The spatial arrangement of bone mineral as revealed by ion bombardment.

Ion etching and thinning using ionized argon beams have been used to prepare surfaces and thin sections of human and animal compact cortical bone for examination in both scanning and transmission modes of the electron microscope. Using these techniques the mineral component in bone is revealed as a continuous, vermiform microskeleton composed of spheroidal segments approximately 0.1 micrometer in diameter. Electron diffraction and micro-analysis have confirmed that the mineral segments contain calcium and phosphate ions arranged in a poorly crystallised form of hydroxyapatite.