NATURAL HISTORY. 



S21 



but its having a yellow stain ; the 

 cold may probably assist in their 

 preservation. 



The state of preservation will 

 vary according to the substance in 

 which they have been preserved ; in 

 peat and clay I think the most ; 

 however, there appears in general 

 a species of dissolution ; for the ani- 

 mal substance, although tolerably 

 firm, in a heat a little above 100°, 

 becomes a thickish mucus, like dis- 

 solved gum, while a portion from 

 the extenial surface is reduced to 

 the state of wet dust. 



In incrusted bones, the quantity 

 of animal substance is very different 

 in different bones. In those from 

 Gibraltar there is very little ; it in 

 part retains its tenacity, and is 

 transparent, but the superiicial part 

 dissolves into mucus. 



Those from Ualmatia give similar 

 results when examined in this way. 



Those from Germany, especially 

 the harder bones and teeth, seem to 

 contain all the animal substance na- 

 tural to them, they differ however 

 among themselves in this respect. 



The bones of land-animals have 

 their calcareous edrth united with 

 the phosphoric acid instead of tlie 

 aerial, and I believe, retain it when 

 fossilized, nearly in proportion to 

 the quantity of animal matter they 

 contain. 



The mode by which I judge of 

 this, is by the quantity of efferve- 

 scence ; when fossil bones are put 

 into the muriatic acid it is not near- 

 ly so great as when a shell is put 

 into it, but it is more in some, al- 

 though not in all, than when a re- 

 cent bone is treated in this way, 

 and this I chink diminishes in pro- 

 portion to the quantity of animal 

 substance they retain ; as a proof of 



Vol. XXXVI. 



this, those fossil bones which con- 

 tain a small portion of animal mat- 

 ter, produce in an acid the greatest 

 effervescence when the surface is 

 acted on, and very little when the 

 centre is affected by it; however, 

 this may be accounted for by the 

 parts which have lost their phos- 

 phoric acid, and acquired the aerial, 

 being easiest of solution in the 

 marine acid, and therefore dis- 

 solved first, and the aerial acid let 

 loose. 



In some bones of the whale the 

 effervescence is very great ; in the 

 Dalmatia and Gibraltar bones it is 

 less ; and in those the subject of 

 the present paper it is very little 

 since they contain by much the 

 largest proportion of animal sub- 

 stance. 



Account of a spontaneous injlamma' 

 t'ton, by Isaac Humfries, esq. in 

 a letter from Thomas B. IVoodmatij 

 esq. to Geo. At wood, esq. F. R. S. 

 from the same. 



Eiuell, June 9, 179*. 



Dear sir, 



I Inclose you the extract of the 

 letter from Isaac Humfries, 

 esq. a gentleman resident in India, 

 and employed in the company's 

 service, which relates to the cir- 

 cumstance of the fire I lately men- 

 tioned to you. 



And am, yours, &c. 

 Thomas B. Woodman. 

 " On going into the arsenal, a 

 few mornings since, 1 found my 

 friend Mr. Golding, the commissa- 

 ry of stores, under the greatest un- 

 easiness, in consequence of an acci- 

 dent which had happened the pre- 

 Y ceding 



