406 ON THE EFFECT OF MADDER ROOT 



IV. 



Ob/ervations on the EfeSt of Madder Hoot on the Bones of Ani- 

 mals. By Mr. B. Gibson.* 



Account of the JL HERE Is, perhaps, no phenomenon, which occurs in an 

 1 I covery o animal body more curious, than the tinge communicated to 



the pr'vperty ot ... ° 



madder to tinge the bones of living animals, whofe food has been mixed with 



the bones of madder root. This, like many other fafts, to which no reafon- 

 Lving animaiss . , 



mg apr/oncould have direfted us, was difcovered by chance. 



Mr. Belcher, dining with a calico printer on a leg of frefii 

 pork, was furprized that the bones, inflead of poffeffing their 

 ufual whitenefs, were of a deep red colour; and on enquiring 

 the caufe of it, was informed, that the pig had been fed upon 

 the refufe of the dyers' vats, and had received fo much of the 

 colouring matter of madder into the fyftem, thai Us bones 

 were dyed by it. So interefting a faft has attra6ted very much 

 the attention of anatomies, and has been ufed in many phyfi- 

 _ ological and pathological enquiries; it may not therefore be 

 uninterefting to give a fliort hiftory of the phenomena connedled 

 with it, and the purpofes to which it has been applied, previ- 

 ous to entering upon the more immediate obje(5t of this paper, 

 Experiments Many experiments have been made to alcertain how long 



fhewnig that the ^ jj^g is required to produce the tinge, and whether it be 

 tinge :s more • '^ ® 



quickly given to permanent or only temporary. Belcher and Morand, about 

 the bones of ^^^ ^^^^ i\vne, mixed madder root with the food of chickens 

 growing animals. , / _, /• , r i - i r • 



and young pigeons. The relult of their oblervations was, 



that the tinge was more quickly communicated to the bones 

 of growing animals, than to the bones of animals which had 

 already completed their growth; the bones of young pigeons 

 being tinged of a rofe-colour in twenty-four hours, and of a 

 deep leaflet in three days; whilft tne bones of adult animals 

 Short time and only exiiibited a rofe-colour in fifteen days. They found the 

 other fafts. tinge moft intenfe in the folid parts of (hofe bones, which were 

 neareft to the centre of circulation ; whilft in bones of equal 

 folidity, at a greater diflance from the heart, the tint was 

 more faint. The dye was deep in proportion to the length of 

 time the madder had been continued, and when it was difcon- 

 tinued, the cohmr gradually became more and more faint, till 



* Manchefter Memoirs, 1805. 



