great man, though in a lefs degree; now as the people are generally, and with good reafon too, afraid of the law, they easily pass for fuch, being respected as great men, and dreaded as great-: We now proceed to confider the prevailing, or actuating principle of the profeffors of the healing art, or PHYSI C, which we have found to be a thirst for literary fame; for on reviewing the annals of literature, both of our own, and of other countries, there will be observed more great literary characters of this profeffion than of any other; and it is certain, that to the profeffors of medicine we owe many of the most valuable discoveries in fcience. When we fee the names of Boerhaave, Mead, Sloane, Fracaftorius, Servetus, Harvey, Sydenham, Haller, Linnæus, Woodward, Akenfide, Garth, Armstrong, Arbuthnot, and a number of, &c. &c. we must be induced to refpect an art which has produced such distinguished characters. Some profeffors of me dicine, undoubtedly, reflect a difgrace on it by their mercenarinefs; but in general the phyficians are a very refpectable body of men; and as the art they profess is the moft valuable of all others, the regular bred and worthy practitioners fhould be treated with the greatest respect, but the health-deftroying pretender with the utmost contempt. And as the love of knowledge, and defire of literary fame, appear to be the diftinguish ing principle of the heads in this profeffion, fo is the fame principle diffused, though in a lefs degree, among those who occupy the lower ranks in it. Even the country apothecary, who retails a pennyworth of falts, and a halfpenny worth of liquorice, he would fain pass too for a great man, and a prodigious fcholar; he talks to you of the cerebellum, the pericardium, the os fincipitis, and the os occipitis, and confounds your head with other technical terms, which neither you nor himfelf understands; but then all this is to make you believe him an Hippocrates in his profeffion, and fo truft yourself in his hands, without any doubt of a cure; nor do you find yourself deceived in this man of fcience till he hath bleeded you of a good fum of money, and reduced you to the gates of death, when you are glad to put yourself under the care of a man who hath made phyfic his ftudy, and who finds, perhaps, your diforder to be quite different from what the fage apothecary had pronounced it. But the impofition of fuch as these are not to be conLidered as a juft objection to the fcience itself, nor to the body of medical profellors collecively confidered. We come now to confider the laft, but generally regarded as the first, of the learned DIVINITY. And here we shall not hesitate to pronounce what will, perhaps, be esteemed almost as blafphemy by many-that the ruling spirit, or actuating principle of the clergy, from the triple-crowned pontiff down to the lowly curate, is Pride.-"Heavens! what his ho linefs, the fervant of the fervants of the Lord, proud!-what, the pious father Paul, proud-what, our good doctor Guzzle, proud!-what, our humble Mr. Pure, proud!-It cannot be; the man who afferts it must certainly be a jew, a Mahometan, an Infidel, an Atheist !"-Thus it is when a perfon is hardy enough to fpeak any thing disrespectful of a body of men generally ef teemed facred,―ambassadors of the Deity,guides to Paradise,—and keepers of the keys of Heaven,-and fuch a one may be certain of meeting with the odious appellation of Atheist, for, 66 'tis the curfe and fashion of the times: When prejudice and strong averfions work The man who thinks and judges for himself, Sewell's Sir W. Raleigh. But, however, in spite of odious epithets, we think it no hard matter to prove our im pious affertion that the clergy are, and ever have been, actuated by a spirit of Pride.Only peruse what is called Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, or rather, as a modern ingenious writer terms it, the hiftory of human folly, and you will ever find them aiming at power, of which let the Bishop of Rome ferve as an inftance ;-to what fovereignty did not that holy prelate raise himself,-infomuch that emperors and kings, were vaffals to his throne, and with an unparalleled degree of arrogance, he could fay, By me kings reigu? -And have not even inferior Prelates anathematized their own fovereigns, and abfolved their fellow-fubjects from their allegi ance?-What power and magnificence did not thofe falfely esteemed Saints, Cyril, Ambrofe, Athanafius, Dunftan, Becket, &c. affume to themselves?-Men who, with all their boafted virtues, were nothing more than proud, and arrogant rebels,-particu larly the laft, whofe name ought to be held in deteftation by every Briton, on account of his daring impudence to his lawful fovereign, Henry the Second,-Again, others have 1786. Extraordinary Prefervation of Dead Bodies. led thousands, yea, even millions, by the " Tragedy of Mabomet, A&t i. Thus the men who ought to poffefs a fpirit of humility, and to preach peace on the earth, have fhewn themselves to be actuated on the contrary by a spirit of the most intolerable Pride, and have been chiefly inftrumental in producing the moft dreadful com motions, and horrid massacres on the earth; fo great was their power in former times. But their power is now confiderably leffened; we live at a more enlightened period, when people are wifer than to follow a canting enthufiaft, to fuch bloody miffions.-Their Pride, however, is not leffened, that principle will ever continue to actuate this body of men, whofe office being efteemed facred, they are confequently treated with the greatest reverence. The poet daringly ventured to affert, that, “The priests of all religions are the fame." But, out of a regard to one particular country, we have been ever ready to efteem it as vile flander,-'till our prefent cogitations on the fubject, when on confidering the characters of the Roman pontiff, the Greek patriarch, the Mahommedan mufti, the Indian bramin the Chinese bonzè, &c. &c. and having found the fame love of ftate, dignity, and refpect, in them all, in the prieft of one country as well as of another, we are neceffitated to give our affent to the very rude, but apparently true affertion. They are every where the fame venerable characters; and reverenced by their flocks as fuperior beings, commiffioned from the great Sovereign of the univerfe, to enighten mankind with the beams of truth, and to guide them to the blifsful feats of Paradife. Hence full of their fancied fuperiority, and fwelled with the incenfe offered them by the ignorant multitude, they rule over the confciences of their ignorant flocks with an unbounded fway;-formerly it was his Holiness's will, ftruck awe into the hearts of emperors; and even now, because our minister says so, engages the belief and refpect of the whole parish. The chief articles, his reverence. takes care to inftil into the minds of his people, are humility and charity. First, humility, i. e. an implicit fubmiffion to the dictates of their paftor; and secondly, charity, or a due benevolence towards him, how defective foever towards others. Now it commonly happens, that his reverence himself is firft fwelled up with pride; and secondly, as 579 devoid of charity as the unfeeling millftone; and when he meets with a diftreffed object, will, like his Levitical brother in the Gospel, pafs away on the other fide. But, however, I would not mean to infinuate that all of the reverend order are alike:-no, I know some who reflect honour on their office, and on human nature; but then, like the lawyer, fuch are very, very few; and therefore a confcientious lawyer, and an humble churchman, are truly and properly phenomena. Inftances of extraordinary Prefervation of dead Bodies in their respective Graves. was murdered by the Danes at GreenTHE body of Archbishop Elphege, who wich 1012, and buried at London, was found ten years after ab omni corruptionis tabe immune,' and transferred to Canterbury. The corpfe of Etheldritha, foundrefs of Ely monaftery, was feen through a hole which the Danes broke in her coffin; a priest, more forward than the reft, prying too bufily, and endeavouring to pull the envelope out by a cleft flick, the faint drew back the drapery fo haftily that fhe tript up his heels, and gave him fuch a fall as he never recovered, nor his fenfes afterwards. Bishop Athelwold stopped up the hole, and substituted monks to the priests. Abbot Brithnoth transferred hither the body of Withburga, the foundrefs's fifter: and when afterwards in the time of Abbot Richard, fome doubts were entertained about the incorruptibility of the foundrefs, no body prefumed to examine her body; but they contented themselves with uncovering that of her sister ultra mammas;' who was found to be in fuch good prefervation, that the feemed more like a perfon afleep than dead: a filk cushion lay under her head; her veil and vestments all feemed as good as new; her complexion clear and rofy; her teeth white, her lips fomewhat fhrunk, and her breafts reduced. In the year 1497, in the month of April, as labourers digged for the foundation of a wall within the church of St. Mary-hill, near unto Billingfgate, they found a coffin of rotten timber, and therein the corpfe of a woman, whole of skinne and bones undiffevered, and the joynts of her arms plyable without breaking of the fkin; upon whofe fepulcher this was engraven: "Here lye the bodies of Richard Hackney fithmonger and Alice his wife; which Richard was fheriff in the 15th of Edward II." Her body was kept above ground three or four dayes without noyance; but then it waxed unfavory, and was again buried.' In the curious and antient regifters of this parish is the following entry, alluding to this fact; A receipt of feven fhillings and eight pence, from John Halked grocer paid by Dddd 2 Thomas Thomas Colyn 1496, "for the obyt and fetting up the tombe, and buryinge of Rehard Hackney and Alys his wyff, the xx day of Marche." And in another book a charge "for lyme, fand, and for mafon's huyr and his labourer, making ageyne of their tombe, and their dyrge, and maffe and maffe peny, and for the ryifkyng to the pricfts, and to the parishioners for al maner of charges." The body of Robert Braybroke Bifhop of London, who died 1404, and was buried in his cathedral, tho' he had exprefsly forbidden any perfon to be buried in it under pain of excommunication, being dug up after the Fire, was found complete and compact from head to foot, except an accidental wound in the left fide of the fcull and left breaft, within which one might perceive the lungs and entrails dried up without diffolution or any kind of decay. Notwithstanding it had been expofed to the air in the damp earth, or ground floor of the chapter-house, and to the fight and handling of moft fpectators for two or three years together, the flesh kept firm on the neck, and the whole weight of the body, which was but nine pounds, was fupported on the tip-toes: the bones and nerves continuing all as they were firetched out after death, without any Egyptian art used to make mummy of the carcafe; for on the closest examination, it did not appear to have been embowelled or embalmed at all. On the right check was flesh and hair very vifible, enough to give fome notice of his vifage and ftature, which was but ordinary, and fo eafy to be taken up, by reafon of the whole body, that it could be held up with one hand, and all of it looked rather like finged bacon, as if it had been dried up in a hot place (according to the appearance of St Charles at Milan, or St Catherine at Bologna), than as if it had been cured by furgeons, or wrapt up in cerecloth, there being no part of the whole covered or put on by art, or taken off as aforefaid, as far as could be perceived The body of William Parr, Marquis of Northampton, brother to Queen Catharine Parr, who died 1571, was found in making a common grave in the choir of St. Mary's church, Warwick, about 1620, perfect, and the skin entire, dried to the bones, rofemary and bay lying in the coffin, fresh and green, preferved by the drynefs of the ground, it being above the arches of the fair vault under the choir, and of fand mixe with lime rubbish. The body of Dr Caius, who died 1573, was found entire and perfect when the chapel at his college was rebuilt and lengthened in 1725, and his tomb raised from the ground, and placed in the wall as it now ftands. is beard was very long; and on comparing his picture with his vifage, it is faid there was a eat refemblance. The body of Humphry Duke of Gloucefter was found entire, in pickle, in a vault in the choir at St Alban's 1747 Some bodies of the Engayne family were, not many years ago, difcovered in the fame ftate, in repairing the family vault near Upminfter. In the fouth ayle of the choir of the Abbey church at Bath is a free-ftone monument, a kind of farcophagus, under a canopy suppor ted by fix pillars of the Ionic Order. In the farcophagus are lodged two bodies, in flight oak coffins, one upon another. The man who lies uppermoft is reduced to a fkeleton, with the skin completely dried on the breaft and belly, and the hair of his head, chin, and, cheft, perfectly preserved; that on his head thin and red. His head reclines to the right, the jaw fallen; his arms ftretched by his fide; the right hand lies on his right thigh; the left arm pendent; the nails on the great toe and third toe of his left foot perfect and long, and the leather of the leg complete; the toes of the right foot lefs perfect. The body measures five feet ten inches; pieces of the wrapper remain between the thighs and legs, The woman, who, by being placed under the other coffin, was not discovered till within the laft fix or feven years, is completely enveloped in a wrapper of linnen, incrufted with wax or fome other preparation, which, when firft opened, was white, but is now turned to a yellow colour.The outer fwathing is gone, but the web of the linen may be feen in that part which has been broken into, and which discovers the left hand dried like the man's, and lying on the belly: this corpfe measures five feet four inches, and the head reclines to the left. By the fal ling of the man's jaw it may be prefumed his corpfe was never fwathed. Tradition, fupported by fome printed account which I have not been able to meet with, afcribes this monument to one Thomas Lychefield (Lutanift to Queen Elizabeth)and Margaret his wife. The arms on the top are, barry, or a fefs crofs by a bend: Creft, an armed arm and hand holding a ring or garland. It is pretended that a sum of money was left to have the monument opened at certain ftated times; but this depends on the confent of the church-wardens, by whofe favour I was permitted to take a view this fummer(1784), and thereby enabled to give the above parti culars. About the year 1737, were found in St. Margaret's church-yard, Weftminster, in a dry gravelly foil, at the depth of about eigh teen feet, or lefs, which had not been bro ken up for above fifty years before, three entire fir coffins; the two largest clampt toge ther with iron, as boxes fometimes are. In one was a fat broad faced man; the body perfect and foft, as if juft dead; the lid had 1786 Extraordinary Prefervation of Dead Bodies. been glewed together lengthways, and the weight of the earth had preft down his nofe; his beard was about half an inch long; the winding-fheet was crape, tied with black ribbons; and the thumbs and toes with the like; the date was compofed of fmall nails (1665), by which it appeared he had been dead feventy-two years; as were alfo the figure of an hour glass, death's head, and crofs bones. In the fecond coffin was a female body, in the fame ftate, in a white crape winding-fheet, date 1673. And in the third a male child, perfect and beautiful as wax-work; the eyes open and clear, but no date on the coffin. In one of the larger coffins was a dry nofegay of bay and other leaves and flowers, which appeared like a nofegay that had lain a year among linen. Thele bodies changed in twelve hours after they were expofed. A woman was found in the fame churchEyard 1758, in an old coffin. The body was our feet eleven inches long; the skin and defh entirely dried up like old parchment, which it much refembled in colour. The features were perfect, except the nose and part of the upper lip; the nails were all on the hands, and on the left foot fomething like a very thick thread stocking. A few years ago two dried bodies of men, who, by the infcriptions on the coffins, appear to have been a drummer and trumpeter to King George I. were taken out of the vaults under St Martin's church-yard in the Fields, and made a show of, till Dr Hamilton the rector, ordered them to be reftored to their places. To thefe may be added the famous inftance of a poor parish-boy, fuppofed to have been shut into a vault in St Botolph's church, Aldgate, and ftarved to death at the time of the plague 1665, fince which time the vault was known not to have been opened, where he was found 1742, with the fancied marks of having gnawed his fhoulder, only, perhaps, because his head reclines towards it. The fkin, fibres, and intestines, were all dried, and very little of his bones appeared. The body weighed about eighteen pounds, and was as exact a counter part of Litchfield's as could be. No figns of any embalment appear, and the body is perfectly free from any fetid or other fmell. In February 1750, in a vault of antient family of the Worths at Staverton, near Totnefs, Devon, was found in a fingle wooden coffin the body of a man, entire and uncor rupt; his flefh folid and not hard: his joints flexible as if juft dead; his fibres and flesh retained their natural elafticity; his beard was black and about four inches long, and the flesh no where difcoloured; the lips found, and fome of the teeth loofe. The body never was embalmed, as there was not 581 the leaft fign of incifion, and the bowels feem to be ftill entire. It was wrapped in a linen fheet very white and dry, over which was a tar cloth. The coffin lay nine feet under water. By the regifter it appeared that the laft perfon buried in this vault was Simon Worth, 1669; and the tradition of the parifh was, that he died in France or Flanders, and was brought over to be buried. Leland fays that he saw in St Peter's Ahbey church at Bath, a fair great marble tomb of a bishop of Bath, out of which they faid oil did diftil; and likely, for his body was baumed plentifully. Antient chemistry made people fancy that bodies could be preferved with the refemblance of real life, by means of a precious liquor circulating through every part in golden tubes artificially difpofed, and operating on the principles of vegetation. In the peat-moffes of Derbyshire were found the bodies of a man and woman entire, twenty eight years and nine months after their interment, having perished in the fnow; the joints flexible and the flesh fresh and white. On the moors of Amcotts, in the isle of Axholme, was found, about five feet below the furface, a female body lying on its fide, the head and face almoft together entire; foft, and pliable; the fkin of a tawny colour, Arong as tanned leather, and stretched like it; the hair fresh; the bones of the legs and arms hook out of the fkin; the grisly part of the heel and the nails fresh; but both the hands and nails shrunk on being exposed to the air. It had on fandals, made of one piece of raw hide, with the fame of the heel, and a thong to the fame, and tanned of the fame colour with the corpfe by the water. Mr. Vertue referred the form of it to the time of Henry III or Edvard I. A body was taken up on the moors of Geel, and another in the great moor near Thorn, with the skin like tanned leather, the hair, teeth, and nails, quite fresh. There was found at Locherby mofs, in the ftewarty of Annandale, the body of a man of gigantic ftature; his upper coat ap peared to have been made of the fkin of beafts; his fhoes of the fame, and in the fathion of rullions worn by the ancient Scots, and at this day by fome of the Higlanders, fewed together in a new and wonderful taste. The corpfe was found four feet under the mofs with a heap of itones above it; the fleth feemed fomewhat fresh on the bones when firft discovered, but being brought to the bank mouldered to afhes. In the moffes of Saila or Stennefs Island, Shetland, was found a female corpfe which had lain above eighty years. Every part was fo well preferved, that the mufcles were difcernible, the hair of her head, and the gloves on her hand. The The tomb which once contained the famous national mummies, is at the fouth-eaft corner of the island of Stroma, on a small neek of land, near the fea-bank. Mr. Lowe was in full hopes of being gratified with a fight of them entire as formerly, but was highly disappointed, when entering the tomb he faw only two bare fkulls laid apart and in the bottom of the vault, which is full of fheeps dung, a few legs and thigh bones, with others, but all quite bare and no appearance of what they had been; nor could any one have judged from their look that they had been preferved above ground. He was informed by the inhabitants of the ifland, that curiofity to fee the mummies had brought many idle people to Stroma, that fome, out of wantonnefs had fhattered the door, and others the bodies; and the door not being repaired, fheep and cattle entered the vault, and trampled them to pieces. There is little doubt but these bodies have been preserved without any farther preparation than excluding infects by the faltnefs of the air. Even the fituation of the tomb favours this, which is furrounded on three fides by the fea. It was a common cuftom in the lies to preserve beef and mut ton by hanging it in the caves of the fea, which effectually refifted putrefaction by the faltnefs of the air; but there is little doubt but this has been the cafe with the bodies at Stroma, which were light and thin, the limbs flexible; certain figns of inartificial prefervation. The corpfe brought from Teneriffe by Captain Young of his Majesty's fhip Weazle, and prefented to Lord Sandwich, who gave it to Trinity College, Cambridge, is entire and perfect in all its parts. The fkin is of a deep tawny brown, dry and hard; but many of the mufcular parts fo prominent, as to be easily defined. The body is laid out at full length; the hands brought together over the belly; the nails, except a few, remain on the fingers and toes; both which are connected and fecured by thongs, probably of goats leather, continued round each finger and toe. It is five feet one inch long, and weighs only thirty pounds. The hair of the head, which has almoft all fallen off fince its expofure, is a darkifh black colour, and curled deeply; a few hairs on the chin fhort and ftiff. The face is the leaft perfect part, having fuffered by fome vio lence, and the upper jaw on the right fide heat in, fo as to be now nearly in the middle of the palate, and the parietal bone on that fide projects confiderably over; yet there is no apparent fracture: so that it is, perhaps owing to the refiftance made by the hardness of the fkin in that place. The bones of the nofe were gone, and the fkin in this part is flexible as to be capable of being fomewhat elevated, and here it feels like tanned lea ther. A probe paffes freely into the orbits of the eyes, and quite back into the cavity of the skull, through which the optic nerves pafs; likewife perpendicularly into the skull through a small hole in the top of the head. There appears to have been an incifion made horizontally on the right fide of the abdomen, which is fewed up again, by which probably the inteftines were extracted. There are likewife cuts about an inch long, one on the back part of each thigh, and one on the calf of each leg, through which a probe will eafily pafs down without any refiftance. As the neck has never been cut through, the mufcles and teguments being completely whole all round, and there is no mark of the cranium having been fawn through, nd the scalp is likewife nearly entire, th. brain cannot have been extracted by the for er operation. May we not con jecture it was left in, and has wafted to duft? This at least, is known to be the appearance of its remains when examined in skulls buri. ed in the common graves. Captain Young accidenta ly discovered the cave, which contained in its receffes a number of human corpfes, not lefs than thirty, laid horizontally on their backs on the rugged ftone, neatly fewed up in goat-skins, with the hair on, and in many parts very perfect. The cave was in its natural ftate, without any fenfive smell from the bodies, and yielding a refreshing coolness. Some of these bodies were faven feet one inch long, and he had ordered one of thefe dimenfions to be brought off; but there was fome mif take which prevented his orders being obeyed. He was informed there were many fuch caves fo filled in the ifland, and heid in fuch reverence by the inhabitants, that it was deemed facrilege to remove any of the bodies; not to mention tha, in general their fituation is inacceffible. The goatfkin is of a light brown colour, feemingly tanned, and retaining the hair, the feam remarkably ftrong and neat, and the thread of a fine tough animal fubftance, like catgut. This account is alfo given by former travellers, by Mr. Nicholls, in Hackluyt's Voyage in Sprat's Hiftory of the Royal Society, and by Glafs in his account of the Canaries. The latter adds, that after swathing the body round with bandages of goat-fkins, they fixed it upright in a cave, clothed in the fame garments as the deceased wore when alive. An Act for eftablishing Religious Freedom, paffed in the Affembly of Virginia, in the beginning of the Year, 1786. "Bath created the mind free: that all attempts to influence it by temporal puailments or burthens, or by civil incapa TELL aware that Almighty God citations, |