62 ALIMENTATION. 



the animal and vegetable kingdom, constitute an important 

 division of the articles of food. As a proximate principle, 

 fat is found in all parts of the body, with the exception of 

 the bones, teeth, and fibrous tissues. It necessarily consti- 

 tutes an important part of all animal food, and is taken in 

 the form of adipose tissue, infiltrated in the various tis- 

 sues in the form of globules and granules of oil, and in sus- 

 pension in the caseine and water in milk. Animal fat is a 

 mixture of oleine, margarine, and stearine, in varied propor- 

 tions, and possesses a consistence which depends upon the 

 relative quantities of these principles. More or less fat 

 always enters into the composition of food, but as a rule, it 

 is more abundantly taken in cold than in warm climates. 

 The ordinary diet of the Greenlander contains what would 

 be considered in temperate climates as an enormous quantity 

 of fat and oil, frequently in a disgusting form, and taken 

 unmixed with other articles. 



The different varieties of animal fats do not demand 

 special consideration as articles of diet. Butter, an impor- 

 tant article of food, is somewhat different from the fat ex- 

 tracted from adipose tissue, but most varieties lose their indi- 

 vidual peculiarities in the process of digestion, and are ap- 

 parently identical when they find their way into the lacteal 

 vessels. 



In the vegetable kingdom, fat is particularly abundant 

 in seeds and grains, but it exists in quantity in some fruits, as 

 the olive. Here it is generally called oil. Its proportion in 

 linseed is 20 per cent. ; in rape-seed, 35 to 40 per cent. ; in 

 hemp-seed, 25 per cent. ; and in poppy-seed, 47 to 50 per 

 cent. 1 It exists in considerable proportion in nuts, and in 

 certain quantity in the cereals, particularly Indian corn. 

 Its proportion in the different varieties of wheat is from 1*87 

 to 2*61 per cent. ; in rye, 2*25 per cent. ; in barley, 2*76 per 

 cent. ; in oats, 5*5 per cent. ; in Indian corn, 8*8 per cent. ; 



1 LONGET, Traitede Physiologic, Paris, 1861, tome i., p. 47. 



