COMLOUNDS OF ORGANIZATION. 71 
It is difficult to determine whether there is an oily prin- 
ciple, to which all the different kinds of oils owe their pri- 
mary character, or whether there are as many different 
principles as there are species of oils. The important ex- 
periments of M. Curevreut “ On Fatty Bedies *,” coun- 
tenance the latter opinion. The products of the saponiti- 
cation of the different kinds of fatty bodies, exhibited pecu- 
liar characters by which they could be recognised, varying 
according to the substances from which they were extract- 
ed. These preducts, it must be added, were the result of 
decomposition, and their characters, consequently, convey 
but imperfect information, concerning the natural condition 
of the principles of animal oils. 
Fatty matter occurs in the animal system occupying very 
different situations. In ruminating animals, it adheres 
chiefly to the intestines; in seals and whales, it is seated 
under the skin; while in fishes it is chiefly feund in the cells 
of the liver, and among the muscles. In all cases, it ap- 
pears to be a preduct of secretion, and to serve as a store 
of nourishment, beg most abundant, when the animal is 
furnished with a copious supply of food, and gradually 
diminishing in quantity as the food becomes scarcer, and 
disappearing when, from want, a lingering death has been 
produced. 
Animal oils may be distinguished into the following 
kinds. ‘ 
1. Spermacett.—This substance constitutes the principal 
part of the brain of the whale, called Physcter macrocepha- 
lus. It is freed from the oil which accompanies it, by 
draining and squeezing, and afterwards by the employment 
of an alkaline lye which saponifies the remainder. It is 
eee 
* Annals of Phil, xii. p. 186, from Annales de Chimie. 
