22 ON ADIPOCIRE, AND ITS FORMATION. 
the city, after an absence in the summer time, I found that the water reservoir and lamp 
wick had fulfilled their duty, for the sand was still moist. On December 9th, 1854, the 
experiment was concluded, and the heart removed from the sand and washed. It was in 
two pieces, and weighed, when still wet, 219 grammes: after drying in the air for five days 
it weighed 107 grammes, or 8°6 per cent. of the original weight, and was still moist. This 
was principally the fat from around the coronary vessels, the impressions of which were on 
it; the tendinous chords of the valves were perfect, and the valves themselves were indicated. 
The smell was decidedly tallowish, with the strong smell I have described as adipocire 
smell, and with the smell of earth worms; all of these odours were plain, and suggested 
themselves at once to the mind. The fat was hard, and resembled exactly adipocire; it 
presented a different appearance in two different places: one portion was hard and compact, 
in some parts denser, in others lighter than water, and appeared granular under the 
microscope, like the specimens of adipocire already described: the other portion was of a 
more buttery nature, and of about the density 0°8365. Neither of these specimens gave 
any traces of fat globules with the microscope, but contained aggregations of white angu- 
lar fatty matter, of nearly the same size, and about one fourth the diameter of fat globules. 
With ether the fat disappeared, and left shrunken membranous matter, which after the 
evaporation of the ether and treatment with acetic acid, became, for the most part, trans- 
parent. A comparative experiment with beef fat gave similar results, and I am inclined 
to think that the most of this matter proceeds from the fat cells,* and their accompanying 
cellular tissue. 
On cutting through the thickest portion of this adipocire, the fat was of a pure white 
colour, and could not be distinguished from adipocire; in some portions it was nearly an 
inch in thickness, and at first sight certainly gave the impression that the fleshy walls of 
the heart were converted into fat; but on closer inspection, this seemed to me improbable. 
The lumps of adipocire were thickest at the top of the heart, and just where were the 
lumps of fat in which the coronary vessels were imbedded; moreover, it was the most like 
adipocire in the centre of those very portions of fat. I obtained the approximate density 
of the adipocire of this part, by diluting alcohol with water, until the adipocire just swam 
half way between the surface and the bottom of the liquid, and found it to be 0-8902, 
which is by experiment lower than that of ox fat. Indeed, as would a priori seem probable, 
the fat, by the gases evolved during the putrefaction of the proteine bodies, is rendered 
more porous, and of a lower specific gravity, which deceives the eye, and makes the mass 
of fat to appear greater than it really is. An ash determination of this part of the adipo- 
cire performed upon 1-471 grammes, yielded 0-0015, equal to 0-102 per cent. of a reddish 
ash, containing iron. No acroleine was observed during this experiment, and no other 
* See Kolliker, Mic. Anat., II. 1st Part, page 16. 
