Monique Wittig, Les Guérilléres (Avon) 1976 pg 69-70:
"One of the women relates the death of Adele Donge and how the embalming
of her body was carried out. The story tells how she is placed on a trestle
table. The intestines are withdrawn through the open belly. The abdomen
emptied of its organs is washed with water to which sulphuric acid has
been added. Then it is dried. Various substances are introduced, ground
mint benzoin sage styrax mixed with formalin phenol permanganate hydrogen
peroxide. The separate layers and membranes have to be reunited, they must
be sewn together. The head is emptied of the brain after the cranium has
been drilled using a trephine. Balsamatic dessicative antiseptic substances
are introduced into the cranial cavity. The viscera are preserved like
precious materials in large glass jars that bear inscriptions. They ignore
the brain. They abandon it carelessly on some piece of furniture. A domestic
animal might seize and devour it. The women yawn at this account or else
they applaud without much enthusiasm."