372 TransacUons of the Society. 



for example, that fat was first deposited in several or many globules 

 within one cell, which afterwards ran or melted into one mass in 

 the fully distended fat-cell. 



In absorption of fat we find no breaking up into several globules 

 of the one mass ; but where the fat-cells contained only one mass, 

 the mass grew smaller, but did not break up into globules, as seen 

 in most of the cells of Fig. 7. When, however, the fat-cells were 

 only in course of development when nutrition failed, as seen in 

 several of the cells in Figs. 9 and 10, where the developing globules 

 had not melted into one mass, these globules diminished together ; 

 in other words, single masses diminished as single masses, and 

 multiple globules diminished as multiple globules. 



The course or direction of absorption among fat-cells is better 

 marked than the direction of development. The fat-cells of the 

 mesentery, and more especially at the upper part near the pancreas, 

 become empty before the fat- cells of the broad ligament, while in 

 each membrane the cells farthest from the blood-vessels and from 

 the neighbourhood of the parts of the blood-vessels farthest from the 

 centre of the circulation, are the first to become emptied of fat. 

 After the fat has disappeared from the cells, and the first stage 

 of decline is completed, a period of quiescence ensues, during which 

 little change appears in the condition of the exhausted cells. 



It may be observed, however, that they seem to diminish 

 slightly in size ; they become more regularly oval or almond- 

 shaped, and when viewed edgeways the fat-cell is seen to have 

 become thicker in the centre, like an almond viewed edgeways. 



Within the cell-substance the granules are seen becoming better 

 defined from the transparent matrix containing them, and at the 

 same time increasing in number. Suddenly, and without any par- 

 ticular change or warning, the granules begin to leave the cell in 

 every direction, as if they had become endowed with the power of 

 automatic locomotion which theii* mother-cell had lost on becoming 

 a fat-cell. Not only does the sharp oval outline become lost in that 

 mother-cell, but the nucleus also becomes nearly hidden by the 

 mass of granules clustering round it like a swarm of bets round 

 their queen. The swarm passes away on every side and in appa- 

 rently no definite direction, the granules becoming fewer and more 

 isolated the farther they pass away from the mother-cell. 



This condition is well seen in Fig. 10, from the same animal 

 as Fig. 9. We have there a small group of fat-cells forming an 

 island apart from the great fat-tracts that lie along the contiguous 

 blood-vessels. While the fat has disappeared from all the cells 

 of the group, three of them, a, h, and c, have entered upon the 

 condition of granular exodus, and the granules may be seen passing 

 away from them in every possible direction. We see none of that 

 apj)earance shown in drawings of an ovum which has been burst 



