Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1834 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter V. on embalming. Embalming--definition--Ethiopian, Persian, and Scythian methods of preserving their dead--also of the Greeks and Romans--Egyptian method the most perfect--unknown at this day--accounts of by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus--difficulty of assigning with precision the antiquity of a mummy--points to be attended to in this enquiry--Count de Caylus's opinion--the testimony of St. Athanasius and of St. Augustine--embalming of strangers--examination of the ancient accounts of this process--embalmers probably an inferior kind of priesthood--honours paid to the embalmers or swathers--three methods described by Herodotus--these admit of many subdivisions--price of embalming--First method: Extraction of the brain--insects found in the head of a GrtBco-Egyptian mummy--extraction not practised in all cases--Dr. Lee's mummy--head filled with bituminous matter and other substances--Dr. Perry's mummy--Dr. Mead's mummy--Mr. Davidson's mummy--ventral incision--the scribe--representations of this part of the process in papyri--the dissector--jethiopic stone--prayer uttered by the embalmers--recordof it by Porphyry--evisceration of the body--canopi or vases for the intestines--palm wine--aromatics--replacing of the viscera--discovery of the heart in the author's Graco-Egyptian mummy--restoration of different parts to a natural state--extraction of the viscera not always practised in the most expensive mode--use of spices--resinous matters--nalrum--period for which the body was to lie in a solution of this substance--removal of the cuticle--great care taken to preserve the nails--body anointed with oil of cedar, Sfc--probable application of heat--gilding of mummies--testimony of Abd'Allatif, Hertzog, Denon, Jomard, Rouyer, .
