PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 



1839. No. 17. 



May 13. 

 SIR Wm. R. HAMILTON, A. M., President, in the Chair. 



Edward Conroy, Esq., and Nicholas P. Leader, Esq., 

 were elected Members of the Academy. 



Sir James Ivory was elected an Honorary Member of 

 the Academy. 



Dr. Wilde read a paper upon the Peruvian mummy, re- 

 cently opened in Dublin. He stated that Captain Duniam 

 a gentleman in the South American trade, having been in- 

 formed that a colony of Irish had settled on the western 

 coast some years since, determined on visiting them ; and 

 having been hospitably received, was brought on a day's 

 pleasure to a wild spot on the shore, where the party, for 

 his amusement, commenced digging up several mummies, 

 the most perfect of which he brought away. In a letter he 

 says : " This mummy was dug up from the sloping ground, 

 about two miles and a-half south-east of the Morro of Arica, 

 facing to the south-west on the coast of Peru, the soil 

 sandy, in depth about six inches, under which is a layer of 

 saltpetre about eight inches thick, and so very hard that it 

 had to be broken with a pickaxe. Underneath this is a 

 mixture of saltpetre and sand, out of which the body was 

 dug. The face was found turned towards the west, or setting 



2d 



