Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy. Inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc / by John Hunter ... With notes by Richard Owen.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy. Inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc / by John Hunter ... With notes by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
469/494 page 461
![The earths with which bones are most commonly incrusted are the calcareous, argillaceous, and siliceous, but principally the cal- careous; and this happens in two ways: one, the bones being im- mersed in water in which this earth is suspended ; the other, water passing through masses of this earth, which it dissolves, and after- wards deposits upon bones which lie underneath. Bones which are incrusted seem never to undergo this change in the earth, or under the water, where the soft parts were destroyed ; while bones that are fossilized become so in the medium in which they were deposited* at the animal’s death. ‘The incrusted bones have been previously exposed to the open air: this is evidently the case with the bones at present under consideration, those of the rock of Gibraltar, and those found in Dalmatia; and, from the account given by the Abbé Spallanzani, those of the island of Cerigo are under the same circumstances. They have the characters of exposed bones, and many of them are cracked ina number of places, particularly the cylindrical bones, similar to the effects of long ex- posure to the sun. This circumstance appears to distinguish them from fossilized bones, and gives us some information respecting their history. If their numbers had corresponded with what we meet with of recent bones, we might have been led to some opinion of their mode of accumulation; but the quantity exceeds anything we can form an idea of. In an inquiry into their history three questions naturally arise: Did the animals come there and die? or, Were their bodies brought there, and lay exposed? or, Were the bones collected from different places? The first of these conjectures appears to me the most natural; but yet Iam by no means convinced of its being the true one. Bones of this description are found in very different situations, which makes their present state more difficultly accounted for. Those in Germany are found in caves; the coast of Dalmatia is said to be almost wholly formed of them; and we know that this is the case with a large portion of the rock of Gibraltar. If none were found in caves, but in sclid masses covered with marl or limestone, it would then give the idea of their having been brought together by some strange cause, as a convulsion in the earth, which threw these materials over them; but this we can hardly form an idea of. Or if they had all been found in caves, we should have imagined these caves were places of retreat for such in which, however, here and there bones are seen sticking. And here ends this connected series of most remarkable osteolithical caverns, as far as they have been hitherto explored; many more may for what we know exist, hidden, in the same tract of hills. ‘‘ Mr. Esper has written a history in German of these caves ; and given descriptions and plates of a great number of the fossil bones which have been foundthere. To this work we must refer for a more particular account of them.”’] * Bones that have been buried with the flesh on acquire a strain which they never lose, and those which have been long immersed in water reveive a consider- able tinge. 40*](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33292292_0469.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
