'44 Estimate qfth€ Scientific Knowledge 



but this implies no more than the knowledge possessed by every 

 working mason, and from any thing communicated with cer- 

 tainty regarding them, we are not called on to ascribe to them 

 more. 



Egypt was no doubt, even in the most ancient times, as it is 

 now, a great mineralogical cabinet, just as the Paris basin was. 

 The minerals were placed there by the hand of the Author of 

 Nature ; but we have no more reason to believe that the ancient 

 Egyptians could demonstrate and explain the order of the mine- 

 rals in their country, than the Parisii, in the time of Julius Cae- 

 sar, could illustrate the Palaeotheria and Anaplotheria of Mont- 

 martre. 



But, in the lecture on the science of Egypt, the most unsa- 

 tisfactory argument is that which relates to anatomy. In page 

 335, after stating that there were constant opportunities afford- 

 ed of observing the external forms and habits of animals, as 

 many were brought up in the temples of the gods, either as de- 

 dicated to them, or receiving divine honours themselves, it is 

 added, " there were even occasions of observing their internal 

 structure, as it was customary to embalm them after death ;'' 

 and, " in Egypt the same horror towards dead bodies was not 

 entertained as in India ; not only were the bodies of sacred ani- 

 mals embalmed, but those of men also. Now, this practice 

 could not fail to give those who were charged with it a know- 

 ledge of the form and position of the organs. It was undoubt- 

 edly in Egypt that anatomy originated ; it was to that country 

 that the Greeks resorted to study it ; and thither Galen made a 

 journey expressly for the purpose of seeing the representation in 

 bronze of a human skeleton." 



Now, with regard to this matter, when we reflect on the pur- 

 pose for which the dead bodies were embalmed in Egypt, and 

 what the motives must have been which led to the practice, we 

 must immediately conclude, that, instead of affording facilities 

 for acquiring a knowledge of anatomy, nothing could have pre- 

 sented a greater impediment to it. The purpose of embalming 

 was to preserve the bodies as much as possible in the forms 

 which belonged to them when alive, which was altogether in- 

 compatible with that dissection of the parts which unfolds their 

 structure to the anatomist ; the motive to the practice could be 



