DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0053
INSTANCE OF A KNIFE PASSING THROUGH THE BODY. 37
parcit honori—£e all men must die ; death pays no distinc-
tion to rank.”
In a visit which the writer paid in company with Lord
Nelson, Sir William and Lady Hamilton, &c. to a more
capacious cemetery of this kind near Palermo, and in
which the number of bodies amounted, as he was inform-
ed, to no less than 5000, he was shewn the manner of
preparing them to resist the ravages of time.—Our con-
ductor, says he, shewed us a door of the oven in which
these bodies were dried, and would fain have invited the
ladies to see the process; but on entering they hastily re-
tired ; and well they might, for the first object that saluted
their eyes was the body of a fat officer who had died
only the day before as he was on duty at the mole. The
body was extended on a low stove and placed on a sheet,
seemingly preparatory to the operation. When the body
is properly prepared, the door of the oven is carefully
closed so as to admit none of the external air. After re-
maining six months in this place, it is sufficiently dried
to be placed in the niche or coffin as required; the skin
then appears dry, shrivelled and hard, apparently of the
substance of tanned leather.
A Little Boy who swallowed the Blade of a Knife.
Saturday, November 10, 1804, the son of a Mr. Norton,
eight years of age, at school at Reigate, Surry, was
crossing a stile with the blade of a knife in his band, he
put it into his mouth, and in jumping down swallowed it.
He however felt but little pain, and had not been at
home many days, before the sharp portion of steel passed
his bowels. He is now perfectly recovered, and returned
to school.
New
parcit honori—£e all men must die ; death pays no distinc-
tion to rank.”
In a visit which the writer paid in company with Lord
Nelson, Sir William and Lady Hamilton, &c. to a more
capacious cemetery of this kind near Palermo, and in
which the number of bodies amounted, as he was inform-
ed, to no less than 5000, he was shewn the manner of
preparing them to resist the ravages of time.—Our con-
ductor, says he, shewed us a door of the oven in which
these bodies were dried, and would fain have invited the
ladies to see the process; but on entering they hastily re-
tired ; and well they might, for the first object that saluted
their eyes was the body of a fat officer who had died
only the day before as he was on duty at the mole. The
body was extended on a low stove and placed on a sheet,
seemingly preparatory to the operation. When the body
is properly prepared, the door of the oven is carefully
closed so as to admit none of the external air. After re-
maining six months in this place, it is sufficiently dried
to be placed in the niche or coffin as required; the skin
then appears dry, shrivelled and hard, apparently of the
substance of tanned leather.
A Little Boy who swallowed the Blade of a Knife.
Saturday, November 10, 1804, the son of a Mr. Norton,
eight years of age, at school at Reigate, Surry, was
crossing a stile with the blade of a knife in his band, he
put it into his mouth, and in jumping down swallowed it.
He however felt but little pain, and had not been at
home many days, before the sharp portion of steel passed
his bowels. He is now perfectly recovered, and returned
to school.
New