VETERINARY OBITUARY. 
105 
that they resemble lime in appearance, and that the minerals 
which are chiefly composed of them are remarkable for their great 
weight. 
“ Silica is the only verifiable earth ; the others are termed alka- 
line, from the great resemblance which their properties have to 
those of the fixed alkalis. Like these they are antacid, and in 
most cases convert vegetable blues to green. This identity of pro- 
perties naturally caused a suspicion of an identity of composition ; 
and subsequent galvanic experiments proved that all the earths, 
not even excepting silica, are the oxides of bodies more or less re- 
sembling the ordinary metals, and which have been called, after the 
Latin names of the corresponding earths, silicum, aluminum, cal- 
cium, magnesium, barium, strontium, &c. Thus we see that fixed 
alkalis, earths, and metallic oxides, are only three divisions of 
one great class.” 
OBITUARY. 
Died, suddenly, on the 9th ult., at his house in 
Osnaburgh Place, New Road, Regent’s Park, in the 71st 
year of his age, William Youatt, Esq., M.R.C.Y.S., 
late Veterinary Surgeon to the Zoological Society, Editor 
of “The Veterinarian,” and author of “The Horse,” 
“ The Ox,” “ The Dog,” “ The Pig*,” “ Humanity to 
Brutes,” &c., &c. ; sincerely regretted by all his friends 
and acquaintance, but especially and deeply lamented 
by the members of that profession of which he was, for 
thirty years of his laborious and useful life, a distinguished 
and beloved member. 
* On this work Mr. Youatt was engaged at the time of his decease ; and, 
fortunately, had sufficiently advanced it to enable the publishers to lay it, ere 
long, before the public. — Ed. Vkt. 
