1823.] Rev.J.J.Conybeart on Mutnia. 125 



He obtained from four ounces of this substance 



Ounce. Drams. Scruple. 



Fixed salt 1 



Gummy extract .. ... 5 1 



Resinous ditto 1 3 1 



The remainder (nearly two ounces) he considered as insoluble, 

 and as composed (as I gather from a foregoing paragraph) of 

 asphaltum and earthy matter. (See Neuman's Chemistry, p. 

 552.) Some later authors appear to suppose the mumia to con- 

 sist entirely of asphaltum. (See Thomson's Chemistry, vol.ii.) 

 Having obtained a portion of this substance taken from 

 the skull of a mummy, and unquestionably genuine, I sub- 

 mitted it to a careful examination, and obtained the following 

 results : 



1. By digestion in water, it affords a small portion of extract- 

 ive matter, of a dark reddish-brown colour, which, during evapo- 

 ration by boiling, emits a disagreeable and somewhat urinous 

 smell, readily oxidates, and thus becomes only partially soluble. 

 The aqueous solution contains also a very minute portion of 

 carbonate of soda. 



2. Alcohol digested on the mass, previously acted on by water, 

 dissolves a considerable portion. The solution is of a dark- 

 brown colour; when mixed with water, it becomes turbid, and of 

 a much lighter hue. No precipitate falls, nor does any altera- 

 tion take place (except by evaporation) in the emulsion, if it may 

 be so termed, thus produced. Evaporated to dryness in a glass 

 vessel, the alcoholic solution leaves a residuum of a dark-brown 

 colour, readily fusible by heat, semitransparent, of a glossy 

 lustre, and powerful odour. This portion, therefore, may be 

 considered as consisting of one, or perhaps more, of the gum- 

 resins. 



3. The portion which resisted the action of alcohol dissolved 

 readily, and almost entirely in sulphuric ether. The solution 

 was of a much deeper and blacker-brown than No. 2, and gave 

 by evaporation a copious residuum, which, when dried, had all 

 the characters of asphaltum. 



4. There remained yet undissolved a very small portion of 

 carbonaceous, and, perhaps, earthy matter, in which the lens 

 detected some minute fibres not unlike those of decayed vegeta- 

 bles. As the mixture is evidently mechanical, and as I found by 

 even rude experiments of comparison that of its principal ingre- 

 dients (the resinous and bituminous), sometimes the one, and 

 sometimes the other, was in excess, 1 have not attempted to 

 give their proportions in numbers. 



The mumia examined was taken, as before stated, from the 

 interior of a skull. Herodotus informs us, that the so filling the 

 skull (previously emptied of the brain) formed a part of that only 

 which was deemed the most sumptuous mode of embalming. 



