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GALLERY
WHO'S WHO
ATLAS
MYTHS DEBUNKED
FAMILY TREE
CONTACT THE AUTHOR
UPCOMING EVENTS
REVIEWS
CHICAGO HISTORY LINKS
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Q: "Assume, professor, that a body is boiled in a vat, a human body
weighing 110 or 115 pounds, is boiled in a vat 3 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 11
feet 2 inches long, after there has been placed in this vat 378 pounds of
crude potash, in a solution amounting to about 500 gallons, and that this vat
has a steam pipe leading into it about three-quarters of an inches in diameter
in the inside, and that a human body is boiled in this vat for two and half of
three hours. I will ask you whether or not any slimy, slippery, soapy residue
would be produced or left?"
A: "What is left in the vat is greasy, a reddish liquid, which by cooling,
may turn into a kind of jelly, and at the bottom of that there will be more or
less disintegrated bones, I believe. A part of the flesh will not be dissolved
and there may be some shreds or lumps of flesh undissolved."
Q: "Would not 378 pounds of alkali in a 500-gallon solution wholly destroy
all of the grease or fat of a human body weighing 100 or 115 pounds?"
A: "No."