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
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.
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