144 APPENDIX. [No. I. 



from the Brighton chalk rubble, of a fish-bone, and a shark's tooth from 

 the London clay, when dissolved in diluted muriatic acid, gave only a 

 brown powder ; and the animal matter of a fragment of the humerus of a 

 mastodon from Big-bone-lick exhibited but little flexibility, and was 

 easily torn, particularly in the longitudinal direction. It was found 

 impossible to make sections of the jaw-bone of the stag or the humerus of 

 the mastodon for microscopic observation. Part of a human parietal bone 

 found upon the site of the cathedral of Old Sarum, and human bones 

 obtained from the churchyard of St. Christophe le Stocks, on part of 

 which the Bank of England stands, were ascertained to have had their 

 animal matter reduced to the same state as that of the stag's jaw. A 

 fossil oyster from the Isle of Wight, when placed under the microscope, 

 showed black spots over its surface, and the structure of the shell was 

 appai-ently destroyed. A fragment of a Pecten from the lias also exhibited 

 opaque spots. Part of an ammonite when dissolved left a substance 

 resembling sepia. 



3. The third case, where only the carbon of the animal matter 

 remains, was explained by two series of experiments, one of which 

 proved it to be associated with bitumen, and the other that it existed 

 by itself. The scales of Dapediwm politwm and other fishes from Lyme 

 Regis, when acted upon by acid, left carbon undissolved ; and when heated 

 under a test-tube gave a considerable quantity of bitumen. 



Portions of the bones of the Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus from the 

 lias yielded a black residuum, which deflagrated with red-hot nitre, agd 

 the resulting mass gave a precipitate with chloride of calcium. To prove 

 that the carbon was a portion of the bone and not an adventitious 

 ingredient, a section was made, and the greatest quantity of carbon was 

 found in the thickest part ; and an analysis showed that the proportion of 

 carbon was about the same as in the animal matter of a similar mass of 

 recent bone. A still further proof was adduced, in no gelatine having been 

 detected after thirty- six hours' boiling of a fragment of the fossil. A 

 section of recent bone displayed, when carbonized by heat and charged 

 with crystals of alum or a composition of whiting, a similar appearance in 

 the arrangement of the carbon as in the fossil bone. No bitumen was 

 given off, when fragments of these bones were acted upon by heat under a 

 test-tube. 



With respect to the second great class in which the animal matter 

 has been removed, the following cases were mentioned :— Portion of the 

 external and internal parts of a mammoth tusk from Siberia did not 

 blacken by heat, and dissolved completely in muriatic acid. The internal 

 part of a tusk from Ohio gave the same results, but the external part was 

 found to contain a considerable proportion of animal matter. In bones 

 from the crag, the animal matter had been abstracted. Human bones 

 which had been long buried were found to be in the same state. 



The paper concluded with the following remarks : — As the different 

 states in which animal matter is found in fossils pass insensibly into each 

 other, and as many of the changes occur in churchyard and other bones, 

 it follows that no extraordinary circumstances are requisite to produce 

 these alterations, but that they may be effected by the ordinary processes 

 of putrefaction. Even the carbonization of animal matter may be 

 accomplished by similar processes without the aid of heat, as bones 



