374 DIGESTION AND RESORPTION OF FATS 



lecithin was, as a rule, increased, but the amount of choles- 

 terine was variable; 64 another observer on the contrary 

 believes that in the lipsemia of human diabetes we are deal- 

 ing more with a cholesterinaemia than with a lecithinsemia. 65 

 The writer, too, regards it as more than doubtful whether an 

 accumulation of as much as half a kilogram or more, as esti- 

 mated by Magnus-Levy, 66 in the circulating blood in nu- 

 merous coma cases, can be properly referred to the lipoids 

 arising from cellular disintegration. As there is every rea- 

 son to regard the acetone bodies to be due to changes in the 

 neutral fat, it would appear not at all inappropriate to refer 

 the coincident lipaemia to the same basic cause. That tissue 

 cells do undergo disintegration and that their lipoids gain 

 access to the circulating blood under such circumstances 

 should not, it seems, be a matter of doubt. 



Lipcemia from Narcosis. Beicher's suggestion that in 

 the lipaemia which is sometimes seen in long continued anaes- 

 thetization we are dealing with an escape of lipoids from 

 the cells (due to entrance of fat solvents in the blood) is 

 contradicted by the fact that lipsemia is sometimes also seen 

 in morphine narcosis where such an outpouring cannot be 

 considered. 67 



On reflection, moreover, it must be confessed that in- 

 creased passage of fat into the blood stream does not en- 

 tirely explain the pathological lipaemias. It should be 

 recalled that even the greatest concentration of fat in the 

 blood, as that which takes place after ingestion of fatty 

 food, disappears under normal circumstances in the course 

 of a few hours, the fat leaving the blood stream. It was 

 formerly believed to be due to the tissue cells taking up the 

 hsemoconial particles ; yet it may be presumed that at least 

 in part the fat passes through the capillary walls in dis- 



64 J. Seo (Minkowski's Clinic, Greif swald ) , Arch. f. exper. Pathol., 61, 

 1, 1909. 



68 M. Adler (Univ. Polyclinic, Berlin), Berliner klin. Wochenschr., 1909, 

 1453. 



66 A. Magnus-Levy and L. F. Meyer, 1. c., p. 464. 



97 Cf. A. Magnus-Levy and L. F. Meyer, 1. c., p. 463. 



