We may allude here to a very singular physical property which is
possessed by the elephant's tusk. Specimens have frequently been
obtained which were found to contain musket-bullets in their centre,
surrounded with a species of osseous pulp differing from the ordinary
character and constitution of ivory. There was frequently no
corresponding orifice on the surface of the tusk; and hence
Blumenbach, and other naturalists, were led to form some very
inaccurate notions regarding this circumstance. Mr Rodgers of
Sheffield some years ago forwarded a variety of such specimens to the
Edinburgh College Museum, and these were very closely examined by
Professor Goodsir, who, in a communication to the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, demonstrated that this arose simply from a property of
isolating foreign substances common to all osseous organised bodies:
the ball having been enclosed by the tusk in its pulpy secretion, and
corrosive action thereby prevented, the process of growth continued
without interruption.
Ivory is a solid, white, translucent substance, distinguishable from
bone by its beautiful texture of semi-transparent rhomboidal network.
The finest ivory is much more transparent than paper of the same
thickness.
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