OH, A TREATISE ON PILE. |(ll 



OF THE ENDURANCE AND EREMACAUSIS* OF PILE. Raspail says, that cold checks the 

 development of organized beings, but that it preserves organized substances, indefinitely, 

 without alteration. In proof of the second branch of the proposition, he refers to the 

 Mammoth that was found enveloped in ice, near the mouth of the river Lena, and to the 

 bodies of the Spaniards which have lain, unchanged, on the icy summits of the Cor- 

 dilleras, from the time of the first conquest of Pern. He also observes, that when they 

 are afterwards thawed, these organized bodies putrefy more rapidly than those that have 

 not been exposed to the influence of a low temperature. This last remark is, perhaps, 

 less correct in regard to pile than some other organi/cd substances, for we have, in our 

 collection, specimens of the hair of the Mammoth, above alluded to, which has suffered 

 very little, comparatively, from being thawed. Having, in a previous Chapter,! given a 

 full description of that hair, we will, in this place, merely notice that one inch of it 

 showed considerable ductility and elasticity, and required, to break it, from 4,500 to 

 4,600 grains. 



In 1774, an apparently deserted ship was met in the Polar Sea, encumbered with snow 

 and ice. On boarding her, a solitary man was found in the cabin, his fingers holding a 

 pen, while before him laid the record which he had traced twelve years before. No 

 appearance of decay was visible, except a little green mould upon his forehead. 



Bichat attribiites the great endurance of pile to its exterior envelope [cortex.] He says 

 that when pile is deprived of the action of air, ages may pass away without any exhibition 

 of alteration. (Anat. Gen., v. 2, p. 786.) 



He further remarks, that "pile does not contain the principle of decomposition which 

 belongs to other animal substances." We doubt whether we understand what this learned 

 anatomist means by " the principle of decomposition," since no one knows better than he 

 did that pile consists, essentially, of a substance allied to gelatine and bisulphuret of 

 proteine.f 



Bichat still further remarks, that '-pile never rots, neither in air nor in water; that its 

 endurance is superior to the epidermis, as may be proved by boiling or macerating them 

 together." That pile has a greater endurance than the epidermis or dermis, we have, in 

 our cabinet, several specimens which will furnish ample proofs; as a small piece of the 

 skin and a portion of hair, from the skull of a Mummy, from Pisco, Peru, presented by 

 Prof. Samuel G. Morton, M. D.; a piece of the skin with a portion of the hair attached, 

 from the skull of a young Indian from the Temple of the Sun, at Pachacamack, five leagues 

 from Lima, presented by Prof. Joseph Pancoast, M. D. This cemetery has not been used 

 since the Spanish Conquest, previously to which (according to Herrera) it was kept 

 sacred for the nobility of Peru. The skins, in both these cases, are much more decayed 



* Eremacausis includes putrefaction, fermentation and decay ; it is from " eremos," destitute, and " kau," to dry up or wither. 



t See Chapter III. 



J This substance has for formula, Carbon, 13 ; Hydrogen, 10 ; Nitrogen, 3 ; Oxygen, 5 ; and Gelatine (which is the form 

 of gelatine which is obtained from the skin, serous-membrane, hoof, bone, tendon and cartilage,) having the formula of 

 Carbon, 13 : Hydrogen, 10; Nitrogen, 2, and Oxygen, 5. (Van Laer.) 



