About the close of the year 1839, we read in the Medical Gazette, an account of some experiments performed by Drs. Babington and Rees, with the view of preserving human bodies, for the purposes of dissection. After numerous unsuccessful trials with various antiseptic substances, they succeeded to their entire satisfaction by simply injecting the arteries of an adult with one gallon of pyroxilic spirits; of which substance, (which must not be confounded with pyroligneous acid, or pyro-acetic spirits,) a full account may be found in the “Annals of Philosophy,” N. S. VIII, 69. According to the authors, the advantage of employing Pyroxilic Spirits are—1. Its extreme fluidity. 2. Its freedom from colour. 3. Its cheapness, being only one half the price of alcohol. 4. Its innoccuous nature, and its freedom from any corrosive action on dissecting instruments.
In the London Medical Gazette, for December, 1839, there is a memoir of Dr. Thomas Marshall, on the same subject, who thinks he has discovered a much cheaper and more effectual method—which consists in puncturing the surface of the body very generally with needles or scissors, &c., and brushing over the body with acetic acid, specific gravity 1.048, which must be brushed into it slowly and repeatedly, the same acid slightly diluted with water, to be introduced into the great cavities. This process, the author asserts, has not only preserved bodies perfectly sweet for months; but is capable of restoring the natural colour to parts already gangrenous.
To use the author’s own words, “two days’ application in this way, will beautify any subject.” The face of a corpse thus punctured, and supplied with compresses moistened with this acid, would be preserved, or even restored to its natural appearance, when discoloured by incipient putrefaction. John Hunter and other contemporaneous surgeons were in the habit of using diluted nitric acid for this purpose, but we have frequently seen this application fail, in our climate, when puncturation was omitted.
Most beautiful specimens of natural skeletons may be obtained by employing tadpoles; the animal must be divested of its skin, and the bones roughly cleaned of their flesh, and then suspended in water, exposed to the depredations of the tadpoles, who delicately remove, atom by atom, the softened flesh still adhering to the skeleton, by means of their suction mouths, in the course of a few hours, during warm weather; when the preparation is to be placed in position and dried. The aid of the ant has also been successfully invoked for a similar purpose. A small quadruped prepared as above, is placed in a box, and deposited in the vicinity of an ant’s nest; these industrious operatives rapidly remove the flesh from the bones.
As approaching the nearest to natural objects, we can securely recommend the accurate anatomical preparations in Carton, of Dr. Azoux, of Paris: the annual course of popular anatomy which he delivers, and which we have had the satisfaction of attending, are admirably and accurately illustrated by this means.
These preparations consist not only of every part of the human body, but of entire subjects, both male and female, including the gravid uterus. The only objection that can be urged against them, is the high price, say six hundred dollars for the entire adult subject.
Equally valuable is the more recent invention of another Parisian artist, of a material which he denominates “Carton pierreuse,” which appears to be a composition of “papier maché” and ground plaster of Paris, with which he executes anatomical models of great beauty and accuracy, including innumerable pieces of morbid anatomy, coloured to nature. Either of the above preparations are vastly superior to those in wax; they are more durable and more natural.
The study of minute anatomy has been yet further essentially aided, by the representations of the nerves, arteries, and veins of the head and face, by means of wires enveloped in wax, coloured after nature; these constitute very accurate and handsome preparations, and are the ornament of anatomical museums, as manufactured by M. Guy, adjoining the School of Medicine in Paris.
Preparations of the nerves and blood vessels of the entire subject, distinct from the body, are made in a similar manner; fine specimens of which are contained in the Museum of Comparative Anatomy in the Garden of Plants. The endless variety and perfection of the preparations, models, &c., as a means of prosecuting anatomical studies at the present time, are strongly contrasted with those at the command of the student in the days of Harvey; when the vessels and nerves were imperfectly displayed with great labour and expense by the tedious process of dissecting them from the body and drying them on a board. Valuable specimens of these kinds of preparations from the cabinet of Harvey, are still scrupulously preserved in the cabinet of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
It will only be necessary to add here, a few formulæ for the various kinds of injections used in the preparations of the blood vessels by the American and English anatomists, which will be observed to differ considerably from those used on the Continent, by reference to chapter seventh of this volume, where will also be found formulæ for the composition of varnishes: as regards the various methods of manipulation requisite for the preparation of each particular part of the body, these will be best obtained by the student’s personal application to the anatomical instructor or assistant connected with medical schools and teachers of practical anatomy.