876 
SIR J. B. LAWES AND DR, J. H. GILBERT ON THE COMPOSITION 
The first point to notice in the analytical results is that the amount of iron per¬ 
oxide is much higher in the ash of the offal parts than in that of the carcass parts, 
and that it is much higher in the offal ash of the sheep, than in that of either the 
oxen or the pigs. This is doubtless due to adventitious matter in the wool, which 
it was extremely difficult to clean. Indeed, alumina was found, clearly indicating the 
presence of ferruginous clay. Further, the amount of ferric oxide (as also that of 
silica) has a very obvious relation to the amount of “ sand ” found in the ashes. 
Notwithstanding, therefore, that the offal ash of the animals included that of the 
blood, the amount of ferric oxide found in the offal ashes must not be relied upon. 
Reference to Appendix-Table III. will show, however, that the ashes of the offal parts 
of the pigs, exclusive of the head and feet, do contain a very high percentage of 
ferric oxide ; but if, as in the case of the oxen and sheep, the ash of the head and 
feet, with its very low percentage of ferric oxide, be included in the collective offal 
ash, the percentage of ferric oxide in the so-reckoned offal ash of the pig is much 
lower than in that of the sheep. 
The records of the amounts of ferric oxide in the ashes of the carcass parts are only 
very little open to the same objection as in the case of the offal ashes; but it is obvious 
that the high percentage in the latter will unduly raise the amount in the entire 
animal ashes. 
Referring to the more important constituents, it is at once seen that the animal 
ashes consist very largely of phosphate of lime. In the case of ashes of crude pro¬ 
ducts, and particularly of mixed animal substances like those now under consideration, 
it would be out of place to attempt to arrange the constituents as salts. But it 
may nevertheless be useful to indicate the general relation of base to acid in the 
ashes. The lime and magnesia may be taken as essentially, though of course not 
exclusively, representing the bases of the bone-ash ; whilst the potash and soda may 
in the same general, though not in an exclusive sense, be classified as the flesh and 
blood bases. Again, by far the larger proportion of the phosphoric acid will be due 
to the bones ; whilst some of it as such, and probably some as the product of the 
oxidation of phosphorus in the burning, will be connected with the nitrogenous con¬ 
stituents in the non-bony portions of the body. The sulphuric acid, again, will in part 
be due to the oxidation of sulphur in the burning. 
It may be stated, by way of illustration only, that if the phosphoric acid found 
be calculated as wholly tribasic, the lime of the ashes, excepting in the case of the 
pigs, would be nearly, and the lime and magnesia together, quite, or more than, 
sufficient to combine with the whole of the phosphoric acid. The potash and soda 
again, would be considerably more than sufficient to combine with the sulphuric acid, 
chlorine, and carbonic acid. It is thus indicated that, notwithstanding some of the 
phosphoric acid found may be due to the oxidation of phosphorus, and some of the 
sulphuric acid to the oxidation of sulphur, in the burning, there is upon the whole, 
according to the above mode of reckoning, an excess of base in the ashes of the 
