— 15 — 
brain and its membranes could be extracted and any fluid injected 
into the skull that might be necessary to cleanse that cavity" (p.53). 
He then proceeds to give an accurate account of the materials 
found in the cranium, which may be quite empty in some cases, 
in other cases filled with cloth, resin, pitch, spices in a state of 
coarse powder or even the remains o£ the brain itself. 
In one o£ the Rhind papyri which has been translated into 
German by Heinrich Brugsch we find an account o£ this packing 
o£ the cranium written by an Egyptian in Ptolemaic times: — 
" Anubis als Kolchyt £iillt deinen Kop£ mit syrischem Salze, 
Spezereien, Ur, Cedern, Pech und Fett von einer [ ] Gans. " ' 
The examination of the large séries of mummies in the School 
of Medicine clearly demonstrates the manner in which the head 
was treated. If a vertical mesial sagittal section be made through 
the head of a mummy of the 2lst dynasty a resin-smeared track 
will be found (Pl. I, figures 1 and 3) leading up through the 
nostril to the roof of the nasal cavity, which is formed by the 
ethmoid boue. This will be found broken through so that there 
is a free opening into the brain cavity (through which a probe has 
been passed in figures 1 and 3, Pl. I). In figure 2 (Pl. 1.) the 
front part of the floor of the cranium has been exposed by 
removing the roof of the skull : the ovoid opening of the nasal 
fossa is seen and a resin-smeared surface leading from it toward 
the back of the head. 
In most cases no trace of the brain or its membranes is found 
(Pl. I, figure 1): in other instances the whole of the dura mater 
and part of the brain itself may still be présent (Pl. I, figure 3). 
In most of the crania examined there was a small quantity of resin 
and strips of linen (figure 1) bvit in other cases the whole cranial 
cavity was completely filled with the resin and linen. In some cases 
1 A. Heiirij Rhind's " Zwei Bilingue Papi/ri, hieratisrh und de mot i.sc/i " ueheraetzt und 
herausgegeben Du. Heinrich Brugsch, Leipsig 1865, Pl. V, p. i. 
