48 



THE GROWTH OF BONE 



Du Hamel's discovery (1739- 1743) came out of 

 a chance observation, made by John Belchier, # that 

 the bones of animals fed near dye-works were 

 stained with the dye. Belchier therefore put a bird 

 on food mixed with madder, and found that its 

 bones had taken up the stain. Then du Hamel 

 studied the whole subject by a series of experi- 

 ments. To estimate the advance that he gave to 

 physiology, contrast de Heide's fanciful language 

 with the title of one of du Hamel's papers — 

 Quatrieme Memoire stir les Os, dans lequel on se 

 propose de rapporter de nouvelles preuves qui ^tablis- 

 sent que les os croissent en grosseur par I' addition de 

 couches osseuses qui tirent leur origine du pe'rioste, 

 comme le corps ligneux des Arbres augmente en 

 grosseur par I' addition de couches ligneuses qui se 

 forment dans I'e'corce. Or take an example of du 

 Hamel's method : — 



* "An Account of the Bones of Animals being changed 

 to a red Colour by Aliment only," by John Belchier, F.R.S., 

 Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 1735-36. There is a letter from Sir 

 Hans Sloane, then President of the Royal Society, to M. 

 Geoffroy, member of the French Academy : — " M. Belchier, 

 chirurgien, membre de cette Societe, dinant un jour chez un 

 Teinturier qui travaille en Toiles peintes, remarqua que dans 

 un Pore frais qu'on avoit servi sur table, et dont la chair etoit 

 de bon gout, les os etoient rouges. II demanda la cause d'un 

 effet si singulier, et on lui dit que ces sortes de Teinturiers se 

 servoient de la racine de Rubia Tinctorum, ou garence, pour 

 fixer les couleurs deja imprimees sur les Toiles de cotton, qu'on 

 appelle en Angleterre callicoes." This passage of dye into the 

 bones of animals had been noted so far back as 1573, by Antoine 

 Mizald, a doctor in Paris — Erythrodanum, vnlgo rubia tinctorum, 

 ossa peendum rubenti et sandy cino colore imbnit 



