g the water necessary to a return to
their functions.

I had taken care to arrange a convenient apparatus so that the furnace
was constantly traversed by a current of dry air. This air was dried in
traversing a series of jars filled with sulphuric acid, quick-lime and
chloride of calcium.

After a week passed in the furnace, the general appearance of the body
had not changed, but its weight was reduced to forty pounds, clothing
included. Eight days more brought no new decrease of weight. From this,
I concluded that the desiccation was sufficient. I knew very well that
corpses mummified in church vaults for a century or more, end by
weighing no more than a half-score of pounds, but they do not become so
light without a material alteration in their tissues.

On the 27th of February, I myself placed the colonel in the boxes which
I had had made for his occupancy. Since that time, that is to say during
a space of nine years and eleven months, we have never been separated. I
carried him with me to Dantzic. He stays in my house. I have never
placed him, according to his number, in my zoological collection; he
remains by himself, in the chamber of honor. I do not grant any one the
pleasure of re-using his chloride of calcium. I will take care of you
till my dying day, Oh Colonel Fougas, dear and unfortunate friend! But I
shall not have the joy of witnessing your resurrection. I shall not
share the delightful emotions of the warrior returning to life. Your
lachrymal glands, inert to-day, but some day to be reanimated, will not
pour upon the bosom of your old benefactor, the sweet dew of
recognition. For you will not recover your life until a day when mine
will have long since departed! Perhaps you will be astonished that I,
loving you as I do, should have so long delayed to draw you out of this
profound slumber. Who knows but that some bitter reproach may come to
taint the tenderness of the first offices of gratitude that you will
perform over my tomb! Yes! I have prolonged, without any benefit to you,
an experiment of general interest to others. I ought to have remained
faithful to my first intention, and restored your life, immediately
after the signature of peace. But what! Was it well to send you back to
France when the sun of your fatherland was obscured by our soldiers and
allies? I have spared you that spectacle--one so grievous to such a
soul as yours. Without doubt you would have had, in March, 1815, the
consolation