So I was watching Nat Geo days ago about this well preserved mummy of a little girl. Little Rosalia was a child born in 1918 in Italy and died of Pneumonia on December 6, 1920. If you look at her picture, it’s like she’s just sleeping. With her yellow bow, she’s the kind of mummy that you would want to stare at for as long as you like. The embalmer, Alfredo Salafia, did an amazing job. His formula as to how this little girl remained intact was a mystery before. Until Dario Piombino-Mascali of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, has discovered the secret formula that preserved the little girl’s body all these years. He tracked down the descendant of the embalmer and surprisingly that woman has the secret formula all these years. The embalming was so perfect that an x-ray revealed that her major organs are still intact.

Salafia replaced the girl’s blood with a liquid made of formalin to kill bacteria, alcohol to dry the body, glycerin to keep her from overdrying, salicylic acid to kill fungi, and zinc salts to give her body rigidity. Accordingly, the formula’s composition is “one part glycerin, one part formalin saturated with both zinc sulfate and chloride, and one part of an alcohol solution saturated with salicylic acid.” — taken from wikipedia

Apparently, it’s the Zinc that did the “amazing” rigidity of Rosalia. Wow.

Oh how I love Nat Geo, Discovery, Animal Planet and History channel. They are just full of mystery, knowledge and science.