Experiments and observations on shell and bone / [Charles Hatchett].

  • Charles Hatchett
Date:
[1799]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments and observations on shell and bone / [Charles Hatchett]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    than charcoal can be considered as the vegetable of which it retains the figure and fibrous structure. Bones which keep their figure after combustion, resemble charcoal made from vegetables replete with fibre; and cartila-' ginous bones which lose their shape by the same cause, may be compared to succulent plants which are reduced in bulk and shape in a similar manner. From these last experiments, I much question if bodies con¬ sisting of phosphate of lime, like bones, have concurred mate¬ rially to form strata of limestone or chalk; for, it appears to be improbable that phosphate is converted into carbonate of lime, after these bodies have become extraneous fossils. The destruction or decomposition of the cartilaginous parts of teeth and bones in a fossil state, must have been the work of a very long period of time, unless accelerated by the action of some mineral principle; for, after having, in the usual manner, steeped in muriatic acid the os humeri of a man brought from Hythe, in Kent, and said to have been taken from a Saxon tomb, I found the remaining cartilage nearly as complete as that of a recent bone. The difficult destructibility of sub¬ stances of a somewhat similar nature, appears also from the mining implements formed of horn, which are not unfrequently found in excavations of high antiquity.
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