740 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1800. 



muscle of mutton; but this was immediately dissolved in nitric acid, without being 

 previously boiled in water. The fat being separated, the solution was, as before, 

 saturated with ammonia ; and, as usual, became of a deep orange colour, or 

 yellowish brown : in a few hours also, a small quantity of a white precipitate 

 subsided. This precipitate however was completely and readily soluble in acetous 

 acid : and in every respect proved to be phosphate of lime. 



Before proceeding it will be proper to observe, that the liquor from which the 

 above precipitate was separated, as well as those afforded by the muscle of veal, 

 by the prepared muscle of beef, by the solutions of tortoise-shell and of albumen, 

 in boiling nitric acid, subsequently saturated by ammonia, all contained a con- 

 siderable portion of uncombined oxalic acid, which was separated by acetite of 

 lime, and of lead. But I did not find oxalic acid in the solutions formed by 

 immersing these bodies, for a long time, in cold and dilute nitric acid ; neither 

 did I find oxalic acid in solutions made by dissolving these substances in boiling 

 muriatic acid. It is evident therefore, that the oxalic acid observed in the above 

 experiments, was a product of the operations, and not an educt of the substances. 



We may conclude, from the experiments on the muscular substances which 

 have been lately mentioned, that they contain lime, in various proportions, and 

 in 2 different states, viz. carbonate and phosphate ; and that the greater part of 

 the latter is gradually separated, in conjunction with the gelatin, by means of 

 boiling water. I would not however have it understood that phosphate of lime is 

 an essential ingredient in gelatinous substances : for, on the contrary, isinglass, 

 which is a perfectly gelatinous body, affords but a mere visible trace of it. The 

 muscular fibre of beef appears to have been nearly deprived of its phosphate of 

 lime, by the long continued and repeated boiling in water to which it had been 

 subjected ; but still so large a quantity of lime remained, that when oxalic acid 

 was formed by the action of the boiling nitric acid, it combined with the lime, 

 and formed an oxalate, which amounted to 17 gr., from 200 gr. of the dry mus- 

 cular fibre, dissolved in nitric acid, and precipitated by ammonia. 



I do not know what quantity of lime was separated with the gelatin, as I was 

 then only intent on preparing the fibrous part of the muscle; but, from the 

 quantity of lime which remained, and which afterwards combined with the oxalic 

 acid, it is evident, that in the muscle of beef there is a considerable portion of 

 earthy matter ; and as, by the experiment on the muscle of veal, scarcely any 

 precipitate was obtained after it had been boiled, and as but a small portion of 

 phosphate of lime was present in the gelatinous liquid, it appears that in this 

 muscle the whole of the small portion of lime which it contained was in the state 

 of phosphate ; and this being nearly separated, there did not remain any part of 

 uncombined lime, or carbonate of lime, which, by uniting with the oxalic acid, 

 subsequently produced, would form an oxalate; and as lime, in the states of 

 phosphate and carbonate, is so much more abundant in the muscle of beef than 

 in that of veal, we may infer, that the earthy matter is more abundant in the 



