VOL. LXXXIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 303 



terated from my memory, I reckon and acknowledge with gratitude the un- 

 common, and to me very interesting opportunities, that were afforded me, to 

 open and examine several Egyptian mummies. A few days after my arrival, I 

 found in the library of my honoured friend Dr. Garthshore, f. r. s., among 

 other Egyptian antiquities, a small mummy, not above I foot in length, of the 

 usual form of a swathed puppet, wrapped up in cotton bandages, painted and 

 gilt in its front part, and inserted in a small sarcophagus of sycamore wood, in 

 which it fitted exactly. Having expressed a wish to know the contents of this 

 figure, the Doctor was kindly pleased to permit the opening of it ; which ac- 

 cordingly took place on the 21st of January, 1792, at his house, in the presence 

 of the President and several members of the r. s., and other men of letters. 



The mummy itself measured 94^ inches in length, and 8 inches in circum- 

 ference at the breast, where it was of the greatest thickness. The mask, exhi- 

 biting human features, was of a gypseous plaster, which here and there showed 

 some signs of having once been gilt. Of the semi-circular breast-plate, only 

 some fragments were still extant. The lower part of the front covering was, as 

 is frequently observed on large mummies, in a manner dissected in regular com- 

 partments ; and on it were painted the '2 standing figures that so often appear on 

 the integuments of mummies, viz. on the right side, Anubis with the dog's head, 

 and on the left, Osiris with the head of a sparrow-hawk. The mummy itself 

 was opened at the side. The outward integuments were glued so fast on each 

 other, that it was found necessary to use a saw : the inner ones were less adhe- 

 sive. I counted in the whole above 20 circumvolutions of these cotton ban- 

 dages. Within these was found, as a kind of i^ucleus, a bundle, about 8 inches 

 long, and full 2 inches in circumference, of the integuments of a larger mummy, 

 strongly impregnated with a resinous substance, which rendered it hard and 

 compact, and which appeared on the edge to have been shaped into this oblong 

 form by the paring of a knife. Pieces of this mass having been put on a heated 

 poker, emitted a smell perfectly similar to that of fir-rosin, or the drug called 

 wild incense from antihills. The sarcophagus consisted of 6 small square boards 

 of sycamore, fastened together with iron nails. 



Soon after, I found in the collection of Dr. Lettsom, f. r. s. another similar 

 mummy, which outwardly perfectly resembled the above, was likewise contained 

 in a sarcophagus, and differed only in the dimensions, this being 14-1- inches 

 long, and 11-^ in circumference at the breast. The proprietor was likewise kind 

 enough to suffer me to open it, which I did at his hoose on the 29th of January. 

 But much as it resembled Dr. Garthshore's mummy externally, it was found very 

 different as to its contents, there being in it a great number of detached bones 

 of the skeleton of an Ibis, which were only here and there indued with rosin. 



This striking difference rather excited than satisfied my curiosity ; and having 



VOL. XVII. 3 E 



