Presence of a Spasmogenic Substance, Presumably Histamine, in Extracts of Mummy Tissue

Abstract

EGYPTIAN mummies as well as mummified bodies from other parts of the world have been the subject of extensive investigation. Thus, for example, it has been possible to obtain blood-group reactions with mummified tissue, as shown by Boyd and Boyd¹, Candela² and Matson³. In the field of palæopathology, a term created by Ruffer⁴, the microscope has revealed the persistence of many characteristic cells and other histological features in sections of mummies and similarly treated bodies. In a recent investigation⁵, I have even demonstrated, among other matters, the existence of red blood corpuscle remnants in ancient Swedish skeletons (Viking age), buried without the embalming procedures used in Egypt and elsewhere. Pictures of relatively well-preserved organic framework of bone tissue were obtained with material even from so early a period as the Upper Stone Age.