The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-08-25

Embalming Corpse.
The process of embalming the body of
Mr.. Auguste Labrot was completed
and the remains were seen by the
friends of the deceased at the Ohio
Medical College yesterday afternoon.
The system of embalming determined
upon appears to have been most
thoroughly successful, and the features
and well preserved. All the friends of
Mr.. Labrot who inspected the remains
yesterday expressed themselves thorough
ly satisfied.
The work was not, of course, of
character to be intrusted to most city
undertakers; indeed, it is probable that
there is no undertaken in the city who
could embalm body except under the
supervision and direction of some expert
physician or chemist. Accordingly the
services of two prominent doctors were
obtained by friends of the deceased, the
medical gentlemen regarding the work
much in the light of a scientific expert
ment.
The first stage of the process con-
sisted in the removal of the viscera
and the brain. The latter is extracted
by opening the skull at the back with a
fine saw. The abdominal and thoracic
cavities were emptied through an in
csion made in the manner usual at post
norton examinations. 1t seems that this
post norton, if it can be so termed in
this instance, presented some very eX-
traordinary pathological facts-so ex-
traordinary that they eccasioned con-
siderable sensation at the Academy of
Medicine, before which some report of
the case was recently made. There was
fatty degeneration extraordinary of most
of the internal organs; the heart was in
such condition that the finger could be
pressed through it with the least effort;
several of the blood-vessels were calci-
fed and brittle as pipe-stems, and in the
brain patches of softening were observa-
bic, which could not have been of less
than six months existence. Yet the only
symptom of the latter disease during
life seems to have been drowsiness and
headache at intervals of few days.
But the most curious fact discovered
was rupture of the heart-a rupture
that occurred shortly before death I'M
doubtedly; yet the indications seem to
be that NJ. LabrOt actually lived for a
considerable interval subsequent to this
rupture. The pericardium was found
filled with blood, but Immediately abS>lt
the heart itself the fluid had clothed into
species of thick coating which peeled
off under the fingers like bark, exposing
to view the fissure underneath.
AS soon as the removal of the brain
and the viscera had been accomplished,
the next work was the removal of blood
from the veins. After death, it is we'll
known, the blood leaves the veins. 1t
was thoroughly washed out with pow
erful syringe, and the body subsequently
saturated with cloride of zinc, of which
nearly two hundred hypodermic injec
tions were made. The head was treated
with corrosive sublimate and arsenic,
and the cavities of the skull and body
filled with oakum saturated in chloride
of zinc. After the incisions were care
fully closed, student who is something
of an artist touched the lips with a solu-
ton, which produced very natural
effect.
OF course this is very different proc
ess from the embalming of the ancient
Egyptians, who possessed a seemingly
endless variety of processes, by almost
any of which they could preserve body
indefinitely. Egyptian corpses pre-
served with bitumen maintain, according
to Pettigrew, an extremely full and per
feet condition, even to the features, to
this day. The Egyptians could like
wise preserve bodies without making
any incision for the removal of the
viscera; and numbers are found thus
preserved. An examination of certain
mummies by Pettigrew proved the truth
of the statement of Herodotus, to the
effect that the brain was. removed
through the nostrls by means of a
curved instrument Resinous substances
and pitch seem to have been the chief
ingredients used by the Egyptian en-
balmers.
The body of NJ. Labrot will be sent to
France, inclosed in double casing of
lead-a precaution, we believe, insisted
upon by the French health laws and
regulations In this instance such a
precaution is needless; but the regula-
ton is generally considered very wise
one - Cincinnati COMMERCIAL