:

nine inches in length, and at the widest part three inches in diameter besides which, both the colon and cæca have very broad valvulæ conniventes not met with in the casuary from Java. This wonderful difference, for it is more than fifty to one, can only be explained by the luxuriancy of Java being so great, that this bird might destroy its health by over-feeding, had no guard been furnished by nature.

This guard is, the food passing through the intestines with so much facility, and in so short a time, that, however much the bird may eat, only the necessary quantity of nourishment is carried into the constitution; but in the African ostrich, the food is retained in the extensive colon till every thing nutritious is extracted. In all ruminating animals, the colon is of great length, is fixed in its course, which is very intricate, and varies in every different genus; so that we cannot doubt of some particular process being carried on in it.

The process which the contents of the colon undergo, is quite distinct from any thing carried on in the other intestines, since they entirely change their appearance and smell; and there is commonly a valve to prevent any part of them, even the gases evolved, from being carried up into the small intestines.

The peculiar smell of the fæces, which borders so closely on that from putrefaction, although by no means the same, led me to compare them with the animal matter buried in the earth, which is converted into adipocere: in both cases the substance is in the incipient state of putrefaction, but that process never completely takes place; it is excluded from the external air, is either under water, or within the reach of imbibing moisture; and there is no substance whatever, the chyle

excepted, which can better supply the waste produced by the actions of growth and muscular exertion, than animal fat.

The more I canvassed this new opinion, the greater number of circumstances in favour of it occurred to me; one of the strongest of which is, that there is no other mode I am acquainted with, by which animal fat can be formed. To this may be added the curious circumstance of the sleeping animals, which lay in so large a supply of it, in a short time, to serve for their winter's consumption, having a formation of the intestines almost peculiar to themselves, in which there is no valve to distinguish the colon, and no fixed course for that intestine; so that the contents pass along with more facility, and remain a shorter time in the canal, the food being sufficiently plentiful during the summer to compensate for this want of economy, by which the lower intestines receive more abundant supplies for the production of fat. These intestines remain empty during the sleeping season, so that no fat can be formed in that period. With this very important information, thus procured, in support of my opinion, I have been led to prosecute this inquiry with increased ardour, and shall now bring forward the facts I have been able to ascertain in confirmation of my hypothesis. These I shall detail in the order in which they were acquired, thinking it better to lay before the Society the regular process of the investigation, than to grasp at once at the conclusions, which in the end of it I have felt myself authorized to draw.

I shall therefore begin by stating the circumstances under which adipocere is formed from animal matter, most nearly resembling those in which the contents of the lower intestines in living animals are placed; and this I shall do from facts,

entirely within my own knowledge, the specimens of the adipocere being now in my possession; and afterwards go on by bringing forward proofs that a substance similar to it is formed in the colon.

MARY HOWARD, aged forty-four, died on the 12th of May, 1790, and was buried in a grave ten feet deep at the east end of Shoreditch church-yard, ten feet to the east of the great common sewer, which runs north and south, and has always a current of water in it, the usual level of which is eight feet below the surface of the ground, and two feet above the level of the coffins in the graves. In August, 1811, the body was taken up with some others buried near it, for the purpose of building a vault, and the flesh in all of them was completely converted into adipocere or spermaceti. In STOWE'S History of London, this part of Shoreditch is stated to be a morass, and since that time the ground has been raised eight feet. The clerk and the grave-digger observe, that at the full and new moon the water in the sewer rises two feet, and that at those times, there is water found in the graves, which at other times are dry.

The current of water, which passes through the colon, while the loculated lateral parts are full of solid matter, places the solid contents in somewhat similar circumstances to dead bodies in the banks of a common sewer.

The circumstance of ambergris, which contains sixty per cent. of fat, being found, in immense quantities, in the lower intestines of the spermaceti whales, and never higher up than seven feet from the anus, is an undeniable proof of fat being formed in the intestines; and, as the ambergris is only met with in whales out of health, it is most probably collected

there from the absorbents under the influence of disease, not acting so as to take it into the constitution.

Ambergris is found in lumps from fourteen to more than one hundred pounds each; it is not to be distinguished in its appearance from the fæces, but when exposed to the air, it grows hard: a lump has been found in the sea weighing one hundred and eighty-two pounds.*

In the human colon, solid masses of fat are sometimes met with in a diseased state of that canal, and are called scybala; these are in all respects similar to ambergris.

Concretions of olive oil and mucus found in the human intestines must be formed in the same way. A case of this kind was communicated to me by our associate Dr. BABINGTON in the following letter:

17, Aldermanbury, Feb. 2, 1813.

"The following are the circumstances relating to the change produced upon olive oil, by passing through the "stomach and intestines of the elderly person, whose case I " mentioned to you at the last meeting of our Animal Chemistry Society. The lady, in question, had for several years past suffered from severe affections of the stomach, which, "from the attendant symptoms, were considered as occa"sioned by the irritation of biliary concretions. Many reme"dies having been resorted to without affording her other "than temporary benefit, she was advised to try the effects "of olive oil, taken to the quantity of two or three ounces at "a time, and to be repeated as circumstances might require. "From this she experienced almost immediate relief, and, on

Vide Phil. Trans. 1783.

"the subsequent examination of what passed from the bowels, globular concretions were uniformly observed, which by "the persons about her were considered as the gall-stones, " which had previously been productive of so much distress. "This lady having occasion some months since to visit her "friends in town, and a doubt having been suggested by one "of her medical attendants in the country, as to the nature of "the concretions in question, I was desirous, from the account "that I had received, to have an opportunity of determining "the point for myself; and therefore requested, that if the pain should recur, and she should be under the necessity of repeating her medicine, that the concretions, which had "been said always to pass from the bowels in consequence of "her so doing, might be reserved for my inspection. In a "few days I was summoned to make my proposed visit, and, upon examining the substances collected, I found their appearance to be such as I have already described to you,

namely, that of distinct globules, varying in size from that "of a large pea to the bulk of a moderate grape, of a cream "colour, and slightly translucent, of sufficient consistence to preserve their form, and to bear being cut by a knife, like "soft wax, but at the points of their contact disposed to co"here. When exposed to heat, they readily melted, and then " at once exhibited their original oily character. The change, "which they have since experienced, has taken place in the "water in which they have been kept.