— IS — 
contain saline material and the skin shows unmistakable signs of 
having been macerated until the cuticle (together with all the 
hair, except that of the head) had peeled off. Much speculation 
has been made as to the nature of the bath, which many writers 
assume to have been "natron" or soda. Professor W. A. Schmidt 
has examined the tissues taken from various mummies, not only of 
the 21st dynastic period but of various other epochs, and has 
found that both the skin and the other parts of the body give an 
acid reaction, which he has shown to be due to the presence of 
fatty acids derived from the disorganisation of the body -tissues. 
If any natron (carbonate of soda) whatever had been added to the 
animal tissues it would have more than neutralised this small 
quantity of organic acid. But if the preservative action had been 
exercised by means of common salt (chloride of sodium), which 
Dr. Schmidt finds in all the tissues, such neutralisation would not 
have occurred. In mummies of the early Christian Period from 
Akhmim that are now in the Anatomical Museum of the School 
of Medicine, Dr. Schmidt has found large quantities of chloride 
of sodium and in the case of other specimens of the 5th century 
A.D. obtained at Naga ed dêr by the Hearst Egyptological Ex- 
pedition Mr. Lucas has found that the preservative material is 
chloride of sodium. On the other hand Mr. Lucas has found 
that the separated epidermis obtained from some of the royal 
mummies of the 19th dynasty was packed with crude natron. 
There can, how^ever, be no doubt that the body and the viscera 
were primarily treated (in all periods when mummification was 
[)ractised) by being immersed for some weeks — wdiether 40 or 
70 days it is not possible to say — in a bath of chloride of sodium. 
The Rhind Papyrus mentions 36 days for the "soda" bath and 70 
days for the w^hole process of embalming {vide infra). 
Before the body was put into this solution each nail of both 
the hands and feet was carefully secured by a piece of string 
