SCLEREMA NEONATORUM 383 



the acquired fats to its own requirements by certain changes. 

 Such changes may include more rapid absorption of oleic 

 acid, elimination of volatile fatty acids, change of saturated 

 into unsaturated fatty acids or the reverse, or of the latter 

 into oxyacids, or separation of the long carbon chains into 

 shorter groups, etc. 



Thus, for example, after cramming a dog with butter 

 which is characterized by its high proportion of volatile fatty 

 acids, the Beichert-Meiszl figure (which is indicative of the 

 amount of the latter substances) was not found higher in the 

 fat of the animal than under normal conditions. 10 



As an example of such an adaptation process may per- 

 haps be pointed out that in infancy the proportion of oleic 

 acid in the dermal fat, as stated by Knopfelmacher and 

 Lehndorff, 11 increases from month to month, and that the 

 buccal fat (which acts as a support to the buccinator muscle 

 and prevents aspiration of the poorly developed muscle be- 

 tween the jaws in the oral negative pressure in suction) 

 seemingly is poorer in oleic acid, and therefore more resis- 

 tant than the general subcutaneous fat tissue of the same 

 individual. The skin fat of children fed upon human milk 

 is always richer in unsaturated fatty acids, than that of 

 artificially fed infants. When an infant undergoes emacia- 

 tion the proportion of oleic acid of its fat decreases, and it 

 appears, according to Knopf elmacher's studies, that the in- 

 flexibility of the fat tissue thus induced, which is poor in 

 oleic acid, is related with the condition which is well known 

 by podiatrists under the name sclerema neonatorum. 12 



Comparing the iodine combining power of yolk fat and 

 that of the fat of the embryo chick in course of development 



10 W. v. Leubc, Verhandl. d. Kongr. f. innere Med., IS, 424, 1895. 



11 W. Knopfelmacher and H. Lehndorff, Zeitschr. f. exper. Path., 2, 133, 

 1906; H. Lehndorff (Abt. Knopfelmacher), Jahrb. f. Kinderheilkunde, 66, 286, 

 1907. 



"Literature upon Sclerema: Cf. F. Luithlen, Die Zellgewebsverhartung 

 der Neugeborenen, Vienna, Alfred Holder, 1912; G. Rommel, in Hand. d. 

 Kinderheilk., 1, 423-425, 1910. 



