The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-08

The Ultimate Destination of the Most
Durable Parts of the Body.

Tho bones are composition OF lime and
phosphorus, aud are she most durabic
part of the human system. Leave tho
body of a man or animal exposed 20 the
air. in few weeks it passes into the
earth and atmosphere, leaving only the
skeleton, which, after considerable
lapse of time, disappears also. This reab-
sorptiOn Of the body by the elements is
comparatively rapid In the towers of the
Parsees and in the case of those who
perish in traversing the desert The
body Of man cannot properly be said to
return TO dust. That is an ancient preju-
dice. 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, en-
bodied in rocks, or dissolved in water In
the process of cremation the tissues dis
appear in the form of vapor, and there
remains a residue composed Of pieces of
bone of various sizes, which, if water is
added and they are dried become a coarse
dust that can be hermetically sealed
in an urn and preserved for an indefinite
period.
Even the process of embalming prac-
ticed by the ancient Egyptians could not
prevent the resolving of the body into its
original elements. If fragments of the
tissues. or if the bones remain it is be-
cause their character is entirely changed
by the gums and other substances en-
ployed by the embalmer AS to embalm-
ing as practiced in these DAYS, il is of too
recent origin to furnish any reliable data
as to its efficacy as a preventative method
The Egyptians endeavored to preserve
The entire body by smothering it in anti
septic substances, the Greeks. Romans,
and other nations, ancient and modern,
by enclosing it in solid collins and monu-
mental tombs. The success has never
been commensurate with the effort lso-
lated efforts have been made to preserve
the whole or part of the oSSeouS struct-
ure as decent tribute TO humanity, as
relics, or as a lugubrious reminder of
mans mortality. Great cOnquerors like
Tamerlaue, did not take the trouble to
bury those slaughtered in their battles or
in the populOus cities they ravaged, but
left along their line of march hun
dreds Of thousands of bleaching sl1ele-
tons, collected years afterward and piled
in pyramids that were soon wasted awav
by the winds and storms. After the bat
tie Morgarten the Swiss made n 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 wears, il
is astonishing that so few bones are
Jul AAN4 NY ~ Viz EJlONAl w IOulu III OK
cGvating the soil. In these days human
bones found by chance are decently
buried, or if it is necessary to condemn
an old cemetery the remains found in it
are inferred elsewhere. In Paris
this process has been going on for q
hundred years, that is, since the epoch of
the FRENCH revolution. The bones of
those buried hastily after street riots
and those of the dead of the disuScd Gem
eteries, have been removed from time to
time to the catacombs, until the number
of skeletons more or less complete here
assembled amount at present to six mil
lions. In the cemetery of the Capucines
at Rome human bones are arranged in
fanciful designs whose artistic ingenuity
relieves considerably the painful suCges-
tions of mortality. 1t is theory of GER
tain religious orders that death should
continually be kept in mind by actions or
objects of a sepulchral nature.
The comparative durability of the
bones has caused their extensive preser-
walton as sacred relics The 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 bones Of the arm there exist
s of st. Blaise, 8 of St Vim
cent, 10 of St. Philip, II of st. An
drew, II Of st. James, in as many differ
ent churches. There is a knee bone of
St. Justinian. The iawbones of saints
are innumerable, there being twenty of
John the Baptist alone. OF sanity hands
there are nine of St. Barthoo-
NEW, not to mention numerous Others
The skulls Of these holy person
ages appear also to have been
capable or indefinite repetition; of these
1T 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, 600 virgins
in the Church of St. Ursula at Cologne,
each separate bone of which is said to be
capable of performing a miracle. The
mortal remains of many saints who died
in the early history of the church were
placed in caskets, which are worshiped
by the faithful but the condition of their
contents is unknown, as it would be
horrible sacrilege to open them
OF all the ancient nations only the
Egyptians have succeeded in preserving
the remains of their sovereiens for a re-
spectacle length of time. Not a bone re-
mains of the rulers of ancient Greece or
Rome. Some bones of Charlemagne are
preserved in the cathedral of AK la
Chapelie. Not one of any of his contem-
poraries is known to be in existence. The
remains of the Plantagenet kings and
queens buried at FOntevrault Abbey
were TORN from their caSketS and scat
tered to the four winds by the populace
at tho time of the revolution. Those of
the French sovereigns shared the same
fate; but of the latter, if their labels may
be believed, there are at the Louvre
museum, though not on exhibition, q
shoulder blade of Hugh Capet, q thigh
bone of Charles v, tibia each of Charles
VI, and Francis l.. vertebre of Charles
VII ribs of Louis the Handsome and
Louis XII, and the lower jaw of Gather
inc de Medicis. There is at Westmins-
ter Abbey very considerable collection
OF royal collins containing what is left of
the English kings for some hundreds of
years back, but the precise condition of
the contents is unknown. In other coun-
tries the remains of sovereigns that date
back over five hundred years is limited
The royal relics of this Kind that can
claim an antiquity of 300 years would not
by the most liberal calculation, exceed a
few score, the Egyptian mummies being
excepted. OF the mortal part of the for
ty 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
ane the showing pitiful.
MEDICAL