Year: 1874

Fatal DraUght from n Stone I'm q GenI-


Ogist's Cabinet.


New York Sun.


SIR-There have been SO many COM
ments in the papers, and receive so
many letters which it is impossible for
me to answer, in reference to the curl
GUS case of petrifaction which recently
came under my notice, that l am con
strained to write an account of the
whole affair, giving at the same time my
hypothesis as explanatory of the ra-
tionale.


Mr.. friedrich Haller is by profession
a lawyer. He early acquired, however,
quite a fondness for the natural
sciences, especially geology. He has
perhaps, the largest and most complete
geological cabinet in Louisiana. When
ever he wishes to relieve himself from
IL e dry details of law, he withdraws
into his Rock Study" as he calls the
apartment where he keeps his cabinet
and books relating to science, and there
passes many hours in experiment, in
reading, and in manipulating the geo.
logical and archaeological collections
which, through a period of nearly thir-
ty years, he has drawn together.


THE BEAUTIFUL BRYCE.


Having married early in life, some
five years ago he lost his wife and gave
up his household affairs to an elderly
maidensister. Something over month
ago he married again, taking as his
bride beautiful and charming young
girl of sixteen. As physician to her
fathers family and an intimate friend I
was an honored guest at the wedding
ceremony. I am sure I never saw a
more beautiful and happy bride. No
one could have dreamed of the strange
fate which awaited her.


On the morrow after the wedding Mr..
Haller took b s young bride to his resi-
dence, splendid mansion in the sub
urbs of the village. She was accom-
panied by a number of her female
friends, who were to spend the day with
her, while he, having business of i'm
portance at his Office in town, promised
to return as speedily as he could dis
pose of the business. The bride, being
installed in her new home, cared to take
little notice of household matters for
tho first day of matrimonial life, pre-
ferring to amuseherself with the friends
who had come over with her, knowing
that the domestic affairs were in good
hands.


IN THE BIOLOGISTS CABINET.


At about one o'clock she and some
three or four of her most intimate friends
went into Mr.. Haller's Crock Study"
already mentioned, to look over the
cabinet ofcuriosites, where they amused
themselves in frivolous gayety, such as
young girls would indulge in, harmless
and innocent to all appearances. Among
the curiosities which Mr.. Haller had
gathered were several round boulders
brought from Arkansas. These bould-
ers, on being broken, present in the
central space a crystalline formation,
and are usually not much larger han
the double fists. One of these, however,
was unusually large, measuring twenty
one inches in circumference. Frequent
ly the internal surface, always hollow,
contains water, ors.rather concentrated
solution of silica in water. This fact
was known to one of the young ladies,
who mentioned it. At once they all be-
gan to wonder whether there was water
in the large boulder. Two of the small
er ones had been broken, showing in the
center large crystals, and had contained
water, according to the assertion of the
young LAZY who had gained her informa-
tiOn at some other time in previous
visit.


THE FATAL DRAUGHT.


At once it was proposed to break the
large one, and several Intellectual at
temps were made by them with a geo.
logical hammer always present. They
called te their aid, a colored man,
servant on the place, who was requested
to break open the rock, as they called it.
He readily assented, being willing to
thus render his first service to the
new mistress. A pitcher being
placed underneath the boulder,
as the man held it, one sturdy
blow of his stalwart arm cracked
it, and the fluid within ran out and was
collected in the pitcher, scarcely losing
a drop, there being half pint of it.
A few additional blows opened the boul-
der, presenting large, fine transparent
crystals of quartz. These were much
and other friends were called
from the parlor to look at the novelty.


The bride, without ever giving it a
thought, conceived the notion of drink
ing the water from the boulder. She
poured most of it into glass tumbler,
nearly filling it, and lifting it to her
lips she drank first to the health of her
husband, then to that of the unmarried
friends in the room, wishing them
shortly to be happy brides like herself,
and drained the glass, all being done so
quickly that no one had time to inter-
fere or to think that any consequences
might follow.


RIGID IN DEATH.


At first it was thought that no harm
was done, and it was considered fine
Joke and much merriment was made.
But in a few minutes the youthful
bride complained of excessive pain in
the stomach, and she began to realize
the rashness of her action. A messenger
was sent in haste for her husband and
myself. Mr.. Haller's office being near
my own, we received the message al
most simultaneously, and we rapidly
drove together in buggy to his house.
When we arrived she was dead, peri
cd of fifteen minutes having elapsed
from the time of taking the fatal draught
to the time of extinction of life.
They were just laying her out
on our arrival. To my surprise found
she had grown in that short period so
rigid as to render it difficult to straight
en- her limbs. In the course of three
fourths of an hour her entire body be-
came as hard and as infexible as bone.


pass over the grief and consterna-
ton of the husband and the family as
too sacred for remark, CON
fning myself exclusively to the scien-
tific facts. It was plain that something
akin to ossifcation had taken place.
On more minute examination and i'll
quiry I found that the dissolved silica
she had taken into her stomach had cen
absorbed and transmitted by the chylo-
poletic apparatus and blood vessels
throughout her whole system, and that
her whole body was


PETRIFACTIoN.


The case being so singular and so
sudden the husband and the brides
family consented to partial post mort
em examination, other medical men
@ )minR to my assistance. We found it
to cut through any por ion
with our scalpels. DR.. Ferguson broke
his scalpel in the first attempt. We
were able only to break through the
chest with a h?tchct, finding extreme
difficulty in entering the thoracie cavity,