DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0102
84
HUMAN BODIES.
Bretancourt, a Norman, in 1417, or by Peter de Vera, a
Spaniard, in 1483. The flesh of this body is perfectly
preserved, but is dry, inflexible, and hard as wood, so
that to the touch it seems petrified, though it is not. The
features of the face arc very perfect, and appear to
be those of a young man ; nor is that, or any other part
of the body, decayed. The body is no more shrunk
than if the person had not been dead above two or three
days. The skin only, appears a little shrivelled, this
body was sent to Madrid, to be deposited in the royal
academy of surgery. The case, in which it was placed,
had another small case within it, containing two or three
vases, and a hand-mill, which were found in the same
cavern.
A third instance of this nature, occurs at a celebrated
convent of Capuchins about a mile without the city of
Palermo, in the Island of Sicily.—The burial place is a
great curiosity.—It is a large subterraneous apartment,
divided into commodious galleries, the walls of which
are hollowed out into nitches, each of them filled with
dead bodies, all seton their les;s, and fixed by the back
to the inside of the recess. The)r are all dressed in their
usual clothes, and form a most venerable assembly.—
Their skin and muscles by a certain preparation become
as dry and hard as a piece of stock-fish; and though
many of the bodies have been dead more than one hun-
dred and fifty years, none are yet reduced to skeletons.—
Here the people of Palermo pay frequent visits, nor is
the sight of these corpse so full of horror as might be
imagined.
Description of the Great Tun of Heidelberg, in Germany.
(Vide the Plate.)
3. he famous English traveller Thomas Coryat, who
commenced his travels on the Continent in 1608, during
the
HUMAN BODIES.
Bretancourt, a Norman, in 1417, or by Peter de Vera, a
Spaniard, in 1483. The flesh of this body is perfectly
preserved, but is dry, inflexible, and hard as wood, so
that to the touch it seems petrified, though it is not. The
features of the face arc very perfect, and appear to
be those of a young man ; nor is that, or any other part
of the body, decayed. The body is no more shrunk
than if the person had not been dead above two or three
days. The skin only, appears a little shrivelled, this
body was sent to Madrid, to be deposited in the royal
academy of surgery. The case, in which it was placed,
had another small case within it, containing two or three
vases, and a hand-mill, which were found in the same
cavern.
A third instance of this nature, occurs at a celebrated
convent of Capuchins about a mile without the city of
Palermo, in the Island of Sicily.—The burial place is a
great curiosity.—It is a large subterraneous apartment,
divided into commodious galleries, the walls of which
are hollowed out into nitches, each of them filled with
dead bodies, all seton their les;s, and fixed by the back
to the inside of the recess. The)r are all dressed in their
usual clothes, and form a most venerable assembly.—
Their skin and muscles by a certain preparation become
as dry and hard as a piece of stock-fish; and though
many of the bodies have been dead more than one hun-
dred and fifty years, none are yet reduced to skeletons.—
Here the people of Palermo pay frequent visits, nor is
the sight of these corpse so full of horror as might be
imagined.
Description of the Great Tun of Heidelberg, in Germany.
(Vide the Plate.)
3. he famous English traveller Thomas Coryat, who
commenced his travels on the Continent in 1608, during
the