30 



ncnt in that way, are already in a sfate of corrup- 

 tion. There were also, in those mummies of Egypt, 

 many things besides, which fall within the verge of 

 chymistry, such as their gilding, so very fresh, as if it 

 were but of fifty years standing, and their stained 

 silk, so vivid in its colours, though after a series of 

 thirty ages. In the museum at London, there is a 

 mummy covered all over with fillets of granated glass, 

 various in colour, which shews that this people at 

 that time, understood not only the making of glass, 

 but could paint it to their liking. It may be rel 

 marked heie, that the ornaments of glass with which 

 that mummy is bedecked, are tinged with the same 

 colours, and set off in the same taste, as the dyes in 

 which almost all other mummies are painted, so that 

 it is probable, this kind of ornaments being very ex- 

 pensive, was reserved for personages of the first rank 

 only, whilst others, who could not afford this, con. 

 tented themselves with an imitation of it in paint. 



5. It would be easy to make a more extensive enu- 

 meration of the particulars of the chymical process, 

 which concurred to the composition of a. mummy ; 

 but I proceed to take notice of their manner of 

 painting upon linen, which, if I mistake not, is still 

 a secret to us. After having drawn the outlines of 

 their design upon the piece of linen, they filled each 

 compartment of it with different sorts of gums, pre- 

 pared to absorb the various colours ; so that none of 

 them could be distinguished from the whiteness of the 

 cloth. Then they dipt it for a moment in a cal- 

 dron full of boiling liquor, proper for the purpose, 

 and drew it thence painted in all the colours they 

 intended. And what was remarkable, the colours 

 neither decayed by time, nor moved in the washing ; 

 the caustic, impregnating the liquor wherein it was 

 dipped having penetrated and fixed every colour inti- 

 mately through the whole contexture of the cloth. 

 This single instance is sufficient to give us a very high 



