Dr. Joseph Leidy's Petrified Lady
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DR. JOSEPH LEIDY’S PETRIFIED LADY RUMMAGING IN THE MÜTTER MUSEUM, OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA By Joseph Mc Farl and , m .d . PHILADELPHIA MONGA our numerous and re- century—even in a closed case—and /vk markable possessions and a which it is impossible to remove be- /yk leading exhibit of our Miit- cause of the adhesive and crumbling ™ ■ ter Museum is an adipocere nature of the surface to which it is body commonly spoken of as “The attached. All that remains is a mass of Petrified Lady.” dirty, wrinkled, cracked and crumbling Just inside the door of the innermost waxy substance shaped in conformity to room of the lower floor, she lies in a a human figure. coffin-like case as though laid out for Few anatomical landmarks remain, what the morticians now speak of as but the breasts, once prominent, are, “viewing,” and although there is per- as in old age, now flattened against the fect quiet and dim lighting, there are chest wall. They, and the long thin no surrounding clusters of flowers to hair tied with a ribbon, are all that give off their funereal sweetness, no remain to determine the sex. friends and relatives to whisper in the The features are not easily made out, background, and no undertakers in but the open mouth is unmistakable solemn black silently flitting to and fro. and it is without a single tooth. No, it is not a funeral but an exhibi- Evidently our lady had a plump fig- tion, for her body, buried long ago ure and full breasts, but was old, and became changed to adipocere, and thus probably ugly, with a nut-cracker pro- has become an object of rare scientific file at the time of her death. interest. Let us read what the label says:— A petrified lady! What does one ex- Mutter Museum #13000. pect? Youth and beauty richly clad to Body of a fat woman changed to adi- await a glorious eternity? If so, prepare pocere; “Petrified Body.’’ The woman, for disappointment for the case con- named Ellenbogen, died in Philadelphia, tains one of the most revolting objects of yellow fever in 1792 and was buried that can be imagined. The body seems near Fourth and Race Streets. The process to have been buried without an under- of change is as follows:—The nitrogenous taker’s skill, or even the friendly min- tissues give off ammonia, this attacking istrations of some unprofessional hand, the fat of the body forms a hard soap. The for it is nude, the jaw has fallen, and form is well preserved. the toothless mouth gapes widely open. Presented by Dr. Joseph Leidy. The whole body is black from the This brief statement evidently satis- dust that has accumulated in a half fies most of our visitors, but it raises a lot of questions: Why does not a similar However, one of great importance change take place in the bodies of all was found among the Mfitter docu- fat people? What may yellow fever have ments, of which more will be said later. had to do with it in this case? What did You may have noticed that the names telluric conditions have to do with it? are not exactly the same: the man in Were other yellow fever victims simi- the Wistar Institute was Wilhelm von larly affected? Were other corpses in- Ellenbogen, the woman in the Mlitter terred near Fourth and Race Streets Museum, simply Ellenbogen. In Ger- similarly affected? Had these questions many that little word von signifies “of occurred to Dr. Leidy, and had he pub- a noble family.” lished an account of this case? Were these people of the German We remember another “petrified nobility? If so. what were they doing body”—another adipocere body—with in Philadelphia in 1792? Were they resi- which we became acquainted during dents or were they tourists, who, while student days. It then occupied a promi- visiting our city, were fatally stricken nent place in the Wistar and Horner with the loathsome disease and hurried Museum of the Medical Department of into some hastily prepared grave with the University of Pennsylvania, then no friends or relatives to attend with housed in the Logan Hall, but now lies the conventional funereal pomp and in the museum of the Wistar Institute. ceremony? Could that have happened Its label says:— in 1792? There was no yellow fever in Philadelphia in that year, the great epi- 4249 Wistar Museum. demic having begun in the summer of Body of Wilhelm von Ellenbogen, who died of yellow fever in 1792 aged 63 years. 1793- Ellenbogen! Where did we hear that The fat is converted into adipocere, an ammonical soap. A so-called petrified name before? Ah yes, sailing down the body. Rhine River and enjoying its wealth Presented by Dr. Joseph Leidy. of beauty and romance, we passed two ruined castles, one “die Maus” and the So our “Petrified Lady,” and the Wis- other “die Katz.” Baedeker’s Guide tar Institute’s “Petrified Man” had the book explains these odd names thus. same name and died of the same dis- The Turnberg or Deurenberg, the ease, in the same city, in the same year. smaller castle, was the stronghold of From the little that remains to judge Archbishop Behmund II of Treves. It by, the two must have been pretty was derisively called the mouse by the nearly of the same age, that is, in the family of Count Johann Katzeneln- sixties. Could they have been husband bogen, who called their own larger and wife or brother and sister? Who castle the cat. Allowing for a difference were they? What were they? in the spelling, could our Wilhelm von We carefully examined all of the old Ellenbogen be one of that family? Ap- catalogues, old letters, and other docu- parently not, for Baedeker also says that ments in the Mutter Museum, and se- the family became extinct in 1470. curing the co-operation of Dr. Farris, As von Ellenbogen must be the name the director, had a similar search car- of a once noble family it was suggested ried out in the Wistar Institute, but to me that Wilhelm von Ellenbogen nothing was found that gave the slight- may have come to this country as an est information about the people. officer of some of the Hessians and other German mercenaries hired by the Brit- Pioneers,” a somewhat discouraging ish to help them in the revolt of the writing for the purpose we are pursu- colonies. But if so, what was his wife ing, but taking plenty of time, we went or sister doing here? Did she come through the lists of all of the ships and along with him or afterward? their passengers up to 1794 without It should not be difficult to answer finding a single one named Ellenbogen! this question as J. G. Rosengarten has Another publication—J. S. Rupp’s published a translation of Elking’s “Thirty Thousand Names of German, “List of the German Allied Troops in Swiss, Dutch, French and Portuguese the North American War of Independ- Immigrants,” alphabetically arranged ence 1776-1783,” in which appear the was soon disposed of. None of the names of both officers and privates of names—Katzenelnbogen, von Ellenbo- all of their organizations. All of the lists gen or Ellenbogen appears. It seems were carefully gone over but no Kat- strange that these petrified people zenelnbogen, von Ellenbogen or Ellen- should not have been known. Where bogen was found among them. did they live in Philadelphia before Shorberger and Hinke have compiled their illness and death? a long list of “Pennsylvania German The first “Philadelphia Directory” was published in 1791. We examined it as well as the lists of those who were hopefully, but were again disappointed. admitted to the temporary hospital at None of the names appeared in 1791, Bush Hill, but in none do the names 1792 or 1793. appear. Were there ever any Ellenbogens in Carey also published a list of the in- Philadelphia we ask. in perplexity, and terments made in the various ceme- go on through the directories until at teries of Philadelphia, through which last we are rewarded. The name Ellen- we also looked with no success. bogen first appears in a “Philadelphia Another line of investigation was Directory" in 1836. Only two people suggested by the label in the Mlitter are so named, and it is curious that in Museum which says “was buried near the last edition of a “Philadelphia City Fourth and Race Streets.’’ Directory,” 1935-6, there were still In 1792 burials were made largely in only two persons of that name, and churchyards or near-by. Thus the first only two appear in the last issue of the burials at Christ Church were in the “Philadelphia Telephone Directory, churchyard, then later in the cemetery 1941.” at 5th and Arch Streets, where Benja- A letter of inquiry was written to min Franklin is buried. What church each of them, and it was learned that was at or near Fourth and Race Streets they were cousins, but neither of them in 1792? We referred to Scharf and knew of any Philadelphia ancestors. The family from which they are de- Westcott’s “History of Philadelphia,’’ scended seem to have belonged to the and soon received the impression that “Country Dutch" who lived in the the neighborhood of Fourth and Race neighborhood of Danville, Pennsyl- was one of the most religious and best vania. churched in the city. There were three 1 he paradox of having the dead churches within a block of one another.