598 
MISCELLANEA. 
[The same circumstance that prevents us from introducing a 
Lecture into the present Number, has likewise taken from us the 
power of inquiring fully into the legal authorities on this case. 
We have been disappointed where we expected to find them, but 
w^e will try again, and at an early period.—Y.] 
Bath for the Preservation of Subjects. 
Take of kitchen salt and alum each 25lbs ; nitre four ounces; 
water ten gallons. The subject may be presevered in this solu¬ 
tion for two or three months: a little more of the salt being 
added in very warm weather. 
Doctor Tranchina’s Method of Preserving Dead 
Bodies. 
The operation consists in injecting into the left carotid artery, 
by means of a syringe, a solution of two pounds of arsenic in 
twenty pounds of spring water, or, what is better, spirit of wine, 
and the solution coloured with minium or cinnabar. If there are 
any appearances of the commencement of putrefaction of the in¬ 
tines, he introduces the same liquid into the abdominal cavity by 
means of a trocar. By the employment of spirit of wine all the 
parts of the body preserve their freshness and firmness much 
longer, and which is a matter of considerable consequence in 
anatomical preparations. By these means alone a dead body may 
be preserved without smell or change during two months; and it 
retains all its freshness, flexibility, and natural colour. At 
length he dries and hardens it, when it takes a dark colour, and 
may be kept during many long years. 
M. Tranchina has also attempted to combine arsenic with the 
injections commonly used, and which he knows hardens as it 
cools. He has injected the dead body of an infant in this man¬ 
ner, and it is perfectly preserved. 
As a rew'ard for this discovery, he received the decoration of 
the order of Francis I, and also 3000 ducats from the King of 
Naples. 
Bulletin General de Thera^eutiqve^ Juin 1835. 
