which display themselves later, establish a thousand degrees, a thousand shades in the tendency to decomposition, and the subject which cedes most rapidly to dissolving causes, is scarcely on a par with new-born infants. This opinion, which can be established by facts, if necessary, convinces me, independently of my experiments, that all means proper for the preservation of infants, may, _a priori_, be supposed an excellent process for the preservation of all animal bodies. I possess in my cabinet a dozen of fœtuses, injected at different periods with the acetate of alumine, or the simple sulphate, some preserved in the liquid, others abandoned to the air: on these pieces may be perceived the different phases, the various transformations produced by time and chemical agents on animal matters. Some of these subjects, prepared for more than a year, are in as favourable a state for anatomical study as on the day of their death; others, submitted to the action of the air, have become dried, and offer the appearance of the mummy of the sands. 3.--_Embalming._ I have presented a history of embalming as complete as the nature of the case would admit; as a historian, I have investigated those sources most worthy of credit; I have collected all the documents of interest, and have used them as occasion required; observations and criticisms have lent their aid, either to enlighten or correct information, and admitted opinions: I have, above all, endeavoured to confine myself to scientific data. From the mummy of the sands to that obtained from the deuto-chloride of mercury, these two extreme points of my endeavours, this was the idea which prevailed, and directed the exposition of my subject. I shall not depart from this method in order to make known my work; I shall abstain from all conjecture on the duration of bodies embalmed by my process; here, too, I confine myself to facts, and to the deductions which are naturally derived from them. I refer to the end of the sixth chapter for the advantages resulting from my processes compared with all others, and I resume the subject where I left it in the preceding chapter. The acetate of alumine, and the simple sulphate, ought to be chosen in preference to all other dried substances for the preservation of bodies; these two salts can render to anatomists all desirable services; but the study of their action ought to be extended further for the purposes of the embalmer.