Mantises were considered to have supernatural powers by early civilizations, including Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, and Assyria. A cultural trope popular in cartoons imagines the female mantis as a femme fatale. Mantises are among the insects most commonly kept as pets.
In 1803 his preserved foods (which came to include vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy and fish) were sent out for sea trials with the French navy. By 1804, his factory had begun to experiment with meat packed in tin cans, which he soldered shut and then observed for months for signs of swelling.
[Above - Limestone Canopic Jars from the Ramesseum 800 BC (23rd dynasty), taken at the Manchester Museum UK.] The removal of organs to be preserved outside the body started fairly early on in their mummification techniques, as it was a way of further preventing the body from decay. These particular organs - usually the lungs, stomach, intestines, and liver - started out by being stored inside a chest containing separate compartments, or in niches in the burial chamber wall.