Camas 
XVI.—On the Solubility of Fluoride of Calcium in Water, and its relation to the 
occurrence of Fluorine in Minerals, and in Recent and Fossil Plants and Am- 
mals. By GrorcEe Wison, M.D. 
(Read April 6. 1846.) 
1. Introductory Remarks. 
TuE investigation I am about to bring before the Royal Society, was under- 
taken in consequence of a discussion which took place in the Zoological Society 
of London in 1843,* in reference to the chemical composition of the bones of the 
gigantic bird the Dinornis, discovered some time previously in New Zealand. At 
the meeting in question, the distinguished paleontologist Dr Fanconer drew 
attention to the frequent, if not constant, occurrence of fluoride of calcium in fossil 
bones, and, as he stated, also in those of mummies; and threw out the sugges- 
tion, that the fluoride might shew itself in these animal remains, not as an origi- 
nal ingredient of the bones, or as derived from the matrix in which they were 
found, but as a product of the transmutation of their phosphate of lime. The 
idea of such a conversion taking place, is as old at least as the days of KLaprotu, 
who suggested the possibility of phosphoric acid becoming changed into fluoric.+ 
It is commented upon by Fourcroy and VAuQquELin,t{ as well as by Gay Lussac,§ 
as a thing possible but not probable, and which their ignorance of the nature of 
fluoric acid prevented them from discussing satisfactorily. 
The revival of this suggestion by Dr Fatconer, at a period when the possi- 
bility of the chemical elements undergoing transmutation was occupying the 
attention of English chemists, and avowedly with a view to shew at least the 
possibility of such an idea proving true, excited much discussion, and led, I be- 
lieve, to the researches of Mr MippLETon and Dr Dauseny, which I am presently 
to mention, and of which my own may be considered the sequel. I have to re- 
quest the forbearance of the reader, whilst, with as much brevity as possible, I 
refer to the labours of my predecessors in relation to the presence of fluorine in 
different bodies. 
In 1802, Moricuint of Rome discovered fluoride of calcium in the molars of 
a fossil elephant, and was led, in consequence, to search for it in the enamel of 
recent human teeth, where he also found it.|| His results were confirmed by 
Gay Lussac, who experimented along with him,§ and by Brerzetius, who found 
* Literary Gazette, Dec. 2, 1843, p. 779. + Annales de Chimie, tome lvii. (1806), p. 43. 
t Ibid., p. 44. § Ibid., tom. lv., p. 265. 
|| Ibid., p. 258. | Ibid. 
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