Various other minute particulars connected with anatomical preparations in all its branches, will be found fully detailed in the present volume.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] This paragraph, evidently empyrical in its bearing, is derogatory to Gannal as a man of science. We further believe that the pretended secret of his manipulations is of little consequence to the success of the operation: it is generally understood that to the fluid acetate of alumine (produced by the chemical action induced by the mixture of the solutions of acetate of lead and alum,) to be injected, a little arsenic is added, to prevent the formation of the byssus, and attacks of insects, also some carmine, to give to the subject a healthy colour.—Tr.
[1] Momie or mumie: the etymology of this word is not well known: the Jesuit Kircher supposes that mum is a Persian word, and Pére Martini, an Arab name, signifying a dried corpse: other writers derive mummy from ammomum, the name of an aromatic plant. These conjectures I leave to the etymologists.
[2] They burned the incense of Arabia, balms and perfumes of every kind filled a thousand vases, and the body is for ever preserved from corruption by essences possessing wonderful properties.
[3] A benevolent woman washed the body of Tarquin, and rubbed it with perfumes.
[B] The colour of the tissues is changed, however, being bleached by the acetate of alumine—but this is far preferable to the black putridity, which renders the anatomical subject so disgusting and unhealthy, when subjects are scarce.—Tr.
[C] The above observations on the natural mummies of caverns, &c., apply equally to the numerous specimens of Indian mummies found in Peru, Brazil, the Western States of North America, &c.—Tr.
[D] In the autumn of 1839, in my journey down the Rhine, I visited Popplesdorf, near Bonn, where there is an ancient church, formerly a monastery, called “the Kreuzberg.” It is situate on a high and dry hill. I descended its vault in order to examine some two dozen of mummified monks, some of them four centuries old. They were all habited in the costume of the period, and appeared to have died at an advanced age. These are natural mummies, or the result of simple desiccation, the skin resembling leather. It is probable that we may refer to similar causes, those interesting subjects discovered three or four years ago, in a cave of the church of St. Thomas, at Strasburg, viz., the mummified bodies of the Count de Naussau (Sarsbruck) and his daughter. These relics, six hundred years old, are both habited in the costume of that epoch; the coat, small-clothes, &c., of the father, have been replaced by exact imitations, but the habits of the daughter are actually those in which she was buried, consisting of a blue silk gown, richly ornamented with lace, with diamond rings on her fingers, and jewels on her breast. The body is well preserved, with the exception of the face: bunches of silvered flowers still adorn the top of the head, arms and shoulders. The features of the Count are almost perfect. I could not observe any external signs of artificial embalming having been resorted to. The skin was of a yellowish colour. The famous mummy of St. Carlo Boromeo, in the vault of the splendid Duomo di Milano, is another remarkable instance—the body is as black and solid as an Egyptian mummy; it was removed from a cemetery in the vicinity, after having remained there many years; no artificial means had been resorted to for its preservation.