DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0162
ii6 A P P E N D I X II.
some other part, to make the injection penetrate in fuch a manner, that by
soaking, as I may say, the viscera, it might act upon them, and be able to dis~
solve them.
Herodotus was deceived, when he was told that the liquor os the cedar
had such an efficacy, that it diffolved the entrails: sor how mould a liquor,
which is only a balfam or a kind os foft resin, such as the turpentine, be able
to consume the vifcera, as it has no corrofive property ? If we consult the natu~
ralifts with regard to the liquor of the cedar, we mall learn, that the cedria (sor
so they called that liquor) has properties diametrically oppofite to those that Hero-
dotus attributes to it. The greatest part agree with Pliny and Dioscorides,
in faying, that the cedria is fo lively, that it wounds living bodies, but renders the
dead more durable, by preferving them from corruption : which is the reafon
it was called the death of the living, and the life os the dead .
W e must say theresore, that is the cedria was used in those injections, it was
employed in a very little quantity as an aromatic; but that the principal basis of
thofe injections was the natrum dissolved, which has really the properties that
Herodotus attributes to the cedria. May I not conjecture, and even aflert with
great probability, that this miftake of Herodotus is precifely of the fame
nature as that in the firft kind of embalming, where he fays, That they
employ refinous and balfamic things before they sait with the natrum? In like
manner thefe injections with the liquor of the cedar were not made till after the
body had been falted and warned. Is in the fecond kind of embalming they did
not open the belly, as Herodotus relates, they injected at firft the natrum to,
confume the vifcera.
Herodotus, in the third kind os embalming, surnishes me with a proos
os the juftnefs os my observation on the fecond kind os embalming : thefe are his
expreilions: " The third manner os embalming is this, but it is ufed only for the
poorer fort. Aster the injections m by the sundament, they put the body in
nitre sor feventy days, and return it back to thofe who brought it."
What are those injections he fpeaks os? It is natural to think that they were
made with the liquor os the cedar, since he has mentioned none but that: is
we admit it to be the liquor of the cedar, the laft kind of embalming disfers not
at all srom the second; they are absolutely the same. It muft be acknowledged
theresore, that there were, as I have already shewn, two kinds os injections:
the sirst was what they employed in saking the body, in order to consume the
vifcera; the second was made with the liquor os the cedar, but which was not
employed till the body had been salted and warned. It is easy to perceive in
what the third embalming dissered srom the second; in the third the body was
only injected, and salted with the natrum.
m " Defuncta corpora incorrupta aevis servat, n It muft be observed, that the expression in He-
viventia corrumpit: mira disserentia, cum vitam rodotus is, "Zv^aiv, Ji^VjcavlK tu\ jcoiAiV ; concern-
auferat fpirantibus, defunclifque, pro vita fit." ing which Camerarius remarks, " Purgare t*> <rvg-
Plin. lib. xxiv. cap. 5. pak-> quam alii potionem, alii herbam aut radicem,
aliifuccum quempiam fuisTe putaverunt."
I" COULD
some other part, to make the injection penetrate in fuch a manner, that by
soaking, as I may say, the viscera, it might act upon them, and be able to dis~
solve them.
Herodotus was deceived, when he was told that the liquor os the cedar
had such an efficacy, that it diffolved the entrails: sor how mould a liquor,
which is only a balfam or a kind os foft resin, such as the turpentine, be able
to consume the vifcera, as it has no corrofive property ? If we consult the natu~
ralifts with regard to the liquor of the cedar, we mall learn, that the cedria (sor
so they called that liquor) has properties diametrically oppofite to those that Hero-
dotus attributes to it. The greatest part agree with Pliny and Dioscorides,
in faying, that the cedria is fo lively, that it wounds living bodies, but renders the
dead more durable, by preferving them from corruption : which is the reafon
it was called the death of the living, and the life os the dead .
W e must say theresore, that is the cedria was used in those injections, it was
employed in a very little quantity as an aromatic; but that the principal basis of
thofe injections was the natrum dissolved, which has really the properties that
Herodotus attributes to the cedria. May I not conjecture, and even aflert with
great probability, that this miftake of Herodotus is precifely of the fame
nature as that in the firft kind of embalming, where he fays, That they
employ refinous and balfamic things before they sait with the natrum? In like
manner thefe injections with the liquor of the cedar were not made till after the
body had been falted and warned. Is in the fecond kind of embalming they did
not open the belly, as Herodotus relates, they injected at firft the natrum to,
confume the vifcera.
Herodotus, in the third kind os embalming, surnishes me with a proos
os the juftnefs os my observation on the fecond kind os embalming : thefe are his
expreilions: " The third manner os embalming is this, but it is ufed only for the
poorer fort. Aster the injections m by the sundament, they put the body in
nitre sor feventy days, and return it back to thofe who brought it."
What are those injections he fpeaks os? It is natural to think that they were
made with the liquor os the cedar, since he has mentioned none but that: is
we admit it to be the liquor of the cedar, the laft kind of embalming disfers not
at all srom the second; they are absolutely the same. It muft be acknowledged
theresore, that there were, as I have already shewn, two kinds os injections:
the sirst was what they employed in saking the body, in order to consume the
vifcera; the second was made with the liquor os the cedar, but which was not
employed till the body had been salted and warned. It is easy to perceive in
what the third embalming dissered srom the second; in the third the body was
only injected, and salted with the natrum.
m " Defuncta corpora incorrupta aevis servat, n It muft be observed, that the expression in He-
viventia corrumpit: mira disserentia, cum vitam rodotus is, "Zv^aiv, Ji^VjcavlK tu\ jcoiAiV ; concern-
auferat fpirantibus, defunclifque, pro vita fit." ing which Camerarius remarks, " Purgare t*> <rvg-
Plin. lib. xxiv. cap. 5. pak-> quam alii potionem, alii herbam aut radicem,
aliifuccum quempiam fuisTe putaverunt."
I" COULD