484 FLESH 1 SSI LIZA TION A N IMPOSSIBILI T Y. 



FLESH FOSSILIZATION AN IMPOSSIBILITY. 

 BY TROP. B. P. MUDGE, OF KANSAS. 



The occasional exhibition of pretended fossil men, like the Cardiff Giant 

 and the recent Colorado specimen, opens the practical question of fossiliza- 

 tion. Those who patronize such exhibitions do not appear to know the fact 

 that flesh, either human or animal, is never petrified or fossilized. In other 

 words, flesh is composed of such soft, changeable substances that it decays 

 too rapidly for petrifaction. When, then, a mass of stone is brought before 

 the public as a petrified man, with the statement that the flesh on the hands 

 and face has a natural appearance, it is not necessary for the geologist to 

 visit and examine it in order to know that it is an imposition. Science has 

 taught him that flesh is never changed to stone. In all the scientific collec- 

 tions of Europe or America there is not an ounce of fossil flesh. Could such 

 a specimens be found it would command its weight in gold. 



It is true, that rarely — but very rarely^human bodies have been changed 

 CO adipocere, and in that condition have remained for a considerable time 

 without decay. But this is only a change to a rare form of fatty substances 

 and is in no sense a petrifaction. It is still an animal substance, which 

 will soon change its weight and character on being exposed to the 

 atmosphere. 



Mummies, either Egyptian or Peruvian, are cases where the decay of the 

 firmer portions of the flesh is arrested, and the watery particles allowed to 

 dry out, thus losing two-thirds of the weight. 



But what is petrifaction? It is the gradual exchange of the organic 

 particles of the vegetable or solid animal substances, for lime, silica, carbon^ 

 iron, or other inorganic, chemical ingredients. In rare instances the firmest 

 cartilages of a few animals have been in this manner fossilized. But petri- 

 faction takes place so slowly, and by such minute particles, that flesh inva- 

 riably decays before the change takes place. 



Where fossilization goes on thoroughly, and in the most perfect manner, 

 the replacement of the particles occurs so carefully, slowly and minutely, 

 that the original cell structure, however minute and delicate, remains, and 

 is still seen under the microscope. Thus the cell form of the old Devonian 

 pines, where all the vegetable matter is gone, still retains its fine markings,, 

 less than one-five-thousandth of an inch in size. Ehrenberg found 42,000,- 

 000,000 (forty-two trillions) of fossil infusoria in one cubic inch of Tripoli,, 

 each perfect in structure. 



The writer has fossils from Osage County, Kansas, where the original 

 matter is replaced by iron pyrites, shining like gold, where the primal form 

 is in most excellent preservation. In some other specimens, from Western 

 Kansas and Colorado, this replacement is by agate, carnelian and chalcedony, 

 which will take the highest polish and yet allow the organic structure to be 

 plainly visible. 



