412 RETh'OdJx'ESSJ 1 E CHAyOES 



Zilliier "' gives the folluwiiig seheme of the changes that take place 

 in a cadaver undergoing adipocere formation: (1) Migration of fluid 

 contents of the body (imbibition of blood and transudation) — one to 

 tour weeks. (2) Decomposition of superficial epidermis, then of 

 corium — first two months. (3) Decomposition of muscle and gland 

 parenchyma, until only the inorganic part of the bones and the con- 

 nective and elastic tissues remain — three to twelve months. (4) ]Mi- 

 gration of neuti'al fat, ci-ystallization and partial saponification of the 

 higher fatty acids in the panniculus ; transformation of the blood pig- 

 ment into crystalline form — four to twelve or more months.*^ 



LIPEMIA 



Normally the blood contains a considerable amount of fats and 

 lipoids, varying somewhat, but not greatly, with the diet. The older 

 literature gave figures varying widely, but analyses by more modern 

 methods ^* give figures for the ether-soluble constituents of the normal 

 plasma (before breakfast) ranging ordinarily from 0.57 to 0.82 per 

 cent., of which cholesterol and phosphatid are about equal (0.2 to 0.3 

 per cent.) with very little neutral fat (0.1 to 0.2 per cent.). In 

 various diseases, exclusive of diabetes, the total lipin content was 

 found by Bloor to be about normal, but the proportion of the dif- 

 ferent lipins varied somewhat. After taking fat-rich food, however, 

 there may be a considerable excess of the food fats in the serum, and it 

 is, therefore, extremel.y difficult to say just when the amount of fat in 

 the blood is large enough to be considered as a lipemia, especially 

 since after every fatty meal there is enough fat in the blood to make 

 it turbid.'*^ B. Fisher ■** states that we may speak of a pathological 

 lipemia when we have a distinctly cloudy blood or serum, which is 

 clarified by shaking with ether through the dissolving out of fat which 

 can then be separated from the ether. Earlier writers described, in- 

 correctly, lipemia in many conditions, but recent writers mention it 

 chiefly as occurring in alcoholism and diabetes. By far the greatest 

 amounts of fat are observed in the latter condition, and diabetic 

 lipemia is always accompanied by an acidosis, although acidosis often 

 occurs without lipemia. Experimental pancreatic diabetes may be 

 accompanied by lipemia.*" Neisser and Dei-lin''" found 19.7 per cent, 

 of fat in the blood of a patient with dial)etie coma (after death 24.4 

 per cent, was found) whose urine contained 0.8 per cent, of fat, and 

 through analysis of this and other material came to the conclusion that 

 the fat comes directly from the chyle; i. c, tliat it is food fat, not 



*3 Sclerema neonatorum is caused by hardening of tlic subcutaneous fat. be- 

 cause of a low proportion of oleic acid. ( Bcvcr. ^'crll. Dcut. Path. Gcscll., IHOS 

 (12), 305.) 



4-« Bloor, Jour. IJiol. Cliciii., litlfl (iZf)). 577. 



4" Neisser and Braiuiin^r, Zeit. oxp. Patli. u. Tlier.. 1907 (4). 747. 



"♦s Virchow's Arc'li.. lOO."} (172), ."^O. Kcsunie and ('(unplctc literature. 



"»!».Seo, Ardi. cxp. Path. u. Pliariii., liKMi (dl ), 1. 



J^oZeit. klin. Med., 1904 (51), 428. 



