![]() ![]() Mark Twain, who took a train from Cairo to Alexandria, wrote in his 1869 book The Innocents Abroad, “the fuel they use for the locomotive is composed of mummies 3000 years old, purchased by the ton or by the graveyard for that purpose, and that sometimes one hears the profane engineer call out pettishly, ‘D-n these plebeians, they don't burn worth a cent-pass out a king.’” Twain then qualified his claim: “Stated to me for a fact. Mummies fueled locomotives.Ī number of American newspapers in the 19th century reported that Egypt’s nascent railway system used mummies as fuel for locomotives, allegedly due to the lack of other combustible resources. Now, of course, we have NSAIDs and Band-Aids for that. Natural philosophers Robert Boyle and Francis Bacon advocated mummy powder as a treatment for bruises and for preventing bleeding. Mummies-often labeled mumia, from a Persian word referring to the waxes and resins used in embalming-were sold as powders that could be made into plasters or dissolved in liquids to cure various ailments. Until the late 18th century (and occasionally beyond), it wasn’t uncommon for medicines to be sourced from human body parts, as unhygienic as that may have been. As we edge closer to Halloween, let's take a look at a few myths about mummies. Yet weird myths and centuries-old rumors continue to dog these poor desiccated remains. Thanks to modern technology like CT scanning, we know more about the intimate lives of mummies than ever before. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |