The Evansville Daily Journal

A Man of Bones.-Here is a curious fact for you. The flesh of a living man once grew into bone. It seems hard to believe, but I suppose it was so, for, in the Museum of Dublin, Ireland, there is, or was, the skeleton of one Clerk, a native of the city of Cork, which they called the Ossified Man, one of the greatest curiosities of nature.

It is the carcass of a man entirely ossified in his life time, living in that condition for several years. Those who knew him before his surprising alteration, affirm that he had been a man of great strength and agility. He felt the first symptoms of this surprising change some time after a debauch; till by slow degrees, every part grew into a bony substance, except his skin, eyes and intestines; his joints settled in such a manner that no ligament had its proper operations; he could not lie down or raise up without assistance.

He had at last no bend in his body, yet when he was placed upright like a statue of stone, he could stand, but could not move, in the least. His teeth were joined, and formed into one entire bone; therefore a hole was broken through them to convey liquid substances for his nourishment. The tongue lost its use, and his sight left him sometime before he expired.