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. Geline[14] 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.
Dr. Piory had indicated to the Academy of Medicine a method of preserving bodies: it consisted, according to him, in enveloping the body in layers of pewter, and of linen, and then of varnish. This process perfectly succeeded with me on a subject injected with acetate of alumine.
Another subject was injected with the chloride of aluminium. This injection did not succeed well, and with three bodies I met with the same difficulties, that is to say, the liquid contained in the syringe having been introduced after the space of time allowed for refilling it, the circulatory system had become so obliterated that the force of even two men was not sufficient to introduce an additional quantity. At twenty degrees the chloride of aluminium has so great an affinity for water, that it absorbs that of which the organs are constituted. However, the parts of the body which had been penetrated by the liquid were well preserved, the muscles in particular had preserved their colour.
I injected another subject with the chloride at eight degrees, but, at the end of a month, it was decomposed. Finally, I introduced a quart of chloride at ten degrees, and six quarts at twenty degrees; this subject was preserved, but the parts not dissected were dried at the end of five months.
A mixture of three quarts of the acetate of alumine at ten degrees, and of three quarts of the chloride of aluminium at twenty degrees, injected by the aorta, or better still, by the carotid artery, have afforded the most satisfactory results.
I have already remarked that all these experiments were made under the inspection of the commission appointed by the Academy of Sciences, of those of the Academy of Medicine, and of the Monthyon commission, composed of MM. Dulong, Magendie, Darcet, and Dumas, reporter. The account which these commissioners have rendered to the two Academies, renders it unnecessary to present here a summary of my experiments.
These gentlemen requested me to repeat the experiments of Doctor Tranchini, of Naples, which consists in injecting a solution of two pounds of arsenic in twenty pounds of clear water, or better, in spirits of wine.[15] During eight days the corpse remained perfectly natural; but after this time it gradually dried, although deposited in a damp situation, and along side of a water cock, kept running.
It was injected on the ninth of September, and examined on the twenty-fifth of the same month; but, on the same day, having offered it to several students for dissection, none of them were willing to accept of my proposition.
On the sixteenth of October, it was found unfit for any anatomical purposes; on the thirtieth it was completely dried.
I think that the employment of this method presents real dangers for the anatomist, of which the following is a proof: Doctor Poirson declared before the Academy of Medicine, that he had been exceedingly incommoded, as well as two of his colleagues, in having embalmed two generals with this substance; he attributed this derangement of his health to the arsenic absorbed during the preparation.
I drew the attention of the commissioners to the fact, that the table upon which the body lay, that the windows of the room, and that the corpse itself, were covered with dead flies; a considerable mass of them was observed on the opening made in the sternum. I thought that this effect might be attributed to the evolution of arsenical hydrogen; this evolution is, at least, probable, and the action of this gas on the animal economy can well be conceived.
Finally, when we reflect that there are always more than eighty bodies under dissection at the Practical School, and that, consequently, it would demand one hundred and sixty pounds of arsenic to be put at the disposition of each student, it will readily be conceded that this process would not be applicable.[P]
At this period of my labour, I had already proved that the methods by which I had obtained favourable results in principle, became insufficient when exterior circumstances changed; that the salt, of alumine, which I made use of in my injections, was not sufficiently rich in alumine; that the preservation was not certain above a certain degree of temperature; finally, I had found in the acetate of alumine a suitable matter for forming injections eminently preservative.
It was then that the reports were read to the Institute and Academy of Medicine. I cite them because they prove, in an authentic manner, the point which I have attained. It was already possible, with these data, to dissect during all seasons, without fearing henceforwards the dangers attached to this employment during the heat of the weather.
Institute of France.—Academy of Sciences—Public sitting of Monday, 28th of December, 1835—Prize relative to the means of rendering an art or a trade less unhealthy—On the preservation of dead bodies, by M. Gannal.
Your commission has followed with interest the experiments of M. Gannal; it has availed itself of the experience of those of our confrères whose studies oblige them to practise daily dissections, and it believes itself authorized to declare to the Academy, that the means pointed out in the first place by M. Gannal, and that, which is still better, the simple injections of acetate of alumine, at ten degrees of the areometer, which he practised at a later period, answers for preserving bodies for several months, even during the summer. It is assured that no inconvenience results from it in dissections.
Your commission has thought it proper to wait until this process should be regularly practised in some amphitheatre of considerable extent, before pronouncing on it in a definitive manner. It is aware how difficult it is to introduce the most simple improvement into routine operations, because, against the employment of them there arises numerous unforeseen obstacles.
It remains convinced, however, that this process may render, even now, real services in all countries where dissection meets with difficulties, either from the scarcity of bodies, or from the prejudices of the populace.
Taking this circumstance into consideration, together with the obstacles which M. Gannal has encountered, the disgusts which he has had to surmount, in order to complete the experiments which he has made, your commission has the honour to propose to you to award to him, in anticipation, an encouragement of three thousand francs, (six hundred dollars.)
Report of a Commission appointed by the Academy of Medicine, and composed of MM. Sanson, Roux, Dizè, Guèneau de Mussy, Breschet, reporter, to examine a process for the preservation of dead bodies, discovered and proposed by M. J. N. Gannal, chemist.
Messieurs,—If anatomy is the basis of all sound medical study, if almost all those who have most contributed to the progress of medicine and surgery have been skilful anatomists, it is rendering a great service to those same sciences and to humanity, to discover a method of facilitating the study of anatomy, and obviating its insalubrity. Well, gentlemen, it is a discovery of this kind that M. Gannal presumes he has made.
By a letter dated on the 10th of March, 1835, addressed to the Academy of Medicine, by M. the Minister of Commerce, this learned body is charged to make known to superior authority its opinion of the real merit of the process of M. Gannal, for the preservation of dead bodies.
In consequence, the Academy has appointed a commission composed of MM. Sanson, Roux, Dizè, Guèneau de Mussy, and Breschet; it is in the name of this commission that I now present myself to make known to you the result of our labours.
Already two commissions from the Academy of Sciences have been occupied in the examination of this discovery of M. Gannal; the one, considering the process as useful to the study of the sciences which concerns the composition of organized beings; the other, considering it as a means of rendering less insalubrious an art or a profession, a prize having been founded for this purpose by M. de Monthyon, whose name will remain eternally dear to science and to philanthropy.
The reasons which have hindered the ancients from carrying to any great length a knowledge of the structure of man and animals, was not only the idea of filthiness attached to the sight and dissection of dead bodies, or the difficulty of procuring the means of dissection; but rather the almost absolute impossibility of preserving dead bodies in part or entire, which has retarded the progress of anatomy. Aristotle, to whom Philip of Macedon had given every facility for the dissection of animals, and who must have made collections, does not say, in any of his known works, how he preserved the animals which he did not immediately examine, and Galien, in his anatomical administrations, says very few words of the means of preservation in liquors.
Cuvier, in giving the history of the progress of the natural sciences, teaches us that one of the circumstances which has the most contributed to the advancement of these sciences was the discovery of alcohol.
We are, however, astonished at the novelty of our means for the preservation of animals, for zoological and anatomical collections, when we reflect that during the time of Rèaumur the art of preserving animal bodies with their natural forms and colours, was not known. Thus, in the cabinet of this celebrated naturalist, are seen birds skinned and suspended by the beak with a thread.
The taxidermic processes have almost all originated among us, for the formation of zoological collections; but we still are in want of less expensive methods, of easy transport, and in small space in order to preserve animals destined to serve for the researches of comparative anatomy, or for the study of the anatomy of man.
Peron, in the relation of his voyage to Terra Australis, in the commencement of the present century, laments the embarrassment of zoologists in long voyages, in preserving animals, without altering any of their zoological characters, and in a manner that they may serve finally for anatomical researches. He says, that it would be rendering great service to natural history and zoology, if the following problem could be resolved:
“Any species of animal being given, to preserve it the most certainly, the most perfectly, and with the smallest quantity of an alcoholic liquid of the least possible strength.”
Alcohol is very costly in this country, where considerable duties are exacted, nor is it suitable for preserving bodies, except of small volume. During voyages, this liquor is difficult of export, evaporates rapidly, particularly in equatorial regions, and often bursting the vessels which contain it; it alters or dissolves the resins or resinous mastic which is used to seal the jars or other vessels which contain the animals.
If an acid be added to alcohol, the bones are acted upon, and softened; colours are destroyed; the scalpels and other dissecting instruments are promptly oxidised, when it is desirable to dissect animals preserved in these liquors.
The same inconveniences exist if alcohol holds arsenic in solution, or corrosive sublimate, and many other metallic salts.
The essence of turpentine can only serve for small pieces; it is not easily transported, alters several of the tissues, becomes thick and clouded.
The oils are suitable only for the preservation of some fishes; their acquisition is expensive, and it is difficult to obtain them everywhere.
The syrups which have been proposed for the preservation of some animal parts, such as the brain, spinal marrow, &c., are too dear to be useful to any great extent; besides, they do not penetrate the tissues profoundly, preserve only the external surfaces, deposit crystals or a viscous matter which changes the colour; and, finally, they run readily into fermentation, especially in hot climates.
Creosote, advised of late, for the preservation of the nerves and brain, is too costly, but, as we have not made use of it, we cannot describe its mode of action upon the tissues.
Sea-salt, employed alone and in solution, has a mode of action for a long time known, and its inefficiency cannot be disputed; we do not speak however, of saltings, because this method cannot answer for the preservation of bodies for dissection; or for preserving animals from putrefaction, that they may be subsequently dissected, or be placed in zoological collections.
In an English Medical Journal, for the year 1818, we find, that it is proposed to replace alcohol by rock-salt, for the preservation of anatomical and natural history subjects, which is known to be nothing more than muriate of soda, purer than that of commerce; this proposition is inadmissible.
The chlorides of the oxides of calcium of sodium, of potassium, have been recommended for some pieces of pathological anatomy; but they are not applicable for the preservation of thick objects, and much less entire subjects.
Wine to which has been added a nitrous solution of mercury, has been employed by some navigators, for the preservation of small zoological collections; its use cannot be employed extensively. Acids, more or less diluted, alter the tissues, and attack the dissecting instruments.
Aqueous or alcoholic solutions of the salts of mercury, arsenical solutions, &c., are dangerous, by their emanations, for the anatomist who constantly handles the objects impregnated with these metallic salts; and further they harden the tissues, contract them, destroy their colours, and attack anatomical instruments.
We may repeat of the pyroligneous and acetic acids, what we have already advanced of the other acids. Nevertheless, it was proposed about fifteen years ago, to use the pyroligneous acid, as excelling in its properties for preserving animals, and anatomical subjects.
All acids, not excepting vinegar, attack the colour of organic tissues, corrode them, and deprive the bones of their earthy salts, rendering them flexible and transparent, and cover the soft parts with a layer of gluey matter which conceals the fibres and the structure of the parts. It is known that alum and nitre are employed separately in aqueous solution, to preserve anatomical preparations, during the time of their fabrication. It is known that anatomists employ nitre, or simply saltpetre of commerce, not only to preserve the fleshy tissues,[Q] but to give a lively red colour to the flesh.
We have thus, gentlemen, in a cursory manner, exposed the ordinary methods proposed or employed for the preservation of animal matters.
In order to respond to the Academy upon the merits of the discovery of M. Gannal, we will say that his process consists of an aqueous solution of three salts, already employed separately in the anatomical laboratory, nitre, common salt, and alum.
We have caused to be repeated under our inspection the experiments of M. Gannal. In the course of last March, two bodies were placed in a bathing tub six feet six inches long, sixteen inches wide, and twenty inches high. A liquor was poured upon these bodies, composed of acid sulphate of alumine, and of potash, of the chloride of sodium of each two parts, and one part of nitrate of potash.
The water which contains these salts in solution was in sufficient quantity to cause the liquor to stand at fifteen degrees of the areometer; that is to say, and according to the indication of M. Gannal, that the liquid should mark from seven to eight degrees during winter, and from twelve to fifteen during summer.
The tub was placed in one of the pavilions of the Practical School; and in the same room there were a great number of tables covered with dead bodies for the study of practical anatomy. At the end of two months, the two bodies were withdrawn from the bath, and dissected; no change had taken place in their exterior aspect; the tissues and internal organs were ascertained to be well preserved, and capable of serving for anatomical demonstrations.
Other subjects have been examined by the commission of the Academy of Sciences; they had remained in the same liquor since the 2d of December, 1834, and were still sound at the end of April, 1835.
We thought it our duty to exact of M. Gannal some other experiments; thus, we desired to see injections with this preservative liquor, of the arterial system; we caused another subject to be injected with ordinary fatty matter; and at a later period we had injected into the vessels of the subject which had received the preservative liquor, a matter composed of suet, and of resin, in equal parts, and coloured with cinabar, (sulphate of mercury.) This last injection was successful. The first injection of saline liquid exacted eight quarts of the liquid, which was introduced through the left ventricle of the heart.
The subject examined at the end of two months, was well preserved, did not exhale any fetid odour, and might serve for the common dissection of students.
The commission were desirous to know whether a body would rapidly putrefy, if it were withdrawn from the tub and left upon the table of the amphitheatre, exposed to the air, and to the influence of the putrid emanations from the other bodies. A subject was accordingly withdrawn from the preservative saline liquor, and remained fifteen days exposed to the air; no sensible putrefaction took place during this time; this was during the last fifteen days of April. The muscles of the corpse were seen to dry, and, so to speak, to mummify, whilst the tissues which had not come in contact with the saline liquid, or which had not been uncovered and exposed to the air, remained still in a state which permitted an anatomical analysis.
We ought to remark, that the tissues which are bathed by the liquid lose their natural colours; but the more deeply disposed organs did not experience the same change; there was no emphysema in the cellular tissue, although we thought we remarked that there was less resistance in the fibres of the organs, than in a subject dead for twenty-four or forty-eight hours.
We may remark, that under no circumstances were long and deep scarifications made on the trunk or members, in order to allow the liquid to penetrate the thickness of the tissues. The cranium itself was not opened, nor was there any application of the trephine, in order to permit a more ready entrance of the liquor to the meninges, or to the brain itself. Nevertheless, after more than two months immersion in the liquor, the brain, extracted from the cranium, if it could no longer serve for new researches on its structure, might have been employed for demonstrations.
But, for how much longer time could this preservation be continued? What temperature is it capable of resisting? And what expense does it require? In fine, can the discovery be extensively applied? That is to say, is it possible, by this process, to preserve a great number of subjects during summer, to deliver them later to the students during the season of dissection? And if these subjects, thus preserved, exhale no odour, become in no manner a cause of insalubrity, or of danger to the students, for the anatomists themselves, or for the persons who inhabit the houses adjoining the anatomical amphitheatre, might not the dissections be indefinitely prolonged, in place of permitting them only during the rigors of winter?
In fine, has this saline liquor of M. Gannal preservative properties sufficiently pronounced to be employed during long voyages, and in hot climates, for the purpose of bringing home numerous animals of large size, to serve for the study of comparative anatomy?
The small volume which saline substances occupy, and the sea water, which might serve to make the solution of the salts in any quantity as soon as needed, would be circumstances favourable to the use of this process.
In order to answer all these questions, it would be requisite to multiply the experiments, to extend them during a much longer period, and upon a very great number of subjects.
These experiments, directed in this spirit, would exact expenses which we thought ought not to be imposed upon the author of the process for the preservation of dead bodies, who has already been subjected to a multiplicity of demands, for the reimbursement of which we propose an indemnity from the Academy, without prejudice to the recompense which M. Gannal may have a right to claim, when the experiments shall have received that extension which we wish to be able to give them.
However this may be, we thought, in this provisionary report, that we ought to call the attention of the Academy, and of superior authority, to the process of preservation discovered by M. Gannal, and we manifest the desire that a sum be awarded to him as an indemnification for expenses already accrued, and in order to facilitate the means of continuing his experiments on a large scale.
We shall add that this process of preservation may be very advantageously applied to various cases of legal medicine.
Paris, 16th June, 1835.
Signed, MM. Gueneau de Mussy,
Dizè,
Roux,
Sanson,
Breschet, Reporter.
Certified.—The perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Medicine.
Signed, Pariset.
The first report of MM. the members of the commission named by the Academy of Medicine was only provisionary; new facts were discovered to enlighten the conscience of the judges; these facts were presented, and the following report read to the Academy by M. Dizè.
Definitive report of the commission named by the Academy of Medicine, to examine the process of preserving dead bodies, presented by M. Gannal.
Gentlemen,—The Academy had formed a commission composed of MM. Sanson, Guèneau de Mussy, Breschet, Roux, and Dizè, to make known the results of a process presented by M. Gannal, having for its object the preservation of dead bodies destined for dissection.
Our honourable colleague, M. Breschet, presented, in a provisionary report, the experiments which had been made, and the success obtained by M. Gannal.
But the commission having expressed a desire to give more development to trials which, after the important results already obtained, deserved to fix the attention of the Academy, it proposed to him to multiply, to vary the experiments, to extend them a longer time upon a greater number of subjects.
But trials directed in this spirit, exact expenses; the commission did not think it just to impose them upon the author of the process, who had already multiplied expenses; in consequence it proposed to the Academy to demand an indemnity of government for expenses already made, and for the continuance of experiments, without any prejudice to the recompense that M. Gannal would have a right to claim.
The Academy seconded the wishes of the commission; it obtained from the minister of public instruction the sum necessary for covering all expenses made, and for those to be made in the continuance of the experiments.
M Gannal made a series of preliminary experiments, which served him as so many starting points on the road to the discovery of the means of preserving animal matters; these labours subsequently conducted to the research of an antiseptic sufficiently powerful, which unites to the property of preserving bodies, that of not altering the organic tissues, and not too much weakening their natural colours, so important to anatomical demonstrations.
We shall cite the most important experiments, so that you may be able to appreciate the process which is proposed.
In the first place, acids in general modify the consistence of animal matters; they produce disorganization in proportion to their concentration; some diluted acids, for example, nitric acid at five degrees, may serve when it is necessary to study the nervous system, but then the bones lose their saline particles and are reduced to their organic frame; the muscles are discolored and faded, as well as the viscera; the nerves alone remain of a very remarkable mother-of-pearl whiteness.
Arsenious acid preserves bodies very well, but a single subject would require a killogram! Although the medical journals having spoken of a process discovered by Dr. Tranchini, of Naples, the commission judged it expedient to invite M. Gannal to repeat this experiment; a subject was injected with a killogram of arsenious acid and ten quarts of water; this subject examined by your commission, presented all the characters of a good preservation; but, on one hand, this process has been for a long time known, and on the other hand, the employment of it presents so many dangers, that in case of its success your commission would feel themselves obliged to proscribe it; effectually, when twenty subjects were under dissection, there would be twenty killograms of this poisonous substance at the disposition of the public.
Concentrated acetic acid preserves meats, but dries them. This same acid diluted retards putrefaction, but softens the bones, as well as the muscles, which are discolored by its action.
The alkaline salts only preserve meats when they are used dry, or in a very concentrated solution; it is necessary in this case that the salts preserve an affinity for the water of composition, so that it may be said that these salts preserve meats because they dry them; thus, on this principle, salts more soluble in warm, than in cold water, may, injected as a warm concentrated solution, be considered as a means of preservation; this applies particularly to the nitrate of potash.
Creosote, a newly discovered vegetable substance has been recommended as a preservative of flesh; this fact demanded verification: a corpse which had been injected on the 18th of October, with one hundred scruples of creosote and seven quarts of water, was decomposed on the 30th of the same month.[R] But, in order to respond to the objection which was made, that the body should have been immersed in a bath saturated with creosote, it is sufficient to say that this bath would have cost forty dollars; besides the necessity of combatting the odour of the creosote, which may prove an obstacle to anatomical labours.
A solution of alum at eight degrees has succeeded better; but the flesh becomes hardened, faded, and friable.
The mixture of alum, (acid sulphate of alumine, and potash,) two parts, the chloride of sodium two parts, and of nitrate of potash one part, dissolved in water, employed as a bath, has afforded the first good results.
The acid phosphate of lime is the first substance which has been employed in injection for subjects; this salt did not oppose the movement of putrefaction.
The kidnies, injected with this salt, and immersed in the milk of lime, became hardened at the surface and putrefied in the interior.
After this first part of the experiments of M. Gannal, it results that the aluminous salts are those alone which succeed well in preserving animal matters, and which may be used advantageously.
Alum, employed alone, preserves well, but for a short time; this salt, slightly soluble in cold water, (fifteen degrees,) will not suffice as an injection for the preservation of a body; it is indispensable to immerse the body in a bath of the same salt.
The mixture of alum, salt, and nitre, as indicated in the provisionary report, has not the same inconvenience; a subject injected with this liquid, at ten or twelve degrees of density, may be preserved for more than a month; but it is indispensable to immerse it, at least from time to time, when it is desirable to prolong its preservation; that is to say, for the entire winter; but at a temperature above fifteen degrees, it is necessary to inject the liquid at a density of twenty-five or thirty degrees, and, in order to obtain it, it requires to be heated at least to forty degrees.
Several bodies injected with this liquid at ten degrees, on the 2d of December, 1834, were well preserved until the end of April; other subjects, injected on the 7th of August, but with the liquid at twenty-five degrees of density, and at ten degrees of the thermometer, were still, on the 10th of December, in good condition, whilst those that were injected with a liquor of inferior density, did not resist a temperature of twenty or twenty-five degrees, although they were immersed in a bath denoting fifteen degrees. The bath of salted liquid has, independently of the inconvenience of expense for the necessary salts and the embarrassment of the tubes, which require frequent renewal, the objection of hardening the skin, considerably.
On these motives new efforts have been made, which have conducted to the following results: to demonstrate that all the salts with a soluble aluminous base, are decomposed; that those which are very soluble offer all the advantages of alum employed in very concentrated solution, and have not the same inconveniences.
For example, a solution of acetate of alumine at twenty degrees, injected the 16th of August, 1835, perfectly preserved a subject abandoned to the table without any other preparation; only, at the end of a month it was remarked that desiccation had commenced; when a part of it was covered with a layer of varnish, which preserved it from further evaporation. At the present day, 25th January, 1836, the varnished part may be dissected as easily as a fresh subject, whilst the other part offers resistance to dissection.
During the first days of September, another subject was injected with acetate of alumine at fifteen degrees; although this was the corpse of a woman who had died from abortion, it was very well preserved.
On the 12th of December, a subject was injected with the chloride of alumine at twenty degrees; this injection did not succeed well, and only three quarts could be introduced. Nevertheless, the body was perfectly well preserved. This want of success in introducing the liquid led to the following observation; that the chloride of aluminium at twenty degrees acts so powerfully on the arterial tubes and obliterates them to such a degree, that it prevents the passage of the liquid; but in order to remedy this inconvenience, it suffices to inject a first quart of the liquid at ten degrees, and the rest at twenty degrees. The chloride of aluminium has all the advantages of the acetate of alumine, and has further that of preserving the muscles of a bright red.
A mixture of acetate of alumine at ten degrees, and the chloride of the same base at twenty degrees, forms a good preservative injection. The use of one of these salts, or the mixture that has just been indicated, offers the advantage of preserving bodies, without its being necessary to subject them to any other preparation.
The density of the solutions of the acetate and chloride of aluminium must be graduated by the state of the atmosphere. When it is required to prolong indefinitely the preservation of the subject, it is essential to employ it at twenty degrees; it is equally necessary, in this case, to cover the subject with a layer of varnish, the sole object of which is to prevent the too prompt desiccation, which would prove an obstacle to dissection.
The first injections were made through the aorta. Subsequently, in order to avoid the laceration of the pectoral parts, the subject was injected through the carotid artery, which always succeeded very well when the liquid was forced both upward and downward.
After the saline injection, at the end of forty-eight hours, coloured grease may be injected; even after two months the same operation may be performed with the same success.
From the series of experiments which we have just exposed, it results:
1. That a solution of alum, of salt, and of nitrate of potash, injected at ten degrees, answers for preserving bodies at a temperature below ten degrees of the thermometer; that, for a more elevated temperature, it is necessary to carry the density to twenty-five or thirty degrees, and immerse the subject in a liquid of ten or twelve degrees.
2. That it is preferable to employ the acetate of alumine, because it preserves better; as the skin experiences no alteration, and as the central organs remain natural, excepting the colour of the muscles which become bleached.
3. That the chloride of aluminium offers the same advantages.
4. That, in order to preserve parts of bodies which have not been injected, it is necessary to immerse them in a mixture of water, and of the acetate or chloride, marking five or six degrees.
But this part of the operation is transferred to the experiments which are to be undertaken on the preservation of objects of pathological anatomy.
Gentlemen, such are the series of experiments made by M. Gannal, since the first provisionary report was presented to you.
The commission has attentively followed the new experiments; the results obtained, demonstrate that by M. Gannal’s process bodies for dissection may be preserved, and the preservation prolonged beyond the term exacted by the most minute investigations.
As we have already stated, the soluble salts with an aluminous base, offer this preservative method without any danger in their use, and they can also be procured at a low price.
Their antiseptic properties are founded on their chemical action, which modifies animal substances either by depriving them of their water of composition, which determines their putrefaction, or in opposing themselves to its immediate action.
It is, then, only an act of justice rendered to M. Gannal, in considering his labour as an important service rendered to science and to humanity, and which may prove of great utility in anatomical explorations, and in legal medicine.
Consequently, your commission has the honour to propose to you the transmission of the present report—
1. To the Minister of Public Instruction, as an object of improvement in anatomical researches, and to reclaim the continuation of his good offices, in affording extension to the experiments for preserving objects of pathological anatomy.
2. To the Minister of Commerce and of Public Works, as an object of public salubrity. On the proposition of a member of the Academy, it was unanimously decided to send the present report to the committee of publication.
Signed, MM. Gueneau de Mussy,
Sanson,
Breschet,
Roux,
Dize, Reporter.
Certified.—The perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Medicine.
Signed, Pariset.
Reflections.—The mixture of the acid sulphate of alumine and potash, of the nitrate of potash, and the chloride of sodium, furnished me, at first, with some favourable results. But when new experiments were attempted at a temperature above 10° of centigrade, this liquid, which I only employed as a bath, did not answer my expectations. I then tried to inject bodies with concentrated solution, which were afterwards consigned to a bath of the same nature. The preservation was thus rendered more durable; but still it did not balance the influence of an atmosphere very warm and very humid, prolonged for any length of time.
I observed that after twenty-four hours of immersion of the bodies in the bath, all the alumine was absorbed: this fact, well established, was a gleam of light to me.
Since the preservation is produced by the combination of geline with alumine, and as the alumine furnished by the acid sulphate does not inherit enough of the preservative element, let us have recourse to the salts of alum, richer in alumine, and more soluble in water.
The following are the data on which I rely:
To find a salt of alum capable of effectually preserving bodies, and which, by the moderation of its price, may be extensively employed in amphitheatres. I abandoned my trials with the nitrate of alumine, this being excluded by its high price. The chloride of alumine, with which I had experimented, is liable to equal objections: 1. Because, owing to its excessive affinity for water, it instantaneously dries the internal membrane of the artery, and obliterates the canal, rendering it impossible to finish the injection. 2. Besides, admitting the injection to have been completed by the introduction, in the first place, of a little oil of turpentine, the hydrochloric acid contained in the flesh injures the instruments, and impedes dissection. Further, the chloride of aluminium, like all the soluble chlorides, is a bad agent in dissections, being hygrometric.
The acetate of alumine is an excellent preservative of animal matters, as will be seen by referring to the observation cited at the end of the last chapter; but it is costly, and on this account cannot be employed in amphitheatres.
It was necessary, then, to search for a more economical method; this I have found in the simple sulphate of alumine. This salt, but indifferently known, no one having thought of it before me, is of a simple preparation and moderate price.
A killogram of this salt, costing about twenty cents, dissolved in two quarts of water, is sufficient in winter to preserve a body fresh, by injection, for three months.
In order to preserve a body for a month or six weeks, it is not even necessary to inject the blood-vessels—a glyster of one quart, and the same quantity injected into the œsophagus, suffices for this limited preservation. This process is adopted at Clamart for all the dead bodies destined for dissection. The preservative power of this salt will be easily understood, if its analysis be compared with that of the double sulphate given above.
One hundred parts of simple sulphate of alumine, are composed of alumine 30, of sulphuric acid 70. This salt properly prepared, exempt from iron, commonly contains from thirty-six to forty for 100 of water.
The following is a table of the different densities of this salt, according to the quantity of water in which it is dissolved.
A killogram dissolved in five hundred scruples of water gives a quart of liquid which marks 32° on the areometer of Baumè.
This same quantity in a quart of water
| Marks, | 20° |
| In two quarts, | 17° |
| In four quarts, | 8° |
| In five quarts, | 6° |
This table is important, as it gives the composition of the different liquids of which we shall see the application.
The liquid of injection, of which we have indicated the preparation and the quantity, is sufficient during winter, and moderate temperatures; but when it passes 20° it ought to be more abundant, or the solution more concentrated.
When it is intended to preserve the body for a longer period, it is necessary to neutralize the sulphuric acid, which is taken up by the addition of acetate of lead. Two hundred and fifty scruples of this salt for one killogram of the dry sulphate produces the desired effect. If the preservation is to be indefinitely prolonged, the use of the acetate of lead will have a tendency at length to blacken the epidermis. Indeed, as it is impossible to cause all the lead to disappear, the small quantity of this salt remaining in the liquid will be then decomposed by the hydro-sulphuric acid disengaged by the corpse, or rather by the sulphur which it contains, and the salt of lead is changed into sulphuret, a black insoluble powder, giving to the body all the exterior aspect of the negro.
I preserved in my cabinet an infant treated after this method; its skin, after the lapse of a year, became black, not of that colour assumed by animal matters in drying, but of the finest negro colour that could be conceived.
I finish with these details; for the facts of prolonged preservation of which we have just spoken are derived from the wants of the anatomists; and, previous to proceeding to other considerations, it is best to exhaust all that we have to make known concerning my processes of preservation applied in amphitheatres to subjects intended to be dissected. The preservation of these subjects, it is known, would be prolonged without any advantage beyond two or three months at all seasons.
I shall therefore terminate all that is relative to this first portion of my labour, by the report of the committee of the members of the Institute. They have admitted the result of my labours to be of great utility, and that it merits the encouragement of the grand Monthyon prize, founded on the discovery of any means calculated to remedy the insalubrity of any art or profession.
The following is the report:
Upon the preservation of the dead body, by M. Gannal.
The Academy is well aware, having recommended an encouragement to the author, that M. Gannal has made numerous experiments on the preservation of dead bodies, either with the view of making dissecting amphitheatres more healthful, or to obtain a method of embalming at the same time economical and certain.
As far as concerns embalming of dead bodies, it will be conceded that before advancing an opinion, it would be necessary to prolong the proofs for several years, which has not yet been accomplished for the process under consideration. Besides, as this investigation would be without the bounds of the duties of your commission on noxious arts, even when it shall have attained perfection, we were only disposed to examine it under the head of instruction. The judgment which we are about to give should then be considered as applying exclusively to processes concerning the amphitheatres of dissection. In this latter case, the experiments being less tedious, could be varied and multiplied sufficiently to demonstrate that we actually possess a process capable of preserving dead bodies, during the longest period that the most minute dissection could exact.
This process is of an easy and economical execution; it consists in the employment of matters which have nothing poisonous in them. In fine, after many trials, the author has fixed upon the following method; he injects an aluminous salt dissolved in water, by one of the carotids; a few quarts of the liquid is sufficient, and the body abandoned to the open air is preserved for a long time from putrefaction; sometimes it even ends in becoming dry or mummified.
The author made use of the acetate of alumine, prepared by the acetate of lead and the sulphate of alumine and potash. This acetate of alumine at 18° of the areometer of Baumè, and in the quantity of five or six quarts, is sufficient to preserve a body for five or six months.
He has also used the simple sulphate of alumine in order to procure the acetate of this base. With one killogram of the simple sulphate of alumine in mass, two hundred and ten grains of acetate of lead, and two quarts of water, may be obtained, the necessary quantity of the mixture to preserve a body for two months.
By the employment of these processes, the preservation of bodies without odour may be calculated upon, for twenty days, a month, six weeks, more or less, according to the circumstances of temperature, state of the body, and quantity of the liquor actually injected into the vessels.
Your commissioners have assured themselves of this by the examination of bodies prepared by M. Gannal, but not wishing to report on their own judgment, and in order to obtain a full conviction of the practical utility of the process, it determined to consult those persons who were continually occupied in dissection. Their opinion was unanimous.
Among the experiments or applications of which the process of M. Gannal, has been the object, we shall place in the first rank the series of facts observed by our honourable associate M. Serres. The following are the details which he has transmitted to use on this subject.
“In the month of June, 1836, in the amphitheatre of the hospital, the body of a man twenty-two years of age was injected. Abandoned to the open air, in a cabinet exposed to the south, and upon a wooden table, it was preserved until the month of September, and it ended in becoming mummified.
“In the month of July, eight bodies were injected for dissection, each during fifteen days.
“During the months of August and September, sixty subjects were injected; these were preserved for twenty days.
“From these experiments, adds M. Serres, it results that the liquid furnished by M. Gannal preserves bodies to a certain extent:
“1. Permitting their dissection during summer, a thing which has not been accomplished heretofore in the anatomical school of the hospitals. 2. Permitting to give to the instruction of operative medicine a development which, up to the present period, it had not enjoyed; for, during the months of August and September, we were enabled to preserve, as in the middle of winter, thirty bodies at a time on the tables, enabling us to repeat to seventy pupils all the operations, in following a regular course, previously impossible.”
To this series of observations, already so decisive, we shall add the intelligence furnished us by different anatomists well known to science.
Thus M. Dubreuil, the honourable dean of the faculty of Medicine of Montpelier, hastened, in the interest of anatomical studies, to make the necessary trials to assure himself of the efficacy of the process in question. During the spring of last year, the first body on which he operated was preserved for forty-one days, and the experiment was terminated without any thing announcing putrefaction. On a second body the result was the same, although it was chosen under the most unfavourable conditions.
M. Bougery, who, it is known, is occupied in the publication of a great work on anatomy, declares that this process has very well succeeded in his hands, and that it has been very useful to him. In summer he injected two subjects which were preserved for three weeks; in winter, he injected a third, and this, although kept in a room heated to 15°, was preserved for seven weeks.
M. Azoux, who, at a distance from Paris, has formed an establishment for the manufacture of his artificial anatomical preparations, employs the process of M. Gannal, in order to place before the eyes of his workmen the preparations which they are to reproduce. This process has rendered him great service.
MM. Velpeau and Amussat, who have had occasion to put it to the proof, have been equally well satisfied with it.
Your commission was further enlightened by a report made to the Academy of Medicine, which includes circumstantial details of the successive trials through which M. Gannal had to pass before attaining the simple and easy method which he employs at present.
After the whole of the intelligence which it has collected, your commission feels itself authorized to say, that the process of M. Gannal, as it now exists, may render the greatest service to anatomical studies; that it divests them, in great part, of what is repulsive, and deprives them almost entirely, perhaps, of what is insalubrious.
We have just seen that M. Bougery, M. Amussat, and, in general, all who consign themselves to continued anatomical researches, follow this process, and have found benefit from it. It is desirable that it should have been adopted in some grand amphitheatre of anatomy, and that its use should have been subjected to the chances of an extensive practice. It appears that the additional expense which its application would occasion, has opposed its introduction, thus far, into such an establishment.
Nevertheless, it is incontestible, that the use of the injections of M. Gannal deprives subjects of all putrid odour, and it is to be hoped that it will diminish, if not altogether put an end to the serious accidents which happen too often to anatomists who are so unfortunate as to be wounded in dissecting. This is yet only a presumption; extended experience can only determine the fact.
Your commission thinks, then, that it has reason to recommend the adoption of this process in the amphitheatres of dissection, notwithstanding it may occasion a slight increase of expense. How trifling, indeed, is this consideration, when it is proposed to render anatomical studies more easy, and more healthful; when it is calculated to render them more fruitful, since each subject could be made to serve a greater number of students, who, working without disgust or repugnance, would much better preserve the free exercise of their faculties!
All things considered, the expense, already inconsiderable, and which will become still less hereafter, is then equivalent to real economy, if, for example, the cost of an anatomical education to a student be calculated. By the aid of the new process, fewer subjects are necessary for the same number of students; or rather, with the same number of subjects, the education of a much greater number of students may be completed.
Your commission has been strongly impressed with these considerations; it has thought that the process under consideration was sufficiently proved; that it might, even now, be practised habitually in dissecting amphitheatres; and that this has not already been effected, is evidently due to administrative circumstances.
Consequently, it has the honour to propose to you to award to M. Gannal a prize of $1600.
The members of the commission agreed that it was expedient to recommend my process to the dissecting amphitheatres: their wish is in part accomplished, since, by decision of the central administration of hospitals, the subjects are henceforward to be subjected, in the capacious chambers of Clamart, to one of the injections, the compositions of which I have given. This decision will not astonish those of our readers who are aware that M. Serres is charged with the direction of the anatomical arrangements at Clamart; this gentleman, whose works have elevated him to so distinguished a rank, has been long known for the zeal and noble disinterestedness with which he advances all useful discoveries.
2.—Preservation of subjects of normal anatomy, of pathological anatomy, and of natural history.
As it is my intention to publish hereafter a complete work on the preservation of pieces of pathological anatomy, and of objects of natural history, which, besides the details into which I might enter, would lead me beyond the proper limits of this work, I shall confine myself here to some results obtained during the last three years, and the composition of the liquids derived therefrom.
1. In 1833, I took the thigh and all the organs contained in the abdominal cavity of an infant at full term, and treated them after the manner to be hereafter indicated, and at the present moment, 8th December, 1837, I preserve the pieces in two jars. They display no sensible alteration, and are as fit for study as when first separated from the subject.
2. In 1835, Dr. Beniquet having to pursue some investigations on the brain, he made use of my liquor in order to preserve entire heads, for which he had occasion. After his experiments were finished, he presented to me a head which remained, and which I preserve in my cabinet. It is impossible to detect the slightest trace of change in it.
3. I have preserved unaltered for three months, the head of a Bar, (a species of Silurus,) weighing several pounds; this head has served for dissection.
4. I have preserved leeches and other worms for several years, without perceiving that they had lost any of the characters necessary for the naturalist to know.
5. The same observation applies to the different organs of birds and mammalia: the heads of pheasants plunged, feathers and all, into the preservative liquor, after fifteen days of maceration, present the red colour around the eye of as lively a shade as at the moment of immersion.
I might multiply these examples, and produce several hundred trials equally conclusive, made during the course of my experiments; but as it could not result in any advantage to the reader, I forbear. Besides, the use that Captain Durville has made of my liquor during his scientific voyage, and the thousand proofs to which it is every day subjected on the part of men, whom the study of natural history induces to have recourse to it, will be the most faithful and sure confirmation.
In fine, I shall always be most happy to receive the observations, remarks, and criticisms of those, who, with an interest for science, may have occasion to point out to me any circumstances calculated to modify the applications. Many, without doubt, may have escaped me, and as I desire, above all things, to bring my processes to the highest degree of perfection, I shall be thankful for any aid that may contribute to this end. The following is the composition of the liquids[S] which I employ for preserving the different pieces of normal anatomy, pathological anatomy, and natural history.
1. A solution of the simple sulphate of alumine, at six degrees; that is to say, the solution of a killogram of this salt in six quarts of water.
2. A solution of simple sulphate with water saturated with arsenious acid:—five hundred scruples of arsenic to forty quarts of water;—six quarts of this solution to one killogram of the simple sulphate.
3. Of the acetate of alumine at five degrees, saturated with arsenious acid.
Usage.—For fifteen days I cause the pieces to disgorge in the first liquid; at the end of this period they are withdrawn and placed in the bath of a second liquid, where they may remain for from three to five months; finally, they are withdrawn and placed in a third liquid. It is thus that I have preserved preparations for three or four years, which the public is welcome to come and see.
It would be useless to recur here to dried preparations, having given an example of them in the seventh chapter; nevertheless, as I then only indicated the injection of acetate of alumine, without making any observation, one of the results which I have attained by the simple sulphate, reported now, will be a useful confirmation of the process which I have given before. Distinguished men have examined the viscera and vessels of a subject injected for six months, and we shall see how satisfactory was the state of the organs after so long a period.
M. Professor Dumas, treating of the acetate of alumine in the lectures which he gives in the Polytechnic School, was led to refer to the application which I had successfully made of this salt, for the preservation of bodies. He requested me to lend him some preparations to show to the students of the school. I lost no time in sending him several specimens; I added the first body which I had injected with the solution of the simple sulphate at thirty degrees; it was the corpse of a fœtus that had only lived fifteen days. Injected six months ago, and abandoned to the air of my laboratory, this body had lost about one-half of its water of composition; the feet, the hands, the ears, were dried;—the face was covered with byssus,[16] but no trace of decomposition evinced an approaching dissolution of the organs.
On the next lecture, Cazalis asked me in what state the vessels ought to be found in this stage of the preservation. The subject, I remarked, is at your disposal, and you can satisfy yourself. He then opened the chest, placed the syphon in the aorta, and a fatty injection of about three hundred scruples was forced into the arterial system.
The injection having cooled, the subject was opened; the intestines were in a remarkable state of preservation, and the injection had penetrated them, as well as the brain, which was found in a healthy state. Finally, the brachial artery, followed in its divisions and subdivisions to the palm of the hand, was seen to be injected. Since this period, I often show this subject to persons who visit my laboratory; it is immersed in the preservative liquor, and I can submit it to the examination of anatomists, for whom facts only are important. Observations of this nature prove that I have given to anatomists the means of preservation which respond loudly to all the wants of the science; and it ought further to be remarked, that my experiments have been conducted under the most unfavourable circumstances. Indeed, for the trial of all the substances which I supposed possessed of preservative properties, I have chosen, as in the preceding case, fœtuses, as subjects the most disposed to fall into putrefaction, as in them animal matter is not completely formed, and they include a considerable quantity of water of composition, much geline, and very little muscular flesh. This method of proceeding has enabled me to dispense with numerous attempts, and to avoid deception. The aspect of fœtuses, and the intimate structure of their tissues vary little from each other; but the difference, very trifling for these subjects, is immense in men of advanced age; the temperament, and idiosyncrasy, which display themselves later, establish a thousand degrees, a thousand shades in the tendency to decomposition, and the subject which cedes most rapidly to dissolving causes, is scarcely on a par with new-born infants. This opinion, which can be established by facts, if necessary, convinces me, independently of my experiments, that all means proper for the preservation of infants, may, a priori, be supposed an excellent process for the preservation of all animal bodies.
I possess in my cabinet a dozen of fœtuses, injected at different periods with the acetate of alumine, or the simple sulphate, some preserved in the liquid, others abandoned to the air: on these pieces may be perceived the different phases, the various transformations produced by time and chemical agents on animal matters. Some of these subjects, prepared for more than a year, are in as favourable a state for anatomical study as on the day of their death; others, submitted to the action of the air, have become dried, and offer the appearance of the mummy of the sands.
3.—Embalming.
I have presented a history of embalming as complete as the nature of the case would admit; as a historian, I have investigated those sources most worthy of credit; I have collected all the documents of interest, and have used them as occasion required; observations and criticisms have lent their aid, either to enlighten or correct information, and admitted opinions: I have, above all, endeavoured to confine myself to scientific data. From the mummy of the sands to that obtained from the deuto-chloride of mercury, these two extreme points of my endeavours, this was the idea which prevailed, and directed the exposition of my subject. I shall not depart from this method in order to make known my work; I shall abstain from all conjecture on the duration of bodies embalmed by my process; here, too, I confine myself to facts, and to the deductions which are naturally derived from them.
I refer to the end of the sixth chapter for the advantages resulting from my processes compared with all others, and I resume the subject where I left it in the preceding chapter.
The acetate of alumine, and the simple sulphate, ought to be chosen in preference to all other dried substances for the preservation of bodies; these two salts can render to anatomists all desirable services; but the study of their action ought to be extended further for the purposes of the embalmer.
What happens, then, when a subject is injected with one of these two salts? They remain exposed to the thermometric and hygrometric variations of the air, and should undergo one of the following transformations; or rather, submitted to the action of a dry and free air, they rapidly dry; or preserved in a close and humid place, they become emaciated, blackened, and covered with mouldiness, without, however, experiencing putrid fermentation; they decompose like skin or tanned leather enclosed in a humid place, or beneath the earth. These transformations experienced by bodies thus prepared, were an obstacle to the application of my process to embalming.
There remained for me, then, an ulterior series of observations in order to prevent these unfavourable results.
It was necessary to discover a method of preserving bodies always fresh, with the appearance of sleep, in the state in which they exist immediately after death. It was necessary that the preservation should be indefinitely prolonged; that is to say, that the embalming be such a one that it would allow a dead body to be preserved in all its integrity, without mutilation, without incisions, and fit for dissection at will at all possible epochs.
Have I fulfilled these conditions? Let the facts answer.
First observation.—In the month of February, 1836, at the request of Dr. Petigard, I embalmed the body of the son of M. Dupré, architect, living in Cerisarie street, No. 13.
This child, aged about twelve years, was interred in the cemetery of Père la Chaise. During the construction of the monument, which the father caused to be erected to him, some of his friends excited doubts as to the efficacy of my method of preservation. Wounded in his affections, M. Dupré conceived suspicions which he communicated to Dr. Petigard, expressing the desire for the exhumation of the body. He advised me of this, but numerous occupations prevented me giving it immediate attention; he attributed my delay to hesitation, to the fear I had of seeing my promises made to the relatives contradicted, and, as he has since avowed, expressed himself without reserve on my account.
Finally, the opening of the coffin was made in the month of July, 1837; when the unfortunate father, feeling revive all his grief at the sight of his son, whom he found exactly in the state in which he was at the moment of inhumation, regretting, besides, his suspicions of me, embraced me with effusion, and gave me every proof of his lively gratitude.
“Your hesitation,” he remarked, “made me fear that I had been deceived, under which persuasion I have undoubtedly prejudiced several persons against you, but I will repair the fault in telling the truth.” Here is one fact which may appear of some value, and that which follows is none the less conclusive.
Second observation.—Dr. Oudet, surgeon dentist, died at Paris, Dauphine street, was embalmed sixth March, 1837, after my process; his body was deposited in a coffin of oak, without a lining of lead, and placed, thus enclosed, in a clayey, humid soil. Three months after, the exhumation was made, in presence of M. Prunier, commissary of police for the quarter of the observatory, and of Dr. Petit. The body was found in such a perfect state of preservation, that it astonished the numerous persons present at the exhumation; all admitting that the aspect of the defunct was exactly that of a man asleep: a “procès-verbal” was drawn up on the spot, to prove the state of the body. The following is a copy of it:
“I, the undersigned, Doctor of Medicine of the faculty of Paris, certify, that on the sixth of March, 1837, M. Gannal embalmed, by his process, the body of Oudet, senior, Doctor in Medicine, who lived No. 24 Dauphine street. This operation was performed in my presence, no other opening being necessary than that in the carotid artery, and was finished in less than half an hour.
“On the twenty-eighth of May following, the exhumation of the body was made in my presence, that of M. Prunier, commissary of police, the persons attached to the cemetery, and some spectators. The body, which had remained three months in the earth, and in a coffin not lined with lead, was in such a perfect state of preservation, that all present declared that it resembled a man asleep.
Signed, H. Petit.”
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to refer here to the embalming which I made at the request of Dr. Husson. I had to preserve the body of the nephew of General Guilleminot, who died at the hotel de Bade, Helder street. The mother requested that her son should be dressed in his usual manner, and placed on a bed of repose as if asleep. He remained fifteen days in this position before being enclosed in a coffin, to be transported to the family sepulchre. I abstain from mentioning many instances of exhumation made at my own request, because they need the authenticity of character necessary to facts, from which are to be drawn scientific results. Besides, it will always be easy, when any scientific body or the authorities desire to assure themselves of the efficacy of the means which I employ, to obtain an exhumation and prove the state of the subjects thus prepared.
I preserve in my cabinet the body of an infant of ten years, embalmed for more than eight months; the countenance of this subject, which remains uncovered, has not experienced any alteration; his open eyes[T] give his physiognomy the expression of astonishment often observed on first awakening.
If such results can offer any consolation to families who lament a painful loss, I have received my reward.