For instance, if the body to be embalmed is that of a very fleshy person, and it be in the summer season, when animal substances are more prone to putrefy than at other seasons, the embalming fluid must be altered as follows, in its quantitative composition:
| Sulphate of alumina, | 6 pounds. |
| Arsenious acid, transparent, | 4 ounces. |
| Creasote, | 6 ounces. |
| Water, | 1 gallon. |
For the minor parts of this process, as, for instance, the closing of the eyes, mouth, etc., the reader is referred to previous processes already given in former chapters.
The most reliable composition yet found for embalming purposes, and the one which has given the most satisfactory results, is the following:
Alcohol, one gallon; dissolve into it eight ounces of corrosive sublimate, and, after complete solution, add two pounds of creasote. This solution, for injecting purposes, has never failed to accomplish the purpose, and has given the most astonishing results. The only objection to its use, but one which does not in reality carry any weight with it, is the fact that the solution will produce a white scar on the skin of the body wherever it may be dropped; but a very moderate amount of care in the use of it will preclude the possibility of such an accident.
The embalming of bodies by injection has so far occupied our attention. We will hereafter pass briefly in review the process of maceration employed in the preservation of bodies.
EMBALMING BY MACERATION.
The process of embalming bodies, as at first practised, was founded on the principle of complete immersion of the body into some bath composed of antiseptics, which, by being absorbed by the system, rendered the tissues imputrescible, much in the same way as we now preserve anatomical preparations by immersing in alcohol.
At the commencement of this century a process of embalming was brought out in Europe, and succeeded very well for some time; but after a certain period, Mr. Gannal and others inaugurated a new system of preserving the dead, and the process of maceration was abandoned, and has not since been revived to any extent. The following is the manner of treatment to which a body was subjected in the above process: