On adipocire, and its formationWetherill, Charles Mayer
Science
On adipocire, and its formation
Wetherill, Charles Mayer
Adipocere; Fatty acids; Postmortem changes
_Ba._ On November 19th, 1853, one half of a bullock’s heart, weighing
673 grammes, was placed, covered with Schuylkill water, in a
wide-mouthed stoppered bottle.
_Bb._ The remaining half of the heart, weighing 816 grammes, was
covered with mineral water with lemon syrup. It was intended to use
plain mineral water in this experiment, that is, Schuylkill water
saturated with carbonic acid, but the former was sent by a mistake,
which was not discovered until too late. In these cases the fat was
partially removed from the heart, but not to any great extent.
_C._ Boiled six eggs, removed the shells from two, which weighed then
88 grammes; ran pin-holes to the centre in two, which weighed 97
grammes, and left the shells upon the remaining two, which weighed
96 grammes; these were together placed in a glass-stoppered bottle,
and covered with water. These different substances did not delay to
decompose and give out offensive odours, and the eggs especially
maintained their proverbial character in this respect; in fact, on the
approach of the cholera season I was obliged to place the bottle of
eggs on a plate, cover it with a large inverted beaker glass, and heap
the rim of the beaker with hypochlorite of lime. With regard to the
heart, the contents of the bottle containing mineral water, as might be
expected, preserved their lively red colour for a longer time than in
the case of the bottles containing river water.
The appearance of these bottles, on December 13th, 1854, was as
follows:—
The cheese _A_ was converted into a white, thick, grumous mass, lighter
than water, and which when diluted with a little water, presented the
appearance of pus; under the microscope with moderate power, angular
transparent fragments constituted the principal part, and among these,
polarized light showed many broken blade-shaped crystals without a
play of colours; a few globules of oil were also seen. The material
_A_ was removed to a glass-stoppered bottle, more water added, and was
set aside. A portion of the cheese used in this experiment had been
preserved in paper; it was found hard, and on the surface oily. It was
placed aside in a cork-stoppered bottle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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