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too of this new aggregate fhould be wholly without luftre, as 

 well on account of its calcination, as of its formation by fub- 

 fidence from, not in confcquence of folution in, a liquid men- 

 ftruum ; in which laft cafe alone cryftals are known to be 

 produced. This will further eafily account for the formation of 

 the calcareous fpar found within the prominences occafioned by 

 the joints of the vertebras, and the other groffer bones ; for, 

 thefe being frefh and found at the firft arrangement of the ftone, 

 of courfe excluded the fubfiding matter; but in procefs of time' 

 their hollows were filled, and by degrees, as it decayed, their 

 fubftance replaced, by a fuccelTive filtration of water holding 

 calcareous matter in folution, which depofited, plate after plate, 

 its cryftalline matter in thefe cavities. Of the abforption al- 

 ready mentioned, the fetid fmell emitted by every portion of 

 this ftone on being fcraped, will furely be confidered as afi'ording 

 a ftrong prefumption, as it perfedly accords with, and would 

 naturally follow from, the fuppofition, that the whole had imbibed, 

 and been ftrongly impregnated with, animal matter *. 



Tn invefligating fubjeds of this kind, whofe origin lies fo 

 very remote from any thing that either modern experience or 

 hiftoric record can produce, and particularly in a circumftance like 



this. 



* This impregnation would alfo probably contribute to the concretion of the 

 ftone, as it is kaown to do in cements, floors, compofitions, &c. to which cheefe, 

 milk, blood, and other animal fubftances,- are often added with this view. A mix- 

 ture of curd, or whites of eggs, with lime, has been long ufed as a (Irong cement 

 to repair broken China. 



