AMMALS. 437 



Rs 111 a fresh subject ; and the breast was made to rise and fall 

 like a puir of bellows. The embalming prejjaration had a very 

 Ftroiig and pungent smell, which the body preserved for more 

 than a month after it was exposed to the air. This odour was 

 perceived wherever the munnny was laid ; althouijh it remained 

 there but a very short time, it was even pretended that the pea- 

 sants of the neighbouring villages were incommoded by it. It 

 one touched either the mummy, or any part of the preparation, the 

 hands snielled of it for several hours after, although washed with 

 water, spirit of wine, or vinegar. This mummy, having remain- 

 ed exposed for some months to the curiosity of the public, began 

 to suffer some mutilations. A part of the skin of the forehead 

 was cut oif. the teeth were drawn out, and some attempts were 

 made to pull away the tongue. It was, therefore, put into a 

 glaso-ciise, and shortly after transmitted to the king of fiance's 

 cabinet at Paris.* 



There are many reasons to believe this to be the body of a 

 person of the highest distinction ; however, no marks remain to 

 assure us either of the quality of the person, or the time of his 

 decease. There are only to be seen some irregular figures on 

 the coffin ; one of which represents a kind of star. There were 

 also iome singular characters upon the bandages, which were to- 

 tally defaced by those who had torn them away. Howevtr, it 

 should seem that it had remained for several ages in this state, 

 since the first years immediately succeeding the interment, are 

 usually those in which the body is most liable to decay. It ap- 

 pears also to be a much more perfect method of embalmhig than 

 that of the Egyptians ; as in this the flesh continues with iff 

 natuial elasticity and colour, the bowels remain entire, and thr 

 joints have almost the pliancy which they had when the perso i 



* Tn March IS13, the body of King Charles the First was found embalmed, 

 aud in a very high state of preservation, in a leaden coilin iii Si Georfje', 

 rhapel, Windsor, when the men were deanin(» out the vault for the rec.'p- 

 tiou of the remains of the duchess of Brunswick. — A vault was accidentally 

 discovered by the sexton, under the old parish church of Kilsyth, in Scotland ; 

 on descending a flight of steps he discovered a leaden coilin, in which were 

 embalmed, and in every respect in hiyh pre=iervation, tlie bndies of huly 

 Kilsyth and her infant son, who were both killed by tlie fall of a house on 

 the continent, where they were embalmed, and sent home to the l.imily 

 burying place. This circumstance happened upwards of a hundred and httj 

 years age. 



Jio3 



