A GRUESOME FACTORY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2501, 21 July 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A GRUESOME FACTORY.

The "Monde de la Science " describes a gruesome factory which is said to be nourishing at St. Dennis. Within its walls human skeletons are being " made " in the following manner;— The largest room of the building is filled with enormous kettles in which the bones of the corpses are boiled till all the flesh is separated from them. The skulls are prepared separately aud in a most careful manner. One way of preparing the skulls of children and young people is to fill the hollow where the brains were situated, with peas and let the latter swell in water, which causes even the most delicately joined bones to separate without being injured. After all the bones have been carefully washed, they are bleached by chloral or by exposure to the sun, and are then joined in another department of the factory and made flexible by means of brass wires. It sppears that a thorough knowledge of ostology as well as an artistic eye are required for the construction of a complete skeleton, tho bones having to be "matched" so as to give each skeleton the appearance of being composed of the bones of one human body, whereas this is in reality by no means the case. Most of the corpses whose bones are utilised in this factory are said to be brought from hospitals, prisons, and dissecting rooms, and the latest Turkish war is said to have brought much "material" to it. It would be interesting to know something about the suppliers of the skeleton factory, but on that point the " Monde de la Science " is silent.

The Black Sea and Azof Canal Company, with a capital of £3,400,000, is about to begin cutting a canal across tho Crimean Isthmus.

Like in Corsica seems to be quite as dramatic in reality us in fiction. Lately, at Ajaccio, tho revelry of a wedding danco was broken in upan by the entry of two gondarmes. Tho officers then und there arrested one of the younsr ladien, who with great promptitude drew a revolver and made ready for self-defence. A ball from a policeman's carbine, however, rendered the fair dmismse incapable either of waltzing or pistol practice, while closo examination showed the damsel to be a noted bandit—one Camillo Nicolai— in petticoat disguise. It seems a little hard that ft gentleman should have to take his pleasures in a feminine attire, but the fact speaks volumes for his skill and grace. What the emotions of M. Nicolai's partners were on the discovery is not told : probably they were under no delusion. Society in Corsica ia familiar with these little pretences.