Corpulence; or, excess of fat in the human body: its relations to chemistry and physiology, its bearing on other diseases and the value of humn life, and its indications of treatment. With an appendix on emaciation / By Thomas King Chambers.
- Thomas King Chambers
- Date:
- 1850
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Corpulence; or, excess of fat in the human body: its relations to chemistry and physiology, its bearing on other diseases and the value of humn life, and its indications of treatment. With an appendix on emaciation / By Thomas King Chambers. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![and action of tlie ]3ermanent nuclei in a tissue, and whether they denote merely its imperfection or its destination for further duties. Whether nucleated or not, the fat-vesicle is obviously a component part of tlie body; and though the oil-globules contained in them may be viewed, in a certain sense, as an ex- cretion, the sac which holds them is as necessary to the idea of an animal as muscles, bones, or ten- dons. The oft-quoted dictum of John Hunter, that fat is no part of an animal,^^ is spoken in the character of a chemist merely, and must not be robbed of the truth it contains by being wrongly applied, or understood too literally. As a constituent of the bodily frame, fat has im- portant duties to perform. It fills up those an- gular spaces which the mechanical form of parts most convenient for motion leaves between them. Tlius it acts as a pad on which the eye may revolve with fluency. The form of the heart, if it consisted of its muscular structure only, unfits it for moving freely in a confined space, and the periodical alte- rations in shape would cause a most inconvenient amount of friction. It is, therefore, padded into a smooth rounded form by adipose tissue. The same purpose appears to be answered by the omen- tum and the mesentery, by the fat-vesicles in the Haversian canals of bone, and in the spinal canal, in the interspaces of the joints, in the muscles of the palm, &c.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28739504_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
