History of Embalming

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.28

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.29 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.30

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,31 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.