357 



elusion, one is surprised to find that it is all derived from two 

 courses of analytical inquiry. 



1st. Carefully cleansed and fresh bones are treated by means 

 of dilute acids, for the solution of the earthy salts, leaving the 

 cartilage in nearly its natural form. Carbonic acid is usually 

 determined in this operation, and the phosphoric acid and bases 

 form the solution ; the acids and bases are then apportioned by 

 calculation. 



2d. Bones which have been washed, and reduced to coarse 

 powder, are heated with free contact of air, until the organic part 

 of the cartilage is destroyed ; the remaining ash is then analyzed 

 for acids and bases, and the compounds calculated. 



If we carefully make the analytical experiments, on exactly 

 the same portion of fresh bone, by both these methods, we do not 

 arrive at corresponding results ; and it will thus appear, that 

 neither of these courses will bear criticism. As this part of the 

 subject will be presented to the Society in connection with the 

 evidence, it may be remarked now, that the kind of information 

 such results afford, is like that we obtain respecting the salts ex- 

 isting in vegetable productions, when we analyze their ashes, 

 instead of confining our trials to the tissues and cell walls. 



In the analyses of osseous tissue which have been made, since 

 my communication to the Society, the simple process of decom- 

 position in water has been continued in application. As before 

 observed, the bones readily impart their earthy part to this fluid, 

 both before and after the cartilage becomes changed, in the act of 

 decomposing into simpler forms of matter. Thus far, the results 

 have accorded with those of earlier trials, showing that in the 

 osseous tissue, hi-basic phosphate of lime may exist, and that the 

 presence of mono-basic phosphate is not inconsistent with a neu- 

 tral condition in the tissues. It remains to be proved ihtit pro- 

 tein, as well as water, may act as a constitutional element 

 equivalent to a base, in connection with lime, to form double 

 phosphates ; and we shall then have a simple and consistent 

 explanation of the fact of the existence of mono and bi-basic 

 phosphates, as now found in the secretions both healthy and 

 morbid. The large number of analyses required in the research 

 delays progress, and must be an excuse for the incompleteness of 

 the report at this time. 



