MUMPS MUNICH. 



89 



become covered with a saline substance. Those 

 mummies which have no opening are also partly pre- 

 served by saline substances, and partly by asphalt. 

 In the latter, not only the cavities of the body are 

 filled with it, but the flesh, bones, and every part, 

 seem to be penetrated by it : it was probably injectei 

 in a hot state. These are the most commonly met 

 with. They are hard, black, and without any dis- 

 agreeable smell. The whole mummies preparec 

 with salt alone are white and smooth, and resem- 

 ble parchment. The coffin is usually of sycamore 

 cedpr, or pasteboard ; the case is entire,and covered 

 within and without, by paintings, representing funeral 

 scenes, and a great variety of other subjects : the 

 name of the deceased is also repeated on them in 

 hie oglyphic characters. The cover, which is also 

 entire, is ornamented in the same manner, and con- 

 tains, too, the countenance of the deceased in relief, 

 painted, and often gilded. The breast is covered 

 with a large collar ; a perpendicular inscription occu- 

 pies the centre, and funeral scenes the sides. The 

 coffin is often enclosed in a second, and even third case. 

 See in the Philosophical Transactions, for 1825, an 

 Essay on Egyptian Mummies, by A."B. Granville, M.D. 



The name of mummies is likewise given to human 

 bodies preserved in other ways, either by accident or 

 by some artificial preparations. The Guanches, or 

 aboriginal inhabitants of the Canaries, preserved the 

 bodies of their deceased friends, which have been 

 found in great numbers in the catacombs in Palma. 

 Form, TenerifFe, &c. The natives called them xaxos. 

 They are. dry, light, of a yellow colour and strong 

 odour, and often injured by worms ; they are enve- 

 loped in goat skins, and enclosed in cases. They are 

 supposed to have been dried in the air, after having 

 had the entrails removed ; and they were also covered 

 with a sort of aromatic varnish. Humboldt found 

 mummies prepared in a similar manner in Mexico. 

 The Peruvians, also, had the art of preserving the 

 bodies of their incas. Mummies were formerly used 

 in medicine, under the name of mumia vera, on ac- 

 count of the balsam they contained ; but they have 

 Jong ceased to be so employed. See Sieber, Veber 

 JEgyptische Mumien (Vienna, 1820) ; Granville On 

 Egyptian Mummies (London, 1825). The burial- 

 place of the Capuchin monastery, at Palermo in 

 Sicily, is a large subterranean vault, divided into 

 several wide and lofty galleries, in the walls of which 

 are niches containing several hundred human bodies, 

 kept in an upright position by being fastened to 

 the wall behind, and clothed in their usual dress. 

 The monks have a peculiar manner of preserving 

 bodies, which they keep secret. Natural mummies 

 are frequently found preserved by the dryness of the 

 air. In a vault of the cathedral at Bremen, called 

 the lead-cellar (because it was formerly employed for 

 melting- lead, for aqueducts and organ pipes), are 

 bodies in good preservation. In the monastery of St 

 Bernard, on mount St Bernard, the bodies of travel- 

 lers who have been buried in the snow, are deposited 

 in a chapel, in which there are open windows, pro- 

 tected by grates. They are placed in a sitting posi- 

 tion, leaning each on another's breast. The cold 

 prevents their putrefaction, and gives them time to 

 ary. The Gaulish mummies, in the cabinet of com- 

 parative nnatomy, in the Jardin du Roi, were found 

 in Auvergne, in the last century. They bear no 

 marks of any balsamic preparation, but are enveloped 

 in linen, and appear to have been interred with great 

 care. It is uncertain whether their preservation was 

 owing to the nature of the soil, or to a peculiar and 

 now unknown process of embalming. Dried bodies 

 have also been found in some of the saltpetre caves 

 of the western parts of the United States of America. 



MUMPS ; the common name of the disease railed, 



in scientific language, cynanche parotideu. It comes 

 on with the usual febrile symptoms, which are soon 

 attended with a swelling of the jaws and neck, some- 

 times on one side only, out commonly on both. The 

 causes of it are not known with certainty. Children 

 are more subject to it than adults. It seems, some- 

 times, to be the effect of cold. It is often epidemic, 

 and, according to Ctillen, is contagious. In general, 

 it runs its course without dangerous symptoms, and 

 hardly requires any remedies ; exposure to the cold 

 should be avoided. The mean duration is from ten 

 days to a fortnight. 



MUNCER, THOMAS. See Milntzer. 



MUNCHHAUSEN, JEROME CHARLES FREDERIC 

 VON, the original of the well-known narrator of won- 

 ders, was a German officer who served several cam- 

 paigns against the Turks in the Russian service. He 

 was a passionate lover of horses and hounds; of which, 

 and of his adventures among the Turks, he told the 

 most extravagant stories ; and his fancy finally so 

 completely got the better of his memory, that he 

 really believed his most improbable and impossible 

 fictions, and was very much offended if any doubt was 

 expressed on the subject. In relating these monstrous 

 lies, his eyes would shine and start out of his head, 

 his face became flushed, the sweat rolled down from 

 his forehead, and he used the most violent gestures, 

 as if he were really cutting off the heads of Turks, 

 or fighting the bears and wolves that figure in his 

 stories. Having become acquainted with the poet 

 Btirger at Pyrmont, and being pleased with his society, 

 Miinchhausen used to relate those waking dreams to 

 him ; and the poet afterwards published them, with 

 his own improvements, under the title of JVundcrbare 

 Abentheuer und Reisen des Herrn Von Miinchhausen, 

 translated from the English, London (Gottingen), 

 1787. A part of them had already appeared in the 

 third volume of the Deliciae Academics (Heilbronn, 

 1765), under the title of Mendacia Ridicula. The 

 wit and humour of the work gave it great success, 

 and it was translated into several foreign languages. 

 When it appeared in England, the British reviewers 

 laboured to show that it was a satire upon the minis- 

 try. Miinchhausen was very angry at the liberty thus 

 taken with his name, and Biirger became involved in 

 some difficulties in consequence. An enlarged edi- 

 tion was published by Schnorr, in four volumes (Got- 

 tingen, 1794 1800). Miinchhausen when quite 

 advanced, married a very young wife, who, to the 

 astonishment of every one, presented him with a son, 

 the consequence of which was a suit prosecuted by 

 his relations after his death, in 1797, in support of 

 their claims to his estate. 



MUNICH (in German, Mttncheri), capital of the 

 kingdom of Bavaria, a royal residence and archi 

 episcopal see, lies in a plain on the left bank of the 

 Isar (Iser); lat. 48 8' N.; Ion. 11 35' E. The 

 population, including the suburbs of Au and Haid- 

 hausen and the military, is 92,000. It is surrounded 

 with a rampart, but is not a place of great strength ; 

 on the outside of the rampart are the suburbs. The 

 streets are generally broad and straight, but not well 

 paved; the houses high, and of good appearance; 

 the public edifices numerous ; and the city is 

 accounted one of the handsomest in Germany ; few 

 of the old towns on the continent make a better 

 appearance. The royal palace is a large edifice, 

 plain in its exterior, but in its interior magnificent. 

 The most remarkable apartment is the kaiscr-saal, 

 or emperor's hall, one of the grandest in Germany. 

 There are several other palaces ; twenty-two - 

 churches, some of them magnificent; council- house, 

 arsenal, barracks, mint, theatres, operas, &c.,c. 

 There are many charitable institutions, which are 

 extensive and well supported. The literary anu 



