264 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



their capacity for doing mischief. Such as may 

 be beneficial in their relation to created beings, 

 are simply taken up and distributed far and 

 wide for the service of creation. There is a 

 singular gradation observable in this process of 

 decomposition, which well deserves our atten- 

 tion. The process of destruction is slow, and 

 advances from one step to another. The air 

 attacking a compound of complex constitution, 

 reduces it to one of more simple nature, and 

 so on, until the simplest is arrived at, and this 

 is innocuous. The change is at length com- 

 plete ; the body is literally dissolved either into 

 gas or water ; its fluids and solids are dispersed, 

 and the bleaching bones and earthy materials 

 of the skeleton, alone remain to indicate that 

 the framework of an active and animated being 

 had once rested on the earth. 



A singular exception to the general rule in 

 the decomposition of the body after death exists, 

 as we are told by Mr. Willis, in the bodies of 

 those which are deposited in the vaults of 

 St. Michan's church in Dublin. These vaults 

 are perfectly dry, and are occupied with the 

 remains of bodies which have been deposited 

 there for .centuries. From a published ac- 

 count of these vaults we make the following 

 extracts: "The bodies of those long departed 

 appear in all their awful solitariness at full 



