DEPOSITION OF FAT AND FLESH IN THE BODY. 445 



the carbon of the meat could not be recovered from the excreta. They concluded, 

 therefore, that this carbon had been transformed into fat for accumulation in 

 the body. 



This statement is contradicted by Pfluger on the basis of his own investiga- 

 tions, which lead him to the conclusion that the doctrine of the development 

 of fat from proteids in the bodies of animals is entirely groundless. If it were 

 assumed that fat could be formed from proteid, such formation is not possible 

 through simple decomposition of the proteid molecule, but rather it w^ould be 

 necessary for decomposition first to take place and then synthesis of the decom- 

 posed parts. 



Earlier investigators, who accepted the formation of fat from proteids, be- 

 lieved that the proteids administered broke up into a non-nitrogenous and a 

 nitrogenous atom-complex. The former, in case it did not leave the body com- 

 pletely decomposed into carbon dioxid and water when a rich proteid diet was 

 taken, was believed to furnish the material for the formation of fat, while the 

 latter was supposed to leave the body oxidized principally into urea. 



The following experiments support the view that fat can develop from proteid 

 furnished as food: (i) Ssubotin and Kemmerich fed nursing bitches with meat 

 almost free from fat, and found that the greater the amount of meat eaten, the 

 greater was the amount of milk produced and thus also of fat. In these experi- 

 ments, however, the possibility is not excluded that the bitches utilized the fat 

 of their own bodies in the preparation of the milk. (2) Radziejewski gave a 

 lean dog meat almost free from fat and in addition pure rape-oil, one of 

 whose constituents, erucic acid, does not occur normally in the animal body. 

 When the animal, after a period of feeding of considerable length, had accumulated 

 fat, chemical examination demonstrated that the tissues contained, in addition 

 to erucin, also fat which otherwise is normally present in the dog. In an analogous 

 manner Lebedeff found in a dog after feeding with lean meat and linseed-oil con- 

 siderable amounts of linoleic acid, together with normal dog's fat. In both experi- 

 ments, however, the normal dog's fat could have been derived from the fat of the 

 meat fed. (3) The fat found within organs in a state of pathological fatty degenera- 

 tion had previously often been considered as derived from the proteid protoplasm 

 of the tissues. Even though it be admitted, says Pfluger, that the fat of the de- 

 generated organs has developed within them, and has not gained entrance from 

 without, it would still first be necessary to believe that the cells everywhere con- 

 tain carbohydrates or their derivatives, which it is known with certainty can be 

 transformed into fat by synthetic processes. Also the fatty degeneration produced 

 in the animal body by phosphorus-poisoning affords no support for the view that 

 fat is developed from proteid, for although a small amount of fat is found in the 

 body after such poisoning, its development from proteid has not yet been demon- 

 strated. In the case of fatty degeneration, there is primarily an injury of proteid 

 bodies and in place of these fat from other sources appears in the cells in a certain 

 measure as a reparative procedure. (4) Nageli showed that lower forms of fungi, 

 like other plants, are able to form proteid, fat and carbohydrates synthetically 

 from various matters, in part exceedingly simple. Thus, for example, fungi 

 generate fat synthetically in ripening cheese probably from the products of de- 

 composed proteid. In the decomposition of entire cadavers and their transforma- 

 tion into a mass consisting almost wholly of palmitic and stearic acids (adippcere) 

 in the presence of fungi, it cannot be concluded that a simple transformation of 

 albumin into these fats takes place. 



DEPOSITION OF FAT AND FLESH IN THE BODY (HYPER- 

 NUTRITION). 



CORPULENCE AND THE MEANS FOR ITS CORRECTION. 



Hypernutrition results if more food is supplied than the body is capable of 

 decomposing and again eliminating. The digestive apparatus (collectively and 

 in common activity) is probably capable of digesting twice as much as the re- 

 quirements demand. The absorbed excess of food that is not decomposed is 

 accumulated and forms the superfluous tissue. Higher animals are capable, 

 although not in the strict sense, of surviving on an almost exclusively proteid diet. 

 Pfluger was able to keep a dog engaged in hard work alive for an indefinite time 

 on a diet exclusively of meat and almost free from fat. All of the vital phenomena, 

 therefore, can be carried on by means of proteid alone. Albumin may, accordingly, 



