Scientists in a lather over mummy that changed into soap

PHILADELPHIA — Sometime in the 19th century, a fat woman died and her body changed almost entirely into soap.

It may sound like an urban legend, but researchers are serious. Thursday, they performed a CT scan on the woman's mummified body hoping to learn more about the process that turns some corpses into a waxy, soaplike substance called adipocere.

The body, dubbed "Soap Lady," has been on display for more than 100 years at the Mutter Museum, a former haven for medical students and now a Philadelphia tourist attraction featuring thousands of medical oddities.

The CT scan unexpectedly revealed some organ tissue, raising hope that researchers might be able to learn how the woman died.

"There's tons of stuff in there," said Gerald Conlogue, a Quinnipiac University professor of diagnostic imaging. "What we may be looking at is a shell or casing made out of this soapy substance sealing out the outside environment."

Conlogue said the results will give researchers greater understanding of saponification, the chemical conversion of fat into adipocere.

Saponification is an unusual occurrence, dependent on humidity, temperature, the presence of clothing and bacterial activity. The fatter the person, the greater the chance saponification will occur.

The scan marked the first time the Soap Lady had left her wooden display table since 1874, when a prominent University of Pennsylvania anatomist, Dr. Joseph Leidy, donated the body to the museum.

Leidy said the Soap Lady, who was discovered by workers removing bodies from an old cemetery, had died in the late 1700s. "The woman, named Ellenbogen, died in Philadelphia of yellow fever in 1792 and was buried near Fourth and Race Streets," according to the original label attached to the exhibit.

Name lost to history

Leidy's explanation stood until 1942, when museum curator Dr. Joseph McFarland determined that the Soap Lady had actually died in the 1800s and that her name had been lost to history.

McFarland could find no record of any yellow-fever deaths in Philadelphia in 1792. A yellow-fever epidemic did strike the city in 1793, but the name "Ellenbogen" appeared nowhere on an official list of the dead. Furthermore, there was never a cemetery at Fourth and Race.

A 1987 X-ray of the mummy showed eight straight pins and two four-hole buttons manufactured in the 19th century.

"At this point, we know less about her than we thought we did before," said Gretchen Worden, the Mutter's current curator.

The CT scan, a computer-enhanced image of areas that cannot be seen by X-ray, was taped for a new television series called "The Mummy Road Show," premiering Oct. 5 on the National Geographic Channel.