B O 
itfiftierSl ftones. This curious experiment deferves to be 
further profecuted. 
Colouring of Bones. Bones may be ffained of a variety 
of colours by the common dying infufions and deco6tions 
of animal and vegetable fubftances. They are (tained al- 
fo, without heat, by metallic folutions; and by means of 
thefe may be fpotted or variegated at pleafure. Thus, a 
folution of lilver in aquafortis gives a brown or black, ac¬ 
cording to its quantity ; folution of gold in aqua regia, or 
in fpirit of fait, a fine purple; folution of copper in the 
acetous acid, a fine green ; and folutions of the fame me¬ 
tal in volatile alkalis, a blue, which at firft is deep and 
beautiful, but changes, upon expofure to the air, into a 
green or bluith green. If the bone is but touched with 
the two firft folutions, and expofed to the air, it does not 
fail to acquire the colour in a few hours : in the two Lit¬ 
ter, it requires to be (teeped fora day or longer, in order 
to its imbibing the colour. In thefe and other cafes where 
immeriion for fome time is neceffary, the bone may be va¬ 
riegated, by covering fuch parts as are to remain white, 
with wax, or any other matter that the liquor will not 
dilfolve or penetrate. 
Economical Ufes of Bones. Bone is a very ufeful fub- 
ftance, not only for making different kinds of toys, but 
likewife in feveral of the chemical arts ; as, for making 
call iron malleable, for abforbing the fulphur of fulplntre- 
cms ores; for forming tefts and cupels, or veflels for re¬ 
fining gold and lilver with lead (burnt bones compofing a 
mafs of a porous texture, which abforbs the vitrified lead 
and other matters, while the unvitrefcible gold and lilver 
remain entire behind); for the preparation of milky glalfes 
and porcelains ; for the rectification of volatile falts and 
empyreuniatic oils ; and for making glue. The bones of 
different animals are not equally fit for thefe ufes : even 
the glue, or gelatinous part of the bones of one animal, is 
found different both in quality and cohefivenefs from that 
of another. 
Bones in the Funeral Solemnities of the Ancie?its. Various 
ufages and ceremonies relating to the bones of the dead 
have obtained in different ages ; as, gathering them from 
the funeral pile, waffling, anointing, and depofiting them 
in urns, and thence into tombs; tranflating them, which 
was not to be done without the authority of the pontiff's ; 
not to fay worfhipping of them, (fill pradifed to the bones 
of the faints in the Romifh church. Among the ancients, 
the bones of travellers and foldiers dying in foreign coun¬ 
tries were brought home to be buried ; till, by an exprefs 
law made during the Italic war, it was forbid, and the 
foldiers’ bodies ordered to be buried where they died. 
The Romans had a peculiar deity under the denomination 
of Ofjilago , to whom the care of the induration and knit¬ 
ting of the human bones was committed ; and who, on 
that account, was the objeCf of the adoration of all breed¬ 
ing women. 
Foffile or petrified Bones, are thofe found in the earth, 
frequently at great depths, in all the ftrata, even in the 
bodies of fiones and rocks ; fome of them of a huge fize, 
ufually fuppofed to be the bones of giants, but more 
truly of elephants or hippopotami. It is fuppofed they 
were repofited in thofe ftrata when all things were in a (fate 
of folution ; and that they incorporated and petrified with 
the bodies where they happened to be lodged. In the 
mufeum of the Ruffian academy of fciences, there is a 
vaft collection of foffile bones, teeth, and horns, of the 
elephant, rhinoceros, and buffalo, which have been found 
in different parts of that empire, but more particularly in 
the fouthern regions of Siberia. Naturalifts Stave been 
puzzled to account for fo great a variety being found in 
a country where the animals of which they formerly made 
a part were never known to exift. The celebrated Bayer 
conjectures, that they belonged to elephants common in 
that country during the wars which tlie Mogul monarchs 
carried on with the Perfians and Indians ; and this plaufi- 
ble fuppofition feents in fome meafitre to be corroborated 
bv the difeovery of the entire fkeleton .of ,an elephant in 
Vol. III. No. 123. 
one of the Siberian tombs. But this opinion, as Mr. Pal¬ 
las very juftly oblerves, is fufficiently refuted by the con- 
fideration, that the elephants employed in the armies of 
all India could never have afforded the vaft quantities of 
teeth which have been difeovered, not to mention thofe 
which it is juftly to be prefumed may (till be buried. 
They have been already dug up in fuch plenty as to make 
a confiderable article of trade. The fame ingenious natu- 
ralift has given an ample defeription of thefe foffile bones, 
and has endeavoured to account for their origin. Upon 
examining thofe in the mufeum, he was led to conclude, 
that, as thefe bones are equally difperfed in all the northern 
regions Of Europe, the climate probably was in the earlier 
ages lei’s f'evere than at prefent, and then perhaps fuffi¬ 
ciently Warm to be the native countries of the elephant, 
rhinoceros, and other quadrupeds, now found only in the 
fouthern climates. But when he vifited, during his tra¬ 
vels, the fpots where the foffile bodies were dug up, and 
could form a judgment from his own obfervations, and not 
from the accounts of others, he renounced his former hy- 
pothefis; and, in conformity with the opinions of many* 
modern philofophers, alferted, that they muff have been 
brought by the waters ; and that nothing but a fudden 
and general inundation, fucli as the deluge, could have 
tranfported them from their native countries in the fouth, 
to the regions of the north. In proof of this affertion, he 
adds, that the bones are generally found feparate, as if 
they had been fcattered by the waves, covered with a 
ftratum of mud evidently formed by the waters, and com¬ 
monly intermixed with the remains of marine plants, and 
fimilar fubftances; inffnnees of which he himfelf obferved 
during his progrefs through Siberia, and which fufficiently 
prove that thefe regions of Afia were once overwhelmed 
with the fea. 
We often find in the earth petrified bones, the greatefl: 
part of their gelatinous matter being extracted by the 
moiflure, and a (lony one introduced in its room. In fome 
parts of France petrified bones are met with which have 
an impregnation of copper. Hence, on being calcined in 
an open fire, a volatile fait is produced from the remains 
of their gelatinous principle, and the bone is tinged 
throughout of a fine greenilh blue colour, copp'er always 
finking a blue with volatile alkali. The French tttrqiioifes 
are no other than thefe bones prepared by calcination: 
they are very durable, and bear to be worked and polillied 
nearly in the fame manner as glafs ; without the imper¬ 
fection, inseparable from glaffiy bodies, of being brittle. 
See the article Turquoise. 
There have been lately difeovered feveral enormous fke- 
letons, five or fix feet beneath the furface, on the banks 
of the Ohio, not far from the river Miume, in North 
America, 700 miles from the fea-caaff. Some of the tnfks 
are near feven feet long ; one foot nine inches at the bale, 
and one foot near the point-; the cavity at the root or 
bafe, nineteen inches deep. Befides their fize, there are 
feveral other difference's which will not allow the fuppofi¬ 
tion of their having been elephants : the tufks of the true 
elephant have fometimes a very flight lateral bend; thefe 
have a larger twift, or fpiral curve, towards the fmaller 
end : but the great and fpecific difference confifts in the 
fbape of the grinding teeth ; which, in thefe newly found, 
are fafhioned like the teeth of a carnivorous animal ; not 
flatted and ribbed tranfverfely on their furface like thofe 
of the modern elephant, but furnifhed with a double row 
of high and conic procelfes, as if intended to mafticate, 
not to grind, their food. A third difference is in the 
thigh-bone, which is of great di ('proportionable thicknefs 
to that of the elephant; and has alfo fome other anatomi¬ 
cal variations. Thefe foffile bones have been alfo found 
in Peru and the Brafils ; and, when cut and polifhed by 
the workers in ivory, appear in every refpefit fimilar. It 
was the opinion of Dr. Hunter, that they'mu ft have be¬ 
longed to a larger animal than the elephant, and differing 
from it in being carnivorous. But this formidable crea - 
ture has as yet evaded our fearch. See Mammoth, 
Y y “ Th.« 
