Art of Egyptian Embalmers.
Thousands of years ago, for instance, the Egyptians used to embalm the bodies of their dead kings and nobility so perfectly that the bodies are in wonderful preservation to-day, as may be seen at the British Museum. Clever as we are in this age, we cannot do the same. The valuable secret is lost, and modern science cannot recover the lost knowledge. We can, of course, and we do, embalm bodies; but only for temporary preservation, and, comparatively speaking, in a most unsatisfactory manner.
Bodies which are embalmed nowadays will not be preserved for more than a few years at most; very many of the bodies the Egyptians embalmed before the birth of Christ are still so perfect that the lines of their faces are as clearly marked as when they were first embalmed.
Sheffield turns out the finest, hardest, and most perfect steel the world produces; but even Sheffield cannot produce a sword-blade to compare with those the Saracens made and used hundreds of years ago, and the Saracens never possessed the machinery we have nor had the advantage of knowing so much about metals as we are supposed to know.
A huge fortune awaits the man who discovers the secret which enabled the Saracens to make sword-blades so keen and hard that they could cut in two most of the swords used in our army to-day.