Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-11-11
ABOUT PETRIFACTIONS.
Facts on Subject at the Mercy of Popular
Ignorance.
NO such Thing ms q Petrinea Human
body Ever Existed-What Petrl.
facation Really IN.

one reads almost every week In the nevs-
papers of the finding of a ''petrified" human
BODY. Such thing never did ana never
VIII exist Nevertheless. so dense a. the
popular ignorance OF such matters, ana 10
ready the human mind to be deluded, that
reports OF this kind are commonly accepted
as facts. 1t would be well IL they could be
deprived Of credibility for all future time
by the publication Of a few truths on this
subject.
In the first place a ''petritaction" is not
strictly speaking a Transformation Of the
original animal or plant into stone 1t 10
merely replacement Of the organic tissue
py mineral substance. AS each particle Of
the plant or animal decays and disappears.
It's place is taken. usually in water or mud,
oy particle Of mineral matter deposited
from the water which has held IT in suspen-
SON. Thus the perishable original is chang
ed Into imperishable stone preserving its
form and even its structural appearance
when cut into.
BY such means have the skeletons of ami
mails millions Of years old been preserved
In the rocks Of the everlasting hills. 80 that
they may be reconstructed today as they
were ages before man appeared on the
this way kept: never the flesh. because
water cannot percolate through It In the
same way whole forests of trees in the
Yellowstone region and elsewhere are
changed into agate and other forms of
stone. the hollow logs Of the forest primeval
being often found filled with beautiful crys-
tails of quartz and amethyst
ClfHs ON the Yellowstone River.
q bat ha CT hr-ov oh
of the Yellowstone river afford a view Of a
series of such forests buried on top OF one
another. The lowermost level was original
ly a wooded plain. hundreds Of thousands OF
years ago. Volcanoes burst forth in the
neighborhood, and il was overwhelmed by
their debris. On top the latter fresh trees
took root and grew. to be in their turn
buried by subsequent eruptions. This sort
of thing continued through century after
century, until 1000 feet Of Accommodations
were heaped above the forest at the bottom
Beneath the hills thus formed water now
ed, as il does constantly through the earth's
crust. The buried trees gradually oecayeo.
and their decomposing substance was re-
placed by mineral matter. Transforming
them into stone. Afterward the Yellow
stone river cut down through the strata
formed of volcanic debris IN the manner
described. For thousands and thousands
of years the great stream plowed out ~
bed, until today the latter il cut 4.Uo
feet deep-a canyon walled in by towering
cliffs. And, one looks upward at those
cliffs, the buried forests are plainly TO be
seen in the successive layers composing
them. They can be counted easily. The
reckoning carrying the observer back 10 the
very night of time when real dragons and
chimeras dire walked on the earth. swan
in the seas and flew in the air.
Nearly all the trees which line these
wonderful cliffs are turned into agate. one
can climb up and knock them on, a. they
break readily into sections. Many OF them,
which were hollow before they were buried.
are filled with beautiful crystals OF quarts
and amethyst. Water. percolating into such
hollow trunks. brought particles OF silica.
which formed themselves into crystals. d
naily filling up the cavities. 1t Is in hollow
parts of buried trees that nearly all exist
ing crystals of amethyst and quartz were
which were hidden away by the hand OF
nature in old logs and stumps. Amethyst
of course, is merely quartz crystal with q
little coloring matter from metallic oxides.
found in various parts of the west was
thus transformed under water. There 10 .
fossil forest of such material at Los Ceril-
los, n. NJ, and another at Chalcedony
Park. Arizona Ii is largely used for orna-
mental purposes. The trees fell and were
submerged, becoming sfhedhed in the man
ner already described While this was 60
ing on, spores of fungi hoated into the
cracks in the trunks and branches. germi-
mating and extending their threads OF my
celium through the decaying wood. These
threads are still visible in the ''petr1ned"-
the word 'fossilized" is considered prefer
able-substance. ramifying through the cells
of the wood. The water also brought salts
Of iron in solution, which were secreted
by the fungus and afterward deposited by
il, thus enriching the celebration Of the fos<
SiliZed structure.
Iron Forms Many Fossils.
Iron, being plentiful in many rocks and
readily soluble, often replaces organic SUBJ
stances and forms fossils In the depart
ment of prehistoric anthropology at the
Smithsonian Institute is preserved q hu-
man skull of iron, which was dug out of a
hillside not long ago. Not only has iron
replaced the substance Of the bone. but the
brain-cavity is filed with the metal, so that
the skull weighs many pounds. The hill in
which its owner was buried was rich In
iron ore of course.
Shells. inclosed in the strata Of hills. are
sometimes transformed into opal by a pro-
cess of fossilization. opal being merely q
form of quartz. Petrffications, properly
termed fossil remains of plants are readily
distinguishable in beds of coal. % that IL II
easily determined from what sorts Of giant
ferns and other trees the coal was original
ly formed. Among the most ancient Of fos-
sis are numerous insects. which, despite
the delicacy OF their structure. have been
preserved through millions of years for the
instruction of a modern generation, the
very fun on the wings of the primeval
moth being plainly distinguishable.
papers as found "petrified" are examples OF
a phenomenon long familiar. They have
been transformed not into stone, but into
a substance called "adipocere" or grave
wax" This is a true SOAP into which the
corpse of a human being Will ordinarily be
metamorphosed IL buried in a graveyard or
other place where water has access to it.
This "adpocere' is one of the most en-
during OF substances. 1t is not subject to
decay, and the body which has assumed
this constitution may preserve it's form for
many years, and even for centuries. Nay.
for ages, since evidence on the point has
been obtained from the orthoceras-a mol
lusk that became extinct millions Of years
ago, of large size. and built after the pat
tern of the chambered nautilus. but with .
straight shell.
In shells Of the orthoceras has been
found adpocere-the flesh of the animal
transformed into the soapy substance de-
scribed. which would thus appear 70 have
been preserved intact from the silurian
epoch until now.
EARNINGS OF MARRIED WOMEN.