d naturally occur in an ordinary dismemberment and all were
quite free from adipocere. And now as to the conclusions which I drew
from these facts. First, there was the peculiar grouping of the bones.
What was the meaning of that? Well, the idea of a punctilious
anatomist was obviously absurd, and I put it aside. But was there any
other explanation? Yes, there was. The bones had appeared in the
natural groups that are held together by ligaments; and they had
separated at points where they were attached principally by muscles.
The knee-cap, for instance, which really belongs to the thigh, is
attached to it by muscle, but to the shin-bone by a stout ligament.
And so with the bones of the arm; they are connected to one another by
ligaments; but to the trunk only by muscle, excepting at one end of the
collar-bone.

"But this was a very significant fact. Ligament decays much more
slowly than muscle, so that in a body of which the muscles had largely
decayed the bones might still be held together by ligament. The
peculiar grouping therefore suggested that the body had been partly
reduced to a skeleton before it was dismembered; that it had then been
merely pulled apart and not divided with a knife.

"This suggestion was remarkably confirmed by the total absence of
knife-cuts or scratches.

"Then there was the fact that all the bones were quite free from
adipocere. Now, if an arm or a thigh should be deposited in water and
left undisturbed to decay, it is certain that large masses of adipocere
would be formed. Probably more than half of the flesh would be
converted into this substance. The absence of adipocere therefore
proved that the bulk of the flesh had disappeared or been removed from
the bones before they were deposited in the pond. That, in fact, it
was not a body, but a skeleton, that had been deposited.

"But what kind of skeleton? If it was the recent skeleton of a
murdered man, then the bones had been carefully stripped of flesh so as
to leave the ligaments intact. But this was highly improbable; for
there could be no object in preserving the ligaments. And the absence
of scratches was against this view.

"Then they did not appear to be graveyard bones. The collection was
too complete. It is very rare to find a graveyard skeleton of which
many of the small bones are not missing. And such bones are usually
more or less weathered and friable.

"They did not appear to be bones such as may be bo