ANIMALS. 263 



* 



sutler any apparent alteration, even though buried for thirty years : 

 nothing corrupts or putrefies in that climate ; the wood which has 

 been employed in building those houses where the train-oil is separa- 

 ted, appears as fresh as the day it was first cut. 



If excessive cold, therefore, be thus capable of preserving bodies 

 from corruption, it is not less certain that a great degree of dryness, 

 produced by heat, produces the same effect. It is well known that 

 the men and animals that are buried in the sands of Arabia, quickly 

 dry up, and continue in preservation for several ages, as if they hao 

 been actually embalmed. It has often happened, that whole caravans 

 have perished in crossing those deserts, either by the burning winds 

 that infest them, or by the sands which are raised by the tempest, and 

 overwhelm every creature in certain ruin. The bodies of those per- 

 sons are preserved entire ; and they are often found in this condition 

 by some accidental passenger. Many authors, both ancient and 

 modern, make mention of such mummies as these ; and Shaw says 

 that he has been assured that numbers, of men, as well as other ani- 

 mals, have been thus preserved, for times immemorial, in the burning 

 sands of Saibah, which is a place, he supposes, situate between Rasem 

 and Egypt. 



The corruption of dead bodies being entirely caused by the fer- 

 mentation of the humours, whatever is capable of hindering or retard- 

 ing this fermentation, will contribute to their preservation. Both heat 

 and cold, though so contrary in themselves, produce similar effects in 

 this particular, by drying up the humours. The cold in condensing 

 and thickening them, and the heat in evaporating them before they 

 have time to act upon the solids. But it is necessary that these ex- 

 tremes should be constant ; for if they succeed each other so as that 

 cold shall follow heat, or dryness humidity, it must then necessarily 

 happen, that corruption must ensue. However, in temperate cli- 

 mates, there are natural causes capable of preserving dead bodies, 

 among which we may reckon the quality of the earth in which they 

 are buried. If the earth be drying and astringent, it will imbibe the 

 humidity of the body ; and it may probably be for this reason that the/ 

 bodies buried in the monastery of the Cordeliers, at Thoulouse, do 

 not putrefy, but dry in such a manner that they may be lifted up by 

 one arm. 



The gums, resins, and bitumens, with which dead bodies are em- 

 balmed, keep off the impressions which they would else receive from 

 the alteration of the temperature of the air; and still more, if a body 

 thus prepared be placed in a dry or burning sand, the most powerful 

 means will be united for its preservation. We are not to be surprised, 

 therefore, at what we are told by Chardin, of thecountry of Chorosan, 

 in Persia. The bodies which have been previously embalmed, and 

 buried in the sands of that country, as he assures us, are found to pe- 

 trify : or, in other words, to become extremely hard, and are preserved 

 for several ages. It is asserted that some of them have continued for 

 a thousand years 



The Egyptians, as has been mentioned above, swathed the body 

 with linen bands, and inclosed it in a coffin ; however, it is probable 

 that with all these precautions, they would not have continued tiL 



