OXYGEN IS DEFICIENT. 89 



a deficient supply of oxygen, for oxygen is abso- 

 lutely indispensable for the dissipation of the excess 

 of carbon in the food. This excess of carbon, de- 

 posited in the form of fat, is never seen in the 

 Bedouin or in the Arab of the desert, who exhibits 

 with pride to the traveller his lean, muscular, sinewy 

 limbs, altogether free from fat ; but in prisons and 

 jails it appears as a puffiness in the inmates, fed, as 

 they are, on a poor and scanty diet ; it appears in 

 the sedentary females of oriental countries ; and 

 finally, it is produced under the well-known condi- 

 tions of the fattening of domestic animals. 



The formation of fat depends on a deficiency of 

 oxygen ; but in this process, in the formation of fat 

 itself, there is opened up a new source of oxygen, a 

 new cause of animal heat. 



The oxygen set free in the formation of fat is 

 given out in combination with carbon or hydrogen ; 

 and whether this carbon and hydrogen proceed from 

 the substance that yields the oxygen, or from other 

 compounds, still there must have been generated by 

 this formation of carbonic acid or water as much 

 heat as if an equal weight of carbon or hydrogen 

 had been burned in air or in oxygen gas. 



If we suppose that from 2 equivalents of starch 

 18 equivalents of oxygen are disengaged, and that 

 these 18 equivalents of oxygen combine with 9 

 equivalents of carbon, from the bile, for example, 

 no one can doubt that, in this case, exactly as much 

 heat must be developed, as if these 9 equivalents of 



