22 DR. EMMONS' REPORT. April, 



outward famine. Were it not for this, few could survive a protract- 

 ed illness, and in the winter many wild animals would perish. Ac- 

 cumulating in a season of plenty, and being of the most nourishing 

 substance known, and as it is already animalized or assimilated to 

 the system, it is in a state fit for immediate use, without a laborious 

 change in the digestive apparatus. Thus in sickness, when the an- 

 imal powers are greatly weakened and unfit for labor, the fat be- 

 comes an important store-house ; or when food is beyond the reach, 

 it supplies strength till its prey is found, and the calls of nature satisfied. 



The consistence of fat is known to vary with the food from which 

 it is formed. It is in itself unorganized, being in this respect like an 

 excretion. It is no more organized than bile or saliva. It is depos- 

 ited in little cells, in a state as pure as after it is expressed. In the 

 economy of animals, its presence is an illustration of the foresight of 

 the wants of a created being, and such an exhibition of wisdom in 

 meeting those wants, as is worthy of admiration. 



The fatty principles derived from animals are very analogous to 

 the fixed oils of vegetables ; they are also composed of the same 

 elements, viz., carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. A substance similar 

 to fat has been prepared artificially, by several distinguished chemists. 

 The proportion of the above elements in the fat of animals, is 7S 

 carbon, 11.44 hydrogen, 9.98 oxygen. The composition of olive 

 oil is 77.21 carbon, 13.36 hydrogen, 9.42 oxygen ; and of alcohol, 

 52.17 carbon, 13.04 hydrogen, 34.79 oxygen. Thus nature, from 

 two or three elements, elaborates a multitude of homogeneous or 

 apparently simple bodies. Of this multitude we have no conception, 

 till we sit down and enumerate, one by one, the products of the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms, all of which are composed, with tri- 

 fling exceptions, of those simple elements combined in different pro- 

 portions. 



Milk. This well known fluid consists of three distinct sub- 

 stances or parts, — cream, curd and whey, — into which it separates 

 spontaneously by repose. Cream has a specific gravity of 1.0244, 

 according to Berzelius, and consists, in 100 parts, of butter 4.5, 

 caseous matter 3.5, and whey 92. During the ordinary process of 

 churning, it is said that there is an elevation of temperature amounting 

 to three or four degrees ; at the same time oxygen is absorbed, and 



