History of Embalming
and of Preparations in Anatomy, Pathology, and Natural Hiistory
Author: J. N. Gannal
Translator: R. Harlan
NOTE OF THE TRANSLATOR.
It will be reasonably anticipated from the title of the present
volume, that it embraces subjects of equal interest to the general
and professional reader, as well as indispensable material for the
researches of the practical anatomist and student of natural history.
The latter class will find in it all the requisite details for a
successful prosecution of its arduous, intricate, but favorite
pursuits; whilst those of its patrons of the former class, cannot fail
to be interested in the various and important facts and discussions
embraced in a general history of embalming from the earliest ages
to the present period, so inseparably connected with the moral and
physical history of our own species.
An additional subject of interest to all classes will be acknowledged
in the facts and observations elicited by the arduous and industrious
researches of the author, whilst investigating _the new process of
embalming_, which has led to such happy results to the students of
anatomy and natural history. The great importance, in all respects, of
M. Gannal’s discovery, has been fully and adequately acknowledged by
the different commissions appointed by the Institute of France, and
the Royal Academy of Medicine, who have awarded to its author both
honour and profit, as a real benefactor to science, to the progress of
which he has so substantially added. The current of the text, together
with the notes and illustrations of the translator, embraces all the
discoveries of the age, of this nature, of value to the practical
anatomist and naturalist, consisting both of original observations,
and of highly important information contained in the standard works of
De Bils, Ruysch, Swammerdam, Clauderus, De Rasiere, Dumeril, Hunter,
Breschet, Pole, Margolin, Bell, Cloquet, Swan, Parsons, Horner, &c.
Concerning the nature, extent, and merits of the new discovery of M.
Gannal, the translator, has spoken in the appendix, from a personal
acquaintance with the author and a minute examination of the collection
of embalmed objects contained in his cabinet at Paris.
_Philadelphia, September, 1840._
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PREFACE, p. 5.
INTRODUCTION, p. 9--Embalming among the Egyptians--Cause and origin
of this custom--Opinion of authors: Cassien, Herodotus, Diodorus
Sicculus, Maillet, Bory de Saint Vincent, Volney, Pariset,
etc.--First idea of embalming offered to the Egyptians by the
mummy of the sands--Opinion of Count de Caylus de Rouelle--Plan
of this work--Natural mummies--Mummies of the Guanches--Of the
Egyptians--Of the Jews--Of the Greeks and Romans--Of modern
nations--Mummies the object of superstitious dread--History of
the Pole, Razevil--Mummy employed as a remedy in disease--Its
marvellous properties--Officinal mummy of Crollius--In what
embalming consisted among the Egyptians and Guanches--What it
has been among the moderns--What my discoveries have made of
it--Motives which have induced me to publish this work.
CHAPTER I.
OF EMBALMING IN GENERAL, p. 21--Tendency of bodies to
decomposition--Variable, according to countries, species, and
individuals--Fact reported by Ammien Marcellin--Consequences
deducible from it, for the natives of hot countries--for temperate
and cold countries--Facts observed by Maillet--Astonishing analogy
observed in the caverns of Saint Michel, at Bordeaux--Various
processes of embalming--With gum--With honey--With wax--The
embalming of Alexander--Of Agesilas--Brine unknown--Fact
of _Tulliola_, reported by Coelius Rodiginus--Another
by Valateron--Embalming with aromatic and astringent
substances--With resinous and bituminous substances--Empyricism
of the moderns--Process of Ruysch, of Swammerdam--Note of
Strader--Appreciation of these methods--Useful deductions to be
drawn from them--Penicher thinks it impossible to embalm without
emptying the large cavities--Fact in support of his opinion--My
experiments to this effect on infants.
CHAPTER II.
NATURAL MUMMIES, p. 35.--Power of nature--Importance of seeking her
ways in the study of her phenomena; to follow her lessons--Division
of natural mummies--Mummies due to the particular qualities of
the soil--Note communicated by Drs. Boucherie, Bermont, and
Gaubert, concerning the mummies of Saint Michel, at Bordeaux;
thermometrical and hygrometrical observations; chemical analysis;
results--Similar facts observed at Palermo--At Toulouse--History of
M. de la Visee--Mummies due to the general qualities of the air and
soil--Mummy of the avalanches--Time of its duration--Mummification
by a cold and dry wind--Morgue of the Great Saint Bernard--Note
communicated by Dr. Lenoir--Mummy of the Sands--Testimony
of Herodotus--Description of Father Kircher--In Egypt--In
Mexico--These facts establish a simple connexion between the
productions of nature and those of human industry.
CHAPTER III.
EMBALMING OF THE GUANCHES, p. 48.--Resemblance between the embalmings
of the Guanches, and those of the Egyptians--Consequences deducible
from this resemblance--Description of the processes drawn from the
Essay of M. Bory de Saint Vincent--Duration of embalming--State
in which are found these mummies at the present day--Probable
duration of their preservation--Catacombs at Fer, the Canaries,
&c.--Construction of mausoleums--Fact observed by M. Jouannet of
two Guanch mummies.
CHAPTER IV.
EMBALMING AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, p. 54.--What comprises the
labour of embalming--Disposition--Thermometrical and hygrometrical
state of the caverns in which the bodies were deposited; what
advantages for preservation resulted from these--Recital of
Herodotus--Of Diodorus Sicculus--Orpheus transposes these
usages into Grecian mythology--Judgment of the dead--The place
where they are deposited--Models of embalmings presented to
relatives--Three kinds of embalmings; description of each by
Herodotus--Horror existing for those charged with making the
incisions--Invocation to the sun, previous to casting away the
intestines--Precautions taken for the preservation of the bodies
of young females, or those of high rank--Commentaries on the
narratives of the ancients--Succession of means discussed--Opinion
of Rouelle concerning natrum--Examination of the linen bandages
in which the mummies are enveloped--Analysis of the embalming
material by Rouelle; explanation of several passages--Exhibition
of models--Price--New details furnished by Diodorus--Quantity
of bandages found around a single mummy--Embalming of bodies
without sepulture--drowned persons for example--Mummy of a
prince of Memphis--Examination of this mummy by Rouelle, and the
Count de Caylus--Extracts from the work of M. Rouyer, (great
work upon Egypt;) the details which he furnishes complete our
knowledge of Egyptian embalming; how many kinds of mummies he
acknowledges--Mummies having an incision on the left side--Mummies
without any incision--Exploration and description of the plain of
Saggarah, by De Maillet--Visit to the subterranean chambers--Mummy,
near which was found a symbolical statue--Description of an antique
found in a tomb--Mummies preserved upon beds of carbon--Conclusion
drawn from facts contained in this chapter.
CHAPTER V.
OF EMBALMING, FROM THE TIME OF THE EGYPTIANS DOWN TO OUR DAYS,
p. 89.--Honours of embalming, conferred by other nations
on distinguished men only--Doubts on the efficacy of this
operation--Example of Alexander, and of Ptolemy--Embalming
among the Jews--Embalming of Jesus Christ--Employment of
wax among the Persians--Methods of De Bils, of Ruysch, of
Swammerdam, of Clauderus--Description of the cabinet of
Sieur Desenclosses--Silence regarding the processes of
preservation employed by these authors--Composition of the
balsam given by Penicher--Salt of Clauderus--Brine of Charles
de Maetz--Preservation of the body of Saint Thomas--Formulæ:
balsamic wines, compound brandy, vinegar, cere-cloth--Mixtures
for soaking the linens: liniment, balsamic powders--Various
methods of embalming, to the number of four--Embalming of the
heart--Preservation of the heart of an Abbe--Embalming of Madame
the Dauphine--Reflections.
CHAPTER VI.
ART OF EMBALMING IN OUR DAY, PREVIOUS TO MY DISCOVERIES,
p. 118.--Opinion of M. Pelletan upon the imperfect state of this
art--Dispute among the physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries,
upon the question of precedence--Embalming the senators of the
empire--Improvements proposed by M. Pelletan--Application of the
discoveries of Chaussier upon the preservative properties of the
deuto-chloride of mercury to the art of embalming--Embalming,
as practised by Beclard--Preservation of the body of Colonel
Morland, by M. Larrey--Remarks--Preservation of the body of a
young girl of ten years, by M. Boudet--Reflections on these
facts--Embalming of Louis XVIII., King of France--Fifteenth
observation--Criticism--Empyricism in this art--Exact appreciation
of the preservative properties of the deuto-chloride of
mercury--Superiority of the means which I propose.
CHAPTER VII.
MEANS FOR THE PREPARATION AND PRESERVATION OF PARTS OF NORMAL
ANATOMY, OF PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY, AND OF NATURAL HISTORY,
ANTERIOR TO THE GANNAL PROCESS, p. 141.--Importance of
such preparations to the physician and naturalist--Plan of
a museum--Engravings: pieces in wax, artificial pieces in
carton, in white wood--The methods of preparing recent organs
and tissues--Process of Swan, of Chaussier--1. Generalities
concerning the operations which precede preservation--Choice
of subjects--Dissection--Maceration and corrosion--Injections;
evacuants; repletives; conservatives; washings; ligature of
vessels--Separation and distention of parts--2. Methods of
preservation of naturalists--Preservation by desiccation--Methods
divided into four series; rectified spirits of wine; deuto-chloride
of mercury, and other metallic substances--Earthy salts--Process
of tanning--Desiccation--Preservation in liquids, acids,
alkalies, salts, alum, volatile oils, alcoholic liquors--Means
of preservation practised by naturalists: soap of Becoeur,
soapy pomatum--tanning liquor--antiseptic powder--gummy
paste--preservative powder--German powder--powder of Naumann, and
of Hoffman--Preservatives in liquors: bath, naturalist preparors
in Paris, tanning liquor, bath of the Abbe Manesse--Liquors as
washes; essence of serpolet, of turpentine--Liquor of Sir S.
Smith--Bitter spirituous liquors--Varnish--Liquors employed as
injections--Liquors in which objects are preserved which do not
admit of drying--Spirit of wine--Liquor of Nicholas--Of George
Graves--Of the Abbe Manesse--Critical reflections--Appreciation
of each of the proposed means--(1.) For desiccation--New methods
which I propose for the preparation of dry parts--Example
of an injection by my method--The subject submitted to the
examination of a scientific commission--Application of my process
to the preservation of mammiferous animals--Of birds--State
of the tissues--(2.) For preservation in liquids--Nitric
Acid--Alcohol--Weakened alcohol--Alum: chemical demonstration of
its insufficiency for preservation--(3.) Means of preservation
applied to each tissue--Fibrous tissue--Articulations--Aponeuroses,
tendons and ligaments--Process of M. J. Cloquet--Osseous
tissue--Maceration--Ebullition--Bleaching--Cutaneous
tissue--Cellular tissue--Synovial and serous
tissues--Brain--Spinal marrow--Nerves--Blood-vessels--Muscular
tissue--Heart--Lungs--Eye--Fœtus--Envelopes.
CHAPTER VIII.
GANNAL’S PROCESS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF NORMAL ANATOMY,
PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY, AND NATURAL HISTORY, p. 197.--Difference
between the processes of preservation offered to anatomists, and
those practised for embalming: 1. Preservation of bodies for
dissection--Table of my experiments in 1828--In 1831--Kindness of
M. Professor Orfila--What formerly existed upon this matter--My
point of departure proceeding from the practice of artists--Action
of Acids--Salts--Aluminous salts--These possess in the highest
degree the preservative property--Selection to be made among
these salts--My first experiments--Satisfying results--Proved
by commissions appointed by the Academy of Sciences, and the
Academy of Medicine--Series of researches--Misreckoning--New
experiments--Superiority of the acetate of alum--Facts--Chloride
of alumine, its defects--Arsenic, and bad results--First
report of the Academy of Sciences--First report of the
Academy of Medicine--Definitive report of the Academy of
Medicine--Reflections--Some good results obtained at first
from a mixture of alum, nitrate of potash, and chloride of
sodium--Not sustained above the 10° of centigrade--Bath--Light
furnished by it--Data for new researches--Acetate of alumine
excellent--Reason for renouncing its use for amphitheatres--Simple
sulphate, its analysis--Demonstration of its superiority over
acid sulphate--Various liquors of which it is the base--Black
colour of the skin--Its cause--Report of the commission of the
Institute--Experiments of MM. Serres, Dubreuil, Bourgery, Azoux,
Velpeau, Amussat--My process applied to the dissecting rooms of
Clamart: 2. Anatomical preparations--Those of pathology, and
Natural history--Facts, proving a perfect preservation during many
years--Composition of various preservative liquids--Usage--Example
of the preservation of dry pieces by the simple sulphate--All
my experiments first attempted on the fœtus--Circumstances the
most unfavourable: 3. Embalming--There remains for me a series of
experiments to perform, to enable me to practise embalming--Data
to which I must confine myself--Have I attained my end?--Answer
to this question by facts--Exhumation--First observation--Second
observation.
APPENDIX, p. 253.
_To Messrs. Members of the Academy of Sciences._
GENTLEMEN,--From the commencement of my researches upon the
preservation of animal matters, you have encouraged me by extending
your support to efforts which my own resources would not perhaps have
enabled me to continue; in this path strewn with so many difficulties,
and disgusts, I have endeavoured to show myself worthy of your high
protection.
At a later period, when I was able to offer to physicians and
naturalists methods of preservation superior to those previously
known, you conferred upon me the prize founded by Monthyon. I have
pursued my researches with the view of adapting my process to the art
of embalming; the happy results which I have obtained have inspired me
with the idea of comparing my mummies with those obtained by processes
different from my own.
Finally, I have extended this parallel between my processes and those
formerly applied, to preparations of healthy anatomy, to pathological
anatomy, and to natural history.
My labour terminated, I have thought it my duty to dedicate to you a
work the publication of which is due to the decision which your wisdom
and justice have dictated.
Allow me, gentlemen, to consider this dedication as a new encouragement
which you are willing to confer upon me, and trust in the respectful
sentiments with which I have the honour to be, your very humble and
very grateful servant,
Gannal.
PREFACE.
I had terminated my first researches upon the preservation of animal
matters, and proposed to publish them; my notes were collated and my
work prepared, when the idea struck me that in place of confining
myself to the exposition of the results which I had obtained, I might,
with advantage to science, present a history of the art of embalming
from the highest antiquity to our time, and compare my processes,
with those in use for the preservation of objects of normal anatomy,
pathological anatomy, and natural history.
This determination has decided me to publish a volume, in place of a
pamphlet of fifty pages.
I had no model to follow, for no author had re-united in the same book,
the elements of which I wished this might be composed. I found myself,
therefore, necessitated to collect together in the following pages the
materials scattered throughout numerous works.
For embalming, _Plutarch_, _Herodotus_, _Diodorus Sicculus_,
_Stacy_, _Pliny_, _Cicero_, _Porphyrus_, _Prosper Alpin_, _Cassien_,
_Clauderus_, _Penicher_, _Baricel_, _Rodiginus_, _Corippus_,
_Gryphius_, _Crollius_, _the Reverend Fathers Kircher and Menestrier_,
_De Maillet_, _Volney_, _Rouelle_, _the Count de Caylus_, _MM.
Pariset_, _Rouyer_, _Bory de Saint Vincent_, and numerous other
authors, have furnished me with descriptions and materials, which I
was obliged to put in order and bring before the eye of the reader, in
order to present to him a useful lecture, and in some sort preparatory
to my own ideas. As my point of departure was scientific data, opinions
and facts have come in place as the recital needed them; and thanks
to this idea, which has never abandoned me, the numerous materials
from which, in the commencement, I feared disorder and confusion, have
come, as if by consent to dispose themselves in order; so great is the
influence of a general idea in the arrangement of facts. I believe
that I have reduced to exact proportions the art of embalming among
different nations. My predecessors had referred too little to _nature_,
too much to _man_, in the appreciation of Egyptian embalming; they had
not sufficiently estimated the difficulties of the same practice among
nations less favoured by climate. Facts reconsidered and interrogated
with the aid of lights afforded by the recent progress of physics and
chemistry, have furnished us with consequences naturally resulting from
their attentive examination.
When the history of an art is followed step by step, as we have done
for that of embalming, one is astonished at a psychological fact,
equally applicable to every case--we see how idle and common place the
human mind is, and how little prone it is to spontaneous activity. The
gross and inconsiderate imitation of the Egyptian processes during a
long series of ages, is one of the most remarkable examples of this
disposition.
Trials directed by a spirit of analysis and critical examination have
enabled me to substitute for complex operations, for long difficult and
expensive operations, most frequently inefficacious, a simple means, of
a determined action, and submitted for several years to the examination
of committees appointed by the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of
Medicine.
In order to trace the history of the preservation of objects of
anatomy and natural history I have had no occasion to go back to an
epoch distant from our own; for this science is altogether new. Beyond
the discoveries of Chaussier, on the preservative properties of the
deuto-chloride of mercury, the labours of MM. Dumeril, Cloquet and
Breschet, there is very little existing on this subject. So that I have
concluded, after a complete exposition of the preservative means given
by these authors, it only remained for me to propose the preservative
substances which, after numerous experiments, have appeared to me
preferable to those which they have recommended. They possess a
peculiar merit for the formation of cabinets of natural history, that
of reducing the expense to at least one-nineteenth.
I have considered it my duty to give here the details of the
composition of the liquids employed, either as baths or injections,
by the physician and naturalist; the interest of science imposing on
me this obligation. But, as regards embalming, the same motive does
not exist; I have consequently abstained from giving in totality the
means employed in this operation, reserving to myself the care of this
process on the request of families or physicians.[A]
[A] This paragraph, evidently empyrical in its bearing, is derogatory
to Gannal as a man of science. We further believe that the pretended
secret of his manipulations is of little consequence to the success
of the operation: it is generally understood that to the fluid
acetate of alumine (produced by the chemical action induced by
the mixture of the solutions of acetate of lead and alum,) to be
injected, a little arsenic is added, to prevent the formation of the
byssus, and attacks of insects, also some carmine, to give to the
subject a healthy colour.--_Tr._
It was not until after many unsuccessful efforts that I succeeded in
discovering a method capable of insuring the indefinite preservation of
bodies deposited in the earth. A thousand unexpected difficulties arose
in my path; and to cite only one, at the end of eight or nine months
of preservation, a vegetable production, known to botanists under the
name of byssus, for a long time embarrassed me; I tried numerous means,
before discovering one capable of suppressing this formation.
The perfection to which I have brought the art of embalming, leaves
little to desire. So convinced am I at length of the efficacy of the
processes which I employ, that I shall be always ready, at the request
of the authorities or of families, to exhume those bodies which I have
already embalmed in great numbers, at any expressed period of time.
INTRODUCTION.
The Egyptians embalmed their dead, and the processes which they
employed were sufficiently perfect to secure them an indefinite
preservation. This is a fact of which the pyramids, the caverns, and
all the sepultures of Egypt offer us irrefragible proofs. But what
were the causes and the origin of this custom? We have in answer to
this question only hypothesis and conjecture. In the absence of valid
documents, each one explains according to the bias of his mind, or the
nature of his studies, a usage, the origin of which is lost in the
night of time. One of the ancients informs us that the Egyptians took
so much pains for the preservation of the body, believing that the
soul inhabited it so long as it subsisted. Cassien, on the other hand,
assures us that they invented this method because they were unable to
bury their dead during the period of inundation. Herodotus, in his
third book, observes, that embalming had for its object the securing
of bodies from the voracity of animals; _they did not bury them_, says
he, _for fear they would be eaten by worms, and they did not burn them,
because they considered fire like a wild beast that devours everything
it can seize upon_. Filial piety and respect for the dead, according
to Diodorus Sicculus, were the sentiments which inspired the Egyptians
with the idea of embalming the dead bodies. De Maillet, in his tenth
letter upon Egypt, refers only to a religious motive the origin of
embalming: “The priests and sages of Egypt taught their fellow citizens
that, after a certain number of ages, which they made to amount to
thirty or forty thousand years, and at which they fixed the epoch of
the great revolution when the earth would return to the point at which
it commenced its existence, their souls would return to the same bodies
which they formerly inhabited. But, in order to arrive, after death,
to this wished for resurrection, two things were absolutely necessary;
first, that the bodies should be absolutely carefully preserved from
corruption, in order that the souls might re-inhabit them; secondly,
that the penance submitted to during this long period of years, that
the numerous sacrifices founded by the dead, or those offered to their
manes by their relations or their friends, should expiate the crimes
they had committed during the time of their first habitation on earth.
With these conditions exactly observed, these souls, separated from
their bodies, should be permitted to re-enter at the arrival of this
grand revolution which they anticipated--remember all that had passed
during their first sojourn, and become immortal like themselves. They
had further the privilege of communicating this same happiness to the
animals which they had cherished, provided that their bodies inclosed
in the same tomb with themselves, were equally well preserved. It is
in virtue of this belief that so many birds, cats, and other animals
are found embalmed with almost the same care as the human bodies with
which they have been deposited. Such was the idea of perfect happiness
which they hoped to enjoy in this new life. In expectation of this
resurrection, the souls inhabited the airs nearest the dwellings where
reposed the bodies they had animated. But superstition alone, it could
scarcely be believed, would induce men to save from destruction the
mortal spoils of individuals whom they had loved whilst living. I much
prefer looking for the source of this usage in the sentiment which
survives a cherished object snatched from affection by the hand of
death. Since death levels all distinctions--respecting neither love nor
friendship,--since the dearest and most sacred ties are relentlessly
broken asunder, it is the natural attribute of affection, to seek to
avoid in some degree, a painful separation, by preserving the remains
of those they love and by whom they were beloved. Love, tenderness,
and friendship, do not terminate with the objects which gave them
birth--they survive and follow them even beyond the tomb.”--(_Bory de
Saint Vincent, Essay on the Fortunate Islands.--Embalming of the
Guanches._) The same author adds: “The custom of preserving their dead,
which was only national among the Egyptians and Guanches, that is to
say, with men the least instructed, and a nation the most learned,
is, as we have said above, proof of a profound sensibility among
nations with whom it is general. Without doubt, an enlightened policy
would contribute much to introduce, extend, and confirm the practice.
It proves an intelligent government, one full of solicitude for the
happiness of its subjects.”
The opinion of Volney, revived and adopted by Pariset, in his memoir
on the causes of the plague, is closely allied to the preceding. “In
a numerous population, under a burning climate, and a soil profoundly
drenched during many months of the year, the rapid putrefaction of
bodies is a leaven for plague and disease. Stricken by these murderous
pests, Egypt, at an early day, struggled to obviate them; hence have
arisen, on the one hand, the custom of burying their dead at a distance
from their habitations; and on the other, an art so ingenious and
simple, to prevent putrefaction by embalming: a secondary precaution,
more important and more efficacious, with which the primary could not
dispense, and which, exacting attempts, trials, and experiments, could
only be obtained as a last result--an art by no means expensive, of
a simplicity and facility of execution, which rendered its immediate
application popular, general, and, perhaps, uniform for all dead
bodies. Research and luxury followed at a later period.” The sentiments
to which the authors above cited attribute the origin of embalming
among the Egyptians exist in every man, viewed either as a social or
isolated being. One individual may be induced to embalm the bodies
of his relatives or friends by motives of superstition; another from
egotism or personal interest; a third from motives of salubrity or
common interest; another, in fine, is impelled by an instinctive
affection to perform the sacred duty of preserving the remains of those
who were dear to him. But none of these motives possess a character
of generality and perpetuity, which consecrates a usage and renders it
popular; it was therefore left to government to interfere and give it
the force of law.
The noble sentiments of affection, of respect, and of veneration, had
then, without doubt, the priority; and everything proves to us that
these inspired the admirable art of embalming, and that they were above
all invoked by legislators.
Nature, besides, upon this torrid soil, gave the first idea of this
mode of preserving the remains of men and animals: the mummy[1] of
the sands, a natural phenomenon, was a revelation to a people so wise
and industrious. The course of our work will demonstrate, we hope,
the simple connection of these facts; it had already arrested M. le
Comte de Caylus, who, in a memoir read to the Academy of Inscriptions
and Belles-Lettres, in 1749, thus expresses himself: “The Egyptians,
according to appearances, owe the idea of their mummies, to the dead
bodies which they found buried in the burning sands which prevail
in some parts of Egypt, and which, carried away by the winds, bury
travellers and preserve their bodies, by consuming the fat and flesh
without altering the skin.”
[1] _Momie_ or _mumie_: the etymology of this word is not well known:
the Jesuit Kircher supposes that _mum_ is a Persian word, and Pere
Martini, an Arab name, signifying _a dried corpse_: other writers
derive mummy from _ammomum_, the name of an aromatic plant. These
conjectures I leave to the etymologists.
The same opinion is advanced by Rouelle. In our general history of
the preservation of the human body, the mummy of the sand, and those
induced by other local circumstances, will have the first place;
and the art of embalming among the Egyptians and the Guanches will
occupy the second. This art, we have already said, presents among
these people, a general character, which does not appear in any other
country. No where, indeed, are the processes of preservation so
efficacious, and these two nations alone, have been able to endow their
mummies with the power of resisting destruction.
We shall see in the sequel this custom establish itself among the
Jews, the Greeks, the Romans and moderns--but it no longer displays
a general character; it is no longer a law, a social institution;
religious belief, superstition, personal interest, salubrity, no longer
obliged them to recur to it. Sentiments of veneration, respect, and
attachment, to which we have given the priority to all others, sufficed
to perpetuate this custom, and have preserved it for a long series of
ages, from the epoch of the Jews, down to our day.
Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm the body of
his father, which they executed according to order, in the space of
forty days.--(_Genesis._)
Saint John informs us, that Nicodemus took a hundred pounds of a
mixture of myrrh and aloes, with which to embalm the body of Jesus
Christ, which they enveloped in sheets with aromatics, according to the
usual mode of burying the dead among the Jews.
Testimony of a similar nature, transmitted to us by historians, show us
this usage in vigor among the Persians, the Arabians, the Ethiopians,
& c.: for kings, princes, and persons of distinction, to whom they would
not consider that they had rendered the respect due to their memories
if they had failed to preserve preciously what remained of them.
Corippus, in his funeral oration on the Emperor Justinien, thus
expresses himself on the embalming of this emperor:
“Thura sabæa cremant, fragrantia mille
Infundunt pateris, et odoro balsama succo, locatis
Centum aliæ species; unguentaque mira feruntur
Tempus in æternum sacrum servantia corpus.”[2]
[2] They burned the incense of Arabia, balms and perfumes of every
kind filled a thousand vases, and the body is for ever preserved from
corruption by essences possessing wonderful properties.
The Romans, nevertheless, often contented themselves, in washing and
rubbing the body with certain perfumes.
“Tarquinii corpus bona femina lavit et unxit.”[3]
[3] A benevolent woman washed the body of Tarquin, and rubbed it with
perfumes.
The Egyptian mummies, which are distinguished from those of other
nations by the admirable state of preservation in which we find
them at the present time, have been for the philosopher a subject
of interesting study and research,--for the ignorant, a cause of
astonishment and superstitious fear; for physicians, an empyrical
remedy for a long time in vogue. The history of Razevil, the Pole,
proves the evil influence attributed to mummies. He had purchased at
Alexandria, two Egyptian mummies, one of a man, the other of a woman,
in order to take them to Europe; he divided them into six pieces,
which he separately enclosed in as many boxes, made of the bark of
dried trees, and in a seventh box he placed idols discovered with the
two bodies. But, as the Turks forbid the sale and transport of these
mummies, fearing lest Christians might compose some sorcery of them to
the injury of their nation, the Polonaise concluded to bribe the Jew
commissioned to examine the bales and merchandise. The plan succeeded,
the Jew shipped all the cases as shells, to be transported to Europe.
Previous to setting sail, I found, says he, a priest returning from
Jerusalem, and who could not accomplish his voyage without the aid
which I gave him on this occasion, in inviting him to take passage in
our ship. One day, whilst this good man was occupied in counting his
breviary, there arose a furious tempest, and he warned us, that besides
the danger, he perceived two great obstacles to our voyage in two
spectres, which continually haunted him: the tempest over, I taunted
him as a visionary, because I never imagined that my mummies could have
been the cause of it. But I was obliged in the sequel to change my
opinion, when there happened another storm, more violent and dangerous
than the first, and when the spectres again appeared to our priest
whilst he was saying his prayers, under the figures of a man and woman
dressed as my mummies were.
When the tempest was partially appeased, I privately threw overboard
the seven boxes, which was not so adroitly executed, however, but that
the captain got notice of it, when, with great delight, he promised us
that we should have no more storms; which effectively happened, and the
good priest was troubled with no more visions. I had a severe reprimand
from the captain for having embarked these mummies in his vessel,
against which the sea had so great antipathy. The theologians of the
isle of Crete, where we anchored, justified my conduct, acknowledging
that it was lawful to Christians to transport these mummies for the
assistance of the infirm, and that the church did not forbid the usage.
The judgment of the theologians of the isle of Crete, proves
that the employment of the mummy as a medicine was universally
admitted. According to Dioscorides, it is heating and drying in
the second degree--it relieves the headach, cures megraim, palsy,
and epilepsy--wonderful in relieving vertigo and drowsiness--an
antidote against poisons of all kinds--the bite of venomous
beasts--useful, according to Rhasis, in the spitting of blood, rupture
of blood-vessels, wounds, &c.;--in one word, no remedy was esteemed
more efficacious for the human body, than the human body taken as a
medicine. One dram of the oil of mummy of Paracelsus, rendered all
poisons innocuous for twenty-four hours; the formulæ of Crollius,
of Fernel, of Clauderus, produced effects equally miraculous.
The _divine water of Scroder_, was the touch-stone by whose aid the
issue of a disorder could be known in advance: a dram of this liquor
was mixed with nine drops of the blood of the patient, or with a
double proportion of his urine; if these fluids did not mix, it was
an infallible sign of approaching death; on the other hand, if they
mixed readily, you might anticipate the health or cure of the patient
in twenty-four hours. The great king, Francis 1st, wore around his
neck a piece of mummy as a preservative against all evils. Powerless
preservative!
I have designedly placed, after an example of superstition, facts which
prove the stupidity, or charlatanism of the profession, it appearing
to me instructive to preserve the progressive ascendency; the march
from the little to the great, in ridicule, as in everything else,
is absurd. The difficulty of obtaining mummies enough to satisfy
the demand, gave rise to an abominable traffic, against which many
physicians remonstrated. “The base avidity of gain increased daily,
and they commenced embalming with salt and alum the bodies of those
who had died of leprosy, of plague, or small pox, in order to obtain,
in the course of a few months, the cadaverous rottenness which flowed
from them, and to sell this for true and legitimate mummy; and even
at the present time, they make no scruples to give the name of mummy
to the dead bodies found in the Deserts of Arabia, and make patients
take it internally.”--(_Durenou._) The characters of a mummy of good
quality, had, nevertheless, been well determined. “Those bodies are not
mummies,” says Penicher, “dried by the sands of Lybia, nor those buried
and preserved beneath the snow; nor those bodies submerged by the sea,
thrown up and dried on the coast, even to the last degree of blackness;
nor of criminals, hung and dried in the sun--for these are of no
use.”--(_Ant. Santorel._) The Pissasphaltum, which is the mummy of the
Arabians and the ancients, according to Serapion and Avicenna, is not
what we desire; because the odour is disagreeable, and it can possess
no other virtue than a mixture of pitch and _asphaltum_. Neither is
mummy a certain fluid which flows from the coffins of embalmed bodies,
mentioned by Dioscorides and Mathioles, and which is only, properly
speaking, a mixture of humours, mixed, soaked, and penetrated by
aromatics, of which the embalming consists.
_Andrew Gryphius_ teaches us, that a good mummy ought to be reddish,
light, greasy, and with some odour, but as the embalming materials
vary much, as well as their quality, the bodies being more or less
well preserved, and it is even possible they may be poisonous, it has
appeared expedient to compose a mummy methodically digested. Among the
numerous formulæ for officinal _mummies_, we shall content ourselves
with citing here that of _Crollius_.
_Mummy of Crollius._ “Choose the body of a hanged person, preferring
one with red hair, because in this sort of temperament the blood is
thinner; the flesh impregnated with aromatics is better, being filled
with sulphur and balsamic salt; it ought to be about twenty-four years
of age, healthy, whole, and of good constitution; you will take pieces
of the flesh of this corpse, _they would be still better if taken from
the body of a living man_; notably, from the thighs, buttocks, &c.;
strip them of their arteries, nerves, veins, and fat, and then wash
them well with spirits of wine; then expose them to the sun and moon
for two days, during mild and dry weather, to the end that the action
of the rays of light of these two planets, particularly of the sun,
may exalt and liberate the principles concentered in the flesh; powder
it with myrrh, styrax, aloes, saffron, which constitute the basis of
the elixir proprietatis of Paracelsus; having previously rubbed the
flesh with true balm, macerate it for twelve or fifteen days in a well
corked vessel with first quality spirits of wine and salt, which form
of themselves a species of balm: at the end of this time withdraw the
flesh, let it drain, and dry in the sun; let them again, for the same
space of time, and in the same manner, macerate in a similar fluid, and
expose it afterwards to the sun and fire, in the same manner they do
hams; flesh thus prepared will be found to be an excellent mummy.”
Conceding that the use of the mummy in medicine is one of the strangest
and most extravagant abuses of empyricism, the officinal mummy of
_Crollius_ must be considered as an improvement, inasmuch as it is
divested of the dangers attached to other mummies; it was even a
benefit, for this remedy divested of the marvellous, reduced to the
level of a common drug, was justly appreciated and soon forgotten. The
art of embalming among the Egyptians and Guanches, was carried to a
degree of perfection attained by no other nation who followed their
example. And, nevertheless, what are the mummies of these countries?
They are, according to the definition of R. P. Kircher, bodies stuffed
and filled with odoriferant, aromatic, and balsamic drugs, capable
of arresting the progress of putrid decomposition. Numerous incisions
enabled the preservative matter to enter the cavities and deep tissues:
agreeably to the relations of Herodotus, of Diodorus Sicculus, and of
Porphyrus, the cranium was emptied either through the nostrils, or by
an opening made in one of the orbits: the contents of the thorax and
abdomen were withdrawn and placed in a trunk. “The Egyptians,” says
Plutarch, “drew the intestines from the dead bodies, and, after having
exposed them to the sun, cast them away as the cause of all the sins
committed by man.”
The moderns have adopted an analogous mode of preparation, and in our
days, previous to my researches on the preservation of animal matters,
the processes of embalming were long and complicated.
In the Dictionary of Medicine, of twenty-five volumes, (_Paris_, 1835,)
M. Murat traces in these terms the rules for embalming:
“Before commencing this operation, it is necessary to procure the
following objects: alcohol saturated with camphor, camphorated
vinegar, a varnish composed of the balsams of Perou and copaiba, fluid
styrax, the oils of Muscat, of lavender, and of thyme, &c., alcohol
saturated with proto-chloride of mercury, a powder composed of tan, of
decrepitated salt, of quinquina, of cascarilla, of mint, of benzoin,
of castor, of Jew’s pitch, &c.--all these substances mixed and reduced
to a fine powder, are sprinkled with essential oils. The powdered tan
ought to form nearly half the weight, and the salt one-fourth; there
ought also be placed, at the disposition of the embalmer, a certain
number of bandages, linen, sponges, and waxed threads, also several
basins filled with pure water, &c.
“The breast and belly must be opened by large incisions, and their
contents extracted; the brain is removed after the necessary incisions
of the scalp, and sawing circularly the bones of the cranium; deep
and repeated incisions are to be made in the viscera. If we wish to
preserve the intestinal tube, we must open it throughout its whole
length, wash it well in water and compress it; wash it a second time
in camphorated vinegar, and finally with camphorated alcohol. Large
incisions must be multiplied on the interior surfaces of the great
cavities, and along the extremities.”
I stop at these details, because they suffice to prove that the art
of embalming, down to the present, has had for its object, not the
preservation of the whole subject intact, but the preparation of animal
matters padded, stuffed with aromatics and salts: a preparation always
incomplete, tedious, and expensive. This is the point from which I
start in the preservation of animal matter, and the art of embalming.
Have I the happiness of adding a step to science? my readers shall be
the judges.
The Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Medicine, have proved
that, by one of my processes, subjects destined for dissection can be
preserved. Bodies kept for several months, and afterwards carried to
the amphitheatre, have been found as fresh and as fit for dissection,
as individuals dead only two days.[B]
[B] The colour of the tissues is changed, however, being bleached
by the acetate of alumine--but this is far preferable to the black
putridity, which renders the anatomical subject so disgusting and
unhealthy, when subjects are scarce.--_Tr._
These early successes, and the honourable encouragements which they
have received, gave me the idea of bringing the art of embalming to
perfection; and I have attained to the power of preserving bodies,
_with all their parts, both internal and external, without any
mutilation or extraction, and so as to admit of the contemplation of
the person embalmed, with the countenance of one asleep_.
This discovery has been confirmed by a commission of the Academy of
Sciences, who, in its public sitting in the month of August, 1837,
conferred upon me the grand prize.
Having decided to publish the result of my researches, I thought it
best to precede it by a general history of embalming, and it appeared
to me that a book which would reunite so many interesting documents
up to the present time scattered throughout so many works, would not
be without interest. If my readers join with me in this opinion, I
shall not have laboured in vain, and my work shall have received that
recompense of which I am most ambitious.
Nevertheless, I conceived that my endeavour should not be restricted
to the simple exposition of my researches, and that it was a duty I
owed, to place at the disposition of my fellow citizens the means of
continuing some relations with the remains of persons whom they had
held dear. The sentiments of love, friendship, respect, and veneration,
which preserves in our hearts as a sacred depot, the memory of friends
and relations, give, even to an indifferent portrait, which recalls
their features to us, an inappreciable value. The heart warms and
vivifies this faint image, and recalls to us the words and actions of those who have departed. |
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