Transactions of the Royal Society. 337 



their ready communication with one another." Some other 

 curious details upon the subject of animal heat conclude this 

 paper, which is certainly a valuable contribution to chemical 

 physiology. 



iv. An Essay on Egyptian Mummies; with Observations on the 

 Art of Embalming among the Ancient Egyptians. „ By A. B. 

 Granville, M.D. ; F.R.S. ; F.L.S. ; F.G.S. ; M.R.I., one of 

 His Rmyal Highness the Duke of Clarence's Physicians in 

 Ordinary^ 8$c. §c. 



We can scarcely do justice, in the ordinary space of an abstract, 

 to the interesting details of this essay, and shall therefore feel 

 sanctioned in somewhat transgressing our usual limits, inasmuch 

 as several doubtful points and obscure circumstances in the history 

 of mummies are here for the first time cleared up and elucidated. 



In the year 1S21, Sir Archibald Edmonstone presented Dr. 

 Granville with a mummy, which he had purchased at Gournou, on 

 the 24th of March, 181 9, from one of the inhabitants of the sepul- 

 chral excavations on the side of the mountain, at the back of which 

 are the celebrated tombs of the kings of Thebes. It cost about 

 four dollars. There was no outer case to it ; and it is difficult, 

 the author observes, to conceive how the beauty and perfect con- 

 dition of the surface of the single case in which the mummy was 

 enclosed, could have been so well preserved without any external 

 covering. 



When the case was first opened, the mummy was found 

 covered with cerecloth and bandages most skilfully arranged, and 

 applied with a neatness and precision, that would baffle even the 

 imitative power of the most adroit surgeon of the present day. 

 There was no species of bandage which ancient or modern surgery 

 has devised, described, or employed, that did not appear to have 

 been used in securing the surface of the mummy from external 

 air ; and these were repeated so many times, that on weighing the 

 whole mass of them after their removal, they were found to weigh 

 twenty-eight pounds avoirdupois, and were composed both of 

 cotton and of linen. 



The envelopes having been removed, it was at once ascer- 

 tained that the subject was a female, and that no ventral incision, 

 as described by Herodotus, had been practised to extract the 

 viscera. 



The head was closely shaved ; externally the cranium ap- 

 peared not to have been disturbed in any way. The eyelids were 

 in close contact. The nose was flattened down towards the right 

 cheek, by the action of the bandages. The lips, from being re- 

 tracted, allowed the teeth of the upper and lower jaw to be seen, 

 perfectly white, and in a sound condition. The arms were crossed 



