I did not dare to go beyond this heat, from fear of altering the albumen and rendering it insoluble, and also of taking away from the tissues the capacity of reabsorbing 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.