A SKELETON FACTORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10509, 31 July 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SKELETON FACTORY.

SOME INTERESTING PACTS.

Mrs. Dinokbkn Griffith hat bit upon » gruesome subject in the article under the above title in the June number of Pearson's Magazine; nevertheless it is a subject which has never before been treated in a popular magazine, and some facts of extraordinary interest are brought to light.

"The factory is under Government supervision. The proprietor is a rich awn, the business being his sole monopoly. In addition to his place in Paris, lie has two branches in London and one in Now York', and a separata department for stuffing and skeletonising animals and birds.

" Here the head, trunk, and limbs are cleared entirely of flesh, the bones bleached and afterwards treated to a course of preservatives, and finally put together by skilled anatomists. These various processes take twelve months.

"The bodies of criminals are sent from the disjecting schools to the factory, and also many specimen bodies of different races sent home by decomposition having been first arrested by chemical preparations and injections—are received and hore prepared for the anthropological museums in different parts of the world.

" As soon as the bodies,' heads, or limbs, as the case may be, reach the factory they are placed in tanks filled with water and phenic acid, which is continually changed. They are afterwords boiled in strong sodawater, and again immorsed in the tanks. This first stage occupies several months, and the details are far too gruesome to describe. The chemicals used in 'this process, and also for whitening and preserving the bones, are trade secrets.'

" The showroom is very large ,and light, and lined with glass oases containing specimen skeletons of giants, dwarfjj, negroes, and strange races discovered by travellers in foreign lands; criminals with ' their name, date of execution, and a record of tlioir crimes on attached labels; skeletons of males and females of all ages; 'sheWei of baby skeletons, huge of head and small of body composition skeletons,made up of odd bonesare all to be seen here.

"I wondered how the workmen could handle their ghastly subjects so calmly, or become accustomed to their company. "There is not the slightest'doubt that bones can be obtained in England, and, furthermore, then ia actually an agent of the Paris Skeleton Factory who purchases bodies in this country, and eenda them to France. This applies more particularly to bodies with aomo peculiarities or deformities which make them valuable.

" For these the price paid ia a Tery Urge one, and how they are procured matters but little; the agent pays the price, and asks no questions. The . body is put on board a fishing-boat in the Thames, and is conveyed to Brittany, where it is ae:rebly ( landed in some quiet spot, > and from there it.is despatched ■' with -all! speed to the; factory in Puis,". , j