182 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



some otber purposes. Thus F. Hoj)pe' discussed the formation of fat 

 from x)rotein in the study of the utilization of cane sugar in the body. 

 In 1859, in his investigation of "the constituents of milk and its early 

 decomposition products" Hoppe- found that when milk was allowed 

 to stand for a time exposed to the air the amount of fat in it increased. 

 In 186C Ssubotin^ published work which seemed to confirm Hoppe's 

 conclusions. In 1867 Kemmerich found that this increase in the fat 

 content of milk was due to the action of microorganisms. When the 

 spores of these organisms were destroyed by heat and tlie vessel con- 

 taining the milk kept sealed, the amount of butter fat and albumen in 

 the milk always diminish, as a result of oxidation processes. 



Ssubotin also observed that with dogs the greatest quantity of fat was 

 very often found in the milk when the food consisted of meat. Kem- 

 'mericli observed this also, and said that it could be stated with almost 

 absolute certainty that butter fat in milk was a cleavage product of 

 albumen radicals. 



The gradually accumulating evidence of this nature, together with the 

 medical discoveries which were made, furnished ground for a theorj^ of 

 the formation of fat from protein. 



In 1S09 C. von V'oit^ reviewed the new theory in a thorough and care 

 fully written article, and sought to overthrow Liebig's theory of the 

 formation of fat from carbohydrates. Liebig's theory was strengthened 

 by the fact that it was possible to transform carbohydrates into many 

 of the compounds nearly related to fats, and also by the fact that the 

 fat in the food consumed was not sufficient to account for the fat actu- 

 ally formed in the body. The compounds just referred to are, however, 

 only lower members of the fatty acid series and could be formed also 

 from cleavage products of albumen. For instance, the drops of oil 

 which are found in some seeds could be derived as well from albumen 

 as from starch, since the parts of plants which contain fat generally 

 contain considerable albumen. In idants oxygen could split off from 

 starch and leave compounds poorer in oxygen, but in the animal organ- 

 ism this is not the case. Oxygen can only be liberated in combination 

 with some of the hydrogen or carbon of carbohydrates. 



As an instance of the formation of fat from protein, Voit cited the 

 fact that adipocere is often formed from nitrogenous tissue, muscles, etc., 

 when ])ortions of the animal body are kept under water or when a body 

 is buried m a wet soil. Observations on this subject were made by 

 Fourcroy, Gibbes, Quaiu, Gregory, G. Liebig, R. Virchow,Wetherill, and 

 Michaelis. It was also observed by Eudolf, Wagner, Husson, Middle- 

 dorff", and Dawes that testicles, the crystalliu lenses, blood, frog muscles, 



lyirchow's Arch, path, Anat. und Physiol., 10 (1856), p. 144. 

 ^Virchow's Arch. path. Anat. iind Physiol., 17 (1859), p, 417. 



^Centbl. med. Wissensch., 1866, No. 22; Yirchow's Arch. path. Anat und Physiol,, 

 36 (1866), p. 561. 

 •»Ztschr. Biol., 5 (1869), p, 79, 



