BON 



BON 



save the obligee harmless, perform the 

 covenants of a deed, &c. 



A bond contains an obligation with a 

 pena.ty, and a condition generally written 

 under it, which expressly mentions the 

 sum tlutt is to be paid, or other thing to 

 be performed, and to whom, with the li- 

 mited time thereof, for which the obliga- 

 tion is peremptoril} binding. 



The condition of a oond must be to do 

 something lawful ; for if it be to perform 

 an act maiwnin se, as to kill a person, &c. 

 it is void ; likewise bonds not to use 

 trades, &c. are unUwful and void : so also 

 are bonds made by compulsion, by in- 

 fants, &r\dfome coverts, &c. but if a drunk- 

 en man voluntarily gives his bond, it shall 

 bind him ; ami a bom!, though it be with- 

 out any consideration, is binding. Where 

 a bond has no date, or a talse one is in- 

 serted therein, if it be sealed and deliver- 

 ed, it is a good bond : and a person shall 

 not be charged by any bond, though sign- 

 ed and sealed, without delivery, or words, 

 or other thing, amounting to it Notwith- 

 standing a bond be made to pay money 

 on the 30tn of February, and there be 

 no such day, the bond is good, and the 

 money shall be paid presently. It is the 

 same if no time is limited ; in that case 

 it must be immediately paid, or in conve- 

 nient time. 



If a bond be of twenty years standing, 

 and no demand is proved to be made 

 thereon, or good cause shewn for so long 

 forbearance, upon pleading the payment 

 at the day, it shall be intended paid. 



BOND, post obit, is one that becomes 

 payable after the death of some person, 

 whose name is specified in it. The life of 

 a person being uncertain, the risk attach- 

 ed to such bonds frees them from the 

 shackles of the common law of usury. 



BOND, in carpentry, a term among 

 workmen ; as, to make good bond, means 

 that they should fasten the two or more 

 pieces together, either by tenanting, mor- 

 tising, or dovetailing, &c. 



BONE. By bones are meant those hard, 

 solid, well-known substances, to which 

 the firmness, shape, and strength of ani- 

 mal bodies are owing ; which, in the lar- 

 ger animals, form, as it were, the ground- 

 work upon which all the rest is built. In 

 man, in quadrupeds, and many other ani- 

 mals, the bones are situated below the 

 other parts, and scarcely any of them are 

 exposed to view ; but shell-fish and snails 

 have a hard covering on the outside of 

 their bodies, evidently intended for de- 

 fence. 



The bones are the most solid part of 



animals. Their texture is sometimes 

 dense, at other times cellular and porous, 

 according to the situation of the bone. 

 They arc white, of a lamellar structure, 

 and not flexible nor softened by heat. 

 Their specific gravity differs in different 

 parts. That of adult's teeth is 2.27 : the 

 specific gravity of children's teeth is 2.08. 

 It must have been always known that 

 bones are combustible, and that, when 

 sufficiently burnt, they leave behind them 

 a white porous substance, which is taste- 

 less, absorbs water, and has the form of 

 the original bone. The nature of this 

 substance embarrassed the earlier che- 

 mists. But in 1771, Scheele mentioned, in 

 his dissertation on fluor spar, that the 

 earthy part of bones is phosphate of 

 lime. This discovery was the first and 

 the great step towards a chemical know- 

 ledge of the composition of bones. The 

 component parts of bones are chiefly four; 

 namely, the earthy salts, fat, gelatine, and 

 cartdage. The earthy salts may be ob- 

 tained, either by calcining the bone to 

 whitem ss,or by steeping it for a sufficient 

 length of time in acids. In the first case, 

 the salts remain in the state of a brittle 

 white substance ; in the second, they are 

 dissolved, and may be thrown down by 

 the proper precipitants. These earthy 

 salts are four in number : 1. Phosphate 

 of lime, which constitutes by far the 

 greatest part of the whole. 2. Carbonate 

 of lime. 3. Phosphate of magnesia, lately 

 discovered by Fourcroy and Vauquelin. 

 It occurs in the bones of all the inferior 

 animals examined by these indefatigable 

 chemists, but could not be detected in 

 human bones. 4. Sulphate of lime, de- 

 tected by Mr. Hatchett in a very minute 

 proportion. The proportion of fat con- 

 tained in bones is various. By breaking 

 bones in small pieces, and boiling them for 

 some time in water, Mr. Proust obtain- 

 ed their fat swimming on the surface of 

 the liquid. It weighed, he says, one- 

 fourth of the weight of the bones employ- 

 ed. This proportion appears excessive, 

 andean scarcely be accounted for, without 

 supposing that the fat still retained water. 

 The gelatine is separated by the same 

 means as the fat, by breaking the bones 

 in pieces, and boiling them long enough in 

 water. The water dissolves the gelatine, 

 and gelatinizes when sufficiently concen- 

 trated Hence the importance of bones 

 in making portable soups, the basis of 

 which is concrete gelatine, and likewise 

 in making glue. When bones are de- 

 prived of their gelatine by boiling them in 

 water, and of their earthy salts by steep- 



