“Mummies filled with aromatic resins are of an olive colour; the skin is dry and flexible, like tanned leather; it is rather contracted upon itself, and appears to form but one body with the fibres and the bones, the features of the face are recognizable, and appear to be the same as in the living state; the belly and chest are filled with a mixture of friable resins, soluble in part in spirits of wine: these resins possess no particular odour rendering them recognizable; but, thrown upon living coals, they shed a thick smoke and a strongly aromatic odour. These mummies are very dry, and easily unrolled and broken; they still preserve all their teeth, the hair of the head and eyebrows. Some of them have been gilded over the whole surface of the body; others are gilded only on the face, the natural parts, on the hands and on the feet; these gildings are common to a considerable number of mummies, which prevents me from partaking in the opinion of some travellers, who suppose that this kind of decoration was restricted to princes, and persons of a very distinguished rank.

“These mummies which have been prepared with great care, are unalterable so long as they are retained in a dry place; but, unbound, and exposed to the air, they promptly attract moisture, and after a few days shed a disagreeable odour.

“Mummies filled with pure bitumen, are of a black colour; the skin is hard and shining, as if it had been covered with a varnish, the features of the face are not altered; the belly, breast, and head, are filled with a resinous substance, black, hard, and with but little odour. This matter, which I have taken from the interior of many mummies, has presented the same physical characters, and has given, by chemical analysis, the same results as the Jew’s pitch of commerce. These sort of mummies, which are met with commonly enough in all caverns, are dry, heavy, without odour, difficult to unfold and to break. Almost all have the face, the natural parts, the hands, and the feet gilded; they appear to have been prepared with much care; they are very little susceptible of alteration, and do not attract the moisture of the air. The mummies with an incision in the left side, and which have been salted, are equally filled, the one with resinous substances, and the other with asphaltum. These two sorts differ but little from the preceding: the skin has also a blackish colour, but it is hard, smooth, and stretched like parchment; there is a space existing beneath it, and it is not glued against the bones; the resins and bitumen which have been injected into the belly and chest are less friable, and do not reserve any odour; the features of the face are somewhat altered, very little hair remains, which falls when touched. These two sorts of mummies exist in great numbers in all the caverns: when unwrapped and exposed to the air, they absorb moisture, and become covered with a light saline efflorescence, which I have ascertained to be sulphate of soda.

“2. Amongst those mummies without an incision in the left side, nor in any other part of the body, and from which the intestines have been withdrawn from the fundament, I also distinguish two sorts; those which have been salted, and then filled with a bituminous matter less pure than that which historians and naturalists call pisasphaltum; and those which have been only salted.

“The injections with cedria, or the surmaia for dissolving the intestines, according to Herodotus, could not produce this effect; it is much more reasonable to suppose that these injections were composed of natrum rendered caustic, which dissolved the viscera; and that after having emptied the intestines, the embalmers filled the belly with cedria, or with some other fluid resin which dried with the body.

“The salted mummies, which are filled with pisasphaltum, no longer retain any recognizable feature: not only have all the cavities of the body been filled with this bitumen, but the surface is also covered with it. This matter has so penetrated the skin, the muscles, and the bones, that it forms with them but one and the same mass.

“On examining these mummies, we are led to believe that the bituminous matter has been injected very hot, and that the bodies have been plunged into a kettle containing bitumen in liquifaction. These mummies, the most common and numerous of all those we meet with in the caverns, are black, hard, heavy, of a penetrating and disagreeable odour; they are very difficult to break; they have no longer either hair or eyebrows, none have been found gilded. Some of them only have the palm of the hands, the soles of the feet, the nails of the fingers and toes tinged with red, with this same colour used by the natives of Egypt of the present day, to stain the palms of the hand and soles of the feet, (the henna, or Lawsonia inermis.) The bituminous matter which I have taken from them, is greasy to the touch, less black, and less friable than asphaltum; it communicates to every thing that touches it, a strong and penetrating odour; it is only imperfectly soluble in alcohol; thrown upon living coals it sheds a thick smoke, and disagreeable odour; distilled, it yields an abundant oil, thick, of a brown colour, and fetid odour. These are the species of mummies which the Arabs, and inhabitants of the vicinity of the plain of Saggârah, formerly sold to Europeans, and which became an article of commerce for the use of medicine and painting, or as objects of antiquity; those filled with Jew’s pitch were preferred, since it is to this matter, which had for a long time remained in the body, they attributed formerly such marvellous medicinal properties; this substance, which was named balm of mummy, was subsequently in great request among the oil painters; it is on this account, that at first the mummy filled with bitumen was the only kind known in France. They are very little exposed to alteration; exposed to humidity, they become covered with a slight saline efflorescence with a base of soda. Mummies which have been only salted and dried, are generally more badly preserved than those in which are found resins and bitumen.

“Many varieties are met with in these last sort of mummies; but it appears that this is due to the want of care and negligence of the embalmers in their preparation. Some, still entire, have the skin dry, white, smooth, and stretched like parchment; they are light, inodorous, and easily broken; others have the skin equally white, but a little supple; having been less dried, they have assumed a fatty state. We find also in these mummies, masses of that fatty, yellowish matter, which naturalists call adipocere. The features of the face are entirely destroyed, the eyebrows and hair have fallen; the bones become detached from their ligaments without any effort, they are as white and clean as those of a skeleton prepared for the study of osteology; the cloth which envelopes them, tears, and falls to pieces at the slightest touch. These sort of mummies, commonly found in particular caves, contain a considerable quantity of saline substance, which I have ascertained to consist almost entirely of sulphate of soda. The various species of mummies of which I have just spoken, are swarthed with an art which it would be difficult to imitate. Numerous linen bandages, several metres in length compose their envelope; they are applied one over the other, to the number of fifteen or twenty thicknesses, and thus make several revolutions, first around each member, then around the whole body; they are so compact, and interlaced with so much address and skill, that they appear to have endeavoured by this means, to render to these bodies, considerably reduced by desiccation, their original form and natural thickness.

“All the mummies are enveloped nearly in the same manner; there is no other difference than the number of the bandages which surround them, and the quality of the linen, the tissue of which is more or less fine, according as the embalming was more or less precious. The body embalmed, is at first covered with a narrow chemise, we find only one large bandage enveloping the whole body. The head is covered with a piece of square linen cloth, of a very fine texture, the centre of which forms a species of mask; five or six are thus found sometimes applied one upon the other; the last being generally painted or gilded, and represents the figure of the person embalmed. Each part of the body is separately enveloped by several bandages impregnated with resin. The legs brought together, and the arms crossed upon the chest, are fixed in this position by other bandages which envelope the whole body. These latter, generally loaded with hieroglyphical figures, and fixed by long fillets which traverse each other with much art and symmetry, finish the envelope.

“Immediately after these first bands, are found various idols in gold, bronze, varnished terra cotta, wood, gilded or painted, rolls of papyri manuscripts, and many other objects which have no relation to the religion of these people, but which appear to be only souvenirs of objects cherished during life. It was in one of these mummies, placed in the bottom of a cave of the interior of the mountain, (behind the Memnonium temple of the plain of Thebes,) that I found a voluminous papyrus, which will be found engraved in the work. (Vide the plates 61, 62, 63, 64 and 65, of the second vol. of the plates of antiquities, and the description of the Hypogees of the city of Thebes.) This papyrus was rolled upon itself, and had been placed between the thighs of the patient, immediately after the first bandages of linen; this male mummy, the trunk of which was broken, did not appear to me to have been embalmed in a first rate manner; it had been enveloped in an ordinary linen cloth, and had been filled with asphaltum: the nails of the toes had alone been gilded.

“Almost all the mummies which are found in the subterranean caverns, which can yet be penetrated, are thus enveloped with linen bandages, with a painted masque on the face. It is rare to find any enclosed in cases, of which some wrecks only remain at the present day. These cases, which served doubtless, only for the rich, or for persons of distinction, were double; those in which the mummies were deposited, were made of a kind of carton or pasteboard, composed of many pieces glued together; this case was subsequently enclosed in a second, constructed of the wood of sycamore or cedar.”

It results, if we are not mistaken, from the analogy of so many carefully made observations, a consequence to which we might not have arrived by long continued reasoning: simple embalming might have been practised among the Egyptians from the earliest period of their civilization, without a very exact knowledge of the laws of preservation of animal matter, and before the other arts were far advanced. A description of the Plain of Mummies by M. de Maillet, will give to this opinion, already so firmly established, the value of a demonstrated truth.

“Opposite the borough of Manof, looking towards the west, is situated the Plain of Mummies—approximated to the north by the southern pyramids, which are a continuation of the cemetery which the inhabitants of Memphis had on this side—a plain famous, from the number of mummies which have been taken of late from the subterranean caverns which exist beneath these sands, and by the still greater numbers of the embalmed bodies which it encloses. This plain is circular and level, and may be about four leagues in breadth or diameter, so that it is certain that it is more than twelve leagues in circumference. Its base is a very flat rock, which was formerly covered by the waters of the sea, and which is covered at present with five or six feet of sand. It is in this rock that those who did not possess the means of building pyramids to enclose their bodies after death, secured a repose which we know that the Egyptians held of great consequence, and found a less difficult art of making asylums, which they were persuaded would be sheltered from the fury and impiety of men, and would secure to them the return of their souls to the same bodies, in case that their tombs should not be violated. With this view, they chose at first a place in this plain, where it was necessary to commence by taking away seven or eight feet of moveable sand. After having emptied a circumscribed space, and perfectly cleaned it, they commenced penetrating the rock by a hole of a foot and a half or two feet in diameter; and after having attained the depth of about five or six feet, they laboured to enlarge the hole and form a chamber in the rock. It was by this hole that the body descended to be deposited in these tombs; after which, they so accurately covered the opening with a stone, as not to admit either light or sand.

“In these chambers, formed in the rock, and to a considerable extent, they had hollowed out many niches in which were placed the bodies of the heads of families for whom these sepulchres were destined. These niches were made vertically. The bodies were thus placed upright in the cases which enclosed them, and from whence, in latter times, they have taken such great numbers. These cases are made of sycamore, which never rots, and consist of only two pieces. The first, in which the body is enclosed, is very deep, and excavated with great labour; the second serves as a cover, and fits the coffin perfectly. Some of these cases have been found with glass eyes, through which, without uncovering them, may be seen the body of the mummy enclosed. Others have been met with double, that is to say, one case enclosed within another, which leads to the belief that the first doubtless, contained the body of some person of distinction. It is, however, very rare to find a body enclosed in a costly case, because the Arabs who discover them, never fail to break to pieces these kind of bodies in search of golden idols, in which, indeed, they are often successful. They afterwards replace the body in a common case, where idols of any value are seldom found. Some time ago, the master of Saccara, a village in the vicinity of the Plain of Mummies, investigated the openings of some of these subterranean sepulchres, and as he is a firm friend of mine, he presented me with various curiosities, a great number of mummies, images in wood, and inscriptions of a hieroglyphical and unknown character, which had been found there.

“In one of these chambers they found, for example, the case and the mummy of a woman, before which was a wooden figure of a young boy on his knees, with one finger on his lips, and in the other hand holding a chaffing dish, resting on his head, and in which there had doubtless been perfume. This young man was marked on the stomach with some hieroglyphic characters; they broke it to pieces to see if it contained gold. They found in the mummy, which they opened for the same reason, a little vase a foot long, containing the same balm which they use for preserving the body from corruption. I took to pieces another female mummy, of which the Sieur Bagarry made me a present. The opening was made in the house of the Capuchin fathers of this city; and they had the imprudence to cut the fillets with scissors; these bands, of considerable length and breadth, were not only charged from one end to the other with hieroglyphic figures, but they also discovered beneath certain unknown characters, traced from right to left and forming a species of verse. Indeed, they remarked the same termination in several little consecutive lines. It consisted most probably, of the eulogium of this person, written in the language which was in use, in his time, in Egypt. However this may be, these bandages taken to pieces, were immediately pillaged by some pedlars, who were present with me at the opening of this mummy; there was only left for me a small portion, which I have since sent to France: none of the Savans have been able to decipher them. This mummy held the right hand applied to his stomach, and under this hand were held instrumental cords perfectly preserved; whence I concluded that it was the body of a person who played upon some instrument, or who, at least, had been addicted to music. I am persuaded that, if each mummy was examined with the same care, some sign of this nature would be occasionally met with.

“I have made another observation, which appears to me neither less curious nor less useful; it is, that in these mummies all the faces differ, some are remarkable for youth, others for beauty. Those who have seen whole mummies know that they have all a gilded mask, composed of several folds of silk cloth, which form a kind of very solid carton. I judged from this diversity, that the masks or cartons, crowded with hieroglyphic characters, which indicate, without doubt, the age, the actions, the manners, and the condition of the person, were also a natural representation of them, either that care had been taken to form this model during life, or that it had only been taken after death by applying these cloths to the face, after the same manner that we take the likeness of a corpse in the present day with plaster or wax. By this means, they not only preserved the bodies of a family entire, but, on entering these subterranean places where they were deposited, they could in an instant see represented all their ancestors for a thousand years, such nearly, as they were when living; nothing was more likely vividly to recall the recollection of their virtues, to perpetuate their memory and love in the hearts of their posterity.

“Not satisfied to preserve, by these means, the recollection of their princes and of their relatives, the Egyptians still further deposited their marble images near to their mummy. I have certain proofs of what I advance, in one of the most curious antiquities which I have acquired in this country. It is a figure in three pieces, representing a woman. The head and the feet are of black touchstone; the body is sheathed, and made of verd antique marble, rayed with white. These three pieces united, form a figure five feet five inches in height. It is very perfect, and of exquisite beauty. The priest who sold it to me with great scruples, and at a high price, swore by the Evangelist, that the figure was found in a pyramid seven or eight hundred years ago.

“In these chambers of which I speak, are found many niches, some large, others small, the chambers also often communicate, from a second to a third, and sometimes even to a fourth; but it is not to be understood, that all the bodies deposited in these sombre apartments, were all enclosed in cases and placed in these niches; the most of them were simply embalmed and swathed, as every one knows; after which they contented themselves in arranging them thus carelessly near each other; some of them were even placed in these tombs without being embalmed, or were so lightly so, that at the present time there remain only the bones among the linen which enveloped them, and which are half rotten. It is thus also are seen in some of these chambers heaps of bones mixed with these sort of linens, which have been left after they carried off the bodies which were preserved entire, to be exported beyond the seas. It is probable, that every family of any consideration, had for themselves one of these sepulchres; that the niches were destined to receive the heads of families, and that those of domestics and slaves were simply placed on the ground, after having been embalmed, or even without that ceremony; it is the same, without doubt, as regards the chiefs even of a family of less distinguished houses. They have even discovered, lately, in this plain of mummies, a mode, unknown until now, of burying the dead. At the extremity of this extensive plain and towards the mountains which bound it on the west, beds of carbon have been discovered, upon which bodies lie simply swathed with linen, and covered by a mat, seven or eight feet beneath the sands. Nevertheless, it ought to be observed, that these bodies, although they were not embalmed, or only slightly so, similar to those which they had neglected to enclose in cases, they were none the less protected from corruption.”

When I consider with what facility the Egyptians were able to preserve their dead, I can scarcely comprehend this passage of an author otherwise so ingenious: “An industry so complicated, could not have presented itself all at once to the genius of the people. Like all other nations of the earth, these could only have devoted themselves to the arts, properly so called, after securing their subsistence by agriculture. Review all these arts, arrange them in the order in which it might be supposed that they originated, and endeavour to determine the precise period of each, you will not be able to find this. History is mute on this point; and however rash it may be to interpret her silence, it is, nevertheless, evident, that the art of embalming, very ancient for us, was very new to the Egyptians, and, perhaps, ulterior to all others.” I do not deny that this mode of rebutting history with a priori views and conjectures, is any less positive than the method of historians, who do it often by acknowledged falsehood; but neither one of them are assuredly worth much.

The numerous facts which we have brought together in this chapter, appears to us most calculated to fix all the questions relative to embalming which long discussions and reasonings have lost sight of. They prove that bodies, placed in the bosom of the earth, covered only with a few feet of sand have been preserved for ages; that others scarcely embalmed, have been discovered untouched: after this, what becomes of the necessity of advanced arts, and perfection of ingenuity, when on the other hand, we see nations that have attained a high degree of civilization, with an immense mass of knowledge of all kinds, but in other conditions, geological and atmospherical, have not transmitted to us, although nearer our own epoch, any thing more than a little dust from the most gorgeous sepulchres?

The brief view which we cast upon the assemblage of facts which have been submitted to us, leads to totally different conclusions from those which precede, and which convinces us—1st. Of all the arts, that of embalming ought the most readily to have presented itself to the mind of the Guanches, of the Egyptians, and of all those nations placed under analogous atmospherical and geological conditions: 2d. For no others does nature offer more positive lessons or more efficient aid: 3d. The Egyptians have embalmed from the earliest period of their civilization, before any art was very much advanced; four or five species of their mummies offer sufficient proof of this: 4th. The arts of perfecting and weaving tissues; of melting, fashioning, and colouring glass and metals; the delicate art of engraving on fine stones; the art of working wood, of painting it, of ornamenting it, and of giving it the éclat of gold, of varnish, and of enamel; the art of preparing perfumes, and of causing to enter even the very flesh, odoriferous powders, essences, and resins; all these arts have contributed, according to their degree of development, to complicate and perfect the art of making mummies, so simple at its commencement: 5th. Transported into countries where the exterior conditions are different, this art has been found inefficacious, and has scarcely ever attained its end. We shall have proofs of this in the following chapter.

CHAPTER V.

EMBALMING, FROM THE EGYPTIANS DOWN TO OUR DAY.

Here facts are almost entirely wanting, and the history of the art we are studying, can only be followed in the recitals of historians, to control whose veracity we have no longer those monuments which Egypt offers us in such great numbers. Among the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, and all modern nations, we see the honours of embalming accorded to kings, princes, and men of distinction; but no tomb that has been opened, has rendered a single mummy so perfect, as those which we admire among the Egyptians; and if some rare and distant examples inform us of a durable preservation, the marvellous and extraordinary details accompanying it causes us to doubt the fact itself.

Thus, on the assertion of Gabriel Clauder, they saw in the time of St. Augustin, the bodies of Alexander, and of Ptolemy; their tomb has been visited for many ages, and they were enabled to distinguish the skin preserved with the members. But, continued they, all bodies do not resemble that of Alexander the Great, which was during his life, according to the report of Plutarch, and of Quintus Curtius, of a composition so rare and wonderful, that his skin, mouth, and all his person, rendered a very agreeable odour, and perfumed his clothes. It is said that his corpse, by the negligence of his friends and of his captains, remained several days without being embalmed, and that, nevertheless, when they went to visit it, it was found sound, without blemish, having even the complexion as fresh and florid as if he had been living, although he died of a continued fever: his appearance was so natural that the Egyptians and Chaldeans, who were charged to embalm him after their own manner, were at first afraid to approach him, thinking he might not be dead.

Such marvellous accounts are not sufficiently in harmony with the rigorous course which we have thus far followed, to induce us seriously to discuss them; we confine ourselves to the statement of each down to our own day, where well established facts will offer ample matter for reflection.

The Jewish people, who, like others, testified their respect for the dead, never admit the care of embalming the body as a common usage. Thus, Abraham purchased the field where Sarah was buried; Joseph had the body of his father magnificently embalmed; Moses only carried away the bones of Joseph; David praised the people of Gilead, for having buried with pomp Saul and his sons, &c. In most of these examples, no mention is made of embalming; nevertheless, the body of Jesus Christ was embalmed.

The following is nearly the method: each sex took care of its dead; they, first of all, close the mouth and eyes of the expired person, afterwards they shaved, washed, and rubbed it with perfumes; they tied it with bands, and buried it in several cloths of very fine linen or woollen, and finally, they put it into the sepulchre. Cornelius Jansenius thinks that the myrrh and aloes which they employed, had the virtue powerfully to resist putrefaction. It is useless to say that this opinion is without foundation; that the great quantities of aromatics which they consumed, was rather for pomp, than for the long preservation of the subject. They took no pains to dry the body; they did not disembarrass it of the intestines, and, in spite of all these odoriferous drugs, as Penicher justly remarks, decomposition must soon have revealed itself, as was testified by the body of Lazarus when resuscitated.

Neither did the Persians, probably, propose by embalming, any thing beyond a very limited preservation; the passage which we cited in the first chapter is in proof of this. Besides, this custom with them does not possess a general character. Cyrus, King of Persia, said to his children: “when I have ceased to live, place my body neither in silver, nor in gold, nor in any other coffin, but return it immediately to the earth, for how can it be more happily and more desirably disposed, than to be returned to that which produces and which nourishes most excellent things?” It will be perceived, that Cyrus, in forbidding that any care should be taken with his body, does not allude to embalming, which, of all other means, would have been the most efficient in preventing its elements from returning to the common mother. The Greeks and the Romans, among whom we have particularized some examples of embalming, practised it in a coarse and imperfect manner. The examination of their method would be here without interest.

In order to recover some traces of this art, we must refer to De Bils, Ruysch, Swammerdam, Clauderus, &c. They only boast of their astonishing success, without giving us the means of studying their methods. What we do know of them suffices only to make us doubt, as we have seen, the perfection of their processes. De Bils, of whom we have not yet spoken, had a cabinet which excited the admiration of visiters; he never revealed his secret, and he even shed an odour of aromatics through his anatomical rooms, in order to deceive observers. Clauderus, who suspected the deception, applied his moistened finger to one of the bodies, and carrying it to his lips recognised the taste of salts. He started from this fact to attempt numerous researches, and succeeded in forming different compounds, of which the preservative powers are, without doubt, exaggerated; we shall give the analysis of them hereafter.

De Rasière, ècuyer, sieur Dèsenclosses, published in 1727, a description of a cabinet, in which he preserved a hundred specimens; the following extract from his pamphlet presents several descriptions of subjects skilfully prepared; it is preceded by an engraving, representing the cabinet, of which he gives the description.

Extract from the description of the cabinet of anatomy, of M. De Rasière, ècuyer, sieur Dèsenclosses, 1727.

This cabinet is eighty feet long, by sixteen wide, the glass windows are double, and exposed to the south, with a good ceiling and boarded, which renders it very proper for the preservation of the curious pieces which it encloses, and which are more than one hundred in number, differently worked, and arranged so that entire men are placed in the inferior departments, and the infants in the superior; all the fleshy pieces are enclosed in glass cases, and the skeletons in niches covered by a curtain.

The whole so disposed, that the skeletons and muscular pieces are arranged alternatively. We see, also, entire carcases of men, so arranged, that the head, which is placed on the large bones, is crowned by the vertebræ, and the ribs are suspended above. This order, added to the quantity of paintings and gildings which embellish the cases and cornices, produces a very fine effect. The side which looks to the south, includes a great number of bottles of all sizes, and contains objects taken from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms.

The middle of the cabinet is occupied by numerous interesting objects. We first perceive a large glass case, which includes all the internal parts of man, and fetuses of all ages, and a microscope to view the circulation of the blood. Then appears a horse’s skeleton, mounted by a skeleton cavalier, holding a sword in his hand; an air pump; an anatomical table, upon which is a corpse, and an anatomist in wax, standing before it, dissecting.

Among the pieces of the cabinet mentioned by M. De Rasière, the most remarkable are: In the first glass case, the preparation of Gotard’s skeleton, in which are distinctly displayed the four hundred and fifty-six muscles. Second case: partial preparation of the eyes and the tongue, of the head, of the body, of the arms and legs. Third case: preparation of the muscles, arteries, veins, and nerves of the right side, and the skeleton of the left side. The fifth case is a complete preparation, in which the skin and fat has only been removed, and all the parts beneath separated. We here observe, first, the ascending aorta, which carries the blood to all the superior parts; second, the carotid arteries, which supply the head; third, the temporal arteries; fourth, the radial arteries (pulse;) fifth, the crural arteries, and an infinity of others even to the most delicate branches. The veins are filled with a black fluid. Sixth, preparation of the veins of the arm. Seventh, jugular veins; eighth, veins of the foot; ninth, vena cava ascendens. Eighth case: a subject resembling accurately a mummy or embalmed body, such as are brought from Egypt. All the flesh is covered by the skin, through which may be seen the veins and arteries filled with congealed and coloured wax. The hair of the head, the beard, and all the hair of the body, as well as the nails, are still attached to it. The eleventh glass case encloses the body of Nicholas Lefort, aged eighty-three years, a native of Douai, in Flanders: this subject is peculiarly tasteful, every thing being naturally arranged; the external muscles are divested of their fat, and all the arteries, veins, and nerves, which ramify upon the muscles, skin, &c., have been preserved, which renders this preparation as curious as it was difficult of execution. Twelfth case: preparation of the nerves.

But the author is silent regarding the manner of making these preparations. Let us endeavour to find in the writings of the time, a description of processes capable of producing such results.

Penicher, in his chapter fifth, (of embalming according to the moderns,) gives us the composition and properties of balm. “It is composed,” says he, “of different mixtures, both fluid and solid, calculated to arrest putrefaction, either by the aromatic virtues of sulphur and volatile salts, medicaments which enter into its composition, or by a strong bitter principle which consists in very penetrating particles, the property of which is to consume and attenuate the crude matters, which disposes and hastens the body to corruption; or by remedies, inheriting a quantity of particles which dissipate and absorb all putrescent moisture, or by their viscosity agglutinating the parts which ferment and rarify too readily; or, finally, by their astringency, which, fixing these same parts, prevents the resolution of all.”

It is easy to perceive, by the explanations which precede, that the embalmers themselves possess no very clear ideas of the success which they obtained. The nomenclature which we give below, will justify the doubt we have expressed.

The powders, which constitute the base of the balm, are made of all parts of the plants which fulfil the indications so confusedly announced. Such were the roots of angelica, imperatoria, galanga, acorus, carolina, caryophillata, gentian, enula campana, valerian, Florentine iris, flambe, calamus aromaticus, ginger, pyrethrum, cyperus, dictamus, rosewood, sassafras, guiacum, juniper, box wood, citron bark, oranges, canella, cassia lignea, tan, nutmeg, mace, cloves, cubebs, spicknard, colocynth, bay-berries, juniper-berries, and myrtle-berries, gall-nuts, cypress, anis-seed, cumin-seed, fennel-seed, coriander-seed, cardamon-seed, long, white, and black pepper, rue-leaves, thyme, absynth, savin, horehound, mugwort, laurel, mint, myrtle, calomint, balm, balmgentle, marjorum, rosemary, sage, summer savory, wild-thyme, pennyroyal, mountain-mint, hyssop, nepeta, basilic, scordium, flowers of saffron, roses, pale and red, stæchas, centaury, melilot, chamomile, germander, chamæpitys, hypericum, caraway-seed, dill-seed, lavender.

Many gums and resins entered into the composition of balm, such as resin, Burgundy pitch, ship-pitch, gum elemi, assafœtida, aloes, myrrh, galbanum, acacia, tucamahaca, benzoin, styrax calamite, fluid styrax, turpentine, camphor, cedria, all the species of balm; wood of aloes, tartar, potash, from the lees of wine, civet, castor, musk, ambergris, labdanum, Jew’s pitch, asphaltum, pisasphaltum, slacked-lime, plaster, sulphur, common salt, rock-salt, saltpetre, alum, amber, &c.

The article of compound drugs, is not less extensive, such as the tincture of musk, ambergris, civet, benzoin, styrax, aloes, myrrh. The distilled oils and essences of the plants which we have named,—spirits of wine, distilled myrrh, aloes, and amber,—is excellent for the preservation of the fetus.

The salt of Clauderus has also enjoyed a great reputation; the following is its composition: Dissolve one pound of common salt with a pound of oil of vitriol in a crucible, apply a cover closely luted, and distil it gradually in a sand bath; you may pour off a spirit very excellent for a lotion; in the bottom of the crucible will remain a caput mortuum, which should be dissolved according to art, and after evaporation, you will have the salt so much esteemed by the author. We may add here the brine, which is described in the collections of Charles de Maetz, (chap. 100, et 194; and chap. 23 of the book entitled Chemia Rationalis, and also in the work of Blanchard,) they advise that after a corpse has been emptied and cleaned of its excretions, it be placed in a leaden coffin, and there macerated in a sufficient quantity of pure oil of turpentine, and after some days of maceration, to wash it with spirits of wine to remove the odour, then sprinkle it with a strong tincture of myrrh and aloes, which they call balsamum mortuorum, and that it be finally dried in the sun.

I shall not now enter into the endless discussions upon the different species of salts, which some boast of for embalming, whilst others consider them injurious to the preservation of bodies. I abstain also, from speaking of lime, to which, however, wonders have been attributed: thus it was lime which preserved the body of Afra: and in the year 1523, under the pontificat of Adrian VI., the body of Saint Thomas, the Apostle, was likewise found towards the Gulf of Coromandel, endued, and covered with a cement made of lime and urine; the bones were very white, and along side of him the spear of his lance, a part of the cane which had served him during his journey, and an earthen vase which had been sprinkled with his blood. Notwithstanding these remarkable examples, if they are true, the authors who relate them give no importance to the processes to which we owe them, they even complain of the sordid views of those, who, in order to augment the mass of matters, do not hesitate to mix thereto plaster, ashes, &c. We give the description of some of these mixtures composed of the substances which we have enumerated.

1.—Balsamic Wine.

Reduce these drugs to a coarse powder, macerate for a few hours in wine, and boil slightly.

Usages.—Lotion for the interior parts of the body; and to disinfect the chamber during the operation.

2.—Compound Brandy.

Macerate in a sea-bath for twenty-four hours, in fifteen pints of best brandy, with as much distilled vinegar.

3.—Vinegar for washing the head, the breast, the belly, and for injections.

Reduce to a coarse powder, and macerate in forty pints of rose-vinegar; then strain for use.

4.—Another.

Let it boil a little, and add two pints of brandy; better than the preceding.

The embalmer ought to have several large sponges; about four pounds of tow to dry the blood and absorb the powders; cotton for the mouth, nose, and ears; coarse brush for rubbing the exterior of the body with the liniment. The artist should have, besides, two ells of cere-cloth, which he can prepare for himself after one of the following formulæ:

1.—Cere-cloth.

Melt and mix them over a slow fire, then draw the linen through it frequently so as to impregnate both sides.

2.—Another.

Melt, and mix the whole with two pounds of mutton suet, and plunge the linen in it as before.

3.—Another.

Melt, and soak as before.

4.—Another.