372 DIGESTION AND RESORPTION OF FATS 



are capable of breaking up the combinations between fat and 

 protein in the blood, although subject to instant neutraliza- 

 tion by the blood alkali. As long as we lack this proof the 

 fact that in phosphorus poisoning the relation between free 

 and combined fat in the blood is altered so that the former 

 predominates, is open to a number of other interpretations. 



Pathological Lipcemias. Coming to the pathological 

 lipaemias, 59 quite a number of pathological conditions are 

 known in which an abnormal accumulation of fat often 

 occurs in the blood. This is true especially of starvation, 

 of the various forms of anaemias and cachexias, of diabetes 

 (both the severe human type and experimentally produced 

 pancreatic and phloridzin diabetes), of chronic alcoholism 

 and long continued narcoses, of phosphorus poisoning and 

 a number of other toxic conditions. 



It is scarcely possible, in the present state of our knowl- 

 edge, to consider these different lipaemias from a single 

 standpoint. But one may at least endeavor to clear up a 

 group of physiological factors which are open to consider- 

 ation in this connection. 



Lipczmia from Mobilization of Fat Deposits. As a very 

 important element in many of these lipaemias we may safely 

 consider a compensatory regulative effort on the part of 

 the economy enabling it to mobilize its supply of fat in case 

 of need, as in starvation. The importance of this fat 

 mobilization, which manifests itself anatomically in the loss 

 of the fat accumulations in various positions, may be at once 

 appreciated, if we recall that the body in long-continued 

 starvation, as soon as its glycogen has been used up, calls 

 upon fat combustion to cover at least nine-tenths of its de- 

 mand for energy. That this may become possible, however, 

 the fat must lend itself to ready movement. The liver is 

 apparently frequently the first objective point, and may 

 in many pathological states be found the seat of an excess 

 of fat (as, typically, in dogs with pancreatic diabetes). Here 



60 Literature on Lipaemias : A. Magnus-Levy and L. F. Meyer, Handb. d. 

 Biochem., 4', 459-470, 1909. 



