272 HALOIDS AND HALOID BASES. 



in habitual drunkards is not in consequence of their taking too 

 much combustible material into their bodies, (brandy drinkers 

 moreover generally take only small quantities of solid food,) but 

 in consequence of the disturbed hepatic action, which the invariably 

 abormal condition of the liver, found in after death in these cases, 

 proves to have existed. 



Traill* and Lecanu have found the blood extremely rich in fat 

 in inflammation of the liver ; and Lassaigne,t and more recently 

 Becquerel and Rodier, found the quantity of the fat in the blood 

 more increased in icterus than in any other disease. Dobson, 

 Rollo, and Marcet, observed so large a quantity of fat in the blood of 

 diabetic patients that it resembled an emulsion ; but I have myself 

 only on two occasions found the blood to be largely charged with 

 fat in diabetes, and here the disease was complicated with an 

 affection of the liver, and the excrements of the patients were pale, 

 and almost of a grayish-white tint. 



All these facts render it difficult to deny the existence of a 

 connexion between fat and the formation of bile. 



It is not, however, wholly impossible that fat should contribute 

 in some measure to the formation of other substances, but we will 

 here simply observe that facts subsequently to be noticed give some 

 probability to the opinion that fat likewise cooperates in the for- 

 mation of the blood-pigment. 



We trust that the above remarks will lead to a more careful 

 enquiry into the metamorphoses and function of fat in the healthy 

 and diseased body, and be the means of assigning a higher degree 

 of importance to this substance, than has hitherto been awarded 

 to it in the animal economy. 



HYDRATED OXIDE OF CETYL. C 32 H 33 O.HO. 



Chemical Relations. 



Properties. This substance, to which its discoverer, Dumas, 

 gave the name of ethal, forms white, solid, crystalline plates, melts 

 at about 56, again solidifies at48, and volatilises readily either alone 

 or with aqueous vapour, when heated ; it is devoid of smell and taste, 

 is insoluble in water, but dissolves in all proportions in hot alcohol 

 and ether, has no action on vegetable colours, and when ignited 

 burns like wax. It is decomposed when heated with nitric acid ; 



* Annals of Philos. 1823, vol. 5, p. 199. 

 t Journ. de Chim. med. T. 2, p. 264. 



