Page:"The Mummy" Volume 3.djvu/229

 Murphy, again forgetting his holy office in his anger; "I suppose you'll want to persuade me that I have no feeling next."

"That is far from impossible," replied Abelard, with the most provoking gravity; "for fat, by surrounding the extremities of the nerves, always obviates inordinate sensibility. At the same time, pray do not let me be misunderstood:—I do not say that fat people can do entirely without eating, for the indivisibility and individuality of the living body can only be maintained by an incessant change of the particles which enter into its composition; though merely part—"

"Hold, hold, for Heaven's sake!" groaned Father Murphy.

"—Part of the animal food is reduced into chyle," resumed Abelard; "and, as you doubtless know, another part becomes bones; in fact, the bones are merely secretory organs incrusted with phosphate of lime. The lymphatic vessels remove this salt—"

"Oh!" groaned Father Murphy, "all this is very fine, but it does not make me one whit less hungry. O that I had a broiled