PHOSPHORUS POISONING 415 



Formation of Fat in the Ripening of Cheese. Precisely 

 the same is true in case of the old problem of the formation 

 of fat in the ripening of cheese. 43 It may be accepted as 

 proved that there actually is an increase in the ethereal ex- 

 tract when cheese is ripened. Yet recently M. Nierenstein 44 

 has called attention to the point that this increase need not 

 necessarily be referred to an increase in fat alone, as in the 

 ethereal extract in addition to fat and cholesterol there are 

 also present putrescine, cadaverine, etc. But where actual 

 new formation of higher fatty acids is taking place (and 

 there is scarcely basis for doubting this) there is reason 

 to at least suspect it to be due to the activity of micro- 

 organisms. 



Accumulation of Fat in the Liver in Phosphorus Poison- 

 ing. Having progressed with reasonable assurance thus far, 

 we may venture with confidence upon a question which in a 

 certain measure is the central point of the whole problem, 

 namely, that of intravital fatty change of the tissues. 45 



"Fatty degeneration of the liver" in phosphorus poison- 

 ing has been held up as a classical example of such change for 

 the longest time ; for this reason the process should be con- 

 sidered next in turn, the more so because its essential nature 

 seems at present to be satisfactorily understood. While the 

 older pathologists permitted themselves to be so much im- 

 pressed by the microscopic picture of the fatty degenerated 

 liver as to have no doubt whatever as to the occurrence here 

 of a transformation of protein into fat, we know to-day that 

 the bulk of the fat in a phosphorus liver has really come as a 

 fatty infiltration into the organ. This has been proved with 

 thoroughly satisfactory exactness. 



In the first place, contrary to the older statements to the 



43 Literature upon Fat Formation in the Ripening of Cheese : G. Rosen- 

 feld, Ergebn. d. Physiol., 1', 663-664, 1902. 



44 M. Nierenstein (Bristol), Proc. Roy. Soc., Series B, 83, 301, 1911, cited in 

 Centralbl. f. d. ges. Biol., 1911, No. 2087. 



45 Literature upon Vital Fatty Degeneration of Tissues : G. Rosenf eld, 

 Ergebn. d. Physiol., 2, 64-86, 1903 ; R. Tigerstedt, Nagel's Handb. d. Physiol., 

 .?, 510-511, 1905. 



