282 
Dr. Granville's essay on 
operating, and of the degree of perfection to which that art 
was carried among them, has arisen from imperfect and infe- 
rior specimens having been generally employed for the pur- 
pose of investigation, the best and most perfect mummies 
(resembling the one I have undertaken to describe) having, 
invariably, been preserved intact, and, in most cases, unco- 
vered, as valuable objects of curiosity, in private or public 
Museums. A rapid glance at what has been publicly recorded 
on this head, will prove the correctness of my assertion. 
The Royal Society itself has contributed but little towards 
the knowledge of this interesting branch of the natural 
history of man. The subject of Egyptian mummies was 
brought before it, by two of its members, who from talent 
and professional avocations, were well calculated to do it 
justice, had their opportunities been more favourable. The 
first paper on this subject in the Transactions, is by Dr. 
Hadley, who, in 1763, examined a mummy which he had 
received from the Royal Society, and an account of which he 
presented in the following year. The paper contains a very 
clear statement of the successive operations for ascertaining 
the real condition of the mummy, but seems not to have 
added much to what was already known, at that time, respect- 
ing the mode of preparation. 
The mummy retained not the smallest vestige of the soft 
parts, except some of the tendons of the feet, to the sole of 
one of which a bulbous root, perhaps an onion, was discovered 
firmly bound by fillets and pitch ; reminding us of Juvenal's 
lines : 
O sanctas gentes, quibus haec nascuntur in hortis 
Numina !” 
