The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1905-06-01
BODY OF PAUL JONES
Identification of American Adj
mirars Corpse In Paris.
REMAINS WE'RE WE'LL PRESERVED

The Skin Was Tanned, Mummified,
but Altogether Intact-Body Was
Wedged Into Its Co1Ein So Tightly
That Pfnchers Were Used to Draw
1t Out-Measurements OF Features.
The patriotic efforts of General Hor-
ace Porter, our retiring ambassador in
Paris, to find the body of Admiral John
Paul Jones, the father Of the United
States navy, under the modern build
ings which cover the site of the old
Protestant cemetery in Paris, where it
has lain since 1892, have been describ-
ed in the American press. An autopsy
after that length Of time is so rare that
the following report Of DR.. Papillaut,
assistant director of the laboratory Of
anthropology at the Ecole DIES Hautes
Etudes, should prove interesting as
well as curious, says the Paris CORE
spondent Of the New York Post:
my eminent colleague, DR.. Captain,
professor of anthropology, who made
the examination Of the corpse along
with me, is more familiar than I with
the excavations which have been made
to find the coffin Of Admiral Jones. AS
a member Of the commission of old
Paris he interested himself in the
search made by NJ. Weiss, mining en-
gineer. l had to do only with the iden-
tifcation Of the body after the leaden
coffin had been opened. The coffin was
brought to the medical faculty on the
9th Of April. 1t had no inscription, but
it's fabrication showed exceptional
care 1t exactly enveloped the shape
Of the body, outlining even the contour
Of the head.
1.-THE body which was found in this
coffin was wonderfully preserved, and
it had most likely been plunged in al
cohol. The skin was tanned, mummi-
fed, but altogether intact. The only
clothing was nne shirt. The body
was. wedged into it's leaden envelop
with straw and hay so tight that to
get it out of the coffin it was necessary
to use pinchers. This must have been
done to avoid injury from shaking III
case it had been transported to Ameri-
ca.
ITO identify the body of Admiral
Jones two kinds of documents had
been placed at our disposition-frst,
written documents, among other details
of his physique from memoirs Of the
time and information concerning the
disease Of which he died; second, two
10 NV hn Int "a
different dates.
According to the written documents,
the admiral died at about the age of
forty-fve. He had brown hair and was
of stature OF ITO meters. The exam
ination Of the teeth of the corpse,
which, after being scraped and washed,
appeared brown with white lines,
showed a man Of about forty-five. For
the stature l found LII meters, which
should not surprise. for a man lying
down has always one of two centime-
tiers more than when standing.
"These first Notifications were salts
flying, but they were not sufficient.
With the two busts of Houdon l was
able to obtain results far more precise
and interesting. One Of these busts be-
longs to the Marquis de Biron. It Is a
rough cast graceful and spirited, rep
resenting rather an elegant courtier
than q mariner Of Wanted bravery.
The other bust, the original Of which is
In Philadelphia, but which has a plas-
ter replica in the Trocadero museum,
seems to have been modelled more ex-
actly. IN it Houdon appears to have
aimed chiefly at the likeness On this
bust we took measures and verified the
morphological characters capable Of de-
termining identity. The roots of the
lair, shape of the eye socket, form Of
the forehead and root Of the nose were
identical in the bust and in the corpse.
Professor Herve, who helped in the OPP
Grafton, even pointed out particular
disposition Of the ear cartilages, in
which the corpse agreed with the bust.
"But it was the measurement of the
height of the face, of the minimum
frontal diameter and Of the chin and
the rest which astonished me by it's
condolences. The agreement was with
in one millimeter. Now, while artists
always take exact measures, they have
tendency, often in order to empha
size some characteristic, to wander two
or three millimeters from the real meas
ure. Thus Dalou, who was a very ex-
act artist, made even important errors.
He allowed me to measure some of his
portraits and compare them with the
model. I verified that he made changes
Or exaggerations often on purpose, but
sometimes he did not notice. I have
never verified in any modern artists
work so exact a relation between mod
Ell and portrait as that which found
between Houdon's bust and the head
Of the corpse I was examining.
I'm my report I have not absolutely
asserted that this body is that Of Ad-
miral Jones. But believe that I have
accumulated proofs which render doubt
very difficult. I ought to add that /
have compared the measurements and
characteristics verified in Houdon's
bust with those Of 200 corpses which I