FATS. 65 



cumulation is excessive, there is an hereditary tendency to fat. 

 Organs which are in process of atrophy from disease, or other 

 causes, are apt to be the seat of a deposit of fatty granules ; 

 as the muscular fibres, which, in many diseases character- 

 ized by rapid emaciation, are found to be the seat of fatty 

 degeneration. 



There are certain situations where fat never exists, as in 

 the eyelids and scrotum ; and others where it is always found, 

 even in extreme emaciation, as in the orbit and around the 

 kidneys. Ordinarily, fat is pretty well distributed through- 

 out the body, having a tendency to accumulate, however, 

 beneath the skin, and in the omentum, where its presence is 

 least likely to interfere with the function of parts, and where 

 it serves to maintain the uniform temperature of the body, 

 and particularly of the delicate abdominal organs. 



The average relative quantity of fat in the human body 

 has been calculated by Burdach to be five parts per hundred. 

 In the body of a man weighing 176 pounds, he found 8*8 

 pounds of fat. 1 



In certain parts fat has an important mechanical func- 

 tion. It serves as a soft bed for delicate organs, as the eye 

 and kidney. It is a bad conductor, and thus prevents the 

 loss of heat by the organism. This is very important in 

 some warm-blooded animals, as the whale, in which the loss 

 of heat would be very great were it not for the immensely 

 thick layer of fat just beneath the skin. It is important in 

 filling up the interstices between the muscles, bones, ves- 

 sels, &c. 



Fat, like sugar, has undoubtedly an important office in 

 connection with the general processes of development and nu- 

 trition. We have not yet arrived at an accurate knowledge 

 of the changes which it undergoes as it is used up by the 

 economy ; for with the single exception of butter in the milk, 



1 BURDACH, Traite de Physiologie, Paris, 1837, tome viii., p. 80. Translated 

 from the German by Jourdan. 

 5 



