The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-06

| fhc foundations of the new struc.
| ture being SO much larger than the old
| ones that great many graves had tc
be disturbed in the excavations
These excavations were made the CO.
casion of again searching for the re-
| mains of Bach. and while many be-.
! lieved it an utter impossibility and
poohoohed the attempt, it was de-
cided by the authorities to leave moth
ing undone to clear away all doubts
about the grave of Bach. He had died
on July IS, 1850 at the age of 65 years,
and was buried on July 81. A con-
temporary writer states only that his
grave was near the door of the
church" An old, uncorroberated ira
dition placed it at the southern side of
the church, just six steps from small
side entrance. Dr. Wustmann ascer-
tanned by research in the archives that
Bach was buried in an oaken coffin,
and in shallow grave-not in deep
one used for the burial of two or three
people-which never had been marked
with a tom bstone.
These were all the clews that could
be found. Systematic searching at the
place mentioned above brought to light
parts of oalzen collins which evidently
belonged to two different persons
One contained the remains of young
woman, the other those OF man past
the middle age. The skeleton of the
latter was carefully collected and
transferred TO the laboratory of Prof.
His for examination. The report of
DR. His appeared recently, and from it
we CLEAN the following:
The skull belonging to the skeleton
shows a strong and characteristic for
nation, and could not have belonged
20 any ordinary man. In order TO
ascertain whether the physiognomic
properties of the skull agreed in all
particulars with the features OF Bach,
known TO Us from several paintings
still in existence in Leipsic, a novel
and highly interesting experiment was
tried. Prot. Els called in an eminent
sculptor, Karl Seffuer, who he re-
uuested to build mask of Bach around
the skull, which he did in few days.
furnishing an excellent likeness The
scien tifc value of Seffner's reconstruc-
ton of Bach's head over his supposed
skull was doubted on the part of sew
eral professional men. TIE assertion be-
ing made that a clever artist could
build any given face around anv skull
of a somewhat similar formation
To disprove this assertion Seffner
finally agreed TO model head Of Han
del over the same skull The trial was
apparently a success. but only upon
the surface. The mask Itself was an
anatomical iropossibili:y. In parts
where the tissues form only a thin
layer over the bones, like in the fore
head. the clay had TO be applied inch
deep to preserve the similarity, while
around the chin and the cheeks. where
thick layers Of flesh surround the bones.
those OF Bach'S skull almost penetrated
TO the surface Thus the question
arose whether. with the aid of ana
tonic measurements. representing the
average for given age. a face might
be nodded upon a skull regardless OF
who the person was and still resemble
Il in general traits TO a certain extent
This problem had 20 be seked BIZ toe
snatornist aad the artist together.
Prof His succeeded with theneasnrc-
meuts and established ,se normal
thickness % tissues OF the face. CIV
ing 20 the arts. ts1e sversS-e o. thirty
seven measurements taken on men De-
tween the szrs Of sixty and sexeuiy-
two ye-rS
The sculptor started anew upon hss
task and noE made face uasx ID
herring absolutely 20 the figures pre-
sc-sted for hin. ey the s1aionisi TIE
facial trait. were hardly corxidered