86 HEAT DISENGAGED. 



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 conditions of the fattening of domestic animals. 



The formation of fat depends on a deficiency of oxy- 

 gen ; 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 com- 

 pounds, 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 devel- 

 oped, as if these 9 equivalents of carbon had been 

 directly burned. In this form, therefore, the disen- 

 gagement of heat as a consequence of the formation of 

 fat would be undeniable ; and it could only be consider- 

 ed hypothetical, on the supposition that carbon and 

 oxygen were disengaged from one and the same sub- 

 stance, in the proportions to yield carbonic acid. 



If, for example, we suppose that from 2 atoms of 



