Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
Temperatures ranges, variously expressed as 54°-55°, 54°, 55° and 54° 55°, have been standardised as 54°-55°. Fractional temperatures have been standardised as XX.X°.
ON
ADIPOCIRE, AND ITS FORMATION.
BY CHARLES M. WETHERILL, PH.D. M.D.
[From the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.]
The formation of fat is interesting, both from a chemical and a physiological point of view. The relation of lignine starch and sugar to alcohol, afforded reasons for Liebig’s theory of the formation of fat in the body. Recent experiments by Liebig, Bopp, Guckelberger, Keller and others, on the formation of the lower terms of the series of fatty acids by the oxidation and putrefaction of the blood-forming substances, rendered possible the formation of the higher members, from albumen, fibrin and caseine, by similar means,[1] for example, by a less intense degree of oxidation. It was thought that the study of adipocire, with a view to this question, would perhaps throw some light upon it; and upon reading all the articles within my reach, upon this body, from the time of its discovery by Fourcroy, I find a considerable difference of opinion with regard to it.
In 1785, Fourcroy examined a portion of a liver which had hung for ten years in the air in the laboratory of de la Salle; it was fatty, smooth, and unctuous to the touch. Potash lye dissolved a portion of the liver completely, forming a soap. Subsequently, when he had examined the fat of grave yards, and spermaceti, he proposed to name these three fats, viz.: of biliary calculi, spermaceti, and from grave yards, adipocire, considering them to be identical, and possessing an intermediate nature between fat and wax. Chevreul, in his fifth Memoire, corrects this error, and calls the fat of gall stones cholesterine, and that of spermaceti cetine.