Embalming, the art of preserving dead bodies from decay by means of antiseptic agents applied both externally and internally; although known to other people, e. g. the Peruvians, the art was chiefly practised among the Egyptians, and the practice of it dates back to 4000 B.C.; the thoroughness of the process depended on the money expended, but it usually involved the removal of the viscera, save the heart and kidneys, the extraction of the brain, the introduction of drugs to the cavities, and the pickling of the body in native carbonate of soda, and the wrapping of it in linen; experiments in embalming, more or less successful, have been made in recent times, and even still are.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Emanuel I. * Ember Days