Mummy as a Druǵ

Abstract

The use of mummy as a drug was widespread in Europe from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, and its employment lingered on for a hundred years later. Its supposed virtue was originally based upon the medicinal properties of natural bitumen obtained from the Dead Sea and elsewhere. During the Middle Ages mummy was obtained from embalmed human bodies—in Egypt—which were believed to have been prepared with bitumen. Even at the present day the statement is current that the Egyptians used bitumen for mummification, but this is erroneous, for the embalming-material is resin, although its appearance often simulates that of bitumen. The supply being obtained from mummified human bodies, the virtues of the drug were transferred to the bodies themselves. In course of time the term mummy lost its original association with bitumen, and was applied to medicated flesh in general. The use of mummy in medicine did not finally become obsolete until the latter part of the eighteenth century. The supplies of mummy sold to apothecaries in Europe were first obtained from genuine Egyptian mummies, but when it became difficult to procure these, spurious substitutes were made from recently dead bodies which were medicated by the purveyors. Desiccated bodies from North Africa, and Guanche mummies from the Canary Islands, were also exported to Europe and sold to the apothecaries. © 1927, The Royal Society of Medicine. All rights reserved.