Abstract
PROF. ELLIOT SMITH has long established his position as our principal authority on the anatomical study of ancient Egyptian mummification. Before he undertook the systematic examination of mummies during the years he spent in Egypt, the vaguest and often the most erroneous notions were current with regard to the technical treatment of the corpse and its intestines by the ancient Egyptian embalmers. To the average Egyptologist such details necessar.ly appeared of a rather gruesome character, and, as a consequence, Prof. Elliot Smith, who brought expert medical knowledge to bear on an unrivalled collection of material, was able to obtain important results in what to all intents and purposes was a virgin field of research. His volume of the Cairo Catalogue, which was reviewed in NATURE on its publication, marked, as was pointed out at the time, a fitting culmination to his labours. When, therefore, its author has anything to tell us in connection with the subject he has made peculiarly his own, he is entitled to more than a respectful hearing. If on some essential points we are inclined to reserve judgment, it is because his theory opens up a number of collateral problems which demand independent examination. But there can be no doubt that the theory as he propounds it is very attractive, and it has the advantage of ranging over a number of detached and separate fields of study. Even for those who may not go quite so far as to believe with him that the influence of ancient Egypt ever spread to the Far East and to America, it is well to re-examine the grounds for scepticism, and, in the process, to take perhaps a less restricted view of the possibilities of intercourse in the ancient world.
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References
âOn the Significance of the Geographical Distribution of the Practice of Mummification. A Study of the Migrations of Peoples and the Spresd of certain Customs and Beliefs.â By Prof. G. Elliot Smith . From vol. lix., part ii, of Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Session 1914â“15. Pp. 143. (Manchester: 36 George Street, 1915.) Price 2s. 6d.
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K., L. Egypt and the Far East 1 . Nature 96, 370–371 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/096370e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/096370e0