OLEAGINOUS COMPOUNDS. 71 



the latter in the act of saponification, by the addition of 3 equivs. of water. To 

 this hypothetical base, the name of oxide of lipyl has been applied. Glycerine 

 is a faintly yellow fluid, with an agreeable sweetish taste ; it cannot be obtained 

 in a solid form, but may be brought to the consistence of a thick syrup ; it dis- 

 solves readily in water and alcohol, but not in ether ; and it exerts no reaction 

 on vegetable colors. It is remarkable for its solvent powers, which are scarcely 

 inferior to those of water ; and in particular for the large quantity of alkalies 

 and metallic oxides which it will take up. When heated in the air, it becomes 

 inflammable, and burns with a blue flame. 



40. The saponifiable Fats ordinarily make up a considerable part of the sub- 

 stance of the Human body, and are found in large amount in its "nutritious 

 fluids. There can be no doubt that they are derived from the fatt} T components 

 of the food, when these exist in sufficient amount; but there is also adequate 

 evidence that fatty matters may be generated by the transformation of the Sac- 

 charine compounds. The experiments of Liebig, Dumas, Boussingault, Persoz, 

 and others, have shown that animals fed upon an amylaceous diet form more fat 

 than this contains f but they have not made evident either the place in which 

 that transformation takes place, nor the mode in which it is effected. The re- 

 searches of M. Bernard, however, have thrown considerable light upon this 

 subject; and have shown that the Liver is probably the organ by whose agency 

 the production of fat is accomplished. For he has ascertained that the blood 

 of the hepatic vein ordinarily contains more fat than that of the portal vein ; 

 and that the hepatic vein contains fat, when none can be found in the portal 

 vein, the animal having been previously fed on substances containing no fatty 

 matter. He has further ascertained that this production of fat is to a certain 

 degree vicarious with that of sugar, to be presently described ( 46) ; the former 

 being characteristic of herbivorous, and the latter of carnivorous animals ; the 

 former ceasing, when the latter is unusually excited by puncture of the medulla 

 oblongata ; and fat deing deficient in the liver of diabetic patients, whilst con- 

 versely sugar is deficient in fatty liver. 3 But there are certain phenomena 

 attending the degeneration and decay of Albuminous substances, which seem to 

 indicate that Fatty matter may be generated also by their metamorphosis. This 

 probability rests not only upon the fact, that acids of the butyric acid group 

 have been actually generated during the decomposition of albumen ( 18), but 

 also upon the evidence afforded by that pathological change occurring in the 

 living body, to which the name of " fatty degeneration' ' has been applied, and 

 by that production of "adipocere" in dead bodies which sometimes takes place 

 to a very remarkable extent. To the former class of phenomena, attention has 

 been particularly directed by Prof. Rokitansky and by Mr. Paget ; the former 

 of whom 3 enumerates eleven classes of instances in which protein-compounds 

 are replaced by fatty matter, in such conditions that it is hardly possible to 

 assume anything but that the fat is one of the products of spontaneous trans- 

 formation of the higher compound ; whilst the latter 4 strengthens this view by 

 various additional considerations. The substance termed adipocere is nothing 

 else than a soap formed by the combination of fatty acids with an ammoniacal 

 or calcareous base ; and it may be generated in the course of even a few weeks 



1 See especially the Memoirs of the last-named experimenters in the "Ann. de Chim." 

 Nouv. Ser. torn xvi. p. 419. 



2 See the Reports of the Lectures delivered by M. Bernard before the College of France, 

 in " L'Union Medicale" for 1850, Nos. 82, et seq. ; and a very excellent digest of M. Ber- 

 nard's recent contributions to Experimental Physiology, contained in the "American 

 Journal of the Medical Sciences" for July and October, 1851. 



3 " Handbuch der Pathologischen Anatomic," band i. pp. 283-90. 



4 See Mr. Paget' s "Lectures on Nutrition," Lect. v. in the "Medical Gazette" for 

 1847. 



