CHAP. III.] USES OF FAT. 87 



separation of the oxygen would be doubtless attended by a degree 

 of cooling sufficient to neutralize the heat developed in the forma- 

 tion of carbonic acid. 



Lastly, fat, being a bad conductor of heat, is useful for retaining 

 it in the bodies of animals. Hence those animals that have little 

 hair on their skins, have the greatest quantity of subcutaneous fat. 

 This is remarkably the case in the seal tribe, which has a large 

 quantity of fat between the skin and its muscle, and is almost 

 devoid of cutaneous covering ; and, in man, the subcutaneous fat, 

 which is so generally met with, even in apparently lean subjects, is 

 doubtless a protection against cold. 



The following works may be consulted on the subjects discussed in this 

 chapter : The treatise on General Anatomy by Bichat, Beclard, Craigie, and 

 Henle ; Hildebrandt's Anatomy, by Weber ; Blainville, Logons de Physiologic ; 

 Liebig's Organic Chemistry ; Hunter's remarks on Fat, in the Catalogue of 

 the Hunterian Museum, vol. iii. p. 2. 



