The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1872-05-31
PETRIFICATIoN.
HOW MazZini's Body is to be PreserV-
ed-The Process Explained.

1 AOU 10ALA4A . DO0I - ~ BC L ICSCEf
II ed-The Process Explained.
To preserve the body for ages
and to give it all the appearance o
J life, has been in Italy the pre-occu
patton of q number of scientific
men. One may say that it is studl
peculiar TO that country, where i
has been followed for many centu.
ries, and has produced increditabl.
results. E'Prof. Gorini, whom" sayl
the Paris Liberte, eve have known
personally, enjoys III this depart
ment uncontested notoriety. He
possesses q museum of bodies anC
antomatical pieces of the most curl.
Gus kinds, which we have frequent.
ly been to see, and the merest su.
perficial examination of which
causes unutterable surprise. Ger
tain mummifying preparations give
to the body the strange property OF
resuming all the appearances Of
sleep, after it has remained some
hours in water, and admit of the
closest anomatical study oft. 9th
/ er preparations of it give to the
body the hardness of stone and en-
| ables it to resist humidity, the in
clemency of the seasons and the
combined action of heat and cold.
The remains of MaZZini in the hands
of this skillful operator, will escape
Reorganization, and retain the sub
lime expression of the last hour"
| The petrification of the human
body by the constant action of cold
water upon it, and also by the oper-
alton of the tannin or tanic acid
which is found in several species of
bark and in peat, has long been
familiarity known. Instances of the
former have been found in this
country quite recently, and of the
latter some have been met with in
the peat boys of Ireland and Eng
land. A few years ago the body of
an ancient Briton, a woman, was
accidently eXhumed in eXcaVating
through some peat in England,
perfect state of preservation. The
bodies of animal frozen to death long
ages ago are found in Siberia, also
in perfect state, and that thous-
ands ofyears have elapsed since they
persisted is evident from the fact
that some of them belonged to races
of animals which there are reasons
to believe became extinct before the
creation of man, and that others
belonged to races which are now
found only in tropical climates, such
as the elephant. Whether the bodies
of these creatures were petrified by
long exposure to cold, or by some
sudden deluge which drowned them
and held their bodies in its water a
sufficient time to CONCEAL them, is
question for science to determine
the object in abiding to it here is
simply to prove that the petrifica-
ton of the living frame through
water, tannin or cold, has been a
well-known fact for years.
1t is embodied in the ancient
Greek fable of Niobe, who, after the
slaughter of her children, went TO
her father, Tantalus, on Mount Syp-
ylus, where Jupiter, at her request,
metamorphosed her into a stone,
which during the summer always
shed tears; but, according to anoth-
er version of the story, she wept
until she became petrified. These
ancient myths generally had their
origin in observed phenomena, and
IL par OuC OC hOJ u POOC-
ical fiction, personifying some icy
pinnacle of q rock, which partially
thawed during the summer and be-
came frozen again as winter ap-
preached, it probably is a mythical
representation of the fate of the
unhappy lady, whose body became
petrified through the action of wa
ter. This change in the substance
of the human frame must not be
considered analogous to, much less
identical with, the ancient Egyptian
mode of preserving the body by |
embalming it. In that system |
the cavity of the body was
filled with myrrh, fragrant herbs |
and spices, while the body was tight
ly enveloped and swathed in folds |
of cere-cloth, linen and bark, SO as
to exclude the air and it was then |
put in case which was hermetical- |
~ closed. 1t will thus be seen that |
the preservation of the body by |
tannin, and by preventing the action |
of the atmosphere, was the eading
idea.
But although the body was, in
some sense of the word, preserved
by this method for thousands of |
years, the result of this system was |
the converting it into a shrivelled,
blackened or discolored form, re-
voting to the sight and having the |
of monkey ratt er than
that of human being. The italian
method, above noticed, converts the
human form into a statue, the fea-
lures remaining precisely as they
were when death took place. Had
this system been resorted to by the
Egyptians and carried on by the
Greek and Romans, who borrowed
their learning from them, the world
might, at this day, be able to gaze
on the life-like corpse of the men OF
history who have so influenced its
destinies. But the preservation of
the body from decay, for the pur-
pose of exhibiting it from age to
age to the gaze of the curious, is re-
pugnant to the opinion and feelings
of the most civilized world, tboug Oh
it is possible that scientific anato-
mists, like Professor Gorini, become
SO habituated to the contemplation
of death in all its forms as to lose
their sensibility to its most repellant
features.