638 
ANATOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS 
And the septum nasi, which has been considered a part per¬ 
fectly distinct and separate, is nothing but a cartilaginous or ossific 
prolongation of the perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone. For 
this cartilage, like all others, is very demonstrably covered by 
perichondrium, especially in the ox, and, when deprived of its pitu¬ 
itary membrane, ossifies more or less according to the animal; but 
little in the horse, a great deal in the ox, still more in the seal, in 
which, according to Cuvier, the ethmoidal plate extends to the ex¬ 
tremity of the snout, in advance of the bones of the nose. And in 
a fossil pachyderm, the rhinoceros ticherinus, the septum has been 
found entirely osseous even in the heads of very young subjects : 
doubtless, in order to give a solid point d'appui to the facial incur¬ 
vations, and to sustain the alee nasi . 
Recueil de Medicine Vctcrinaire. 
The Mode in which Phosphate of Lime becomes trans¬ 
ported from the Mineral into the Organic Kingdom. 
We know that the phosphate of the basis, lime, generally desig¬ 
nated subphosphate of lime, is found in almost every alimentary 
substance derived from the vegetable kingdom, and that to its 
presence is owing the production of whatever animals assimilate 
by the act of digestion, which afterwards becomes part of their 
own tissues. 
The insolubility in water of this calcareous salt, as it is met with 
either in certain soils or in certain rich pastures, has given rise to 
the supposition that it was rendered soluble through the carbonic 
acid held in solution at times by rain water. This opinion rested, 
however, upon no direct evidence on the late occasion when M. 
Lassaigne undertook a series of researches to verify it. 
From the observations which he has had it in his power to make, 
it results that the sub-phosphate of lime, in the state in which it 
forms the base of animal bone, is feebly soluble in water charged 
with carbonic acid at the ordinary temperature and pressure of the 
atmosphere ; that this solution exerts a stimulant action on germi¬ 
nation and vegetation, and that it is in this state of solution that 
the phosphate pervades the vessels of the plant to fix itself within 
their organization. 
The mode of transport of the same salt into the animal economy 
is in part owing to the solvent power of the gastric juice, as has 
been proved ; but, independently of this cause, there exists another 
of which physiologists have continued ignorant, and which ap¬ 
pears to reside in the property possessed by salt and water of 
feebly dissolving the phosphate. This property, that has hitherto 
