The objects of the process of embalming at the present day, are threefold: 1st. It permits the delay of burial where this is desirable from the absence of friends; or of the ready transportation of the bodies of those who may have died a long distance from home, and that free from decay and post-mortem change. 2d. As a sanitary measure in large towns and cities, where many bodies are placed in family vaults, instead of being buried in the ground. 3d. For the preservation of bodies for the purpose of anatomical study. For either of these objects, it is desirable that the process be simple, easy, quick and inexpensive. Frequently in the large cities, and occasionally in the country, the physician will be called upon to perform this operation, but without some information upon the subject, he will be unable to comply with the request. The operation at the present time, consists simply in filling the vascular system with a preserving fluid, by injecting the same into some one or more of the arteries; the substance employed being either carbolic acid or chloride of zinc in solution; the latter, from possessing greater preserving power without the disagreeable odor of the carbolic acid, being much more frequently employed. _Preparation of the Zinc._ In the large cities, the chloride of zinc may be obtained of the manufacturing chemists ready made; but in the country, the physician may manufacture the solution himself, by the following process: Place in an open stone jar, ten pounds of muriatic acid, and add to the same, old scrap sheet zinc, _ad libitum_. It should be frequently stirred, and allowed to stand in the open air for from twelve to twenty-four hours, or until the acid has so acted upon the zinc as to have become thoroughly neutralized, forming thus a saturated solution of the chloride of zinc. The quantity required of this solution to preserve a body, will depend upon the state of the weather, in connection with the size of the body, cause of death, etc.; more being required in hot weather, or in a large body, or in such diseases as are followed by a tendency to rapid putrefaction. In all cases, however, the rule should be to _throw in as much as the vessels will hold_, varying the strength according to the weather, character of the body, etc. With young, thin subjects, and cool weather, the chloride may be diluted one-half with water; but in warmer weather, and with a large body full of fluids, a proportion of two-thirds zinc, or even stronger may be required. It will be well to commence by throwing in a weaker solution, which, by not constringing the small vessels, will pass more readily into the extremities, and follow by a stronger for filling the large vessels of the trunk.