History of Embalming

This process is of an easy and economical execution; it consists in the employment of matters which have nothing poisonous in them. In fine, after many trials, the author has fixed upon the following method; he injects an aluminous salt dissolved in water, by one of the carotids; a few quarts of the liquid is sufficient, and the body abandoned to the open air is preserved for a long time from putrefaction; sometimes it even ends in becoming dry or mummified.

The author made use of the acetate of alumine, prepared by the acetate of lead and the sulphate of alumine and potash. This acetate of alumine at 18° of the areometer of Baumè, and in the quantity of five or six quarts, is sufficient to preserve a body for five or six months.

He has also used the simple sulphate of alumine in order to procure the acetate of this base. With one killogram of the simple sulphate of alumine in mass, two hundred and ten grains of acetate of lead, and two quarts of water, may be obtained, the necessary quantity of the mixture to preserve a body for two months.

By the employment of these processes, the preservation of bodies without odour may be calculated upon, for twenty days, a month, six weeks, more or less, according to the circumstances of temperature, state of the body, and quantity of the liquor actually injected into the vessels.

Your commissioners have assured themselves of this by the examination of bodies prepared by M. Gannal, but not wishing to report on their own judgment, and in order to obtain a full conviction of the practical utility of the process, it determined to consult those persons who were continually occupied in dissection. Their opinion was unanimous.

Among the experiments or applications of which the process of M. Gannal, has been the object, we shall place in the first rank the series of facts observed by our honourable associate M. Serres. The following are the details which he has transmitted to use on this subject.

“In the month of June, 1836, in the amphitheatre of the hospital, the body of a man twenty-two years of age was injected. Abandoned to the open air, in a cabinet exposed to the south, and upon a wooden table, it was preserved until the month of September, and it ended in becoming mummified.

“In the month of July, eight bodies were injected for dissection, each during fifteen days.

“During the months of August and September, sixty subjects were injected; these were preserved for twenty days.

“From these experiments, adds M. Serres, it results that the liquid furnished by M. Gannal preserves bodies to a certain extent:

“1. Permitting their dissection during summer, a thing which has not been accomplished heretofore in the anatomical school of the hospitals. 2. Permitting to give to the instruction of operative medicine a development which, up to the present period, it had not enjoyed; for, during the months of August and September, we were enabled to preserve, as in the middle of winter, thirty bodies at a time on the tables, enabling us to repeat to seventy pupils all the operations, in following a regular course, previously impossible.”

To this series of observations, already so decisive, we shall add the intelligence furnished us by different anatomists well known to science.

Thus M. Dubreuil, the honourable dean of the faculty of Medicine of Montpelier, hastened, in the interest of anatomical studies, to make the necessary trials to assure himself of the efficacy of the process in question. During the spring of last year, the first body on which he operated was preserved for forty-one days, and the experiment was terminated without any thing announcing putrefaction. On a second body the result was the same, although it was chosen under the most unfavourable conditions.

M. Bougery, who, it is known, is occupied in the publication of a great work on anatomy, declares that this process has very well succeeded in his hands, and that it has been very useful to him. In summer he injected two subjects which were preserved for three weeks; in winter, he injected a third, and this, although kept in a room heated to 15°, was preserved for seven weeks.

M. Azoux, who, at a distance from Paris, has formed an establishment for the manufacture of his artificial anatomical preparations, employs the process of M. Gannal, in order to place before the eyes of his workmen the preparations which they are to reproduce. This process has rendered him great service.

MM. Velpeau and Amussat, who have had occasion to put it to the proof, have been equally well satisfied with it.

Your commission was further enlightened by a report made to the Academy of Medicine, which includes circumstantial details of the successive trials through which M. Gannal had to pass before attaining the simple and easy method which he employs at present.

After the whole of the intelligence which it has collected, your commission feels itself authorized to say, that the process of M. Gannal, as it now exists, may render the greatest service to anatomical studies; that it divests them, in great part, of what is repulsive, and deprives them almost entirely, perhaps, of what is insalubrious.

We have just seen that M. Bougery, M. Amussat, and, in general, all who consign themselves to continued anatomical researches, follow this process, and have found benefit from it. It is desirable that it should have been adopted in some grand amphitheatre of anatomy, and that its use should have been subjected to the chances of an extensive practice. It appears that the additional expense which its application would occasion, has opposed its introduction, thus far, into such an establishment.

Nevertheless, it is incontestible, that the use of the injections of M. Gannal deprives subjects of all putrid odour, and it is to be hoped that it will diminish, if not altogether put an end to the serious accidents which happen too often to anatomists who are so unfortunate as to be wounded in dissecting. This is yet only a presumption; extended experience can only determine the fact.

Your commission thinks, then, that it has reason to recommend the adoption of this process in the amphitheatres of dissection, notwithstanding it may occasion a slight increase of expense. How trifling, indeed, is this consideration, when it is proposed to render anatomical studies more easy, and more healthful; when it is calculated to render them more fruitful, since each subject could be made to serve a greater number of students, who, working without disgust or repugnance, would much better preserve the free exercise of their faculties!

All things considered, the expense, already inconsiderable, and which will become still less hereafter, is then equivalent to real economy, if, for example, the cost of an anatomical education to a student be calculated. By the aid of the new process, fewer subjects are necessary for the same number of students; or rather, with the same number of subjects, the education of a much greater number of students may be completed.

Your commission has been strongly impressed with these considerations; it has thought that the process under consideration was sufficiently proved; that it might, even now, be practised habitually in dissecting amphitheatres; and that this has not already been effected, is evidently due to administrative circumstances.

Consequently, it has the honour to propose to you to award to M. Gannal a prize of $1600.

The members of the commission agreed that it was expedient to recommend my process to the dissecting amphitheatres: their wish is in part accomplished, since, by decision of the central administration of hospitals, the subjects are henceforward to be subjected, in the capacious chambers of Clamart, to one of the injections, the compositions of which I have given. This decision will not astonish those of our readers who are aware that M. Serres is charged with the direction of the anatomical arrangements at Clamart; this gentleman, whose works have elevated him to so distinguished a rank, has been long known for the zeal and noble disinterestedness with which he advances all useful discoveries.

2. —Preservation of subjects of normal anatomy, of pathological anatomy, and of natural history

As it is my intention to publish hereafter a complete work on the preservation of pieces of pathological anatomy, and of objects of natural history, which, besides the details into which I might enter, would lead me beyond the proper limits of this work, I shall confine myself here to some results obtained during the last three years, and the composition of the liquids derived therefrom.

1. In 1833, I took the thigh and all the organs contained in the abdominal cavity of an infant at full term, and treated them after the manner to be hereafter indicated, and at the present moment, 8th December, 1837, I preserve the pieces in two jars. They display no sensible alteration, and are as fit for study as when first separated from the subject.

2. In 1835, Dr. Beniquet having to pursue some investigations on the brain, he made use of my liquor in order to preserve entire heads, for which he had occasion. After his experiments were finished, he presented to me a head which remained, and which I preserve in my cabinet. It is impossible to detect the slightest trace of change in it.

3. I have preserved unaltered for three months, the head of a Bar, (a species of Silurus,) weighing several pounds; this head has served for dissection.

4. I have preserved leeches and other worms for several years, without perceiving that they had lost any of the characters necessary for the naturalist to know.

5. The same observation applies to the different organs of birds and mammalia: the heads of pheasants plunged, feathers and all, into the preservative liquor, after fifteen days of maceration, present the red colour around the eye of as lively a shade as at the moment of immersion.

I might multiply these examples, and produce several hundred trials equally conclusive, made during the course of my experiments; but as it could not result in any advantage to the reader, I forbear. Besides, the use that Captain Durville has made of my liquor during his scientific voyage, and the thousand proofs to which it is every day subjected on the part of men, whom the study of natural history induces to have recourse to it, will be the most faithful and sure confirmation.

In fine, I shall always be most happy to receive the observations, remarks, and criticisms of those, who, with an interest for science, may have occasion to point out to me any circumstances calculated to modify the applications. Many, without doubt, may have escaped me, and as I desire, above all things, to bring my processes to the highest degree of perfection, I shall be thankful for any aid that may contribute to this end. The following is the composition of the liquids33 which I employ for preserving the different pieces of normal anatomy, pathological anatomy, and natural history.

1. A solution of the simple sulphate of alumine, at six degrees; that is to say, the solution of a killogram of this salt in six quarts of water.

2. A solution of simple sulphate with water saturated with arsenious acid: – five hundred scruples of arsenic to forty quarts of water; – six quarts of this solution to one killogram of the simple sulphate.

3. Of the acetate of alumine at five degrees, saturated with arsenious acid.

Usage.– For fifteen days I cause the pieces to disgorge in the first liquid; at the end of this period they are withdrawn and placed in the bath of a second liquid, where they may remain for from three to five months; finally, they are withdrawn and placed in a third liquid. It is thus that I have preserved preparations for three or four years, which the public is welcome to come and see.

It would be useless to recur here to dried preparations, having given an example of them in the seventh chapter; nevertheless, as I then only indicated the injection of acetate of alumine, without making any observation, one of the results which I have attained by the simple sulphate, reported now, will be a useful confirmation of the process which I have given before. Distinguished men have examined the viscera and vessels of a subject injected for six months, and we shall see how satisfactory was the state of the organs after so long a period.

M. Professor Dumas, treating of the acetate of alumine in the lectures which he gives in the Polytechnic School, was led to refer to the application which I had successfully made of this salt, for the preservation of bodies. He requested me to lend him some preparations to show to the students of the school. I lost no time in sending him several specimens; I added the first body which I had injected with the solution of the simple sulphate at thirty degrees; it was the corpse of a fœtus that had only lived fifteen days. Injected six months ago, and abandoned to the air of my laboratory, this body had lost about one-half of its water of composition; the feet, the hands, the ears, were dried; – the face was covered with byssus,34 but no trace of decomposition evinced an approaching dissolution of the organs.

On the next lecture, Cazalis asked me in what state the vessels ought to be found in this stage of the preservation. The subject, I remarked, is at your disposal, and you can satisfy yourself. He then opened the chest, placed the syphon in the aorta, and a fatty injection of about three hundred scruples was forced into the arterial system.

The injection having cooled, the subject was opened; the intestines were in a remarkable state of preservation, and the injection had penetrated them, as well as the brain, which was found in a healthy state. Finally, the brachial artery, followed in its divisions and subdivisions to the palm of the hand, was seen to be injected. Since this period, I often show this subject to persons who visit my laboratory; it is immersed in the preservative liquor, and I can submit it to the examination of anatomists, for whom facts only are important. Observations of this nature prove that I have given to anatomists the means of preservation which respond loudly to all the wants of the science; and it ought further to be remarked, that my experiments have been conducted under the most unfavourable circumstances. Indeed, for the trial of all the substances which I supposed possessed of preservative properties, I have chosen, as in the preceding case, fœtuses, as subjects the most disposed to fall into putrefaction, as in them animal matter is not completely formed, and they include a considerable quantity of water of composition, much geline, and very little muscular flesh. This method of proceeding has enabled me to dispense with numerous attempts, and to avoid deception. The aspect of fœtuses, and the intimate structure of their tissues vary little from each other; but the difference, very trifling for these subjects, is immense in men of advanced age; the temperament, and idiosyncrasy, 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.

What happens, then, when a subject is injected with one of these two salts? They remain exposed to the thermometric and hygrometric variations of the air, and should undergo one of the following transformations; or rather, submitted to the action of a dry and free air, they rapidly dry; or preserved in a close and humid place, they become emaciated, blackened, and covered with mouldiness, without, however, experiencing putrid fermentation; they decompose like skin or tanned leather enclosed in a humid place, or beneath the earth. These transformations experienced by bodies thus prepared, were an obstacle to the application of my process to embalming.

There remained for me, then, an ulterior series of observations in order to prevent these unfavourable results.

It was necessary to discover a method of preserving bodies always fresh, with the appearance of sleep, in the state in which they exist immediately after death. It was necessary that the preservation should be indefinitely prolonged; that is to say, that the embalming be such a one that it would allow a dead body to be preserved in all its integrity, without mutilation, without incisions, and fit for dissection at will at all possible epochs.

Have I fulfilled these conditions? Let the facts answer.

First observation.– In the month of February, 1836, at the request of Dr. Petigard, I embalmed the body of the son of M. Dupré, architect, living in Cerisarie street, No. 13.

This child, aged about twelve years, was interred in the cemetery of Père la Chaise. During the construction of the monument, which the father caused to be erected to him, some of his friends excited doubts as to the efficacy of my method of preservation. Wounded in his affections, M. Dupré conceived suspicions which he communicated to Dr. Petigard, expressing the desire for the exhumation of the body. He advised me of this, but numerous occupations prevented me giving it immediate attention; he attributed my delay to hesitation, to the fear I had of seeing my promises made to the relatives contradicted, and, as he has since avowed, expressed himself without reserve on my account.

Finally, the opening of the coffin was made in the month of July, 1837; when the unfortunate father, feeling revive all his grief at the sight of his son, whom he found exactly in the state in which he was at the moment of inhumation, regretting, besides, his suspicions of me, embraced me with effusion, and gave me every proof of his lively gratitude.

“Your hesitation,” he remarked, “made me fear that I had been deceived, under which persuasion I have undoubtedly prejudiced several persons against you, but I will repair the fault in telling the truth.” Here is one fact which may appear of some value, and that which follows is none the less conclusive.

Second observation.– Dr. Oudet, surgeon dentist, died at Paris, Dauphine street, was embalmed sixth March, 1837, after my process; his body was deposited in a coffin of oak, without a lining of lead, and placed, thus enclosed, in a clayey, humid soil. Three months after, the exhumation was made, in presence of M. Prunier, commissary of police for the quarter of the observatory, and of Dr. Petit. The body was found in such a perfect state of preservation, that it astonished the numerous persons present at the exhumation; all admitting that the aspect of the defunct was exactly that of a man asleep: a “procès-verbal” was drawn up on the spot, to prove the state of the body. The following is a copy of it:

“I, the undersigned, Doctor of Medicine of the faculty of Paris, certify, that on the sixth of March, 1837, M. Gannal embalmed, by his process, the body of Oudet, senior, Doctor in Medicine, who lived No. 24 Dauphine street. This operation was performed in my presence, no other opening being necessary than that in the carotid artery, and was finished in less than half an hour.

“On the twenty-eighth of May following, the exhumation of the body was made in my presence, that of M. Prunier, commissary of police, the persons attached to the cemetery, and some spectators. The body, which had remained three months in the earth, and in a coffin not lined with lead, was in such a perfect state of preservation, that all present declared that it resembled a man asleep.

Signed, H. Petit.”

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to refer here to the embalming which I made at the request of Dr. Husson. I had to preserve the body of the nephew of General Guilleminot, who died at the hotel de Bade, Helder street. The mother requested that her son should be dressed in his usual manner, and placed on a bed of repose as if asleep. He remained fifteen days in this position before being enclosed in a coffin, to be transported to the family sepulchre. I abstain from mentioning many instances of exhumation made at my own request, because they need the authenticity of character necessary to facts, from which are to be drawn scientific results. Besides, it will always be easy, when any scientific body or the authorities desire to assure themselves of the efficacy of the means which I employ, to obtain an exhumation and prove the state of the subjects thus prepared.

I preserve in my cabinet the body of an infant of ten years, embalmed for more than eight months; the countenance of this subject, which remains uncovered, has not experienced any alteration; his open eyes35 give his physiognomy the expression of astonishment often observed on first awakening.

If such results can offer any consolation to families who lament a painful loss, I have received my reward.

APPENDIX

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.