Another  striking  case  is  that  of  the  constant  presence  of  carbonate,
and,  yet  more,  phosphate  of  lime  in  the  bony  tissue,  though  the  nar
ture  of  the  aggregate  of  aliments  appears  to  afford  no  room  for  the
formation  of  those  salts.     This  system  of  investigations,  considered
in  its  whole  range,  constitutes  one  of  the  most  important  general
questions  that  can  arise  from  the  chemical  study  of  life ;  and  if  it
is  at  present  hardly  initiated,  the  backwardness  is  owing,  not  only
to  its  eminent  difficulty,  but  to  the  biologists'  having  abandoned  to
the  chemists  a  task  which,  under  a  wise  organization  of  labor,
would  have  belonged  to  themselves  alone.
In  order  to  effect  a  rational  division  of  organic  chem-  partition  of  or.
istry,  and  to  assign  its  portions  to  chemistry  on  the  one  gmicchemutry.
hand  and  physiology  on  the  other,  we  must  take  our  stand  on  the


298  POSITIVE   PHILOSOPHY.
