370 CALCIFICATION, CONCRETIONS, AND INCRUSTATIONS 



Formation of Calcium Soaps. In favor of the possi- 

 bility that the calcium is first bound as soaps are the following 

 facts : Calcification occurs chiefly in places where fatty degen- 

 eration has occurred, such as tubercles, atheromatous vessels, 

 etc. In fat necrosis fatty acids are formed, which soon com- 

 bine with calcium to form calcium soaps. Virchow observed 

 calcification in the form of soaps in a lipoma, and Jaeckle 1 

 found that a calcifying lipoma contained 29.5 per cent, of it& 

 calcium in the form of calcium soaps. Klotz 2 obtained staining 

 reactions in calcifying tissues that suggested the presence of 

 soaps, which he also extracted by solvents, and he strongly 

 urges, as the first step in the formation of pathological calcified 

 masses, that the calcium is first laid down as soaps, afterward 

 undergoing a transformation into the less soluble phosphate and 

 carbonate. Fischler and Gross 3 also obtained microchemical 

 reactions for soaps in the margins of infarcts and in atheroma- 

 tous areas, but not in caseous areas ; they therefore consider 

 that calcium-soap formation is an important step in the process 

 of pathological calcification, but that it is not essential. 



On the other hand, Wells, 4 studying large quantities of 

 material chemically, found but most minute traces of calcium 

 soaps in calcifying matter, even in the earliest stages, and also 

 very small amounts of other soaps or fatty acids, and, therefore, 

 questions the occurrence of calcium soaps as an essential step 

 in calcification, although not doubting that under certain condi- 

 tions (e. g., calcifying lipomas, fat necrosis) this may occur. In 

 calcification at all stages the proportion of calcium carbonate 

 and phosphate was found quite constant, and exactly the same 

 as in normal bone ; namely, in the proportion expressed by the 

 formula 3(Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 ).CaCO 3 , which Hoppe-Seyler advanced to- 

 express the composition of the salts of bone. Hence it seems 

 probable that there are no essential differences between the pro- 

 cesses of ossification and pathological calcification, and there 

 seems to be as yet no reason for assuming that in the former 

 calcium soaps constitute an essential step in the process. 



Phosphoric Acid in Calcification. It has generally 

 been assumed that in normal ossification the calcium is combined 

 by phosphoric acid, which probably is derived from the cartilage 

 cells, possibly through autolysis of the nucleoproteids or some 

 similar process. Grandis and Mainini, 5 by using microchemical 



1 Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1902 (36), 53. 



2 Jour. Exper. Med., 1905 (7), 633 ; 1906 (8), 322. 



3 Ziegler's Beitr., 1905 (7th suppl.), 339. 



4 Loc. cit. 



5 Arch, per la sci. Med. Torino, 1900 (24), 67. 



