Soap mummy and grave wax

Above is a "soap mummy" from the collection of Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. This person lived in Philadelphia during the 18th century. After he was buried, water leaked into his casket and converted his body fat to soap, specifically adipocere, known to the trade as "grave wax." Soapman: The Mummy Made of Soap (Discovery, thanks Bob Pescovitz!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Ipo

Aah! There’s the explanation. Once your hair is greasy enough, and your skin really oily, the regular baths in pure Dihydrogen Monoxide create your bodies own soap supply.
Behold the beauty of simplicity!
Grognard

There used to be a really great blog dedicated to cases of adipocere, with tons of creepy photos and stories. I can’t seem to fin the URL, but if I do I’ll post it here.
Anonymous

The Mutter Museum also sells little soaps of the Soap Lady, as I discovered much to my horror this Christmas when I opened a gift from one of my relatives who knew I find the Soap Lady absolutely horrifying in some visceral manner. I mean, HER MOUTH IS OPEN!!!! Don’t know why that freaks me out, but it does. Like, she is going to suck down my soul. I don’t even believe in souls!
SamSam

It’s interesting that the article only mentions water and fats. I always thought that saponification requires a base — I use lye in soapmaking. Could the water have been slightly alkaline, perhaps? The article doesn’t mention this.
- CyberIstari
  
  It depends on what you’re trying to saponify – many fats need lye, but soapwort only needs to be boiled.
irksome

So it seems some people are giving up soap while others turn in to it.

Any idea if there was an alarm clock buried with him?
- Anonymous
  
  Well, it’s in Philly, so limestone bedrock and slightly alkaline soil. Maybe?
  
  It seems more likely in alkaline soils (Chernozems) from the prairies TBH.
- imnothere
  
  I don’t know about alarm clocks, but I’m certain there were no kitchen utensils.
cecilhayduke

The salt balance has to be just right, so the best fat for making soap comes from humans
Halloween Jack

I read a description (Tim Cahill’s, maybe?) of the exhumation of the bodies in John Wayne Gacy’s basement, and how many of them had started the saponification process. It also described how the smell of decomposition got into the CSI team’s clothes, and they had to be discarded because you can never get the smell out.
Nate Z

Big deal…we’ve had a soap person (a soap lady person) at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia for decades–though she’s been moved to a new room, recently.

The Mutter Museum is one of the greatest places in the world–if you like giant colons, the conjoined liver shared by the twins who made being conjoined “Siamese” and a cabinet of objects swallowed or inhaled (and then removed from people’s throats).
- futnuh
  
  Big deal…we’ve had a soap person (a soap lady person) at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia for decades–though she’s been moved to a new room, recently.
  
  I have this mental image of soap lady greasily skittering along the corridor to her new room, chased by naked dripping curators.
- MadRat
  
  Ah yes Nate, but what you don’t know is the Smithsonian has had the matching soap man all this time and denied it! This is the first time they admitted it and showed him.
  
  Anon #9: Hey you’re right! Not only does Soap Woman soap exist but there’s a soap on a rope version, which is a little too realistic. http://www.muttermuseumstore.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MutterMuseumStore&Product_Code=000596-000597&Category_Code=CUST
Anonymous

What I’m wondering is why we believe that digging up and displaying a person’s dead body should somehow be a socially acceptable thing to do? Especially in situations in which the person was highly religious. Is this how you hope YOUR body ends up? Or maybe for some, this is the only “claim to fame” they’ll ever have? Of course, no one actually knows WHO this is, so now you’re just another cog in the wheel of progress. Better pack your best underwear.