324- [December, 



members as might be visiting that region, and expressed his wish to fur- 

 ther the objects of the Society. 



Professor Horner exhibited some specimens of Adipocire, fragments of 

 human bones, and mould, obtained from a cemetery which had been in use 

 for upwards of a century, and from which the remains are now being re- 

 moved. One specimen of crumbling bone was proved to be more than one 

 hundred years old. 



He also read the following by Mr. John Rommel, Jr., giving some 

 particulars in relation to the subject. 



" The cemetery from which the specimens were obtained has been used for 

 more than a century. 



The ground for the depth of tenor twelve feet is of ordinary yellow clay, below 

 which it is of a gravelly nature, fn the majority of places it is very hard and 

 dry, but in some places it is quite moist, and in one or two places actually 

 swampy. The workmen in removing the remains, in order to save time, dig a 

 trench about eight feet wide and about twenty feet long, then the following 

 eight feet are undermined, and this is thrown into the dug trench ; hence there is 

 necessarily a great confusion as to the dates of the remains. 



But comparatively few remnants of coffins were found, but an immense number 

 of bones still remained. 



In situations which were very free from moisture, no vestige of bone or coffin 

 was found after a lapse of twenty to twenty-five years, and even in less time ; 

 but as the ground became more moist, the preservation was more complete; and 

 where it was swampy, the preservation was almost perfect ; pieces of shavings 

 from the coffin (originally left there by the undertaker) being found, which had 

 been interred above forty years, and the soft parts adhering to the bones, in the 

 shape of Adipocire. I saw a corpse removed (having been interred thirty-five 

 years) which was in an almost complete state of preservation: the countenance 

 was so perfect, that the friends of the deceased might easily have recognized 

 him ; the garments were in a good state, as was also the coffin. 



In removing the earth, the workmen would probably strike a skull ; the ground 

 being then carefully removed, the perfect skeleton was displayed, all the bones 

 being in their respective places, as if the anatomist had carefully arranged them 

 previous to making an artificial skeleton ; no ligament or muscle to be seen. 



1 he latter were not seen in some instances in five or six years after burial. 

 Accompanying the bones, I ahvays observed some black matter, which was pro- 

 bably the remains of the coffin ; and where no bones at all were found, about a 

 shovel full of this black earth was seen, indicating the spot where the individual 

 had lain. 



The Bones. There was of course every variety of sizes, and in all stages of 

 preservation; sometimes I only saw the shaft of the tibia, which had no other 

 mark of distinction than the spine ; sometimes the femur, known only by its 

 comparative magnitude, and by the linea aspera; some were crumbled to small 

 pieces, and the slightest handling reduced them to powder. They were nearly 

 all brown or blackish, many looking as if they liad been smoked. 



