42 On definite Proportions. 
Anima! fat has, I believe, hitherto been considered as a secre- 
tion, although there is no direct eyidence in favour of such an 
opinion. It has nothing in common with the secretions ; it is 
met with in all the interstices of the body ; is very often quickly 
deposited, and in as short a time taken back into the constitu- 
tion. In these respects it corresponds with the watery fluids, 
with which the body is supplied. 
In a former communication respecting the stomachs of animals, 
I explained that water was taken up from the stomach by chah- 
nels yet unknown, and carried into the circulation ; from whence 
it is poured into all the cavities of the body, or thrown out al- 
together by the kidneys and glands of the skin. . 
On the present occasion, I hope that I have collected a suf- 
ficient body of evidence to prove, that fat is formed in the in- 
testines, and from thence receiyed into the circulation, and de- 
posited in almost every part of the body. When there is a great 
demand for it, as in youth, for carrying on the growth of the 
body, it is laid immediately under the skin, or in the neighbour- 
hood of the abdomen: when not likely to he wanted, as in old 
age, it is deposited in the interstices of muscles, to make up in 
bulk for the wasting of the muscular fibres. There appear to be 
no direct channels by which any superabundance of it can be 
‘thrown out of the body; so that, when the supply exceeds the 
consumption, its accumulation becomes a disease, and frequently 
a very distressing one. 
X. An Attempt to determine the definite and simple Pro- 
portions, in which the constituent Parts of unorganic Sub- 
stances are united with each other. By JAcoB BeR2ELIUS, 
Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy, and M.R.A. Stock- 
holm. 
[Continued from vol. xlii. p. 463.] 
THIRD CONTINUATION. . 
Containing the laws of the combinations of water, and of the 
formation of sulsalts and double salts, together with the re- 
sults of the whole investigation. 
I HAVE expressed an opinion in the former parts of this Essay, 
that water takes place of a base with respect to the acids, and 
of an acid with respect to the bases; I have also advanced as a 
probable supposition, that the salts contain always so much water 
of crystallization, that its oxygen is either an integral multiple 
or submultiple of that which is contained in the base of the salt. 
I had inferred from Davy’s experiments, that the gaseous muria- 
tic 
