Egyptians Were Good Undertakers.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19036, 3 April 1930, Page 6

Egyptians Were Good Undertakers .

So perfect were the embalming processes of the Egyptians of the time of Moses that it has been possible for the heart of a Pharaoh who died thousands of years before Christ to be examined now by Lord Moynihan, of the Royal College of Surgeons. This famous surgeon has proved definitely that the Egyptian ruler suffered from the same type of heart disease which afflicted the first Napoleon in the later years of his life. A large vessel springing from the Pharaoh s heart was in so well preserved a state that another member of the Royal College of Surgeons has also been able to make “• section” of it and then to compare th® with a section from a man who died r» cently. The two sections were shown side by side on a lantern slide and no pathologist could tell which was the ancient and which the modern vessel. Both Pharaoh and Napoleon were attacked by the disease known as atheroma, a condition in which calcium salts are deposited in the walls of the vessel, making it rigid and inelastic.