A MYSTERY VAULT.

Shannon News, 18 March 1924, Page 3

A MYSTERY VAULT.

ST. MICHAEL’S, DUBLIN. A visit to the vault of St. Michael’s Church, Dublin, is an eerie experience. It is a death .chamber in which* bodies laid to rest hundreds of years ago, may still be seen. Some are in open coffins, some laid out on the stones; and all are in a state of perfect preservation. The .atmosphere of the vault is fresh and sweet, and absolutely dry. The only Jiving , organisms to be found are huge spiders; no other form of animal life can exist in the vault for more than a short time. No one knows how the spiders subsist, or on what they feed, but the webs they have spun through the centuries are left untouched. No attempt is made to exclude the outer air, and visitors are admitted freely to view the bodies. Scientists have experimented by air analysis and other tests, but no satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon is forthcoming. It is clear that the vault contains some property which is destructive to the germs of decay; but what that property is remains a secret. That is is possible to germs is proved by the fact that a bunch of flowers, placed by a visitor on'., one of the coffins,, resulted In* the decay of the body it contained. - }•}■/ : ’"A-' 11 .A A A u