„ XVI. —Embalming Instruments. „ XVII. —Caution in Storing and Keeping the Preservative. Appendix, with commendatory letters, Page 48 Note—Care of the Manual, „ 141 Letter to our Customers, „ 142 PROF. E. H. CRANE’S Manual of Instructions TO UNDERTAKERS. CHAPTER I. Ancient Embalming. It is my object in these instructions to lay before the undertakers of this country a minute and detailed description of the _only reliable_ process, and _best method known_, for the preservation and embalming of the dead, and at the same time to submit to them the important details to be followed out so condensed and free from unnecessary and superfluous language that the methods used shall be plain to any one, believing that any matter not strictly pertaining to the subject is out of place in a Manual of Instruction. Long study and experiment in this interesting science has brought to light many valuable and practical results, and it is from actual tests and experiments extending over nearly a quarter of a century that I have devoted to this subject that has enabled me to say that with the aid of my Excelsior Preservative the Undertaker may rely with entire and perfect confidence, upon meeting with complete success in each and every case to which he may be called, and I can assure him that after using the Excelsior Preservative, he will have no desire to return to the use of ice, or any other preparation he may have used in the past. The Egyptians embalmed their dead by a tedious process, which occupied from sixty to ninety days—constant attention and care being required. They always removed the brain, stomach and intestines, which last were sometimes deprived of their excrement and replaced in the body, and when they were called to embalm very fleshy subjects all of the adipose or fatty substances that could be removed were taken out of the bodies; this done, they were next bathed, or even immersed, in a solution of Arsenic, Asphaltum, Oil of Cedar, Gum Myrrh, and any or all of the aromatic spices that they could possess themselves of without respect to kind or quantity. After which the body was subjected to slow and steady heat for from sixty to ninety days; the application of the solution being repeated several times (smoke was also used in some cases); when the moisture was finally expelled from the body they were wrapped or rather wound with narrow strips of linen cloth from head to foot. These cloths were also saturated with Asphaltum, Arsenic and Gum Myrrh, which soon became dried and cemented together in a manner to prevent moisture from permeating the body as long as the wrapping remained intact.