2 ON ADIPOCIRE, AND ITS FORMATION. 
viz.: of biliary calculi, spermaceti, and from grave yards, adipocire, considering them to 
be identical, and possessing an intermediate nature between fat and wax. Chevreul, in his 
fifth Memoire, corrects this error, and calls the fat of gall stones cholesterine, and that of 
spermaceti cetine. 
In 1786-7, Fourcroy had an opportunity of studying the fat of grave yards, in the re- 
moval of the bodies from the Cemetiére des Innocens, a work which lasted for two years, 
and which was supervised by Dr. Thouret, who was placed there to care for the health of 
the workmen. The substance was abundantly found, and especially in the “fouilles,” or 
ditches, where the slightly made coffins of the poorer classes had been piled one upon 
another; the trench being open for some time until it was filled with bodies, when it was 
covered with a slight quantity of earth; on opening the trenches after some fifteen years, 
the bodies were converted into adipocire; they were flattened by mutual pressure, and had 
impressions on their surface of the grave clothes. Fourcroy’s analysis proved it to be a 
soap of ammonia, with phosphate of lime, and the fat, melted at 52° 8 C.* He supposed 
adipocire to arise from the putrefaction of all animal matter, except hair, nails, and bones, 
for he states that in the carcasses of all animals exposed upon the borders of pieces of 
water, a fatty, white, fusible substance resembling spermaceti is found. 
Perhaps the earliest record on this change from flesh to fat, is to be found in Lord Bacon’s 
Sylva Sylvarum, where he says, (article Fat,) “ Nearly all flesh may be turned into a fatty 
substance, by cutting it into pieces and putting it into a glass covered with parchment, 
then letting the glass stand six or seven hours in boiling water.” This may be a profitable 
experiment for making fat or grease; but then it must be practised upon such flesh as is 
not edible, viz.: that of horses, dogs, bears, foxes, badgers, &c. 
George Smith Gibbes, 1794, observed that in Oxford, in the pits where were thrown 
the remains of dissections, and at the bottom of which flowed a gentle current of water, 
large quantities of adipocire were formed. He placed a piece of beef in the river in a box 
pierced with holes, and also a piece in which putrefaction in the air had commenced, and 
adipocire resulted in both cases. He proposes to make use of this property to utilize the 
dead bodies of animals, and states that nitric acid will effect the same change in three or 
four days. > 
John Bostock (Nicholson’s Journal, March, 1803,) digested muscular fibre with dilute 
nitric acid, and washed with water: the result was a clear, yellow fat, of the consistence 
of tallow, melting at 33° C. Is less soluble in alcohol than Fourcroy’s substance: the 
greater part deposits nearly white on cooling, and the residue can be precipitated from the 
alcohol by water. Hot ether dissolves it and abandons it on cooling; caustic alkali forms 
a soap; ammonia dissolves but little of the fat. 
* The degrees of thermometer in this article are centigrade, and the weights grammes. 
