A report on the progress of anatomy and physiology in the year 1843-44 / by William Budd.
- William Budd
- Date:
- 1844
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A report on the progress of anatomy and physiology in the year 1843-44 / by William Budd. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
26/104 page 24
![In the discussion tliat ensued on the reading of this memoir, M. Milne Edwards argued that the results of this inquiry in no wise invalidate the inferences di-awn from the former investiga- tion on the fattening of annuals, since the wax, the product here treated of, is a secretion, and is formed, therefore, under quite different physiological conditions. But the chemical fact does not the less remain the same; to wit, that in the bodies of animals fatty principles may be formed by a tranformation of sugar. The claims of wax to be considered as one of this family of products, have been completely established by the researches of M. Lewy,* proving the ready conversion of this substance into stearic and margaric acids; and, again, by those of M. Gerhard, which show that it furnishes, with nitric acid, exactly the same products as other fatty matters. That such transformation of sugar is not a peculiarity of bees, but is shared with them by vegetable feeders generally, so that these likewise form fat out of the saccharine elements of their food, is rendered all but certain by other considerations. A very interesting fact, showdng the facility yAih which this chemical change takes place, has recently been discovered by MM. Pelouze and Gelis. These chemists found that, If, instead of yeast, a small quantity of white cheese-cui'd be added to a solution of common sugar, and kept at a temperatui-e of 76° to 80°, and, moreover, some chalk be added to maintain the fluid in a neutral state, a lively evolution of gas takes place; the sugar totally disappears, carbonic acid and hydi'ogen are given off in the gaseous state, and we find in the fluid a copious amount of butyric acid—one of the most interesting of the organic acids, which until recently was known only as a constituent of milk and butter.t In connection with the physiological bearing of this experiment, MM, Pelouze and Gelis think it important to remark, that this change of sugar into butyi-ic acid takes place without any consi- derable increase of temperature, and without the ])resence of those energetic substances which could destroy the equilibrium, or affect the vitality of animal tissues, but that this trausfonnatiou is * Journal fur Praktkche Ckemie: Erdinann and Marchand. See for another paper, by the same author, on the Analysis of a Particular Wax of Vegetable Origin, No. 1, 1844, of the same Journal. t Lancet, May 12, 1844.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21472968_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
