ADEPS. 327 



but subscribe to their force and accuracy, notwithstanding the 

 objection raised from quarters of :high authority. 



It is more abundant in the female than in the male, and in 

 both sexes it is removed as life declines. In the infant the fat 

 is found at the surface of the body chiefly, little or none exist- 

 ing in the interstices of muscles, and in the cavities. 



Its uses are not fully understood. At some points it serves 

 to diminish pressure, as on the hands and feet; at others it fills 

 up interstices; it is also a bad conductor of caloric, and may, 

 therefore, serve in retaining animal heat. But its most general 

 application is to the purposes of nutrition, it being one of those 

 forms which nutritive matter assumes previously to being per- 

 fectly assimilated. This is very fully manifested in hibernating 

 animals, which being fat in the beginning of their torpid state, 

 return from it quite lean; and in insects which during their re- 

 pose in the chrysalis state, live upon their own fat while under- 

 going the metamorphosis into the perfect animal.* 



* Beclard, Anat Gen. p. 170. 



