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EMBALMING (Gr. 06Xaaµov, balsam; Ger....

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 306 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EMBALMING (Gr. 06Xaaµov, See also:balsam; Ger. Einbalsamiren; Fr. embaumement) , the See also:art of preparing dead bodies, chiefly by the use of medicaments, in See also:order to preserve them from putrefaction and the attacks of See also:insects. The See also:ancient Egyptians carried the art to See also:great perfection, and embalmed not only human beings, but See also:cats, crocodiles, ichneumons, and other sacred animals. It was at one See also:time suggested that the origin of embalming in See also:Egypt was to be traced to a want of See also:fuel for the purpose of See also:cremation, to the inadvisability or at some times impossibility of See also:burial in a See also:soil annually disturbed by the inundation of the See also:Nile, and to the See also:necessity, for sanitary reasons, of preventing the decomposition of the bodies of the dead when placed in open sepulchres. As, however, the corpses of the embalmed must have constituted but a small proportion of the aggregate See also:mass of See also:animal See also:matter daily to be disposed of, the above explanation would in any See also:case be far from satisfactory; and there is no doubt (see See also:MUMMY) that embalming originated in the See also:idea of preserving the See also:body for a future See also:life. According to W. H. See also:Prescott, it was a belief in a resurrection of the body that led the ancient Peruvians to preserve the See also:air-dried corpses of their dead with so much solicitude (see See also:Conquest of See also:Peru, bk. i. See also:chap. iii.). And J. C. See also:Prichard (See also:Egyptian See also:Mythology, p.

200) properly compared the Egyptian practice with the views which rendered " the Greeks and See also:

Romans so anxious to perform the usual See also:rites of sepulture to their departed warriors, namely, . . . that these solemnities expedited the See also:journey of the soul to the appointed region, where it was to receive See also:judgment for its former deeds, and to have its future See also:doom fixed accordingly." It has been supposed by some that the See also:discovery of the preservation of bodies interred in saline soils may have been the immediate origin of embalming in Egypt. In that See also:country certain classes of the community were specially appointed for the practice of the art. See also:Joseph, we are told in Gen. 1. 2, " commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his See also:father." See also:Herodotus (ii. 86) gives an See also:account of three of the methods of embalming followed by the Egyptians. The most expensive of these, which cost a See also:talent of See also:silver (243: 15s.), was as follows. The brains were in See also:part removed through the nostrils by means of a See also:bent See also:iron See also:implement, and in part by the injection of drugs. The intestines having been See also:drawn out through an incision in the See also:left See also:side, the See also:abdomen was cleansed with See also:palm-See also:wine, and filled with See also:myrrh, See also:cassia and other materials, and the opening was sewed up. This done, the body was steeped seventy days in a See also:solution of litron or natron.l Diodorus (i. 91) relates that the cutter (lrapwrx1vrr7s) appointed to make the incision in the flank for the removal of the intestines, as soon as he had performed his See also:office, was pursued with stones and curses by-those about him, it being held by the Egyptians a destestable thing to commit any violence or inflict a See also:wound on the body.

After the steeping, the body was washed, and handed over to the swathers, a See also:

peculiar class of the lowest order of priests, called by See also:Plutarch cholchytae, by whom it was bandaged in gummed See also:cloth; it was then ready for the See also:coffin. Mummies thus prepared were considered to represent See also:Osiris. In another method of embalming, costing twenty-two minae (about £90), the abdomen was injected with " See also:cedar-See also:tree See also:pitch" (Ke5pia), which, as it would seem from See also:Pliny (Nat. Hist. xvi. 21), was the liquid distillate of the pitch-See also:pine. This is stated by Herodotus to have had a corrosive and solvent See also:action on the viscera. After injection the body was steeped a certain number of days in natron; the contents of the abdomen were allowed to See also:escape; and the See also:process was then See also:complete. The preparation of the bodies of the poorest consisted simply in placing them in natron for seventy days, after a previous rinsing of the abdomen with " syrmaea." The material principally used in the costlier modes of embalming appears to have been See also:asphalt; See also:wax was more rarely employed. In some cases embalming seems to have been effected by immersing the body in a See also:bath of molten See also:bitumen. Tanning also was resorted to. Occasionally the viscera, after treatment, were in part or wholly replaced in the body, together with wax figures of the four genii of Amenti. More commonly they were embalmed in a mixture of See also:sand and asphalt, and buried in vases, or canopi, placed near the mummy, the abdomen being filled with chips and sawdust of cedar and a small quantity of natron.

In one See also:

jar were placed the See also:stomach and large See also:intestine; in another, the small intestines; in a third, the lungs and See also:heart; in a See also:fourth, the See also:gall-See also:bladder and See also:liver. See also:Porphyry (De abstinentia, iv. 1o) mentions a See also:custom of enclosing the intestines in a See also:box and consigning them to the Nile, after a See also:prayer uttered by one of the embalmers, but his statement is regarded by See also:Sir J. G. See also:Wilkinson as unworthy of belief. The body of See also:Nero's wife Poppaea, contrary to the usage of the Romans, was not burnt, but as customary among other nations with the bodies of potentates, was honoured with embalmment (see See also:Tacitus, See also:Ann. xvi. 6). The body of See also:Alexander the Great is said to have been embalmed with See also:honey (See also:Statius, Sily. iii. 2. 117), and the same material was used to preserve the See also:corpse of Agesipolis I. during its See also:conveyance to See also:Sparta for burial. Herodotus states (iii. 24) that the Ethiopians, in embalming, dried the body, rubbed it with See also:gypsum (or See also:chalk), and, having painted it, placed it in a See also:block of some transparent substance.

The See also:

Guanches, the See also:aborigines of the Canaries, employed a mode of embalming similar to that of the Egyptians, filling the hollow caused by the removal of the viscera with See also:salt and an absorbent See also:vegetable See also:powder (see Bory de See also:Saint See also:Vincent, Essais sur See also:les Iles Fortunes, 1803, p. 495). Embalming was still in See also:vogue among the Egyptians in the time of St See also:Augustine, who says that they termed mummies gabbarae (Serm. 12o, cap. 12). In See also:modern times numerous methods of embalming have been practised. Dr See also:Frederick Ruysch of See also:Amsterdam (1665—1717) is said to have utilized See also:alcohol for this purpose. By See also:William See also:Hunter essential See also:oils, alcohol, See also:cinnabar, camphor, See also:saltpetre and pitch or See also:rosin were employed, and the final See also:desiccation of the body was effected by means of roasted gypsum placed in its coffin. J. P. Boudet (1778—1849) embalmed with tan, salt, asphalt and Peruvian bark, camphor, See also:cinnamon and other aromatics and corrosive sublimate. The last-mentioned See also:drug, chloride and sulphate of See also:zinc, acetate and sulphate of alumina, and creasote and carbolic See also:acid have all been recommended by various modern embalmers.

See MUMMY;' See also:

Louis Penicher, Traite See also:des embaumements (See also:Paris, 1669) ; S. Blancard. Anatomia reformata, et de balsamatione nova methodus (Lugd. See also:Bat., 1695) ; See also:Thomas Greenhill, The Art of Em- ' Neutral carbonate of See also:sodium, Na2CO3, found at the natron lakes in the Libyan See also:desert, and at El Hegs, in Upper Egypt.balming (See also:London, 1705) ; J. N. Marjolin, See also:Manuel d'anatomie (Paris, 181o) ; Pettigrew, See also:History of Mummies (London, 1834) ; See also:Gannal, Traite d'embaumements (Paris, 1838; and ed., 1841); See also:Magnus, Des Einbalsamiren der Leichen (Brunsw., 1839); Sucquet, Embaumement (Paris, 1872) ; Lessley, Embalming (See also:Toledo, See also:Ohio, 1884) ; See also:Myers, Textbook of Embalming (See also:Springfield, Ohio, 1900) ; See also:Rawlinson, Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 141; G. Elliot See also:Smith, A Contribution to the Study of Mummification in Egypt {See also:Cairo, 1906).

End of Article: EMBALMING (Gr. 06Xaaµov, balsam; Ger. Einbalsamiren; Fr. embaumement)

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