36 



NATURE 



\_Nov, 8, 1888 





the adjoining counties. Thousands of acres in the en- 

 virons could be acquired and turned into gardens with the 

 savings of a single year in the perfect combustion of fuel. 

 In times of distress a sum equal to the wages of 100,000 

 labourers is now thrown away in the manufacture of an 

 artificially coloured atmosphere. Remedies in accordance 

 with science are at hand ; it only remains for society to 

 see that they are applied. 



DESICCATED HUMAN REMAINS. 



SOME time ago, Signer S. Marghieri, the Mexican 

 archaeologist, while exploring the eastern side of the 

 Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico, at an elevation of 

 nearly seven thousand feet, discovered and explored a her- 

 metically sealed cave. The floor was nearly smooth, the 

 sides rough and rugged, and the vault covered with 

 stalactites. At the far end of the cave, which was of con- 

 siderable dimensions, four mummified human bodies were 

 found. The bodies — a full-grown male and female, and 

 a boy and girl — were in a sitting posture, hands crossed 

 on the breast, and knees approaching the chin, with the 

 head inclined forward. '1 hey were all carefully en- 

 shrouded in burial garments, and accurately placed facing 

 the rising sun. We may suppose that the elder male and 

 female were husband and wife. They sat side by side ; 

 the elder child, a boy, was placed to the right of the 

 father ; the younger, a little girl, to the left of the mother. 

 There was no trace of any implements, utensils, or per- 

 sonal effects ; nor were there on the walls hieroglyphics 

 or pictographs. The cave had been sealed by means of 

 sun-dried, adobe bricks, and adobe paste or plaster, 

 together with natural rocks from the mountain. So well 

 was the work done that none but an acute observer would 

 have noticed the artificial closure. 



The bodies were brought to San Francisco, and bought 

 by Mr. J. Z. Davis, by whom they were presented to the 

 State Mining Bureau, in the archaeological department of 

 which they are now preserved. The following descrip- 

 tion of them is taken from a careful report drawn up by 

 Dr. Winslow Anderson, for the Board of Trustees of the 

 California State Mining Bureau : — • 



These naturally mummified bodies differ from mummies 

 proper, in the general acceptation of the term, inasmuch 

 as no embalming process for their preservation was used. 

 They were desiccated in their cave sepulchre by natural 

 elements. The dry hot atmosphere extracted all the 

 moisture from the tissues, and the bodies literally dried 

 up as we would dry jerk-beef, or as the Indians of to-day 

 dry the bison (buffalo) meat which keeps for years. 



There is no evidence of these bodies having undergone 

 any preparatory process. The brain, heart, lungs, abdo- 

 minal and pelvic viscera are all intact and dried to a 

 solid consistency. 



The elder male body is about five feet eight inches tall, 

 and well proportioned. The bones are lirge, and he 

 must havehadanexcellentphysique. He probably weighed 

 between one hundred and eighty and two hundred 

 pounds. All the body now weighs is fourteen pounds. 



The integument is well preserved, and presents the 

 appearance of dried hide, or thick parchment, of a dark 

 gray colour, and all that remains between it and the bones 

 are the dried muscles, tendons, nerves, and fascia. The 

 body is well developed, the shoulders measuring from one 

 acromion process to the other, three hundred and ninety 

 inillimetres (about fifteen and a half inches) ; the hands 

 are small, and the fingers tapering ; the feet are also 

 small, measuring two hundred and forty millimetres 

 (about nine and a half inches), and highly arched. The 

 phalanges of the digits are perfect, each having the nor- 

 mal number of bones, and the ungual appendages are well 

 preserved and not unusually long. 



The body has dried in the sitting posture, hands crossed 



and knees drawn towards the chin. The cheek and lip& 

 on the left side protrude. This probably occurred during 

 the time of mummification ; the moisture leaking from the 

 interior of the brain and surrounding tissues, through the 

 cribriform plate of the ethmoid at the anterior portion of 

 the calvaria, through the cribriform foramina into the 

 inferior meatus nasi, and the head being inclined toward 

 the left, produced this bulging from the force of gravita- 

 tion. Being itself in turn dried up, the mouth main- 

 tained its present shape. Short stiff hairs can be seen on 

 the head. The eyebrows and eyelashes are also distinctly 

 visible. A little hair can also be noticed on the upper 

 lip, but very little beard anywhere on the face. The ears 

 are closely pressed against the sides of the head, and only 

 the cartilages remain. The eyes are quite perfect, and 

 present a slight outward obliquity. The nose, originally 

 broad, has been more flattened by the shrinking of the 

 cartilages and the alas nasi. The lips are stiff and solid,, 

 and the tongue is shrivelled to the consistency of cork. 

 There is a full set of masticators in his mouth, thirty-twO' 

 in number, and all quite well preserved. A few of the 

 dentures only have the enamel worn down to the dentine. 

 The ribs are large and well formed, indicative of a well- 

 shaped chest. The genitalia are well preserved. On the 

 head there has been a large growth of hair, on the face 

 very little, and on the body scarcely any at all. 



Owing to the dried integument and fascia covering the 

 cranium, accurate measurements of the skull are well 

 nigh impossible. The following measurements, however,, 

 have been made with as much care and accuracy as the 

 subject permitted. The cranial measurements are as 

 follows : circumference, 530 millimetres ; length, occipito- 

 frontal, 178 mm. ; breadth, bi-bregmatic, 140 mm. ; breadth 

 of frontal, 108 mm. ; height, 135 mm. ; facial angle, 71°. 



The sutures and wormian bones cannot be inspected. 

 The malar bones are quite prominent and the lower 

 maxillary and face may be classified with the group 

 orthognathous. 



A careful study of this mesocephalic head would indi- 

 cate that its possessor was of more than average intelli- 

 gence. The perceptives are well developed. And, 

 although the animal passions undoubtedly predominate^ 

 there is enough veneration or religion to class it among 

 the scaphocephalic skulls. 



The elder female body is in a better state of preserva- 

 tion than the preceding body. From a measurement of 

 the individual bones, she would be about five feet five 

 inches tall, and weighed, perhaps, about one hundred 

 and fifty to one hundred and seventy pounds. The body 

 weighs, in its present condition, only twelve pounds. The 

 posture, integument, body, &c., resemble the one pre- 

 viously described. The large, oval pelvis, and the once 

 well developed mammas bear unmistakable evidence of 

 gestation. The hands and feet are small and well shaped ; 

 the foot measuring only two hundred and fifty millimetres 

 (about eight and one half inches). On the head is a 

 luxuriant growth of hair, which centuries have not suc- 

 ceeded in destroying. It is very fine in texture, of a dark 

 brown colour, and entirely unlike any Indian hair seen 

 to-day. A curious feature is observed in connection with 

 the small, well-proportioned ears, both of which are per- 

 fectly preserved, and that is, in each lobe is worn, even in 

 the stillness of death, a piece of hollow bamboo or reed,, 

 about forty millimetres in length, and ten millimetres in 

 diameter. This was probably considered an ornament in 

 her day. The Indians of to-day pierce the helix and anti- 

 helix of the ear, through which holes they suspend orna- 

 ments of different kinds. The single perforation in the 

 lobe of this mummified woman's ear would indicate a cus- 

 tom observed by her people, similar to the customs in 

 vogue in the more civilized countries, and are not usually 

 observed by Indians of our own period. 



The eyes are singularly perfect, presenting a slightly 

 outward and upward obliquity of the external canthi. 



