Decembee 19, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



571 



For unless the bodies can not be obtained soon 

 enough after death to make proper preserva- 

 tion possible, the human anatomist or medical 

 student no longer need labor in an atmosphere 

 which announces their presence even to those 

 who seek them not. 



While we have been exceedingly fortunate 

 in the matter of embalming the dead, and 

 have improved upon the historic — or even geo- 

 logic — method of cold storage by adapting 

 current commercial equipments, much yet re- 

 mains to be desired in this respect. Several 

 years since, while reflecting upon the various 

 methods now in use, it occurred to me that 

 mineral oil ought to possess many advantages. 

 Since various vegetable oils, notably turpen- 

 tine, oil of cedar, benzol, etc., had been used, 

 it seemed strange indeed that mineral oils 

 also should not previously have been resorted 

 to. This would seem particularly likely dur- 

 ing the last decades in which oil played such a 

 very prominent role in the industries. It 

 semed all the more perplexing that mineral 

 oils should not have been resorted to because 

 resins, pitch, tar, etc., had been used centuries 

 ago for the very purpose. Moreover, attempts 

 also had then been made to imbed the dead 

 in honey, resin and fats, after the manner of 

 nature in imbedding insects in amber. It is 

 true that nature also made such experiments 

 with crude oil on a gigantic scale at La 

 Brea, but that is a relatively recent discovery. 

 Nevertheless, it seems strange that the finding 

 of these beds with their rich booty, some years 

 since did not suggest the use of mineral oils 

 for the storage of anatomic material to me or, 

 for that matter, to others. Indeed it is so in- 

 expensive when contrasted with cold storage 

 that it seems that it could not have been 

 overlooked in the course of the development of 

 modern methods for embalming and preserv- 

 ing material for dissection. However it is 

 possible that the use of crude oil was con- 

 sidered and abandoned before the development 

 of modern methods of distillation, because 

 crude petroleum very plainly would seem to 

 be quite unsuited for the purpose. 



Cold storage, while excellent for the preser- 

 vation of material for short periods of time, 



demands not only a considerable initial ex- 

 pense, but also imposes a relatively high cost 

 of maintenance. With its use it also is diffi- 

 cult to prevent marked shrinkage of the mate- 

 rial, in the course of months and years. The 

 same thing applies to the storage of material 

 in tanks over methyl alcohol. Immersion in a 

 watery solution, on the other hand, while 

 obviating this difficulty, introduces others. 

 Since the water penetrates the bodies, it ab- 

 stracts the preservatives from the tissues, and 

 bodies so immersed dry quickly when exposed 

 to an atmosphere of low humidity. While 

 drying during storage is obviated by sub- 

 mersion in watery solutions the bodies often 

 remain at or come to the surface and must then 

 be depressed. Evaporation of the water also 

 carries odors with it, besides reducing the total 

 quantity of fluid. A room full of tanks con- 

 taining oil on the other hand remains prac- 

 tically odorless and needs no further attention. 



While most of the difficulties except drying 

 experienced with other methods are obviated 

 by storage of the cadavers on open racks after 

 covering the material with a thick coating of 

 vaseline, the application of the latter is time- 

 consuming, relatively expensive, and does not 

 make for tidiness. Moreover, portions of the 

 skin easily become uncovered of vaseline and 

 dry, and when the nose, mouth and eyes are 

 not thickly coated, mold also can get a foot- 

 hold, in spite of the extra wrapping required. 



With the use of all these methods, except 

 immersion in a water solution, inspection of 

 the material is difficult, while it is exception- 

 ally easy with the use of oil. Moreover, the 

 oil extracts practically nothing from the mate- 

 rial and softens and later protects the epider- 

 mis. Since its specific gravity is low, bodies 

 easily sink by their own weight. Hence, as 

 long as there is sufficient oil in the tanks, all 

 material is hermetically sealed and no spon- 

 taneous subsequent exposure need be feared, 

 for there is practically no loss through evapor- 

 ation. Material stored in it for over two 

 years appears to be in identically the same 

 condition as when first immersed. Since 

 bodies which have become decidedly oedematous 

 during the process of embalming may be ex- 



