— 8 — 
usually of wax, but sometimes of bronze, bearing the conventional sign of the eye or 
Uta. In some cases, the gaping wound was not protected by a plate of any sort ; 
and in two cases examined by Prof. Elhot Smith, the edges Avere brought together and 
kept in position by a running ligature. 
In one mummy that I dissected, the wound was firmly closed by a linen plug 
which must have been rammed in with considerable force, after the body had been well 
filled with earth. 
Treatment The body cavity having thus been opened, the intestines, liver, spleen, kidneys, 
of organs and stomach, pelvic viscera and most of the vessels were completely removed. The dia- 
body cavity. r j 
phragm having been cut through, the lungs were freed by severing the bronclii, or, in 
some cases, the lower end of the trachea. 
The heart was left in the body but never exactly in the normal position. Gene- 
rally it was pushed upwards into the upper part of the right side of the thorax; some- 
times it was left in the middle line in front of the vertebral column, or again, it is found 
in the left side of the chest. 
In one mummy which I examined, the heart had been removed by the embalmer. 
It had not been replaced in its proper position, however, for both kidneys filled the 
pericardium. Behind the liver, there was a packet containing striped muscular fibre, 
which was probably the heart. 
Sometimes only the arch and a small part of the aorta were left behind, but in 
one body. Prof. Elliot Smith found the whole aorta and iliac arteries. I also dissected 
out the whole of the aorta (except the transverse part) together with the iliac arteries, 
of one mummy. 
After the viscera had been removed, both the body and the organs were put into 
the saline bath, described by Herodotus. The various tissues of the body and the organs 
contain saline material and the skin shows unmistakable signs of having been macerated 
until all the cuticle, together with the hair, except that of the head, had peeled off. 
There are certainly exceptions to this rule, as in some cases I have found the epidermic 
cells intact and even their nuclei stained well. 
The heart left in the body cavity is always well preserved. In many cases, 
the valves are intact and it is often possible to recognise the chordae tendineae and 
musculi papillares. As a rule, the organ is considerably damaged as the result, no doubt, 
of unintentional liackings inflicted on it by the operator cutting through the roots of the 
lungs and the œsophagus ( Plate III, Figs. 2. 3. ). The commonest injury to the heart is, 
as is natural, a complete opening up of the left auricle, or often of both auricles; in many 
cases, great gashes are found in one or both ventricles. 
The cavities of the heart are in many subjects tightly stuffed with mud or a 
mixture of mud and sawdust. How this material was introduced is doubtful. 
The viscera, after having been removed from the salt bath, were thickly sprinkled 
with coarse sawdust of various aromatic woods, and when still flexible, were moulded 
