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HE spontaneous decomposition of animal matters buried in heaps in the earth has presented to us refults as fingular as unexpected. We could not have foretold the contents of a foil furcharged for centuries with bodies undergoing putrefaction, although we might well have imagined that such a foil would be very different from that of common burying places, where each corpse has its own space, in which nature may, and does separate the elements with ease and promptitude. The ideas of naturalifts with respect to the period of the entire destruction of bodies, which according to some was fix years at the utmost, could not indeed be applicable to the foil of the cemetery of a great city, in which several fuccessive generations of its inhabitants had been deposited for more than three centuries; but nothing could have made it be prefumed that the entire decomposition did not take place for forty years, nor could it have been suspected what a fingular difference nature presents between the destruction of bodies deposited in heaps in fubterraneous cavities, and that of bodies placed asunder in the ground. It was also impossible to divine the nature of a stratum of earth feveral fathoms thick, perpetually exposed to putrid exhalations, and faturated as it were with animal effluvia; or what influence such a foil would have on a body newly placed in it. These were the objects of our inquiries, and the fource of the difcoveries which prompted them.

The remains of the bodies depofited in the Cemetery of the Innocents, were found in three different states according to the time they had lain,

the place they occupied, and their disposition with respect to one another. The oldest exhibited nothing but portions of bones paced irregularly in the foil, which had been often removed in consequence of the frequent turning up of the ground in so vast a cemetery: it was difficult to ascertain exactly the time of the inhumation, and we could only examine the difference between them and human bones that had never been interred.

It was on the state of the soft parts particularly, fituated between the skin and the bones, including the teguments, that we had occafion to observe two general differences which attracted our attention; in some bos dies which were always found fingle and detached, the skin, the muscles, tendons, and aponeuroses were dry, brittle, hard, of a colour more or less grey, and like what are called mummies in some vaults where this change has been observed, such as the catacombs of Rome, and the vaults of the Cordeliers at Toulouse.

The third, and most fingular state of those soft parts was observed in the corpses accumulated in the conmon pits. These are cavities of thirty feet in depth, and twenty in length and breadth, which are dug in the cemetery of the Innocents, and contain the bodies of the poorer people in their coffins in very close rows. The necessity of crowding a great number together, obliged the people employed in this business to place the coffins so near one another, that a person may conceive these pits as one mass of carcaffes, from a thô fand ta fifteen hundred in number, separated only by a board of half an inch thick When

Whenthesepits were full, a covering of earthone toot in thicknesswas laid over to close them, and a new one dug at some distance. It took about three years to fill such a pit, during all which time it remained open. The same pits were opened again at lon. ger or shorter intervals; these intervals were from fifteen to thirty years, according to the neceffity ariling from the proportion of deaths to the extent of the cemetery. Experience had taught the grave-diggers that these periods were not fufficient for the en, tire destruction of the bodies; and had made them acquainted with the alteration 1 am about to mention. The first cut which we ordered to be made in a pit that had been filled and closed up for fifteen years shew ed us this change; we found the coffins preserved, but a little funk down upon one another; the wood was found and tinged with yellow. Upon lifting the lid we faw the body lying upon the bottom, having shrunk to fome distance from the upper board, and so flat that it seemed to have fuffered a strong compreffion, The linen in which it was wrapped adhered strongly to the body, and being removed, thewed nothing but irregular masses of a soft matter, ductile, and of a whitish grey colour: these maffes enveloped the bones round and round; they had no folidity, and broke with a quick preffure. The appearance of this matter, its texture, and softness, made us at first compare it to common white cheese; the justness of this comparis son struck us, especially from the marks or prints which the cross threads of the linen had formed on its furface. This white substance yielded to the finger, and grew soft upon being rubbed a little.

These carcases thus changed had no very difagreeable smell; even though the grave-diggers (who had been long acquainted with this substance which they called grease, and

whotestified no repugnanceat touching it) had not encouraged us, the nover ty and fingularity of the spectaclewould have removed from us all idea of fear or disgust; and we therefore endeavoured to acquire the neceffary information with regard to this con version. We learnt from the gravediggers, that this substance they called grease, was hardly ever found in bodies buried by themselves; but only in those heaped together in the pitst We paid particulat attention to great number of bodies in this state; we found that all were not equally advanced in this species of converfion; in many, portions of the muscles were still visible by their fibrous structure and reddish colour. From an attentive examination of bodies entirely converted into this greasy matter, we faw that the masses enveloping the bones were all of the same uniform substance, that is, a greyish mass generally soft and ductile, sometimes dry, always eafily separable into pos rous fragments, pierced with holes, and thewing no traces of membranes, muscles, tendons, veffels, or nerves; one would have faid at first look that these whitish masses were only cellular substance which they very much re. sembled; and accordingly fome of us fuppofed that the rete mucofum was the true basis of this singular tubitance Following this white matter thro the different regions of the body, we were convinced that the cellular fubstance of the skin always fuffered this change; that the ligamentous and tendinous parts which connect and retain the bones no longer exift. ed, or at least, having loft their texture and tenacity, they left the articulations without support, and the bones to their own weight, so that there was now among these nothing but a juxta-position, and accordingly the leaft touch was fufficient to separated them, as the grave-diggers knew, who, in order to remove these bodies from the pits we wanted to empty,

empty, folded and rolled them up from head to foot, by separating the extremities of the bones at the places where they had been once articulated, Another important observation which we always made on those bodies changed into grease was, that the abdominal cavity was no more. The teguments and muscles of that region were changed into the same matter with the other foft parts; they had funk down and refted on the back bone, leaving no room for the viscera. This surprised us much; we fought in vain, in the greatest number of the bodies we examined, for the place and the fubitance of the ftomach, the inteft nes, the bladder, live, spleen, matrix, &c. all these vifcera had difappeared almoft without leaving a trace of them. Sometimes, indeed, irregular maffes of the greasy substance, from the fize of a nut to two or three inches in diameter, were found in the regions of the liver or spleen.

The breast afforded very fingular and interesting observations. The external part of that cavity was flattened and compressed like the other organs; the ribs, loosened from their articulations with the vertebra, had fallen down and lay on the spine; their curvature left between them and the vertebræ, but an inconfiderable fpace on each fide, very different from the thoracic cavity in size and form. There was hardly any vestige of the pleura, the mediastinum, the large veffels, treachea, or even of the lungs or the heart: :here were only in place of these some lumps of the 1 white matter. In this cafe the mat ter, which is the produce of the decomposition of the vifcera loaded with blood and various humours, differs from that of the body, and of the long bones in being of a colour more or less brown or red. Sometimes we found in the thorax a mass irregugularly rounded of the same substance with the rest that appeared to us to belong to the fat and fibrous struc

ture of the heart; we supposed that this mass which was not generally found occurred only in some, in proportion to the quantity of fat with which that vilcus had been loaded.

In the exterior region of the thorax in the bodies of women we found the glandular and adipose mass of the mammæ converted into a very white and homogeneous substance.

The head was surrounded with the fatty matter, the face in most undiftinguishable; the mouth disfigured without tongue or palate; the jaws luxated, and more or less asunder, and surrounded with irregular portions of grease. Some lumps of the fame matter generally occupied the place of the organs situated in the mouth; the cartilages of the nose participated of the general alteration of the skin, some white masses, instead of eyes, filled their sockets; the ears were equally decayed, and the hair ftill remained on the skin, though this last was changed like the other parts. It may be observed in paffing, that the hair seems fitted to refitt for the greatest length of time any fort of change. The cranium includ ed the brain, which was diminished in size, black at the surface, and changed like the other organs; this was continually found, wirich thews it to be particularly disposed to change into grease.

I shall now point out the different modifications of this fat fubftance. Its confiftence is not always the fame; in bodies which have fuffered the change only for the four or five years the matter is soft and very ductile; it contains a great quantity of water, and is very light: in others that have been charged for thirty or forty years, it is dries and more brit tle, and in pieces of a closer textures in some which were placed in a dry foil, we have found portions of this fat matter become femi-transparent; and inappearance, confistence and brit tleness pretty much resembling wax.

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The nature of this substance was affected by the period of its formation; in general all that feemed to have been long formed was white, uniform, without extraneous matter, or remains of, fibrous structure; such particularly was that which belonged to the skin of the extremities. On the contrary, where the change had been recent, the fat matter was less pure and lefs homogeneous, portions of mufcles, tendons and ligaments were ftill obfervable, though altered in colour; and in proportion as the conversion was more or less advanced, these remains were more or less penetrated with the greasy matter, as if thruft into the interstices between the Abres. This important observation thews, that it is not only the fat which is changed into this greasy substance. The rete mucofum of the skin, which anatomifts have never confidered as fat, changes eafily into that substance, as does the brain. It is true that, ceteris paribus, the fat parts and bodies that have been fat, pals most readily into this late. We found accordingly the medulla in the long bones, entirely converted into very pure greafe'; we even faw that fat substance pass from the internal part of the bone, and occupy all the cavities of the offeous lamine; but if it be found that the fat changes easily into this fubstance, and contributes evidently to its quantity in subjects that abound in it, the facts already mentioned prove that other parts, the cellular substance and the fat it contains, may also undergo the same change. I shall here add two obfervations, in order to fix our ideas with regard to this point. The first is, that of the vast number of bodies contained in the pits we have described, it may be prefumed, that the greater part had been emaciated by the diseases of which they died; and yet they were all absolutely converted into grease; so that it cannot be faid that the fat alone had undergone this alteration. The second rests on

a fingular phenomenon observed by the late M. Poulletier and myself.

He had fufpended in his laboratory a piece of human liver, to fee what effect exposure to the air would have on it. It was in part corrupted, without however exhaling any very fetid smell; the larvæ of the dermestes, and of the bruchus attacked it, and pierced it in every direction; at latt it became dry, and after having been suspended for more than ten years, it turned white, friable, and somewhat fimilar in appearance to a dried mushroom; it seemed to be nothing but a piece of earthy matter, without any sensible smell. But upon being subjected to experiment, we found it was by no means an earth; it melted with heat, and was dissipated in a vapour of very fetid smell; spirit of wine separated from it a concrete oil, which seemed to us to have all the properties of the grease of the cemetery of the Innocents exposed for several months to the air. I mention this here to shew, that a glandular substance may be entirely converted into greasy matter,

In some subjects this matter affumed a shining appearance of the co. lour of gold and filver, as if a small quantity of mica had been scattered over its furface. There also appeared in several parts a brilliant tinge of red, orange, and carnation colours, especially round the bones.

We learnt from the grave-diggers, that three years were neceffary to convert bodies in the earth, into greafe. When they are first interred, they do not sensibly change colour, till at the end of seven or eight days, when a discoloration begins in the abdomen. The belly swells and appears distended by elastic fluids disengaged from within. This distension takes place more or less speedily according to the bulk of the abdomen, the fluids contained in it, the depth at which the body is deposited, but especially the temperature of the air. Thus a very

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