adipocere
(ˈædɪpəʊˌsɪə(r))
Also adipocire.
[a. Fr. adipocire (1787); f. L. adip-em fat + Fr. cire, L. cēra wax.]
A greyish white fatty or saponaceous substance, chiefly Margarate of Ammonia, spontaneously generated in dead bodies buried in moist places or submerged in water; supposed to be produced by the reaction of ammonia upon the margarine and oleine of the animal fat and muscular fibre.
| 1803 Nicholson Jrnl. Nat. Philos. 135 This fluid [alcohol] when boiling, dissolves about its own weight of adipocire. 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 56/1 Adipocere..is a soap composed of margaric acid and ammonia. 1877 Roberts Handbk. Med. (ed. 3) I. 63 The conversion of muscle into adipocere after death is a form of fatty degeneration. |