DR. ’S PETRIFIED LADY

RUMMAGING IN THE MÜTTER MUSEUM, OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF

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 , 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. bodies of two people who never seem The Ellenbogens being German, to have been alive excited us to further would almost certainly have been mem- investigation. bers of some German church, and prob- In 1892 William Henry Egle pub- ably have been buried in its cemetery. lished a list of “The Names of Foreign- All three churches in the blocks at ers who took the Oath of Allegiance to Fourth and Race Streets were German. the Province and State of Pennsyl- The oldest was the German Calvinist vania.” We turned its pages eagerly but or “Reformed’’ Church, a small quaint no Katzenelnbogens, von Ellenbogens hexagonal stone building that stood or Ellenbogens were there. on the south side of Race Street at the The labels in both museums say that corner of Sterling Alley (between 3rd they died of yellow fever in 1792 and and 4th Streets). Around the corner, we remembered that Matthew Carey on Fourth at Cherry Street was the in his “Short Account of the Malignant Zion Lutheran Church, one of the finest Fever Prevalent in Philadelphia, etc.,” in Philadelphia, with the largest and had published lists of the 10,000 people best organ in America. The third was who died of yellow fever in 1793. Imag- St. Michael’s Lutheran Church which ining that there might have been an stood on Race above Fifth Street. They error in transcription and that 1793 are all gone now, and nothing remains was meant, we went through them all. to suggest that they were ever there. We began our investigation with the Joseph Leidy and the body of Wilhelm oldest, the Reformed Church, whose von Ellenbogen was current when I descendants now occupy a new stone began to study medicine, and I prob- building at the corner of 50th and ably first heard it in the autumn of Locust Streets in West Philadelphia. 1885. It was an amusing story and I Through the kindness of Mr. Charles have told it time after time for a half Hummel, an official of the church, I century, each time probably making have learned two things of interest; small additions and subtractions to in- first, that the records reveal no mem- crease its artistic merit as well as its bers named Ellenbogen and second, interest. Here it is: that the church cemetery in which they Dr. Leidy being informed that the might have been buried was not at the widening of a street had necessitated church, but in North East (now Frank- the exhumation of some bodies buried lin) Square, three blocks away. in a certain cemetery, and that some From a pamphlet entitled “The Old of them were petrified, hurried to the First Church, Evangelical and Re- scene, found that the information was formed,’’ and one of its paragraphs correct, and that some of the bodies had “Historical Milestones of the First transformed to adipocere. They were Church,” the following is learned: “On attractive specimens and he at once December 6th, 1747, a quaint hex- thought of the two museums in which agonal structure with a cupola was ded- he was particularly interested. He icated. This was on Sassafras Street therefore began by approaching the (now Race Street), near Fourth. Other contractor whom he asked how he buildings, much larger, were built on might obtain two of the best specimens the same site in 1774 and in 1837. The for that purpose. latter building still stands housing the Here is where poetic license comes warehouse of the Lucas Paint Com- in to make a good story: pany.” Dr. Leidy. “Petrified bodies like From 1882 to 1915 the congrega- these are of great scientific interest, and tion occupied a building at 10th and I am wondering whether I could have two of them, one for the University Wallace Streets, and in 1915 moved to and one for the College of Physicians.” West Philadelphia, the present beauti- Irish Contractor with the outward ful stone church having been dedicated appearance of righteous indignation in 1925. but with a twinkle in his eye. “Could Concerning the Zion Lutheran ye hev two uv thim bodies? Now ain’t Church, it has been moved to the west that a nice question to ask. Thim peo- side of Franklin Square between Race ple has relatives that is lookin’ after and Vine Streets. But it also had its thim and pay me for removin’ ’em. Do cemetery apart from the church prop- ye think I could go back on thim? Ye erty, in the square bounded by Race. ought to be ashamed uv yerself to be Vine, Franklin and Eighth Streets. temptin’ me like that.” The discovery that the cemeteries (Then as an after thought) “But uv of these churches were not at Fourth course if ye was to git en order for me and Race Streets, but some blocks away, to deliver thim to you, there’s nothing seemed to make it necessary to try a else I could do. I'll lay thim aside a new line of investigation. while for ye.” An amusing legend about Professor Dr. Leidy took the cue. Retiring to the nearest drug store he secured paper of the legend at least, but it is not all. and pen and wrote a letter which he Below his signature Dr. Leidy has writ- gave to a man with a horse and wagon, ten a brief explanatory note: directing him to deliver it to the con- The above amount is one-half of the tractor at the excavation. It said: "De- sum paid persons through whose conniv- liver to the bearer of this order, the ance I was enabled to procure two adi- bodies of my deceased aunt and uncle pocere bodies, one for the College of about which I spoke to you a while Physicians, the other for the University. ago.’’ J. L. Rumor said that a susbtantial bank- So it was a matter of connivance and note was enclosed so that the deal was no doubt the whole legend is true! successfully consummated. The receipt also furnishes us with In recent years I have had this story the date of the presentation and, there- repeated to me so nearly in my own fore, probably that of exhumation. The language, that I almost came to believe bodies said to have been buried in 1 792 that I had invented it. However. I have were exhumed in 1875 and with this a letter from Dr. Guy Hinsdale, former latter date fixed, it may no longer be curator of this museum, in which he necessary to go back of it with our (ques- says that he had the story "from Dr. tions. Leidy’s own lips." It is impossible at the present time to But those who know the story ex- come into legal possession of a dead press some difference of opinion as to human body except by arrangement the whereabouts of the excavation. 1 with the Pennsylvania State Anatomi- believed it to have been on Broad cal Board. Otherwise to obtain one is Street below Chestnut Street, where the to invite the penalty of the law. Lafayette Hotel once stood, on the There was a time, however, when ground now occupied by the Land whoever needed a dead body for dis- Title Building; Dr. Hinsdale thinks it section or other purpose, might obtain was in the neighborhood of Third and Pine Streets; the museum label says it as he could. That was the period of “the neighborhood of Fourth and Race the “resurrection men," who robbed Streets." fresh graves and sold the bodies to doc- This brings us to the point where I tors and to medical colleges. It came to recall to your minds that in the early an end when, through the influence of part of this account I said that only one Professor Forbes of the Jefferson Med- document referring to the Petrified ical College of this city the “Anatomical Lady was found in the archives of the Act" was finally passed by the state leg- museum. It is a receipt for money paid islature on March 18, 1867. for the specimen and reads as follows:— It was eight years after that date that Nov. 18th, 1875. the exhumation of the “Petrified Lady" Museum of the College of Physicians. is said to have taken place, so that if Dr. the “connivance" mentioned in the re- To Dr. Joseph Leidy ceipt was “resurrection," it wotdd have Expenses on the procural of an adipocere been a criminal transaction! body $7.50. Leidy was one of the framers and Received payment backers of the Anatomical Act, and it Joseph Leidy. is unthinkable that he shoidd have lent That surely is corroborative of a part himself to any contraversion of its pur- poses. Moreover, no one who knew him reptitious and illegal, as summed up in can imagine him guilty of any un- the word “connivance!” ethical or illegal act. Yet it is not im- But here we again run counter to the possible that his interest in science may unimpeachable character of Professor have led to an appearance of evil where Leidy. Could he have permitted himself none really was, as we shall see. to become particeps criminis in the Before any cemetery can be aban- matter of the petrified bodies? Could doned and the bodies there interred he have become so enamored of our exhumed for burial elsewhere, an or- Petrified Lady as to have arranged an dinance of the city Council must be elopement? And did he, thereby, ex- passed, granting such permission. pose himself to the danger of legal pur- Before any individual body can be suit and punishment? Well, here is exhumed for removal from one ceme- what the law says: tery lot to another, or from one ceme- Each body shall be used only for the tery to another, permission must be promotion of medical science within this given by the Health Authorities—in state, and whosoever shall use such body 1875, the “Board of Health.” or bodies for any other purpose, or shall There are, of course, records of all remove the same beyond the limits of the such ordinances and permissions so that state; and whosoever shall sell or buy such all of our previous investigations may bodies or in any way traffic in the same, have been entirely unnecessary. We shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, needed only to refer to the Council- and shall, on conviction, be imprisoned manic Record to find what cemetery for a term not exceeding five years at was abandoned in 1875, or to the min- hard labor in the county jail! utes of the Board of Health to Hud the Imagine Professor Joseph Leidy con- permission granted for the removal of demned to five years of hard labor in the Ellenbogens. the county jail! Through the kindness of Director of Fortunately, however, there is a qual- Public Health, Dr. Hubley D. Owen, ification by which he is exempted: the I was provided with the appropriate law says, “Every body shall be used only introductions and betook myself to the for the promotion of medical science.” Law Library in the City Hall, where, That is the use he made of the Ellen- with the aid of an assistant librarian, I bogens; he did not “sell or buy” or “in went through all of the Councilmanic any way traffic in the same.” If the leg- Records from 1870 to 1880. We found end tells the truth, he simply claimed no ordinance authorizing the abandon- them as relatives, paid the costs in- ment of any cemetery. curred, and saw that they were perma- Discouraged, but still confident that nently placed in museum mausoleums, the remaining step would uncover the in a state of importance never dreamed mystery, I sought Mr. Johnson, who of during the life time of either. placed the Minutes of the Board of Ehus far our researches suggest in- Health at my disposal, and aided me in genious efforts on the part of one whose the search. No permission for the re- conscience may have been a little trou- moval of any bodies from any cemetery bled by the “connivance” in which he could be found during the same decade. had been engaged, carefully to cover his There seemed to be only one remain- tracks. See the point at which we have ing possibility, the exhumations must arrived: have been private, unauthorized, sur- 1. No people named Ellenbogen are known to have been in Philadelphia but remember only two jokes! One of before 1836. them that concerns us here has to do 2. No people of that name are known with that bone of the skeleton known to have died of yellow fever in the year as the humerus. Every student knew 1792. perfectly well when it was coming, lis- 3. There seems to have been no yel- tened for it with bated breath, in per- low fever in Philadelphia that year. fect silence, and then burst out into 4. They could not have been disin- enthusiastic applause and appreciation. terred from the neighborhood of Leidy began his course of lectures Fourth and Race Streets because there about October first, with the descrip- were no cemeteries there from which tion of the skeleton upon which he they could be removed, and there is spent several weeks. The bones of the no councilmanic or other authorization arm might be reached about the mid- for the removal of their, or any other dle of November, a matter that it is well bodies in 1875. to keep in mind, for if there is only You see, if a dead body be given a one joke to be told about the whole supposititious but possible name, be skeleton, the joker probably does not said to have died of a rare disease at a always keep it in mind, but first thinks date near that of a great epidemic, be about it as the appropriate time ap- made to appear to have been buried proaches. He then digs it up, polishes without other care than to get it into it off, and finally presents it. Here is the ground, and alleged to have been the way the occasion was consummated: interred in a cemetery where no ceme- This, gentlemen, is the bone of the tery really was, although there were upper arm called the humerus. It occupies several only a few blocks away, it may the position between the shoulder and the never be possible to identify it. elbow. It is the bone often struck with Nothing now remains for considera- painful effects and for some reason has tion except the peculiar German name become known as the “funny bone.’’ that Dr. Leidy gave the people. Their There is a good reason for giving it that real name he may or may not have name. Can any one of you tell me what known, but certainly did not reveal. it is? But why choose Ellenbogen? I he class maintaining perfect si- I close with an hypothesis that may lence, with a smile the professor an- be wide of the mark, but is perhaps as swers with another question: “Well, good as any, and will vividly recall isn’t it humerus?” Leidy and his lectures to any of the few Now in November 1875 he was lec- survivors of his day. turing upon the skeleton, about the He was a great scientist, a brilliant 18th the humerus would have been anatomist, a good and honorable gen- reached. With the elbow, the “funny” tleman, but withal a very tedious lec- bone, and the joke fresh in mind, Leidy, turer upon a very dull subject. He of German descent and thoroughly ac- probably never realized it—his interest quainted with the language, is called in it would never have permitted him upon to provide a supposititious name to do so. He had very little <^nse of for his petrified bodies. Is it not possi- humor and rarely introduced an anec- ble that the elbow, German, Ellen- dote or joke with which to enliven his bogen, may have been the first, or at audience. least the most appropriate that occurred I attended his lecture course twice, to him?