Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-07-08
BONES.

Inc Ou1m0Co Destination OF the MOST
Durable Parts OF the Body.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.
The bones are a composition of lime and
phosphorus. and are the most durable part Of
the human system. Leave the body Of q man
or animal exposed to the air. in few weeks it
passes into the earth and atmosphere. leaving
only the skeleton. which. after a considerable
lapse Of time. disappears aiso. This reabsorp-
ton Of the body by the elements is compar-
atively rapid in the towers of the Parsees and
in the cases Of those who perish in traversing
the desert. The body Of man cannot prop
eriy be said to return to dust. That is an an
Gent prejudice. Even in the case Of the bones
the phosphate passes partly into the earth or air
In the form Of oxygen or phosphorus. and the
lime is mixed with the soil, embodied in rocks
or dissolved in water. In the process Of Gre
nation the tissues disappear in the form Of
vapor, and there remains a residue composed
of pieces OF bone Of various sizes, which, il
coarse dust that can he Theoretically sealed
in an urn and preserved for an indefinite
period.
Even the process Of embalming practiced by
the ancient Egyptians could not prevent the
resolving OF tho body into its original elements
IL fragments Of the tissues or II the bonos re-
main it is because their character is entirely
changed by the gums and other substances eni-
ployed by the embalmers. As to embalming az
prscticed in these days, it is Of too recent origin
to furnish any reliable data as to its efficacy as
. preventative method. The Egyptians en-
deavored to preserve the entire BODY BY
smothering 1t in antiseptic substances the
Greeks, Romans and other nations. ancient and
modern, by inclosing 1t in solid coffins and
monumental .tombs. The success has never
been commemorate with the effort Isolated
efforts have been made to preserve the whole
ara Sark ~ tl.<x~
tribute to humanity, rs relics or as lugubrious
reminder OF mans mortality Great con-
que-ors like Tamerlane did not hke the trouble
to bury those slaughtered in their battles or in
the populous cities they ravaged. but left
along their line Of march hundreds Of
wears afterward and piled in pyramids
that we're soon wasted away by the winds
and storms. After the battle of Morgarten tho
Swiss made a similar pyramid Of the bones of
the soldiers Of Charles the Rash left on the
battlefield. Considering the millions that have
persisted on fields Of battle, especially in
Europe. during the last thousand years. it is
astonishing that so few bones are turned up by
the pillow or found in excavating the soil. In
these days human bones found by chance are
decently buried, or IL II is necessary to con-
denim an old cemetery the remains found in it
are inferred elsewhere. In Paris this process
has been going on for n hundred years, that is
since the epoch Of the French revolution. The
bones Of those buried hastily after street riots
and those Of the deao Of the disused GENE teries
have been removed from time to time TO the
until the number OK Skeletons more
or less complete. here assembled amount at
present, to 5000. 900. In the cemetery of the
Capucines at Rome human bones are arranged
in fanciful designs, whose artistic ingenuity re-
lieves considerably the painful suggestions Of
1t is a theory Of certain religious
orders that death should continually he kept in
mind by actions or objects Of a sepulchral
nature.
The comparative durability Of the bones has
caused their extensive preservation as sacred
relics. Ths list Of these is too long to be given
with any sort Of completeness, but some OF
them may be mentioned as specimens Of the
rest OF the bones o: the arm there exist eight
of st. Blaise. nine Of st. Vincent, twelve of st.
Philip. seventeen Of st. Andrew, seventeen Of
St James. in as many different churches.
There is a knee bone Of st. Justinisn. The jaw
bones Of saints are innumerable. there being
twenty Of John the Baptist alone. or SANITY
hands there nine of st. Bartholomew, not
to mention numerous others. The skulls of
these holy personages appear also to have been
capable OF indefinite repetition; OF these it is
only necessary to mention the thirty or forty
preserved in different churches that are said
once to have belonged to st. Julian. The most
extensive collection Of osseous relics Is that Of
the IL 900 virgins in the Church OF ct. Ursula
at Cologne. each separate bone OF which is pre-
sumed TO be capable Of performing miracle.
The mortal remains Of many saints who died in
the early history OF the church were placed in
caskets which are worshIptd by the faithful,
but the condition OF their contents is unknown.
as it would be a horrible sacrilege to open
them.
or all the ancient nations only the Egyptians
have succeeded in preserving the remains Of
their sovereigns for respectable length Of
time. Not bone remains OF the rulers Of
Gent Greece or Rome. Some bones Of Charlie
magne are preserved in the Cathedral of AK la
Chapelle. Not one Of any Of his CONTEMPORARIES
is known to be in existence. The rem ,ins Of
the Plantsganet kings and queens buried at
Fontevrault Abbey were torn from their cas-
kets and scattered to the four winds by the
populace at the time Of the French revolution.
Those of the French sovereigns shared the
same fate; but of the latter. il their labels may
be believed, there are at the Louvre Museum.
though not on exhibition, shoulder blade of
Hugh Capet, a thigh bone Of Charles V. tbia
each of Charles VI and Francis l, vertebr@ Of
Charles VII, ribs Of Louis the Handsome and
Louis MI and the lower jaw of Catherine de
Medicis There is at Westminster Abbey a very
considerable collection Of royal collins. contain
ing what is left Of the English kings for some
hundreds of years back. but the precise condi-
ton Of the contents Ia unknown. In other
countries the remains of sovereigns that date
back over 500 years is limited. The royal
relics OF this kind that can claim an anti guilty
of 300 wears would not. by tho most iber al cal
culation, exceed . few score. the Egyptian
mummiss being excepted. OF the mortal part
of the forty thousand millions Of the race born
and passed away in the last thousand years
there still exist perhaps the Fragments Of the
skeletons OF thousand born before the year
1900. The estimate is generous and the show
ing pitifuL