from Caxamarca by General Par.oissier. Like most of 

 them it is in a sitting posture, with the knees almost 

 touching the chin, and the hands by the sides of the 

 face. It is quite dry and hard. The features are dis- 

 torted, but nearly perfect, though the hair has fallen off. 

 The Peruvian mummies do not appear to have been sub- 

 jected to any particular preparation ; the dry and ab- 

 sorbent earth in which they are placed being sufficient 

 to prevent them putrifying. M. Humboldt found the 

 bodies of both Spaniards and Peruvians lying on former 

 fields of battle, dried and preserved in the open air. In, 

 the deserts of Africa the preservation of the body is 

 secured by burying it in the hot sand, and even 

 in Europe soils aj'e sometimes met with, in which 

 the bodies undergo a slight process of drying, and 

 then remain almost unalterable, even on exposure to 

 the air and moisture. There is a vault at Toulouse, in 

 which avast number of bodies that had been buried were 

 found, after many years, dry, and without a trace of the 

 effects of putrefaction ; and in the vaults of St. Mi-, 

 chael's Church, Dublin, the bodies are similai-ly pre- 

 served. In both cases putrefaction is prevented by the 

 constant absorption of the moisture from the atmosphere, 

 and, through its medium, from the body, by the calca- 

 reous soil in which the vaults are dug. It would far 

 exceed our limits or intention to go into lengthened in- 

 quiries on the subject ; but we must give it as our opi- 

 nion, that if European climates were more favourable,' 

 it is probable that, with the present knowledge of mate- 

 rials for haixlening the tissues, such as pyroligneous 

 acid, corrosive sublimate, arsenic, salts of iron, iScc. &c., 

 mummies might be prepared equal to the Egyptian in 

 permanence, and superior to them in the preservation of 

 their forms. 



