History of Embalming / and of Preparations in Anatomy, Pathology, and Natural History; Including an Account of a New Process for Embalming

by J.-N. Gannal

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.