Chevreul, on repeating this experiment with pure fibrine, could obtain no fat. Hartkol, (Ure’s Dict. art. Adipocire,) 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, (An. de Ch. et de Ph. iv. 71,) 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, (Annalen der Chem. und Ph. 56, p. 106,) 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.