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Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

ADIPOCIRE, AND ITS FORMATION.

BY CHARLES M. WETHERILL, PH.D. M.D.

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, 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.

In 1786-7, Fourcroy had an opportunity of studying the fat of grave yards, in the removal of the bodies from the Cemeti?re des Innocens, a work which lasted for two years, and which was supervised by Dr. Thouret, who was placed there to care for the health of the workmen. The substance was abundantly found, and especially in the "fouilles," or ditches, where the slightly made coffins of the poorer classes had been piled one upon another; the trench being open for some time until it was filled with bodies, when it was covered with a slight quantity of earth; on opening the trenches after some fifteen years, the bodies were converted into adipocire; they were flattened by mutual pressure, and had impressions on their surface of the grave clothes. Fourcroy's analysis proved it to be a soap of ammonia, with phosphate of lime, and the fat, melted at 52.5? C. He supposed adipocire to arise from the putrefaction of all animal matter, except hair, nails, and bones, for he states that in the carcasses of all animals exposed upon the borders of pieces of water, a fatty, white, fusible substance resembling spermaceti is found.

Perhaps the earliest record on this change from flesh to fat, is to be found in Lord Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum, where he says, "Nearly all flesh may be turned into a fatty substance, by cutting it into pieces and putting it into a glass covered with parchment, then letting the glass stand six or seven hours in boiling water." This may be a profitable experiment for making fat or grease; but then it must be practised upon such flesh as is not edible, viz.: that of horses, dogs, bears, foxes, badgers, &c.

George Smith Gibbes, 1794, observed that in Oxford, in the pits where were thrown the remains of dissections, and at the bottom of which flowed a gentle current of water, large quantities of adipocire were formed. He placed a piece of beef in the river in a box pierced with holes, and also a piece in which putrefaction in the air had commenced, and adipocire resulted in both cases. He proposes to make use of this property to utilize the dead bodies of animals, and states that nitric acid will effect the same change in three or four days.

John Bostock digested muscular fibre with dilute nitric acid, and washed with water: the result was a clear, yellow fat, of the consistence of tallow, melting at 33? C. Is less soluble in alcohol than Fourcroy's substance: the greater part deposits nearly white on cooling, and the residue can be precipitated from the alcohol by water. Hot ether dissolves it and abandons it on cooling; caustic alkali forms a soap; ammonia dissolves but little of the fat.

Chevreul, on repeating this experiment with pure fibrine, could obtain no fat. Hartkol, experimented for twenty-five years on adipocire, and concluded that it is not formed in dry grounds, that in moist earth the fat does not increase, but changes to a fetid mass, incapable of being made into candles. Animals in running water leave a fat after three years, which is more abundant in the intestines than in the muscles, and more fat is formed in stagnant, than in running water.

Chevreul, 1812, found the fat of church yards to contain margaric and oleic acids, combined with yellow colouring and odorous matters, also lime, potash, oxide of iron, lactic acid salts and azotized matter. He supposes the fatty acids are liberated from their glycerine by ammonia, which subsequently itself escapes, and that adipocire is thus formed from the original fat of the body.

Gay Lussac, adopts the same views. He subjected finely chopped muscular fibre deprived of its fat by ether, to the action of water, and did not succeed in forming adipocire.

Von Bibra, in an examination of the flesh of the leg of a Peruvian mummy, a child, obtained 19.7 per cent, of fat, which he supposes to have been formed from the muscles. In comparison, dry human muscle from several analyses by himself, gives nine per cent. of fat. The muscular fibre of the mummy, after treatment with ether, presented the same appearance under the microscope, as fresh muscle placed in the same circumstances. Bibra states in the same article, that he is fully convinced of the change of muscle to fat, having obtained a human corpse in which all the parts of flesh were nearly wholly converted into fat.

Blondeau, arrived at the same conclusion from an examination of the Roquefort cheese manufacture. This cheese is placed in dark, damp, cool cellars to ripen. Before this treatment, the cheese contained 1/200 of its weight of fat, and after two months in the cellars the caseine was almost wholly converted into a fat, which melts at 40?, boils at 80?, and decomposes at 150?C. The unaltered caseine could be removed from it, by mere melting with boiling water. In an additional experiment, a pound of beef free from fat was slightly salted, surrounded with paste, and placed in a cellar; after two months, it had undergone no putrid decomposition, and was converted, for the greater part, into a fatty body, presenting the greatest analogy to hog's lard. In these instances a number of parasite plants are observed on the material, and it is necessary to scrape the cheese from time to time, to free it from these mycodermic plants, which are reproduced with fresh energy. As these plants require ammonia for their development, Blondeau supposes it can only come from the nitrogen of its caseine, and that fat is one of the results of the caseine decomposition.

Gregory, examined the adipocire of a fat hog which had died of sickness, and had been buried for fifteen years in moist ground; at the bottom of the grave was the adipocire in a layer hardly an inch in thickness; it contained 1/4 stearic and 1/4 margaric and oleic acids, together with from 1.5 to 3.5 per cent. lime. The glycerine was all gone, and so was the bone earth, which together with the flesh were removed, as Gregory supposes, by the carbonic acid of the rain water, leaving the original fatty acids of the body.

Prof. H?nefeld, examined a loaf of rye bread, which had been buried for at least eighty years in a turf-moor, and found 2.2 per cent. of a waxy or fatty substance, and he refers to an examination by Bracconot, of a mouldered wheat bread containing, among other substances, a fatty body. H?nefeld supposes that the substance of the bread was displaced by the turf material, the form of the loaf being retained; and admits the possibility of the bread substance partaking in part a change into resin and waxy humus.

R. Wagner, transplanted the recently removed testicles of rabbits and frogs into the abdominal cavity of fowls; the testicles of fowls into other fowls and pigeons, those of pigeons into fowls, and fresh crystalline lens into fowls and pigeons which were killed after ten or fifteen days. The testicles of frogs contained three per cent. of fat, which was augmented to 5.15 per cent. In one case the crystalline lens, after the experiment, contained 47.86 per cent. of fat; in a number of other experiments on lenses, the result was of from 7 to 15 per cent. of fat, calculated for the dry substance of the lens; carefully cleaned portions of frog intestines filled with coagulated blood of pigeons and calves, fat free muscle from the thigh of a frog, and boiled white of hen's egg, in similar conditions, all gave fat.

Quain & Virchow quoted by Lehmann, examined muscle changed in macerating troughs to adipocire, and are of opinion that the fibrine is here changed to fat. I have questioned my medical friends, who have had experience in this matter, and find them to hold the same opinions. Prof. Leidy, who macerated with water the bodies of small animals, in stoppered bottles, to obtain their skeletons, found that the deposition of adipocire upon the bones was quite abundant.

It was thought that the study of adipocire would throw some light upon the question, whether fat be formed from proteine compounds, and I was surprised to find the great difference of opinion as to the formation and nature of this body, and in general, as to the changes that bodies undergo in grave yards. These various changes are ascribed by undertakers to the nature of the soil, to its dryness or moisture; but in a late removal of a grave yard in this city, some bodies were found converted into adipocire, the graves of which were contiguous to those in which decomposition had advanced to its full extent, leaving nothing but the skeleton. The preservation of some bodies seems inexplicable, according to our present knowledge, of which I may cite the well known case of General Washington, who having reposed in his tomb for more than forty years, was so perfectly preserved, as to have been recognised from the resemblance of his portraits. The problems proposed for this research were:--

With regard to the first of these, I possessed the following specimens of adipocire:

Two from sheep buried at the country seat of the late J. P. Wetherill.

Two from human subjects, which I obtained myself from a grave yard.

From a fossil ox, presented by Prof. Leidy.

SHEEP ADIPOCIRE.

Specimens of this adipocire were presented to the Academy of Natural Sciences, by my uncle, who found them at his country seat, opposite Valley Forge, buried in moist ground, near a drain which led water from a spring-house. About ten years previously, the shepherd in charge of a flock of sheep indulged in a drunken spree, and in the meanwhile some fifteen of the sheep in his care died from neglect, and were buried in the above mentioned spot. My uncle, who was present at the exhumation of the sheep, stated that in some of the remains, the exterior forms of the muscles were very distinct. The two specimens I obtained were in lumps, amorphous under the microscope, floating on water; of greasy feel, and rank mutton smell, mingled with a peculiar disagreeable fundamental smell, that I have observed in all my specimens of adipocire, including the fossil one. Heated in a capsule with water, a transparent fat floats melted on the surface; heated alone in a platinum crucible, it melts and burns with a smoky flame, leaving a slight residue, which effervesces with hydrochloric acid, and contains beside sand and a little iron, principally lime. Under the microscope with moderate powers, it is white, fatty, and granular, disappearing with Canada balsam; with higher powers it is amorphous: melted on the glass slide covered with thin glass, is crystalline on cooling, in groups of plumose crystals, which give a beautiful play of colours with polarized light; a drop of its weak alcoholic solution evaporated spontaneously on glass gave the same appearance of crystallization. Water added to this solution precipitated it in the form of a pure white amorphous powder: distilled per se, leaves a slight carbonaceous residue, and gives a volatile fat, yellowish, and cryst, on cooling. This volatile fat is soluble in hot alcohol, and precipitates partly on cooling. The weight of material was seventy grammes; it was melted in the water bath, and filtered through paper in a hot funnel; the filtered solidified fat was of a light coffee colour, and weighed fifty-four grammes; in a capillary tube, is soft at 54?, fluid at 62?; on cooling becomes opaque at 50?. When pressed in paper, the latter is greased by oleic acid; it contains no ammonia, nor any nitrogen by the potassium test; the residue on the filter was boiled with alcohol, filtered hot on a weighed filter, and washed with alcohol. This alcoholic solution deposited twelve grammes of fatty acid, by spontaneous evaporation, during the summer. The crystals at first deposited were white and warty; a portion of the alcoholic solution on a glass slide, exhibited with the microscope, white, curved dendritic forms, arranged stellate; in the capillary tube, they begin to melt at 53?, are fluid at 62?, and on cooling begin to cloud at 58?, and are opaque at 50?. The residue on the filter weighed about four grammes, and viewed under the microscope, consisted of membranous matter, wool, dirt, and the white element of cellular tissue; it gave ammonia with potassa solution, and nitrogen by Laissaigne's test, together with a strong smell of phosphuretted hydrogen when the water was added in the latter test. This residue burned, gave thirty per cent. of ash. The following is the per centage result for the adipocire:--

The portion of fatty acid which passed through the filter by melting, contained 0.73 per cent. of a dark-coloured ash, principally lime, with iron, and traces of phosphoric and sulphuric acids, potash and soda. The potash and soda were detected by Dr. Lawrence Smith's beautiful method by polarized light, which I have frequently used with success. In this instance, the quantity of material was so small, that neither the potash nor soda could be detected by the usual method.

Sixty grammes of the fatty acids were then saponified with potash lye, according to Chevreul's proportions, during which operation neither ammonia nor cholesterine could be detected. The soap was decomposed by tartaric acid, and washed several times by melting with water; it dissolved thus in alcohol with reddish brown colour, and after filtering hot, was suffered to deposit the greater part of its fat on cooling. The crystals thus deposited were nacreous scales, and of lustre like the feathers of moth wings; when melted, they weighed 26 grammes, and had a goat-like smell; by further standing, the alcohol deposited four grammes of very translucent crystals, with traces of stellar groupings. A third crop of crystals by spontaneous evaporation was obtained, which was small in quantity, weighing 0.6 grammes, and, when melted, cooled with a flat, waxy, surface, with traces of stellar aggregations. The mother alcohol of this last crystallization, was treated with an alcoholic solution of acetate of lead. The lead salts, treated in the usual manner by ether, yielded a few drops of very highly coloured oleic acid. From the insoluble lead salts, the fat was separated.

The alcoholic solution from which the oleate and other lead salts were precipitated by acetate of lead, was evaporated to dryness, and treated by ether, when another portion of oleic acid was obtained. It results from this that the quantity of oleic acid in the adipocire is small. The greater portion of the lead salt was insoluble in ether and alcohol, its fat was separated and added to the first crop of crystals which fell from the alcoholic solution of the fat from saponification. To ascertain whether any glycerine was in combination with the fatty acids in the adipocire, the aqueous solution from which the crop was precipitated by tartaric acid during the purification of the fat, was heated, filtered from small fat globules, and after removing the tartar deposit, subjected to distillation. The acid residue of the retort was neutralized by carb. potash, and after evaporating on the water bath was exhausted with absolute alcohol, which proved the absence of glycerine, as it gave on evaporating nothing but a small residue of colouring matter, which was yellow, and of a bitter taste.

The distillate in this experiment had a goat-like smell, and it was doubtful whether it reacted acid to litmus paper. Baryta water was added to alkaline reaction, for which but a small quantity was needed, and the solution evaporated. There was but little residue, which, on the addition of a drop of hydrochloric acid and water, emitted a rancid smell, but no oil globule appeared; the volatile fatty acids may, therefore, be considered to be present in the adipocire only in faint traces.

The following melting points were obtained:--The first crop of crystals from the alcoholic solution of the fat after saponification, which, when melted, cooled with a stellated surface, tried three times by dipping the thermometer bulb in the melted solution, and noting the temperature when it became opaque, gave 55? for the solidifying point. In a capillary tube, begins to melt at 57?, fluid at 59?, on cooling, opaque at 55?; this portion was taken from the capsule on melting the fat, before the whole mass was melted: another portion taken when all was fluid, and after stirring, gave the same results.

The crystalline appearance of the second crop of crystals from the alcoholic solution after saponification, when melted and suffered to cool in a capsule, is similar to that of the first crop; in the capillary tube, begins to melt at 53?, fluid at 54?-55?, on cooling, crystals form in the tube at 51?, and is opaque at 50?. The melting point of the third crop of crystals was 50.5?. In ascertaining the melting points of the different fats described in this paper, I tried the various modes in use, and settled at first upon the following:--A beaker of distilled water is placed upon wire gauze upon a retort stand in front of a window, the thermometer hangs, by a string, in this water from another stand, and the lamp must be moveable from under the beaker glass. A piece of string is tied so loosely around the top of the mercury reservoir of the thermometer, that the different capillary tubes may be readily slipped in and out on raising the thermometer from the water; the heat from the lamp must be such that the temperature of the water rises gradually; the capillary tubes are so placed that they lie closely to the mercury of the thermometer, and when the temperature approaches the melting point, the water is stirred with the thermometer to equalize the heat, the lamp is then removed, and the point of solidification observed in the usual way. I doubt very much the use of noting the point of solidification, as it is influenced so much by extraneous circumstances. The cooling of water and certain salts below their solidifying points, is well known, and the same must take place in these instances. Heintz has noticed how the thermometer rose ten degrees in determining the solidifying point of melted human fat. In one of my experiments, the fat in the tube was separated by minute air globules into three or four columns, quite close together; in observing the fusing point, they all melted at the same instant; but in solidifying, one would be quite clear while those on either side had become opaque, no matter how much the tube was stirred or vibrated by striking the beaker glass. After having observed this in several instances, I abandoned taking the points of solidification, and modified the process for the fusing point, by keeping the water as near that point as possible, and repeatedly lifting the thermometer and attached capillary tube out of the water for a few seconds, that the fat might solidify, and noting the fusing point as that at which it at once becomes liquid; this point is reached twice; first, when the water is being heated, and secondly, as it is cooling: I have found by repetition of the same experiment, that the degree thus obtained, is constant from the first, and I think gives the most accurate results. The mode of using capillary tubes for the fusing points, is convenient, as, at the close of the experiment, they can be sealed at the open end, and placed on a card with descriptions, for future reference. I weighed the quantity of fat in one instance, and found that half a milligramme was much more than enough to obtain the melting point with the capillary tube.

HUMAN ADIPOCIRE.

Towards the close of the year 1853, I visited a grave yard in Philadelphia, the remains of which were being removed, and from which, through the kindness of the superintendent, I obtained specimens of adipocire and valuable information. The surface of the burial ground was depressed about four or six feet below that of the neighbouring streets, and was of a very moist nature. Many of the bodies were converted more or less into adipocire, and of these, all had been large persons. There was none among the remains of children. I obtained specimens from two persons.

No. 1, was from a large man, which had been buried from ten to fifteen years; the ground was very moist, and the coffin rotten; the grave was seven feet deep. The adipocire was from the middle of the coffin, and was in irregular lumps.

No. 2, was from a very large man; buried five or six years; the ground moist, though not so much so as number one; the grave five feet deep. The ground around the coffin was of a bloody colour, and all of the body was decayed, except the lower portion. The shape of the rump was plain, and the legs separate; the fat was at the bottom of the coffin, and the bones were lying along it. The adipocire contained an impression of the bone, was spongy and dark-coloured on the inside; and on the outside it was smooth, white, and presented impressions of the grave clothes, and here and there appearances as if of the hair follicles and sebaceous glands, but which lost this appearance when viewed with the microscope. There was no hair on this specimen. The pieces of adipocire of this specimen were large, at the thickest part being about three inches in thickness; they presented the shape of different parts of the leg, though flattened; tough fibrous bands, like aponeuroses, were seen in some parts traversing the mass of fatty matter.

The appearance of these two specimens with the microscope, was very similar to each other and to the sheep adipocire. Powder scraped from them, with a fine needle, gave no appearance of fat globules, but irregular masses, mingled with membranous matter; a portion sliced off with a sharp knife, presented by reflected light, brilliant, white, irregular fatty fragments, but no traces of globules. When alcohol was added with heat, the fat disappeared, leaving membranous matter, and fibres not-anastomosing The addition of acetic acid causes the fibres to disappear, and without showing nuclei.

Portions of number one presented an appearance as if of the hair follicles, and there were mingled with it cylindrical hairs, of an inch and a half in length, brownish in colour, and quite fine. From these hairs, and from its position in the coffin, adipocire number one probably came from the abdomen. The fat from this portion gave the same appearance under the microscope, as specimen number two. The alcoholic solution of the fat evaporated on the microscope slide, gave the appearance of stellated dendritic crystals, with curved branches, resembling the so called margaric acid under the same circumstances.

The whole mass of fat in the two specimens, seems to be entangled in a web of disintegrated membrane, and fibrous tissue. I have never been able to detect any traces of muscular fibre under the microscope; and Dr. Leidy, who was kind enough to examine specimens with the microscope, communicated to me the same results. The smell of the two specimens was peculiar; what might be called an adipocire smell; for I have observed it in all specimens of adipocire that I have examined. This smell is indescribable, the nearest approach to it being that of faeces, but it is much more disagreeable.

There is no doubt, therefore, of the presence of palmitic acid in the fat of human adipocire. The second crop of crystals which fell from the mother liquid of those just examined, contained a fat melting at 62?, in all probability palmitic acid also. A determination of the silver of the salt of this fat was lost in the following curious manner: The silver salt was in lumps, as it had dried on the filter, and after it had stood for a short time at 100 in a watch glass, thinking to facilitate the escape of water, by pulverizing it in an agate-mortar, it became so exceedingly electric, that of the whole quantity of silver salt from 0.651 grammes of fat, I was not able to collect the smallest portion for analysis; whether the powder was attempted to be removed by steel, platinum, glass, a feather, or paper, on the first touch it flew into the air, and alighted upon the table: I have often noticed this behaviour in organic silver salts, and perhaps it would be worth while to try whether one of them could not favourably replace the amalgam on the cushion of the electrical machine.

The following experiments were made upon the alcoholic solution of the fats, from which the above portions of palmitic acid were separated. Enough alcohol was added to this solution to prevent any further deposit by standing, for which, as was before stated, 300 alcohol were required for 15 fat. Its percentage of fat was determined by evaporating the alcohol from a known quantity, and weighing the residue; the melting point of this fat was 60.?5 to 61?. This melting point was again determined after saponification, to ascertain whether a fatty ether might not have been formed, and was found to be the same. The alcoholic solution of acetate of magnesia was also titled so that the necessary quantity might be added to the fat solution by measurement: the fat under consideration should be, by Heintz's experiment, a mixture of stearic and the so called margaric acids, together with impurities.

Before proceeding to the fractional precipitation by acetate of magnesia, the alcoholic fatty solution was treated with an excess of acetate of magnesia, and an excess of acetic acid added; the resulting liquid was then evaporated over sulphuric acid in order to ascertain what effect this treatment would have upon the melting points. On cooling, a small quantity of a powdery precipitate fell, and after standing for a couple of hours over sulphuric acid, the liquid crystallized rather suddenly, to plates or scales, the melting point of which, after treatment with acid, gave 62?; recrystallized from hot alcohol it melted at 62?5-63?.

precipitate the whole, was added; to the filtrate an excess of the magnesia solution was added, and the fat remaining in the filtrate from this precipitation was separated, as was also that of the other two precipitates. The following results and melting points are in their order as determined:

and were united, dissolved in alcohol, enough alcoholic solution of acetate of magnesia to precipitate the half added, and after standing for a couple of days, the precipitate was filtered off, and ammonia added to alkaline reaction to the filtrate. The first magnesia salt was translucent, and fused by heat to a transparent liquid, which by more heat gradually grew darker, finally black, and left a residue of magnesia. The melting point of the fat of this substance was as before, 61?.

The second magnesia salt was white and amorphous; it presented the same relations to heat as the first, and contained a fat of the same melting point, 61?. These fats were both brilliant white, lamellar, and of rough surface. The first magnesia salt contained a per centage of 7?59 MgO and the second contained about double the per centage of magnesia, viz.: 14?91; for 0?28 salt gave 0?04175 magnesia by incineration.

The experiments of fractional precipitation of the normal solution of fat 6?, were conducted in the same manner, and with the following results, in which and represent the fatty acids of the two magnesia salts, and that of the portion not precipitated by an excess of acetate of magnesia:

The adipocire therefore appears to be a lime soap of one of the fatty acids, with a trace of phosphate of lime and with flocculent organic matter, or in per centage approximately,

If the organic matter be neglected and the per centage then calculated, we will have,

A portion of raw, and one of boiled muscular fibre from bullock's heart, were on March 8th, 1854, placed with water upon a microscope slide, and covered with thin glass, which was closed with sealing wax around the edge to prevent evaporation. This was repeatedly observed during the year, and the attention was directed at times to particular fibres the better to watch any change. At the commencement of the experiment, the cross-markings of the fibre were distinct and the fibre itself was of a delicate rose-colour. I find in my notes of April 8th, and May 11th, that no change presented itself in either the raw or in the boiled fibre, except that the cross-markings were more distinct. On December 6th, 1854, but very little change was noticed, the cross-markings in both were more distinct than ever; by high powers an amorphous precipitate was discovered in the neighbourhood of some of the fibres--about one third of the water had evaporated.

The appearance of these bottles, on December 13th, 1854, was as follows:--

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