Fellow Taxacomers, This is not a systematics discussion, but a request for help on how to dry an Egyptian mummy. Since most of you have experience with preserved collections or know museum specialists in your institutions, I direct this request to you. At the National Museum in Brazil one of the galeries suffered a flood due to restoration work being carried out at the roof. As a result an adult human male Egyptian mummy of about 3000 years became wet. We would appreciate any help on how to dry the specimen with minimal damage. The mummy is from the Intermediary (or Late) Period and probably belongs to a sarcophagus which has been dated from the 21st dinasty. Any help will be appreciated, specially from those of you with contacts in the British Museum, the Smithsonian, or perhaps even the Cairo Museum. Was Elaine Hoagland (from ASC) who once presented a talk on collection care, which included information on several floods suffered by North American Museums (e.g. the U.of Texas big Museum flood which affected their mammal collection)? Anybody with first hand experience in this kind of problem?

Paulo A. Buckup Dept. de Vertebrados Museu Nacional Quinta da Boa Vista 20940-040 Rio de Janeiro, RJ BRAZIL e-mail: buckup at omega.lncc.br