History of Embalming: and of Preparations in Anatomy, Pathology, and Natural History; Including an Account of a New Process for EmbalmingGannal, J.-N. (Jean-Nicolas)
History
History of Embalming: and of Preparations in Anatomy, Pathology, and Natural History; Including an Account of a New Process for Embalming
Gannal, J.-N. (Jean-Nicolas)
Anatomical specimens -- Collection and preservation; Embalming -- History; Mummies
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.
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