— Il- 
ls then covered over by a plate, usually of wax but sometimes of 
bronze, bearing the conventional design of the eye or Uta (PI. 
XIX, figure 3). In Plate X figure 1 the lower half of a wax 
plate is shown in situ. Great variety is shown in the quality of 
the wax and the care with which the pattern is wrought upon it. 
In some cases the gaping wound is not protected by a plate of 
any sort ; and in two cases the edges were brought together and 
kept in position by a running ligature (PL XA"^, figure 1). 
When the incision was made the body cavity was opened and 
the intestines, liver, spleen, kidneys, stomach and pelvic viscera 
completely removed along with most of the vessels : the diaph- 
ragm was then opened and the lungs removed, the bronchi or in 
other cases the lower end of the trachea being cut through to free 
the lungs. In all cases the heart is left in the thorax attached to 
the great blood vessels (vide PL IV and PL XIV, figure 3). This 
striking confirmation of the statement of Diodorus, has not, so far 
as I am aware, been recognised hitherto : on the other hand I have 
never seen the kidneys left in position as the same writer has 
affirmed. In some cases the bladder has been left in the pelvis. 
In most cases only the arch and a small part of the rest of the 
aorta are left ; but in one case I have seen the whole aorta and 
iliac arteries persisting. The heart is never left exactly in its 
normal position. In most cases it has been pushed upward into 
the upper part of the right side of the thorax : in other cases it is 
left in the middle line in front of the vertebral column : and in 
other cases again it is found in the left side of the chest. When 
it is remembered that all the manipulations of the contents of the 
body were done through the wound in the left flank it is easy to 
understand these displacements. 
When the viscera had been removed both the body itself and 
the organs taken from it must have been put into a saline bath, 
such as Herodotus has described. The various tissues of the body 
3 
