutions disorganize more or less promptly the same substances.

A very small quantity of alkali suffices, when warm, to decompose very large masses of glue. This effect is often produced through ignorance in the manufacture of strong glue.

Salts only preserve meats when employed dry, or in very concentrated solutions; it is necessary that their affinity should be sufficiently great to absorb all the water of combination of animal matters. It may be then affirmed that salt only preserves meat by drying it; thus those salts more soluble in warm than in cold water; may, when injected warm, in a saturated solution, be considered as a good means of preservation, but which cannot be employed for anatomical purposes, because of the crystals which form in the organs during the cooling of the injected liquor.

Salts with a metallic oxide base have in general little affinity for geline, and do not preserve well; those which are poisonous being alone excepted. The salts of copper, and above all those of mercury hinder putrefaction; but many causes are opposed to their employment.

1. Their action is not sufficiently energetic to give them the preference: 2. They are always dangerous when employed in large quantities. 3. They are very injurious to dissecting instruments. 4. In fine they are too costly.

The aluminous salts are those alone which I find possessed of the property of preserving animal matters; their bases combine with geline to form a particular compound, the acid being set free.

The vegetable kingdom furnishes but few products capable of preventing or retarding putrefaction; alcohol is nearly the only substance possessing the property. It preserves in the same manner as the salts, by imbibing a portion of the water of composition; it bleaches, discolours, and hardens the organs. Alcohol is the only substance employed up to the present for preservation; but its action upon the tissues, its extreme volatility, the difficulty of transporting it, and its extreme dearness, makes another process desirable.

Tannin cannot be employed, because water does not contain enough of it in solution to render an injection of it preservative; a corpse immerged, even in a great mass of tannin, is no better preserved, the skin is tanned, but the flesh decomposes.[O]

Gallic acid acts in the same manner, but yet more feebly than tannin.

An oily, volatile, and very odorous substance, recently discovered, and to which the name Creosote, has been given, has been presented as a universal panacea, which, among other properties, ought to possess that of well preserving bodies. In order to assure myself of the truth of this assertion, on the 18th October, 1835, I injected a subject with one hundred scruples of creosote, dissolved in seven quarts water. On the 23d, the abdomen was very much swollen, and of a very strongly pronounced blue-green colour; on the 26th, the left side of the face, the right arm, and all of the left leg, were green; on the 30th of October, putrefaction was so much developed that it became necessary to bury the body. It may be objected, that the subject should have been at the same time steeped in a bath saturated with this substance; but its high price discouraged me from making such an experiment; besides I think that the odour of the creosote will always prove an obstacle to its employment.

Alum, the acid sulphate of alumine, and of potash, have given me the first good results; but, slightly soluble when cold, they will not suffice when the atmospherical temperature rises above fifteen degrees, (cent.) A mixture of alum, of chloride of sodium, (common salt,) and of nitrate of potash, has succeeded better with me. I have tried the action of sulphate of soda, of chloride of calcium, (muriate of lime,) of hydrochlorate of ammonia, &c.; they were almost useless.

The mixture of two parts of alum, of two parts of salt, and of one part of nitre, in a sufficient quantity of water to mark the liquor at ten degrees, injected, preserves bodies very well bathed in the same liquor, but only when the temperature is under ten degrees for a more elevated temperature it is necessary to warm the liquid, and add the salt mixture until the areometer marks twenty-five or thirty degrees.

Of all the saline substances which have given me satisfactory results, the aluminous deliquescent salts are to be preferred. The acetate and chloride of alumine have perfectly succeeded with me. In fine, a mixture of equal parts, of chloride of alumine at twenty degrees, and of the acetate of alumine at ten degrees, may be considered, employed in injection, as a good method which we now possess for the preservation of bodies.

Now that I have explained the action of chemical agents upon animal matters, I shall enter upon the details of experiments.

I presented my work to the Institute on the fourth of March, 1833. The Academy of Sciences named for its examination, a commission composed of MM. Savart, Flourens, Chevreuil, and Serres, reporter. A few days after, M. Serres placed at my disposition, at the Hospital La Pitié, and in his private cabinet, a corpse, which I bathed in a tub containing a solution at ten degrees, two parts of alum, two parts of common salt, and one part of nitre. This subject, repeatedly examined, appeared to be well preserved. At the end of about six weeks it was opened; the flesh and the viscera were in a good state of preservation, but particular circumstances put an end to this examination.

On the twelfth of November, 1834, the administration of Hospitals presented two subjects to me, which M. Orfila authorized me to place in one of the grand pavilions of the practical school of the faculty of medicine. These two subjects were bathed in a liquid of ten degrees. The second of December the commission of the Academy of Sciences came to examine these two subjects, which were consigned to dissection. On the same day another subject was given to me. This was injected with eight quarts of the saline solution at ten degrees. At the end of December, these three subjects were in a good state of preservation; it was remarked, however, that the skin as well as the flesh, had slightly assumed a decayed consistence and colour; the deep organs, which had not been in immediate contact with the liquid, remained almost natural. From this period until the end of April, the commission frequently assembled and confirmed these results.

A commission constituted by the Academy of Medicine early in March, examined these same subjects, and demanded new experiments. The first subject was injected with coloured fat, and then bathed. The corpse injected on the second of December, was also injected with coloured fat.

Here it may be remarked that it required double the quantity of fatty matter for this, than for a fresh subject, and that the most delicate arterial net-work had been prepared by the injection.

These experiments, which lasted for half the month of May, satisfied me that an injection of ten or twelve degrees of density, and immersion of the body in a bath of the same liquid, will suffice for a preparation destined for ordinary anatomical purposes, and will allow of dissection after several months.

At the end of July, 1835, M. Orfila, placed at my disposition in one of the grand pavilions of the practical school, all the utensils and instruments that I might stand in need of; on the 7th of August, I injected a subject with the liquid at 12 degrees, and afterwards bathed it in the same liquid. The body, at the end of two days, began to swell. Eight days after, it disengaged so large a portion of gas, that I was obliged to withdraw it from the trough, at the bottom of which it was no longer possible to retain it. Placed upon a table, its decomposition appeared to be arrested, no more gas being disengaged, but there escaped a great quantity of liquor coloured by the blood; the subject, which had assumed a deep brown colour, became completely dried. During all this time, no putrid odour was remarked; it was that of smoked ham.

A second subject was injected with the same liquid and abandoned on a table; it was decomposed at the end of five days; but it must be remarked that the atmospherical temperature varied from twenty to thirty degrees.

On the 8th of August, a subject was injected with the liquid at thirty degrees of density, which was made necessary by the elevation of the temperature up to fifty degrees . This corpse was well preserved and was dissected about the end of December.

These various experiments convinced me that the saline solutions employed with success during the winter, were insufficient for the operations during summer; that is to say, at a temperature above fifteen degrees.

The success which I obtained by the injection of a more concentrated liquid, indicated the route I was to follow.

I have already stated that the alum was decomposed, that the animal matter, the geline, combined with the alumine, and that the liberated sulphuric acid produced the alteration of the tissues. It was then indispensable to seek an aluminous salt, containing more of the base and a less powerful acid.

On the 16th of August, I injected a subject with eight quarts of acetate of alumine at twenty degrees. This corpse, placed upon the table without any other preparation, was preserved perfectly well for the period of one month; at the end of this period, it might be perceived that the nostrils, the eyelids, and the extremities of the ears, commenced drying, as well as the hands and feet. In order to remedy this inconvenience, I covered one half the subject with a layer of varnish. At the end of two months, it was easy to remark, that the part subjected to the action of the air had considerably diminished in volume, and was less useful for dissection. Finally, at the end of January, 1836, the varnished parts, not dissected, were still well preserved, whilst the rest was completely dried, mummified.