FATTY DEGENERATIONS. 
201 
a human subject converted into adipocire, was presented 
to the College some years ago by the late Regius Pro- 
fessor of Medicine at Oxford, Dr. Kidd. It was a 
portion of a subject which had been partially dissected, 
and, not being further required, was placed in a pit 
near the dissecting-room, into which fresh water was 
occasionally admitted. When a mass of adipocire is 
handled, it will be found to have a soapy feel, and to 
possess little or no odour. On exposure to heat, it 
readily melts like spermaceti, crystallizes again on cool- 
ing, and also polarizes light. When examined micro- 
scopically in the fluid state, or after solution in ether, no 
trace of muscular substance remains, the residue consist- 
ing principally of areolar tissue. A thin slice exhibits no 
appearance of cellular structure. Adipocire, like sper- 
maceti, is capable of being made into candles ; and on 
the discovery of this substance, many years ago, a 
patent was taken out for the conversion of the offal of 
slaughter-houses into adipocire, but the process died with 
the patentee. A very large quantity of adipocire was 
found at the commencement of the present century in 
the burial-ground of Les Innocens at Paris, where one 
thousand five hundred bodies had been buried in one 
pit, most of which had been converted into this material 
by the action of water. A considerable quantity of 
adipocire was once formed in a pit in this College, into 
which all the parts removed in dissection are thrown ; 
the adipocire, however, in this case, was derived princi- 
pally from the muscular substance of a young Elephant . 
