82 
FIGURE ON ICE. 
is expressly stated that the body was quite stiff, and showed no 
signs of putrefaction. 
or if it did it is This fact might, indeed, have been inferred from the low 
it° cold d av e tem P er at lir e in the month of December, and the other eircum- 
been sufficient stances unfavourable to that process. Aware of this, it is 
throutiftive °b serve d in the explanation that putrefaction may have pro- 
feet of water, ceeded very slowly, on account of the coldness of the water 
and the want of communication with the external air. But 
admitting the supposition in its fullest extent, that a slow 
putrefactive process was going on, sufficient to develope as 
much heat as would occasion a small degree of expansion in 
the water in contact with the body ; 'would not that additional 
heat be entirely lost, of more properly, given off, in all direc- 
tions long before it arrived at the surface, through a depth of five 
feet of water at that low temperature ? Even the greatest 
possible degree of heat given out by a human body in the 
highest state of putrefaction, appears to me insufficient to pro- 
duce all the phenomena, or to affect so large a quantity of water 
in any perceptible degree. 
The smooth- Why was the ice of the figure smooth, while the other parts 
over the figure were crumbly and soft ? It is evident, whatever the cause may 
is ascribed to have been, that that part of the water directly over the body, 
softness'of the must have been in a state of rest on the surface when the frost 
other ice to commenced, while the other parts were subjected to a gentle 
durirf® ffeez agi^ion. This, certainly, could not have been caused by any 
ing. * degree of heat. 
Opinion, that lam inclined to think, that some time after the body sunk to 
oily matter ^ the bottom of the pond, the water, by insinuating itself through 
body, and * every pore, would gradually dislodge the oleagenous and greasy 
defended the particles adhering to the skin, and also whatever there might be 
water ^above 16 nature under it — these would, undoubtedly, find their 
it from being way, by degrees, through the clothing and rise to the surface, 
the^wind Now it has been well known, from the time of Dr. Franklin, 
that oil or grease, in a fluid state, when floating on the surface 
©f water, has the property of rendering it smooth and incapable 
of being affected by the wind. This I apprehend was the cas§ 
in the present instance, and which affords a ready explanation 
of all the phenomena. The oily matter as disengaged from 
the body would rise in a perpendicular direction and form a 
thin stratum on the surface, which, although diffused, would still 
continue 
