 |
 |
| JONATHAN BASS |
| THE LIVING MUMMY |
 |
 |
 |
| "The pioneer ossified man was Jeremiah Bass, Oliphant, Mich. At the acme of his ossification, Jeremiah Bass who was then a man of middle age, with a farmer's beard, weighed but 40 pounds and was perfectly rigid. He was exhibited suported upon the backs of two chairs, placed five feet apart, and was carried by his manager in a shawl-strap to and from the museums. Bass was a cheerful old fellow and although blind in his latter years, had a remarkable memory for voices and would greet inqiring friends by mentoning their names." - news clipping 1910 |
| "The medical men of Boston and New York have been puzzlling their brains over a strange case of ossification or petrification of a live man by the name of Jonathan Bass. Bass is a man now 60 or 65 years of age and has been gradually becoming ossified into one solid mass for the past forty-five years. His body is now perfectly rigid, in color and to touch almost exactly like a well-seasoned bone, with no more flexibility about it than there is about a stick of wood. While unable voluntarily to make the least move, Mr. Bass' intellect is keen and his digestion unimpaired. Hundreds of physicians and scientists, both of this country and of Europe, have examined this remarkable freak, all concurring in the opinion that the case of Jonathan Bass beats anything now on record in the medical books." - St. Louis Republic, 1890 |
| "Jonathan Bass, of Cambria, N.Y., is a solid man. In 1848 his joints began to stiffen and grow into solid bone; in 1857 he took to his bed, and there he now lies perfectly stiff, every joint solid, unable to stir, unable to masticate food, and blind. Yet he eats the heartiest food by sucking it into his mouth and swallowing it whole. His constitutional health is good, he keeps himself informed on current topics, and is likely to lve many years yet. He is now 56 years old, and weighs but seventy-five pounds. - New York Sun, 1886 |
| "An unfortunate known to the medical profession and to frequenters of dime museums as the "Ossified Man" died lately at Lewiston, N.Y. He was fifty years old, and his body had been gradually turning to bone for many years past. First, the strange hardening affected his joints, then spread slowly through his limbs, finally attacking his body when at last the deadly deposit of bone material reached the valves of the heart, it was all over for poor Jonathan Bass, and he died." - 1892 |
| note the fingernails of the left hand |
| 1887 From "Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine" |
| (right) This contraption was built so that Jon could "stand". The top of the photo says "Copyright 1888, by J.R. Bass. On the back it said "J.R. Bass, The Ossified Man, Lewiston, NY Thirty years solid bone from head to foot. Hendrickson & Zahner Photographers, Niagara Falls, N.Y." |
 |