“The heart, after having been emptied, washed with spirits of wine and dried, was placed in a glass vessel with this liquor; and this same organ, having been filled with a balm made of canella, cloves, myrrh, styrax, and benzoin, was put into a sack of cere-cloth of its own shape, which was again enclosed in a box of lead, cordiform, which was immediately soldered, to be presented to Madame la Duchesse d’Arpajon, who placed it in the hands of Monseigneur, the Bishop of Meaux, first almoner of the late Madame la Duchesse, who deposited it subsequently in the Val-de-Grace. The opening of the body was made most accurately by M. Dionis, her first surgeon. M. Riqueur filled all the cavities with stoupes and powdered balm. Incisions were made along the arms as far down as the hands; these were supplied with aromatic powder, after expressing all the blood and washing with spirits of wine; the same operation was repeated on the thighs, which were incised in different places down to the feet, and all was neatly sewed up. A coarse brush was used to rub the body with a hot liquid balm, made of turpentine, styrax, and the balsams of copaiba and Peru, as already prescribed. Each part was enveloped in bandages soaked in spirits of wine, placing as much as possible of the said aromatic powder between the body and the bandages. The body was dressed in a chemise and a religious tunic, and surrounded with other marks of a particular devotion, such as a little chain of iron, at the end of which was a cross, which the princess kept in a trunk which she had brought with her from Bavaria. The body was then enveloped in cere-cloth and compactly tied, in order to be placed in a leaden coffin; at the bottom and throughout which, there was four fingers depth of the said balm in powder. This coffin, being well soldered, was enclosed in another of wood, all the vacant spaces having been filled with dried aromatic herbs. The entrails, after being well prepared, were placed in a leaden coffin, with a great quantity of the same aromatic powders, which, being well soldered, was enclosed in a barrel of wood.” We shall have occasion again to recur to this mode of preparation; observing only, that a subject thus mutilated, slashed, and stuffed, has more the resemblance of prepared meat than an embalmed body; that the sentiment which led to a recourse to embalming, ought to create a deep horror for the mutilation of a body which it was desirable to possess in all its integrity; that, in fine, the operation of embalming thus practised is more cruel for the feelings, than the natural destruction and dissolution of the parts. CHAPTER VI. ART OF EMBALMING IN OUR OWN DAYS, PREVIOUS TO MY DISCOVERIES.