PHILOSOPHICAL 
TRANSACTIONS. 
XII. On the Conversion of Animal Muscle into a Substance much 
resembling Spermaceti. By George Smith Gibbes, B. A. of 
Magdaleti College, Oxford. Communicated by George Shaw, 
M.D.F.R.S. 
Read March 13, 1794. 
It is a matter of great curiosity to observe, after any fact has 
been well ascertained, how many things might have led to a 
much earlier investigation ; particularly so, had the writings 
of many great men been equally examined, with those obser- 
vations which, though apparently very trifling, have often ex- 
cited general attention. The conversion of animal muscle into 
a fatty matter gives us a very striking example. 
The celebrated Sir Thomas Brown, in his very learned and 
curious treatise intituled Hydriotaphia, assures us, that he has 
found a soap-like substance in an hydropical body. His words 
are as follow, viz. “ In an hydropical body, ten years buried in 
“ a church-yard, we met with a fat concretion, where the nitre 
MDCCXCIV. Z 
