History of Embalming and of Preparations in Anatomy, Pathology, and Natural History; Including an Account of a New Process for Embalming

CHAPTER VI.

Chapter 6117 wordsPublic domain

ART OF EMBALMING IN OUR DAY, PREVIOUS TO MY DISCOVERIES, p. 118.--Opinion of M. Pelletan upon the imperfect state of this art--Dispute among the physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, upon the question of precedence--Embalming the senators of the empire--Improvements proposed by M. Pelletan--Application of the discoveries of Chaussier upon the preservative properties of the deuto-chloride of mercury to the art of embalming--Embalming, as practised by Béclard--Preservation of the body of Colonel Morland, by M. Larrey--Remarks--Preservation of the body of a young girl of ten years, by M. Boudet--Reflections on these facts--Embalming of Louis XVIII., King of France--Fifteenth observation--Criticism--Empyricism in this art--Exact appreciation of the preservative properties of the deuto-chloride of mercury--Superiority of the means which I propose.