1819.] the Turquoise and the Calaite. 417 



Ansicer to the first Question. 



If we give the name of turquoise to every animal substance 

 which has been penetrated and coloured green or blue by 

 metallic oxides, and particularly by copper, it is obvious that 

 any part of the skeleton, and even the whole body, may have 

 been converted into turquoise provided all the parts be capable 

 of undergoing the change. But it appears that the teeth are the 

 only parts which possess sufficient hardness to become true 

 turquoises in the full acceptation of the word. If entire skele- 

 tons,* or parts of skeletons, still surrounded with dried muscles, 

 have appeared to assume the form of turquoise, it seems more 

 reasonable to consider them as passages to that state than as 

 true turquoises. 



There can be no doubt that Bouillon la Grange analyzed a 

 French turquoise, or a bone turquoise. He found its specific 

 gravity 3 - 127. Before the blow-pipe it became greyish-white 

 without melting. This operation rendered it friable, and it lost 

 0*06 of its weight. Its solution in nitric and muriatic acids was 

 colourless. It was composed of 



Phosphate of lime 80 



Carbonate of lime 8 



Phosphate of iron 2 



Phosphate of magnesia 2 



92 



The experiments of Prof. John with the blow-pipe, in presence 

 of the members of the Imperial Society of Naturalists, in order 

 to change the teeth of the mammoth into turquoises, appear to 

 contradict those of Bouillon Lagrange ; but if we consider that 

 the turquoises of Simore have already undergone a degree of 

 calcination, it is not surprising that they appear grey before the 

 blow-pipe. 



Answer to the second Question. 



Naturalists have hitherto spoken only of two animals whose 

 teeth are capable of furnishing turquoises. These are those 

 which Reaumur has described, and of the teeth of which he has 

 given figures. 



1. Dentes Molares, with four Imminences of considerable Size. — 

 These teeth appear to belong to an animal similar to that of the 



* Swedenburg has engraven the figure of the skeleton of a quadruped which had 

 been coloured by this metal. We see in (he Museum d'Hist. Nat. of Paris the 

 hand of a woman, the extremities of the fingers of which are green, and the 

 mdlclea of which, dried, like a mummy, are al»o green. If it has been said that 

 (In- whole of this hand has been converted into turquoise, the fact has heen exag- 

 gerated, and the term turquoise abused. But the exaggeration is true if we give 

 the name of turquoi-e to au animal substance penetrated or coloured by an oxide 

 of copper. 



Vol. XIV. N° VI. 2 D 



