Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/165

 DISCOVERY OF A HUMAN FOOT. 149

the topic of conversation in the place, and for all that we know, stran(^"e surmises woukl probably have been made reiiardinfj the foot to this dav, had not facts stronger than suppositions pushed themselves under the noses of the learned doctors assembled to discuss the subject. It seemed strange to them that the heat of the climate, which decomposes aniuial matter in less than forty-eight hours, had not made the slightest impression on the foot ; though four days had now ela])sed since its disco- very, it was still as fresh as on the first day. Some wrig suggest(,'d that it might have been pickled or saltt.'d ; and sure enough a lingual and nasal test proved that such was the case. J>ut wh\' had this been don(? The gra\'e conclave of doctors asscndilcil f\crv day for a week, vainlv trying to S(i]\c tlic in\sterv.

At last tiny wen; about to give Uj) the mat- ter as inexplicable, when, to the sui'j)i'ise of all, a doctor wlio had been \ erv silent durinir the

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