
166 Report oF THE DIRECTOR OF THE 
show that this interesting substance contains a fraction of a per 
cent more of fat than did the dead body from which it was pro- 

duced and that the sole remaining trace of muscular tissue is the ed 
ammonia which constitutes in part this adipocere, I think weshall _ 
be forced to admit that the formation of this compound adds very 
little support to the view that fat is produced from albuminoids. 
Again it is said that “it has also beén observed, that in the 
milk of the same cow the quantity of albuminoids frequently 
decreases when that of the fat increases, and the reverse,” but the 
reader hardly needs to be reminded that the above statements, if 3 
true, may be, as doubtless they could be accounted for upon any 
one of a score of suppositions, each equally as plausible as that 
the amounts of fat and albuminoids in the milk were mutually 
convertible, of which supposition these facts related offer not 
even the shadow of proof. 
“Tf a doubt still remained,” says Professor Armsby, as to the | 
formation of fat from albuminoids, it must disappear on a 
consideration of the results which have been obtained on healthy 
animals with an entirely normal food. For example, the eggs of 
ordinary flies have been allowed to develop on pure blood and 
from seven to eleven times as much fat found in the larve as 
was originally contained in the eggs and blood together; the 
excess of fats could only have come from ss albuminoids of the 
food.” 
The brief review presented of the several steps of the process 
of digestion shows that, while the other food constituents which 
are digested by the animal are during this digestive process sub- 
ject to more or less profound chemical changes before being 
fitted for their several functions in the body, fat upon the other 
hand is not known to suffer other than purely mechanical 
changes, unless indeed the setting free of a certain portion of the — 
fatty acids may be regarded as established, of which, however, ~ 
there is doubt, while as has been shown the fat has been actually 
traced through every step of its course unchanged from the food 
eaten to the milk secreted in the udder, or to the stored up fat 
accumulated in the body. 
If it could be clearly demonstrated that a cow did for a long i 
season produce more fat in her milk than careful analysis would 

