Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/654

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Wherefore when Mofes fays, that forty days were employed

in embalming Jacob, wc arc to underftand him as meaning the forty days of his continuing in the fait of nitre, without including the thirty days paft in performing the other ceremo- nies above mentioned, fo that, in the whole, they mourned feventy days in Egypt, as Mofes likewife obferves. Afterwards the body was taken out of the fait, waflied, wrapt up in Hnnen fwadling bands, dipped in myrrh, and rubbed with a certain gum, which the Egyptians ufed inftcad of glue. Then the body was reftored to the relations, who put it in a coffin, and kept it in their houfes, or in tombs made par- ticularly for this purpofe. There are fome found, at tin's day, in Egypt, in chambers, or fubterraneous vaults, which fully juftify the truth of what is here faid.

They who were not rich enough to bear this expence, con- tented themfelves with infufing, by a Syringe, through the fundament, a certain liquor extracted from the cedar, and leaving it there, wrapt up the body in fait of nitre. This oil preyed upon the inteftines, fo that when they took it out, the inteftines came along with it dried, and not in the leaSt pu- trefied. The body being inclofed in nitre, grew dry, and nothing remained befides the Skin glued upon the bones. They who were too poor to be at any confiderable expence, did no more than cleanfc the infide, by fyringing a liquor into it; this done, they put the body, without further ceremony, into nitre for feventy days, in order to dry it. Calmet. Diaion. Bibl.

It is no wonder that we find human bodies preferved without corrupting for many ages, by means of fpices, and other ingre- dients, proper to refill putrefaction, applied with the nkeft care; but it is Arrange that there mould be a fort of embalm- ing performed by nature, in fome places, where bodies are preferved merely by the virtues of the foil in which they lie, yet this is evidently the cafe in fome instances. We have, in the philofophical tranfactions, an account of a man and a wo- man who were loft in the great mows on the moors of Hope, near the woodlands in Derbyfhire, on the fourteenth of Ja- nuary, 1674. Thefe perfons were not found till the third of the May following, at which time they fmclt fo ftrong, that the coroner prudently ordered them to be buried on the fpot. Thefe bodies lay buried in the peat mofs twenty-eight years before they were looked at again, when fome people of the country, who had heard of the Arrange virtues of the foil thereabouts in preferving dead bodies, opened the ground, and found them no way altered, the colour of the ikin being fair and natural, and the fiefti as foft as that of perfons newly dead. Phil. Tranf. N°. 434. p. 415. After this the place was remarked where they lay, and they were (hewn for a fight for twenty years, though they were much changed by having been fo often uncovered in that time; and in the year 1 716 they were found in the following con- dition: The body of the man was perfect, his beard was ftrong, and about a quarter of an inch long; the hair of his head was (hort. The Ikin of all parts was hard and tough, and of the colour of tanned leather, or of the wet in which it lay. He had on a broad cloth coat, which was as found and ftrong as ever. The body of the woman had been taken out of the ground, and was much decayed, one leg was off, and the flelh of it in a bad condition, but the bone was found, and theflefh of one hand was decayed, but the bone alfo found, and, on her face, her upper lip and the tip of her nofe was decayed, but all the reft found; her hair was long and fpringy, like that of a living perfon. One of the teeth being at that time taken out of her mouth, was as elaftic as a piece of fteel, and would bend round the finger, but immediately recover its ilrait fbape again; but this quality it foon loft when out of the ground. After this they were buried in Hope church, where, after a few years, they were found wholly confirmed. In their firft grave they lay at about a yard deep, and the foil was wet, but no water flood in the place. When the ftock- ings were drawn off, the man's legs, which had never before been uncovered, were very fair; the flefh, when preffed with the finger, pitted a little, and the joints were moveable, with- out any ftiffnefs, the other parts were much decayed. The

. people, at one time or other, had cut off and carried away the greateft part of their cloaths as curiofities, but what was left was firm and good.

EMBASIS, in the writings of the antient phyficlans, the name of a large veflel, in which they prepared their medicated baths, and which was capable of holding the perfon to be bathed at his full length.

EMBATTLED Line, (Cycl) in heraldry, a term ufed to ex- prefs one of the common lines in coats of arms, reprefentin^ the battlements of a houfe, and faid to have been originally given to the families on three very different accounts, b'ome having obtained it for eminent fervices, in attacking or de- fending the battlements of a caftlc, or other place of defence, in time of war; others for their eminence in the Skill of ar- chitecture, and others only for being defcended of antient and honourable houfes, none being fuffered, in antient times, to imbattle their houfes, but thofe who had great dignities, as the barons, and the like. Cambden proves this in his ac- count of Tunftall's feat in England, in which he expreffes it as a fignal mark of the royal favour, that he had libcrtv given t» embattle it.

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The heralds exprefs this embattled line by the term crenelle * and when it has the embattling on both fides, which is the more rare, they then call it bretejfe. Ne/bet's Heraldry. See Bretesse.

EMBER (Cycl.) — Ember-Gas/*-, in natural hiftory, a fpecies of the wild goofe, found in Zetland, that is faid to hatch her young under her wing. This is certain, that none ever faw her on the land, or out of the water, and that they have a cavity under one of their wings capable of containing a large egg. Phil. Tranf. N°. 473. §. 8.

EMBER1ZA, in zoology, a name, with the epithets of white and yellow, exprefling the bunting and yellow-hammer. See Bunting and Yellow-hammar.

EMBLEM (Cycl.)— According to Lord Bacon, Emblems arei of ufe in the art of memory, as fenfible objects ilrike the mind ftrongcr than what is intellectual. Thus, it is eafier to retain the image of a fportfman hunting a hare, of an apo- thecary ranging his boxes, an orator making a fpeech, a boy repeating verfes, or a player acting his part; than the corres- ponding notions of invention, difpofuion, elocution, memory, and action. Works abr. Vol. 1. p. 136. and Vol. 2. p, 475. Vol, 3. p. 106.

EMBRACE a Volt, in the manege, is ufcd when a horfe, in working upon volts, makes a good way every time with his fore legs. The oppoftte term to embracing a volt, is beating the duft, which is putting his fore feet near the place from whence he lifted them.

Embracing the ground is ufed in the fame fenfe with em- bracing the Volt. A horfe cannot take in too much ground, provided his croupe does not throw out; that is, does not  out of the Volt. See Beat.

EMBRACERY, inlaw s the act or offence of embraceors. See Embraceor, Cycl.

EMBRYO (Cycl)— Embryo Worms. It is a matter of no fmall curiofity, to obferve the arrangement of the multitudes of the embryo worms, as they are lodged in the bodies of the viviparous two-winged flies.

An accurate diffection of one of thefe little animals, fhews very plainly the parts where the embryo worms are enclofed. This direction is eafily made with a pair of fine pointed fcifl'ars, taking off the whole upper {hell of the body from the lower; and that part which covers the belly may be turned back upon the corcelet, without the internal parts being at all difturbed by the operation, and the form and arrangement of the parts which contain the embryo worms in thefe, will be found very different from that of thofe which contain the eggs in the Common flies. In thofe we find the eggs contained, as it were, in two bladders, and placed in two great parcels, one on the right fide, and the other on the left; but, in the viviparous fly, nothing analogous to this is found; but the tiling that moft attracts the obferver's eye is a fort of band, or cord, which follows the whole circumference of the body 9 except that at the junction of the corcelet it leaves a little fpace for the pulmonary veflels. Examining more clofely, one foon finds alfo that this circular band is not angle, but that it has feveral other convolutions within it, and is rolled in a fpiral from the center of the body to the extremity of either fide, and that it encircles a fmall fpace there, and after- wards makes five circles before it terminates. What the ovarys are to the oviparous flies, that is this band to the viviparous, it is, in fhorr, the part where the e?nbryn worms are enclofed, and is properly the womb of the infect. Notwithstanding that this appears no other than a cord, or band, as one views it in the body of the creature, the taking it out fhews it to be a fort of flat veflel, but of fome thicknefs, wound round like the fpring of a watch, and con- taining, at different diftances, a vail number of the embryo worms. This veflel, drawn out and extended, often mea- fures more than two inches in length, which is very confi- derable, in proportion to the length of the body of the fly, which is not more than about four lines. Ibid. p. 416. Notwithstanding the extream fmallncfs of the worms contained in this part, they are very eafily diflinguifhable from eggs, and cannot, by a nice obferver, be taken for any other than etnbryo worms; the microfcope alfo puts this beyond all pof- fibility of difpute, fince, in thofe which are the moft forward, and neareft the time of their being depofited from the body of the creature, one plainly difcovers the rings of the body, and even the hooks with which almoft all the fly-worms of the firft clafs are armed at the mouth. Ibid. p. 417. One cannot, without amazement, confider the number of Embryos contained within the body of one fly, of any one of thefe fpecies; and yet another more Strange thing than this is, that notwithstanding all this fecundity of the parent fly of this fpecies, the flies of it are much more rare than thofe of the cow-dung worm, in the parent fly of which are feldom found more than two large eggs : But the whole reafon of this mult be, that tiiefe worms of the viviparous flies are the deftined food of fome other creature, from which very few of them efcapc. Ibid.

Notwithstanding that/the uterus of thefe flies contains fitch im- menfe numbers of worms, and thofe fo clofely arranged, yet fetch feparate Embryo, while there, has its.dift.mcl and'peculiar fltuij or film, in which it is enclofed.

4 Tho*