In the ninth century Anglebert II., Bishop of Milan, placed in one and the same urn the remains of the three saints, and built over them a new altar, which was so richly ornamented with gold and precious stones that it has ever since been styled the Pallio d'Oro. This altar has remained intact down to our days. On the evening of the 15th January, 1864, the authorities of the Basilica, in course of excavations directed by the provost and a special commission, made search for the primitive sepulchre in which Saint Ambrose had laid the two martyrs. They found it formed of slabs of rare marbles, and within it a little earth mixed with small fragments of bones, together with a fragment of an ampolla or glass phial. Of this ampolla, the illustrious Cavalier De Rossi, in his _Bulletino di Archeologia Cristiana_ (_anno_ ii., _No._ 3, _p._ 21), thus writes: "It now remains for me to speak of a fact lately established by chemical science--a fact of the greatest importance, and worthy of the attentive consideration of all students of Christian archæology. In Biraghi's first account (of the discoveries in the Basilica Ambrosiana) we read that the bottom of a glass ampolla was found in the sepulchre to the right, that is, in the sepulchre of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius. The same gentleman has since written to me to say that a chemical analysis of the deposit found in the fragment of phial has resulted in the discovery of the presence of blood. Now, this is certainly the most notable instance we have of a phial containing blood being placed at the sepulchre of martyrs known as such to history, and what especially distinguishes this ampolla beyond every other are the solemn words of the great Doctor Saint Ambrose, which have especial reference to it. He had discovered the tomb of Saints Gervasius and Protasius, and describing his discovery in a letter to his sister Marcellina, he says that within the urn he found 'plurimum sanguinis'. In the same epistle he adds: 'Sanguine tumulus madet, apparent cruoris triumphales notae, inviolatae reliquiae loco suo et ordine repertae avulsum humeris caput' (_Ep._ xxii. _ad Marcellin._). It was of the blood of the same martyrs that Gaudentius, of Brescia, uttered the well-known words: 'Tenemus sanguinem gypso collectum, qui testis est passionis' (_Serm. in ded. SS._ XL. _Mart._). But neither Ambrose nor any one else had informed us that besides the blood copiously sprinkled in the sepulchre, and in which the chalk or cement was soaked, there was also some collected in a glass ampolla. The late discovery certifies to this fact, and shows that phials filled or stained with blood were placed in the sepulchres of martyrs, and that these phials were alluded to in the celebrated words of Ambrose and his contemporaries, who speak of blood found in tombs, and bearing witness to martyrdom. This important fact comes most opportunely to strengthen the principle followed by the Church; and lately confirmed