it was merely a hollow column, ascended by a winding stair inside,
or by projections left for the purpose within. It must have been
a striking sight when the traveller, through the dark night, saw
far away the lonely flame that marked the spot where so many of
his fellow-men had completed their journey.

One of the oddest things ever introduced into Materia Medica was
the celebrated Mummy Powder. Egyptian mummies, being broken up
and ground into dust, were held of great value as medicine both
for external and internal application. Boyle and Bacon unite in
commending its virtues: the latter, indeed, venturing to suggest
that 'the mixture of balms that are glutinous' was the foundation
of its power, though common belief held that the virtue was 'more
in the Egyptian than in the spice.' Even in the seventeenth century
mummy was an important article of commerce, and was sold at a great
price. One Eastern traveller brought to the Turkey Company six
hundred weight of mummy broken into pieces. Adulteration came into
play in a manner which would have gratified the Lancet commission:
the Jews collecting the bodies of executed criminals, filling them
with common asphaltum, which cost little, and then drying them in
the sun, when they became undistinguishable from the genuine article.
And the maladies which mummy was held to cure are set forth in a
list which we commend to the notice of Professor Holloway. It was
'to be taken in decoctions of marjoram, thyme, elder-flower, barley,
roses, lentils, jujubes, cummin-seed, carraway, saffron, cassia,
parsley, with oxymel, wine, milk, butter, castor, and mulberries.'
Sir Thomas Browne, who was a good deal before his age, did not
approve of the use of mummy. He says:

Were the efficacy thereof more clearly made out, we scarce conceive