396 Mr. Hatchett's Experiments on Zoophytes, 



nitric acid, it combined with the lime, and formed an oxalate, 

 which amounted to 17 grains, from 200 grains of the dry 

 muscular fibre, dissolved in nitric acid, and precipitated by 

 ammoniac. 



I do not know what quantity of phosphate of lime was 

 separated with the gelatin, as I was then only intent on prepa- 

 ring the fibrous part of the muscle ; but, from the quantity of 

 lime which remained, and which afterwards combined with the 

 oxalic acid, it is evident, that in the muscle of beef there is a con- 

 siderable portion of earthy matter ; and as, by the experiment 

 on the muscle of veal, scarcely any precipitate was obtained 

 after it had been boiled, and as but a small portion of phos- 

 phate of lime was present in the gelatinous liquid, it appears 

 that, in this muscle, the whole of the small portion of lime 

 which it contained was in the state of phosphate; and this being 

 nearly separated, there did not remain any part of uncombined 

 lime, or carbonate of lime, which, by uniting with the oxalic 

 acid, (subsequently produced,) would form an oxalate ; and as 

 lime, in the states of phosphate and carbonate, is so much more 

 abundant in the muscle of beef than in that of veal, we may 

 infer, that the earthy matter is more abundant in the coarse and 

 rigid fibre of adult and aged animals, than in the tender fibre 

 of those which are young ; and this seems to be corroborated, 

 by the tendency to morbid ossification, so frequently observed 

 in aged individuals of the human species. 



Gelatin, albumen, and muscular fibre, not only differ very 

 much from each other by the relative quantity of their saline 

 or earthy residua, but also by the proportion of one of their 

 essential and elementary principles, namely, carbon. 500 grains 

 of isinglass, made perfectly dry by distillation, yielded 56 grains 



