148 Sir E. Home on the Formation of Fat 



excepted, which can better supply the waste produced by the 

 actions of growth and muscular exertion, than animal fat. 



The more I canvassed this new opinion, the greater num- 

 ber of circumstances in favour of it occurred to me; one of 

 the strongest of which is, that there is no other mode I am 

 acquainted with, by which animal fat can be formed. To this 

 may be added the curious circumstance of the sleeping ani- 

 mals, which lay in so large a supply of it, in a short time, to 

 serve for their winter's consumption, having a formation of 

 the intestines almost peculiar to themselves, in which there is 

 no valve to distinguish the colon, and no fixed course for that 

 intestine ; so that the contents pass along with more facility, 

 and remain a shorter time in the canal, the food being suffi- 

 ciently plentiful during the summer to compensate for this 

 want of economy, by which the lower intestines receive more 

 abundant supplies for the production of fat. These intestines 

 remain empty during the sleeping season, so that no fat can 

 be formed in that period. — With this very important informa- 

 tion, thus procured, in support of my opinion, I have been led 

 to prosecute this inquiry with increased ardour, and shall now 

 bring forward the facts I have been able to ascertain in con- 

 firmation of my hypothesis. These I shall detail in the order 

 in which they were acquired, thinking it better to lay before 

 the Society the regular process of the investigation, than to 

 grasp at once at the conclusions, which in the end of it I have 

 felt myself authorized to draw. 



I shall therefore begin by stating the circumstances under 

 which adipocere is formed from animal matter, most nearly 

 resembling those in which the contents of the lower intestines 

 in living animals are placed ; and this I shall do from facts, 



