ELYSIUM 



2019 



EMBALMING 



power for manufacture. Elyria is served by 

 the Baltimore & Ohio and the New York 

 Central railroads and by electric interurban 

 lines. The population, which in 1910 was 

 14,825, was 18,618 in 1916. 



Elyria was founded about 1819, was made 

 the county seat in 1823 and became a city in 

 1892. It has a splendid natural park, a public 

 library and a hospital. Large quantities of 

 building stone and grindstones are produced 

 from the Berea quarries in the vicinity. The 

 city manufactures automobiles, telephones, 

 home-lighting plants, canned goods, concrete 

 blocks and moldings, paints, metal polish, 

 switchboards, machine parts and iron pipe. 



ELYSIUM, e lizh'ium, or ELYSIAN, e lizh' 

 an, FIELDS, in classical mythology, the home 

 of the good and blessed after death. When a 

 soul left this world it was tried before three 

 judges of Pluto, the god of the dead. If the 

 good outweighed the evil, the soul was sent 

 to this beautiful region, which had sun, moon 

 and stars of its own and where all were happy 

 and joyful. Early writers, such as Homer, 

 considered the Isles of the Blessed as Elysium, 

 while in later times it was thought to be a 

 section of the lower world. Many poets refer 

 to it as the land of pleasure and delight, as in 

 Shakespeare's King Henry VI, Part III: 



How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown, 



Within whose circuit is Elysium 



And all that poets feign of bliss and joy. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, a 



famous proclamation issued by President Lin- 

 coln on January 1, 1863, which declared free 

 all the slaves in the sections then fighting 

 against the United States in the War of Seces- 

 sion. At the outbreak of the war great pressure 

 was brought to bear upon President Lincoln to 

 free the slaves in the seceded states. The early 

 success of the Confederate forces drove him to 

 the conviction that if the war were made a war 

 against slavery as well as for the preservation 

 of the Union, it would stimulate the Federal 

 forces and possibly prevent foreign recognition 

 of the Confederacy as an independent govern- 

 ment. He waited only for some victory in the 

 field to furnish a good opportunity to take the 

 step. Early in September, 1862, Lee, at the 

 head of 60,000 troops, entered Maryland in his 

 first invasion of the North, and on September 

 17, after a terrible day's fight at Antietam, he 

 retreated across the Potomac. Lincoln took 

 this opportunity to issue, five days later, a 

 preliminary proclamation of warning. In this 

 he stated that if the seceded states did not 



lay down their arms and return to the Union 

 within one hundred days, namely, on January 

 1, 1863, he would declare all of their slaves 

 "forever free." 



Accordingly, on New Year's Day he issued 

 the final proclamation. The President believed 

 it to be a necessary war measure, justified by 

 circumstances. Slavery, however, was not 

 legally abolished by this proclamation; this 

 was effected by the thirteenth amendment to 

 the Constitution, passed by Congress in 1865. 

 See SLAVERY. 



EMBALMING, embahm'ing, the art of pre- 

 paring bodies for burial, chiefly by the use 

 of gums and chemicals, in order to preserve 

 them temporarily from decay and to prevent 

 infection. . Three thousand years ago embalm- 

 ing was in such a state of perfection in Egypt 

 that bodies were permanently preserved, but 

 the wonderful secret was lost, and the world 

 has not yet rediscovered it. 



The development of modern methods dates 

 from the beginning of the eighteenth century, 

 when Dr. Frederick Ruysch used alcohol to pre- 

 serve the internal organs and injected an em- 

 balming fluid into the arteries. His secret of 

 the preservation of color and form died with 

 him, but soon afterwards Dr. William Hunter, 

 a celebrated anatomist, injected oils into the 

 arteries and embalmed bodies so well that 

 they are still preserved in the Royal College 

 of Surgeons, London. A German preservative, 

 which renders the dead body resistant to decay 

 for years, while it retains its color, form and 

 flexibility, consists of alum, sodium chloride, 

 potash, arsenic and boiling water with glycerine 

 and methyl alcohol. This liquid is used for 

 saturation and injection. At the time of the 

 American War of Secession, Dr. Thomas 

 Holmes gave a great impetus to embalming in 

 America by preparing many bodies of dead 

 soldiers to be sent home. 



After the blood is removed, about four 

 quarts of embalming fluid are injected into the 

 blood vessels and cavities of the body. The 

 chief ingredient of this fluid is formaldehyde, 

 but mercuric chloride, arsenic, zinc chloride and 

 alcohol are also used. 



Ancient Embalming. This art, which existed 

 as far back as 4000 B. c., was carried to great 

 perfection among the Egyptians, who em- 

 balmed not only human beings, but also cats, 

 crocodiles and other sacred animals. These 

 bodies, called mummies, have been found in 

 all the ancient tombs of Egypt; for instance, 

 in 1880 the mummy of King Mer-en-re was 



