222 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FAEM. 



volved in this accumulation of fat. What is often called the 

 fatty degeneration of muscles is nothing but a more or less 

 predominant development of adipose cellular tissue between 

 the primitive muscular fasciculi. It is a like effect which is 

 met with in the fattening of animals that is, like the simply 

 fattened muscles in the human body. Fat-cells insinuate them- 

 selves in the primitive muscular fasciculi, and therefore lie in 

 stripes in the direction of the muscular fibres, which may 

 remain unchanged. The development in such a case has its 

 commencement in the interstitial tissue of the muscle. At its 

 first origin, and when it proceeds with very great regularity, 

 it may be that single rows of fat- cells, lying one behind the 

 other, alternate with the rows of muscular elements. Here, 

 when the primitive fasciculi are forced asunder, and the circu- 

 lation in the muscle is generally disturbed in consequence of 

 the abundant development of fat, so that the flesh becomes 

 pale, it looks to the naked eye as if there no longer existed 

 any muscular tissue whatever. 



In the fat-cells of the embryo a nucleus has been discovered, 

 and, more recently, even in the fat-cells during after-life. The 

 nucleus contains one or two nucleoli, and is attached to the 

 inside of the cell-wall or imbedded in its substance. 



The ordinary fat in human bodies is regarded as a mixture 

 of the solid fatty siibstance named "margarine," and the 

 liquid oily substance, " oleine ; " on the other hand, the suet or 

 fat of oxen and sheep consists chiefly of a second solid prin- 

 ciple, "stearine," associated with oleine. These three sub- 

 stances margarine, stearine, and oleine are compounds of the 

 base named glycerine with three fatty acids namely, the 

 margaric, the stearic, and the oleic ; while glycerine is supposed 

 to be the oxide or hydrated oxide of a hypothetical radical 

 glyceryl. 



The fat in the cells during life is liquid, but after death 



