A CONTRIBUTION^ 
TO THE 
STUDY OF MUMMIFICATION IN EGYPT 
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE MEASURES 
ADOPTED DURING THE TIME OF THE 21st DYNASTY FOR MODLDING THE FOEM 
DP THE BODY 
G. ELLIOT SMITH 
When we consider how much of our information concerning 
"the ancient Egyptians has been derived £rom the study of tonibs, 
and recall the vast nunibers of graves that have been opened 
within récent years it is very suprising to find that so little 
accurate knowledge has been gained concerning the treatment of 
the body itself, which is presumably the chief object in the tomb 
and the raison d'être of ail the furniture and pictorial art. 
Nevertheless it is a fact that since Pettigrew, ^ seventy two 
years ago, published his remarkable monograph, which is a very 
complète record of ail the facts relating to Egyptian mummies 
ascertained or perhaps, considering the state of knowledge, ascer- 
tainable, at that time, not only has very little been added to 
our store of information on this subject, but most writers have 
forgotten or neglected the solid foundation of established facts 
which he so laboriously gathered together. In making this 
statement I am not umnindful of the vast amount that has been 
written dviring the last seventy years upon the subject of mu!n- 
mies and the ancient practice of embalming : but it is no exag- 
geration to state that in almost every case modem writers who 
have given us a small scrap of new information have at the same 
1 Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, E'.R.S., A Hhtonj uj Egyptian Mummies, and nu 
Accmmt of the Womhip and Emhalming of the Sacred Animais bi/ the Eyyptidus ; icilh 
liemarlis onthe fiineral Cérémonies of Biffèrent Nations, etc. London, 1834. 
