We observe in infancy, that the quantity of fat is in proportion much more considerable under the skin, than any where else, especially that in the abdomen the cellular viscera, the omentum in particular contains but very little at this age. I have established this fact in a great many instances. There are only some flakes of fat around the kidney, frequently these are scarcely visible. All the rest of the abdominal cavity is destitute of it. The pectoral cavity contains scarcely any more, and always much less in proportion than in after life. I have observed also that the intermuscular texture is almost every where deprived of it. We may say, then, that all this fluid is concentrated under the skin, at least while the fœtus is in good health. Does this superabundance of sub-cutaneous fat perform any important office? has it any connexion with the great size of the liver at that period? I know not: it is a phenomenon that should fix the attention of physiologists, especially when it is compared with the absence of fat in almost all the parts where it is afterwards accumulated. Towards adult age, the abdominal fat is in much greater proportion than the sub-cutaneous. The exterior swelling is as rare towards the fortieth year, as it is common about the fourth and fifth, a period at which all the muscular forms are concealed by the superabundance of fat, and the body is remarkably rounded. Is there any connexion between the large quantity of abdominal fat at the adult period, and the frequency of diseases of which this region is then the seat? However, the proportions of fat for the different ages are not always the same; there are some exceptions. In old age almost all the fat is dissolved and disappears; the body is wrinkled, hardened, and becomes thin. _Unnatural proportions of fat._