E M B 



569 



E M B 



Ely Saxon, Norman, and English architecture. The length 



II of the cathedral from east to west is 53.5 feet, but the 



"^ length within is only 517. The transept is l.QO feet 



"Y""' long, and the lantern 170. The western tower is 270 

 feet high, and the tower on the south wing 120. The 

 length of the nave is 203 feet, and the height of its 

 roof 104-0. Of late years the choir has been removed 

 to the east end of the cathedral, and in 1792 a hand- 

 some painted windov: has been put up above the altar. 

 St Mary's Chapel, now Trinity Church, stands near 

 the east end of the cathedral. It was begun in the 

 reign of Edward II. and is esteemed one of the most 

 perfect buildings of that age. It is 200 feet long with- 

 in, 45 feet broad, and the vaulted roof 60 feet high. 

 It has neither pillars nor side aisles, but is supported 

 by buttresses sin-mounted with pinnacles. The Episco- 

 pal palace is built of brick, and the houses of the preben- 

 ciaries are near the cathedral, and stand on the site of 

 an ancient convent endowed by one of the kings of the 

 East Angles. There is here a free grammar school for 

 42 boys, besides two charity schools. The inhabitants 

 are cliu fly employed in gardening, the adjacent grounds 

 being principally laid out in gardens, which supply the 

 neighbouring towns, and even Cambridge, with vege- 

 tables. The following abstract of the population of 

 Ely is for the year 1811, and includes Chettisham in 

 St Mary's Parish, and Stuntney in Tiinity Parish. 



Number of inhabited houses 928 



Number of families that occupy them 9*4 



Families chiefly employed in agriculture .... 406 



Families employed in trade and manufacture . 26'2 



Number of males 2,034 



Number of females 2,2 1 5 



Total population 4,249 



See Bentham's History and Antiquities if Ely ; Mil- 

 ler's Account nf Ely Cathedral ; Lyson's Magna Bri- 

 tannia, vol. ii. ; and the Braulies of England and Wales, 

 vol. ii. pp. 1.51 169. (n>) 



ELY. See FIFESIIIRK. 



ELYMUS, a genus of plants of the class Triandria, 

 and order Digynia. See BOTANY, p 109. 



ELYSIUM. See MYTHOLOGY. 



EMBABE, or EMDABIL. See BOUI.AC. 



EMBALMING, the art of preserving animal bodies 

 from decay after death. 



Nature, to make way for her successive generations, 

 has decreed, that the cessation of life shall be followed 

 by the resolution of material substances into invisible 

 fluids. This is accomplished by putrefaction ; and no 

 sooner has life departed than its operation begins, 

 quickly reducing the most beautiful works of the crea- 

 tion to a loathsome and corrupted mass ; subsequent 

 changes ensue, and, by final decomposition, the in- 

 animate matter totally disappears. Mankind, reluc- 

 tant to part with beloved or venerated objects, 

 and actuated by religious principles relative to the wel- 

 fare of the soul, have devised various methods of coun- 

 teracting the progress of nature, by preserving their 

 bodies from decay. On remounting to periods of 

 high antiquity, we find the Egyptians, one of the earliest 

 nations whose history has been transmitted to our own 

 times, embalming the bodies of their dead, which were 

 then consigned to appropriate cemeteries, or retained 

 in their dwellings, where they might be the subject of 

 pious contemplation. 



The preservation of the dead in the dwellings of the li- 



VOL VIII. PART II. 



ving, and their interment within its walls, was not pecu- Embalming. 



liar to the Egyptians. In scripture it is said, that Samuel "'""Y"" 1 



was buried in his house at liamah ; and of Joab, that 



" Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up and fell upon 



him, and slew him, and he was buried in his own 



house in the wilderness." Nor are examples of tliis 



wanting in modern history, as the Chinese are said to 



keep the bodies of their relatives long unburied beside 



them ; and some barbarous nations on the coast of 



Africa inter a deceased relative in the hut which he 



inhabited. 



Embalming, as an art, was can-led to great perfec- Embalming 

 tion by the Egyptians : it was conducted by persons carried to 

 specially initiated in it, and performed at a costly charge 

 to the s'urvivors. So long as the body remained entire 

 and undisturbed, they believed that the spirit would 

 reanimate it after the lapse of thousands of years ; and 

 in another respect it was no less important, for a son 

 might pledge the body for his own debt, but it was de- 

 clared infamous not to redeem it History even relates, 

 that the bodies of ance-stors were exposed to the view 

 of strangers, or produced on ceremonious occasions by 

 posterity ; and it has been inferred from a passage of 

 Lucian, that he sat at table along with the corpse of an 

 Egyptian. 



There were different modes in which embalming was Methods of 

 perfonned, as Herodotus and Diodorus, who both travel- embalming 

 led in Esrypt at different periods, relate, and they seem i Q Egypt, 

 actually to have witnessed the fact. According to the 

 former, the decease of any person of distinction was 

 followed by great lamentations of the women ; and the 

 men expressed similar symptoms of grief, while they 

 religiously abstained from all pleasures and enjoyments. 

 A ft IT these emotions subsided, the body was delivered 

 to the professors of the art, to be prepared according 

 to a fixed price, proportioned to the quality of the 

 deceased. The operator first proceeded to extract the 

 brain through the nostrils by means of a crooked instru- 

 ment, and filled up the cavity with balsamic ingredients. 

 He next laid open the abdomen, and the intestines be- 

 ing removed, were cleansed with wine and odoriferous 

 substances, and then returned ; or they were perhaps 

 thrown into the Nile. The cavity was filled with aro- 

 matic matter, and sewed up n<rain. After this the body 

 was deposited 70 days in nitre, and having been re- 

 moved when these elapsed, it was washed once more, 

 and swathed in fine linen besmeared with gum. The 

 process was now completed after the most expensive 

 method. In another method, a quantity of oil of cedar be- 

 ing injected, and the body laid 70 days as before in ni- 

 tre, the oil on expulsion brought away the intestines, 

 and the nitre consuming the flesh, left nothing but the 

 skin and bones, whereby embalming was also comple- 

 ted. By a mode still more economical than either, the 

 abdomen was merely washed with certain lotions, and 

 the Iwxly then dried 70 days with salt. Diodorus dif- 

 fers from this author, in limiting the period of prepara- 

 tion to 30 days. 



From the rapid progress of putrescence in a cli- 

 mate so hot as that of Egypt, it appears, that these 

 operations were immediately subsequent to decease, 

 but with one exception, the origin of which must be 

 sought in the depraved manners of the East. Beauti- 

 ful women were not committed to the embalmers be- 

 fore the lapse of four or five days after death ; and the 

 like interval was preserved with respect to those of 

 rank. 



When returned to the survivors, the body had ac- 

 4 c 



