s are
to be preserved dry, they are soaked in the liquid from six to twelve
days, and afterwards dried in the air.

Ligaments, muscles, and other animal objects remain perfectly soft and
movable. Hollow organs, as lungs and intestines, should be filled with
the liquid previous to immersion in it; after being taken out, and
before drying, it is advisable to inflate them with air. Injecting the
liquid into a corpse will preserve the latter completely, and the
muscular tissue will always retain the natural colour of fresh
corpses. To preserve the outward appearance of the latter, they should
be well impregnated externally and enclosed in air-tight oases; this
is only necessary to preserve the exact original appearance; if it
is not done, the body will keep equally well if thoroughly injected,
but the exterior will gradually become somewhat dry and dark coloured.
Plants may likewise be preserved by this liquid. [Footnote: So
expensive a preparation is, I think, sufficiently well replaced by
salt, corrosive sublimate, and distilled water (see Formula No. 27).
M. Decandolle exhibited, some years since, a branch of a coffee tree
which had been perfectly preserved for fifty years. It was then
pointed out that the efficacy of such solutions (saline) depended on
their being boiled and applied to the plants hot (not boiling).]

The following is a modification of the above, useful for comparison as
to relative strengths for injection and immersion:

No. 13.--Wickersheimer's Preserving Liquids, Nos. 2 and 3.

For Injecting. For Immersing.

Arsenious acid 16 grams 12 grams.

Sodium chloride 80 grams 60 grams.

Potassium sulphate 200 grams 150 grams.

Potassium nitrate 25 grams 18 grams.

Potassium carbonate 20 grams 15 grams.

Water 10 litres 10 litres.

Glycerine 4 litres 4 litres.

Wood naphtha 0.75 litres 0.75 litres.

My friend, Dr. Priestley Smith, surgeon to the Birmingham Eye
Hospital, has kindly given me his formula for a process which most
admirably preserves delicate parts of animals. Having been enabled to
give him some eyes of rare animals and fishes (whales and sharks), he
showed me the process which is now fully explained in the following
extract from the British Medica