An Account of Some Human Bones Incrusted with Stone, Now in the Villa Ludovifia at Rome: Communicated to the Royal Society by the President, with a Drawing of the Same

But if the Man who makes use of this Contrivance happens to be of a more than commonly sleepy Disposition, in such Case another Thread is tied to that Part of the Line CC which is next the Pulley, and its other End is twisted round the Thumb or Wrist of the sleepy Person, whereby, when the Candle burns the Line, and the Weight falls, he receives such a sudden Pull as can hardly fail to wake him, as the Drawing will easily explain. If the Line for a few Inches on each Side the Candle be Wire with a short Thread only just in the Middle where the Candle is placed, there can be no Danger of doing Mischief by the Fire's running along the Line. And thus may the poorest Mechanic provide himself with an useful Servant at a very small Expence. Dec. 10. 1745. XV. An Account of some human Bones incrusted with Stone, now in the Villa Ludovisia at Rome: communicated to the Royal Society by the President, with a Drawing of the same. Read Dec. 12. 1745. Something like the Body of a petrified Man being mentioned by several Authors, as preserved in the Villa Ludovisia at Rome, and the same having been lately referred to in a Discourse read before this Society; I thought, that a Drawing of that Curiosity, which I procured at Rome some Years since, might, possibly deserve the the Notice of the Gentlemen here present: especially, as it will appear thereby, that the several Accounts hitherto given of it are not very accurate, or, at the best, convey but a very imperfect Idea of the Truth. The following Passage occurs in the Journal-Book of the Society, for the 17th Day of April 1689: "Mr. Henshaw related, that he had seen, in the Villa Ludovisia at Rome, the Body of a Man incrusted with a sort of a white Marble or Alabaster Case, supposed to have been a Man frozen in the Alps, and after, in long Process of Time, this Incrustation to have grown upon him; and that one of his Arms was broken off, purposely to shew, that it was no Imposition." Mr. Richard Lassels, in his Travels to Italy, printed at Paris 1670. pag. 180. tells us, that in the lesser Casina, belonging to the Ludovisian Villa, he saw, in a great square Box lined with Velvet, the Body of a petrified Man, that is, a Man turned into Stone; one Piece of the Leg (broken off to assure an Embassador doubting of the Verity of the Thing) shewed plainly both the Bone and the Stone crufted over it. The Head and the other Parts lie jumbled up together in the Box. Father Athanasius Kircher says, in his Mundus Subterraneus, l.viii. chap. 2. "Spectatur et hic Romæ in horti Ludovisiiani palatio, corpus humanum totum in saxum conversum, ossibus adhuc integris, at lapideo cortice obductis." And in the following Page he gives an imperfect Sketch of the same thing, under the Title of "Skeleton humani corporis in saxum conversum, ex palatio Pinciano principis Ludovisi." This Sketch, however imperfect, gives a truer Idea than either his or Mr. Lassels's Words seem to convey, as there is indeed nothing like the Body of a Man, but only a Cluster of disjointed Bones cemented together by the same Matter that incrusts them over. Mr. Misson in his Travels has more truly described them, when he says, that "in the same Room they shew a small Heap of Bones, said to be the Skeleton of a petrified Man; which is a Mistake, for the Bones themselves are not petrified, but there has gather'd about them a sort of candied Crust, or stony Incrustation, which has made them pass for being of real Stone." Mr. Wright also, in his late Observations made in travelling through Italy, &c. has taken notice, that in the Villa Ludovisia "they shew'd some Bones of a human Body all crusted over with a petrified Substance." When I was at Rome in the Year 1734, I myself saw this Curiosity, which is still preserved in the same Casina of the Ludovisian Gardens; and in the very square Box lined with Velvet, that is mentioned by Mr. Lassels, and represented by Father Kircher: and as I had before heard it much spoken of, and had conceived an Idea of it very different from the Truth, I was willing both to preserve a true Notion of it myself, and to be able to give such a one to others. I therefore employed an ingenious young Painter to make as exact a Drawing of it as he could; and I afterwards very carefully compared his Drawing with the Original, which is the same I have here to produce, hoping that the Sight of it will not be unacceptable to the Company. The stony Substance that joins the Bones together is of a whitish Colour, and the same as that which incrusts the Bones themselves: Small Fractures Fractures in several Places discover the natural Bones; and the Size of the whole Mass may be judged of, by considering the Scull, which is of the common Dimensions, as a Scale to the other Parts. See Tab. II. FINIS. To the Book-binder. The Crounean Lectures on Muscular Motion, for the Years 1744 and 1745, are to follow this Page, and stand before the Index. The Crounian Lectures.