CORPSES PRESERVED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1153, 27 September 1883, Page 3

CORPSES PRESERVED.

‘ Through the courtesy of Professor Scalzi, medical inspector of the Hospital of Santo Spinto,’ says the Rome correspondent of the London Times, * I had the opportunity of being present at the final examination of the body of a young man upon whom Dr Petrie Toninetti, of Verona,had experimented by the use of a liquid for the preservation of dead bodies, whether of men or animals, and the visible result was most surprising. The subject died on the 12th of last month —that is nearly six weeks ago—of disease of the lungs, and the liquid was injected 86 hours after death. On the Bth instant— l.«., 25 days later —the ordinary wooden coffin was opened in the presence of Professor Scalzi, representing on the occasion the Minister of Public Instruction ; Dr Postcraski, demonstrator of clinical surgery in the Roman University ; Dr Pretti, army surgeon, and others, and the body was in a perfect state of preservation and flexibility, and presented the appearance of one that jiad only been dead a few hours. The cranium, thorax, and abdomen were then opened, and the brain, lungs, heart, and viscera, all of which were found to bo in a perfectly well preserved and healthy state, were removed. These operations completed and the proces-verhal signed, the body, brain ani intestines were set apait for a continued teat of time, which expired on Wednesday. On entering the operating room I was unable to detect any offensive odour. The arms, legs and other parts which I felt, were soft and supple, and, except the absence of rigidity, presented the normal condition of recent death. Previous to the body been coffined for interment, one leg and one arm wore taken off for further pre. serration and examination, incisioQg

were made, and pieces remove.l for miscrosopic examination, and everywhere the muscles and tendons presented their normal colour, and were perfectly fresh and sweet. The brains, lungs, and liver which were on a table apart, had at first sight a very unpromising appearance. They were completely covered with a coating of green mould, and might have been mistaken for lumps of old bronze, but on being cut across they were found to be in a perfect state of preservation. The condition of the brain was most remarkable. It had undergone no alteration whatever. The white and gray substances and all the convolutions were as distinct as if it had only just been renoved from the cranium. In addition to the commission named by the Minister of Public Instruction with reference to the applicaDr Toninetti’s discovery in the anatomical schools of the kingdom and in other ways connected with the medical and chirurgical sciences, the Ministers of the Army and Navy have appointed others to consider what use can be made of it in connection with their commissariat departments. Experiments that have been made on the bodies of animals with equal success tend to prove that the discovery may be of great utility for alimentary purposes and especially in the preservation in a perfectly fresh state of carcases of meat for exportation to long distances. As regards the liquid, Dr Toninetti declines for the present to state what materials it is composed of. He asserts, however, that it is perfectly innocuous and its presence imperceptible, and in proof of its harmlessness took, I am told, a tumbler of it when in Rome last month before proceeding to inject the body.’