— 10 — 
Dr. Reisner lias recently told me that Canopic Jars have been 
obtaiiied froni tombs o£ the 5th and Gtli dynastie periods, but 
they are always clean and empty. Although thèse vessels thus 
show no signs o£ ever having contained viscera the fact that 
Canopic Jars are never known to have been used for any other 
purpose renders it probable that thèse early jars were intended 
to receive the organs removed from the body. If the organs 
were taken out of the body the most likely reavson for snch a 
procédure would be the attempt to prevent corruption. Thus 
the slight balance of évidence — indefinite and wholly inconclusive 
though it be — is in favour of some attempt at mummification or 
artificial préservation of the body as early as the oth dynasty. 
Tlie examination of mummies of the New Empire reveals the 
fact that during the processes of mummification as practised at that 
time the soft tissues of the body (excepting the skin which was 
exposed to the action of the preservative agent) became converted 
into a loose spongy material which was much too soft and too 
small in amount to keep the skin distended : as the resuit the 
limbs became reduced to little else than bones with an ill-fitting 
wrapping of deeply M rinkled skin. ïhis happenecl not only in 
emaciated persons but to an even greater extent in individuals 
whose bodies were plump and muscular (Pl. YIII, figure 1). 
In the 21st dynasty the embalmers endeavoured to remedy 
this defect by stuffing varions materials — pièces of linen, sawdust, 
sand, earth and other substances — under the skin so as to distend 
it and mould the form of the body. The great prevalence of 
plundering and the fréquent rewrappings of mummies of the 
preceding dynasties that are known to have taken place in the 
reign of the priest-kings may have brought home to the embalmers 
in a manner not so fuUy appreciated before the imperfection of 
the results (so far as the rétention of the form of the body is 
concerned) obtained by their fellow craftsmen of the 18th, 19th 
