GLYCOGEN. 247 



most persons it is distributed more evenly over the body, 

 though there is a tendency to deposit rather more over the 

 abdomen. A fat person can endure starvation longer, other 

 things being equal, than a thin person. 



Hibernating animals are fat when they enter upon their 

 winter sleep, but are lean when they come out in the spring. 

 Remaining inactive, they have produced very little energy, 

 their only motions being a slow and feeble breathing and a 

 correspondingly reduced heart-beat. They have consumed 

 the fat, using it mainly in maintaining the ' necessary heat. 

 In short, they have burned their fat to keep them warm. 



In one of Captain Mayne Reid's stories (The Plant 

 Hunters) we are told how the hunters followed a bear into 

 a cave. At the innermost end of this very long cave they 

 finally killed the bear. Just at this time they find that their 

 candles are all burned out, and they are left in complete dark- 

 ness, lost in the bowels of the earth. Failing to grope their 

 way put, they are at last driven to this expedient. With 

 what combustibles thay can gather together, including their 

 gunstocks and some of the fat of the bear, they melt some of 

 the fat, they use the gun barrels for molds, and take strips 

 of their clothing for wicks, and make two long candles. With 

 these they finally light their way out to the upper world. 



Now, we have seen that when we burn a tallow candle, one 

 of the chief products of the combustion is carbon dioxid. 

 Another product of the burning is common water. If, then, 

 these hunters had left this bear to his winter's nap, he would 

 have consumed this fat in the slow process of breathing, and 

 it would have given off the same products, as we have proved 

 that two of the waste matters of the expired breath are car- 

 bon dioxid and water. 



Glycogen. As stated above, glycogen is formed in the 

 liver. This is indicated by the fact that there is more sugar 



