330 : The American Naturalist. [April, 
In cutting and then removing the 100 x 100 mm. piece from 
the back of the thigh, I was surprised to find that the deposi- 
tion of mineral matter had taken place to the extent of 25 mm. 
in depth, and that from this point inward the muscular, con- 
nective and other tissues were in such a perfect state of preser- 
vation, that they looked and felt exactly like fresh corn-beef. 
The flesh or muscle was of a dark red color, and of a perfectly 
natural and fresh consistency, showing no signs whatever of 
having undergone the slightest decomposition ; it did not emit 
any more odor than fresh meat. The perimyseum appeared 
perfectly natural, the tendons glistened as well as the perimy- 
seum near them, and the connective tissue was, to all appear- 
ances, as strong and well preserved as one could expect to find 
it in a body dead but twenty-four hours. On teasing the mus- 
cles, the fasciculi held together perfectly naturally, and the only 
difference besides color that I could then detect between this 
muscle and a perfectly fresh one was that this appeared to have 
a little more firmness, but it was very slight, and if compared 
with fresh corn-beef this difference disappears. It is also to be 
noted that the external layer, averaging 25 mm. in thickness, 
where the deposit and substitution of mineral matter had 
taken place so completly, and which covered the entire body 
and gave it its consistency, that this region was quite sharply 
marked off from the region below. In other words, the deposi- 
tion and substitution of mineral matter had taken place to the 
extent of about 25 to 30 mm. in depth all over the body 
(wherever examined it was of this depth), and rendered this 
portion very dense, tough and firm; and, instead of gradually 
merging into the soft almost unchanged inner portion, the 
change was quite abrupt. From an examination of the ab- 
dominal wall, I at first supposed this abrupt and sudden 
change to indicate and be due to the region of fatty tissue, but 
I found, on further examination, that the abrupt change took 
place in the muscular tissues of the thigh, where little or no 
fat was to be found. 
_ On reaching my laboratory, I made a microscopical exami- 
nation of the samples of tissue by means of sections and teased 
preparations, in order to determine the extent of the preserva- 
