ADEPS. 325 



lated by alcohol, and by the mineral acids. It is removed by 

 the absorbents; assisted by the tonic contraction of the cellular 

 membrane, according to M. Beclard.* The latter author, in- 

 deed, goes on to say, that the cellular membrane is the essential 

 organ of absorption, by which the skin and the villosities of the 

 internal membrane of the hollow viscera perform this function. 

 That the substances introduced through it into the blood-ves- 

 sels, no doubt, in doing so, undergo some kind of elaboration, 

 in the same way that those do which are deposited in its inter- 

 stices for the growth, repair, and changes of the body. 



CHAPTER II. 



OF THE FAT, (ADEPS.) 



THE Adeps, in subjects not much emaciated, is found be- 

 neath the skin; between it and the fasciae; and in the layers of 

 common cellular substance which are next to the muscles; as 

 on the face, the neck, the trunk of the body, the buttocks, the 

 limbs, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet. In the 

 adult, it is also found between the serous membranes and the 

 cavities which they line, as in the thorax and abdomen; it is 

 also found between the lamina? of these membranes, as in the 

 omenta, mesentery, and so on. It, likewise, exists between the 

 interstices of muscles; in the hones, and elsewhere; so that its 

 whole amount is estimated at about one-twentieth of the entire 

 weight of the body. There are, however, certain portions of 

 the body, where its presence would have been very inconve- 

 nient: they, accordingly, are destitute of it; to wit, the interior 

 of the cranium, of the ball of the eye, the nose, the ear, the in- 

 testinal canal, the eyelids, the scrotum, the penis, the labia in- 

 terna, and the substance of the glands. 



The adops is of a yellowish colour, and of a semifluid state 

 in the living body: when after death it has got a few degrees 

 below the standard of animal heat, it becomes somewhat solidi- 



* Anat, Gen. p, 149. 



VOL. I. 28 



