THE /ATS. 
i7 
in Fig. 5. F<>r many years it was regarded as .1 carbohydrate, though an 
exceptional one. It is sweet to the taste, but it gives none of the 
characteristic reactions of sugar. As the chemical constitution of tin- 
sugars was revealed, it became more and mure evident that inosite is 
not a sugar. Its constitution was 
worked out by Maquenne 1 from a 
atudy of its nit n (-substitution and 
other products. It belongs to the 
substances which have a closed 
carbon chain, and its graphic formula 
may be written thus : — 
('II OH 
CHOH 
CHOH 
CHOH 
CHOH 
CHOH 
Fig. 5.— Inosite crystals. — After Frey. 
The Fats. 
Fat is found in most of the animal tissues. The following table from 
Gorup-Besanez gives the percentage in the organs and fluids of the body: — 
Sweat . 
o-ooi 
Vitreous humour . 
002 
Saliva . 
0-02 
Lymph . 
0-05 
Synovia 
0-06 
Liquor ainnii 
0-06 
Chyle . 
0-2 
Mucus . 
0-3 
Blood . 
0-4 
Bile . 
1-4 
Milk . 
4 3 
Cartilage 
Bone . 
Crystalline lens 
Liver . 
Muscles 
Hair . 
Brain . 
Egg • 
Xerves 
Adipose tissue 
Marrow 
1-3 
1-4 
2-0 
2-4 
33 
4-2 
8-0 
11-6 
22*1 
82-7 
96-0 
The fats are usually extracted from the finely divided tissue by 
means of ether in a Soxhlet's apparatus, but in the case of many organs 
the extraction is incomplete. Dormeyer therefore recommends that 
the tissue should be subjected to artificial gastric digestion before the 
extraction with ether ; 2 when this was done, flesh was found to yield an 
additional 0*75 per cent, of fat. 
The fats are compounds of fatty acids with glycerin, and are termed 
glycerides or glyceric ethers. The fatty acids form a series of acids derived 
from the monatomic alcohols by oxidation ; thus— 
From methyl alcohol (CH 3 HO) formic acid (H.COOH) is obtained. 
From ethyl alcohol (G.H-HO) acetic acid (CH 3 COOH) is obtained, and so on. 
1 Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc, Paris, 1S87, tome civ. pp. 225, 297, 1719, 1853. For colour 
reactions of inosite, see Scherer, Ann. d. Chew,., Leipzig, 1852, Bd. lxxxi. S. 375 ; Gaulois, 
Ztschr. f. anal. Chem., "Wiesbaden, 1865, Bd. iv. S. 264; Seidel. Ber. d. deulsch. chem. 
Gesellsch., Berlin, 1887, Bd. xx. S. 320. 
2 Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1895, Bd. Ixi. S. 341 ; 1896, Bd. lxv. S. 90 ; F. N. 
Schulze (ibid., Bd. lxv. S. 299 ; 1897, lxxii. S. 145) has used the same method for the 
extraction of the fat of blood, and numerous organs. 
VOL. I. — 2 
