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Topic:
Embalming
Embalming is the process by which dead bodies are preserved from
putrefaction and decay. It was most general among the Egyptians, and it
is in connection with this people that the two instances which we meet
with in the Old Testament are mentioned. (Genesis 50:2,26) The embalmers
first removed part of the brain through the nostrils, by means of a
crooked iron, and destroyed the rest by injecting caustic drugs. An
incision was then made along the flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and
the whole of the intestines removed. The cavity was rinsed out with palm
wine, and afterwards scoured with pounded perfumes. It was then filled
with pure myrrh pounded, cassia and other aromatics, except
frankincense. This done, the body was sewn up and steeped in natron (salf-petre)
for seventy days. When the seventy days were accomplished, the embalmers
washed the corpse and swathed it in bandages of linen, cut in strips and
smeared with gum. They then gave it up to the relatives of the deceased,
who provided for it a wooden case, made in the shape of a man, in which
the dead was placed,a nd deposited in an erect position against the wall
of the sepulchral chamber. Sometimes no incision was made in the body,
nor were the intestines removed, but cedar-oil was injected into the
stomach by the rectum. At others the oil was prevented from escaping
until the end of the steeping process, when it was withdrawn, and
carried off with it the stomach and intestines in a state of solution,
while the flesh was consumed by the natron, and nothing was left but the
skin and bones. The body in this state was returned to the relatives of
the deceased. The third mode, which was adopted by the poorer classes,
and cost but little, consisted in rinsing out the intestines with
syrmaea, an infusion of senna and cassia, and steeping the body for
several days in natron. It does not appear that embalming was practiced
by the Hebrews.
Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries
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