In the paleontological collection in the British Museum is preserved
a considerable portion of a human skeleton imbedded in a slab of
rock, brought from Guadaloupe, and often referred to in opposition to
the statement that hitherto _no fossil human hones have been found_.
The presence of these bones, however, has been explained by the
circumstance of a battle and the massacre of a tribe of Galtibis by the
Caribs, which took place near the spot in which the bones were found
about 130 years ago; for as the bodies of the slain were interred on
the seashore, their skeletons may have been subsequently covered by
sand-drift, which has since consolidated into limestone.
It will be seen by reference to the _Philosophical Transactions_,
that on the reading of the paper upon this discovery to the Royal
Society, in 1814, Sir Joseph Banks, the president, considered the
“fossil” to be of very modern formation, and that probably, from the
contiguity of a volcano, the temperature of the water may have been
raised at some time, and dissolving carbonate of lime readily, may
have deposited about the skeleton in a comparatively short period hard
and solid stone. Every person may be convinced of the rapidity of the
formation and of the hardness of such stone by inspecting the inside of
tea-kettles in which hard water is boiled.
Descriptions of petrifactions of human bodies appear to refer to
the conversion of bodies into adipocere, and not into stone. All
the supposed cases of petrifaction are probably of this nature.
The change occurs only when the coffin becomes filled with water.
The body, converted into adipocere, floats on the water. The
supposed cases of changes of position in the grave, bursting open
the coffin-lids, turning over, crossing of limbs, &c., formerly
attributed to the coming to life of persons buried who were not
dead, is now ascertained to be due to the same cause. The chemical
change into adipocere, and the evolution of gases, produce these
movements of dead bodies.--_Mr. Trail Green._