ANALYSIS OF SOME ANCIENT BONES. 43 



weak animal acid : but these acids could not take lime from 

 the phosphoric; and besides, as we find nothing of this acid, 

 or of the lime wanting to the bones, we must suppose, 

 that they had been volatilized together, which is impro- 

 bable. 



If this supposition be as true, as it appears likely, a Tn this case 

 pretty large quantity of phosphoric acid must have been JL-9JEJ?" 

 formed, since it was sufficient to saturate the carbonate phoric acid 

 of lime, which no doubt existed in the bones of the orme * 

 ancients, as it does in those of the moderns, and to con- 

 vert part of the phosphate of lime into an acidule. The 

 existence of the acidulous phosphate of lime in nature s U petphos- 

 is not a new fact, for Messrs. Fourcroy and Vauquelin phate of lime 

 have sometimes met with intestinal calculi of herbivorous ^u-n "** 

 animals in this state, and exhibiting a decided crystalliza- 

 tion : but they say, they never saw any, in which the acidity 

 was so striking, or which were consequently so soluble in 

 water. 



The examination of these bones informs us of several Remarks, 

 things, which appear to merit some attention. The first is 

 the formation of a certain quantity of phosphoric acid by 

 the decomposition of the animal matter, in which the 

 phosphorus was indubitably* contained; the second, that 

 this animal matter, by some change not perfectly known, 

 gave rise to a very fine red colour, which is turned green by 

 alkalis ; the third, that this colouring matter had been pre- 

 served for so many agesf , without being destroyed, which 

 appears to have been owing to its combination with the phos- 

 phate of lime. 



• Just now the existence of the phosphorus in the animal matter was 

 •aly presumed, as the most probable wiy of accounting for the existence 

 •f the superphosphate of lime. 



C. 



fThis is a gratuitous supposition. If it did not exist originally in 

 the bones, which is not supposed, who can say, how rapid or how slow 

 the process was by which it was formed? and if a series of decomposi- 

 tion took place, it must evidently hare been the result of the last of 

 these. 



C. 



it, 



