o 



gS Mr. Hatchett's Experiments on Zoophytes, 



The prepared muscular fibre of beef yielded 25,60 grains ; the 

 greatest part of which was carbonate of lime, mixed with some 

 pure lime, and a small portion of phosphate : there can be no 

 doubt but that the latter would have been more abundant, had 

 it not been for the repeated boilings to which the muscular 

 fibre had been subjected. 



The recent muscles of veal and mutton were with great dif- 

 ficulty reduced to ashes ; for, towards the end of the process, 

 the ashes and remaining coal became coated and glazed with 

 saline matter, which appeared to be soda, partly in the state of 

 phosphate; and it is not a little remarkable, that the 11,25 

 grains obtained from albumen, consisted principally of soda, 

 in a caustic state, (by reason of the long continued heat,) mixed 

 with a small quantity of phosphate of soda, and a very minute 

 portion of phosphate of lime. 



Pure albumen, therefore, which has not been subjected to 

 the effects of organization, appears to contain a considerable 

 portion of saline matter, and very little of any earthy sub- 

 stance; but the contrary seems to happen, in bodies which 

 (although evidently derived from albumen) have suffered various 

 changes by the action of the vital principle ; which may be 

 considered as the cause of organization, by which these bodies 

 are differently modified, according to the nature of the parts of 

 animals which, singly or conjointly, they are employed to form. 

 In these bodies, the quantity of the saline substances appears 

 to be diminished, while that of the earthy matter is increased, 

 especially in the coarser kinds of muscular fibre. 



Upon a comparison of the chemical properties of the sub- 

 stance which remains, after the separation of gelatin from the 

 great variety of animal substances which have been so often 



