FATS. 261 



or cooled fluid is impeded, nature has most perfectly effected the 

 object in view. We surround our stoves with stagnant air, in order 

 to retain the heat as much as possible ; but this object would be 

 far more perfectly attained, if we could enclose the air in the sub- 

 jacent and superimposed layers of so bad a conducting medium as 

 the cellular tissue. When we consider the enormous quantity 

 of cells filled with fat which are frequently deposited under the 

 skin of corpulent persons, we can scarcely comprehend how an 

 otherwise healthy individual could die from the effects of excessive 

 cold. 



Thus we find that the whole abdomen is filled and covered with 

 fat, for the purpose of maintaining that equable temperature 

 which is requisite for the due performance of its various chemico- 

 physiological processes, the adipose tissue of the omentum 

 acting as a special protection to the abdominal viscera. In fur- 

 therance of a similar end, the female breasts are largely supplied 

 with fat, since, from their exposed position, these organs might, 

 without such a protection, readily become unfitted for their normal 

 functions. The testicles, on the other hand, contain no fat, and 

 the scrotum very little, because these organs must be kept cool, as 

 we learn from the bad results following the non-descent of the 

 testicles. Animal heat could not be maintained in so equable a 

 condition in the body, if all the organs every part in which a 

 metamorphosis of tissue occurs were not enveloped in fat. Do 

 we not observe how eagerly phthisical patients, convalescents, and 

 old persons, seek the warmth of the sun, and how emaciated ani- 

 mals delight in basking in its rays? We should probably also take 

 into consideration the fact that, next to water, fat possesses the 

 greatest capacity for heat, and hence a very considerable quantity 

 of heat will be required to transmit warmth through the fatty 

 investment of the body. As a proof that fat possesses these useful 

 properties, we may refer to the practice common alike to the 

 nations of the extreme north, and to the inhabitants of many 

 tropical lands, of anointing the skin with fat, in order to guard in 

 the one case against intense cold, and in the other against extreme 

 heat. 



The various uses arising from the low specific gravity of fat 

 scarcely require comment. It would be almost impossible to 

 swim without fat, and although it might be advanced that swimming 

 is not a necessary faculty of the human body, we shall readily be 

 disposed to admit the utility of fat in this respect when we con- 

 sider that, if the muscles of only an arm were encompassed with 



