2^8 French National Injlltute. 



with the greateft care and fuccefs, foon alter, hecaufe the 

 mercury abandons their upper parts to accumulate itfelf in 

 the lower, the veflels of which it dilates and ruptures. 

 Young anatomifts then cannot, without the afliiiance of the 

 arts of imitation, acquire elementary notions on this objc6t. 

 The cafe is the fame in regard to preparations of the nervous 

 fyftem, though lef^ difficult to be made from bodies, but 

 which, by deficcation^ are foon rendered indiftindl, and al- 

 moft ufelcfs. 



It has long been found that anatomical preparations, exe- 

 cuted in wax, are thofe which exhibit, in the cleared man- 

 ner, the qualities of iiich objcds, namely, all their dimen- 

 fions and all their colours; while other imitations, fuch as 

 common fculpture, engraving, and even painting, befides 

 that they are not of a nature fo delicate as thoie of wax, 

 cannot exprefs, at the Gmie time, thefe two orders of qua- 

 lities. Hence this method has been exclufively preferred to 

 all others, and has been employed to form colle<Slions al- 

 ready celebrated. But feveral of them, while they give us 

 reafon to admire the hand of the artift, leave room fome- 

 times for regretting that it was not dire6led by the anato- 

 mic famiharifcd with ail the details of diiredion. 



The union of thefe two kinds of talents in the perfon of 

 C. Laumonier, afTociate of the InlHtute, has given great 

 merit to three pieces which he fubmitted to the inipeftion of 

 the Clafs; namely, a lower extremity, in which he has re- 

 prefented the mufcles, the fuperficial veins, the extremities 

 of the arteries, and the lymphatic veflels; ahead, exhibit- 

 ing the cranium open, and the brain covered on the one fide 

 by the dura and pia njater, and uncovered on the other. 

 The face and neck are prepared in fuch a manner, as to {how 

 chiefly the facial nervp, the eight pair, and the cervical 

 branches. Another head, open at the height of the orbits, 

 prefents a fcftion of the pofterior lobe of the brain, and 4 

 portion of the cerebellum, cut above its tentorium. It was 

 prepared with a defign to exhibit the origin of the great fym- 

 pathetic nerve, and more particularly the cavernous ganglion, 

 dilcoyered by the author, and defcVibcd with all its com- 

 municating branches in the Journal de Phvftquc. 



Thefe pieces, ?xecu»ed by the order of government for the 

 School of Medicine, furm a continuation of others which 

 have been depofiled there for fome years, and which are no^ 

 inferior in point of merit. 



MCDICINB. 



