Dynasty has come down to us. It comprises some of the most notable figures in Egyptian history—Ahmosi (Amasis) I., who freed Egypt from the Hyksos, Tethmosis I. and III., the conquerors of Syria and makers of the empire, Amenophis III., the great builder, whose likeness is preserved in the colossi of Memnon, probably also his son, Amenophis IV. (Akhenaton), the heretic king, and Seti (Sethos) I. and his son Rameses II. The mummy of Seti I. is in the finest possible preservation, but others, after being brutally plundered, were rewrapped by the piety of later generations.
In Lower Egypt practically all the mummies have perished; but in Upper Egypt, as they were put out of reach of the inundation, the cemeteries, in spite of rifling and burning, yield immense numbers of preserved bodies and skeletons; attention has from time to time been directed to the scientific examination of these in order to ascertain race, cause of death, traces of accident or disease, and the surgical or medical processes which they had undergone during life, &c. This department of research has been greatly developed by Dr Elliott Smith in Cairo. He has examined not only the more recently found of the royal mummies, but also multitudes of skeletons, &c., which have been brought from the official excavations of the government and from other work. His researches, in particular instances, prove their high importance for the history of disease, for characterization of the races inhabiting Egypt, and in other ways. The cemeteries just south of the First Cataract on a first examination reveal a prehistoric race of Egyptian type, a group of male negro mercenaries, a group of male prisoners executed by hanging during the New Kingdom, while from a necropolis of Christian foreigners of about the 6th century comes the first instance of gout in an ancient body from Egypt. Among the prehistoric people are many female skeletons with a fractured right ulna sustained in warding off blows, and some of these women had died while still wearing splints. Circumcision is traceable on all the male bodies which are in a state to show its effects. The royal mummies furnish evidence of age at death as well as of health and physical character. A series of forty-four mummies of priests and priestesses of the XXIst Dynasty furnished the material for an important monograph. Earlier, the processes of mummification produced a skeleton merely clothed in a dry and shrunken skin. At this time, however, the flesh was replaced by a stuffing of sawdust, sand, or other lasting material, introduced with great skill through a few incisions and apertures, so that the natural forms were completely restored. The heart was left in place, but the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines were pickled and wrapped separately and then restored to the body cavity. Later, the form was reproduced by elaborate external wrappings of the different parts of the body before the final swathing; later still, in the Ptolemaic age, by coarse padding with plenty of linen and pitch. The XXIst Dynasty marks the highest level of the art. The Christians of the early centuries, looking for corporeal resurrection, avoided the incisions, extraction of organs, &c., practised by their pagan forefathers, and buried the body entire after pickling it in salt. Their stricter leaders, however, objected to a custom which so easily led to the worship of relics and the continuance of pagan observances; and with the advent of Islam embalming fell into disuse.
Outside Egypt mummification was practised amongst the ancient Peruvians, who took advantage of the desiccating atmosphere and salt soil of their caves for preserving the dead in good condition without any embalming process. Among the Guanches of the Canary Islands, however, the Egyptian methods of emptying the body and padding he skin were closely paralleled.
A word may be added about the use of mummy in medicine. The name, as has been pointed out above, is derived from the Persian mumiai, meaning pitch or asphalt, which substance occurs frequently in the prescriptions of the Greek and Roman medical writers. Medieval physicians in the East conceived the happy idea that the highest virtue would exist in that which had been already employed by the Egyptian priests in preserving the human body. Thus the bituminous and fatty matters found about the mummies and their wrappings were employed as a sovereign remedy, particularly for wounds and contusions, and a brisk trade began in these “exudations” of mummies. This led further to the medicinal use of fragments of the mummies themselves; and, finally, the starting-point was lost sight of, so that the dried or prepared flesh of criminals became one of the standard forms of mummy in the pharmacopoeia. It was not till the 18th century that the importance of mummy in all its forms waned, and in some of the least progressive quarters of central Europe it survived even to the middle of the 19th.
See T. J. Pettigrew, A History of Egyptian Mummies (London, 1834); G. Elliott Smith, A Contribution to the Study of Mummification in Egypt (Cairo, 1906); The Archaeological Survey of Nubia Bulletins (Cairo, 1908 seq.); Dr Lortet and M. C. Gaillard, La Faune momifiée de l’ancienne Egypte (Lyons, 1905); A. Wiedemann, “Mumie als Heilmittel,” in Zeitschrift des Vereins für rheinische und westfälische Volkskunde (1906). (F. Ll. G.)
MUMPS (syn. Cynanche parotidaea, parotitis; also, “The
Branks”), a specific infectious disease characterized by inflammatory
swelling of the parotid and other salivary glands, frequently
occurring as an epidemic, and affecting mostly young
persons. The name “mumps” (O. Eng. “to mump,” meaning to
sulk) originated, no doubt, in the patient’s appearance. The
disease generally sets in with symptoms of a cold or catarrh
accompanied with slight febrile disturbance; but soon the
nature of the ailment is announced by the occurrence of swelling
and stiffening in the region of the parotid gland in front of the
ear. The swelling speedily increases in size and spreads downwards
towards the neck and under the jaw, involving the
numerous glands in that locality. The effect is to produce
much disfigurement, which becomes still greater should the
inflammation spread, as often happens, to the glands on the
other side of the face and neck. Pain is present in the swollen
parts, but it is seldom severe, nor is there much redness or
any tendency to suppuration. There is, however, considerable
interference with the acts of mastication and swallowing. After
continuing for four or five days the swelling and other symptoms
abate, and the parts are soon restored to their normal condition.
During the period of convalescence there occasionally occur
some swelling and tenderness in other glands, such as the
testicles in males (orchitis), and the mammae or ovaries (oöpheritis)
in females, and possibly involvement of the pancreas, but
these are of short duration and usually of no serious significance.
Mumps is in general a mild disease, and requires little treatment
beyond a gentle laxative, the application of warm fomentations
to the swollen and painful parts, the use of soft food, and rest.
printed in u.s.a.
