One American in the 19th century after his death turned into soap

What happened to her is called saponification or saponification of the corpse. The famous "soap Woman" exhibited in a museum in Philadelphia Mutter. Her story is truly fantastic. Once in the XIX century. rather plump woman died of yellow fever. After the funeral at the cemetery of Philadelphia fat from her body turned into a corpse wax - fatty waxy substance very similar to lye. Saponification occurred when the fat from the body reacted to the chemicals contained in the soil. Thus the body of the woman was the one big piece of soap.
In 1874, Dr. Joseph Leidy, a famous anatomist of the University of Pennsylvania, presented the body of the woman to the museum. In 1942, the curator, Joseph McFarland, came to the conclusion that the woman died about 1830 or 1840. In 1987, studies using X-rays enabled scientists to determine that at the time of death, she was about 40 years old.

Mutter Museum, Philadelphia College of Medicine was founded in 1849. At first, it was open only to doctors and scientists, but is now available to the general public. In the window placed an X-ray body section "soap woman" and described its history.

Source: www.nashe-strannoe-telo.ru

via factroom.ru