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New York AGRrRicuLtuRAL ExpERIMENT STATION. 165 
Again he says “that fat can be formed from the albuminoids is 
now denied by no one acquainted with the subject,” and yet this 
statement is by no means so strong as at first reading it would 
appear, and no one familiar with the elements of chemistry would 
deny that it was in a certain sense possible, or at least conceiv- 
able, that any compound composed of carbon, hydrogen and 
oxygen might be produced from another compound containing 
_ these same elements, even though nitrogen might also be com- 
bined with them, though pretty positive proof is needed to show 
that such compounds are so formed, and such positive proof, so 
_ far as I can see, appears at present to be wanting. 
‘ There is danger in our conclusions when we confound the 
chemical changes resulting from decay, decomposition or disease 
with those which are produced during normal and vital processes, 
and we easily discriminate between these numerous products, 
those needed in the several parts and functions of the animal 
organism, and those which are recognized as either foreign to the 
healthy development of the animal, or as the waste products of 
food or tissue which has already fulfilled its work. Indeed we 
' may questionalso the application of facts derived from the inves- 
_ tigation of animals which are wholly unrelated to those we have 
' under consideration, as for example, the comparison of the 
_ Carnivora or Insectivora with the Herbivora and in this connec- 
_ tion it is to be observed that these principles under discussion 
have been laid down by many as though almost beyond question 
_ established and mainly based upon facts derived in the very way 
' above indicated. For example, “the liver of a man who died of 
phosphorous poisoning contained in its dry substance the enorm- 
_ ous amount of 76.8 per cent of fat.” The implication is that this 
_ fat was produced by a conversion of the nitrogenous tissue of 
_ the liver into fat, which may possibly be the fact, but there is no 
_ evidence whatever to sustain it. In like manner we might claim 
_ that the chalky concretions of gout were a conversion of the : 
a muscular tissue. Again “the formation of a so-called adipocere- 
_ also favors the view that fat can be formed from the albuminoids,” 
_ but when we consider that the act of formation of this peculiar 
substance, has from the very nature of the case, never been 
observed, that nothing in the way of qualitative results exist to 
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