On Normal Tumour-like Formations of Fat in Man and the Lower Animals.By S. G. SHATTOCK.WHETHER there is really a difference in the physiological behaviour of the fat of a lipoma and that of the rest of the body is a question for the answer to which more evidence is needed than is at present forthcoming. The belief rests mainly upon a specimen in the museum of St. George's Hospital, where there were lipomata in the mesentery of a phthisical patient from whom nearly all the natural fat had been removed; and upon a case (of Schuh) where huge masses of fat existed on the head, throat, and chest of a man whose abdomen and legs were extremely thin.From these data Paget 1 has deduced an independence for the lifehistory of lipomata as'contrasted with the rest of the fat. The observations, were they beyond dispute, would illustrate the anarchy of 'a new growth so simple indeed as a lipoma, which not only increases without reference to the general requirements of the body, but would withstand the calls made upon it as reserve material in time of need. Dr. Parkes Weber' has recorded a case of lipomatosis of the neck, arms, and pubic region in a man with slight general wasting. The patient was a publican. Here the accumulation of fat must be associated, presumably, with chronic alcoholism, and the wasting, as Dr. Weber observes, was probably due to hepatic cirrhosis. Schuh's case may have been of the same class.
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