414 FORMATION OF FAT FROM PROTEIN 



repeated with unsatisfactory result by Otto Frank, that the 

 enormous numbers of bacteria present in the cultures were 

 to be suspected of bringing about the trick of building up 

 fatty acids from protein. 



Adipocere. Another puzzling natural phenomenon, 

 which is constantly used as an example of the formation of 

 fat from protein in the animal economy is that of the produc- 

 tion of cadaveric wax. 42 As is well known adipocere is 

 formed when corpses or parts of corpses are buried in moist 

 places or are kept in contact with water, the muscles and 

 soft, parts being replaced by a mass made up of a mixture of 

 free fatty acids along with palmitates and stearates of mag- 

 nesium, calcium and ammonium. There was formerly a 

 common disposition to regard the process as one of a direct 

 production of fat from protein. We are at present inclined 

 to assume that we are dealing only with the fatty acids which 

 were previously present in the structures ; that through the 

 influence of lipases and putrefying bacteria the neutral fats 

 are split into their components, the fatty acids rendered 

 soluble by combining with the ammonia produced by putre- 

 faction, and the soap solution then permeating and percolat- 

 ing through the soft parts ; that thereafter by replacement 

 of the ammonia of the soaps by calcium and magnesium salts 

 there results the formation of relatively insoluble precipi- 

 tates. There are, however, statements to the effect that the 

 total quantity of fatty acids in the formation of adipocere 

 undergoes a definite increase. In view of the gross tech- 

 nical errors involved in the older analyses it is very difficult 

 to properly evaluate this contention. It would appear, how- 

 ever, that even if an actual formation de novo of the 

 higher fatty acids be recognized when adipocere is formed, 

 the agency of bacteria may be looked upon as largely 

 explanatory. 



42 Literature upon Adipocere: G. Rosenfeld, Ergebn. d. PhysioL, 1', 659- 

 664, 1902; H. G. Wells, Chemical Pathology, 1st ed., 342-343, 1907; cf. therein 

 the work of Kratter, Ermann, Zillner, E. Voit, Lehmann, Salkowski ; cf . also 

 C. Ipsen (Innsbruck), Ber. der Univ., 1909, cited in Jahresber. f. Tierchem., 

 1910, 891. 



