FECUNDITY. 119 



which is known to medical men as " fatty degenera- 

 tion." Dr. Carpenter says : " There is one remark- 

 able form of degeneration, however, which is common 

 to nearly all tissues, and which seems to occur, as a 

 normal alteration, in many of them at an advanced 

 period of life ; this consists in the conversion of their 

 albuminous or gelatinous materials into fat, thus con- 

 stituting what is known as fatty degeneration. That 

 this change is not due to the removal of the normal 

 components of the tissues, and the substitution of 

 newly-deposited fatty matter in their place, but is (in 

 most cases at least) the result of a real conversion of 

 the one class of substance into the other, has been 

 already pointed out;" and he further remarks that 

 " there is reason to believe that i fatty degeneration,' 

 the form under which degeneration most commonly 

 presents itself, is in reality far more frequent than 

 simple wasting of the tissues ; but it attracts less no- 

 tice because their bulk is little or not at all diminished, 

 and it is only when their function becomes impaired 

 that attention is seriously drawn to the change." 1 



Dr. Flint, one of the best authorities on the sub- 

 ject of physiology, says fat " does not take part in the 

 nutrition of the parts that are endowed, to an eminent 

 degree, with the so-called vital functions ; and, when 

 these tissues are brought to the highest point of func- 

 tional development, the fat is entirely removed from 

 their substance. Long disuse of any part will produce 

 such changes in its power of appropriating nitrogen- 

 ized material for its regeneration that it soon becomes 

 atrophied and altered. Instead of the normal nitro- 



1 " Human Physiology," pp. 563, 559. 



