History of Embalming. Gannal Jean-Nicolas
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.6
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.7
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
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. —
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 (
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. —