GANNAL’S PROCESS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF NORMAL ANATOMY,
PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY, AND NATURAL HISTORY, p. 197.--Difference
between the processes of preservation offered to anatomists, and
those practised for embalming: 1. Preservation of bodies for
dissection--Table of my experiments in 1828--In 1831--Kindness of
M. Professor Orfila--What formerly existed upon this matter--My
point of departure proceeding from the practice of artists--Action
of Acids--Salts--Aluminous salts--These possess in the highest
degree the preservative property--Selection to be made among
these salts--My first experiments--Satisfying results--Proved
by commissions appointed by the Academy of Sciences, and the
Academy of Medicine--Series of researches--Misreckoning--New
experiments--Superiority of the acetate of alum--Facts--Chloride
of alumine, its defects--Arsenic, and bad results--First
report of the Academy of Sciences--First report of the
Academy of Medicine--Definitive report of the Academy of
Medicine--Reflections--Some good results obtained at first
from a mixture of alum, nitrate of potash, and chloride of
sodium--Not sustained above the 10° of centigrade--Bath--Light
furnished by it--Data for new researches--Acetate of alumine
excellent--Reason for renouncing its use for amphitheatres--Simple
sulphate, its analysis--Demonstration of its superiority over
acid sulphate--Various liquors of which it is the base--Black
colour of the skin--Its cause--Report of the commission of the
Institute--Experiments of MM. Serres, Dubreuil, Bourgery, Azoux,
Velpeau, Amussat--My process applied to the dissecting rooms of
Clamart: 2. Anatomical preparations--Those of pathology, and
Natural history--Facts, proving a perfect preservation during many
years--Composition of various preservative liquids--Usage--Example
of the preservation of dry pieces by the simple sulphate--All
my experiments first attempted on the fœtus--Circumstances the
most unfavourable: 3. Embalming--There remains for me a series of
experiments to perform, to enable me to practise embalming--Data
to which I must confine myself--Have I attained my end?--Answer
to this question by facts--Exhumation--First observation--Second
observation.
APPENDIX, p. 253.
_To Messrs. Members of the Academy of Sciences._
GENTLEMEN,--From the commencement of my researches upon the
preservation of animal matters, you have encouraged me by extending
your support to efforts which my own resources would not perhaps have
enabled me to continue; in this path strewn with so many difficulties,
and disgusts, I have endeavoured to show myself worthy of your high
protection.
At a later period, when I was able to offer to physicians and
naturalists methods of preservation superior to those previously
known, you conferred upon me the prize founded by Monthyon. I have
pursued my researches with the view of adapting my process to the art
of embalming; the happy results which I have obtained have inspired me
with the idea of comparing my mummies with those obtained by processes
different from my own.
Finally, I have extended this parallel between my processes and those
formerly applied, to preparations of healthy anatomy, to pathological
anatomy, and to natural history.
My labour terminated, I have thought it my duty to dedicate to you a
work the publication of which is due to the decision which your wisdom
and justice have dictated.
Allow me, gentlemen, to consider this dedication as a new encouragement
which you are willing to confer upon me, and trust in the respectful
sentiments with which I have the honour to be, your very humble and
very grateful servant,
Gannal.
PREFACE.
I had terminated my first researches upon the preservation of animal
matters, and proposed to publish them; my notes were collated and my
work prepared, when the idea struck me that in place of confining
myself to the exposition of the results which I had obtained, I might,
with advantage to science, present a history of the art of embalming
from the highest antiquity to our time, and compare my processes,
with those in use for the preservation of objects of normal anatomy,
pathological anatomy, and natural history.
This determination has decided me to publish a volume, in place of a
pamphlet of fifty pages.
I had no model to follow, for no author had re-united in the same book,
the elements of which I wished this might be composed. I found myself,
therefore, necessitated to collect together in the following pages the
materials scattered throughout numerous works.
For embalming, _Plutarch_, _Herodotus_, _Diodorus Sicculus_,
_Stacy_, _Pliny_, _Cicero_, _Porphyrus_, _Prosper Alpin_, _Cassien_,
_Clauderus_, _Penicher_, _Baricel_, _Rodiginus_, _Corippus_,
_Gryphius_, _Crollius_, _the Reverend Fathers Kircher and Ménestrier_,
_De Maillet_, _Volney_, _Rouelle_, _the Count de Caylus_, _MM.
Pariset_, _Rouyer_, _Bory de Saint Vincent_, and numerous other
authors, have furnished me with descriptions and materials, which I
was obliged to put in order and bring before the eye of the reader, in
order to present to him a useful lecture, and in some sort preparatory
to my own ideas. As my point of departure was scientific data, opinions
and facts have come in place as the recital needed them; and thanks
to this idea, which has never abandoned me, the numerous materials
from which, in the commencement, I feared disorder and confusion, have
come, as if by consent to dispose themselves in order; so great is the
influence of a general idea in the arrangement of facts. I believe
that I have reduced to exact proportions the art of embalming among
different nations. My predecessors had referred too little to _nature_,
too much to _man_, in the appreciation of Egyptian embalming; they had
not sufficiently estimated the difficulties of the same practice among
nations less favoured by climate. Facts reconsidered and interrogated
with the aid of lights afforded by the recent progress of physics and
chemistry, have furnished us with consequences naturally resulting from
their attentive examination.
When the history of an art is followed step by step, as we have done
for that of embalming, one is astonished at a psychological fact,
equally applicable to every case--we see how idle and common place the
human mind is, and how little prone it is to spontaneous activity. The
gross and inconsiderate imitation of the Egyptian processes during a
long series of ages, is one of the most remarkable examples of this
disposition.
Trials directed by a spirit of analysis and critical examination have
enabled me to substitute for complex operations, for long difficult and
expensive operations, most frequently inefficacious, a simple means, of
a determined action, and submitted for several years to the examination
of committees appointed by the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of
Medicine.
In order to trace the history of the preservation of objects of
anatomy and natural history I have had no occasion to go back to an
epoch distant from our own; for this science is altogether new. Beyond
the discoveries of Chaussier, on the preservative properties of the
deuto-chloride of mercury, the labours of MM. Dumèril, Cloquet and
Breschet, there is very little existing on this subject. So that I have
concluded, after a complete exposition of the preservative means given
by these authors, it only remained for me to propose the preservative
substances which, after numerous experiments, have appeared to me
preferable to those which they have recommended. They possess a
peculiar merit for the formation of cabinets of natural history, that
of reducing the expense to at least one-nineteenth.
I have considered it my duty to give here the details of the
composition of the liquids employed, either as baths or injections,
by the physician and naturalist; the interest of science imposing on
me this obligation. But, as regards embalming, the same motive does
not exist; I have consequently abstained from giving in totality the
means employed in this operation, reserving to myself the care of this
process on the request of families or physicians.[A]
[A] This paragraph, evidently empyrical in its bearing, is derogatory
to Gannal as a man of science. We further believe that the pretended
secret of his manipulations is of little consequence to the success
of the operation: it is generally understood that to the fluid
acetate of alumine (produced by the chemical action induced by
the mixture of the solutions of acetate of lead and alum,) to be
injected, a little arsenic is added, to prevent the formation of the
byssus, and attacks of insects, also some carmine, to give to the
subject a healthy colour.--_Tr._
It was not until after many unsuccessful efforts that I succeeded in
discovering a method capable of insuring the indefinite preservation of
bodies deposited in the earth. A thousand unexpected difficulties arose
in my path; and to cite only one, at the end of eight or nine months
of preservation, a vegetable production, known to botanists under the
name of byssus, for a long time embarrassed me; I tried numerous means,
before discovering one capable of suppressing this formation.
The perfection to which I have brought the art of embalming, leaves
little to desire. So convinced am I at length of the efficacy of the
processes which I employ, that I shall be always ready, at the request
of the authorities or of families, to exhume those bodies which I have
already embalmed in great numbers, at any expressed period of time.
INTRODUCTION.
The Egyptians embalmed their dead, and the processes which they
employed were sufficiently perfect to secure them an indefinite
preservation. This is a fact of which the pyramids, the caverns, and
all the sepultures of Egypt offer us irrefragible proofs. But what
were the causes and the origin of this custom? We have in answer to
this question only hypothesis and conjecture. In the absence of valid
documents, each one explains according to the bias of his mind, or the
nature of his studies, a usage, the origin of which is lost in the
night of time. One of the ancients informs us that the Egyptians took
so much pains for the preservation of the body, believing that the
soul inhabited it so long as it subsisted. Cassien, on the other hand,
assures us that they invented this method because they were unable to
bury their dead during the period of inundation. Herodotus, in his
third book, observes, that embalming had for its object the securing
of bodies from the voracity of animals; _they did not bury them_, says
he, _for fear they would be eaten by worms, and they did not burn them,
because they considered fire like a wild beast that devours everything
it can seize upon_. Filial piety and respect for the dead, according
to Diodorus Sicculus, were the sentiments which inspired the Egyptians
with the idea of embalming the dead bodies. De Maillet, in his tenth
letter upon Egypt, refers only to a religious motive the origin of
embalming: “The priests and sages of Egypt taught their fellow citizens
that, after a certain number of ages, which they made to amount to
thirty or forty thousand years, and at which they fixed the epoch of
the great revolution when the earth would return to the point at which
it commenced its existence, their souls would return to the same bodies
which they formerly inhabited. But, in order to arrive, after death,
to this wished for resurrection, two things were absolutely necessary;
first, that the bodies should be absolutely carefully preserved from
corruption, in order that the souls might re-inhabit them; secondly,
that the penance submitted to during this long period of years, that
the numerous sacrifices founded by the dead, or those offered to their
manes by their relations or their friends, should expiate the crimes
they had committed during the time of their first habitation on earth.
With these conditions exactly observed, these souls, separated from
their bodies, should be permitted to re-enter at the arrival of this
grand revolution which they anticipated--remember all that had passed
during their first sojourn, and become immortal like themselves. They
had further the privilege of communicating this same happiness to the
animals which they had cherished, provided that their bodies inclosed
in the same tomb with themselves, were equally well preserved. It is
in virtue of this belief that so many birds, cats, and other animals
are found embalmed with almost the same care as the human bodies with
which they have been deposited. Such was the idea of perfect happiness
which they hoped to enjoy in this new life. In expectation of this
resurrection, the souls inhabited the airs nearest the dwellings where
reposed the bodies they had animated. But superstition alone, it could
scarcely be believed, would induce men to save from destruction the
mortal spoils of individuals whom they had loved whilst living. I much
prefer looking for the source of this usage in the sentiment which
survives a cherished object snatched from affection by the hand of
death. Since death levels all distinctions--respecting neither love nor
friendship,--since the dearest and most sacred ties are relentlessly
broken asunder, it is the natural attribute of affection, to seek to
avoid in some degree, a painful separation, by preserving the remains
of those they love and by whom they were beloved. Love, tenderness,
and friendship, do not terminate with the objects which gave them
birth--they survive and follow them even beyond the tomb.”--(_Bory de
Saint Vincent, Essay on the Fortunate Islands.--Embalming of the
Guanches._) The same author adds: “The custom of preserving their dead,
which was only national among the Egyptians and Guanches, that is to
say, with men the least instructed, and a nation the most learned,
is, as we have said above, proof of a profound sensibility among
nations with whom it is general. Without doubt, an enlightened policy
would contribute much to introduce, extend, and confirm the practice.
It proves an intelligent government, one full of solicitude for the
happiness of its subjects.”
The opinion of Volney, revived and adopted by Pariset, in his memoir
on the causes of the plague, is closely allied to the preceding. “In
a numerous population, under a burning climate, and a soil profoundly
drenched during many months of the year, the rapid putrefaction of
bodies is a leaven for plague and disease. Stricken by these murderous
pests, Egypt, at an early day, struggled to obviate them; hence have
arisen, on the one hand, the custom of burying their dead at a distance
from their habitations; and on the other, an art so ingenious and
simple, to prevent putrefaction by embalming: a secondary precaution,
more important and more efficacious, with which the primary could not
dispense, and which, exacting attempts, trials, and experiments, could
only be obtained as a last result--an art by no means expensive, of
a simplicity and facility of execution, which rendered its immediate
application popular, general, and, perhaps, uniform for all dead
bodies. Research and luxury followed at a later period.” The sentiments
to which the authors above cited attribute the origin of embalming
among the Egyptians exist in every man, viewed either as a social or
isolated being. One individual may be induced to embalm the bodies
of his relatives or friends by motives of superstition; another from
egotism or personal interest; a third from motives of salubrity or
common interest; another, in fine, is impelled by an instinctive
affection to perform the sacred duty of preserving the remains of those
who were dear to him. But none of these motives possess a character
of generality and perpetuity, which consecrates a usage and renders it
popular; it was therefore left to government to interfere and give it
the force of law.
The noble sentiments of affection, of respect, and of veneration, had
then, without doubt, the priority; and everything proves to us that
these inspired the admirable art of embalming, and that they were above
all invoked by legislators.
Nature, besides, upon this torrid soil, gave the first idea of this
mode of preserving the remains of men and animals: the mummy[1] of
the sands, a natural phenomenon, was a revelation to a people so wise
and industrious. The course of our work will demonstrate, we hope,
the simple connection of these facts; it had already arrested M. le
Comte de Caylus, who, in a memoir read to the Academy of Inscriptions
and Belles-Lettres, in 1749, thus expresses himself: “The Egyptians,
according to appearances, owe the idea of their mummies, to the dead
bodies which they found buried in the burning sands which prevail
in some parts of Egypt, and which, carried away by the winds, bury
travellers and preserve their bodies, by consuming the fat and flesh
without altering the skin.”
[1] _Momie_ or _mumie_: the etymology of this word is not well known:
the Jesuit Kircher supposes that _mum_ is a Persian word, and Pére
Martini, an Arab name, signifying _a dried corpse_: other writers
derive mummy from _ammomum_, the name of an aromatic plant. These
conjectures I leave to the etymologists.
The same opinion is advanced by Rouelle. In our general history of
the preservation of the human body, the mummy of the sand, and those
induced by other local circumstances, will have the first place;
and the art of embalming among the Egyptians and the Guanches will
occupy the second. This art, we have already said, presents among
these people, a general character, which does not appear in any other
country. No where, indeed, are the processes of preservation so
efficacious, and these two nations alone, have been able to endow their
mummies with the power of resisting destruction.
We shall see in the sequel this custom establish itself among the
Jews, the Greeks, the Romans and moderns--but it no longer displays
a general character; it is no longer a law, a social institution;
religious belief, superstition, personal interest, salubrity, no longer
obliged them to recur to it. Sentiments of veneration, respect, and
attachment, to which we have given the priority to all others, sufficed
to perpetuate this custom, and have preserved it for a long series of
ages, from the epoch of the Jews, down to our day.
Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm the body of
his father, which they executed according to order, in the space of
forty days.--(_Genesis._)
Saint John informs us, that Nicodemus took a hundred pounds of a
mixture of myrrh and aloes, with which to embalm the body of Jesus
Christ, which they enveloped in sheets with aromatics, according to the
usual mode of burying the dead among the Jews.
Testimony of a similar nature, transmitted to us by historians, show us
this usage in vigor among the Persians, the Arabians, the Ethiopians,
&c.: for kings, princes, and persons of distinction, to whom they would
not consider that they had rendered the respect due to their memories
if they had failed to preserve preciously what remained of them.
Corippus, in his funeral oration on the Emperor Justinien, thus
expresses himself on the embalming of this emperor:
“Thura sabæa cremant, fragrantia mille
Infundunt pateris, et odoro balsama succo, locatis
Centum aliæ species; unguentaque mira feruntur
Tempus in æternum sacrum servantia corpus.”[2]
[2] They burned the incense of Arabia, balms and perfumes of every
kind filled a thousand vases, and the body is for ever preserved from
corruption by essences possessing wonderful properties.
The Romans, nevertheless, often contented themselves, in washing and
rubbing the body with certain perfumes.
“Tarquinii corpus bona femina lavit et unxit.”[3]
[3] A benevolent woman washed the body of Tarquin, and rubbed it with
perfumes.
The Egyptian mummies, which are distinguished from those of other
nations by the admirable state of preservation in which we find
them at the present time, have been for the philosopher a subject
of interesting study and research,--for the ignorant, a cause of
astonishment and superstitious fear; for physicians, an empyrical
remedy for a long time in vogue. The history of Razevil, the Pole,
proves the evil influence attributed to mummies. He had purchased at
Alexandria, two Egyptian mummies, one of a man, the other of a woman,
in order to take them to Europe; he divided them into six pieces,
which he separately enclosed in as many boxes, made of the bark of
dried trees, and in a seventh box he placed idols discovered with the
two bodies. But, as the Turks forbid the sale and transport of these
mummies, fearing lest Christians might compose some sorcery of them to
the injury of their nation, the Polonaise concluded to bribe the Jew
commissioned to examine the bales and merchandise. The plan succeeded,
the Jew shipped all the cases as shells, to be transported to Europe.
Previous to setting sail, I found, says he, a priest returning from
Jerusalem, and who could not accomplish his voyage without the aid
which I gave him on this occasion, in inviting him to take passage in
our ship. One day, whilst this good man was occupied in counting his
breviary, there arose a furious tempest, and he warned us, that besides
the danger, he perceived two great obstacles to our voyage in two
spectres, which continually haunted him: the tempest over, I taunted
him as a visionary, because I never imagined that my mummies could have
been the cause of it. But I was obliged in the sequel to change my
opinion, when there happened another storm, more violent and dangerous
than the first, and when the spectres again appeared to our priest
whilst he was saying his prayers, under the figures of a man and woman
dressed as my mummies were.
When the tempest was partially appeased, I privately threw overboard
the seven boxes, which was not so adroitly executed, however, but that
the captain got notice of it, when, with great delight, he promised us
that we should have no more storms; which effectively happened, and the
good priest was troubled with no more visions. I had a severe reprimand
from the captain for having embarked these mummies in his vessel,
against which the sea had so great antipathy. The theologians of the
isle of Crete, where we anchored, justified my conduct, acknowledging
that it was lawful to Christians to transport these mummies for the
assistance of the infirm, and that the church did not forbid the usage.
The judgment of the theologians of the isle of Crete, proves
that the employment of the mummy as a medicine was universally
admitted. According to Dioscorides, it is heating and drying in
the second degree--it relieves the headach, cures megraim, palsy,
and epilepsy--wonderful in relieving vertigo and drowsiness--an
antidote against poisons of all kinds--the bite of venomous
beasts--useful, according to Rhasis, in the spitting of blood, rupture
of blood-vessels, wounds, &c.;--in one word, no remedy was esteemed
more efficacious for the human body, than the human body taken as a
medicine. One dram of the oil of mummy of Paracelsus, rendered all
poisons innocuous for twenty-four hours; the formulæ of Crollius,
of Fernel, of Clauderus, produced effects equally miraculous.
The _divine water of Scroder_, was the touch-stone by whose aid the
issue of a disorder could be known in advance: a dram of this liquor
was mixed with nine drops of the blood of the patient, or with a
double proportion of his urine; if these fluids did not mix, it was
an infallible sign of approaching death; on the other hand, if they
mixed readily, you might anticipate the health or cure of the patient
in twenty-four hours. The great king, Francis 1st, wore around his
neck a piece of mummy as a preservative against all evils. Powerless
preservative!
I have designedly placed, after an example of superstition, facts which
prove the stupidity, or charlatanism of the profession, it appearing
to me instructive to preserve the progressive ascendency; the march
from the little to the great, in ridicule, as in everything else,
is absurd. The difficulty of obtaining mummies enough to satisfy
the demand, gave rise to an abominable traffic, against which many
physicians remonstrated. “The base avidity of gain increased daily,
and they commenced embalming with salt and alum the bodies of those
who had died of leprosy, of plague, or small pox, in order to obtain,
in the course of a few months, the cadaverous rottenness which flowed
from them, and to sell this for true and legitimate mummy; and even
at the present time, they make no scruples to give the name of mummy
to the dead bodies found in the Deserts of Arabia, and make patients
take it internally.”--(_Durenou._) The characters of a mummy of good
quality, had, nevertheless, been well determined. “Those bodies are not
mummies,” says Penicher, “dried by the sands of Lybia, nor those buried
and preserved beneath the snow; nor those bodies submerged by the sea,
thrown up and dried on the coast, even to the last degree of blackness;
nor of criminals, hung and dried in the sun--for these are of no
use.”--(_Ant. Santorel._) The Pissasphaltum, which is the mummy of the
Arabians and the ancients, according to Serapion and Avicenna, is not
what we desire; because the odour is disagreeable, and it can possess
no other virtue than a mixture of pitch and _asphaltum_. Neither is
mummy a certain fluid which flows from the coffins of embalmed bodies,
mentioned by Dioscorides and Mathioles, and which is only, properly
speaking, a mixture of humours, mixed, soaked, and penetrated by
aromatics, of which the embalming consists.
_Andrew Gryphius_ teaches us, that a good mummy ought to be reddish,
light, greasy, and with some odour, but as the embalming materials
vary much, as well as their quality, the bodies being more or less
well preserved, and it is even possible they may be poisonous, it has
appeared expedient to compose a mummy methodically digested. Among the
numerous formulæ for officinal _mummies_, we shall content ourselves
with citing here that of _Crollius_.
_Mummy of Crollius._ “Choose the body of a hanged person, preferring
one with red hair, because in this sort of temperament the blood is
thinner; the flesh impregnated with aromatics is better, being filled
with sulphur and balsamic salt; it ought to be about twenty-four years
of age, healthy, whole, and of good constitution; you will take pieces
of the flesh of this corpse, _they would be still better if taken from
the body of a living man_; notably, from the thighs, buttocks, &c.;
strip them of their arteries, nerves, veins, and fat, and then wash
them well with spirits of wine; then expose them to the sun and moon
for two days, during mild and dry weather, to the end that the action
of the rays of light of these two planets, particularly of the sun,
may exalt and liberate the principles concentered in the flesh; powder
it with myrrh, styrax, aloes, saffron, which constitute the basis of
the elixir proprietatis of Paracelsus; having previously rubbed the
flesh with true balm, macerate it for twelve or fifteen days in a well
corked vessel with first quality spirits of wine and salt, which form
of themselves a species of balm: at the end of this time withdraw the
flesh, let it drain, and dry in the sun; let them again, for the same
space of time, and in the same manner, macerate in a similar fluid, and
expose it afterwards to the sun and fire, in the same manner they do
hams; flesh thus prepared will be found to be an excellent mummy.”
Conceding that the use of the mummy in medicine is one of the strangest
and most extravagant abuses of empyricism, the officinal mummy of
_Crollius_ must be considered as an improvement, inasmuch as it is
divested of the dangers attached to other mummies; it was even a
benefit, for this remedy divested of the marvellous, reduced to the
level of a common drug, was justly appreciated and soon forgotten. The
art of embalming among the Egyptians and Guanches, was carried to a
degree of perfection attained by no other nation who followed their
example. And, nevertheless, what are the mummies of these countries?
They are, according to the definition of R. P. Kircher, bodies stuffed
and filled with odoriferant, aromatic, and balsamic drugs, capable
of arresting the progress of putrid decomposition. Numerous incisions
enabled the preservative matter to enter the cavities and deep tissues:
agreeably to the relations of Herodotus, of Diodorus Sicculus, and of
Porphyrus, the cranium was emptied either through the nostrils, or by
an opening made in one of the orbits: the contents of the thorax and
abdomen were withdrawn and placed in a trunk. “The Egyptians,” says
Plutarch, “drew the intestines from the dead bodies, and, after having
exposed them to the sun, cast them away as the cause of all the sins
committed by man.”
The moderns have adopted an analogous mode of preparation, and in our
days, previous to my researches on the preservation of animal matters,
the processes of embalming were long and complicated.
In the Dictionary of Medicine, of twenty-five volumes, (_Paris_, 1835,)
M. Murat traces in these terms the rules for embalming:
“Before commencing this operation, it is necessary to procure the
following objects: alcohol saturated with camphor, camphorated
vinegar, a varnish composed of the balsams of Perou and copaiba, fluid
styrax, the oils of Muscat, of lavender, and of thyme, &c., alcohol
saturated with proto-chloride of mercury, a powder composed of tan, of
decrepitated salt, of quinquina, of cascarilla, of mint, of benzoin,
of castor, of Jew’s pitch, &c.--all these substances mixed and reduced
to a fine powder, are sprinkled with essential oils. The powdered tan
ought to form nearly half the weight, and the salt one-fourth; there
ought also be placed, at the disposition of the embalmer, a certain
number of bandages, linen, sponges, and waxed threads, also several
basins filled with pure water, &c.
“The breast and belly must be opened by large incisions, and their
contents extracted; the brain is removed after the necessary incisions
of the scalp, and sawing circularly the bones of the cranium; deep
and repeated incisions are to be made in the viscera. If we wish to
preserve the intestinal tube, we must open it throughout its whole
length, wash it well in water and compress it; wash it a second time
in camphorated vinegar, and finally with camphorated alcohol. Large
incisions must be multiplied on the interior surfaces of the great
cavities, and along the extremities.”
I stop at these details, because they suffice to prove that the art
of embalming, down to the present, has had for its object, not the
preservation of the whole subject intact, but the preparation of animal
matters padded, stuffed with aromatics and salts: a preparation always
incomplete, tedious, and expensive. This is the point from which I
start in the preservation of animal matter, and the art of embalming.
Have I the happiness of adding a step to science? my readers shall be
the judges.
The Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Medicine, have proved
that, by one of my processes, subjects destined for dissection can be
preserved. Bodies kept for several months, and afterwards carried to
the amphitheatre, have been found as fresh and as fit for dissection,
as individuals dead only two days.[B]
[B] The colour of the tissues is changed, however, being bleached
by the acetate of alumine--but this is far preferable to the black
putridity, which renders the anatomical subject so disgusting and
unhealthy, when subjects are scarce.--_Tr._
These early successes, and the honourable encouragements which they
have received, gave me the idea of bringing the art of embalming to
perfection; and I have attained to the power of preserving bodies,
_with all their parts, both internal and external, without any
mutilation or extraction, and so as to admit of the contemplation of
the person embalmed, with the countenance of one asleep_.
This discovery has been confirmed by a commission of the Academy of
Sciences, who, in its public sitting in the month of August, 1837,
conferred upon me the grand prize.
Having decided to publish the result of my researches, I thought it
best to precede it by a general history of embalming, and it appeared
to me that a book which would reunite so many interesting documents
up to the present time scattered throughout so many works, would not
be without interest. If my readers join with me in this opinion, I
shall not have laboured in vain, and my work shall have received that
recompense of which I am most ambitious.
Nevertheless, I conceived that my endeavour should not be restricted
to the simple exposition of my researches, and that it was a duty I
owed, to place at the disposition of my fellow citizens the means of
continuing some relations with the remains of persons whom they had
held dear. The sentiments of love, friendship, respect, and veneration,
which preserves in our hearts as a sacred depôt, the memory of friends
and relations, give, even to an indifferent portrait, which recalls
their features to us, an inappreciable value. The heart warms and
vivifies this faint image, and recalls to us the words and actions of
those who have departed.
These same sentiments cause us painfully to experience the full rigour
of that law of nature which condemns to the decomposition of the grave,
remains so sacred to us. I have desired to offer to persons groaning
under an afflicting loss, the means of preserving all that death has
left them; with this intention I have founded an Embalming Society,
and I have placed the price for this operation within the reach of the
majority of persons. For men destitute of resources, who have rendered
themselves worthy, by their talents or virtues, of the remembrance of
their species, the public authorities may reclaim of us a gratuitous
embalming. We shall be happy to preserve to society the mortal spoils
of those who honour and are useful to it.
HISTORY OF EMBALMING.
CHAPTER I.
OF EMBALMING IN GENERAL.
As soon as life ceases in animal matter, disorganization commences; the
constituent elements separate, to be variously recombined, and to give
birth to new compounds.
The elevation of atmospheric temperature in certain determined
hygrometric limits, and the action of oxygen, are those circumstances
which lead necessarily to this decomposition. But, at a given
temperature, the progress of putrid fermentation is not the same
for all animals; this varies among different species, and different
individuals of similar species, according to laws not well determined.
But so important, however, are these laws, to the art of embalming,
that processes which are sufficient for the preservation of one body,
may fail in their application to others.
The ancients had well observed, it is true, that the diversity of
climates contributed much to the difference in mummies, and to the
success of embalming; for, according to _Camerarius_, great difference
exists between the bodies of Europeans and Orientals; the latter, of
a dryer temperament, are not exposed to so rapid a decomposition. The
example related by _Ammian Marcellini_ is a convincing proof. Four
days, says he, after a combat between the Persians and Romans, the
countenance of the latter could scarcely be recognised; the bodies of
the Persians, on the contrary, were dry, without humidity, without
sanies, and without any alteration.
If sufficient attention is given to this fact, and we consider further,
that the thermometrical and hygrometrical conditions of the atmosphere
were such in Egypt, that the bodies abandoned to themselves, become
dried and formed natural mummies, we shall perceive how vain and
unreasonable have been the attempts of those who, for a long series of
ages, expected in the middle and northern portions of Europe to embalm
human bodies by processes which are only an imperfect imitation of
those of Egypt, even in what is defective. Finally, we shall understand
how it happens that the sepulchres of the Guanches and Egyptians, yield
bodies in such a perfect state of preservation, whilst those of our
country offer only bones and dust.
Whilst according to the Egyptians the just tribute of admiration which
their profound wisdom and extensive acquirements merit, we ought, in a
scientific question, to defend ourselves from the infatuation of our
predecessors, which led them into error, and appreciate at their just
value facts badly observed.
We read in the letters of M. de Maillet, “the dry and nitrous earth of
Egypt has the property of naturally preserving entire bodies without
the aid of any art, especially in those countries at a distance from
the Nile. This is a fact which experience does not permit us to doubt.
Not long since, there were buried some Frenchmen, in a Coptic church
which is in old Cairo, and those who descended the cavern found the
bodies of others who had been previously deposited for some time, as
perfect as they were the very day that they were inhumed: The clothes
even of a Venetian consul, whose corpse had been here interred,
were perfectly preserved. I have likewise visited several ancient
Mosques, formerly celebrated, but now in ruins, which are situated on
the road from Cairo to Suez; these edifices have served as tombs to
some Mahommedan kings, whose bodies were here deposited, during the
period when Egypt was subject to the Arabs. I investigated some of
these caverns, and can assert that I observed bodies so light from
desiccation that they could be raised with one hand as easily as if
they were a walking stick. Among these bodies, was one which weighed
less than four pounds; I saw also a thigh, which, although it appeared
entire and full of flesh, with the leg and foot attached, did not weigh
one pound. Finally, the same thing is daily observed by the caravans
which go to Mecca. There are none of these wanderers who have made this
voyage, who could not testify that the bodies of those who die on the
route, are dried to such a degree as to become as light as straw.”
If, then, we would wish to judge _a priori_ of the relative value of
the processes of embalming, followed by the people of Asia and Africa,
and of those employed by European nations, we ought to start from this
double fact--that among the first, bodies abandoned to themselves have
a tendency to dry and mummify, both on account of the small quantity of
fluid they contain, and on account of atmospheric influences; whilst
those of the second, rot and dissolve under the influence of contrary
causes.
We think then, with M. Rouyer, member of the Egyptian commission, that
the most efficacious cause of the perfection of the art of embalming of
the Egyptians, and of the wonderful preservation of the mummies, was
the climate of Egypt, and chiefly that elevated and equal temperature
(20° R.) which exists in the interior of sepulchral chambers, and in
all subterranean places specially consecrated to sepulchres. A fact
which ought to be joined to this last, has been proved by MM. Docts.
Boucherie, Bermont, and Gaubert, during a visit to the caves of St.
Michel at Bordeaux. These caverns which contain seventy bodies, taken
from the neighbouring sepulchres forty years ago, and mummified by
causes of which we shall speak in the sequel, are of a temperature of
eighteen degrees.
In order to terminate this discussion by a fact universally known, the
mummies preserved untouched for several thousand years in the caverns
of Egypt, become altered and destroyed very rapidly, when transported
into Europe, and divested of their bandages, they are exposed to the
influence of our atmosphere.[C]
[C] The above observations on the natural mummies of caverns, &c.,
apply equally to the numerous specimens of Indian mummies found in
Peru, Brazil, the Western States of North America, &c.--_Tr._
These various observations convince me that a precise knowledge of the
art of embalming among the ancients, would not suffice to preserve
bodies in our country; and what we do know, decides me to push my
researches in another direction.[D]
[D] In the autumn of 1839, in my journey down the Rhine, I visited
Popplesdorf, near Bonn, where there is an ancient church, formerly
a monastery, called “the Kreuzberg.” It is situate on a high and
dry hill. I descended its vault in order to examine some two dozen
of mummified monks, some of them four centuries old. They were all
habited in the costume of the period, and appeared to have died
at an advanced age. These are natural mummies, or the result of
simple desiccation, the skin resembling leather. It is probable
that we may refer to similar causes, those interesting subjects
discovered three or four years ago, in a cave of the church of St.
Thomas, at Strasburg, viz., the mummified bodies of the Count de
Naussau (_Sarsbruck_) and his daughter. These relics, six hundred
years old, are both habited in the costume of that epoch; the coat,
small-clothes, &c., of the father, have been replaced by exact
imitations, but the habits of the daughter are actually those
in which she was buried, consisting of a blue silk gown, richly
ornamented with lace, with diamond rings on her fingers, and jewels
on her breast. The body is well preserved, with the exception of the
face: bunches of silvered flowers still adorn the top of the head,
arms and shoulders. The features of the Count are almost perfect. I
could not observe any external signs of artificial embalming having
been resorted to. The skin was of a yellowish colour. The famous
mummy of St. Carlo Boromeo, in the vault of the splendid Duomo di
Milano, is another remarkable instance--the body is as black and
solid as an Egyptian mummy; it was removed from a cemetery in the
vicinity, after having remained there many years; no artificial means
had been resorted to for its preservation.
The climate and soil of Egypt have been equally efficient in
preserving vegetable life. The French naturalists who accompanied the
army to Egypt, sent home fruits, living seeds, and other portions of
twenty different plants, including the common wheat and onion of the
present day--as was proved by the germination of the seeds and roots
in Europe.--_Tr._
Besides, the methods for embalming have varied with time, place, and
circumstances. The Ethiopians, inhabiting a country which furnishes in
itself more gum than all the rest of the world, conceived the idea of
enclosing the body in a melted mass of this transparent matter, and
thus to preserve them like insects enveloped in fluid amber, and which
are found uninjured and very visible in the middle of this substance
when solidified. This mode of preservation has led some to suppose,
that the Ethiopians preserved their dead bodies in glass. Honey was
formerly used for embalming; the body of Alexander the Great was rubbed
with honey, as the following verses prove:
“Duc et ad æmathios manes, ubi belliger urbis
Conditor hiblæo perfusus nectare durat.”
This use of honey is further confirmed by J. B. Baricel, André Rivin,
and R. P. Mènestrier. Pliny, book xxii. chap. 24, says that honey is of
such a nature, that bodies placed in it do not corrupt.
They made use also of wax for embalming, as we read in Emilius Probus,
at the end of the life of Agésilas: “Having fallen sick, he died, and
that his friends might the more conveniently carry him to Sparta, for
want of honey they enveloped his body in wax.” The Persians, on the
report of Cicero, employed the same matter: Persæ jam cerà circumlitos
condiunt, ut quam maximè permaneant diuturna corpora.
The ancients also made use of a sort of brine, the composition of which
is unknown. Cœlius Rodiginus, in his book of antiquities, remarks that,
during the pontificat of Sextus IV. they found on the Appien way the
body of a girl, retaining still all the beauty of her face, the hair
of a golden blond, and tied up with bands, also gilded--it was thus
preserved in a brine, which entirely covered it, and it was thought
to be the body of _Tulliola_, the daughter of Cicero. And Valateron
assures us that, by a preparation of an unknown salt, the body of
another female was also found entire in a mausoleum near Albania, in
the time of Alexander VI.; this Pope ordered it to be thrown secretly
into the Tiber, fearing the superstition of the people, who run from
all parts to see it, because the body still retained its beauty,
although thirteen centuries had elapsed since its deposition.
The Jews, after closing the mouth and eyes of the dead, shaved them,
washed and rubbed them with perfumes, then enclosed them in a coffin
along with myrrh, aloes, and other aromatics, in great profusion.
The Egyptians had a great number of processes for embalming. The
valuable work of M. Rouyer places this fact beyond a doubt: _natron_,
_cedria_, _bitumen_, _asphaltum_, _pisasphaltum_, different aromatic
substances to drive off insects, varnishes, more or less costly, were
used in their different preparations; finally, bandages multiplied,
and endued with gum Arabic, closed all access to air and humidity. The
mummies of the Guanches, which so closely resemble some of those of
Egypt, were sewn up in skins, after having been stuffed with aromatics
and dried in the sun.
The moderns have employed for the preservation of dead bodies, numerous
substances both fluid and solid; spirits of wine, oils, tinctures,
compound liniments, brines, etc., constitute the first class; powders,
composed of all parts of balsamic and aromatic plants, form the second.
We shall examine, hereafter, more in detail these various systems of
preservation--nevertheless, what we have mentioned, proves that they
were only in a slight degree efficacious. And even the so much boasted
methods of Clauderus, Derasieres, &c., and the wonderful secrets of
Debils, Ruysh, Swammerdam, appear to us only applicable to retard a
little while the progress of decomposition. The following is extracted
from the article _Anatomical Preparations_ of the Dictionary of Medical
Sciences:
“It is said that Ruysh possessed the means of preserving the
flexibility and other vital properties of the different tissues of our
bodies. When the Dutch anatomist sold his cabinet to the Czar, Peter
I., he gave a manuscript in which he made known the composition of a
preservative fluid, expressly stating that this liquor was nothing more
than spirits of wine; the spirit of malt, to which was only added,
during distillation, a handful of white pepper. But it appeared that
Ruysh had not given the true composition of his liquor, or rather, that
he had exaggerated the virtues of it, for it is far from possessing the
effects which have been attributed to it. After the death of Ruysh,
they thought they had discovered his means of preserving. In 1731,
Geoffroy was charged to make experiments; but the results did not
correspond to the anticipations.”
We find in a note added by Strader, at the end of his edition of
the works of Harvey, another version relative to the proceedings of
Swammerdam, which is as follows:
“It is with reason,” says he, “that we prefer to the Egyptian method,
an art which so hardens dead bodies, that they lose nothing of their
substance, and change neither in colour, nor in form; that they
leave to the anatomist all desirable leisure for examination, without
presenting any effusion of blood, nor that disgusting filth so
repugnant to the delicate practitioner, and which frequently prevents
the examination of the entrails of subjects.
“I shall publish, as was communicated to me, this admirable process,
in which I was formerly liberally initiated by Cl. Dn. Swammerdam,
which is beyond all praise. It is necessary, then, to obtain a pewter
vessel of sufficient size to contain the body to be embalmed; place
at the distance of about two fingers depth of the bottom, a hurdle of
wood, pierced with many holes; place the body on this hurdle, and pour
on oil of turpentine to the height of three fingers, keep the vessel
quiet, tightly, and less and less hermetically covered during a certain
space of time; in this manner the oil, of a penetrating nature, will
infiltrate by degrees into the body on which it is poured, and will
expel the aqueous portions, the principal cause of the fermentation
which tends to corruption. This aqueous portion descending by its
specific gravity, and distilling through the flesh, will, in time,
occupy the space between this and the bottom, and during this time
the more subtle part of the balm will exhale, as the vessel is less
closely covered; the more it evaporates, the harder the body becomes,
and will imbibe the thick lees of the oil, the effect of which may be
compared to that of a gummy marrow: it can then, consequently, remain
out of the liquor and in open air without corrupting, without any fear
of putrefaction, or of the worms. As to the time necessary to allow
the body to remain in the balm, this varies according to the nature of
the subject to be preserved. The following rules on this head must be
observed:
“The embalming of an embryon of six months, may be accomplished in
about the same length of time.
“The skeleton of the same embryon requires only about two months.
“The membranes of the heart, three months.
“The vessels of the liver, and of the placenta, cleared of their flesh,
one month.
“The vessels of the spleen, ten days.
“The intestines, one month.
“A certain time is thus assigned for other vessels, which would not be
difficult to discover or determine by experiments.
“It is always necessary to pay attention, that during this operation,
the parts be a little contracted and compressed in an equable and
convenient proportion; the coction of the body prevents the skin
forming wrinkles, whether it be made before the deposition in the oil,
or after it has soaked there for two months. In order that the subject
may retain all its beauty and whiteness, it must be macerated for
several days in alum before embalming it. In order that the members may
retain a convenient form and position, they ought to be plunged into
the balm on the commencement of winter, about the month of November, to
expose them afterwards to the cold, not to freeze, but to harden them
lightly.
“In following this process, with care, we destroy entirely all the
germs of putrefaction concealed in the body, to such a degree, that the
entrails even are profoundly penetrated with this balm, and are able
to resist the constant attacks of the air.
“If it is desired to preserve a part, without the process above
mentioned, the blood must first be extracted by a brine, and the salt
subsequently withdrawn by rain water, and, after having placed it in
the shade to prevent its putrefying, endue it with a mixture composed
of three quarts of oil of turpentine, and one quart of mastic, which
will communicate a brilliant appearance to it, and even a sort of light
crust, particularly if a greater quantity of mastic is used in the
preparation.
“As regards the preparation of the members and their appendages, a
particular process must be observed. The vessels must be well dried,
of whatever matter they may consist, and afterwards place the rods in
them well fitted to the cavity; and previously endued with suet, which
is to be carefully withdrawn in a few days; thus the members, large
and small, ought to be placed in cotton, well soaked in suet, to be
stretched in the direction of their length, as, for example, we stretch
the meshes of capillary vessels on sticks rubbed with suet, from whence
they are readily detached by means of a little fire placed beneath,
which causes the suet to melt.
“But sufficient has been said for the present; perhaps, hereafter I
shall have a more favourable opportunity to relate other similar facts,
or even more admirable; for I have seen with Swammerdam, of whom I
have spoken above, various pieces embalmed with so much talent, that,
besides all their natural properties, they possessed also that of being
always soft and flexible; I must forbear transmitting for the present
this process, in order not to lessen the èclat of the fine work I have
just described, and in introducing a still more beautiful one on the
scene, etc.”
After so precise a description, I hoped to make something out of this
process; but nevertheless, I must confess, that after having repeated
these experiments with the greatest care, I was no more successful in
my trials than Mr. Geoffroy was in 1731; only I have proved that, when
bodies are prepared according to my process, and afterwards plunged
into turpentine, they preserve a remarkable freshness and suppleness.
After much reflection upon this subject, I have come to the conclusion,
that Ruysh and Swammerdam have never made known but a part of their
system of preservations, and that, previously to immersing the body
in either of the two liquids of which we have spoken, they subjected
them to some preparation. In fine, those very authors who boast of
the admirable perfection of their processes, have not left a single
preparation to show as an example to justify their praises; and, as
a proof of their exaggeration, we have the testimony of an author
(_Penicher_) profoundly versed in this matter. “Those authors,” says
he, “who boast of having embalmed without emptying the great cavities,
and by confining themselves to injections by the mouth, by the anus, or
by holes made in the armpits, would be embarrassed to show satisfactory
results from such superficial embalming; for, sooner or later, these
nuisances will overcome all the embalmer’s industry, and all the
expense he may have been at to conquer a bad impression. Could there
exist a more singular proof of this, than what happened a few years
ago in the church of R. R. P. P., respecting the body of a lady of
first quality? The corpse had been placed in a leaden coffin, and
enclosed in another of wood, and placed within a marble mausoleum well
cemented; after which, in order to fulfil the will, it was embalmed,
and enveloped in two hundred pounds of aromatics and perfumes; two
kegs of aromatic spirits of wine were introduced through an opening,
so that the body was completely submerged in it. Nevertheless, at
the end of twelve years or thereabout, it produced so dangerous and
malignant a stench through the cracks which occurred in the coffin, by
the expansion of the drugs, that one of the priests, who chanced at
the time to be saying mass in his chapel, fell extremely ill from this
cause, and the assistants were obliged to withdraw, being unable to
support the effluvia.
“The priests were under the necessity of exhuming the body, with the
consent of the archbishop, and family of the deceased; they removed it
to the garden, placed it in a ditch, and covered it with quick-lime,
which not destroying the flesh, composed of oily, sulphurous, and
resinous parts, it was found necessary to remove the flesh from the
body, in order to replace the skeleton in the mausoleum; to such a
degree did the bad qualities of the entrails and viscera, corrupted by
disease, surpass the good qualities of the balms.”
The imperfections of these methods grow out of their very nature.
Along side of these embalmings, practised in an empyrical manner,
without any reference to the qualities more or less efficacious, of the
aromatic and balsamic substances, I can place infants several months
old, subjects most susceptible of dissolution, _and which, after a
simple injection, have remained exposed to the air in a moist room_.
At the end of two years of this exposure, they displayed a great
suppleness of the tissues, without the least trace of decomposition.
Those which I enclosed in cases, in the midst of an atmosphere of my
own discovery,[E] have preserved exactly the expression and colour of
the face, that they had at the moment of death.
[E] This atmosphere, we have reason to believe, consists of the
vapour of oil of turpentine. We examined some of these specimens,
which, after a simple injection with the solution of the acetate of
alumine, were exposed to a current of air, and found them as hard as
horn and somewhat distorted.--_Tr._
CHAPTER II.
NATURAL MUMMIES.
Whilst man agitates and torments himself in employing all his activity
to produce a feeble result, nature, all-powerful, by means of simple
causes, produces wonderful effects. Man disputes with the rivers, the
ocean’s waves, some few acres of land, which he protects with great
labour from their overwhelming influences. At the voice of nature,
elements, until now foreign to each other, approximate, combine, and
unite in the bosom of the earth, and suddenly throw up from the middle
of the ocean vast isles and new continents. He has need of all his
industry to make the sap circulate in a few etiolated plants; she, on
the contrary, confers life and motion to all beings, or strikes them
with torpor or death, according as she elevates or depresses the sun a
few degrees in the horizon.
In order to preserve the bodies of his own image, man, stimulated by
sentiments of religion, respect, or of love, mutilates in vain their
inanimate spoils; in vain he penetrates with aromatics and preservative
juices, remains, which putrefaction reclaims and seizes. Nature covers
with a little snow the traveller who scales the mountain, then, after
centuries, returns the body unaltered. She commands the winds to blow:
the sands of the desert are agitated, and the soldiers of Cambyses, and
the soldiers of Alexander, are dried in the dust; penetrating with
some unknown bodies the entrails of the earth, she there preserves the
generations which have preceded us.
Here is the art of embalming in its highest degree of perfection;
here are mummies which we ought to desire to imitate. It must be
acknowledged, that when the Egyptians and the Guanches transmitted
to us their bodies in a state of preservation, which has been the
admiration and astonishment of ages, they owed as much, at least,
to the aid of nature, as to the perfection of their art, and the
development of their industry. If, then, we wish to preserve the bodies
of those who excited our admiration or our love, in place of despising
the mummies[4] which nature presents us with, let us study them, let
us seek with care, the cause of their preservation, and, by reasonable
analyses, let us endeavour to penetrate the secret of her ways.
[4] The reverend Father Kircher in his chapter on mummies, thinks
that these bodies do not merit the name; here is what he says in his
chapter iii, §. 2. “But these bodies, dried and preserved in the sands
of Lybia, should not receive the name of _mummy_, because a mummy is,
properly speaking, a body prepared after a special process.” Such ideas
have caused much empyricism, and have been most powerful obstacles to
the progress of the art of embalming.
If this direction had been followed, convenient processes would
doubtless have been discovered a long time ago; and it never would
have been supposed possible to preserve a corpse with certainty, by
stuffing it with sixty or eighty kinds of powdered aromatics. After
such considerations, we, who have substituted an experimental for an
empyrical method, and progressed from the known to the unknown, ought,
to be consistent, to study natural mummies first.
Some have been formed by the general qualities of the air and earth,
others, by purely local influences; in the first series, we include
_the mummy of the sand, and those of avalanches; in the second, those
discovered here and there in certain sepultures; in the convent of the
Capuchins, near Palermo; in the caves of St. Michel, at Bordeaux; in
the cemetery of the church of Saint Nicholas; the Museum; the cloister
of the Carmes; the caves of the Jacobins and the Cordeliers, at
Toulouse, &c._
These last named mummies, the preservation of which is probably due to
the particular properties of the soil in which they were deposited,
have been, up to the present day, objects of vulgar curiosity, rather
than of attentive examination.
Drs. Boucherie, Bermont, and Gaubert, have favoured me with some notes
taken during a visit to the caves of St. Michel, at Bordeaux, (_August_,
1837.) I let them speak for themselves:
“The bodies exposed to view at Bordeaux, in the cavern situated beneath
the tower of Saint Michel, were deposited there in 1793, nearly in
the same state in which they appear at present, they came from the
sepulchres of the church and the adjoining cemetery. A great number
of bones, and the wreck of soft parts, dried and preserved like the
whole bodies, form a layer of seventeen or eighteen feet, upon which
are supported the inferior extremities of seventy subjects, arranged in
a circle around the wall, and retained in a vertical position by the
cords which bind them. Some of these, they say, had remained in the
earth many centuries, others from sixty to eighty years or more.
“During our visit, 25th August, 1837, we determined to examine with
care the state of these bodies, those of the middle, where they had
remained for more than forty years, and above all, we procured strips
of skin and muscle, in order to examine them at leisure, and to submit
them to some chemical re-agent, which might reveal to us the presence
of the preservative element. We could not hope to collect any of the
earth that had originally covered them, since they were superposed on
remnants thrown into this place at the time they were enclosed here.
“After having furnished ourselves with a thermometer at 24° R., and a
hygrometer at 34°, both in the open air, we descended thirty or forty
steps, which conducted us to the cave. The coolness did not appear to
us very striking, as it commonly is at this depth during the heat of
the dog-star. Placing our instruments on the soil, we proceeded to
examine the bodies.
“It is an extraordinary aspect, by lamp-light, offered by this circular
space, the walls of which are tapistried by dead bodies all standing
erect; the eye wanders from one to the other involuntarily, and we
view the whole before confining ourselves to details. Although the
most of them are in the attitude of the buried dead, some differences
in size, in the position and expression of the physiognomy, produce a
strange and confused impression. There is one point, however, where
our regards were particularly attracted, where the heart is chilled
and troubled with deep emotion--here is beheld a miserable creature
in a position violently contracted--the mouth open and horribly
contracted, the inferior members strongly drawn to the body--the arms,
one twisted by convulsions is thrown over the head, the other folded
beneath the trunk, and fixed to the thigh by the nails, which are
deeply implanted in the flesh; the forced inflexion of the whole body,
gives the expression of ineffable pain, all announcing a violent death.
Unfortunate wretch! had he died in this state, or rather, had he been
buried alive, and assumed this position in the horrible agonies of
awakening?
“The skin of all these mummies, of a more or less deep gray colour,
dried and rather soft to the touch, gives the sensation of parchment
slightly stretched upon the organs, dried, and of the consistence of
amadou[F] or spunk; the articulations are stiff and inflexible; the
chest, the abdomen, and the cranium, examined carefully, did not show
any incision, any regular opening indicative of any trace of embalming,
even the most imperfect. The different features of the face, still
distinct among some of them, displayed a variety of physiognomy; two
or three of them displayed the hair of the beard very well preserved,
the teeth were healthy and covered with brilliant enamel. The upper and
lower extremities entirely dried, and whole in many of the subjects,
are provided with all the phalanges; the last, however, divested of its
nail. On the body of the tallest figure is perceived enormous purses,
with evident traces of a double scrotal hernia. The skin raised and
viewed on its interior surface, is tanned like the exterior; all
traces of cellular tissue has disappeared; the muscles, separated from
the skin, have the colour and consistence, and almost the internal
structure of amadou. On introducing the hand into the chest, some
rudiment of lung was found, a net work very similar to that of leaves
deprived of their fleshy part; they might be taken for a mass of leaves
dissected by the caterpillars, and rendered adherent by the threads and
viscous fluid that these insects deposit. The intestines, also dried,
are nearly in the same state.
[F] A sort of tinder made of agaric.--_Tr._
“Such are the principal details which presented themselves in the
course of our examination: at first sight, it appeared astonishing
that these bodies, removed for more than forty years from the medium
in which they were desiccated, should have experienced no sensible
alteration in a cavern situated deeply under the earth, and surmounted
by a structure like that of the tower of St. Michel. Let us return
to our instruments, perhaps they will aid us in the explanation of
the fact. After remaining an hour in this atmosphere, the thermometer
passed from 24° to 18°, and the hygrometer, from 34° to 42°, which
gives a difference for the first, of 6°, for the second of 8°, a very
trifling difference, when compared to that of caves and other places
in the same apparent position. This thermometrical and hygrometrical
state of the air, always invariable, is, without doubt, one of the
principal circumstances in maintaining the integrity of these mummies.
To what cause, further, can be attributed this double state of the air
in the cavern? A slow fermentation, movements of latent decomposition
in the enormous mass of animal remains which form the bottom of this
receptacle, are they not the probable cause? We think so, and we leave
with confidence this idea, to the meditation of philosophers. Our end
was attained, we had proved facts, and collected some parcels of the
remains to subject them to analysis; after different trials without
result, some portions of skin and muscular tissue, placed in weakened
hydrochloric acid, and treated by ebullition, were totally dissolved
in this liquid, to which they communicated a deep brown colour. This
liquor filtered and treated by the yellow cyanate of potash, yielded
a very abundant blue precipitate; and the presence of iron was thus
indicated, from whence we thought that the preservation of these
bodies was owing to the presence of a compound of iron in the earth,
where they had been deposited. But the human blood yields iron also;
was it a portion of this element of our tissues that our experiments
brought into play? A suit of comparative experiments upon the tissues
of mummies, on the one hand, and of the same tissues dried in the sun
of subjects recently dead, on the other hand, have evidently proved
the excess of iron in the first. Analogous circumstances doubtless,
have determined the preservation of the bodies found at Toulouse,
at Palermo, &c. We regret not to be able to transmit the suit of
experiments made by our learned friend, Dr. Boucherie; these will form
the subject of ulterior researches.”
The same phenomenon still occurs in different parts of our country,
under a moderate temperature: thus, about 1660, M. de La Visèe and his
domestic, having been assassinated at Paris, and interred on the place
where the crime was committed, their bodies were discovered after the
lapse of a year, whole and readily recognisable; a cloak even, lined
with plush, had not suffered the least alteration.
The mummy of the avalanches, and all those, the preservation of
which is due to a constant low temperature, retain the freshness and
plumpness of the tissues for years and for centuries, if the conditions
of the medium remain the same; but, under these circumstances, the
action of cold exerts no other influence than the suspension of
decomposition; for the moment it ceases, the tissues are rapidly
exposed to the laws of inorganic chemistry.
In those cases, however, where the bodies exposed to cold are subjected
to a dry and lively wind, a real mummification may occur, as in the
following example:
There is upon the summit of the Great Saint Bernard, a sort of morgue
(_dead house_) in which have been deposited, from time immemorial,
the bodies of those unfortunate persons who have perished upon this
mountain by cold, or the fall of avalanches.
The study of the circumstances of locality, and of temperature, in
which this establishment is placed, may, to a certain degree, indicate
the most favourable conditions for the long preservation of bodies.
Here they show to travellers, bodies, which they assert have been
sufficiently well preserved to be recognisable after the lapse of two
or three years. A physician, whose quality as ancient prosector of the
faculty of Medicine of Paris, rendered him curious to visit this part
of the hospital in all its details, has verified with his own eyes all
that travellers have written, and has transmitted to us the following
observation:
The hospital of Saint Bernard, is, as is well known, the most elevated
habitation in Europe, being 7,200 feet above the level of the sea.
The temperature of this part of the globe is always very low, rarely
above zero, even during summer. This extensive establishment is built
upon the borders of a little lake, at the bottom of a little gorge;
the principal mass of the building represents a long parallelogram
placed in the direction of the gorge, so that its two principal faces,
pierced with numerous windows, are sheltered from the wind by the
rocks; whilst the two extremities, on the contrary, are exposed to all
the violence of those which blow from one side of the gorge to the
other. About fifty steps beyond this principal building, and a little
out of a right line with it, is situated the _morgue_, a sort of square
chamber, the walls of which, three or four feet thick, are constructed
of good stone, and the arched roof of which is very solid. Two windows
of about four feet square, are pierced in the direction of the breadth
of the valley, directly facing each other, so that a perpetual current
of cool air traverses the interior of the chamber. There is, further,
but a single table in this morgue, upon which they place the bodies
when first introduced; after a while they are arranged around the walls
in an upright attitude. At the time of my passage of the Great Saint
Bernard, (31st _August_, 1837,) there were several of these mummified
bodies along the walls of the chamber, but a greater number were
entirely divested of flesh, and lie scattered about the earthy floor of
the room. They informed me, that decomposition only took place when the
bodies fell by accident to the ground; which was owing to the humidity
occasioned by the snow, which occasionally entered with the currents
of air through the windows of the morgue.[G] (Note communicated by Dr.
Lenoir.)
[G] Early in September, 1833, I had an opportunity of inspecting the
contents of the morgue of Saint Bernard. Among the group of bodies of
every age and sex, we were particularly struck with two figures, one,
that of a man, whose countenance was horridly contorted by the act
of desiccation; each limb, and every muscle of the body, had assumed
the expression of a wretch in purgatory. The other was that of a
mother holding her infant to her bosom, the latter, with an imploring
expression, looking up to the face of the mother, whom it appeared
to have survived some time, as is generally the case when mother and
child are frozen together--a greater power of forming animal heat
existing in children.--_Tr._
The existence of the mummies of the sands, is attested by numerous
travellers, and all the authors who have written on embalming mention
them. They are every where found, where an arid and burning atmosphere
deeply penetrates the masses of fine sand, easily agitated by the
winds. In Egypt, for example, Herodotus frequently speaks of these
bodies dried by the sun. Cambyses, on the authority of this author,
suffered horrible effects from these sands, driven before the wind;
he lost almost his whole army during his expedition to the temple of
Jupiter Ammon.
Pere Kircher gives us an interesting description of these sand storms:
“In the countries of Africa situated beyond the Nile, is a vast desert
of sand, the immense waves of which appear in the boundless horizon
like those of the sea. Agitated by the winds, these sands produce such
frightful tempests, that they swallow up under their enormous masses,
travellers, beasts of burden, and merchandise. Bodies thus engulfed,
become desiccated after a series of years, both by the ardour of the
sun’s rays, and by virtue of the burning sand: this is the reason that
some have asserted that mummies might be formed by natural causes only,
&c.”[H] Penicher, Clauderus, De Maillet, Rouelle Le Comte de Caylus,
cite examples of the same nature. A whole caravan, or some travellers,
disappear under a mass of sand; years, centuries, pass by, then a new
revolution in the disposition of these masses restores to the light of
day, those bodies which a previous revolution had engulfed; blackened,
dried, and lightened by the loss of all their fluids. In Mexico, Mr.
Humboldt met with true mummies. Travellers have visited battlefields,
situated on a soil deprived of rain, and in a burning atmosphere. They
saw with astonishment, that these fields were covered with the dead
bodies of Spaniards and Peruvians, dried and preserved for a long time.
At the side of these phenomena which nature offers us, come the mummies
of which Maillet speaks in his letters on Egypt.
[H] The following is the passage of P. Kircher, of which we gave only
a few passages in our citation.
“Est in Transpilana Africæ regione, desertum ingens sabuli,
arenarumque cumulis in immensum exporrectum, unde et sabulosi maris
non immerito nomen obtinuit; hæ siquidem arenæ ventis concitatæ tam
sævas subinde tempestates movent, ut arenis in clivos aggestis,
turbinum violentia, et jumenta et viatores una cum mercibus suis,
nulla evadendi spe relicta, vivos sepiliant. Refert Pomponius Mela
de rupe qua dam in hoc deserto existente, austro consecrata, quæ
simul atque vel manu tacta fuerit, austro mox provocato, Sævissimas
procellas moveat, sabulo in tantum intumescente, ut pelagus undarum
vorticibus, fluctuumque æstibus concitatum videraqueat. Hanc rupem
dum olim sylli inconsultius adeunt sive occultiori naturæ impetu,
sive magicis incantationum præstigiis, vento mox exoriente, et
sabulosos cogente montes, ad unum omnes extincti ferunter. Est et
in hoc deserto, ammonium oraculum et serapium, sphyngesque ingentes
quarum aleæ usque ad caput, aleæ ex dimidio arena obrutæ, strabone
teste, spectantur. Hoc itaque celeberrimum oraculum consulturus olim
Alexander Magnus, dum pleno aleæ itineri se accingit, ad illud quidem
incolumis pervenit, sed quos milites ex suo exercita non sabulosi
pelagi turbines, hos æstus, sitisque confecisse traditur. Sed ut
unde digressus revertar, in hoc sabuloso deserto dicunt non nulli
mumias solius naturæ industria confici; dum aiunt, viatorum deserti
tempestatibus extinctorum corpora tum solis tunc ferventissimæ
hugus arenæ pinguioris virtute, longo tempore siccata, tostaque, in
hunc statum degenerare. Sed tametsi subinde, in hoc Lybiæ deserto
hugusmodi a sole exsiccata corpora reperiantur, illa tamen minime
mumiæ discendæ sunt.”
“There has been discovered,” says he, “recently, in this plain of
mummies, a mode of burying hitherto unknown. At the extremity of this
vast open country, and towards the mountains, which bound it on the
west, have been discovered beds of carbon, on which are laid bodies
clothed only with some linen, and covered with a mat, upon which rests
the sands seven or eight feet in thickness. Nevertheless, it is to be
observed, that these bodies, although they were not embalmed, or at
least but slightly so, the same as those that they have neglected to
enclose in cases, were none the less beyond the reach of corruption.”
I promised to demonstrate the simple connection which exists between
the products of nature, and those of human industry, to show that the
first were the origin of the second. The facts which I have just
exposed, I think, place this proposition beyond a doubt.
The preservation of bodies among the Guanches, which is already a step
advanced in the art, will form the subject of the following chapter.
CHAPTER III.
EMBALMING OF THE GUANCHES.
The Guanches, with the Egyptians, are the only nation among whom
embalming had become national, and there exists in the process and
mode of preservation of both such striking analogy, that the study of
the Guanch mummies is, probably, the surest means of arriving at some
positive notions of their origin and relationship. To make ourselves
understood in the subject which now occupies us, we ought to remark,
that the details known of the mode of embalming among the Guanches,
will enlighten and complete the descriptions that ancient authors
have transmitted to us of the Egyptian processes: it is thus that it
appears to us without a doubt, that their silence on desiccation in the
act of mummification, is a simple omission on their part: that this
desiccation was continued during the seventy days of preparation; that
it constituted the principal part of the processes adopted; and that,
because among the Guanches desiccation was placed in the first rank,
if we are to credit the relations of authors. We see in this, one of
the finest examples of the utility of the comparative study of the
manners and usages of different nations: light is thrown on both by the
comparison of facts.
The pains taken by the Guanches to evaporate the fluid parts of
their dead bodies, is the cause which determines us to place their
mummies immediately after those of the deserts of Lybia; because their
processes approach nearest to that of nature. The details which we are
about to give, are extracted from the excellent work of M. Bory de
Saint Vincent on the Fortunate Isles.
“The arts of the Guanches were not numerous, the most singular without
doubt is that of embalming.
“The Guanches preserved the remains of their relations in a scrupulous
manner, and spared no pains to guarantee them from corruption. As a
moral duty, each individual prepared for himself the skins of goats,
in which his remains could be enveloped, and which might serve him for
sepulture. These skins were often divested of their hair, at other
times they permitted it to remain, when they placed indifferently the
hairy side within or without. The processes to which they resorted to
make perfect mummies, which they named _xaxos_, are nearly lost. Some
writers have, nevertheless, left details on this subject, but perhaps
they are not more exact than those which Herodotus has transmitted to
us upon the embalming of the Egyptians.
“With the Guanches, the embalmers were abject beings; men and women
filled this employment respectively, for their sexes; they were well
paid, but their touch was considered contamination; and all who were
occupied in preparing the xaxos lived retired, solitary, and out of
sight. It is, then, out of place, that Sprats has advanced the idea,
that embalming was confined to a tribe of priests, who made a sacred
mystery of it, and that the secret died with the priests. There
were several kinds of embalming, and several different employments
for those who had charge of it. When they had need of the services
of the embalmers, they carried the body to them to be preserved,
and immediately retired. If the body belonged to persons capable of
bearing the expenses, they extended it at first on a stone table; an
operator then made an opening in the lower part of the belly with a
sharpened flint, wrought into the form of a knife and called _tabona_;
the intestines were withdrawn, which other operators afterwards washed
and cleaned; they also washed the rest of the body, and particularly
the delicate parts, as the eyes, interior of the mouth, the ears,
and the nails, with fresh water saturated with salt. They filled
the large cavities with aromatic plants; they then exposed the body
to the hottest sun, or placed it in stoves, if the sun was not hot
enough. During the exposition, they frequently endued the body with an
ointment, composed of goats’ grease, powder of odoriferous plants, pine
bark, resin, tar, ponce stone, and other absorbing materials. Feuille
thinks that these unctions were also made with a composition of butter,
and desiccative and balsamic substances, among which are mentioned the
resin of larch, and the leaves of pomegranate, which never possessed
the property of preserving bodies.
“On the fifteenth day the embalming should be completely terminated;
the mummy should be dry and light; the relatives send for it and
establish the most magnificent obsequies in their power. They sew up
the body in several folds of the skin, which they had prepared when
living, and they bind it with straps, retained by running knots. The
kings and the grandees were besides, placed in a case or coffin of a
single piece, and hollowed out of the trunk of the juniper tree, the
wood of which was held as incorruptible. They then finally, carried the
xaxos, thus sown and encased, to inaccessible grottoes consecrated to
this purpose.
“Another less expensive mode of preserving the dead, consisted in
drying them in the sun, after having introduced into the belly a
corrosive liquor: this liquor eats into the interior parts, where the
sun does not act sufficiently to prevent their corruption. Like the
other xaxos, the relatives sowed them in skins and carried them to the
grottoes.
“These mummies, such as they are found at the present day, are dry and
light; many have perfectly preserved their hair and beard, the nails
are often wanting; the features of the face are distinct, but shrunken;
the abdomen is contracted. In some, there exists no mark of incision,
in others are observed the trace of a rather large opening on the
flank. The xaxos are of a tanned colour, with generally an agreeable
odour; exposed to the air, out of the sacks of goat skin, which are
admirably preserved, they fall by degrees into dust; they are punctured
in many places; surrounded by the chrysalides of flies, proceeding
probably from maggots, deposited upon the body during its preparation:
these larvæ and chrysalides, which could not be reproduced, are
preserved whole and healthy like the mummies.
“The Chevalier Scory says, that these mummies are two thousand years
old: it is difficult to determine how long they have been preserved;
but we shall see in the sequel that it has been certainly more than
two thousand years since the Guanches embalmed. I willingly believe
that, in the corrosive composition which they employed in the second
kind of embalming, and probably in all cases, the Guanches made use of
the juice of the spurge; they doubtless employed the species proper
to their climate, which is acrid and milky; I have recognised whole
pieces in the chest of a mummy, in which, nevertheless, there existed
no traces of an incision. Leaves, also, it is said, have been taken
from the body in a good state of preservation, and have been recognised
as those of the laurel. During the exposure of the body to the sun,
they extend the arms of the men along the side of the trunk, and for
the most part crossing those of the women before the lower part of the
abdomen. From time to time new catacombs are discovered in the Canary
islands. In 1758, they found one at Palma; but the mummies were either
very old, or badly embalmed, they soon fell into powder. At Fer, there
was found on the tables where the xaxos had laid, the furniture which
the deceased had used during life. In this island they wall up these
caverns, to prevent them being used as retreats for birds of prey and
for crows.
“At the Canaries, they do not limit themselves always to placing
the mummies in grottoes; they elevated special tombs to certain
distinguished dead. These privileged dead, dressed in their garment,
called tamareo, were placed upon elevated planks of pine wood, with the
head turned towards the north; they afterwards constructed above, a
monument of hard stone, pyramidal in form, and often very high. Many
catacombs are known to exist in Teneriffe; the most celebrated is that
of Baranco de Herque, between Arico and Guimar, in the Abona country:
it was discovered during the time that Clarijo wrote his _Noticias_. He
states that they there met with more than a thousand mummies, whilst in
other cases only three or four hundred had been found at a time. From
hence they brought the xaxos, which are in the cabinet of the King of
Spain, and the two which M. de Chastenet-Puysegur sent in 1776, to the
Garden of Plants: one of them unfortunately wants the feet.”
We abstain from all reflection on the recital which precedes. Their
analogy to the Egyptian process will occur of itself to the mind of the
reader, in the description which follows. Nevertheless, we ought to
indicate a fact observed of two Guanch mummies; a fact omitted in the
preceding description.
M. Jouannet, a modest and laborious investigator, has proved, that two
Guanch mummies that were in his possession, had the eyes, nose, and
mouth, filled with bitumen, like some of the Egyptian mummies. The
skins which enveloped them were carefully closed, and nothing indicated
that the bitumen was an addition posterior to embalming.
CHAPTER IV.
EMBALMING AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
Since the ignorance we are in, relative to the language of this great
nation, places it out of our power to know, of ourselves, the causes
and processes for the preservation of dead bodies, let us follow the
recital of ancient authors, let us endeavour to detect, not by the
imagination, but by positive facts, by the study of invariable exterior
conditions, the different data of the question of embalming among the
Egyptians.
In the first place, if we make allowance for all that the successive
perfection of the arts, luxury, or the love of distinction could add to
simple preservation, we shall arrive, with Rouelle, to this conclusion,
that the work of embalming is reduced to two essential parts: first,
the drying of the body, that is to say, removing the fluids and grease
which they contain; secondly, to protect the body thus prepared, from
external humidity and contact of the air. We have already seen all
the aid which they derived from their climate to fulfil the first
condition: a detailed description will teach us what their industry
enabled them to add to it. As to the second, the nature of their
caverns powerfully contributed.
These vast cavities, says Pelletan, sheltered from the inundations of
the Nile, have, without doubt, originally furnished the materials for
the monuments of Thebes, and the architects of the day thus hollowed
out the tombs of families in elevating their palaces. Their whole
surface, from the entrance, even to the deepest recesses of these dark
excavations, are covered with sepultures and fresco paintings. Each
framed subject forms so many little pictures which touch each other,
and the figures of which are not more than two or three inches in
height, so that the whole extent of these double walls, the development
of which is incalculable, has been the object of minute labour. The
sculptures are in bas-relief, and covered with equable tints, but
lively, _and in very good preservation_. The points of rock unconnected
with the work, have been covered with a composition perfectly solid,
and so durable, that, as yet, _no other degradation is observable, than
that produced by the efforts of some travellers to carry off fragments
of it_. Perspective is always wanting in these pictures; the bodies are
viewed in full, the faces in profile; but the design is pure and the
proportions just; we find nothing to indicate ignorance in the artist;
which presumes for the Egyptians, if not great perfection in the arts,
at least a great popularity in their practice. The subject of these
paintings are domestic scenes, and generally followed by a funeral
procession; from whence it may be inferred, that they refer to the life
of the man enclosed in each of the lateral niches. The temperature of
the caverns is 20° R.
It appeared to us convenient thus to give a summary of the conditions
of drying, and of the ulterior preservation, before presenting
descriptions which have been more or less accurately transmitted to
us, of the part that man has had in this operation.
Herodotus, Diodorus Sicculus, and Porphyrus, who have written with the
greatest detail on the funerals of the Egyptians, will afford us the
first instructions.
Herodotus. “Mourning and funerals are conducted after this manner: when
a man of consideration dies, all the women of his house (_oiketes_)
cover the head and even the face with mud; they leave the deceased in
the house, girdle the middle of their bodies, bare the bosom, strike
the breast, and overrun the city, accompanied by their relations.
On the other side, the men also girdle themselves and strike their
breasts; after this ceremony, they carry the body to the place where it
is to be embalmed.”
The following, after Diodorus Sicculus, (book 1st, vol. i. p. 102,
§ xcii.) is the ceremony of sepulture among the Egyptians: “The
relatives fix the day for the obsequies, in order that the judges,
the relations, and friends of the dead may be present, and they
characterize it by saying, he is going to pass the lake; afterwards
the judges, to the number of more than forty arriving, they place
themselves in the form of a semi-circle beyond the lake. A batteau
approaches the shore, carrying those who have charge of this ceremony,
and in which is a sailor, whom the Egyptians name in their language
_Charon_. They say, further, that Orpheus having remarked this custom
in his voyage in Egypt, took occasion from it to imagine the fable
of hell, imitating a portion of these ceremonies, and adding to them
others of his own invention. Before placing in the batteau the coffin
containing the body of the deceased, it is lawful for each one present
to accuse him. If they prove that he has led a sinful life, the judges
condemn him, and he is excluded from the place of his sepulture. If
it appear that he has been unjustly accused, they punish the accuser
with severity. If no accuser presents himself, or if the one who does
so is known as a calumniator, the relatives, putting aside the signs
of their grief, deliver an eulogium on the deceased without mentioning
his birth, as is practised among the Grecians, because they considered
all Egyptians equally noble. They enlarge on the manner in which he
has been schooled and instructed from his childhood; upon his piety,
justice, temperance, and his other virtues since he attained manhood,
and they pray the Gods of hell to admit him into the dwelling of the
pious. The people applauded and glorified the dead who were to pass all
eternity in the abodes of the happy. If any one has a monument destined
for his sepulture, his body is there deposited; if he has none, they
construct a room in his house, and place the bier upright against
the most solid part of the wall. They place in their houses those to
whom sepulture has not been awarded, either on account of crimes, of
which they are accused, or on account of the debts which they may
have contracted; and it happens sometimes in the end that they obtain
honourable sepulture, their children or descendants becoming rich,
pay their debts or absolve them.” Orpheus communicated to the Greeks
these usages of the Egyptians, applied to hell. Homer, following in his
steps, adorned his poetry with them: “_Mercury_,” says he, “his wand
in his hand, convoked the souls of the candidates.” And further on:
“They traversed the ocean, passed near Leucadia, entered by the gate of
the sun, (_Heliopolis_,) the country of dreams, and soon attained the
fields of Asphodelia, where inhabit the souls who are the images of
death.”
But to return to the recital of Herodotus. “There are in Egypt, certain
persons whom the law charges with embalming, and who make a profession
of it.
“When a body is brought to them, they show the bearers models of the
dead in wood. The most renowned represents, they say, _him whose name
I am scrupulous to mention_; they show a second, which is inferior to
the first, and which is not so costly; they again show a third of a
lower price. They afterwards demand after which of the three models
they wish the deceased to be embalmed. After agreeing about the price,
the relatives retire; the embalmers work alone, and proceed as follows,
in the most costly embalming. They first withdraw the brain through the
nostrils, in part with a curved iron instrument, and in part by means
of drugs, which they introduce into the head; they afterwards make an
incision in the flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone.
“The body being extended upon the earth, the scribe traces on the left
flank the portion to be cut out. He who is charged with making the
incision, cuts with an Ethiopian stone, as much as the law allows;
which having done, he runs off with all his might, the assistants
follow, throwing stones after him, loading him with imprecations, as
if they wished to put upon him this crime. They regard, indeed, with
horror, whoever does violence to a body of the same nature as their
own. Whoever wounds it, or in one word, whoever _offers it any harm_.”
(_Diodorus_, book I, t. i. p. 102.)
“They withdraw the intestines through this opening, clean them, and
pass them through palm wine, place them in a trunk; and among other
things they do for the deceased, they take this trunk, and calling the
sun to witness, one of the embalmers on the part of the dead, addresses
that luminary in the following words, which Euphantus has translated
from his vernacular tongue. ‘Sun, and ye too, Gods, who have given
life to men, receive me, and grant that I may live with the eternal
Gods; I have persisted all my life in the worship of those Gods, whom
I hold from my fathers, I have ever honoured the Author of my being, I
have killed no one, I have committed no breach of trust, I have done
no other evil: if I have been guilty of any other fault during life,
it was not on my own account, but for these things.’ The embalmer,
in finishing these words, shows the trunk containing the intestines,
and afterwards casts it into the river. As to the rest of the body,
when it was pure, they embalmed it.” (_Porphyr., De abstinentia ab esu
animalium_, book 17, § 10, p. 329.)
“Afterwards they fill the body with pure bruised myrrh, with canella
and other perfumes, excepting incense; it is then sown up. When that
is done they salt the body in covering it with _natrum_ for seventy
days.” (Natrum, with the intention of carrying off, and drying the
oily, lymphatic, and greasy parts; but this ought to have been the
first operation, for if they had commenced with filling the body with
myrrh and aromatics, previous to salting it, the natrum, acting on
the balsamic matters, and forming with their oils a soapy matter,
very soluble and readily carried off by the lotions, would have
destroyed the greater part of the aromatics. Besides, Diodorus does
not mention natrum.) “It is not permitted to let them remain longer
in the salt. The seventy days elapsed, they wash the body and entirely
envelope it in linen and cotton bandages, soaked with gum Arabic,
_commi_, which the Egyptians used generally in place of glue.[I] The
relatives now reclaim the body; they have made a wooden case of the
human form, in which they enclose the corpse, and put it in a chamber
destined for this purpose, standing erect against the wall. Such is
the most magnificent method of embalming the dead. Those who wish to
avoid the expense choose this other method; they fill syringes with
an unctuous liquor which they obtain from the cedar; with this they
inject the belly of the corpse without making any incision, and without
withdrawing the intestines; when this liquor has been introduced into
the fundament they cork it, in order to prevent its ejectment; the
body is then salted for the prescribed time. The last day, they draw
off from the body the injected liquor; it has such strength that it
dissolves the ventricles and intestines, which come away with the
liquid. The natrum destroys the flesh, and there remains of the body,
only the skin and bones. This operation finished, they return the body
without doing anything further to it.
[I] It is not improbable that the use of these gummy bandages
gave origin to the new and improved method of bandaging fractured
limbs--the bandages being first soaked in a solution of gum Arabic,
or in a preparation of starch, called dextrine.--_Tr._
“The third kind of embalming is only for the poorer classes of society.
They inject the body with a fluid named _surmata_; they put the body
into _natrum_ for seventy days, and they afterwards return it to those
who brought it. As to ladies of quality, when they are dead, they
are not immediately sent to the embalmers, any more than such as are
beautiful or highly distinguished; these are reserved for three or four
days after death. They take this precaution lest the embalmers might
pollute the bodies confided to their care.
“It is reported that one was surprised in the act, with a woman
recently dead, and that on the accusation of one of his comrades.”
The preceding recitals have been the subject of numerous commentations,
discussions, and researches. It is astonishing that Herodotus has
omitted desiccation; but it naturally took place during the time
consecrated to preparation. Some assert that the body was in the
first place salted, and subsequently penetrated with resinous and
balsamic substances, which, incorporating with the flesh, prevented
putrefaction: others pretend that the body, after having been salted,
was dried, and that it was not until after this desiccation that the
resinous and balsamic substances were applied. A simple inspection of
the mummies is sufficient to reject the first opinion. What union,
indeed, could these last named matters have contracted with the fluids
of the tissues? and how can we conceive from thence, that bodies often
filled with corrupted serosity, could have resisted the intestine
effects of such active causes in producing decomposition?
M. Rouelle thought that the _natrum_ was a fixed alkali, which acted
after the manner of quick-lime, despoiling the bodies of their
lymphatic and greasy fluids, leaving only the fibrous and solid parts.
Thus viewing in this manner the Egyptian process, it removes an error
into which Herodotus has fallen on the subject of the first class of
embalming. It is there stated, that they filled the belly of the corpse
with myrrh, canella, and other perfumes, except _incense_, and that
afterwards they put it into the _natrum_ and then washed it. But of
what use would have been these resinous matters, with which the alkali
of the _natrum_ would soon form a soapy mass, which the lotions would
have carried off, at least, in great part? It is much more reasonable
to suppose that these balsamic and resinous substances were not applied
to the bodies until after they were withdrawn from the _natrum_.
The same author points out another inaccuracy, in what Herodotus has
taught us on the bandages of the mummies. Very few mummies, says he,
are enveloped agreeably to the description of Herodotus, that is
to say, the linen bandages are not glued together with gum alone,
applied directly to the body when simply dried without any resinous
substances. Such kind of embalming is the least costly, although
Herodotus describes it as the richest and dearest. The mummy preserved
in the cabinet of St. Geneviève, and the two which are in that of the
Celestins, may throw some new light on this passage of Herodotus, and
confirm my conjectures. These mummies have two kinds of bandages; the
body and the limbs are each separately invested with linen bandages,
endued with resin or bitumen, and they are so intimately united
together that they form but one mass. This is doubtless the reason that
some authors have believed that this thickness was only embalmed flesh.
There are other linen bandages without any bituminous substance, which
envelope the whole body; both the arms are crossed upon the stomach,
and the legs are glued together; these mummies are swaddled in new
bandages, or, if you please, by this last bandage, just as infants are
swaddled; these bandages are yellow, particularly those of the mummy
of the cabinet of Saint Geneviève, and are absolutely destitute of
resinous substance. We may, then, readily conclude, that these bandages
have been only simply invested with gum. It appears that Herodotus had
forgotten to describe the use of the first bandage, employed to retain
the resinous matter on the surface of the body, and having probably
seen among the embalmers, or elsewhere, some bodies swaddled like
infants, he only described the second bandage.
If we examine with attention, the mummy of Saint Geneviève, and those
of the cabinet of the Celestins, it will be perceived that the second
bandage is equally a suit of ordinary embalming; for the mummy of
the Celestins, of which the first bandage has been removed, no doubt
in order to see the process of embalming, has the bands of the first
bandage of a very clear and coarse linen: the bands of that of Saint
Geneviève, on the contrary, are much finer, whilst the substances of
the embalming of the two mummies are the same.
I am persuaded that mummies seldom come to us with the second bandage,
and that the preservation of those of the mummies of the cabinet of
Saint Geneviève, and of the Celestins, is only due to the state of the
cases which hold them, or to the peculiar care of those who sent them.
In fine, Rouelle has analysed the substance of embalmings, and the
result of the analysis made on six mummies gave him for two, amber,
for the four others, Jew’s pitch or pisasphaltum, a mixture, into the
composition of which, Jew’s pitch enters. Rouelle met with no traces
of myrrh in any mummy. From these facts he arrives at the following
conclusion: “Our experiments, then, furnish us with three materially
different embalmings. The first, with Jew’s pitch; the second, with
a mixture of bitumen, and the liquor of cedar, or _cedria_; and the
third, with that mixture, to which they have added resinous and very
aromatic matters.”
We confine ourselves to these reflections upon the processes described
by the ancients, and given by them as those alone practised in Egypt.
We are going to cite some passages from the very remarkable memoir
of M. Rouyer, from which it will be readily perceived that they were
ignorant of several methods in use among these people. Nevertheless, it
is just to give here some explanations which throw new light upon the
sources which we have reproduced; they are principally extracted from
the memoir of the Count de Caylus.
The exhibition of models on the part of the embalmers, had reference
to the richness of the work demanded, and to the expense of the chosen
form. The first model, which Herodotus had scruples in naming, was
probably the figure of some divinity, (_Isis._) Herodotus does not
mention the price, and it is probable, that Diodorus has made his
valuations without being any too well acquainted with them. According
to his estimation, the first cost one talent, (about nine hundred
dollars of our money;) the second, twenty mina, (three hundred
dollars;) the third, a trifle, (vague.) Diodorus continues in these
terms: “The office of burying is a particular profession, which, like
all others, has been learned from infancy. Those who exercise it, go
to the relatives of the deceased with a scale or rate of charges, and
request them to make a selection. Having agreed, they take the body and
give it to the officers whose duty it is to prepare it.”
In the head, which was sent by M. de Caylus, the skull had been
actually pierced through the nostrils, and the bottom of the right
orbit opened. As to perfume, the exception in favour of the incense
is probably made out of respect to the divinity. He observed no trace
of incision, nor were they at all necessary. The extreme dryness of
the skin, and the solidity it acquires by the bitumen, renders such
operation useless.
The Egyptians employed their natrum as we employ lime, to prepare
and tan leather. Also kommi, or gum Arabic of Senegal. As respects
bandages, they had many kinds; whether as regards the quality of the
linen, or the manner of arranging them, more simple or more complex.
As many as a thousand ells of these narrow bands have been found on a
single mummy.
Diodorus, after speaking of those who make the incision, adds: “those
who salt come afterwards: these officers are highly respected in Egypt;
they hold commerce with the priests, and the entrance to sacred places
is open to them, the same as to persons who are themselves sacred. They
assemble around a corpse which has just been opened, and one of them
introduces his hand through the incision into the body, and withdraws
all the viscera, excepting the heart and kidneys. Another, continues
he, washes them in palm wine and odoriferous liquors; they afterwards
anoint the body for thirty days with cedar, gum, myrrh, cinnamon, and
other perfumes, which not only contributes to preserve the body in its
integrity a very long time, but which also causes it to shed a very
sweet odour. They then return to the relatives, the body restored to
its original form, in such a manner that even the hair of the eyelids
and eyebrows remain unruffled, and the corpse preserves its natural
expression of countenance and personal bearing. Many Egyptian families,
having, by this means, preserved a whole race of ancestors, experience
an inexpressible consolation in thus beholding them in the same figure,
and with the same physiognomy, as if they were still living.”
As regards those who have been killed by a crocodile, or who have been
drowned in the river, the inhabitants of the city nearest to which
the body has been cast ashore, are obliged to embalm it; to adjust it
in the most magnificent manner, and deposit it in the sacred tombs.
Neither the relatives or friends are permitted to touch these bodies;
they are embalmed alone by the priests of the Nile, considering them as
something above humanity.--(_Herodotus._) Are these sacred tombs those
of the God Apis? Were there places of sepulchre different from the
caves and pyramids?
The expense and care required for the embalming of princes must have
been immense, as may be conjectured by the following fact. A portion
of mummy preserved in the cabinet of Saint Geneviève, merits all the
eulogiums that could be given to an object of this kind. It consists of
the foot, leg, and thigh of an infant two or three years old; the care
with which this embalming was made, was known to those who presented it
to the cabinet, for they had written upon the box which contained this
precious relic of the art, _mummy of the little prince of Memphis_.
This denomination has no other foundation, perhaps, than the nature of
the work, and the sensible difference observed between this and other
mummies. The surface of the flesh is black, and so smooth that it may
be compared to a fine Chinese varnish; the flesh has not altogether
preserved its softness, but all the thickness and plumpness peculiar
to little children can be distinguished, as well as the articulations
and all the little wrinkles of the fingers. The nails are perfectly
preserved and well set on; they have neither colour nor gilding,
although they appear to have been gilded. The bandages do not appear
to have been imbued with the same bitumens used for other mummies; the
colour which they have acquired by the dried balsamic materials, as
might be anticipated, resembles that of canella, although the odour,
which is agreeable, has no analogy to that aromatic.
The bandages are fine, detached, and proportioned to the body which
they cover; they are arranged with the greatest care and repeated a
great number of times. Besides, the thigh bone, of which there is about
four fingers breadth uncovered, has suffered very little alteration
in its colour, nothing more than what the air alone might produce.
Rouelle, with whom M. de Caylus visited this mummy, remarked, on
piercing with a pin the sole of this foot, that the skin resembled
stretched parchment, and was empty beneath--all of which proves a
richer and more extensive preparation destined for princes. We may add
to this conjecture, that the cases of touchstone, or of basalt, always
expensive on account of their hardness, cases so rare that only three
or four have been found, may be supposed to have been made only for
princes, and even the more eminent of those.
We have not hesitated to include in this work the preceding
observations, because they appeared to us necessary to rectify or
complete the facts advanced by Herodotus, Diodorus Sicculus, Plutarch,
Porphyrus, and many others. But the whole of these materials have need
of new lights, drawn from researches made upon the spot. The scientific
commission of Egypt felt the necessity of this, and several of its
members applied themselves to personal examinations of the pyramids
and caverns; and one of them, M. Rouyer, in his memoir on Egyptian
embalming, traces us a history nearly complete. The following are the
most interesting details:
The art of embalming is totally unknown at the present day in those
places which gave it birth, and it has remained buried in profound
forgetfulness, since Egypt, which, long the home of the sciences and
the arts, has been overrun and successively ravaged by barbarian
nations, who have destroyed all its institutions, political and
religious.