We propose to make a few general observations on the process of M. Gannal, and add some remarks on anatomical preparations, in order to make the present work more complete. The perusal of this volume must convince any one that we are indebted to M. Gannal for a real improvement in the progress of anatomical science. But, as is generally the case with authors who urge a research into any particular department of science with equal enthusiasm, M. Gannal has, perhaps, overrated the extent and importance of his discovery. The commissioners appointed by the Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Medicine, have satisfactorily demonstrated the great utility and novelty of M. G.’s process, in preserving bodies for dissection without materially altering the organic tissues, or offering any injury to the instruments of the dissector. And the museum of the author contains numerous specimens, to show that subjects injected by his process and dried, are capable of resisting destruction for ages; but we did not observe any specimens during our examination of them, which retained so close a resemblance to living nature, as his accounts would lead us to believe, with the exception of those which had been recently injected, and previous to the process of desiccation; a process which always results unless the object is enveloped by a preservative liquor, and thus adding considerably to the labour and expense. Whilst the process of desiccation produces such contraction and distortion in the subject, as to render the new method of embalming ever inapplicable as a general means of accurately preserving birds and quadrupeds as objects of zoological collections. But it might be made an economical and expeditious method of preparing objects of natural history during long voyages, as such objects could be subsequently moistened and subjected to dissection. But desiccation does not immediately follow preservation by this process; as was satisfactorily exemplified in the person of the late Archbishop Quelin, who died during our residence in Paris, and who was thus embalmed at his own dying request, and whose body retained its natural appearance after several weeks exposure to public view in the church of Notre Dame. A more useful application of the process has also been made by the police of Paris, in preserving bodies for many weeks in the morgue, where suspicions of murder exacted an unusual retention of the body. The specimens of pathological anatomy, preserved in the same liquid of injection, were not exempt from the usual inconvenience attached to similar preparations in a solution of muriate of soda and other salts, being equally liable to incrustations, requiring a change or renewal of the solution.