State of the BAROMETER in inches and decimals, and of Farenheit's TAZEMOMETER in the open air, taken in the morning before fun-rife, and aɛ noon; and the quantity of rain-water fallen, in inches and decimals, from the 30th July 1790, to the 30th of Auguft, near the foot of Arthur's Seat. On the Different States of the Dead Bodies found in the Cemetery of the Inocents at Paris in 1786 and 1787. Read at the Royal Academy of Scientes ; By M. de. Fourcroy. HE fpontaneous decompofition of animal matters buried in heaps in the earth has prefented 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 fuch a foil would be very different from that of common burying places, where each corpfe has its own fpace, in which nature may, and does feparate the elements with eafe and promptitude. The ideas of naturalifts with refpect to the period of the entire deftruction of bodies, which according to fome was fix years at the utmoft, could not indeed be applicable to the foil of the cemetery of a great city, in which feveral fucceffive generations of its inhabitants had been depofited for more than three centuries; but nothing could have made it be prefumed that the entire decompofition did not take place for forty years, nor could it have been fufpected what a fingular difference nature prefents between the deftruction of bodies depofited in heaps in fubterraneous cavities, and that of bodies placed afunder in the ground. It was alfo impoffible to divine the nature of a ftratum of earth feveral fathoms thick, perpetually expofed to putrid exhalations, and faturated as it were with animal efluvia; or what influence fuch 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 place they occupied, and their difpofition with respect to one another. The oldest exhibited nothing but portions of bones p'aced irregularly in the foil, which had been often removed in confequence of the frequent turning up of the ground in fo vaft a cemetery it was difficult to afcertain 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 foft parts particularly, fituated between the skin and the bones, including the teguments, that we had occafion to obferve two general differences which attracted our attention; in fome bo dies which were always found fingle and detached, the skin, the mufcls, tendons, and aponeurofes were dry, brittle, hard, of a colour more or less grey, and like what are called mummies in fome vaults where this change has been obferved, fuch as the calacombs of Rome, and the vaults of the Cordeliers at Toulouse. The third, and moft fingular ftatę of thofe foft parts was obferved in the corpfes accumulated in the con.mon pits. Thefe 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 clofe rows. The neceffity of crowding a great number together, obliged the people employed in this business to place the coffins fo near one another, that a perfon may conceive thefe pits as one mafs of carcaffes, from a thoufind tə fifteen hundred in number, feparated only by a board of hair in inch thick K 2 The remains of the bodies depofited in the Cemetery of the Innocents, were found in three different ftates according to the time they had lain, Annales de Chymie. Tome.sme. Whea When thefepits were full, a covering of earthone foot in thicknesswas laid over to close them, and a new one dug at fome diftance. It took about three years to fill fuch a pit, during all which time it remained open. The fame pits were opened again at lon ger or shorter intervals; thefe intervals were from fifteen to thirty years, according to the neceflity arifing from the proportion of deaths to the extent of the cemetery. Experience had taught the grave-diggers that thefe periods were not fufficient for the entire deftruction of the bodies; and had made them acquainted with the alteration I am about to mention. The firft cut which we ordered to be made in a pit that had been filled and clofed up for fifteen years thew ed us this change; we found the coffins preferved, 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 fhrunk to fome diftance from the upper board, and fo flat that it feemed to have fuffered a ftrong compreffion, The linen in which it was wrapped adhered ftrongly to the body, and being removed, fhewed nothing but irregular maffes of a foft matter, ductile, and of a whitish grey colour; thefe 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 foftnefs, made us at firft compare it to common white cheese; the juftness of this compari fon ftruck us, especially from the marks or prints which the crofs threads of the linen had formed on its furface. This white fubftance yielded to the finger, and grew foft upon being rubbed a little. These carcafes thus changed had no very difagreeable fmell; even though the grave-diggers (who had been long acquainted with this fub#tance which they called greafe, and whoteftified no repugnance at touching, it) had not encouraged us, the novel ty and fingularity of the fpectaclewould have removed from us all idea of fear or difguft; and we therefore endeavoured to acquire the neceffary information with regard to this con verfion. We learnt from the gravediggers, that this fubftance they cal led greafe, was hardly ever found in bodies buried by themfelves; but only in thofe heaped together in the pits We paid particular attention to a great number of bodies in this state; we found that all were not equally advanced in this fpecies of converfion; in many, portions of the muscles were ftill visible by their fibrous ftructure and reddish colour. From an attentive examination of bodies entirely converted into this greafy matter, we faw that the maffes enveloping the bones were all of the fame uniform fubftance, that is, a greyish mafs generally foft and ductile, fometimes dry, always eafily feparable into po rous fragments, pierced with holes, and fhewing no traces of membranes, mufcles, tendons, veffels, or nerves one would have faid at firft look that thefe whitish maffes were only cellular fubftance which they very much re fembled; and accordingly fome of us fuppofed that the rete mucofum was the true bafis of this fingular fubitance Following this white matter thro the different regions of the body, we were convinced that the cellular fubftance of the fkin always fuffered this change; that the ligamentous and tendinous parts which connect and retain the bones no longer exist. ed, or at leaft, having loft their texture and tenacity, they left the articulations without fupport, and the bones to their own weight, fo that there was now among thefe nothing but a juxta-pofition, and accordingly the leaft touch was fufficient to fepa rated them, as the grave-diggers knew, who, in order to remove there bodies from the pits we wanted to empty ture of the heart; we fuppofed that this mafs which was not generally. to. nd occurred only in fome, in proportion to the quantity of fat with which that vilcus had been loaded. In the exterior region of the tho The head was furrounded with the fatty matter, the face in molt undiftinguishable; the mouth disfigured without tongue or palate; the jaws luxated, and more or less afunder, and furrounded with irregular portions of greafe. Soune lumps of the fame matter generally occupied the place of the organs fituated in the mouth; the cartilages of the nofe participa ted of the general alteration of the fkin; fome white maffes, inftead of eyes, filied their fockets; the ears were equally decayed, and the hair till remained on the fkin, though this laft was changed like the other parts. It may be obferved in paffing, that the hair feems fitted to refilt for the greateft length of time any fort of change. The cranium includ ed the brain, which was diminished in fize, black at the furface, and changed like the other organs; this was continually found, winch fhews it to be particularly difpofed to change into greafe. empty, folded and rolled them up from head to foot, by feparati g the extremities of the bones at the plac s where they had been once art culated Another important obfervation which we always made on those bodies changed into greafe was, that the abdo-rax in the bodies of women we found minal cavity was no more. The the glandular and adipofe mafs of teguments and muscles of that region the mammæ converted into a very were changed into the fame matter white and homogeneous substance. with the other foft parts; they had funk down and refted on the back bone, leaving no room for the viscera. This furprifed 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, fpleen, matrix, &c. all these viscera had difappeared almoft without leaving a trace of them. Sometimes, indeed, irregular maffes of the greasy fubftance, 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 obfervations. The external part of that cavity was flat tened and compreffed like the other organs; the ribs, loosened from their articulations with the vertebræ, had fallen down and lay on the fpine; their curvature left between them and the vertebræ, but an ifconfiderable fpace on each fide, very different from the thoracic cavity in fize and form. There was hardly any veftige of the pleura, the mediatinum, the large veffels, treachea, or even of the Jungs or the heart: there were only in place of thefe fome lumps of the white matter. In this cafe the mat ter, which is the produce of the decompofition 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 lefs brown or red. Sometimes we found in the thorax a mass irregugularly rounded of the fame fubftance with the reft that appeared to us to belong to the fat and forous ftruc I fhall 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 drier and more brit tle, and in pieces of a clofer textures in fome which were placed in a dry foil, we have found portions of this fat matter become femi-transparent; and in appearance, confistence and brit tlenefs pretty much refembling wax. The The nature of this fubftance 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; fuch particularly was that which belonged to the fkin of the extremities. On the contrary, where the change had been recent, the fat matter was lefs pure and lefs homogeneous, portions of mufcles, tendons and ligaments were flill obfervable, though altered in colour; and in proportion as the converfion was more or less advanced, thefe remains were more or lefs penetrated with the greafy matter, as if thruft into the interftices between the Abres. This important obfervation fhews, that it is not only the fat which is changed into this greafy fubftance. The rete mucofum of the skin, which anatomifts have never confidered as fat, changes eafily into that fubftance, as does the brain. It is true that, ceteris paribus, the fat parts and bodies that have been fat, pals most readily into this fate. We found accordingly the medulla in the long bones, entirely converted into very pure greafe; we even faw that fat fubftance pafs from the internal part of the bone, and occupy all the cavities of the of feous lamine; but if it be found that the fat changes easily into this fubftance, and contributes evidently to its quantity in fubjects that abound in it, the facts already mentioned prove that other parts, the cellular fubftance and the fat it contains, may alfo undergo the fame change. Ifhall here add two obfervations, in order to fix our ideas with regard to this point. The first is, that of the vaft number of bodies contained in the pits we have defcribed, it may be prefumed, that the greater part had been emaciated by the difeafes of which they died; and yet they were all abfolutely converted into greafe; fo that it cannot be faid that the fat alone had undergone this alteration. The fecond refts on a fingular phenomenon obferved 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 fmell; the larvæ of the dermeftes, and of the bruchus attacked it, and pierced it in every direction; at laft it became dry, and after having been fufpended for more than ten years, it turned white, friable, and somewhat fimilar in appearance to a dried mushroom; it feemed to be nothing but a piece of earthy matter, without any fenfible fmell. But upon being fubjected to experiment, we found it was by no means an earth; it melted with heat, and was diffipated in a vapour of very fetid fmell; fpirit of wine feparated from it a concrete oil, which feemed to us to have all the properties of the greafe of the cemetery of the Innocents expofed for several months to the air. I mention this here to fhew, that a glandular fubftance may be entirely converted into greafy matter, In fome fubjects this matter affumed a fhining appearance of the colour of gold and filver, as if a small quantity of mica had been scattered over its furface. There alfo appeared in feveral 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 grease. When they are first interred, they do not fenfibly change colour, till at the end of feven or eight days, when a difcoloration begins in the abdomen. The belly fwells and appears diftended by elaftic fluids difengaged from within. This diftenfion takes place more or lefs fpeedily according to the bulk of the abdomen, the fluids contained in it, the depth at which the body is depofited, but efpecially the temperature of the air. Thus a very at |