Iron County register., 1891-11-12
THE HISTORY OF EMsAuM,nc
An Art That Has Existed for Several Tbou.
sands of Years.

an Art That Has Existed for Several Tbou.
sands of Years.
The efforts of man to preserve the
dead bodies of his loved and honored
ones from destruction and decav dates
from very remote antiquity. The
practice probably originated in a re-
hglous belief in future state, and re-
union of soul and body. The Egyptians
very early raised embalming to an art.
Iher mummies, both of man and
oeast, 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.
Inc bodies of the poor were simply
salted, but tor the wealthier classes
there were three methods in vogue at
cost ranging from a hundred and
twenty-five to three hundred and sew
enty-tve and eleven hundred and twen-
ty-hve dollars. HerOdotus deyotes
three chapters of his second book to a
description of the most costly method:
ana modern scientists. especially Prof
Czermak. have labored to throw light
on 1t. 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
energetically treated with costly spices;
the body was then laid in s.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 a 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 fiftyfour ingredients, after the
application of which the whole body
was covered with coating composed
of copaiba, Peruvian balsam, styrax
and turpentine. The body of Charles
XII. of Sweden was thus prepared, and
on opening it in 1S59-i. e., one hundred
and forty-one years after his death
the body was found, on investigation,
to be in thorough state of preserva-
ton. In the course of investigation it
was ascertained that the ball which laid
him low in the trenches at Frederick
shall was not fired 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 a 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
solution whose composition is still a
secret. but which promises to supersede
all others. The body of Keiser William
i. 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
perisha ble.-German Paper.