Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-06
THE MUMMIED BEAST
EaYPT's LATEST CONTRIBUTIONS
TO SCIENCE.
Embalmed Animals, Newly Studied by
Naturalists, Throw Light Upon
Evolution.

Some seventy centuries ago the Egyptians
began to embalm the dead. Viewing their
work with delighted satisfaction--like the
late lamented Pencil, who admired even
the backs OF his pictures-they kept on
with 1t. and embalmed everything that
could by hook or crook be embalmed The
irreverent Psychologist who digs the soil
Of the old Nile valley finds 1t honeycombed
with the graves Of kings, queens, priests.
dignitaries. and folk of low degree, while
underground Egypt has yielded up its mill
lions and even billions of mummied anil
mails Many of them found practical
fertilizers.
From time to time 1t has occurred 10
naturalists that these mummied animals
would repay study, and though many of
the deposits have been exhausted, NJ. Mas
pero succeeded in securing remnants of
them, and in handing the remnants over to
competent naturalists. Hence the beautiful
book which NM. Lortet and GailIard of
Lyons have brought out under the title
La Faune Momif1ee de PAncienne Egypte."
l have said that the Egyptians embalmed
almost everything, and, as a matter of
literal fact. their animal burying grounds
contain monkeys, dogs, jackals, cats, shrew-
mice, rats, cattle, antelope, gazelles, sheep,
wild sheep and goats, to say nothing Of
birds-among them the ibis-and such rep
tiles as the serpent and the crocodile, with
plentiful supply of fish, molusks and in
SSCtS ILdCll SPECIES boasts countess eX-
amples.
Jomard's Prophecy.
From all this we may extract at least a
respectable amount of philosophy. When
Napoleon invaded Egypt, Jomard pro-
pounded an interesting problem in his De
scription de rEgypte.' Said Jomard:
"These various mummies and fragments of
animals will one day enable naturalists 10
tell what species inhabited Egypt during a
very remote period. Indeed, there is no
other way of knowing whether the animals
that now thrive in Egypt are the same
those that throve there centuries ago, or to
establish the grave question as to the In
variability of essential or specific forms
throughout the ages" To the question pus
by Jomard, the Lyons naturalists give
categorical reply. The species embalmed
twenty, thirty, or even seventy centuries
ago have not changed in the least. The ami
mails of modern Egypt are the animals of
ancient Egypt.
Is this equivalent to saying that evolu-
ton Is humbug? Not at all. For every
naturalist can name species that have re-
NAMED unchanged not merely for seventy
centuries, but for thousands of centuries.
Some of these are brachiopods, whose ORR
gin dates from the most ancient period of
life upon the globe On the other hand
evolution doesn't depend in the least upon
proving that species have changed. Such
necessity exists solely when environment
changes, or when an ANIMAL enters a new
environment. An animal adapted to it's
environment changes only when the envi-
ronment changes. Now in Egypt the en-
vironment has long been what 1t is TODAY
and we should have no reason to expect to
ind the animals of present-day Egypt at all
different from their ancestors of sixty or
seventy centuries ago. And they certainly
are not Far from initiating against the
theory of evolution, the study Of the num-
mied animals of Egypt precisely fulfil the
evolutionists expectations and predictions
l need not dwell further upon this highly
important fact; let us pass now to an ex-
animation of certain secondary facts
brought out by the Lyons naturalists We
shall find them instructive.
Evolution Of the Cat.
Everyone knows that Egypt worshiped
the cat. The cat,
lie divin quadrupede aux pupilles etroite."
as Tame called her, was a sacred animal.
the emblem of the Goddess Sekhet, or Best.
who had temple at Bubastes Mummied
cats abound in Egypt. The Metropolis OF
Stabl-Antar, half mile long is packed
with them. But biology here notes an inter
esting fact; the Egyptians had two kinds
OF cat The one that was most Frequently
embalmed (and therefore doubtless the most
highly vene !tate6 was the magnificent
gloved cat, felis maniculata, which st1l
exists in a wild state in all parts of the
country. The other was a domesticated va
riety of that species. 1t would be immensely
interesting, l may say in passing, to make
a special study of the cat of the Ff.yptian
metropolis In documents of known date so
as to learn to what degree and with what
speed the cat became transformed when
she left her free life and became domes-
ucated. But this much, in any case is
worthy of comment: there Is no longer in
Egypt a full-blooded example of the do
mesticated gloved cat. The breed is pure
only when wild.
The gloved cat had evidently It's share in
producing our own domesticated cat as had
also-very possbly-the booted. which is
now found in North Africa. but which is
common enough In Europe during the Qua
ternary period. The bracelets on the
forelegs of our striped cat are plainly those
of the gloved cat; and in Spain it is be-
yond question that the domestic cat is de-
scended from the gloved variety So far as
appearances go, we might conclude that the
Egyptians had a cat that has since disap-
peared, or that they had an imported cat;
In reality the cat was there all the while,
only enjoying q life of freedom.
With the Ibis the case is wholly different
me Ibis was sacred to Isis; 1t personified
the Nile valley; it was the emblem of Egypt
in the days when 10th, the god of learning
and medicine personified the intellect But
Herodotus attributes two ibises to Egypt; a
black one, which was great destroyer of
serpents. and white one. which was a do
mesticated bird. When the Nile rose then
came countless ibises, and the people credit
ed them with what was really the work of
the river. But no black ibis exists; what
now becomes of Herodotus veracity?
Thanks to science, it gets it's defense the
philologists explain that the name applied
to the black ibis is that of another species,
which exists today, and certain mummied
ibises are found to be this very bird. And
now some one will ask about the white ibis;
for the white ibis has undeniably vanished
from Egypt. And yet it was living there a
century ago; Savigny saw several speci-
mems of 1t in the Delta. Some were OBJ
served even as late as 1877, and 1t still sur
wives in Ethiopia. Perhaps Egypt doesn't
attract 1t effectualy as formely At
any rate the difficulty need not embarrass
us.