ON ADIPOCIRE, AND ITS FORMATION. 23 
than the characteristic adipocire smell, which proves the absence of glycerine, and that the 
fatty acids are uncombined. Ox fat (2°069) gave (0-001, or) a per centage of 0:048 white 
ash. The iron of the former proceeds probably from the hematine in the heart. These 
ashes are too small in quantity, to arrive at any satisfactory result in ascertaining the 
nature of their component parts; they appeared by a few tests to contain principally lime, 
and soda and potash were detected by Smith’s test. The melting point of the above por- 
tion of adipocire was about 47°, but at 52° the fat still contained a faint precipitate. 
The adipocire, on February 3d, 1855, until which time it had been kept in a loosely 
stoppered bottle, weighed 97 grammes, which is 7°8 per cent. of the original heart. From 
91 erammes the fat was separated by boiling it with 317 alcohol, filtering hot, pressing 
powerfully, and weighing the residue; the latter was bulky, and weighed 40-1, corre- 
sponding to 44 per cent. of the adipocire, which contains, consequently, only 66 per cent. 
of fat. If the per centage of fat be calculated from the original weight of the heart, it 
amounts to only 4:4, which is undoubtedly less than was originally in the heart, so that, 
so far from there being a gain of fat in the formation of the adipocire, there was actually 
a loss, which accords with the bottle experiments. ‘The alcoholic solution deposited 16:2 
grammes of a rather dark fat, which was re-crystallized from 568 grammes of alcohol, and 
yielded 11 grammes of a lighter fat. Iwas desirous of retaining a greater portion of this fat 
for future experiments, and without proceeding to purify it further, obtained its equivalent. 
It melted between 69°—70°, did not crystallize plainly from alcohol, with which it behaved 
like stearic acid: a neutral silver salt, deepened in colour considerably when dried at 100°, 
and gave only 20°59 and 20-68 per cent. of silver. As decomposition had evidently taken 
place in this salt, the baryta compound was prepared by adding acetate of baryta to the 
alcoholic solution. The baryta was determined both as carbonate and by converting into 
sulphate; there was no difference in the two results; the baryta of the carbonate was 0:1701, 
and that of the sulphate was 0°1700, which corresponds to a per centage of 19-65—stearic 
acid (Heintz) requires 21:76 per cent., and palmitic acid 23°62 per cent. of baryta for the 
neutral salts. [have no doubt that a further purification will show this to be stearic acid, 
as might be expected from the original fat of the heart. 
Iam not desirous of claiming for these experiments a greater importance than they 
deserve, nor any but that the experiments were carefully performed: they were extended 
over the greater part of a year, during which my attention has been particularly directed 
to this subject. When the investigation was commenced, I was inclined to the belief that 
adipocire was a result of the decomposition of the blood-forming substances, and this, prin- 
cipally, from the experiments of Blondeau (see first part of this article) which I have not 
seen refuted, and partly from the testimony of those who have had opportunities of 
observing the formation of adipocire, and who have stated that fleshy parts of the body 
