CARBONATE OF LIME. 419 



There can be no doubt that the carbonate of lime found in 

 animal substances is very often no educt, but the product of the 

 incineration to which we have submitted the substance in the 

 course of the chemical analysis; it not unfrequently, however, 

 occurs in the bones of the vertebrate animals as true carbonate of 

 lime, and in the lower classes of this great division we find it deposited 

 in various places in microscopic crystals. Carbonate of lime in 

 considerable quantity is found in the urine of graminivorous ani- 

 mals, in the saliva of the horse, and in many animal concretions. 



Numerous experiments have been instituted, especially by 

 Lassaigne, Fernandes de Barros*, Valentinfs and von BibraJ, 

 with the view of ascertaining the ratio in which the carbonate of 

 lime stands to the phosphate in the bones of different men and 

 animals. According to my own investigations, this ratio in a new- 

 born child = 1 : 3*8, in an adult male 1 : 5*9, and in a man 

 aged 63 years = 1 : 8'1 ; according to Valentin it = 1 : 8 -3 (on 

 an average) in caries, and = 1 : 5'54 in callus, or 1 : 5*3 according 

 to Lassaigne ; in an exostosis it = 1:52 according to Valentin, 

 and 1 : 1*214 according to Lassaigne; according to Barros it 1 : 3'8 

 in the lion, 1 : 4' 15 in the sheep, 1 : 8*4 in the hen, 1 : 3'9 in the 

 frog, and 1 : 1*7 in a fish. According to Lassaigne this ratio 

 = 1 : 3'6 in the teeth of a new-born child, 1 : 5'3 in those of a 

 child aged six years, 1 : 6 in those of an adult, and 1 : 6*6 in those 

 of a man aged 81 years. 



Von Bibra, in his numerous analyses of bone, has arrived at 

 opposite results, since he found that the bones of young creatures for 

 the most part contained less carbonate of lime than those of older 

 ones. As we must refer for fuller information to von Bibra's work, 

 we shall here only give the quantity of carbonate of lime which he 

 found in the femur in different classes of animals ; in the order glires, 

 it amounts to 9'48, in the ruminantia to 9'86-g- , in thepachydermata 

 to 10'15, in the cetacea (the dolphin) to 9*99, in the pinnipedia 

 (the seal) to 7'23-g-, in the falculata to 6'26-g-, in the pollicata to 

 9-1 8-g-, and in men to 8'59-g-. 



The urine of graminivorous animals often contains so large a 

 quantity of carbonate of lime as to cause a deposit very soon after 

 its emission. My investigations tend to show that in the urine of 

 the horse carbonate of potash and carbonate of lime very frequently 

 replace one another ; I have usually found that urine rendered 



* Journ. de Chira. m^d. T. 4, p. 289. 

 f Op. cit. 

 i Op. cit. 



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