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:
[1821]
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 Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    They are strongly impregnated with a saline substance, which appears to be principally sulphate of soda. Such is the result of the researches of M. Rouyer. Whence it appears that the most precious and most perfect mode of embalming, was, as stated by the ancient authors, with the resms. Next with asphaltos. The third with pis-asphaltos. The fourth and meanest with saline substances. It is proba- ble, however, though M. Rouyer does not appear to be of this opinion, that the saline substance was equally employed in every mode ; but that in the more perfect, it was carefully washed away before the resinous and bituminous substances were applied. Whatever was the mode of embalming, he found the cover- ings of the bodies much the same : varying only in the num- ber of thicknesses of bandage, or in the delicacy of its tex- ture. Next the body there is found a close shirt, laced at the back and made tight 'at the neck. The head is covered with a square piece of linen of fine texture : the centre of which serves as a kind of mask; sometimes there are five or six of these, one over the other, and the last is gilt, and repre- sents the countenance of the deceased person. Every part of the bodj' is enveloped by separate bands, impregnated with resin; the legs are brought together and the arms cross- ed over the breast, and confined in this situation by bandages, curiously rolled round the whole body, to the number of fifteen or twenty thicknesses. The outer turns are covered with hieroglyphics, and secured by long bands artificially and symmetrically arranged. Under the exterior bands are often found idols of gold, bronze, varnished earthen ware, painted or gilt wood, rolls of papyrus containing hieroglyphics, and many other objects which had a relation to religion, or were associated with cir- cumstances dear to the individual while alive. It is rare to find mummies enclosed in their cases; the pieces of these only being discovered. Many bodies were placed in the sepulchral caves, wells, and niches without; and those which had possessed cases, were generally thrown out of them. Those cases, which served, says M. Rouyer, for the rich, and for persons of great distinction, were double. That which enclosed the body was composed of a great number of thicknessses of a kind of pasteboard; and tljia was enclosed in a second, made of sycamore wood or cedar. They were accommodated to the snape of the body they enclosed. The outer case had a likeness of the individual. It was compos-