The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-12

OF the body. This curiosity, which ia
nothing less than a human root, was
placed In the museum OF Brown Uni
versity. where the visitor to-day can
look upon what is very probably the
body of the great Roger Williams turn
ed to wood
The specimen in DR.. Afetz.s lahora-
tory consists of trunk. two legs. on
one of which is part of a foot, and one
arm. The outline is almost perfect.
some of the details of the human body
being outlined with remarkable p,,ee;-
sion. The specimen was sent to Dr
Metz by what he calls one of his bows"
in his usual method OF referring TO Tu-
lane medical graduates. This partfcu-
lar boy is a graduate of the class of
1886. and is now a praeticing physician
IN Arkansas, where the human root. or
earbonaceous human body. or whatever
one might choose to call it, was found.
DIR. Metz did not care to mention his
name, as he said he did not know
whether the gentleman would care 10
have it so or not.
The body was found under circun1-
stances exactly similar to those under
which the one of Roger Williams was
found a boy about 10 years old was
found dead one day out in the woods
evidently killed by the discharge OF a
shotgun which he carried with him, in
which was found an empty shell. He
also carried other hunting parapher-
malta, and everybody came to the con-
clusion that he was out hunting and
had accidentally shot himself He was
a stranger in the place. and no cine
around seemed to know where he came
from or who his people were. After
waiting while to see if any one would
come to claim him, and after search
and advertising proved unavailable, a
planter finally took charge of the body
and buried it on his place planting a
tree over the spot for future identih-
cation.
Years later, when the sprout planted
by the farmer had grown into a huge
tree, the almost forgotten incident was
recalled to the people of those parts by
the appearance there of certain parties
to whose ears the story had just come.
They said that from what they had
heard of the story they believed the.
boy to have been relative of theirs
whose parents were still living and
VINO had been mourning him as dead
ever since the fatal day when he left
home on hunting trip, day that cor
responded with the time of the finding
of the body. They had come to that
place to make further investigation,
and upon hearing the story from
some inhabitants who still remem-
bered it Were convinced that the body
buried under the tree was that of the boy
they Were looking for. Permission was
given to exhume the body.
Upon, digging beneath the tree they
found a earbonaceous outline of the
box in which he was buried, and inside
Of this the carbonaeeous outline of a
human body, As in the case of the
burial place of Roger Williams, though
there was unquestionable proof that
4 body had been buried at this spot,
some people living having been present |
at the burial, no bones, dust or other
signs of a body We're to be found, no
hing but this human-shaped root that |
low hangs in the Medical Department |
If Tulane
In discussing the NATTER with a re-
porter DR.. Metz said:
TT is one of the prettiest demonstra- |
ions of the. indestructibility of matter |
hat I know of."-New Orleans
9icayune.