After having given this long list of the known means of preserving, and given in detail the representation of authors, it remains for us to judge of them, to determine their merit, and the degree of confidence that ought to be accorded to each, under the triple point of view of the preservation of objects of _normal anatomy_, of _pathological anatomy_, and of _natural history_. 1. _Process of desiccation._--It can be of no utility for pathological anatomy, because it changes entirely the aspect and texture of parts, and in most cases it leaves no traces of the alterations which it is important to know. For normal anatomy, these preparations are, and always must be, from the simple fact of desiccation, a feeble resource, and really much inferior to the artificial subjects of M. Azoux; for this ingenious preparation, if it has many of the faults of dry anatomy, the objects are not so deformed as scarcely to be recognised. Further, each of the preparations which tend to desiccation has its particular inconvenience: thus those of the deuto-chloride are numerous, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, and as have remarked in this the authors whom we have cited. We may add that the salts of mercury, of copper, and of lead, which, in combining with gelatine, form, it is true, an inalterable compound, have a great affinity for hydrosulphuric acid, and that there results from this affinity, a necessary deterioration of the objects, colouring them black. Sea salt does not possess durable preservative properties; and its affinity for water even facilitates the decomposition of the dried subjects which contain it. Alcohol is, doubtless, a good means, but it requires to be frequently renewed, until by its affinity for water it absorbs all which the organs contain; but alcohol costs _forty cents a quart, and loses always by evaporation_. Besides, parts thus prepared, are not less deformed than other dried parts, when subjected to desiccation. The naturalist finds in the soap of Bècoeur, in other preparations containing arsenic, the deuto-chloride of mercury, alum, &c., sufficiently good means of drying or of tanning the skin and other animal tissues. But, as M. Boitard has remarked, these preparations are not without their inconveniences. What have I to offer the anatomist who believes in the utility of dried preparations, to the naturalist whom a real necessity often forces to recur to them? My liquid, employed as a bath or injection, without either danger or inconvenience, and _which costs only two or four cents the quart_.