BRAIN PRESERVATION, WITH A R]&SUM£: OF SOME 

 OLD AND NEW METHODS. 



By PIERRE A. FI5H. 



The brain, the organ of thought, complex in structure, the 

 great co-ordinator of bodily functions, the master and yet the 

 servant of the animal economy, has been the last of the vis- 

 cera to receive careful preservation. The ancient Egyptians 

 in their most /^<?r/"^(r/embalments " drew the brain through the 

 nostrils partly with a piece of crooked iron and partly with 

 the infusion of drugs. ' ' The other viscera upon removal were 

 carefully cleansed and after proper treatment were replaced in 

 the body, the brain apparently being the only part rejected. 



The summary treatment of this important organ and the 

 bad precedent thus established by the Egyptians retarded for 

 a long time the development of any progressive ideas in this 

 direction. From the time of the Egyptians down to near the 

 close of the seventeenth century no advance but actual retro- 

 gression occurred in the art of preservation ; this being due to 

 some extent to the indifference of the nations in power at that 

 time, but chiefly to the great religious opposition toward any- 

 thing pertaining to science. During this dark period of 

 scientific stagnation much has been lost that may never be 

 recovered. 



The crude and erroneous descriptions of the early anato- 

 mists justify the belief that their methods were but little superior 

 to those that preceded, but the progress in those early years 

 of embalming the body, marks also an advance, slight and 

 inefficient perhaps, but nevertheless an advance, in the pres- 

 ervation of the brain itself; particularly so when the injection 

 method came into use. To a Hollander, Frederic Ruysch, 

 Professor of Anatomy, at Amsterdam from 1655 to 1717, be- 

 longs the honorof having originated and perfected this method 

 to such an extent that his specimens are said to have been 

 wonderfully life-like and to have aroused the admiration of 

 the people of his age. The formula of his preservative was 

 not divulged and the secret of its preparation died with him. 



