386 NUTRITION. 



always to employ it under the advice of a physician ; and 

 its too rigid enforcement has been followed by serious dis- 

 turbances in general nutrition. Others, however, have veri- 

 fied the favorable results obtained by Mr. Banting. 



It is difficult to explain the remarkable constitutional 

 tendency to obesity observed in some individuals, which is 

 very often hereditary. Such persons will become very fat 

 upon a comparatively low diet, while others deposit but lit- 

 tle adipose matter, even when the regimen is abundant. It 

 is to be noted, however, that the former are generally ad- 

 dicted to the use of starchy, saccharine, and fatty elements 

 of food, while the latter consume a greater proportion of 

 nitrogenized matter. 



It is not an uncommon remark that the habit of taking 

 large quantities of liquids favors the formation of fat ; but 

 it is not easy to find any scientific basis for such an opinion. 

 As to the formation of fat by any particular organ or organs 

 in the body, no positive scientific view has been advanced, 

 except the proposition by Bernard, that the liver had this 

 function, in addition to its glycogenic office. This we have 

 already discussed, and have shown that such a function is 

 far from being positively established. 1 



Condition under which Fat exists in the Organism. It 

 is said that fat combined with phosphorus is united with ni- 

 trogenized matter in the substance of the nervous tissue ; but 

 its condition here is not well understood, as we shall see when 

 we come to treat of the nervous system. A small quantity of 

 fat is contained in the blood-corpuscles, and a little is held 

 in solution in the bile ; but with these exceptions, fat always 

 exists in the body isolated and uncombined with nitrogen- 

 ized matter, in the form of granules or globules and of adipose 

 tissue. The three varieties of fat are here combined in 

 variable proportions, which is the cause of the differences in 

 its consistence in different situations. The ultimate ele- 



1 See page 328. 



