56 



ADIPOSE TISSUE. 



individuals. One of these graves, opened in 

 Fourcroy's presence, had been full, and closed 

 for fifteen years. When the coffins were opened, 

 the bodies appeared shrunk and flattened, and 

 the soft solids were converted intoabrittle cheesy 

 matter, which softened and felt greasy when 

 rubbed between the fingers. The bones were 

 brittle ; and the texture of the abdominal and 

 thoracic viscera no longer discernible, but 

 lumps of fatty matter occupied their places. 



It is not uncommon to find masses of this 

 adipocere in the refuse of dissecting-rooms, 

 especially when heaps of such offal are thrown 

 into pits and wells, and suffered gradually to 

 decay. The carcases of cats and dogs and 

 other drowned animals also often exhibit more 

 or less of a similar change ; and Dr. Gibbes 

 (Phil. Trans. 1794) found that lean beef, se- 

 cured in a running stream, underwent a change 

 into fat in the course of three weeks. Fat, and 

 the adipose parts of animals, also undergo a 

 change in appearance and composition under 

 similar circumstances : tallow becomes brittle 

 and pulverulent, and may be rubbed between 

 the fingers into a white soapy powder.* 



Gay Lussac, Chevreul, and some other emi- 

 nent chemists, conceive that muscular fibre, skin, 

 &c. is not convertible into adipocere, but that this 

 compound results entirely from the fat originally 

 present in the substance, and that the fibrin 

 is completely destroyed by putrefaction. There 

 are cases, however, in which the conversion 

 of muscle and of fibrin into fat can scarcely 

 be doubted, (Annals of Philosophy, xii. 41,) 

 though the propriety of applying the term adipo- 

 cere to such fatty matter may be questionable. 

 The action of very dilute nitric acid upon some 

 of the modifications of albumen is also attended 

 by their conversion into an adipose substance. 



The chemical properties usually ascribed to 

 adipocere are the following: it fuses at a tem- 

 perature below 100; it dissolves in boiling 

 alcohol, and the greater portion is deposited as 

 the solution cools; the action of ether resembles 

 that of alcohol ; it is saponified by the fixed 

 alkalies, but not by ammonia. It would ap- 

 pear, however, from Chevreul's experiments, 

 that adipocere is not a mere modification of 

 fat, or a simple product, but that it is a soap 

 composed of margaric acid and ammonia. 

 These combinations of adipose substances and 

 their further chemical history will be given 

 under the article FAT. 



BIBLTOG r: APH Y. Fourcroy ,Acad. Rle.des Sciences 

 de Paris, 1787. Gibbes, Conversion of animal 

 muscle into a substance resembling spermaceti. 

 Phil. Trans. 1794. Conversion of animal sub- 

 stances into fatty matter. Phil. Trans. 1795. Vide 

 also'Annules de Chimie, t. v. 154 t. viii. 1772 

 Crell's chemische Annalen for 1792 and 1794 and 

 John's Tabellen. 1. B. p. 35. 



( W. T. Brande.) 



* If a portion of the fatty degeneration of the 

 liver be immersed for some time in water, it will 

 furnish an excellent specimen of adipocere. The 

 writer of this note had lately an opportunity of 

 observing the process of the conversion of a lar<*e 

 portion of liver into this substance. R. H. T. 



ADIPOSE TISSUE. (Lat. Telaadiposa 

 Fr. tissu adipeuT, tissu graisseux, Germ, das 

 l\tt, Ital. udipe. 



Many of the old anatomists, as Mondinl, 

 Berenger, Vesalius, and Spigelius, represent 

 the fat (adeps vel pinguedo) of the animal body 

 as entirely distinct from the membrana carnosa, 

 or cellular membrane. The separate existence 

 of a proper adipose membrane, however, si- 

 tuate between the skin and the filamentous 

 tissue, or membrana carnosa, was first taught 

 by Malpighi, then distinctly maintained by 

 De Bergen and Morgagni, and finally demon- 

 strated by William Hunter. Collins, James 

 Keill, and other anatomists adopted the views 

 of Malpighi, and Ilaller was disposed latterly 

 to imitate De Bergen and Morgagni, in assigning 

 to the fat of the animal body a situation dis- 

 tinct from that of the cellular membrane. And 

 in this country the independent existence of 

 the adipose membrane was recognized by 

 Bromfield, John Hunter, and others. 



It was still, however, confounded with that 

 of the filamentous tissue under the general 

 name of cellular membrane, adipose mem- 

 brane, and cellular fat, by Winslow, Dionis, 

 Portal, Sabatier, Bichat, and Meckel, and 

 described as a variety or modification of the 

 cellular membrane; and Blumenbach considers 

 it as a secretion into that membrane. Its dis- 

 tinct existence from the cellular membrane was 

 finally admitted by M. Beclard, and its anato- 

 mical and physiological relations as well as its 

 chemical properties have been since minutely 

 investigated by M. Raspail. 



According to the dissections of De Bergen 

 and Morgagni, the demonstrations of Hunter, 

 and the observations of M. Beclard, the struc- 

 ture of the adipose membrane consists of 

 rounded packets or parcels (pelotons) separated 

 from each other by furrows of various depth, of 

 a figure irregularly ovoidal, or spheroidal, va- 

 rying in diameter from a line to half an inch, 

 according to the degree of obesity in the 

 part submitted to examination. Each packet 

 is composed of small spheroidal particles which 

 may be easily separated by dissection, and 

 which are said to consist of an assemblage of 

 vesicular bags still more minute, aggregated 

 together by very delicate filamentous tissue. 

 These were originally described by Malpighi 

 under the name of membranous sacculi, and 

 by Morgagni under that of sacculi pingnedi- 

 nosi. 



The appearance of these ultimate vesicular 

 pouches is minutely described by Wolff in the 

 subcutaneous fat, and by Clopton Havers* and 

 the first Monro in the marrow of bones, in 

 which the two last authors compare them to 

 strings of minute pearls. If the fat with which 

 these vesicles are generally distended should 

 disappear, as happens in dropsy, consumption, 

 chronic dysentery, and other wasting diseases, 

 the vesicular sacs collapse, their cavity is obli- 

 terated, and they are confounded with the con- 



* Osteologia Nova, Lond. 1691, and Obs. Nov. 

 de Ossibus, Amst. 1731. 



