Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-12-16
THE HISTORY or EMBALMlNG.
An Art That Has Existed for Several Thou
sands of Years.

An Art That Has Existed for Several Thou
sands of Years.
The efforts of man to preserve the
dead bodies of his loved and honored
ones from destruction and decay dates
from very remote antiquity. The
practice probably originated in re-
Igious belief in future state, and a re-
union of soul and body. The Egyptians
very early raised embalming to an art
Their mummies, both of man and
beast, were preserved for centuries
to be utilized by Arab and Jewish
doctors In the middle ages as medi-
cine, by the fellahs as fuel and by
museums as curiosities The Egyptians
were familiar with several methods of
embalming, and the art underwent con-
siderable change in the course of ages.
The bodies of the poor were simply
s1lted, but tor the weather. classes
there were three methods in vogue, at
a cost ranging from a hundred and
twenty-five to three hundred and sew
enty-ive and eleven hundred and TWEEN
ty-hve dollars. Herodotus devotes
three chapters of his second book to a
description of the most costly method;
and modern scientists, especially Prof.
Czermak. lave labored to throw light
on it. The much-despised Paraschytes
opened the body artistically and re-
moved the internal organs, which, as at
the present day, were cleansed. treated
with odoriferous liquids, and preserved
In canopus vases. The cephalic,
thoracic and abdominal cavities were
theoretically treated with costly spices;
the body was then laid in ''nitrum," a
salt composed of sulphate and carbon
ate of soda from the lakes of lower
Egypt, after which followed the
bandaging with small, fine linen band
ages, soaked in resin, which were
wound about every finger and toe and
limb separately, and finally around the
whole body, the face being protected
by mask. The viscera of persons of
minor rank were not preserved, but dis
solved in ''cedrium," a mixture of
methyl alcohol, vinegar and creosote or
carbolic acid.
The Egyptian method was followed
by the Guanches. the aboriginal in
habitants of the Canary islands, while
the Peruvian mummies were, perhaps.
simply dried in the sun. In the Cavern
OF the Dead at the Hospice of ST. Ber-
nard, we have sample of preservation
by cold, dry air. The Romans occa-
sionally resorted to embalming, but the |
story current in the days of Sixtus w. |
that the perfectly fresh body of Tullia,
the daughter of Cicero, had been found |
In the Via Appia IS hardly credible. Of |
the technical capacity of the mid
die age sin this department we can
say little, although the practice |
was by no means uncommon; but the |
treatment adopted in embalming Alex
ander VI. is known with precision.
The method consisted essentially in the |
employment OF alum and oak bark and |
in tight bandaging with cere-cloth. A |
mixture was invented in France in the |
time of Louis XIV, which was in use
down to quite recent times It consist |
ed of f1fty-four ingredients, after the |
application of which the whole body
was covered with a coating composed |
of copaiba, Peruvian balsam, styrax
and turpentine. The body of Charles |
XII of Sweden was thus prepared, and |
on opening it in 1851. e., one hundred |
and forty-one years after his death |
the body was found, on investigation, |
to be in a thorough state of preserva-
ton. In the course of investigation it !
was ascertained that the BAH which laid |
him low in the trenches at Frederick |
shall was not fred by suicidal hand. |
but was from weapon of the enemy. |
With the beginning of the present |
century corrosive sublimate was the |
substance most in use, until Gannal in
1887 invented method of embalming |
by injecting mixture of sulphate of !
alumina and arsenious acid, in aqueous |
solution, into the venous system, fol- |
lowed by the usual bandaging and var
nishing. On grounds of medical juris-
prudence the employment of arsenic
was soon forbidden, and the antiseptics,
sublimate and chloride of zinc were |
employed in it's place. The French |
man Suiquet was mainly instrument
tai in introducing the last-named |
substance. Germany can also boast |
its achievements in this field. Wick
ersheimer, the conservator Of the an
atomical museum at Berlin, injects a !
solution whose composition is still a |
secret, but which promises to supersede |
all others. The body of Keiser William |
l. was embalmed under his directions,
and so was also that of his great field |
marshal, Won Moltke. But even this |
latest achievement of science can not !
hinder the shrinking of the corpse It |
is no triumph of science over death. |
The wasted mummy breaches with con-
vincing logic that all that is mortal is |
acknowledgements Paper.
An Ancient hattie Oath.
The Gaelic chieftain's oath before go |
ing into battle has been found in an !