82 APPENDIX. 



with these powers exhibited by the relation of properties of life in different seats, and 

 more especially among the phenomena of disease. But until the pretensions of elec- 

 tricity to an identity with life shall be established by rather a more extensive analogy, 

 it is superfluous to inquire how far the phenomena of electricity resemble those of dys- 

 pepsia, diarrhoea, consumption, abscess, or gout. If, perchance, electricity should be 

 endowed with the properties engaged in these phenomena, it will be greatly indebted 

 to its friends, for bestowing upon it attributes which it has never displayed. In the 

 mean time, it is to be wished that experimentalists will go on multiplying their facts, 

 and that they will abstain from reasoning upon, them : they will not, however, err to 

 to any great extent in this way, if they will take the trouble to remember that so far as 

 things are proved to be alike, they are alike ; and where they are not proved to be 

 alike, it is possible that they may be different. 



"The identity of life and electricity, or galvanism, has been inferred, as appears 

 from the preceding account, from very slender premises: but the arguments just con- 

 sidered are among the best that have been, proposed in favour of the sameness of the 

 two principles, or substances, if they are substances," 



Of Ossification, 

 Note HIT. 



The bones are at first of a mucous or gelatinous consistence in the embryo. TtV; 

 r.ext become cartilaginous, and some of them fibro-cartilaginous ; they are lastly per- 

 fectly ossified. At the early period of the embryal state the bones gradually increase,, 

 without any apparent division, into separate parts. The cartilaginous bones, or the 

 temporary cartilages, do xot appear before two months have elapsed from the period 

 of conception, and then this process towards ossification only commences in those 

 bones, or in the parts of bones which are ossified at a later period. It appears doubt- 

 ful whether or no those bones which ossify the first, or those parts of bones in which 

 the process takes place at an early period, pass through an intermediate or cartilagi- 

 nious state. It seems most probable from the observations of Messrs. Beclard and Ser- 

 res, that in them the ossific deposit is made in the first or mucous state of their exist- 

 ence ; whilst, in those bones which are perfected at a remoter period, the cartilaginious 

 or intermediate state which they assume is rather a provisional function, than a stage ot 

 ossification a temporary condition of structure forthe purpose of performing the offices 

 of bone, and not a requisite antecedent to the ossific process. 



Ossification commences successively in the different bones, from about a month after 

 impregnation, in those which are the first formed, until ten or twelve years after birth, 

 in those which ossify at a later period ; and in certain subordinate parts of bones, the 

 ossific process does not commence until the fifteenth or eighteenth year. The clavicle 

 MK! maxillary bones are amongst the first developed ; the sternum, the bones of the 

 pelvis, and those of the extremities are the latest. It may be considered as a general 

 proposition that those bones which are nearest the nervous and sanguineous centres 

 are the first to be formed, as if their more immediate developement were required to 

 protect these important systems ; hence we perceive that the vertebrae and ribs ossify 

 at an early period. 



At the end of the first month ossification commences in the clavicle, and successively 

 in the inferior maxilla, in the femur, tibia, humerus, superior maxilla, and bones of the 

 fore-arm, where it begins about the thirty-fifth day. About the fortieth day this pro- 

 cess commences In the fibula, scapulum, the palatine bones ; and during the following- 

 ('.ays, in the occipital and frontal bones, in the arches of the first vertebra:, and in their 

 sides, in the sphenoid, the zygomatic apophysis, the phalanges of the fingers, the bodies 

 of the vertebrae, the nasal and zygomatic bones, the ilium, the metacarpal bones, the 

 condyles of the occipital bones, in the squamous portion of the temporal bone, the pa- 

 rietal, and in the vomer ; in all these ossification begins about the middle of the seventh 

 week. In the course of the same week it commences also in the orbitar process of the 

 sphenoid ; and, about the end of the week, in the metatarsal bones and phalanges of 

 the fingers and toes. During the ten following days it begins in the first sacral verte- 

 bra:, and around the tympanum. During the subsequent weeks and months it com- 

 mences in the bones or the ear, in the pubis, in the processes of many of the already 

 mentioned bcnes, in the small bones of the extremities, 8cc. (Beclard.) 



