632 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
on a spot where the carnage had been greatest, only bleached hones 
were to be seen ; whilst on the other and opposite side, exposed to 
the north, to the dry Etesian wind, at a battery called Eetellio, 
which had been heroically defended, we found two or three hundred 
bodies still remaining, lying as they fell, and so little were they 
changed that our companion was able, though their faces were 
blackened and shrunk, to recognise each individual by his features. 
They had become, as it were, natural mummies ; their clothes — for 
they were all clad — had apparently suffered little decay ; and their 
hair, except that it was a little bleached, showed its natural 
colour. 
Whether such a checking of putrefaction is owing to a rapid 
desiccation of the surface and a retardation of the entrance and 
penetration of oxygen, or to other less obvious causes, may be a 
question. I am disposed to consider it owing to the former, inas- 
much as putrefaction always begins at the surface,* and from the 
circumstance that desiccating substances, such as quicklime, pre- 
vent putrefaction.! 
3. Of Cooking as modifying Change. 
That the boiling or roasting of meat thoroughly enables it to he 
kept longer, even at a temperature and moist state of atmosphere 
It is well known to cooks, that whilst the outer surface of meat, such as 
venison, may be offensively tainted, the inner portion may be comparatively 
sweet and fit for use, especially if the deer, as soon as shot, has, according to 
the practice of the skilled forester, been well blooded. It need hardly be re- 
marked, that if the blood is allowed to remain, it is itself a source of putre- 
faction, owing to the oxygen which it retains. The butcher, guided by 
experience, is most careful in expelling as much blood as possible without 
delay from his slaughtered animals. 
f I may refer, in proof of the above, to the results of experiments given 
in vol. ii. of my Eesearches, published in 1838, confirmed by others in a 
later vol., that of 1863. In the former I have quoted an instance from the 
“ Philosophical Transactions, Abridged,” vol. ix., of the futility of burying 
the carcasses of diseased cattle with quicklime. Yet quicklime is still ordered 
to be used in the interment of such carcasses, but with the addition of some 
disinfectant. Such a procedure, no doubt, will vastly delay the decomposition 
of the bodies, and prevent the formation of offensive gases. Carbolic acid, 
one of the disinfectants recommended, has the advantage, I find, of being re- 
pulsive to dogs. A portion of meat moistened with this acid was refused by 
three hungry dogs. 
