Chapter I: Front Matter

_The Explanation of the_ Frontispiece.

Reader thou in this _Frontispiece_ may’st see
How _mortal Man_ seeks _Immortalitie_;
His beauteous _Frame_ he sees with speed decline,
And soon dissolv’d by _Death_, tho’ form’d by _Hands Divine_.
_Sadness_ in Widows Robes deplores his _State_,
While the _Young Brood_ inspect the _Book of Fate_;
Pensive they view the _Rise_ and _Fall_ of _Man_,
With Tears survey his Transitory _Span_.
But his great _Soul_, full of Cœlestial _Flame_,
Disdaining _Death_, strives to extend his _Name_;
And conscious of our too too fickle _State_,
Would fain elude the Force of _Time_ and _Fate_:
The narrow Boundaries of _Life_ would pass,
By _Statues_, _Pillars_, Monumental _Brass_,
Aspiring _Pyramids_, that lift on high
Their spiral Heads to reach his kindred Skie,
Which in their dark _Repositories_ keep
The _Bodies_ safe in their _Immortal Sleep_;
While healing _Balm_ and _Aromatic Spice_,
_Death_’s odious _Dissipation_ to their _Form_ denies.
_Death_ baffl’d thus by wise _Chyrurgic Art_,
Wounds _Mortals_ there but with a blunted Dart;
And half the Terror of the _Griesly Fiend_
Is lost, when _Mortal Bodies_ know no end.
The _Bodies_ thus _Preserv’d_, the thinking Part
_Men_ strive to keep alive by various _Art_,
And fine wrought _Medals_ and _Inscriptions_ use,
But above all the _bright recording Muse_;
Thro’ _Time_’s revolving Tide the faithful _Page_
Conveys their earliest _Rise_ to the remotest _Age_,
While _Death_ and _Time_ oppose their _Force_ in vain,
Superior _Men_ above their _Force_ remain;
_Temples_ and _Fanes_ they to the _Godhead_ raise,
To bribe the only _Power_, that _can_ destroy, with Praise.
_Jove_ pleas’d, in Pity of the pious _Race_,
Two _Messengers_ sends down the Airy space,
To raise _Man_’s _Ashes_ from the silent Urn,
Which touch’d by _Hermes_ wand resume their pristine Form.
_Jove_’s _Royal Bird_ attends to bear on high
Th’ _Immortal Soul_ up to its Native _Skie_,
While _Fame_ aloud her Silver Trumpet sounds,
And with the _Lawrel Wreath_ the _Victor_ Crowns.
And thus _Eternal_ lives the _deathless Mind_,
Which, here on _Earth_, no setled _State_ could find.

_Thomas Greenhill_ Chirurgus.

HONOR ALIT ARTES

_Quo_ Fata trahunt retrahuntqꝫ sequamur.

_P. Berchet delin^t._ _Nutting sculpsit. 1705._ ]

ΝΕΚΡΟΚΗΔΕΙΑ:
OR, THE
Art of Embalming;
Wherein is shewn
The Right of Burial,
THE
FUNERAL CEREMONIES,
And the several Ways of
Preserving Dead Bodies
IN
Most Nations of the WORLD.
With an Account of
The particular Opinions, Experiments and Inventions of modern
Physicians, Surgeons, Chymists and Anatomists.
ALSO
Some new Matter propos’d concerning a better Method of _Embalming_ than
hath hitherto been discover’d.
AND
A _Pharmacopœia Galeno-Chymica, Anatomia sicca sive incruenta_, &c.

In Three PARTS.

_The whole Work adorn’d with variety of Sculptures._

_By_ THOMAS GREENHILL, _Surgeon_.

_LONDON_: Printed for the Author.

ΝΕΚΡΟΚΗΔΕΙΑ:

OR, THE

Art of Embalming;

Wherein is shewn

The Right of Burial,

AND

FUNERAL CEREMONIES,

Especially that of

Preserving Bodies

After the _EGYPTIAN_ Method.

TOGETHER WITH

An Account of the _Egyptian_ Mummies, Pyramids, Subterranean Vaults and
Lamps, and their Opinion of the _Metempsychosis_, the Cause of their
_Embalming_.

AS ALSO

A Geographical Description of _Egypt_, the Rise and Course of the
_Nile_, the Temper, Constitution and Physic of the Inhabitants,
their Inventions, Arts, Sciences, Stupendous Works and Sepulchres,
and other curious Observations any ways relating to the Physiology
and Knowledge of this _Art_.