Description of an Egyptian mummy, presented to the Massachusetts General Hospital : with an account of the operation of embalming, in ancient and modern times / by John C. Warren.

  • Warren, John Collins, 1778-1856.
Date:
[1824?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of an Egyptian mummy, presented to the Massachusetts General Hospital : with an account of the operation of embalming, in ancient and modern times / by John C. Warren. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ed to the air, attract moisture, and in a few days exhale a dis- agreeable smell. The mummies prepared with bitumen are of a black colour. The skin is hard and shining as if it had been varnished. The head, breast, and abdomen, are filled with a resinous black substance, which presents the properties of bitumen. These are heavy, unalterable, and do not attract humidity. Many of them are gilt like the first species. The mummies which have an incision in the left side, and which have been salted, are likewise of two kinds, one filled with resins, and the other with asphaltos or bitumen. Both of these are very numerous. When exposed to the air they attract moisture, and are then distinguished from the species not salted, by being covered with a light saline efflorescence, which appears to be sulphate of soda. The second class of mummies, which have not the incision on the left side, nor any other part of the body, but from which the viscera have been withdrawn through the anus, are also distinguishable into two sorts : first, those which have been salted and afterwards filled with a bituminous substance, and second, those which have been merely salted. The first species of these are filled with a substance called pis-asphaltos,* less pure than the bitumen of Judea. Not only are all the cavities filled, but the surface is covered, and every part seems to be penetrated with it; so that it might be supposed the body had been immersed in a cauldron of the bitumen, while in a state of liquefaction. These are the most common of all: they are black, hard, heavy, difficult to break, and have a disagreeable penetrating smell. The bituminous matter is fat to the touch, less black and friable than asphal- tos ; dissolves imperfectly in alcohol; distilled, it gives an abundance of fat oil of a fetid smell. The mummies, which are only salted and dried, are not so well preserved as those above-mentioned. It is rare to find them in an entire state; for most commonly the flesh is, to a greater or less extent, separated from the bones, leaving them quite clean and white. The skin is white and supple. The flesh, having been less dried, is sometimes converted into adi- pocire, and lumps of this matter are also found in the cavities. *The natural pis-asphaltos is, according to Dioscorides and others, a kind of bitumen flowing from certain mountains. It is found in various parts of the world. r