OF DEATH AND OF THE CADAVER. Ill 



of years. It may be even indefinitely suspended, or its phe- 

 nomena much modified. Thus a body enclosed by ice, may 

 be preserved without undergoing any sensible change, as long 

 as the congelation lasts: thus also, a body dessicated by a dry 

 and hot atmosphere, like that of the deserts of Africa, or by an 

 absorbent earth, as in certain caves, or by the heat of the oven 

 or stove, or by various chemical operations, may become near- 

 ly imputrescent. In like manner, a body plunged into the wa- 

 ter and kept there, in humid earth, or in one saturated with 

 cadaverous products, may be transformed into adipocire, be- 

 come saponified by the reciprocal action of its fat, and the am- 

 monia, which results from the decomposition of the flesh. 



132. The body, for some time after death, still preserving 

 nearly the same organization and composition as when alive, 

 is the subject on which anatomy is studied. As numerous 

 changes, however, which continue to augment, commence 

 from the moment of death, we must, by the examination of 

 living animals, rectify the ideas we have acquired by that of 

 bodies deprived of life. 



Every subject is not equally fit and proper for the study of 

 anatomy. For long and consecutive dissections, we should not 

 select those which have yielded to putrid diseases, or fatigue, 

 those that are still warm, or those in which putrefaction has 

 been rapid or is much advanced: extreme cleanliness is abso- 

 lutely necessary in all anatomical researches. If a wound is 

 received while dissecting, particularly if the subject be not a 

 proper one, it should be washed and cauterized on the spot. 



133. The anatomist, considers in each solid part of the bo- 

 dy, 1st, its configuration or its form, external as well as in- 

 ternal, if it is hollow, and its position, whether symmetrical or 

 irregular; 2d, its situation in the whole body, and relative to 

 other parts, as well as its relations of contact or connexion, 

 more or less intimate with them; 3d, the direction of its great 

 diameter which may be parallel, oblique, or perpendicular to 

 the axis of the body ; its metrical extent either as relates to the 

 body or some of its parts ; 5th, its physical proportions, either 

 as relative to the attraction of its molecules, as its density, its 



cohesion, elasticity, &c. or as relates to the manner in which it 

 16 



