Specification of John Morgan : embalming and curing.

  • Morgan, John.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of John Morgan : embalming and curing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    »■■■■■■■■■ ■ - ■ - ■ ■■ . — ■' ■■iii ■——* Morgans Improvements in Embalming Bodies and Curing Carcases. escape from the incision in the auricular appendix, will filtrate through the capilianus and small vessels in every tissue of the body. This will suffice to keep bodies for a considerable length of time. For dissecting or such pur¬ poses as just now mentioned, the alum and poisonous solution may be omitted, 5 and one and a half ounce of oil of thyme, &c. added to the solution, but in hot weather the poisonous solution should be added. During the operation the subject should have the legs a little lower than the rest of the body, and all resting pretty flat. If it be desirable still further to preserve the body, the following solution (No. 2) will be found both cheap and efficacious:—Three 10 quarts methylated spirit, three ounces of tannin, one and a half ounce oil of thyme, three ounces oil of rosemary, three drachms oil of cloves, thirty drops of oil of winter green, to be introduced in the same way in from six to twelve hours after the first operation. The pulmonary artery should also be opened, and one quart and one half of preserving fluid No. 1 introduced, suffi- 15 cient to make it run from the mouth, and one quart of No. 2 fluid in an hour after. The above quantities must be increased in hot weather, and propor¬ tioned necessarily to the size of the subject; other scents and solutions may be used, these are mentioned being more efficacious and inexpensive. All mammalia and birds being constructed on the same plan, the same principle 20 will apply, modified as to size and amount of material and composition of mate¬ rial used as fluid for preserving. The subjects should after the operation be left lying in a cool dry place and in a current of air. In twenty-four hours the eyelids should be neatly stitched or glued down, also the mouth closed, a little wool or cotton impregnated with No. 2 solution being first intro- 25 duced therein. The pipe or clamp should not be removed for six or eight hours, when the incision in the chest should be treated in the same way, and stitched ; should it be desired to preserve permanently the subject they should be further dried for some days by exposure in a current of air, and turned on sides and front and back every six hours, and when tolerably dried placed in 30 a moulded glass coffin with moveable glass lid, which can be sealed down with a heated solution of.two parts of gutta percha, one part of pitch, and one quarter part of marine glue. In Curing Swine, Beef, &c.—-First kill the animal by knocking on the head with a heavy blunt maul, or by blowing air into the jugular or other vein, or 35 by making openings into the chest and forcing in air or water into the cavity of the chest so as to collapse the lungs. I recommend the blow in the head when properly done as most efficacious of all. So soon as the animal struggles are over lay it on a table on its back, and open the breast bone, sawing it