Madden's Travels in Turkey, fyc. 127 



decomposed in as many hours. A few places in other parts 

 of the world possess, from local causes, the same antiseptic 

 property. The author mentions, as an instance, the vaults of 

 St. Michael's church in Duhlin. 



The second mode of embalming consists in the injection of 

 some antiseptic drugs previous to drying ; and the third, which 

 is the most perfect and sumptuous of all, is thus effected : — 

 The viscera are removed, and the body sprinkled with aromatics 

 and natron. After drying, it is enveloped in folds of gummed 

 linen, and placed in coffins according to the condition of the 

 deceased. The great principle of embalming is the exclusion 

 of the external air, but much is undoubtedly attributable to 

 the agency of antiseptics. The author ascertained that one of 

 the principal ingredients in the mummy balsam was colocynth 

 powder. The same drug is employed in Upper Egypt for 

 destroying vermin in clothes, presses, and storerooms; and 

 the ostrich-feathers sent to Lower Egypt are sprinkled with it. 

 In the head of a mummy of a superior kind, he met with a 

 balsam, in colour and transparency like a pink topaz. It 

 burned with a beautiful clear flame, and emitted a very fragrant 

 odour, in which the smell of cinnamon predominated. In the 

 heart of one of the mummies he found about three drachms of 

 pure nitre ; the heart being entire, this must have been in- 

 jected through the blood-vessels. Mummy powder was for- 

 merly in use all over Europe as a medicine, and, according to 

 the author, is still employed as such by the Arabs, who mix it 

 with butter, and esteem it a sovereign remedy for internal and 

 external ulcers. 



Another topic of inquiry suggested to the author by his 

 residence in Upper Egypt, was the question, who are the de- 

 scendants of the aboriginal mummified Egyptians ? To decide 

 this point, he made a collection of the skulls of the various 

 inhabitants of Egypt, — Turks, Jews, Copts, Arabs, and Greeks, 

 and the following are the conclusions to which he came. The 

 old Egyptian head is of so peculiar a form, that it would be 

 impossible to confound it with the Turkish, Grecian, or Arabic 

 head. It is extremely narrow across the forehead, and of an 

 oblong shape anteriorly. Among the many thousand mummy 

 heads which he examined, he never found one with a broad 

 expanded forehead. In phrenological language, those anterior 

 organs which mark the seat of the reasoning powers were not 

 weti developed. 



Niebuhr and most other travellers have stated the Copts to 

 be the great body of the descendants of the Egyptians 5 but 



