The specimens of pathological anatomy, preserved in the same liquid of injection, were not exempt from the usual inconvenience attached to similar preparations in a solution of muriate of soda and other salts, being equally liable to incrustations, requiring a change or renewal of the solution.
In the preservation of birds by this process it was found sufficient to inject the body by the trachea, subsequently suspending the animal by the feet in order to drain it of the superabundant fluid, and then giving it a fixed position by means of wires; such preparations retain their flexibility and natural appearance for some weeks, or until desiccation commences.
The powerful preservative properties of aluminous salts have been long known, and were not unfrequently resorted to by the ancients. Some remarkable instances of preservation by such a medium have accidentally occurred in our own country, among which the following may be here noticed. That distinguished officer of the American revolution, General Wayne, died thirty or forty years ago at Erie, Pennsylvania, and was buried in the vicinity of the lake; the body was not long since disinterred and removed by his son, who was astonished to find it in so perfect a state of preservation—and on examination it was discovered to have been deposited in an argillaceous soil strongly impregnated with a solution of alum.
Another interesting instance occurred many years since in the State of Maine, where the body of a person, missing for several months, was discovered in a clay pit, into which it had fallen, face downwards, enveloped in moist clay; the features were recognisable, although the parts of the body exposed to the air had long decayed to a skeleton.
Tho interesting and important subject of embalming, and of preserving and preparing anatomical objects, though much improved of late, is by no means exhausted. It has long been our desire to turn our attention in a special manner to such researches, and to have instituted numerous experiments, but imperative duties, and unexpected events, have interfered with such views for the present—we are not without a hope, however, that some one of our countrymen, more fortunately situated, will push his discoveries in a direction which affords so admirable a field for distinction.
The investigator might even be so fortunate as to discover the lost secret of the Florentine Physician, Segato, for petrifying animal substances! The problem is by no means an unphilosophical one, nor yet a chemical anomaly—it is only perfectly to saturate, by injection or otherwise, animal substance with the silicate of potash, or liquor of flints,—(Verre Soluble, of Fuchs,) and subsequently to immerse it in a weak acid solution:—the “methodus operandi,” remains to be discovered. (Consult Dumas, Traitè de Chimie, Vol. 2. p. 577, for an interesting chapter on “Verre Soluble.”)
Bodies of men, horses, &c., have been preserved for centuries in the bogs of Scotland and Ireland; it is to be presumed that these must have been immersed when the temperature was low, as we have always failed in attempting to preserve bodies in a saturated solution of gall nuts, during warm weather but an injection of the vessels with the tincture of galls has proved more successful.
We have already demonstrated by experiment that Tranchini’s arsenical solution is inadequate as a means of embalming, (vide Note, p. [211] of this volume.)
The mercurial corrosive sublimate, as a means of preserving from corruption, in addition to the palpable objections to its use designated by our author, exacts much time, labour, and expense, and not unfrequently fails altogether, whether applied to animal or vegetable substances.
The sulphate of copper, has more recently been proposed as a preservative of vegetable matter, especially as applicable to the blocks for paving streets; its properties as a preservative of animal matters have long been recognised. We have read of human bodies found in some parts of Germany, preserved entire for many years, by being deposited in a soil strongly impregnated with this salt.