24 J. V. HULTKRANTZ 



sufficient to refer to the above-stated data regarding Baroness vok 

 NoLCKEN, the particular conditions of the theft, as well as the ex-officer 

 Granholm's needy condition, to rob these objections of their force. 



Of more weight, however, are the doubts, which have from time 

 to time been expressed regarding the genuineness of that cranium which 

 was replaced in the coffin after the theft. An idea of this kind first 

 appears in the minutes of the Council of the Swedish Church in London 

 for November 10th, 1844, (Appendix, No. 7), where it is reported that 

 a Mr. In de Betou,' during an inventory of the vault, had carefully in- 

 spected the skull in Swedenboeg's coffin, and that he had found grounds 

 for doubting its identity, »1) because within the head is a quantity of 

 dust, which would seem to show that the skull had lain in the earth, 

 2) because a piece of wood is to be seen, driven into the head, which 

 seems to indicate that the dead man had lost his life in some violent 

 manner, and 3) because there is no mark to show that any cast had 

 been taken of the face, as is stated in the minutes for July 4th, 1819, 

 §8.»^ — This examination had evidently not been conducted with suf- 

 ficient care, for, as will be further shown in what follows, the de- 

 pressions at the base of the skull, without any doubt the same cra- 

 nium examined in 1908, were found to contain unquestionable traces 

 of gypsum. It may easily be supposed, under such circumstances, 

 that the »dust», referred to as being within the skull, was mouldered 

 and dried up brain substance, which is not infrequently of a color 

 and consistency resembling actual dust. Again, as regards the piece 

 of wood, it is possible that this was used when Geanholm cleaned 

 the cranium, or when the plaster cast was taken; in any case no in- 

 jury was observed during our examination of the cranium whose na- 

 ture made it probable that it had arisen on account of some violence 

 undergone during life. The causes presented by In de Betou are thus 

 in no wise sufficient to give occasion to the suspicion that the cranium 

 was a substitute. 



The note from Carlson's Notices concerning the Stvedish Church 

 in London 5 (p. 119), reproduced by Tafel 32 (Vol. II., p. 1207), that 



' Johan Govebt In de Betou, born 1810. Sublieutenant in the Svea Artillery Regiment, 

 1833, afterwards in Värmland's Ranger Regiment; removed to London 1838, where he founded 

 a Gymnastic Institute according to Ling's system; returned to Sweden 1851, and died 1854. 

 He was chnrcliwarden in the Swedish Congregation in London from the year 1840 onwards. 



^ See the note by ?J. P. W.,» added to the minutes. (Appendix, No. 2). 



