WARREN, John Collins.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Description of an Egyptian Mummy, Presented to the Massachusetts General Hospital; with an Account of the Operation of Embalming, in Ancient and Modern Times. First separate edition, from the advent of American Egyptomania. Initially objects of medical interest, mummies rapidly became linked with "a particular kind of either literal or symbolic revenge, with themes of reprisal, retribution, and retaliation... Throughout the nineteenth century, the ancient Egyptian mummy appears primarily as a sign of reanimation, of the terrors of death disavowed" (Trafton, p. 125).The specimen examined by Warren in 1823 was procured in the mummy warehouse at Alexandria by the Smyrna merchant Jacob Van Lennep and shipped in its sarcophagus on the American brig Sally Anne. On the ship manifest, the cargo was listed as "Egyptian gum" to avoid scaring the crew. Warren unwrapped the head and neck, publishing his report a year later. The specimen was kept (and still remains) at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and spectators could pay 25 cents to see the curious relic.Later in his career, Warren earned garnered further prominence by performing the first recorded surgery under anaesthesia. His "achievements as a medical educator and institution builder fundamentally shaped the American medical profession in the ante-bellum period" (ANB).

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