462 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [June, 



j^^ptian MummTes was^cbWctudgia : w^-"8ire"'^iiaDled to' stidi 

 shortly the principal object of this interesting communication, 

 and to allude to some of the curious facts it details on the sub- 

 ject of embalming. 



It appears, that in the year 1821, Sir A. Edmonstone pre- 

 sented Dr. Granville with a mummy he had brought from Upper 

 Egypt, which, after the removal of innumerable bandages, 

 proved to be that of a female, and a more perfect specimen of the 

 kind than any that had heretofore been examined. Dr. Granville 

 deemed this an excellent opportunity of investigating the yet 

 unsettled question of the mode of embalming by the ancient 

 Egyptians ; and proceeded to dissect the mummy for that pur- 

 pose in the presence of several medical and scientific friends ; 

 instituting, at a more recent period, several experiments on 

 its various parts and envelopes, tending to discover the process 

 of mummification, in which object he appears certamly to 

 have succeeded. 



This discovery he endeavoured to prove to the satisfaction 

 of the persons present at the reading of his communication, 

 ■ synthetically as well as analytically ; for after the meeting, an 

 exhibition of the dissected mummy took place in the library of 

 the Society, where every assertion contained in the paper was 

 illustrated by preparations, including several specimens of imi- 

 tative mummies prepared by the author, some of which bore 

 the closest resemblance to the Egyptian, and had withstood 

 putrefaction for upwards of three years, though exposed to all 

 the vicissitudes of a variable climate without any covering or 

 other precautionary measure. 



Independently of this, which is evidently the main object of 

 Dr. Granville's researches, the author has been able to advance 

 many very curious facts connected with the mummy in question. 

 He has, for instance, given the dimensions of its various parts, 

 which, by a singular coincidence, happen to be precisely those 

 assigned by Camper and Winkelmann to the celebrated statue 

 of the Medicean Venus, the prototype of ideal beauty. These 

 dimensions, moreover, prove, that this Egyptian female did 

 not belong to the Ethiopian race, thereby contradicting the 

 assertion of some writers, who consider the ancient Egyptians 

 to have been Ethiopians. He has also fairly made out the 

 age at which the individual died ; and the disease of which she 

 died ; and he has rendered it evident, from anatomical demon- 

 stration, that she had borne children. 



All these circumstances may be considered by some as 

 possessing no interest ; but when it is considered that they are 

 deduced from a minute and accurate examination of the body 

 of a female, who, according to the best authorities of the pre- 

 sent day with respect to Egyptian antiquities, and judging of 

 the excavation out of which the mummy was taken, mu§t have 



