Obesity, or, Excessive corpulence: the various causes and the rational means of cure

CHAPTER VII.
ON THE SELECTION OF ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO THE REDUCTION OF CORPULENCE.

It is to be borne in mind, that in dividing alimentary matter into two kinds—one fitted to develop fat, and the other having an opposite tendency—my object is merely to suit the indispensable requirements of my plan of treatment. Nor is the conclusion to be drawn, that in order to diminish corpulence, an exclusive meat diet is absolutely necessary. Man is omnivorous; that is to say, he partakes of everything entering into the composition of ordinary alimentation; but, for the purposes of my system, azotized substances should constitute, though not exclusively, his principal food.

Large quantities both of animal and vegetable substances compose the ordinary diet of man. According to some philosophers, man should live on flesh only; while others maintain that man is by nature a vegetable feeder. Most naturalists, however, are agreed that the human species is omnivorous; that is to say, can live both upon vegetable and animal matter. A certain proof, in my opinion, that such is the case, is to be found in the fact that man is provided with the two kinds of teeth, the one appertaining especially to carnivorous, and the other to herbivorous animals.

It is remarkable that man, in his present state of civilization, does not instinctively recognize the kind of food which is beneficial or prejudicial to his well-being. Experience alone teaches him what is good or bad. With the lower animals it is otherwise; they have the power to discern that which is suitable for food. The colt and the kid know how to select, among the varied herbage, the particular grasses which are suitable to their organization. Domesticated animals, having but an insufficiency of food, do sometimes partake of noxious plants. It may be that man, in consequence of his civilization, has lost that instinct possessed by the lower animals, and in blind confidence partakes of everything which is served to him in the shape of food; and this view derives support from the fact, that savages, and people but partially civilized, refuse to eat anything they are unacquainted with, no matter how temptingly it may be prepared.

The uneducated peasantry of France, at this day, will not taste food to which they are unaccustomed, or if they do, it is only with great mistrust.

It is matter of daily experience, that man can simultaneously feed upon both vegetable and animal matter, and can also live when restricted to one of these alone; such restriction, however, being better borne under the varied conditions of age, season and climate.

From these considerations it follows that, for the accomplishment of a given purpose, man has the privilege of selecting certain alimentary substances, and of refusing many others; the health of the individual, who may thus submit to the diet of his choice, being in no wise affected thereby.

Bearing in mind the well established principles of physiology and chemistry, together with the precepts set forth in the preceding pages, we may be safely guided in the selection of such alimentary substances as will conduce to the fixity of a certain condition of embonpoint, although having a tendency to redundancy; or which, on the other hand, will insure a diminution of obesity. 

Such results can be obtained by paying attention to the following remarks:

• That kind of meat known as game is very nutritious, occupies but small space, and consequently only moderately distends the alimentary canal. It contains but a small amount of carbon, relatively to the other compounds, and therefore should be used as much as possible: such as venison, hare, the warren rabbit, woodcock, snipe, partridge, quail, plover, wild duck, &c.

• The fluid portion of all ragouts should be avoided by those who dread corpulence, and game should therefore be roasted rather than stewed. The same may be said of butcher's meat, such as surloin of beef, beefsteak, veal cutlet, mutton chop, fresh pork, leg of mutton, &c. Gelatinous dishes, such as calves' feet and tripe, should be avoided. Poultry, when roasted, is not contra-indicated.

• It is a matter of observation, that those races which live chiefly upon fish are gross and dull, pale and lymphatic, and less courageous than such as live upon flesh. A fish diet is consequently favourable to the development of fat, and the usual accompaniment of butter sauce is also productive of a like result.

• The anti-obesic treatment, therefore, requires that fish should be partaken of sparingly; still it has been remarked that patients, while undergoing treatment, who eat principally of meat, with a very small amount of fish, do nevertheless succeed in the accomplishment of the object they have in view. The most nutritious fish are turbot, trout, sole, salmon, perch, pike, tench and carp. On the other hand, shell fish, such as oysters, lobsters, crabs and shrimps, have a tendency to impede the formation of fat.

• Vegetables, such as lettuce, chicory, sorel, artichokes, spinach, green pease, beans, cabbage, celery, and all such as are used by way of salad, are not very nutritive, but contain much watery and mucilaginous matter, favourable to the development of corpulency: the same may be said of carrots, turnips, potatoes, rice, beet-root, maccaroni and vermicelli bread; all kinds of cakes, pastry and biscuits, which are made of wheaten flour, are decidedly contra-indicated, as are also eggs, cream, cheese and butter.

• In reference to chocolate, much difference of opinion has hitherto existed as to its nutritious properties; but we know by experience that it is easy of digestion, and eminently suited to such as are subject to great mental exertion. Some dietists have held that chocolate has a tendency to prevent any augmentation of corpulency. When made with water, it is decidedly preferable to coffee made with milk, the latter being productive of fat. Milk, by virtue of its composition, combines all the elements which are fitted for the development and nutrition of the body; casein containing nitrogen, a fatty matter (butter), and a saccharine substance (sugar of milk).

• Chemistry reveals the remarkable fact, that the composition of casein or the cheesy portion of milk, is identical with that of the fibrin and albumen of the blood. Under this aspect, therefore, milk is very nutritious.

• The sugar and butter which exist in milk, have no analogy with flesh; according to analysis, they are composed of carbon and the elements of water. When, therefore, we partake of milk, we obtain in one and the same substance all the elements which are necessary for the growth and nutrition of the body, and such is the case in infant life. Since, however, both carbon and hydrogen, in very large proportion, enter into the composition of milk, it is advisable, whenever there is a manifest tendency to corpulence, that the use of it as an article of diet should be avoided. Infants are usually fat, owing to the elements of adipose matter forming so large a proportion of their food, whether that consist of milk alone, or in combination with starchy or farinaceous and saccharine substances.

▽Jean-Francois Dancel (a French physician) presented his thoughts on obesity in 1844 to the French Academy of Sciences and then published a book, Obesity, or Excessive Corpulence: The Various Causes and the Rational Means of a Cure.
“All food which is not flesh ―all food rich in carbon and hydrogen [i.e., carbohydrates] ―must have a tendency to produce fat,” wrote Dancel.

Dancel also noted that carnivorous animals are never fat, whereas herbivores, living exclusively on plants, often are.

Dancel claimed that he could cure obesity “without a single exception” if he could induce his patients to live “chiefly upon meat," and partake “only of a small quantity of other food."

Dancel argued that physicians of his era believed obesity to be incurable because the diets they prescribed to cure it were precisely those that happened to cause it. (pp.151-152)

These chemical principles are founded upon facts—upon observation. As I have said, carnivorous animals are never fat, because they feed upon a substance rich in nitrogen—flesh; which flesh makes flesh, and very little fat. They have no belly, because flesh, taken in small quantity, suffices for one day, or twenty-four hours.

It has been objected that the carnivora do not always obtain food when hungry, and that they are often obliged to chase their prey for a long time before catching it. This is true; but on the other hand, carnivorous animals, when domesticated and fed upon meat, are not more fat, and have no belly. The celebrated traveller, Levaillant, in his Travels in Africa, says that he has seen, in the southern part of the continent, flocks of gazelles, which live in the interior, numbering from ten to fifty thousand. These flocks are almost continually on the move; they travel from north to south, and from south to north. Those of the flock which are in advance, and in the enjoyment of a rich pasturage, frequently come upon the borders of the settlements of Cape Colony, and are fat; those composing the centre of the herd are less fat; while those in the rear are extremely poor, and dying with hunger. Being thus stayed in their course by the presence of man, they retrace their steps; but those which composed the rear are now in advance, and regain their fat, while those which were in advance become the rear, and lose fat. Notwithstanding the vast numbers which daily perish, their natural increase suffices to maintain the integrity of the herd. In connexion with my subject I may state that these flocks are always accompanied or followed by lions, leopards, panthers and hyenas, which kill as many of them as they please for food, devour a part, and leave the rest to the jackals and other small carnivorous animals, which follow upon their steps. Now, these lions, panthers, leopards and hyenas, which need make but the slightest exertion to find food when hungry, are never fat.

It has been said, by way of objection to my system, that butchers are generally fat, due to their living upon meat. Now, I have made some enquiries in this matter, and have satisfied myself that butchers, as a general thing, are not fond of meat, but live chiefly upon vegetable food, and usually drink a great deal. It has been said also that their good condition is due to the atmosphere (filled with animal miasm) in which they live, a supposition which has yet to be proven. Again, it has been said that hogs can be fattened upon horse-flesh. My reply is, that they drink at the same time a large amount of water. And here I may remark, that the lard of hogs thus fattened upon flesh is soft and watery, and is considered by dealers to be of little value. It is evidently not due to the flesh upon which these hogs are fed, that their fat is soft and watery, but to the great amount of fluid they imbibe.

On the other hand, those animals which are enormously fat, live exclusively upon vegetables, and drink largely. The hippopotamus, for example, so uncouth in form from its immense amount of fat, feeds wholly upon vegetable matter—rice, millet, sugar-cane, &c. Naturalists long entertained the opinion that this animal, living mostly in the water, fed chiefly upon fish. It is now, however, well ascertained that the hippopotamus never touches fish, and is wholly a vegetable feeder.

The walrus, which, according to Buffon, seems to afford the connecting link between amphibious quadrupeds and the cetacea, is a veritable mass of fat, and lives exclusively upon marine herbage. The walrus of Kamschatka measures from twenty to twenty-three feet in length, sixteen to eighteen feet in circumference, and weighs from six to eight thousand pounds.

The following fact may be cited as a remarkable proof that the quantity of fat in any animal is mainly dependent on the character of its food: Among the whale tribe, those monsters in size, that of Greenland (Balæna mysticetus of Linnæus) possesses the greatest amount of blubber, and it feeds upon zoophytes, of which many resemble as much in character the plant as the animal. The fin-backed whale (Balæna böops of Linnæus), which does not feed upon mucilaginous matter, but upon small fish, has a much thinner layer of blubber than the former. The sperm whale or cachalot (Balæna physalus of Linnæus), which feeds on mackerel, herrings, and northern salmon, although nearly as long as the Greenland whale, is much thinner. The layer of blubber is not so thick as in the fin-backed, and yields only ten or twelve tuns of oil; while the Greenland whale yields fifty, sixty, and even eighty tuns.

Now, chemistry, as we have said, furnishes a rational explanation of these facts. With the exception of flesh, all alimentary substances (the mucilaginous, the gummy, the saccharine, the aqueous, &c.) consist of carbon and hydrogen, and fat is composed of the same elements. Success in the treatment of disease would be more frequent, if medical practitioners would pay greater attention to the chemistry of the vital functions; and the reason why certain articles of diet have a greater tendency than others to the formation of fat, would, by the aid of the exact science of chemistry, be rendered self-evident.

CHAPTER VI.
CASES OF REDUCTION OF CORPULENCE.

In the month of August, 1849, M. Guénaud, a master baker, still residing in the Rue St. Martin, Paris, presented the following appearance:—Age, twenty-eight years; height, four feet eleven inches. His obesity was such that he was scarcely able to walk, and whenever he attempted to do so, suffered from difficulty of breathing. When standing for a short time, he experienced great pain in the region of the kidneys. He was incapable of superintending the workshop and attending the flour market, duties which devolved upon him as manager of an extensive bakery. An unconquerable drowsiness overcame him the moment he sat down, and rendered him unable to attend to his numerous accounts. When in bed he was obliged to be propped up by a number of pillows, in a semi-recumbent position; for if his head happened to be too low, he suffered from vertigo, dizziness, &c. His countenance was suffused, and the veins of the head, especially the temporal, were more than usually distended. The slightest exercise was attended with excessive perspiration. The cerebral circulation was so much impeded, that he could not bear even the pressure of a hat; and asserted that he would not dare to stoop, even were it to insure him a fortune. In this distressing condition he sought the advice of a physician, under whose directions he was repeatedly bled, and freely purged. He was recommended to live upon the smallest quantity of food that nature would permit, and to diet chiefly upon watery vegetables, such as cabbage, turnips, salad, spinach, sorrel, &c., and only occasionally to partake of a very small quantity of meat. He was also directed to use active exercise, to work in the bake-house, and to take long walks. But he found it impossible to follow the latter part of this advice, on account of a feeling of impending suffocation, and severe pains in the region of the kidneys. He was therefore recommended to take exercise on horseback; but this even could not be borne, and in spite of every effort his obesity was constantly on the increase. At last he could not walk a quarter of a mile, and was obliged to confine himself to the house, passing his time in a listless, somnolent condition, entirely deprived of all mental and bodily energy. His mother, who lived in the neighbourhood of Paris, having seen the advertisement of my book upon Obesity, and thinking of the melancholy condition of her son, procured a copy and read it. She thereupon brought her son in a carriage to my office. Guénaud was quite out of breath from having to ascend one pair of stairs; he seated himself upon a sofa in my room, and soon fell asleep. Occasionally he would wake up, and take some part in the conversation. The mother and her son went home, and on the following day Guénaud began to carry out the directions he had received from me; and at the end of thirteen days he was able to walk from the Porte St. Martin to La Chapelle, where his mother resided, delighted at having recovered the use of his legs. What astonished him most was that he had been able to perform the journey on foot, without once taking his hat off. The latter remark may appear trivial; it shows, however, the great inconvenience he had been wont to suffer from the violent perspiration hitherto induced by the slightest exercise. By the end of the month Guénaud had reduced his weight from one hundred and ninety to one hundred and seventy-four pounds, and his circumference round the belly from fifty to forty-three inches. He was recovering his activity, both of mind and body, and his respiration was already considerably improved. The treatment was continued two months longer, and at the end of the three months his circumference was reduced fourteen inches, having lost forty pounds of fat. His muscular powers were now much increased. Guénaud had a very short neck; the two masses of fat, which made his cheeks appear continuous with his chest, have disappeared. The line of the lower jaw is now perfectly distinct, and without the slightest wrinkle. Instead of his former aged appearance, induced by obesity, his figure is now youthful, his countenance intelligent and sparkling. Before commencing my system of treatment, the patient was in continual danger from threatening head symptoms. It was generally said, even by the medical men under whose care he had placed himself, that he suffered from excess of blood; yet he has not lost a single drop during the whole course of treatment, and is now free from somnolency, giddiness and headache. The veins of the head are no longer turgid, nor does he suffer from excessive perspiration of the head.

I am satisfied that this man, at the present time, has more blood in his system than he had when labouring under obesity; but the circulation being now free, all inconvenience has disappeared.

It is unnecessary to add that, owing to the lungs being no longer oppressed on all sides by a superabundance of fat, their movement is unimpeded, air finds easy access, and the difficulty of breathing, with sense of impending suffocation, no longer exist. Guénaud can now sleep in the ordinary recumbent position. Men of great corpulence, when walking, experience severe pain in the kidneys, and this arises from the enormous mass of fat which surrounds these organs, inducing by its weight a dragging sensation. Guénaud, having lost his big belly, is no longer troubled with this uneasiness when walking.

With respect to this patient, and in all the other cases which have come under my care, it may be well to remark that the muscular system has recovered its tone, and that the muscles are harder than they were before treatment; and I can safely say, without fear of contradiction, that every person who has been submitted to my system for the cure of obesity, is convinced that his flesh, his muscle, has increased both in firmness and in size.

I have had men under my care weighing two hundred and fifty pounds. Upon the occasion of their first visit, having felt their limbs, I have said, "I can diminish your weight by fifty pounds; but these enormous muscles will be increased rather than diminished in size. You must not expect a reduction of more than fifty pounds; but fifty pounds less of fat, distributed among organs overloaded with it, will be highly beneficial to health."

Guénaud is far from being thin, but he is strong and muscular, and has the physical and moral energy of a robust young man. His enormous size had rendered him conspicuous in that part of the city where he carried on his business as a baker; but when he had become reduced to the normal size of other men, the change produced considerable sensation, and excited curiosity as to the cause. He has done justice to the treatment which has made him once more a man. I will also do him the justice to say that he has honestly carried out my instructions. A beefsteak or a couple of cutlets, with a very small allowance of vegetables, together with half a cup of coffee, constituted his breakfast. Dinner consisted of meat and a very small quantity of vegetables. From being a great water-drinker, he had come down to an allowance of a bottle or a bottle and a half of liquid in a day. When thirsty he drank but little at a time; and between meals, used to gargle his mouth with fresh cold water.

A lady, residing in the town of Montereau, wrote to me in the early part of September, 1849. She was twenty-six years of age, and weighed one hundred and seventy pounds. Her corpulence was increasing to such an extent that she would soon be unable to attend to her household duties. She wished to know if my system of treatment would interfere with her general health, and whether it would prevent her pursuing her usual and indispensable daily avocations. On receiving the necessary explanations, she immediately placed herself under my care, and upon the 23rd of the same month, she informed me that her weight was already considerably less, but that her size remained about the same. A letter of the 12th October following states that she has lost fifteen pounds weight, and that her size is materially diminished. The treatment was continued for some time longer, and never caused the least interference with the discharge of her domestic affairs.

In the course of the following year I received a communication from Widow Rollin, of Versailles, stating that she is the only support of a large family, which necessitates great exertions on her part: that a daily increasing corpulence with most troublesome abdominal enlargement gives rise to the most serious anxiety as to the future. Provided no interruption in her daily duties be required she would cheerfully submit to my treatment. She wrote after seventeen days trial of the system:—"My corpulence is perceptibly diminished, and I am no longer afflicted with drowsiness after meals. I follow rigidly the instructions you have given me, and each day feel more deeply indebted to you. At the end of the month I shall do myself the honour of calling upon you, as it is my wish to continue under treatment until entirely freed from my encumbrance. I can now walk with ease, which was for a long time an impossibility. The pain in the loins has likewise disappeared."

Towards the latter end of 1850, the wife of Dr. Pecquet, of Paris, purchased my work on Obesity. Having read it, she spoke to her husband about it, who said that, like most medical men, he was persuaded that the only way to reduce corpulency, is to eat less than the system demands.

Madame Pecquet, then about sixty years of age, had long been troubled with excessive corpulency, and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. She had, in consequence of this affliction, passed the greater part of the last eighteen years either in her arm-chair or in bed. According to some of the most celebrated physicians of Paris, and also of her husband, her disease at one time was said to be pulmonary catarrh—at another time, disease of the heart—and again, something else; till at length Madame Pecquet had no rest, day or night.

If she attempted to go to sleep in the horizontal position, she was immediately troubled with a rush of blood to the head, accompanied with the most distressing hallucinations, which utterly prevented her from sleeping. She was unable to take exercise on foot, even when her ailments allowed her any respite, owing to the excessive pain she experienced in the region of the kidneys, and the abundant perspiration of the head, which a walk of even a few steps was sure to induce. It was consequently impossible for her to go out, unless in a carriage. Those only who are unable to enjoy this pleasure, know how great a privation it is not to be able to take a walk on a fine day, and how wearisome it is to be compelled to make use of a carriage in order to enjoy the advantages of fresh air, or to move from place to place.

Madame Pecquet was so situated, and many a time she has said,—"Eighteen long years have I been in this condition! Eighteen years of suffering and misery, in spite of every medical aid which has been bestowed upon me!" Under these circumstances, we can readily understand how anxiously she must have sought a means of cure. One day, without the knowledge of her husband, she took a carriage, and called to consult me.

Those who believe as I do, that an excessive development of fat may induce and sustain a generally diseased condition of body, will readily admit that the diminution of excessive obesity is the only rational means of cure in such a case.

Impressed with this idea, Madame Pecquet called upon me, and placed herself under my care. I prescribed some medicine, which she took without the knowledge of her husband, who, although eating at the same table, did not perceive that she partook of less vegetables and ate a larger quantity of meat than usual. Having continued the treatment four months, Madame Pecquet said to her husband,—"I have been following the anti-obesic treatment, and weigh at the present time one hundred pounds less than I did before commencing it. Formerly I was confined to my arm-chair, in consequence of catarrh or something else. I could not walk fifty yards without stopping to take breath; and now I can go out every day if I please, when the weather is fine. Night, formerly so wearisome, is now a season of delightful and refreshing repose; and, in fine, I have recovered my health, after eighteen years of continued suffering."

I again met this lady last year, and found her in the enjoyment of perfect health. She had not regained her embonpoint, but was in all respects perfectly happy, and gratefully ascribed her recovery to my system of treatment. 

The following letter has been also received:

"Saint Dié, 24th Nov., 1850.

"Sir,—Having read your book on the treatment of obesity, I wish to ask if you will undertake my case, although living at a distance of three hundred miles from Paris. I am fifty years of age, and possessed of a vigorous constitution. Since I have retired from business, now ten years ago, I have steadily increased in corpulence; my present weight being one hundred and eighty-nine pounds. I am troubled with an affection of the heart, shortness of breath, and my legs swell, especially when not taking much exercise on foot. I am not fond of walking, since it induces great fatigue. My belly has become much enlarged, and I am greatly troubled with drowsiness. For breakfast I use coffee with milk, although I am not fond of it, but I find that it prevents headache, to which I am otherwise subject, &c. You will oblige me by sending the necessary instructions, if you can take charge of my case, by the bearer of this letter, together with such medicines as you may direct.

"Yours, &c.      K."

In answer to Madame K., I sent her the medicine, together with the necessary information. On the 25th of February I received a letter, from which the following extracts are made:—

"Your directions have been scrupulously observed for the past fifteen days. I take a daily walk in the mountains, and to-day was weighed. I have lost but four pounds: too small a reduction I fear; but perhaps due partly to my temperament. The medicine requires to be taken in larger doses, I think. Nevertheless I am well satisfied with the result thus far, being now free from those troublesome palpitations of the heart to which I have been hitherto subject."

The 9th of April following this lady wrote: "My legs do not swell as they used to do, and the palpitations have ceased. I am delighted with this good result of your method of treatment."

Nothing more was heard of Madame K. until the month of August in the following year. She then writes that in accordance with the advice of the medical men of Saint Dié, she, together with her family, went to take the waters of Plombières. That on her return her legs were again swollen, and that she suffered from palpitation of the heart, which gave rise to a choking sensation. She was desirous of again undergoing the anti-obesic treatment. On the 30th of September following she wrote that she had followed my instructions during the last three weeks, and had lost only four pounds in weight; but added, I have obtained a much more valuable result, and that is, the almost total release from my troublesome heart palpitation. I have not since heard from this lady, but I have no doubt that she has been once more cured of her palpitation, and that she is no longer troubled with swellings of the feet and legs. The loss of fat in this case has been attended with freedom from palpitation of the heart, from shortness of breath, and from swelling of the lower extremities. What explanation can be given as to the cause of these results? As to her ailments, did they arise from an excess of blood in the system, or was she suffering from cardiac disease? Physicians thought so and bled her, administered sedatives and alteratives, and restricted the diet of the patient. Still they did not cure her. On the other hand I recommended her food should consist of meat principally; that she should be allowed strong coffee and wine; which, together with the employment of alkaline remedies, reduced her fat and effected a cure. The following season she goes, together with her family, to the springs, and returns thence afflicted in the same way as before, and again my mode of treatment produces the same result.

It is manifest that this heart affection, this shortness of breath, depended upon obstruction to the heart's action, and not upon any excess of blood in the system, since I abstracted no blood, but on the contrary, administered stimulants, together with the use of full meat diet. The swollen limbs arose no doubt from a partial portal obstruction, and ceased when the reduction of fat was effected. It may be urged that the patient was better, or even cured, of heart palpitation, before she had lost much in weight. She had lost, however, four pounds; and four pounds of fat occupy a large space. The fat in a living body is fluid and very light. A pound, therefore, is a large quantity. When a person begins to lose his corpulency, the reduction takes place first in the interior of the body, and consequently there is a great improvement during the first six or eight days in the general health of obese patients, when treated in accordance with the principles now advocated.

On the 12th of April, 1851, I received a letter from Mr. Roberts, of Tours, in which he says:—"I am twenty-seven years of age, and weigh two hundred and six pounds. I fear that my great corpulence, which is constantly on the increase, may prove exceedingly troublesome. Having read your book, I am resolved to give your method of treatment a fair trial. You will oblige by giving me an explicit and detailed statement as to what is necessary to be done, and by sending from Paris such medicines as may be necessary."

On the 22nd of the same month Mr. Roberts wrote as follows:—"I weighed two hundred and six pounds, and now weigh only one hundred and ninety-two. I measured forty-three inches in circumference, and now only thirty-one inches. I am delighted with the success which has attended your system of treatment, and am happy to be able to inform you of it. Accept my sincere thanks, for I am indebted to you for a condition which I despaired of ever again attaining. Yours truly,

"Roberts."

Madame d'Aries, a resident of Bilbao, in Spain, wife of the French Consul wrote to me on the 12th of May last:—"Following your directions, I have lost weight. Since my last two confinements the abdomen had remained unduly large: it is now much smaller. I feel lighter. I have always been able to walk without experiencing much fatigue. It was a great trouble, however, to move from my seat. A peculiar inward feeling, which was a source of great annoyance, has become almost imperceptible. I can go up stairs without bringing on shortness of breath, and the benefit derived is as evident to myself as it is visible to others."

To return to the cases of cure. Madam C., a landed proprietor, living in the Rue de la Concorde, at Paris, went to take the waters in Germany, in the year 1851. On her return, she made trial of my system, on account of excessive corpulence. Meeting with the usual success, she thought it would be of great advantage to a young lady, a friend, whom she had left behind her at the watering place, and who was then in bad health. This young person, about twenty-three years of age, was very fat, and irregular in her menstrual periods. She was of lymphatic temperament, very pale, and rarely partook of meat: her ordinary food consisted of vegetables, sweetmeats, cakes and sweet fruits; water was her principal beverage. At the pressing instance of Madam C., Miss C. visited Paris, in order to be under my care. 

After following my directions for a fortnight, her health was much improved. Her parents then came to Paris, and I continued in attendance on Miss C. for three months. At the expiration of this time, she returned with her parents to Brussels. She had lost much of her fat, and had become regular. She ate meat principally, both at breakfast and dinner, and drank wine. I may lay claim, in the case of this young lady, to have effected a complete change of temperament. With but trifling menstrual flow, and great pallor, she was gradually progressing to a state of obesity, which would have proved entirely destructive to health, which would have ended in a total suppression of the menses, and ultimately in death. But now, having overcome her obesity, the menstrual flow has become normal in quantity, the digestive powers have resumed their functional activity, so that she can partake of meat and wine, and in every respect her constitution is fully restored. Should she marry, she will in all probability have a family, which would have been very doubtful had she married while in the previous obese condition; and if she have children, her accouchements will be comparatively free of danger, and her sufferings much less; for it is well known that very corpulent females have more difficult labours than those of ordinary embonpoint; while the offspring of the latter are at the same time healthier. The same rule applies in the case of the human female as with other mammalia; when fat, conception is of more rare occurrence; and when they do conceive, they are very liable to miscarry. When, however, they go to the full period of gestation, the progeny of a very fat mother is almost always lean, and possesses little vitality. Moreover, the milk of a very fat mother is neither so abundant nor so nutritious as that of a moderately thin mother.

Madame Meuriot, an actress, then staying at Chatellerault, addressed me under date the 21st of August, 1851. Her letter is exceedingly lengthy and full of minutiæaelig;, that would be improper to lay before the public. But she informs me that her weight in the course of a single year had increased from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and seventy-five pounds. In order to retain her theatrical engagements, she determined to use every possible means to overcome this troublesome embonpoint. She took her food in quantity barely sufficient to sustain nature; made use of sea biscuit instead of bread that she might eat less. For some time past she has been taking daily forty drops of the tincture of iodine, under the direction of a physician, but without appreciable benefit. Every portion of the body was loaded with fat, and the lower part of the legs were swollen. Having met with my book and dreading the effects of the iodine upon her general health, she was anxious that I should advise her. I did so; and sent the medicine, together with necessary directions from Paris to Perpignau, where she was then staying. I received a letter from her on the 9th of October following, in which she says:—"I am happy to inform you that your treatment has been attended with the most satisfactory results. My legs are no longer swollen. I walk with greater ease than formerly, and my breathing is no longer oppressed. I am unable to say how much my weight has decreased, not having ready access to platform scales; but my gowns tell me that my size is less than it was, yet not as small as could be desired." 

In conclusion she wished to know whether she might continue the treatment a month or two longer, and if I thought so, to please send her the requisite medicine. I did so, and heard nothing further from Madame de Meuriot until the month of August in the following year. She was then on her way to fulfil an engagement at Lille, and called to see me. She expressed great delight in having got rid of her troublesome embonpoint, and said that she had not been afflicted with swelling of the legs since placing herself under my treatment. "But something has occurred which I did not in the least expect: since my corpulency has left me, I have become enceinte."

A letter from this lady, dated Lille, the 13th October last, begins thus:—"Since I last had the pleasure of seeing you, on the occasion of my departure from Paris, I have become fully satisfied that I am in the family way, and have been so for the past eight months." My advice was requested on some points having reference to her then condition.

The preceding facts tend to shew that reduced corpulency is favourable to conception.

Mr. G. Chauvin, a lawyer, living at Castellane, in the department of the Lower Alps, owing to his increasing corpulency, was subject to great inconvenience when speaking in court. He adopted my mode of treatment, and in one of his letters, dated November, 1851, he says: "I have followed your directions, which have effected the result I was led to expect. My family have expressed their astonishment at the sudden and extraordinary diminution of size. But it has been effected without the slightest bad symptom: the bodily functions have been duly discharged, and the treatment has been unattended with inconvenience or danger, &c."