Animal and vegetal tissues permanently preserved by synthetic resin impregnation

A solid, substantially anhydrous body essentially consisting of animal or vegetal tissue and a synthetic resin substantially uniformly distributed in the tissue is prepared from a water-bearing, normally soft tissue, subject to rapid decomposition and loss of weight by evaporation of its water content in air at 20 DEG C., by substantially completely removing the water content while substantially maintaining the original tissue shape and volume, uniformly impregnating the water-free tissue with a fluid precursor composition capable of being polymerized into a solid synthetic resin, and holding the impregnated tissue under polymerization conditions until the precursor composition is cured to a solid resin more rigid than the original tissue.