EMBALMING.
A portion of my researches has been submitted
to the examination of commissioners, appointed by
the Institute, and by the Academy of Medicine.
After long and repeated experiments, MM. the
commissioners, have been unanimous upon the utility
of the processes of preservation which I propose,
and in particular my process for the preservation of
subjects for the amphitheatres, the only one for
which it was important for me to obtain a definite
sanction, recommended by the Institute, is applied
to the dissecting rooms of Clamart, with a success
that every one may witness.
The faithful and complete exposition of the numerous
trials which I have attempted, will furnish
me, in this chapter, the occasion of indicating the
most efficacious means of preservation for objects of
pathological anatomy and of natural history. And,
as it is incumbent on a man of study, disinterested
in all that concerns science, I will give publicity to
the result of my labours, the composition of the different
liquids, and the mode of using them.
As for my process of embalming, I have thought
that it ought to remain my property, and that one
exclusively addicted to chemical studies was more
qualified than the physician to subject it to those
modifications which each particular case requires.
I have secured a patent of invention; for my method
differs essentially enough from the preparations
which I indicate for the purposes of anatomy.
It is necessary, in effect, to preserve to the tissues
in embalming, a freshness and suppleness which is
lost by desiccation, at the end of some months, in
the subjects injected for the use of the anatomist; it
is necessary, above all, to secure to the body, in this
latter case, a more prolonged preservation: the facts
which I can show, will prove that I have attained
my end.
My experiments upon gelatine have conducted
me to the knowledge of some one of the constituent
parts of different animals. I had studied the action
of chemical agents habitually employed in the arts;
the labour of the tanner, or leather dresser, of the
parchment maker, the fabrication of glue, which I
have practised on a large scale from 1819 to 1828,
have equally furnished me with valuable data.
In 1826, my attention having been arrested by
MM. Bègin and Serrulas, on the preservation of objects
of pathological anatomy, trials were made at
the Val-de-Grace.
In 1828, M. Alphonse Sanson, disposing himself
to prepare a cabinet of anatomy, at the request and
for the use of some English gentlemen, proposed to
me to occupy myself with the question relative to
preservation, which obliged me to make some researches;
but it was not until 1831, and at the solicitation
of M. Strauss, an anatomist of well known
merit, that I undertook serious and continued labours
upon the preservation of bodies. From this
moment, I employed all my attention and cares to
resolve this question.
The researches on the preservation of bodies demanded
the re-union of different circumstances,
without which it would have been impossible for
me to have attained a satisfactory solution. It is
easy to conceive, in effect, the great difference which
ought to exist between the action of any given liquid
upon some scruples of animal matter, and its
action on an entire corpse; I ought to confess, also,
that without the extreme courtesy of M. Orfila,
who placed at my disposition, at the practical school
of the faculty of medicine, all the objects of which
I might stand in need, it is probable that it would
have been impossible for me to have arrived at positive
results. I encountered some difficulties, some
resistance, and even something more, on the part of
some scientific notables, and also of some ambitious
subalterns; but I have surmounted all.
This work on the preservation of bodies ought
only to be considered as the suit of that in which I
have treated of the preservation of alimentary meats.
It is only the circumstances of which I have just
spoken, that have determined me to finish this work
sooner.
It is well known that the study of medicine should
be preceded by the study of anatomy, which teaches
the knowledge of the organization of the human
body; but this study is difficult and presents numerous
dangers. The study of the organs exacts
time; their dissection is tedious, especially if intended
for demonstration. In this case it almost always
happens that putrefaction seizes the subject
before the preparation is finished; for, at a temperature
above fifteen degrees, it is impossible to
preserve a subject more than six days; under this
temperature, that is to say, from 0 to 10 degrees,
the longest time one can dissect is twelve or fifteen
days. But the corpse always exhales mephitic miasmata
before all the organs are putrefied, and this
emanation of gas is certainly the cause which most
frequently determines typhus fever, so destructive
to a portion of our studious youths.13
Before exposing my own researches upon the preservation
of bodies, it was necessary to examine the
researches anterior to mine; it will have been perceived
by what precedes, that they were of no service
to me.
Thus, in viewing all that has been effected on
this matter, I can find no indications excepting the
processes employed in the arts.
In our works of chemistry applied to the arts, I
have often been able to prove, practically, that muscular
flesh, perfectly isolated, easily dries. When
it is mixed with gelatine, it easily experiences, on
the contrary, putrid fermentation. Geline14 is the
animal matter, which, all circumstances being equal,
putrefies the easiest; and which, forming the organs
of animals, experiences an alteration more or less
prompt, according to the prevalence of a greater or
less quantity of water of composition present. Always,
then, when we succeed in preserving from
putrefaction this animal part, the other parts will be
disposed to desiccation. My researches have conducted
me to this conclusion.
In order to find a method of preserving bodies,
and animal matters in general, it was essential to
examine the action of chemical substances to which
may be attributed properties which produce upon
the constituent parts of these matters an immediate
action; it is necessary also, that they should be
easily procured, and that they be of a moderate
price. I am satisfied that acids do not preserve animal
matters; they disorganize them more or less
promptly, in direct proportion to their concentration.
Many weak acids, among others hydrochloric acid,
at five degrees, may be employed to dissolve the
calcareous salts from the bones; nitric acid also, at
five degrees, may be brought into use in some particular
cases; for example, when it is wished to
study the nervous system; but then the bones are
softened, the geline is in part disorganized, the muscles
are discolored, and become flabby, as well as
the viscera; the nerves only remain of a pearly blue,
strongly pronounced.
Arsenic acid has a very marked action on animal
matters; I shall make it known without delay in
my second memoir upon gelatine. It preserves bodies
well, but appears to favour their desiccation. In
the details of experiments made under the surveillance
of the commissioners of the two academies, I
shall cite the effects produced by the employment
of this substance. Acetic acid preserves flesh only
by drying it. This acid weakened, or vinegar, retards
putrefaction, softens the bones, as well as the
muscles, which are discolored by its action.
Concentrated lies dissolve all animal matters;
weak alkaline solutions disorganize more or less
promptly the same substances.
A very small quantity of alkali suffices, when
warm, to decompose very large masses of glue.
This effect is often produced through ignorance in
the manufacture of strong glue.
Salts only preserve meats when employed dry, or
in very concentrated solutions; it is necessary that
their affinity should be sufficiently great to absorb
all the water of combination of animal matters. It
may be then affirmed that salt only preserves meat
by drying it; thus those salts more soluble in warm
than in cold water; may, when injected warm, in a
saturated solution, be considered as a good means
of preservation, but which cannot be employed for
anatomical purposes, because of the crystals which
form in the organs during the cooling of the injected
liquor.
Salts with a metallic oxide base have in general
little affinity for geline, and do not preserve well;
those which are poisonous being alone excepted.
The salts of copper, and above all those of mercury
hinder putrefaction; but many causes are opposed
to their employment.
1. Their action is not sufficiently energetic to give
them the preference: 2. They are always dangerous
when employed in large quantities. 3. They are
very injurious to dissecting instruments. 4. In fine
they are too costly.
The aluminous salts are those alone which I find
possessed of the property of preserving animal matters;
their bases combine with geline to form a particular
compound, the acid being set free.
The vegetable kingdom furnishes but few products
capable of preventing or retarding putrefaction;
alcohol is nearly the only substance possessing
the property. It preserves in the same manner
as the salts, by imbibing a portion of the water
of composition; it bleaches, discolours, and hardens
the organs. Alcohol is the only substance employed up
to the present for preservation; but its action upon the
tissues, its extreme volatility, the difficulty of transporting
it, and its extreme dearness, makes another
process desirable.
Tannin cannot be employed, because water does
not contain enough of it in solution to render an injection
of it preservative; a corpse immerged, even
in a great mass of tannin, is no better preserved,
the skin is tanned, but the flesh decomposes.[O]
Gallic acid acts in the same manner, but yet more
feebly than tannin.
An oily, volatile, and very odorous substance, recently
discovered, and to which the name Creosote,
has been given, has been presented as a universal
panacea, which, among other properties, ought to
possess that of well preserving bodies. In order to
assure myself of the truth of this assertion, on the 18th
October, 1835, I injected a subject with one hundred
scruples of creosote, dissolved in seven quarts
water. On the 23d, the abdomen was very much
swollen, and of a very strongly pronounced blue-green
colour; on the 26th, the left side of the face,
the right arm, and all of the left leg, were green;
on the 30th of October, putrefaction was so much
developed that it became necessary to bury the body.
It may be objected, that the subject should have
been at the same time steeped in a bath saturated
with this substance; but its high price discouraged
me from making such an experiment; besides I think
that the odour of the creosote will always prove an
obstacle to its employment.
Alum, the acid sulphate of alumine, and of potash,
have given me the first good results; but,
slightly soluble when cold, they will not suffice
when the atmospherical temperature rises above fifteen
degrees, (cent.) A mixture of alum, of chloride
of sodium, (common salt,) and of nitrate of potash,
has succeeded better with me. I have tried the
action of sulphate of soda, of chloride of calcium,
(muriate of lime,) of hydrochlorate of ammonia, &c.;
they were almost useless.
The mixture of two parts of alum, of two parts of
salt, and of one part of nitre, in a sufficient quantity
of water to mark the liquor at ten degrees, injected,
preserves bodies very well bathed in the same liquor,
but only when the temperature is under ten
degrees for
a more elevated temperature it is necessary
to warm the liquid, and add the salt mixture
until the areometer marks twenty-five or thirty
degrees.
Of all the saline substances which have given me
satisfactory results, the aluminous deliquescent
salts are to be preferred. The acetate and chloride
of alumine have perfectly succeeded with me. In
fine, a mixture of equal parts, of chloride of alumine
at twenty degrees, and of the acetate of alumine at
ten degrees, may be considered, employed in injection,
as a good method which we now possess for
the preservation of bodies.
Now that I have explained the action of chemical
agents upon animal matters, I shall enter upon the
details of experiments.
I presented my work to the Institute on the fourth
of March, 1833. The Academy of Sciences named
for its examination, a commission composed of MM.
Savart, Flourens, Chevreuil, and Serres, reporter.
A few days after, M. Serres placed at my disposition,
at the Hospital La Pitié, and in his private cabinet,
a corpse, which I bathed in a tub containing
a solution at ten degrees, two parts of alum, two
parts of common salt, and one part of nitre. This
subject, repeatedly examined, appeared to be well
preserved. At the end of about six weeks it was
opened; the flesh and the viscera were in a good
state of preservation, but particular circumstances
put an end to this examination.
On the twelfth of November, 1834, the administration
of Hospitals presented two subjects to me,
which M. Orfila authorized me to place in one of
the grand pavilions of the practical school of the faculty
of medicine. These two subjects were bathed
in a liquid of ten degrees. The second of December
the commission of the Academy of Sciences
came to examine these two subjects, which were
consigned to dissection. On the same day another
subject was given to me. This was injected with
eight quarts of the saline solution at ten degrees.
At the end of December, these three subjects were
in a good state of preservation; it was remarked,
however, that the skin as well as the flesh, had
slightly assumed a decayed consistence and colour;
the deep organs, which had not been in immediate
contact with the liquid, remained almost natural.
From this period until the end of April, the commission
frequently assembled and confirmed these
results.
A commission constituted by the Academy of Medicine
early in March, examined these same subjects,
and demanded new experiments. The first
subject was injected with coloured fat, and then
bathed. The corpse injected on the second of December,
was also injected with coloured fat.
Here it may be remarked that it required double
the quantity of fatty matter for this, than for a fresh
subject, and that the most delicate arterial net-work
had been prepared by the injection.
These experiments, which lasted for half the
month of May, satisfied me that an injection of ten
or twelve degrees of density, and immersion of the
body in a bath of the same liquid, will suffice for a
preparation destined for ordinary anatomical purposes,
and will allow of dissection after several
months.
At the end of July, 1835, M. Orfila, placed at my
disposition in one of the grand pavilions of the practical
school, all the utensils and instruments that I
might stand in need of; on the 7th of August, I injected
a subject with the liquid at 12 degrees, and
afterwards bathed it in the same liquid. The body,
at the end of two days, began to swell. Eight days
after, it disengaged so large a portion of gas, that I
was obliged to withdraw it from the trough, at the
bottom of which it was no longer possible to retain
it. Placed upon a table, its decomposition appeared
to be arrested, no more gas being disengaged, but
there escaped a great quantity of liquor coloured by
the blood; the subject, which had assumed a deep
brown colour, became completely dried. During all
this time, no putrid odour was remarked; it was that
of smoked ham.
A second subject was injected with the same liquid
and abandoned on a table; it was decomposed at the
end of five days; but it must be remarked that the
atmospherical temperature varied from twenty to
thirty degrees.
On the 8th of August, a subject was injected with
the liquid at thirty degrees of density, which was
made necessary by the elevation of the temperature
up to fifty degrees . This corpse was well preserved
and was dissected about the end of December.
These various experiments convinced me that the
saline solutions employed with success during the
winter, were insufficient for the operations during
summer; that is to say, at a temperature above fifteen
degrees.
The success which I obtained by the injection of
a more concentrated liquid, indicated the route I
was to follow.
I have already stated that the alum was decomposed,
that the animal matter, the geline, combined
with the alumine, and that the liberated sulphuric acid
produced the alteration of the tissues. It was then
indispensable to seek an aluminous salt, containing
more of the base and a less powerful acid.
On the 16th of August, I injected a subject with
eight quarts of acetate of alumine at twenty degrees.
This corpse, placed upon the table without any
other preparation, was preserved perfectly well for
the period of one month; at the end of this period,
it might be perceived that the nostrils, the eyelids,
and the extremities of the ears, commenced drying,
as well as the hands and feet. In order to remedy
this inconvenience, I covered one half the subject
with a layer of varnish. At the end of two months,
it was easy to remark, that the part subjected to the
action of the air had considerably diminished in volume,
and was less useful for dissection. Finally,
at the end of January, 1836, the varnished parts,
not dissected, were still well preserved, whilst the
rest was completely dried, mummified.
Dr. Piory had indicated to the Academy of
Medicine a method of preserving bodies: it consisted,
according to him, in enveloping the body in
layers of pewter, and of linen, and then of varnish.
This process perfectly succeeded with me on a subject
injected with acetate of alumine.
Another subject was injected with the chloride of
aluminium. This injection did not succeed well,
and with three bodies I met with the same difficulties,
that is to say, the liquid contained in the syringe
having been introduced after the space of
time allowed for refilling it, the circulatory system
had become so obliterated that the force of even two
men was not sufficient to introduce an additional
quantity. At twenty degrees the chloride of aluminium
has so great an affinity for water, that it absorbs
that of which the organs are constituted. However,
the parts of the body which had been penetrated
by the liquid were well preserved, the muscles
in particular had preserved their colour.
I injected another subject with the chloride at
eight degrees, but, at the end of a month, it was decomposed.
Finally, I introduced a quart of chloride
at ten degrees, and six quarts at twenty degrees;
this subject was preserved, but the parts
not dissected were dried at the end of five months.
A mixture of three quarts of the acetate of alumine
at ten degrees, and of three quarts of the chloride
of aluminium at twenty degrees, injected by
the aorta, or better still, by the carotid artery, have
afforded the most satisfactory results.
I have already remarked that all these experiments
were made under the inspection of the commission
appointed by the Academy of Sciences, of
those of the Academy of Medicine, and of the Monthyon
commission, composed of MM. Dulong, Magendie,
Darcet, and Dumas, reporter. The account
which these commissioners have rendered to the
two Academies, renders it unnecessary to present
here a summary of my experiments.
These gentlemen requested me to repeat the experiments
of Doctor Tranchini, of Naples, which
consists in injecting a solution of two pounds of arsenic
in twenty pounds of clear water, or better, in
spirits of wine.15 During eight days the corpse remained
perfectly natural; but after this time it gradually
dried, although deposited in a damp situation,
and along side of a water cock, kept running.
It was injected on the ninth of September, and
examined on the twenty-fifth of the same month;
but, on the same day, having offered it to several
students for dissection, none of them were willing
to accept of my proposition.
On the sixteenth of October, it was found unfit
for any anatomical purposes; on the thirtieth it was
completely dried.
I think that the employment of this method presents
real dangers for the anatomist, of which the
following is a proof: Doctor Poirson declared before
the Academy of Medicine, that he had been exceedingly
incommoded, as well as two of his colleagues,
in having embalmed two generals with this
substance; he attributed this derangement of his
health to the arsenic absorbed during the preparation.
I drew the attention of the commissioners to the
fact, that the table upon which the body lay, that
the windows of the room, and that the corpse itself,
were covered with dead flies; a considerable mass
of them was observed on the opening made in the
sternum. I thought that this effect might be attributed
to the evolution of arsenical hydrogen; this
evolution is, at least, probable, and the action of this
gas on the animal economy can well be conceived.
Finally, when we reflect that there are always
more than eighty bodies under dissection at the
Practical School, and that, consequently, it would
demand one hundred and sixty pounds of arsenic
to be put at the disposition of each student, it will
readily be conceded that this process would not be
applicable.[P]
At this period of my labour, I had already proved
that the methods by which I had obtained favourable
results in principle, became insufficient when
exterior circumstances changed; that the salt, of
alumine, which I made use of in my injections, was
not sufficiently rich in alumine; that the preservation
was not certain above a certain degree of temperature;
finally, I had found in the acetate of alumine
a suitable matter for forming injections eminently
preservative.
It was then that the reports were read to the Institute
and Academy of Medicine. I cite them because
they prove, in an authentic manner, the point
which I have attained. It was already possible,
with these data, to dissect during all seasons, without
fearing henceforwards the dangers attached to
this employment during the heat of the weather.
Institute of France.—Academy of Sciences—Public
sitting of Monday, 28th of December,
1835—Prize relative to the means of rendering
an art or a trade less unhealthy—On the preservation
of dead bodies, by M. Gannal.
Your commission has followed with interest the
experiments of M. Gannal; it has availed itself of
the experience of those of our confrères whose studies
oblige them to practise daily dissections, and it
believes itself authorized to declare to the Academy,
that the means pointed out in the first place by M.
Gannal, and that, which is still better, the simple
injections of acetate of alumine, at ten degrees of
the areometer, which he practised at a later period,
answers for preserving bodies for several months,
even during the summer. It is assured that no inconvenience
results from it in dissections.
Your commission has thought it proper to wait
until this process should be regularly practised in
some amphitheatre of considerable extent, before
pronouncing on it in a definitive manner. It is
aware how difficult it is to introduce the most simple
improvement into routine operations, because,
against the employment of them there arises numerous
unforeseen obstacles.
It remains convinced, however, that this process
may render, even now, real services in all countries
where dissection meets with difficulties, either from
the scarcity of bodies, or from the prejudices of the
populace.
Taking this circumstance into consideration, together
with the obstacles which M. Gannal has encountered,
the disgusts which he has had to surmount,
in order to complete the experiments which
he has made, your commission has the honour to
propose to you to award to him, in anticipation, an
encouragement of three thousand francs, (six hundred
dollars.)
Report of a Commission appointed by the Academy
of Medicine, and composed of MM. Sanson, Roux,
Dizè, Guèneau de Mussy, Breschet, reporter, to examine
a process for the preservation of dead bodies,
discovered and proposed by M. J. N. Gannal,
chemist.
Messieurs,—If anatomy is the basis of all sound
medical study, if almost all those who have most
contributed to the progress of medicine and surgery
have been skilful anatomists, it is rendering a great
service to those same sciences and to humanity,
to discover a method of facilitating the study of
anatomy, and obviating its insalubrity. Well, gentlemen,
it is a discovery of this kind that M. Gannal
presumes he has made.
By a letter dated on the 10th of March, 1835,
addressed to the Academy of Medicine, by M. the
Minister of Commerce, this learned body is charged
to make known to superior authority its opinion of
the real merit of the process of M. Gannal, for the
preservation of dead bodies.
In consequence, the Academy has appointed a
commission composed of MM. Sanson, Roux, Dizè,
Guèneau de Mussy, and Breschet; it is in the name
of this commission that I now present myself to make
known to you the result of our labours.
Already two commissions from the Academy of
Sciences have been occupied in the examination of
this discovery of M. Gannal; the one, considering
the process as useful to the study of the sciences
which concerns the composition of organized beings;
the other, considering it as a means of rendering
less insalubrious an art or a profession, a prize
having been founded for this purpose by M. de
Monthyon, whose name will remain eternally dear
to science and to philanthropy.
The reasons which have hindered the ancients
from carrying to any great length a knowledge of
the structure of man and animals, was not only
the idea of filthiness attached to the sight and dissection
of dead bodies, or the difficulty of procuring
the means of dissection; but rather the almost absolute
impossibility of preserving dead bodies in
part or entire, which has retarded the progress of
anatomy. Aristotle, to whom Philip of Macedon
had given every facility for the dissection of animals,
and who must have made collections, does not say,
in any of his known works, how he preserved the
animals which he did not immediately examine, and
Galien, in his anatomical administrations, says very
few words of the means of preservation in liquors.
Cuvier, in giving the history of the progress of
the natural sciences, teaches us that one of the circumstances
which has the most contributed to the
advancement of these sciences was the discovery of
alcohol.
We are, however, astonished at the novelty of
our means for the preservation of animals, for zoological
and anatomical collections, when we reflect
that during the time of Rèaumur the art of preserving
animal bodies with their natural forms and colours,
was not known. Thus, in the cabinet of this
celebrated naturalist, are seen birds skinned and suspended
by the beak with a thread.
The taxidermic processes have almost all originated
among us, for the formation of zoological collections;
but we still are in want of less expensive
methods, of easy transport, and in small space in
order to preserve animals destined to serve for the
researches of comparative anatomy, or for the study
of the anatomy of man.
Peron, in the relation of his voyage to Terra Australis,
in the commencement of the present century,
laments the embarrassment of zoologists in long voyages,
in preserving animals, without altering any of
their zoological characters, and in a manner that
they may serve finally for anatomical researches.
He says, that it would be rendering great service
to natural history and zoology, if the following problem
could be resolved:
“Any species of animal being given, to preserve
it the most certainly, the most perfectly, and with
the smallest quantity of an alcoholic liquid of the
least possible strength.”
Alcohol is very costly in this country, where considerable
duties are exacted, nor is it suitable for
preserving bodies, except of small volume. During
voyages, this liquor is difficult of export, evaporates
rapidly, particularly in equatorial regions, and
often bursting the vessels which contain it; it alters
or dissolves the resins or resinous mastic which is
used to seal the jars or other vessels which contain
the animals.
If an acid be added to alcohol, the bones are acted
upon, and softened; colours are destroyed; the
scalpels and other dissecting instruments are
promptly oxidised, when it is desirable to dissect
animals preserved in these liquors.
The same inconveniences exist if alcohol holds
arsenic in solution, or corrosive sublimate, and
many other metallic salts.
The essence of turpentine can only serve for
small pieces; it is not easily transported, alters several
of the tissues, becomes thick and clouded.
The oils are suitable only for the preservation of
some fishes; their acquisition is expensive, and it is
difficult to obtain them everywhere.
The syrups which have been proposed for the
preservation of some animal parts, such as the brain,
spinal marrow, &c., are too dear to be useful to any
great extent; besides, they do not penetrate the
tissues profoundly, preserve only the external surfaces,
deposit crystals or a viscous matter which
changes the colour; and, finally, they run readily
into fermentation, especially in hot climates.
Creosote, advised of late, for the preservation of
the nerves and brain, is too costly, but, as we have
not made use of it, we cannot describe its mode of
action upon the tissues.
Sea-salt, employed alone and in solution, has a
mode of action for a long time known, and its inefficiency
cannot be disputed; we do not speak
however, of saltings, because this method cannot
answer for the preservation of bodies for dissection;
or for preserving animals from putrefaction, that
they may be subsequently dissected, or be placed in
zoological collections.
In an English Medical Journal, for the year 1818,
we find, that it is proposed to replace alcohol by
rock-salt, for the preservation of anatomical and natural
history subjects, which is known to be nothing
more than muriate of soda, purer than that of commerce;
this proposition is inadmissible.
The chlorides of the oxides of calcium of sodium,
of potassium, have been recommended for some
pieces of pathological anatomy; but they are not
applicable for the preservation of thick objects, and
much less entire subjects.
Wine to which has been added a nitrous solution
of mercury, has been employed by some navigators,
for the preservation of small zoological collections;
its use cannot be employed extensively.
Acids, more or less diluted, alter the tissues, and
attack the dissecting instruments.
Aqueous or alcoholic solutions of the salts of mercury,
arsenical solutions, &c., are dangerous, by
their emanations, for the anatomist who constantly
handles the objects impregnated with these metallic
salts; and further they harden the tissues, contract
them, destroy their colours, and attack anatomical
instruments.
We may repeat of the pyroligneous and acetic
acids, what we have already advanced of the other
acids. Nevertheless, it was proposed about fifteen
years ago, to use the pyroligneous acid, as excelling
in its properties for preserving animals, and anatomical
subjects.
All acids, not excepting vinegar, attack the colour
of organic tissues, corrode them, and deprive the
bones of their earthy salts, rendering them flexible
and transparent, and cover the soft parts with a
layer of gluey matter which conceals the fibres and
the structure of the parts. It is known that alum
and nitre are employed separately in aqueous solution,
to preserve anatomical preparations, during the
time of their fabrication. It is known that anatomists
employ nitre, or simply saltpetre of commerce,
not only to preserve the fleshy tissues,[Q] but to give
a lively red colour to the flesh.
We have thus, gentlemen, in a cursory manner,
exposed the ordinary methods proposed or employed
for the preservation of animal matters.
In order to respond to the Academy upon the
merits of the discovery of M. Gannal, we will say
that his process consists of an aqueous solution of
three salts, already employed separately in the anatomical
laboratory, nitre, common salt, and alum.
We have caused to be repeated under our inspection
the experiments of M. Gannal. In the course
of last March, two bodies were placed in a bathing
tub six feet six inches long, sixteen inches wide, and
twenty inches high. A liquor was poured upon these
bodies, composed of acid sulphate of alumine, and of
potash, of the chloride of sodium of each two parts,
and one part of nitrate of potash.
The water which contains these salts in solution
was in sufficient quantity to cause the liquor to
stand at fifteen degrees of the areometer; that is
to say, and according to the indication of M. Gannal,
that the liquid should mark from seven to eight degrees
during winter, and from twelve to fifteen during
summer.
The tub was placed in one of the pavilions of
the Practical School; and in the same room there
were a great number of tables covered with dead
bodies for the study of practical anatomy. At the end
of two months, the two bodies were withdrawn from
the bath, and dissected; no change had taken place
in their exterior aspect; the tissues and internal organs
were ascertained to be well preserved, and
capable of serving for anatomical demonstrations.
Other subjects have been examined by the commission
of the Academy of Sciences; they had remained
in the same liquor since the 2d of December,
1834, and were still sound at the end of April,
1835.
We thought it our duty to exact of M. Gannal
some other experiments; thus, we desired to see injections
with this preservative liquor, of the arterial
system; we caused another subject to be injected
with ordinary fatty matter; and at a later period we
had injected into the vessels of the subject which
had received the preservative liquor, a matter composed
of suet, and of resin, in equal parts, and coloured
with cinabar, (sulphate of mercury.) This
last injection was successful. The first injection of
saline liquid exacted eight quarts of the liquid,
which was introduced through the left ventricle of
the heart.
The subject examined at the end of two months,
was well preserved, did not exhale any fetid odour,
and might serve for the common dissection of students.
The commission were desirous to know whether
a body would rapidly putrefy, if it were withdrawn
from the tub and left upon the table of the amphitheatre,
exposed to the air, and to the influence of the
putrid emanations from the other bodies. A subject
was accordingly withdrawn from the preservative
saline liquor, and remained fifteen days exposed
to the air; no sensible putrefaction took place during
this time; this was during the last fifteen days of
April. The muscles of the corpse were seen to dry,
and, so to speak, to mummify, whilst the tissues which
had not come in contact with the saline liquid, or
which had not been uncovered and exposed to the
air, remained still in a state which permitted an
anatomical analysis.
We ought to remark, that the tissues which are
bathed by the liquid lose their natural colours; but
the more deeply disposed organs did not experience
the same change; there was no emphysema in the
cellular tissue, although we thought we remarked
that there was less resistance in the fibres of the
organs, than in a subject dead for twenty-four or
forty-eight hours.
We may remark, that under no circumstances
were long and deep scarifications made on the
trunk or members, in order to allow the liquid to
penetrate the thickness of the tissues. The cranium
itself was not opened, nor was there any application
of the trephine, in order to permit a more ready entrance
of the liquor to the meninges, or to the brain
itself. Nevertheless, after more than two months
immersion in the liquor, the brain, extracted from
the cranium, if it could no longer serve for new researches
on its structure, might have been employed
for demonstrations.
But, for how much longer time could this preservation
be continued? What temperature is it capable
of resisting? And what expense does it require?
In fine, can the discovery be extensively applied?
That is to say, is it possible, by this process, to preserve
a great number of subjects during summer, to
deliver them later to the students during the season
of dissection? And if these subjects, thus preserved,
exhale no odour, become in no manner a cause of
insalubrity, or of danger to the students, for the
anatomists themselves, or for the persons who inhabit
the houses adjoining the anatomical amphitheatre,
might not the dissections be indefinitely
prolonged, in place of permitting them only during
the rigors of winter?
In fine, has this saline liquor of M. Gannal preservative
properties sufficiently pronounced to be
employed during long voyages, and in hot climates,
for the purpose of bringing home numerous animals
of large size, to serve for the study of comparative
anatomy?
The small volume which saline substances occupy,
and the sea water, which might serve to make
the solution of the salts in any quantity as soon as
needed, would be circumstances favourable to the
use of this process.
In order to answer all these questions, it would be
requisite to multiply the experiments, to extend them
during a much longer period, and upon a very great
number of subjects.
These experiments, directed in this spirit, would
exact expenses which we thought ought not to be
imposed upon the author of the process for the preservation
of dead bodies, who has already been subjected
to a multiplicity of demands, for the reimbursement
of which we propose an indemnity from
the Academy, without prejudice to the recompense
which M. Gannal may have a right to claim, when
the experiments shall have received that extension
which we wish to be able to give them.
However this may be, we thought, in this provisionary
report, that we ought to call the attention
of the Academy, and of superior authority, to the
process of preservation discovered by M. Gannal,
and we manifest the desire that a sum be awarded
to him as an indemnification for expenses already
accrued, and in order to facilitate the means of continuing
his experiments on a large scale.
We shall add that this process of preservation
may be very advantageously applied to various cases
of legal medicine.
Paris, 16th June, 1835.
Signed, MM. Gueneau de Mussy,
Dizè,
Roux,
Sanson,
Breschet, Reporter.
Certified.—The perpetual Secretary of the Academy
of Medicine.
Signed, Pariset.
The first report of MM. the members of the commission
named by the Academy of Medicine was
only provisionary; new facts were discovered to enlighten
the conscience of the judges; these facts
were presented, and the following report read to the
Academy by M. Dizè.
Definitive report of the commission named by the
Academy of Medicine, to examine the process of
preserving dead bodies, presented by M. Gannal.
Gentlemen,—The Academy had formed a commission
composed of MM. Sanson, Guèneau de
Mussy, Breschet, Roux, and Dizè, to make known
the results of a process presented by M. Gannal,
having for its object the preservation of dead bodies
destined for dissection.
Our honourable colleague, M. Breschet, presented,
in a provisionary report, the experiments which
had been made, and the success obtained by M.
Gannal.
But the commission having expressed a desire to
give more development to trials which, after the important
results already obtained, deserved to fix the
attention of the Academy, it proposed to him to
multiply, to vary the experiments, to extend them
a longer time upon a greater number of subjects.
But trials directed in this spirit, exact expenses;
the commission did not think it just to impose them
upon the author of the process, who had already
multiplied expenses; in consequence it proposed to
the Academy to demand an indemnity of government
for expenses already made, and for the continuance
of experiments, without any prejudice to
the recompense that M. Gannal would have a right
to claim.
The Academy seconded the wishes of the commission;
it obtained from the minister of public instruction
the sum necessary for covering all expenses
made, and for those to be made in the continuance
of the experiments.
M Gannal made a series of preliminary experiments,
which served him as so many starting points
on the road to the discovery of the means of preserving
animal matters; these labours subsequently conducted
to the research of an antiseptic sufficiently
powerful, which unites to the property of preserving
bodies, that of not altering the organic tissues,
and not too much weakening their natural colours,
so important to anatomical demonstrations.
We shall cite the most important experiments, so
that you may be able to appreciate the process which
is proposed.
In the first place, acids in general modify the consistence
of animal matters; they produce disorganization
in proportion to their concentration; some
diluted acids, for example, nitric acid at five degrees,
may serve when it is necessary to study the nervous
system, but then the bones lose their saline particles
and are reduced to their organic frame; the muscles are
discolored and faded, as well as the viscera;
the nerves alone remain of a very remarkable mother-of-pearl
whiteness.
Arsenious acid preserves bodies very well, but a
single subject would require a killogram! Although
the medical journals having spoken of a process discovered
by Dr. Tranchini, of Naples, the commission
judged it expedient to invite M. Gannal to repeat
this experiment; a subject was injected with a
killogram of arsenious acid and ten quarts of water;
this subject examined by your commission, presented
all the characters of a good preservation; but,
on one hand, this process has been for a long time
known, and on the other hand, the employment of
it presents so many dangers, that in case of its success
your commission would feel themselves obliged
to proscribe it; effectually, when twenty subjects
were under dissection, there would be twenty killograms
of this poisonous substance at the disposition
of the public.
Concentrated acetic acid preserves meats, but dries
them. This same acid diluted retards putrefaction,
but softens the bones, as well as the muscles, which
are discolored by its action.
The alkaline salts only preserve meats when
they are used dry, or in a very concentrated solution;
it is necessary in this case that the salts preserve
an affinity for the water of composition, so
that it may be said that these salts preserve meats
because they dry them; thus, on this principle, salts
more soluble in warm, than in cold water, may, injected
as a warm concentrated solution, be considered
as a means of preservation; this applies particularly
to the nitrate of potash.
Creosote, a newly discovered vegetable substance
has been recommended as a preservative of flesh;
this fact demanded verification: a corpse which had
been injected on the 18th of October, with one hundred
scruples of creosote and seven quarts of water,
was decomposed on the 30th of the same month.[R]
But, in order to respond to the objection which was
made, that the body should have been immersed in
a bath saturated with creosote, it is sufficient to say
that this bath would have cost forty dollars; besides
the necessity of combatting the odour of the creosote,
which may prove an obstacle to anatomical labours.
A solution of alum at eight degrees has succeeded
better; but the flesh becomes hardened, faded, and
friable.
The mixture of alum, (acid sulphate of alumine,
and potash,) two parts, the chloride of sodium two
parts, and of nitrate of potash one part, dissolved in
water, employed as a bath, has afforded the first
good results.
The acid phosphate of lime is the first substance
which has been employed in injection for subjects;
this salt did not oppose the movement of putrefaction.
The kidnies, injected with this salt, and immersed
in the milk of lime, became hardened at the surface
and putrefied in the interior.
After this first part of the experiments of M.
Gannal, it results that the aluminous salts are
those alone which succeed well in preserving animal
matters, and which may be used advantageously.
Alum, employed alone, preserves well, but for a
short time; this salt, slightly soluble in cold water,
(fifteen degrees,) will not suffice as an injection for
the preservation of a body; it is indispensable to immerse
the body in a bath of the same salt.
The mixture of alum, salt, and nitre, as indicated
in the provisionary report, has not the same inconvenience;
a subject injected with this liquid, at ten
or twelve degrees of density, may be preserved for
more than a month; but it is indispensable to immerse
it, at least from time to time, when it is desirable
to prolong its preservation; that is to say, for
the entire winter; but at a temperature above fifteen
degrees, it is necessary to inject the liquid at a density
of twenty-five or thirty degrees, and, in order
to obtain it, it requires to be heated at least to forty
degrees.
Several bodies injected with this liquid at ten degrees,
on the 2d of December, 1834, were well preserved
until the end of April; other subjects, injected
on the 7th of August, but with the liquid at twenty-five
degrees of density, and at ten degrees of the
thermometer, were still, on the 10th of December,
in good condition, whilst those that were injected
with a liquor of inferior density, did not resist a
temperature of twenty or twenty-five degrees, although
they were immersed in a bath denoting fifteen
degrees. The bath of salted liquid has, independently
of the inconvenience of expense for the
necessary salts and the embarrassment of the tubes,
which require frequent renewal, the objection of
hardening the skin, considerably.
On these motives new efforts have been made,
which have conducted to the following results: to demonstrate
that all the salts with a soluble aluminous
base, are decomposed; that those which are very
soluble offer all the advantages of alum employed
in very concentrated solution, and have not the
same inconveniences.
For example, a solution of acetate of alumine at
twenty degrees, injected the 16th of August, 1835,
perfectly preserved a subject abandoned to the table
without any other preparation; only, at the end of
a month it was remarked that desiccation had commenced;
when a part of it was covered with a layer
of varnish, which preserved it from further evaporation.
At the present day, 25th January, 1836, the
varnished part may be dissected as easily as a fresh
subject, whilst the other part offers resistance to dissection.
During the first days of September, another subject
was injected with acetate of alumine at fifteen
degrees; although this was the corpse of a woman
who had died from abortion, it was very well preserved.
On the 12th of December, a subject was injected
with the chloride of alumine at twenty degrees;
this injection did not succeed well, and only three
quarts could be introduced. Nevertheless, the body
was perfectly well preserved. This want of success
in introducing the liquid led to the following observation;
that the chloride of aluminium at twenty
degrees acts so powerfully on the arterial tubes and
obliterates them to such a degree, that it prevents
the passage of the liquid; but in order to remedy
this inconvenience, it suffices to inject a first quart
of the liquid at ten degrees, and the rest at twenty
degrees. The chloride of aluminium has all the
advantages of the acetate of alumine, and has further
that of preserving the muscles of a bright red.
A mixture of acetate of alumine at ten degrees, and
the chloride of the same base at twenty degrees,
forms a good preservative injection. The use of
one of these salts, or the mixture that has just been
indicated, offers the advantage of preserving bodies,
without its being necessary to subject them to any
other preparation.
The density of the solutions of the acetate and
chloride of aluminium must be graduated by the
state of the atmosphere. When it is required to
prolong indefinitely the preservation of the subject,
it is essential to employ it at twenty degrees; it is
equally necessary, in this case, to cover the subject
with a layer of varnish, the sole object of which is
to prevent the too prompt desiccation, which would
prove an obstacle to dissection.
The first injections were made through the aorta.
Subsequently, in order to avoid the laceration of the
pectoral parts, the subject was injected through the
carotid artery, which always succeeded very well
when the liquid was forced both upward and downward.
After the saline injection, at the end of forty-eight
hours, coloured grease may be injected; even after
two months the same operation may be performed
with the same success.
From the series of experiments which we have
just exposed, it results:
1. That a solution of alum, of salt, and of nitrate
of potash, injected at ten degrees, answers for preserving
bodies at a temperature below ten degrees
of the thermometer; that, for a more elevated temperature,
it is necessary to carry the density to
twenty-five or thirty degrees, and immerse the subject
in a liquid of ten or twelve degrees.
2. That it is preferable to employ the acetate of
alumine, because it preserves better; as the skin experiences
no alteration, and as the central organs
remain natural, excepting the colour of the muscles
which become bleached.
3. That the chloride of aluminium offers the
same advantages.
4. That, in order to preserve parts of bodies which
have not been injected, it is necessary to immerse
them in a mixture of water, and of the acetate or
chloride, marking five or six degrees.
But this part of the operation is transferred to the
experiments which are to be undertaken on the preservation
of objects of pathological anatomy.
Gentlemen, such are the series of experiments
made by M. Gannal, since the first provisionary report
was presented to you.
The commission has attentively followed the new
experiments; the results obtained, demonstrate that
by M. Gannal’s process bodies for dissection may
be preserved, and the preservation prolonged beyond
the term exacted by the most minute investigations.
As we have already stated, the soluble salts with
an aluminous base, offer this preservative method
without any danger in their use, and they can also
be procured at a low price.
Their antiseptic properties are founded on their
chemical action, which modifies animal substances
either by depriving them of their water of composition,
which determines their putrefaction, or in opposing
themselves to its immediate action.
It is, then, only an act of justice rendered to M.
Gannal, in considering his labour as an important
service rendered to science and to humanity, and
which may prove of great utility in anatomical explorations,
and in legal medicine.
Consequently, your commission has the honour
to propose to you the transmission of the present report—
1. To the Minister of Public Instruction, as an
object of improvement in anatomical researches,
and to reclaim the continuation of his good offices,
in affording extension to the experiments for preserving
objects of pathological anatomy.
2. To the Minister of Commerce and of Public
Works, as an object of public salubrity. On the
proposition of a member of the Academy, it was
unanimously decided to send the present report to
the committee of publication.
Signed, MM. Gueneau de Mussy,
Sanson,
Breschet,
Roux,
Dize, Reporter.
Certified.—The perpetual Secretary of the Academy
of Medicine.
Signed, Pariset.
Reflections.—The mixture of the acid sulphate of
alumine and potash, of the nitrate of potash, and the
chloride of sodium, furnished me, at first, with some
favourable results. But when new experiments were
attempted at a temperature above 10° of centigrade,
this liquid, which I only employed as a bath, did
not answer my expectations. I then tried to inject
bodies with concentrated solution, which were afterwards
consigned to a bath of the same nature. The
preservation was thus rendered more durable; but
still it did not balance the influence of an atmosphere
very warm and very humid, prolonged for
any length of time.
I observed that after twenty-four hours of immersion
of the bodies in the bath, all the alumine was
absorbed: this fact, well established, was a gleam
of light to me.
Since the preservation is produced by the combination
of geline with alumine, and as the alumine
furnished by the acid sulphate does not inherit
enough of the preservative element, let us have recourse
to the salts of alum, richer in alumine, and
more soluble in water.
The following are the data on which I rely:
To find a salt of alum capable of effectually preserving
bodies, and which, by the moderation of its
price, may be extensively employed in amphitheatres.
I abandoned my trials with the nitrate of alumine,
this being excluded by its high price. The chloride
of alumine, with which I had experimented, is liable
to equal objections: 1. Because, owing to its excessive
affinity for water, it instantaneously dries the
internal membrane of the artery, and obliterates the
canal, rendering it impossible to finish the injection.
2. Besides, admitting the injection to have been
completed by the introduction, in the first place, of
a little oil of turpentine, the hydrochloric acid contained
in the flesh injures the instruments, and impedes
dissection. Further, the chloride of aluminium,
like all the soluble chlorides, is a bad agent
in dissections, being hygrometric.
The acetate of alumine is an excellent preservative
of animal matters, as will be seen by referring
to the observation cited at the end of the last chapter;
but it is costly, and on this account cannot be
employed in amphitheatres.
It was necessary, then, to search for a more economical
method; this I have found in the simple sulphate
of alumine. This salt, but indifferently known,
no one having thought of it before me, is of a simple
preparation and moderate price.
A killogram of this salt, costing about twenty
cents, dissolved in two quarts of water, is sufficient
in winter to preserve a body fresh, by injection, for
three months.
In order to preserve a body for a month or six
weeks, it is not even necessary to inject the blood-vessels—a
glyster of one quart, and the same quantity
injected into the œsophagus, suffices for this limited
preservation. This process is adopted at Clamart
for all the dead bodies destined for dissection.
The preservative power of this salt will be easily
understood, if its analysis be compared with that of
the double sulphate given above.
One hundred parts of simple sulphate of alumine,
are composed of alumine 30, of sulphuric acid 70.
This salt properly prepared, exempt from iron, commonly
contains from thirty-six to forty for 100 of
water.
The following is a table of the different densities
of this salt, according to the quantity of water in
which it is dissolved.
A killogram dissolved in five hundred scruples of
water gives a quart of liquid which marks 32° on
the areometer of Baumè.
This same quantity in a quart of water
| Marks, | 20° |
| In two quarts, | 17° |
| In four quarts, | 8° |
| In five quarts, | 6° |
This table is important, as it gives the composition
of the different liquids of which we shall see
the application.
The liquid of injection, of which we have indicated
the preparation and the quantity, is sufficient
during winter, and moderate temperatures; but
when it passes 20° it ought to be more abundant, or
the solution more concentrated.
When it is intended to preserve the body for a
longer period, it is necessary to neutralize the sulphuric
acid, which is taken up by the addition of acetate
of lead. Two hundred and fifty scruples of this
salt for one killogram of the dry sulphate produces
the desired effect. If the preservation is to be indefinitely
prolonged, the use of the acetate of lead
will have a tendency at length to blacken the epidermis.
Indeed, as it is impossible to cause all the
lead to disappear, the small quantity of this salt remaining
in the liquid will be then decomposed by
the hydro-sulphuric acid disengaged by the corpse,
or rather by the sulphur which it contains, and the
salt of lead is changed into sulphuret, a black insoluble
powder, giving to the body all the exterior
aspect of the negro.
I preserved in my cabinet an infant treated after this
method; its skin, after the lapse of a year, became
black, not of that colour assumed by animal matters
in drying, but of the finest negro colour that could
be conceived.
I finish with these details; for the facts of prolonged
preservation of which we have just spoken
are derived from the wants of the anatomists; and,
previous to proceeding to other considerations, it is
best to exhaust all that we have to make known
concerning my processes of preservation applied in
amphitheatres to subjects intended to be dissected.
The preservation of these subjects, it is known,
would be prolonged without any advantage beyond
two or three months at all seasons.
I shall therefore terminate all that is relative to
this first portion of my labour, by the report of the
committee of the members of the Institute. They
have admitted the result of my labours to be of great
utility, and that it merits the encouragement of the
grand Monthyon prize, founded on the discovery
of any means calculated to remedy the insalubrity
of any art or profession.
The following is the report:
Upon the preservation of the dead body, by M.
Gannal.
The Academy is well aware, having recommended
an encouragement to the author, that M.
Gannal has made numerous experiments on the
preservation of dead bodies, either with the view of
making dissecting amphitheatres more healthful, or
to obtain a method of embalming at the same time
economical and certain.
As far as concerns embalming of dead bodies, it
will be conceded that before advancing an opinion,
it would be necessary to prolong the proofs for several
years, which has not yet been accomplished
for the process under consideration. Besides, as
this investigation would be without the bounds of
the duties of your commission on noxious arts, even
when it shall have attained perfection, we were only
disposed to examine it under the head of instruction.
The judgment which we are about to give should
then be considered as applying exclusively to processes
concerning the amphitheatres of dissection.
In this latter case, the experiments being less tedious,
could be varied and multiplied sufficiently to
demonstrate that we actually possess a process capable
of preserving dead bodies, during the longest
period that the most minute dissection could exact.
This process is of an easy and economical execution;
it consists in the employment of matters which
have nothing poisonous in them. In fine, after
many trials, the author has fixed upon the following
method; he injects an aluminous salt dissolved in
water, by one of the carotids; a few quarts of the liquid
is sufficient, and the body abandoned to the
open air is preserved for a long time from putrefaction;
sometimes it even ends in becoming dry or
mummified.
The author made use of the acetate of alumine,
prepared by the acetate of lead and the sulphate of
alumine and potash. This acetate of alumine at
18° of the areometer of Baumè, and in the quantity
of five or six quarts, is sufficient to preserve a body
for five or six months.
He has also used the simple sulphate of alumine
in order to procure the acetate of this base. With
one killogram of the simple sulphate of alumine in
mass, two hundred and ten grains of acetate of
lead, and two quarts of water, may be obtained, the
necessary quantity of the mixture to preserve a body
for two months.
By the employment of these processes, the preservation
of bodies without odour may be calculated
upon, for twenty days, a month, six weeks,
more or less, according to the circumstances of temperature,
state of the body, and quantity of the liquor
actually injected into the vessels.
Your commissioners have assured themselves of
this by the examination of bodies prepared by M.
Gannal, but not wishing to report on their own judgment,
and in order to obtain a full conviction of the
practical utility of the process, it determined to consult
those persons who were continually occupied
in dissection. Their opinion was unanimous.
Among the experiments or applications of which
the process of M. Gannal, has been the object, we
shall place in the first rank the series of facts observed
by our honourable associate M. Serres. The
following are the details which he has transmitted
to use on this subject.
“In the month of June, 1836, in the amphitheatre
of the hospital, the body of a man twenty-two
years of age was injected. Abandoned to the open
air, in a cabinet exposed to the south, and upon a
wooden table, it was preserved until the month of
September, and it ended in becoming mummified.
“In the month of July, eight bodies were injected
for dissection, each during fifteen days.
“During the months of August and September,
sixty subjects were injected; these were preserved
for twenty days.
“From these experiments, adds M. Serres, it results
that the liquid furnished by M. Gannal preserves
bodies to a certain extent:
“1. Permitting their dissection during summer,
a thing which has not been accomplished heretofore
in the anatomical school of the hospitals. 2. Permitting
to give to the instruction of operative medicine
a development which, up to the present period,
it had not enjoyed; for, during the months of August
and September, we were enabled to preserve,
as in the middle of winter, thirty bodies at a time
on the tables, enabling us to repeat to seventy pupils
all the operations, in following a regular course,
previously impossible.”
To this series of observations, already so decisive,
we shall add the intelligence furnished us by different
anatomists well known to science.
Thus M. Dubreuil, the honourable dean of the
faculty of Medicine of Montpelier, hastened, in the
interest of anatomical studies, to make the necessary
trials to assure himself of the efficacy of the process
in question. During the spring of last year, the
first body on which he operated was preserved for
forty-one days, and the experiment was terminated
without any thing announcing putrefaction. On a
second body the result was the same, although it
was chosen under the most unfavourable conditions.
M. Bougery, who, it is known, is occupied in the
publication of a great work on anatomy, declares
that this process has very well succeeded in his
hands, and that it has been very useful to him. In
summer he injected two subjects which were preserved
for three weeks; in winter, he injected a
third, and this, although kept in a room heated to
15°, was preserved for seven weeks.
M. Azoux, who, at a distance from Paris, has
formed an establishment for the manufacture of his artificial
anatomical preparations, employs the process
of M. Gannal, in order to place before the eyes of
his workmen the preparations which they are to reproduce.
This process has rendered him great service.
MM. Velpeau and Amussat, who have had occasion
to put it to the proof, have been equally well
satisfied with it.
Your commission was further enlightened by a
report made to the Academy of Medicine, which includes
circumstantial details of the successive trials
through which M. Gannal had to pass before attaining
the simple and easy method which he employs
at present.
After the whole of the intelligence which it has
collected, your commission feels itself authorized to
say, that the process of M. Gannal, as it now exists,
may render the greatest service to anatomical studies;
that it divests them, in great part, of what is
repulsive, and deprives them almost entirely, perhaps,
of what is insalubrious.
We have just seen that M. Bougery, M. Amussat,
and, in general, all who consign themselves to continued
anatomical researches, follow this process,
and have found benefit from it. It is desirable that
it should have been adopted in some grand amphitheatre
of anatomy, and that its use should have
been subjected to the chances of an extensive practice.
It appears that the additional expense which its
application would occasion, has opposed its introduction,
thus far, into such an establishment.
Nevertheless, it is incontestible, that the use of
the injections of M. Gannal deprives subjects of all
putrid odour, and it is to be hoped that it will diminish,
if not altogether put an end to the serious
accidents which happen too often to anatomists who
are so unfortunate as to be wounded in dissecting.
This is yet only a presumption; extended experience
can only determine the fact.
Your commission thinks, then, that it has reason
to recommend the adoption of this process in the
amphitheatres of dissection, notwithstanding it may
occasion a slight increase of expense. How trifling,
indeed, is this consideration, when it is proposed to
render anatomical studies more easy, and more
healthful; when it is calculated to render them more
fruitful, since each subject could be made to serve a
greater number of students, who, working without
disgust or repugnance, would much better preserve
the free exercise of their faculties!
All things considered, the expense, already inconsiderable,
and which will become still less hereafter,
is then equivalent to real economy, if, for example,
the cost of an anatomical education to a student
be calculated. By the aid of the new process,
fewer subjects are necessary for the same number
of students; or rather, with the same number of subjects,
the education of a much greater number of
students may be completed.
Your commission has been strongly impressed
with these considerations; it has thought that the
process under consideration was sufficiently proved;
that it might, even now, be practised habitually in
dissecting amphitheatres; and that this has not already
been effected, is evidently due to administrative
circumstances.
Consequently, it has the honour to propose to you
to award to M. Gannal a prize of $1600.
The members of the commission agreed that it
was expedient to recommend my process to the dissecting
amphitheatres: their wish is in part accomplished,
since, by decision of the central administration
of hospitals, the subjects are henceforward
to be subjected, in the capacious chambers of Clamart,
to one of the injections, the compositions of which I
have given. This decision will not astonish those of
our readers who are aware that M. Serres is charged
with the direction of the anatomical arrangements
at Clamart; this gentleman, whose works have elevated
him to so distinguished a rank, has been long
known for the zeal and noble disinterestedness with
which he advances all useful discoveries.
As it is my intention to publish hereafter a complete
work on the preservation of pieces of pathological
anatomy, and of objects of natural history,
which, besides the details into which I might enter,
would lead me beyond the proper limits of this work,
I shall confine myself here to some results obtained
during the last three years, and the composition of
the liquids derived therefrom.
1. In 1833, I took the thigh and all the organs
contained in the abdominal cavity of an infant at
full term, and treated them after the manner to be
hereafter indicated, and at the present moment,
8th December, 1837, I preserve the pieces in two
jars. They display no sensible alteration, and are
as fit for study as when first separated from the subject.
2. In 1835, Dr. Beniquet having to pursue some
investigations on the brain, he made use of my liquor
in order to preserve entire heads, for which he
had occasion. After his experiments were finished,
he presented to me a head which remained, and
which I preserve in my cabinet. It is impossible to
detect the slightest trace of change in it.
3. I have preserved unaltered for three months,
the head of a Bar, (a species of Silurus,) weighing
several pounds; this head has served for dissection.
4. I have preserved leeches and other worms for
several years, without perceiving that they had lost
any of the characters necessary for the naturalist to
know.
5. The same observation applies to the different
organs of birds and mammalia: the heads of pheasants
plunged, feathers and all, into the preservative
liquor, after fifteen days of maceration, present
the red colour around the eye of as lively a shade
as at the moment of immersion.
I might multiply these examples, and produce
several hundred trials equally conclusive, made during
the course of my experiments; but as it could
not result in any advantage to the reader, I forbear.
Besides, the use that Captain Durville has made of
my liquor during his scientific voyage, and the thousand
proofs to which it is every day subjected on
the part of men, whom the study of natural history
induces to have recourse to it, will be the most
faithful and sure confirmation.
In fine, I shall always be most happy to receive
the observations, remarks, and criticisms of those,
who, with an interest for science, may have occasion
to point out to me any circumstances calculated
to modify the applications. Many, without doubt,
may have escaped me, and as I desire, above all
things, to bring my processes to the highest degree
of perfection, I shall be thankful for any aid that
may contribute to this end. The following is the
composition of the liquids[S] which I employ for preserving
the different pieces of normal anatomy, pathological
anatomy, and natural history.
1. A solution of the simple sulphate of alumine,
at six degrees; that is to say, the solution of a killogram
of this salt in six quarts of water.
2. A solution of simple sulphate with water saturated
with arsenious acid:—five hundred scruples
of arsenic to forty quarts of water;—six quarts of
this solution to one killogram of the simple sulphate.
3. Of the acetate of alumine at five degrees, saturated
with arsenious acid.
Usage.—For fifteen days I cause the pieces to
disgorge in the first liquid; at the end of this period
they are withdrawn and placed in the bath of
a second liquid, where they may remain for from
three to five months; finally, they are withdrawn
and placed in a third liquid. It is thus that I have
preserved preparations for three or four years, which
the public is welcome to come and see.
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.
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.
There remained for me, then, an ulterior series of
observations in order to prevent these unfavourable
results.
It was necessary to discover a method of preserving
bodies always fresh, with the appearance of
sleep, in the state in which they exist immediately
after death. It was necessary that the preservation
should be indefinitely prolonged; that is to
say, that the embalming be such a one that it would
allow a dead body to be preserved in all its integrity,
without mutilation, without incisions, and fit
for dissection at will at all possible epochs.
Have I fulfilled these conditions? Let the facts
answer.
First observation.—In the month of February,
1836, at the request of Dr. Petigard, I embalmed
the body of the son of M. Dupré, architect, living in
Cerisarie street, No. 13.
This child, aged about twelve years, was interred
in the cemetery of Père la Chaise. During the construction
of the monument, which the father caused
to be erected to him, some of his friends excited
doubts as to the efficacy of my method of preservation.
Wounded in his affections, M. Dupré conceived
suspicions which he communicated to Dr.
Petigard, expressing the desire for the exhumation
of the body. He advised me of this, but numerous
occupations prevented me giving it immediate attention;
he attributed my delay to hesitation, to the
fear I had of seeing my promises made to the relatives
contradicted, and, as he has since avowed, expressed
himself without reserve on my account.
Finally, the opening of the coffin was made in
the month of July, 1837; when the unfortunate
father, feeling revive all his grief at the sight of his
son, whom he found exactly in the state in which he
was at the moment of inhumation, regretting, besides,
his suspicions of me, embraced me with effusion,
and gave me every proof of his lively gratitude.
“Your hesitation,” he remarked, “made me fear that
I had been deceived, under which persuasion I have
undoubtedly prejudiced several persons against you,
but I will repair the fault in telling the truth.” Here
is one fact which may appear of some value, and
that which follows is none the less conclusive.
Second observation.—Dr. Oudet, surgeon dentist,
died at Paris, Dauphine street, was embalmed sixth
March, 1837, after my process; his body was deposited
in a coffin of oak, without a lining of lead,
and placed, thus enclosed, in a clayey, humid soil.
Three months after, the exhumation was made, in
presence of M. Prunier, commissary of police for
the quarter of the observatory, and of Dr. Petit.
The body was found in such a perfect state of preservation,
that it astonished the numerous persons
present at the exhumation; all admitting that the
aspect of the defunct was exactly that of a man
asleep: a “procès-verbal” was drawn up on the
spot, to prove the state of the body. The following
is a copy of it:
“I, the undersigned, Doctor of Medicine of the
faculty of Paris, certify, that on the sixth of March,
1837, M. Gannal embalmed, by his process, the
body of Oudet, senior, Doctor in Medicine, who
lived No. 24 Dauphine street. This operation was
performed in my presence, no other opening being
necessary than that in the carotid artery, and was
finished in less than half an hour.
“On the twenty-eighth of May following, the exhumation
of the body was made in my presence,
that of M. Prunier, commissary of police, the persons
attached to the cemetery, and some spectators.
The body, which had remained three months in the
earth, and in a coffin not lined with lead, was in
such a perfect state of preservation, that all present
declared that it resembled a man asleep.
Signed, H. Petit.”
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to refer here to the
embalming which I made at the request of Dr. Husson.
I had to preserve the body of the nephew of
General Guilleminot, who died at the hotel de
Bade, Helder street. The mother requested that her
son should be dressed in his usual manner, and
placed on a bed of repose as if asleep. He remained
fifteen days in this position before being enclosed in
a coffin, to be transported to the family sepulchre.
I abstain from mentioning many instances of exhumation
made at my own request, because they need
the authenticity of character necessary to facts, from
which are to be drawn scientific results. Besides,
it will always be easy, when any scientific body or
the authorities desire to assure themselves of the efficacy
of the means which I employ, to obtain an
exhumation and prove the state of the subjects thus
prepared.
I preserve in my cabinet the body of an infant of
ten years, embalmed for more than eight months;
the countenance of this subject, which remains uncovered,
has not experienced any alteration; his
open eyes[T] give his physiognomy the expression of
astonishment often observed on first awakening.
If such results can offer any consolation to families
who lament a painful loss, I have received my
reward.
