90 REPORT— 1866. 



observed any appearance of crystals, only of granules, tliese of various sizes, the 

 smallest only just within the limits of vision. Farther, v.hen I have subjeeted a 

 minute portion of shell to the "blowpipe, and rapidly destroyed by combustion the 

 animal matter, in the residual liuie couuniuuted with a drop of water added to it 

 there has been no appearance immediately of crystals, only of granides: I say 

 immediately, because, after a short exposiu'e to the air, the lime, that which had 

 been deprived of its carbonic acid, reuniting with carbonic acid derived from the 

 atmosphere, then assumed a crystalline form, and presented minute well-defined 

 crj'stals, chiefly of the cubical kind, and this the more rapidly the more free the 

 exposure, as shown by comparing a portion covered wnth thin glass and another 

 not so covered. And if no water be used, no solution formed, then no crystals 

 were produced, even when the lime, attracting moisture from the atmosphere, 

 becomes converted into a hydrate*. 



That crystallization is of rare occurrence in connexion with organic develop- 

 ment is an admitted fact, and where it has been observed, as in the blood, it 

 seems to be yet a problem waiting solution, whether the crystals detected were 

 formed in the living fluid and were a part of it as such, or were formed after 

 privation of life; in other words, whether by a formative process analogous to 

 secretion, or by a destructive process pertaining to excretion. That coagulable 

 lymph or fibrine may lose its vitality whilst in the living blood-vessels, and 

 undergo a softening similar to that which takes place in it out of the body at a 

 certain temperature, is now an established pathological fact; and as blood-corpuscles 

 are always included in the coagulum, these two may be inferred to be in the same 

 category in relation to vitality. Were life and crystallization compatible, might we 

 not expect to find crystals in bones ? But I am not aware that they have ever been 

 detected in any bone, however early its examination may have been in the 

 embryo. It may perhaps be said that crystals are frequently met with in calcidi. 

 Admitting the fact, is it not more reasonable to refer their formation in these 

 bodies not to vital action, but to the absence of vitality, and to ordinary physical 

 causes, calculi themselves being anorganic, and the result of causes of the same 

 land, ('. e. physical ? And here I maj- mention a fact whicJi I am disposed to view 

 in the same light. I have found in the ovary of a fowl a white opaque matter, 

 resembling in appearance lithate of ammonia, as seen in the urinary excrement of 

 birds ; but on examination it proved to be not a lithate of anmionia, but carbonate 

 of lime mixed with auimal matter, the former partly granular and partly crystal- 

 lized, chiefly in minute cubes. 



The rapid manner in which the carbonate of lime is deposited on the e^g in the 

 oviduct, and always, as it would appear, associated with animal matter, might 

 perhaps be used as an argument against its deposition ou the membrane in a crys- 

 talline form : be this as it may, both the shortness of time in which the incrus- 

 tation takes place and the quantity of carbonate of lime which enters into the 

 incrustation is remarkable. -V hen, a good layer, in fidl vigour, commonly laj's 

 an eg(!: every day, and 1 have never found more than one egg in the oviduct at the 

 same time. Of an egg newly laid, which weighed 906-9 grs., the entire shell was 

 found to weigh 69'4 grs., of which, on analysis, 16-1 grs. proved to be animal 

 matter, 53-3 grs. carbonate of lime, with a trace of carbonate of magnesia and 

 phosphate of lime ; so this large quantity of carbonate of lime must have been 

 poured out from the blood in the short space of twenty^-four hours or less ! 



Another fact I would mention, which also may be adduced in fa'som- of the 

 idea that crystallization is not incompatible -with vital action. I refer to the 

 microscopical crystals, chiefly prismatic, which are found to occur in the brain 

 and spinal chord of the frog and toad, and which I have detected also in the 

 newt, and this normally, as far as I am aware, without exception, and, I may add, 

 which occur also in profusion in the retina. From the trial I have made of 

 them, they appear to consist chiefly of phosphate of lime. The existence of these 

 crystals is a fact that does not seem to admit of the same explanation as calculi. 

 It seems altogether exceptional — a problem waiting solution. 



In certain vegetables, too, as is well known, crystals have been found in their 



* Hydrate of lime, formed by exposing quicklime to the atmosphere, I have foimd 

 finely granular and free from crystals. 



