EMBALMING. 



573 



Examples 

 of embalm- 

 ing among 

 modern 

 rude na- 

 tion*. 



Embalming, lid of another included within it This exposed the 

 >< - "V~ ' body of a female, whose countenance scarcely indicated 

 the cessation of life : every feature was fresh and entire, 

 and the limbs full and perfect as if still animated. At 

 her knee lay an infant, with a glow of colour resembling 

 vigorous health. The surrounding substances were in 

 equal preservation. The shroud was complete, and the 

 ribbands binding it, as vivid in hue as if recently ap- 

 plied. The coffin had contained a liquid, which, now 

 partly evaporated, had become vapid, and odoriferous 

 substances were interposed between the corpses. These 

 proved to be Lady Kilsyth and her infant son, who, 77 

 years before, had been accidentally killed in Holland, 

 and, being embalmed, were sent to Scotland to be 

 entombed. With still greater certainty we know, that 

 an inhabitant of London, to enjoy an annuity devised 

 to his wife, in terms equivalent to as /'mi? as she should 

 remain upon the earth, had her body embalmed on her 

 decease, and was accustomed to exhibit it with great 

 unconcern to strangers. In another recent instance, 

 whtre a Frencli officer had lost the object of his warm- 

 est affections by sudden death, in the prime of youth 

 and beauty, he caused her body to be embalmed in the 

 most skilful manner. The semblance of life in sleep 

 was restored ; even the bloom of animation was pre- 

 served. The body was constantly kept in a glass case 

 in his bed-chamber, where it appeared as if only repo- 

 sing. 



.Although the r.rt of embalming be seldom practised 

 by the more civilized nations, it is not rare among those 

 still comparatively rude. An anxiety to " sleep with 

 their fathers" has animated the greater part of mankind; 

 and where this lias been precluded by the perishable 

 condition of decaying bodies, the lx>nes or the heart have 

 been selected for interment in a chosen sepulchre. Thus, 

 if one of the Abiponians.an erratic South American peo- 

 ple, should decease at a distance from his principal re- 

 sidence, the body is converted to a skeleton, and carried 

 along with the tribe, until there be a fit opportunity for 

 inhumation. If some of the North American Indians 

 lose a relative on a pressing march, he is interred ; but 

 when more at leisure, they return to despoil his hones 

 of the putrid flesh, and convey them to the cemetery of 

 bis kindred. Perhaps a similar custom of carrying 

 the bones of their leaders along with them prevailed 

 among the Jews. 



At Xukahiwa, one of the Marquesas, we are told by 

 the late Russian circumnavigators, that embalment Is 

 practised at tin- present day. The body of the deceased 

 ;-. wa-hed and laid on a platform, after which it is con- 

 stantly rubbed during nine months with cocoa-nut oil, 

 to repel putrefaction IJy this continued application it 

 becomes as hard as stone, and quite incorruptible. In 

 twelve months, a feast takes place among the survivors, 

 to thiink the gods for h;i-. iii',<- permitted the deceased to 

 arrive safe in the other world, when the lx>dv is bro- 

 ken into pieces, which, being packed in a small box, 

 it carried to the morai, or burying-place. Captain 

 Cook had previously remarked, that the Otaheitans, by 

 withdrawing the intestines, stuffing the Ixxly with cloth, 

 and using cocoa-nut oil, preserved their chiefs a long 

 time for public exposure. 



\\e know that of old, a devout monarch or noble 

 sometimes appointed his heart to be embalmed and 

 transmitted to the Holy Land: or when one died in a 

 remote country, it was frequently inclosed in a silver 

 urn i-nd sent to the cemetery of his family, which is 

 practised at the present day. Thus urns or cups con- 



1 



taining hearts arc occasionally discovered in vaults and Embalming, 

 churches, or even among the family archives long un- **~~-<-~~ f 

 opened. Such was the fact regarding the heart of Ar- 

 thur Lord Capel in England, who suffered for his at- 

 tachment to Charles I. : and very recently the heart of 

 a young nobleman who had many years ago been kill- 

 ed in a duel, was foun^ in the church of Culross in Scot- 

 land. It was wrapped in linen, and inclosed in a silver 

 cup with a cover, but had greatly shrunk from its origi- 

 nal size. 



Somewhat analogous to this subject, is the preserva- Preserva- 

 tion of the dead by simple desiccation, at Palermo in Uon of dead 

 Sicily. There it is said none of the higher ranks are bod' es by 

 interred according to the fashion of other European na- eslccatlon> 

 tions, but consigned to the catacombs of a Capuchin 

 convent about a mile without the city. After the per- 

 formance of a funeral service, the body is dried in a stove 

 heated by a composition of lime, and then placed up- 

 right in niches in the subterraneous galleries, clothed in 

 its usual attire. Although they have remained there 

 three hundred years, the flesh dried liard is still upon the 

 bones, but the contraction and distortion of the features 

 exhibit a hideous picture of mortality. The inhabi- 

 tants pay frequent visits to their deceased friends in 

 tin's repository, which some years ago is said to have 

 contained a thousand bodies. It is wonderful how lit- 

 tle of the animal substance remains in the human frame, 

 thus intentionally or accidentally preserved. A mum- 

 my from Teneriffe weighed only :50 pounds ; and the 

 body of Robert Braybrough, Bishop of London, who 

 dieci in 140*, weighed but nine pounds 270 years after- 

 wards. 



There are extensive catacombs near the city of Kiow, Preserva- 

 on the banks of the Dnieper, containing great num- tion of the 

 l>ers of bodies in a state of perfect preservation ; but it ^L e . (ul at 

 is not known whether they have undergone any artifi- 

 cial process, or how long they have been there, though 

 it has been conjectured that the catacombs were con- 

 structed in the tenth century. 



Sometimes the progress of corruption is arrested by p rcs crva- 

 means which are little understood or explained. The bo- tion of dead 

 dies of travellers who perish in the sands of Arabia, or bodies by 

 in the snows of the north, frequently remain entire. We natura ' 

 have heard that on the hill of Busaco in Spain, the scene ca 

 of a sanguinary contest a few years ago, some of the bo- 

 dies of the slain are still seen in preservation. But more 

 permanent preservation ensues with persons who are 

 lost in mosses, of which, besides others, a remarkable 

 example occurred in the year 1747- In an extensive 

 morass in the Isle of Axholm, in Lincolnshire, the body 

 of a woman was found lying bent together, on one side, 

 the head and feet almost in contact. From the figure 

 of her sandals, and other circumstances, it was conjec- 

 tured that her death had taken place 400 years previ- 

 ous to this discovery. It is not animal substances alone 

 which thus resist decay, for nosegays and branches of 

 bays deposited along with the dead, have preserved 

 their verdure for ages. 



See (iough's Sepulchral Monuments, var. loc. Ab- 

 dollatiph ComperuliHm F.^ypti, p 149. Augustini Ser- 

 mit 3(>1. 12. Opera, torn. v. p. 14-11. Memoires de 

 I' Ac'iilcmif dcs Uel/rs Lellres, torn. 23. Golberry, Voy- 

 ages, torn. 2. PhHiisophical Transactions, vol. xliv. p. 

 571 . vol. liv. p. 8 !4. 1 794, part 2. Middleton's Mix- 

 crllanies, vol. iv. p. l6C. Archceologia, vol. xv. p. 301. 

 (reaves' I'yramidoaraphia, p. 49- Munimenta Vttitsta. 

 vol. iii p. 1 3. plate 7, 8. Cook's Third Voyage, vol. 

 ii. p. 52, 53. Krusemtern's Voyage, vol. i. p. 173. 



