334 Mr. Hatchett’s Experiments, &c. 
than charcoal can be considered as the vegetable of which it 
retains the figure and fibrous structure. 
Bones which keep their figure after combustion, resemble 
charcoal made from vegetables replete with fibre ; and cartila- 
ginous bones which lose their shape by the same cause, may be 
compared to succulent plants which are reduced in bulk and 
shape in a similar manner. 
From these last experiments, I much question if bodies con- 
sisting of phosphate of lime, like bones, have concurred mate- 
rially to form strata of limestone or chalk ; for, it appears to be 
improbable that phosphate is converted into carbonate of lime, 
after these bodies have become extraneous fossils. 
The destruction or decomposition of the cartilaginous parts 
of teeth and bones in a fossil state, must have been the work of 
a very long period of time, unless accelerated by the action of 
some mineral principle ; for, after having, in the usual manner, 
steeped in muriatic acid the os humeri of a man brought from 
Hythe, in Kent, and said to have been taken from a Saxon 
tomb, I found the remaining cartilage nearly as complete as 
that of a recent bone. The difficult destructibility of sub- 
stances of a somewhat similar nature, appears also from the 
mining implements formed of horn, which are not unfrequently 
found in excavations of high antiquity. 
