Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 054.pdf/28

 The lower extremities were wrapped separately in fillets to nearly their natural size, and then bound together; the interstices being rammed full of pitched rags.

On cutting through the fillets on the thighs, the bones were found invested with a thin coat of pitch; and the filleting was bound immediately on this.

The tibia and fibula of each leg were found also wrapped in the same manner; and the bones in actual contact with the pitch: excepting in one or two places, where the pitch was so very thin, that the cloth appeared to adhere to the bone itself.

The feet were filleted in the same manner; being first bound separately, and then wrapped together. The filleting had been by some accident rubbed off the toes of the right foot; and the nail of the great toe was found perfect: the last joints of the bones of the lesser toes had been broken away; by which it appeared, that these bones had been penetrated and their cavities quite filled with pitch. The filleting about the heel had also been broken away, and the bones of the tarsus, and some of the metatarsal bones had fallen out and were lost; leaving the remaining filleting like a kind of case.

The fillets on the left foot were perfect; except on the heel, and where they had been divided from those of the leg; a small portion of the tendo Achillis adhered to the os calcis; and some of the ligaments to the astragalus.

On cutting into the fillets on the sole of this foot, they were found to enclose a bulbous root. The appearance of this was very fresh; and part of the thin