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

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.