A mummy, it is true, has been more or less preserved; but on exposure to the air of such a climate as ours it perishes rapidly, the ligaments being the last of the soft parts to disappear.
"The hypothesis that these bones were parts of a mummy naturally suggested Mr.Jellicoe.If he had murdered John Bellingham and concealed his body in the mummy-case, he would have a spare mummy on his hands, and that mummy would have been exposed to the air and to somewhat rough handling.
"A very interesting circumstance connected with these remains was that the ring finger was missing.

Now, fingers have on sundry occasions been detached from dead hands for the sake of the rings on them.

But in such cases the object has been to secure a valuable ring uninjured.

If this hand was the hand of John Bellingham, there was no such object.

The purpose was to prevent identification; and that purpose would have been more easily, and much more completely, achieved by sacrificing the ring, by filing through it or breaking it off the finger.