In fome, placed in very dry foils, portions of the fatty matter had become semitransparent; the granulated appearance and brittleness of this gave it much the appearance of wax.

The period of the formation of this fubftance alfo influences its appearance. In general, that which appeared to have been formed for a confi lerable time, was white, equal in confiftence, and without any mixture of foreign matter, or fibrous texture; fuch was particularly the appearance of that which had formed the ikin of the extremities. On the contrary, in thofe bodies whofe converfion into fatty matter was but recent, its confiftence was neither fo homogeneous nor fo pure as in the former; it often contained portions of muscle, of tendon, and of ligament, the texture of which, although fomewhat changed, was till perceptible, in proportion to the progrefs of the converfion. Thefe reinains of original texture were more or less filled with fatty matter, which had the appearance of being inferted between the fibres. This obfervation is important, as it fhews that it is by no means the fat alone which is converted into this fubftance; various other facts also confirm this opinion. The skin, which has never been fuppofed to be formed of fat, is eafily converted into this matter; the fubtance of the brain undergoes a fimilar alteration, forming a very pure fat. Parts, indeed, naturally fat, more readily undergo this change. Thus we found the marrow in the center of the long bones wholly con verted into a very pure fat; it even infinu ated felt between the bony plates, filling up their interstices. But although there is no doubt that the quantity of this matter is lager in the bodies of fuch as have been fat than of those who have been lean, the facts we have mentioned prove that other parts befides the cellular, texture and the fat it contains, are fufceptible of this alteration. The following obfervations are decifive with regard to this point.-It is to be prefumed that the greater number of bodies found in the common graves we have so often mentioned, were, previous to their death, emaciated by difeafe, and in thefe places the bodies were found uni verally converted into fat, which we cannot fuppofe to have had a previous exittence. It was found affo by Mr. Pelletier, that a portion of human liver, a part which nobody fuppoles to contain fat, was transformed entirely whilst hanging in the air, during fome years, into fatty matter, reducible by alkalies to a toap.

VOL. XXV.

The furface of this fatty matter fometimes prefented a brilliant metallic appearance, refembling gold or filver, which gave it an appearance as if a flight layer of mica had been laid over its furface. Bright spots of a red, yellow, and pink colour were alfo not uncommon; these appearances were molt ufual in the neighbourhood of the bones, which fometimes even feemed to be penetrated by them From the grave-diggers we learned, that a body was not converted into fat in a lefs period than three years. We were defirous of knowing the various changes that preceded this ftate, and the following is the refult of our inquiries.

The colour of the body undergoes no fenfible alteration till the end of seven or eight days, and it is the lower belly which first changes. The bally fwells, and appears diftended in confequence of the extrication of air which takes place in its cavity. This fwelling occurs in a longer or fhorter fpace of time in proportion as the body is diftended with fluid, the depth at which it is interred, and the temperature of the air. When there is an union of all the circumstances molt favourable to this first degree of putridity, fuch as much moisture in the body, and being buried at a flight diftance from the furface, during a warm feason, this fwelling of the lower belly may take place at the end of three or four days; whilft one that is meagre, buried at confiderable depth in cold weather, will remain unchanged dur ing feveral weeks. The grave diggers pretend to have remarked, that tempeftuous weather has confiderable influence on this fwelling of the body. According to their ideas and phrafe, the belly bulges on the approach of a storm; this diftenfion goes on to increafe till the ligaments, diforganized by putridity, yield to the internal force, and burft with a kind of explosion. The rupture happens moft commonly in the neighbourhood of the navel; at the opening a brownish ferous fluid is difcharged, of a molt foetid odour, accompanied with a noxious elastic vapour, whole dangerous effects the workmen justly dread. Manifold experience, and authentic tradition, has established the belief among them, that the miafmata dif charged at this period are accompanied with real danger. It has often happened that while digging, the pick-axe having ac. cidentally opened the cavity of the belly, the elaftic fluid difcharged has ftruck down the workmen. Such is the fource of the accidents that often happen in cemeteries; for it is eafy to conceive, that the fame P

rupture

rupture of the abdomen taking place in vaults, this noxious vapour, having no op. portunity of efcape, muit accumulate, and prove highly deftructive to fuch as impru dently enter them.

We were very defirous of difcovering, by experiment, the nature of this deadly vapour; but we had no opportunity, as the bodies in this church-yard were all long past the period when they difcharge it. Nor could we induce the grave-diggers to procure it for us from any other place, as they faid that nothing but unforefeen accident could ever induce them to expofe themselves to its effects. The execrable odour and poisonous activity of this vapour, fhews evidently that it must confift of a mixture of hydrogene and azotic airs, with fome fulphur cr phofphorus diffolved in it. It may alfo perhaps contain fome other deleterious maiter hitherto unknown, but whole terrible effects are but too certain. However that may be, all the men engaged in this employment agree, that the only danger they have in reality to dread, is the effects of this vapour difcharged on the bursting of the cavity of the abdomen. They have more over obferved, that this vapour does not always produce fainting. If they are at a distance from the body whence it iffues, they are fenfible only of a flight vertigo, naufca, and unealinefs, which continue for fome hours. Is it not reasonable to fuppofe, that it is to the effects of thefe vapours that the maladies affecting people who live in the neighbourhood of church. yards, and other places where animal fubttances are allowed to purity, are to be attributed? May we not conceive, that a poifon fufficiently fubtle to produce the immediate death of animals when it fit efcapes from the place where it originates, may even after it is diffufed in the air retain virulence fufficient to injure the living animal fibre? After having obferved the dread which the workmen universally have for this poisonous vapour, after having seen that cadaverous palenefs of countenance, and other marks of the gradual action of a flow poifon fo evident in the appearance of all men employed in chu.chyards, it is impoffible not to believe that the air in their neighbourhood must injure the health of the inhabitants.

But to return to the dermi of the deftruction of the bodies. The diffenfion and rupture of the lower bully takes place equally in bodies which have been piled up in common graves, and thote which are interred reperately. But the changes fubquent to this firit tage of spontaneous decompofition, valy much in thæle dif

ferent fituations. Bodies interred fingly, in moift earth, are destroyed by the fucceffive operations of ordinary putrefaction, which is accelerated in proportion to the heat and moisture to which they are expofed. Sometimes when placed in a dry foil, expofed to much heat, they affume the appearance of mummies, fuch as we have already mentioned; but in the common graves the courte is different: the bcdies heaped on each other are not in contact with any foil capable of absorbing their moisture; as they are laid above each other, the evaporation by the atmosphere can have little influence upon them; being thus excluded from the action of furrounding bodies, they are affected only by their own peculiar component parts. We fhall not here attempt to explain the chymical procefs of their change into gas; that cannot with propriety be done till its nature be determined. Our present purpose is merely to investigate the general change which takes place in the vifcera and other organized parts of the body.

By the time that the rupture of the ab. domen takes place, putridity has already diforganized all the foft vifcera contained in its cavity, to that the few portions that remain coalefce, and are confounded with

the integuments. The more folid and dry texture of the liver enables it to refift fomewhat longer this destructive process; hence we can account for the few fmail portions of fatty fubftance found in this fituation. This puuid procefs cannot fail to affect the diaphragm, to afcend along the gulet and large blood veffels, deltroying the texture of all the thoracic vifcera, and laying that and the abdomes into one cavity. The texture of the lungs having but little folidity, produces but Imall portions of fatty matter, while the more firm texture of the heart gives rife to larger maffes, in fome meature retaining its fhape. The fame alteration of structure taking place with more or lefs rapidity in all the mufcular, ligamentous, and tendinous parts furrounding the bones, the change into fatty matter takes place in a time proportioned to their foftness, and the quantity of juices they contain. All diftinction of ftructure is loft, and we meet with no traces of veffels, nerves, or aponeurofes, in the midft of thofe maffles of fat which cover the extremities; it ap pears to be the peculiar basis of the fichy fibres which undergoes this change.

Our curiolity was fufficiently oufed by thefe obfervations to induce us to extend our refearches into other church-yards.In thofe where bodies were buried in common graves, we found fimilar appearances.

Wc

We met with the fatty matter in a sufficient variety of cemeteries to convince us that the formation of this fingular fubfrance was by no means peculiar to the foil in which we had at firft obferved it, but that it takes place everywhere where bodies are depofited in great numbers clofe to one another, excluded from the action of external agents, end expofed folely to the effects of their conftituent parts on each other. Our investigations taught us alfo, that the converfion of bodies into dry mummies, fuch as are found in the catacombs at Rome, and the caverns of Thouloufe, is much more common than has been generally imagined,

The great number of bodies which we found changed into fat of very ancient date, in graves that had been clofed for more than forty years, fhewed us, that once arrived at this ftate, bodies may be preferved a long time from deftruction, although nature mult poffefs fome mode of decompofing this new substance, and reducing it to its primary elements. We could obtain no pofitive information relative to what becomes of bodies after they have been once changed into fat; the oldeft and most experienced grave-diggers knew nothing of this matter. Some facts, however, give us reason to believe, that we difcovered at least one of the proceffes which nature employs to detach this matter from the bones which it furrounds, and reduce the body to the state of a skeleton. In fome of thefe common graves which we caused to be opened, we found a few of the coffins displaced from their original horizontal fituation by a flipping of the earth. In feveral of thefe coffins thus placed obliquely, we faw the inferior extremities of the body reduced to a skeleton, while the upper had the atty ap pearance: it was evide folvent power must have op afe. In the lower part of thefe coffins we found a brown foetid fluid, the furrounding foil

was alfo filled with a fimilar fubftance; this was found only at the bottom of the cavities, and we obferved that the bodies in this fituation had their fatty matter fofter and lefs abundant. In this we difcovered the action of the water produced by rain, which filtering through the pervious ground collected at the bottom, and diffolved thofe parts of the bodies which it came in contact with; for this fatty matter is foluble in water. The grave-diggers have remarked, that after heavy and long continued rains, the earth on the furface of thefe cavities cracks, and fometimes finks a few inches, which muft arife from thofe bodies at the bottom being disfolved, and their particles diffipated among the furrounding earth.

Such is the progreffive fucceffion of phenomena taking place during the spontaneous diffolution of bodies buried in the earth; phenomena heretofore equally unknown and undefcribed, fo that even words were wanting to convey our ideas. The prefent muft merely be confidered as a very imperfect outline of the picture which pofterity muft fill up and finish. For this purpofe it will be necessary to live among the tombs, to follow up a long and repeated examination of various graves, and beltow indefatigable attention on the moft unpleafant, as well as the most melancholy of all purfuits. But even these obfervations, which an accident, fortunate for philofophy, enabled us to make, deferve, we think, a place among the records of ufeful fcience. There are ftill wanting fome experiments to determine the real nature of the noxious gas, so often mentioned, as alfo the reafon why in fome fituations bodies are transformed into dried mummies, and to discover the component parts of bones long exposed to the air, and of the earth which has continued for ages to be impregnated with the diffolved or volatilized particles of human bodies.

SIR,

THEY write from Dublin of the 12th inft. that on the Thuriday before (i. c. on 7th of December 1732, died at Lifhafkea, aged 140 years, William Leland, Gent. ; fome time before his death, he delivered to feveral Gentlemen the following account:

That he was born in Warrington, a town in England, in 1593: that he perfectly remembered the coronation of King James I. which happened in 1602; that he lived in Warrington till about the year 1664, and then came to this kingdom, and has lived ever fince in good credit. And what is most to be admired, he was never fick, or loft his fight, limbs, or ftomach, till the hour of his death; he was prodigious tall and big-boned." Weekly Weekly Mifcellany, Dec. 23. 1732.

"April 1. N. S. there died at Paris one Philip Herbelot, a fadler, aged 114 years. He was born at Chateau-Villiers in Lorraine, where his grandfather lived to 112 years old, and his father 113." Hiflorical Regifter 1716, p. 217.

"There is a remarkable inftance of longevity in the perfon of Thomas Bright, who was a native of this Parith (i. e. Long Hope in Gloucestershire), and died in the year 1708, one hundred and twenty-four years old, as appears by the infcription for him on his grave-Rone." Rudder's Gloucestershire, P. 533.

"There is the following entry in the Parish Register, (i. e. of Newent Parish, Gloucefter fhire) A. D. 1692, Feb. 24, Anne Wilton, widow, mother of John Willon, buried, aged 115." Rudder, P. 565.

Dr. George Bull was rector of this place (ie. Siddington St. Mary) and afterwards bithop of St. David's. He told Dr. Parlons, chancellor of this Diocele, a remarkable anecdote of the longevity of his parishioners here, ten of whom he had buried, whose ages together

C. D.

made about a thousand years, and two of them were one hundred and twenty-three years old each." Rudder, 659.

"The inhabitants enjoy a fine, healthy air, and live to a great age, as appears from the following fhort hiftory of a family of five women lately dwelling in one houfe. Honour Powell, relict of the famous Mr. Powell mentioned in the Tatler, was one of those persons who died at the age of ninety; a second died in 1767, aged eighty-nine, and the other three were living when this account was taken, aged eighty-fix, eighty one, and fifty, the leaft being the daughter of one of the others; and all thefe when living together were able to wait on themfelves and each other without affistance from abroad, But the most extraordinary inftance of longevity to be produced in this county, is of one Henry Welt, who refided at Upton, a hamlet in this parith (i. e. Tetbury), in the time of king James the firft. He lived to be 152 years of age, and it is written in a bible now in the poffeffion of one of his defcendants, that he had five wives, but no child by the first four; that he had ten by the fifth, and lived to fie a hundred grandchildren; and there is a tradition that he gave to each of them a brais pot or kettle, Rudder 729.

"A few days ago died at Caftletown in the county of Watford, Mr. John Gough, commonly called Dr. Gough, aged 129 years." St. James's Chronicle, Nov. 141

years ago, fo that her age cannot be afcertained from thence; but one Potter, who within these few months lived not a stone's cat from her, aged 95, said, he remembered Betty Palmer a woman grown and married when he was a child. She has now the perfect use of all her fenfes. I faw her mow part of her orchard, which She does every year. Within these few months her houfe was thatched, and the ferved the thatcher, carrying to him ftraw and every other neceffary up the ladder to the top of the houfe. She read to me a fmall print without fpectacles; which flie has never yet ufed, but fays the believes the must come to them foon. Her memory is perfectly good; for the mentioned to me several particulars which happened to her the year after the Revolution, when he was big enough to milk a cow. Her fon lives with her, and fhe does all the business of the house; the rifes early, drinks chiefly cyder washings, hath rarely tafted tea, never took tobacco in any fhape, or drams; has had three hufbands and feven children; and her father died about 25 years ago, aged 104." Nafh's Worcefter, 55. Vol. II.

"

Penryn, Feb. 10. About 4 days ago died about 2 miles from my houfe, one John Effingam, aged 144. He was born here in the reign of king James I. of very poor parents, and was bred up as a labourer. In the revolution of James II. he was pressed and served under Lord Feverfham, then commander in chief of the forces for

He

feveral years. On king William's coming to England, he ferved under Marthal Schonberg, and was prefent at the battle of the Boyne in Ireland, where he behaved with fo much intrepidity that he was fome time after that made a corporal. continued a soldier in the reign of queen Anne, and fought under the duke of Marlborough at the battle of Blenheim, and lott one eye and most of his teeth by the bursting of a mufket: he ferved likewife in king George the Ift's time, but was then thought unfit for fervice and difcarded, and came here to Penryn and worked as a Jabourer; but for thefe laft thirty years he has been kept by the charitable contributions of the neighbouring gentry. It is remarkable, he was never ill for thefe 40 years paft; and the reafon he gave himicif for his living fo long was this: when young, he never drank any fpirituous hquors; when old he rofe fummer and winter before fix, and went to the next Seld, cut up a turf and smelt to his mother

earth for fome time, ufed conftant exercife, and very feldem eat meat. He was to the laft a very chearful companion, and walked ten miles about a week before his death. The lefs of his company is much regretted in the neighbourhood." Public Advertifer, Feb. 18, 1757.

"On the 26th October laft died, and on the 27th was interred in the old church in this town, (i. e. Liverpool) the remains of Elizabeth Hilton, widow, aged 121 years, born in Liverpool, and the daughter of Robert Cores, a porter; the married three hufbands, viz. Simon Roberts, a porter; Thomas Chadwicke, a fhoemaker, and at the age of upwards of 100 years, the married James Hilton, a fuftian weaver, who only lived three years after the wedding. She was to have been married to one William Newton, a porter, fix years ago, and was disappointed by his death, It is remarkable, that she lived near 100 years in a houfe built by her mother, at the bottom of Dale Street, on the Northfide, on T. Crofs, Efq.'s land, held by lease for three lives and 21 years, one of which lives was her own, and purchased the reverfionary intereft about 30 years ago. She was about feet high in ftature, a brisk active woman, and read frequently in the fcriptures till the two last years of her life-had loft all her teeth but one fome years ago, which dropt out of her mouth two months before her departure: fhe retained all her fenfes to the last, and was never fubject to any pain, only a dizzineis in her head the aft year. Had a good ftomach, eat foft meats, foups, and fat fleth meat; conftantly drank wine and water or beer, and lived very regular: her dizzinefs in her head obliged her to make use of a stick. In Cromwell's time the registers of this town were destroyed; but the remembered king Charles II. coming to the throne, being then 10 years oid; and had a remarkable strong memory, often repeating the tranfactions of her youth; was a very pious and good christiar, conftantly attended the church of England fervice, and fo converfant in the Bible, that when it was read to her incorrectly by her rela ions, he would have pointed out the faults." Public Advertiser, Novem