356 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1772. 



XXX HI. Some Account of a Body lately found in Uncommon Preservatimi, 

 under the Ruins of the Abbey at St. Edmund's Bury, Suffolk ; with some Re- 

 flections on the Subject. By Charles Collignon, M. D., F. R. S., and Prof, of 

 Anat. at Cambridge, p. 465. 



In February 1772, some workmen, digging among the ruins of the above 

 abbey, discovered a leaden coffin, supposed, from some circumstances, to contain 

 the remains of Thos. Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, uncle to king Henry the 5 th. 

 As it certainly was buried before the dissolution of the abbey, it must have been 

 there between 1 and 300 years. It was found near the wall, on the left-hand 

 side of the choir of the chapel of the blessed Virgin; not inclosed in a vault, 

 but covered over with the common earth. On examining the appearance of the 

 body, the following circumstances were remarkable, as communicated by an in- 

 genious surgeon, on the spot, Mr. Thomas Cullum. 



" The body was inclosed in a leaden coffin, surrounding it very close, so that 

 you might easily distinguish the head and feet. The corpse was wrapped round 

 with 2 or 3 large layers of cere-cloth, so exactly applied to the parts, that the 

 piece, which covered the face, retained the exact impression of the eyes and nose. 

 The dura mater was entire. The brain was of a dark ash-colour, with some 

 remaining appearance of the medullary part. The coats of the eye were still 

 whole, and had not totally lost their glistening appearance. There was about 

 half a pint of a bloody black water in the thorax; and a mass that seemed to be 

 part of the lungs. The pericardium and diaphragm were quite entire. The 

 abdominal viscera had been taken out very clean, and the integuments and mus- 

 cles stuck very close to the vertebrae of the back. This cavity looked fresher 

 than that of the thorax. I cut into the psoas magnus, where there were evident 

 marks of red muscular fibres. The other muscles had lost all their red colour, 

 and were become of a dark brown. The tendons were still strong and retained 

 their natural appearance. The hands, which are preserved in spirits, retain the 

 nails. There were some very small holes in the coffin, out of which had run 

 some bloody water, of an offensive smell. All the principal blood-vessels must 

 have been cut through, in taking out the abdominal viscera: and if no ligature 

 was made on the vessels, their contents would escape, particularly as assisted by 

 the pressure of the cere-cloth, which is of considerable weight, and doubtless 

 put on hot. This fluid running out of the coffin, on its being moved, might 

 occasion the suspicion of the body being put in pickle." 



We have undoubted accounts of bodies found very little changed after long 



which he presided 20 years) owed its origin. He' was also a chief promoter of another literary insti- 

 ution, the Manchester Academy, which, however, did not long flourish. And he exerted himself 

 with much assiduity in support of the Fever Wards, and other measures that have been adopted at 

 Manchester within these few years, for stopping the progress of infectious fevers. 



