and the Caufes of Corpulency. 123 
hitherto inexplicable, though it is fubject to many exceptions, 
as every hypothcfis muft be. The foundation on which it 
refts is, that whenever there is a certain diminution of oxy- 
gen in the animal fyftem, fat will be produced. The fol-~ 
Jowing obfervations feem to fupport this affertion: The 
chemical analyfis of fat fhows that fix parts of it contain 
near five of carbon and one of hydrogen, and fome febacig¢ 
acid. The fat parts of animals ditfer from. the flethy parts 
only in this, that the latter contain more oxygen and azot. 
By this is explained the change. of mufcles into a fubftance 
like fpermaceti, as profeflor Fourcroy remarked in the bury- 
ing ground of the Innocents at Paris. It has been obferved 
alfo, that the fat augments at the expence of the mufcles in 
the living body, and vice ver/a*. 
This want of oxygen confidered as a caufe of corpulency 
is indicated by the analogy which exifts between gbefity and 
the fea feurvy, which feems to be owing only to a gradual 
abftraction of a part of the oxygen inthe fyftem. ‘The fea 
{curvy is never announced by meagrenefs; on the contrary, 
afullnefs of the habit is the firit fymptom of that malady. 
Dr. Trotter obferves, that when a negro grows rapidly cor- 
pulent, he does not fail to be attacked by the feurvy; from 
which, to make ufe of a coniparifon of Dr, Beddoes, it ap- 
pears that corpulency is to the {curvy what cachexy is to 
the dropfy. All the fymptoms of the feurvy prove’ that it 
arifes from a privation of oxygen: thus the furface of the 
body is covered with livid fpots, the arterial blood is very 
little florid, and, after death, the left auricle is found filled 
with venous blood, which Dr. Goodwin found in animals 
that had been deprived of life by oxygen. Dr. Lind fays, 
that when death has been fudden, and that no effufion is 
found in the cavities of the body, the auricles and the ven- 
tricles are filled with blood, and efpecially the left fide of the 
* Very fat hogs have fearcely mufcle enough to perform locomotion. 
Epir. . 
heart ; 
