184 
HISTOLOGY OF ANIMALS. 
Hunter’s observations on this subject, contained in 
the third volume of the Physiological Catalogue of the 
Museum, are so valuable as to merit an attentive 
perusal; they contain, however, a few trifling errors 
which arose from his not being aware of the existence of 
the adipose cell, especially in the Whale, the fat of 
which animal he supposed to be contained in the inter- 
stices of the fibres that constitute a great portion of the 
blubber. A preparation put up to demonstrate this fact 
is still in the Museum, but the receptacles it exhibits 
are for the lodgment of the adipose cells containing the 
oil, and not for the oil itself. Another preparation, is a 
section of the skin of a Whale , taken from near the tail, 
also put up by Hunter, to show that in this part of the 
animal there are no receptacles for the oil. The chief 
value of the adipose tissue of the Whale tribe consists in 
its containing oil which is liquid at ordinary tempera- 
tures, the train oil of commerce ; the fat of the Bear is 
also very valuable on the same account, and is largely 
employed by the perfumer. I once had an opportunity 
of dissecting a Bear , and, although it was during frosty 
weather, the quantity of oil that flowed from between 
the muscles was very great, amounting to many gallons, 
and hence I concluded, that the value of the oil of the 
Bear, or grease — as it is usually termed — to the per- 
fumer, depends on its continuing in a fluid state, even 
at so low a temperature. The nearest approach to the 
fat of the Bear, is perhaps, the marrow from the ex- 
tremities of the long bones of ruminants, which is often 
