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Show ANCIENT CHINESE COFFINS. A recent number of the Christian Empire, referring to a discovery of some ancient graves near Shaghai, gives, says Nature, an interesting account of Chinese burial in former times. A man of means purchased his coffin when he reached the age of forty. He would then have it painted three times every year with a species of varnish, mixed with pulverized porcelain-a composition which resembled a silicate paint or enamel. The process by which this varnish was made has now been lost to the Chinese. Each coating of this paint was of some thickness, and when dried had a metallic firmness resembling enamel. Frequent coats of this, if the owner lived long, caused the coffin to assume the appearance of a sarcophagus, with a foot or more in thickness of this hard, stone-like shell. After death the veins and the cavities of the stomach were filled with quicksilver for the purpose of preserving the body. A piece of jade would then be placed in each nostril and ear, and in one hand, while a piece of bar silver would be placed in the other hand. The body thus prepared was placed on a layer of mercury within the coffin, the latter was sealed, and the whole then committed to its last resting place. When some of these sarcophagi were opened, after the lapse of centuries, the bodies were found in a wonderful state of preservation, but they crumbled to dust on exposure to the air. The writer well observes that the employment of mercury by the Chinese of past dynasties for the purpose of preserving bodies ought to form an interesting subject for consideration and discussion in connection with the history of embalming and "mummy making."-Scientific American. |