Facultative Carnivore

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. 

Page 26:

"McClure and his men noted that these Inuit made extensive use of copper for making hunting implements and other tools: 

this knives, arrows, needles, and other cutting and piercing instruments were all made of copper--several speciments which were obtained--fashioned into shape entirely by hammering. No igneous power being had recourse to, it was surprising to see the admirable nature of the work, considering the means by which it was effected, and the form reflected great credit on their ingenuity and excellence in the adaptation of design. (Armstrong 1857:339-340).

The British and Eskimos then traded. One of the expedition members later noted:

They were all quite devoid of that mercenary spirit, and those strong thieving and other propensities so universal amongst the Esquimaux on the American coast[i.e. North Alaska]--the result of their contact with civilized man--being a few of the evils which invariably follow his footsteps over the world...They were quite ignorant that there existed any other people differing from themselves in manners and customs; and asked our party where they came from, and where their hunting ground was situated. Their entire occupation consisted of hunting and fishing, migrating to and from along this coast, fixing their temporary abode wherever success was most likely to attend their efforts; and appeared to be influenced by no other feeling than the acquistion of what was essential to their sustenance from one season to another, to afford them sufficient food and raiment for sustaining life and protecting them from the cold (Armstrong 1857:340)

The meeting--the first European contact and communication with this northernmost group of Copper Inuit--was brief. But from their written observations, it is clear that these explorers were extremely impressed with the Inuit's remarkable ability to survive in such a harsh climate, using ingenious tools and hunting implements made from the limited resources at their disposal. Since no trade items of southern manufacture had yet reached this isolated region of the Arctic, these people were totally independent and self-reliant. 

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."

The principal constituents of fat, therefore, are carbon and hydrogen. Again, chemistry teaches that all food not consisting of flesh, such as vegetables, farinacea, sugars, &c., resemble fat, being chiefly composed of carbon and hydrogen; and, still more, that fat exists, already formed, in some vegetable substances, as oil of olives, oil of nuts, and oleaginous seeds. If, therefore, we introduce into the system substances rich in carbon and hydrogen, we must make fat as inevitably as the bee makes honey from its elements contained in the flowers.

On the other hand, we learn also from chemistry, that one of the principal constituents of meat is nitrogen, an element which does not enter into the composition of fat. Food consisting chiefly of meat must be less productive of fat than food mainly composed of carbon and hydrogen, such as vegetables, &c.

Distinguished chemists have endeavoured to shew in what manner the development of fat takes place in the animal economy. A paper was read by me before the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, on the 15th December, 1851, from which the following extract is made:

"Three different opinions are entertained by distinguished chemists, who have given attention to this subject. The first, that of Dumas, maintains that the fatty matter of the body is derived solely from substances analogous to fat in composition, which pre-exist in the food. The second opinion, that of Liebig, is to the effect that the formation of fat is due to a modification of those ternary compounds which constitute so large a proportion of the food of animals. The third opinion suggests that fat may arise in consequence of some special fermentation taking place in the stomach.

"Numerous experiments have been made, in order to determine which of these opinions is correct; but it may be safely said that no satisfactory conclusion has been arrived at.

"In the first place, the experiments have never been conducted under circumstances favourable to the formation of a correct opinion. It is obviously of the first importance, when conducting experiments of this nature, that the food should be supplied so as not to interfere with the tone of the general health, considered morally as well as physically. We can conceive that the deprivation of liberty, in the case of an animal usually in the enjoyment of freedom, may render the experiment of dubious import. Although man is omnivorous, it is impossible that any one can submit, for a great length of time, to live upon one kind of food only, without suffering a sense of loathing.

"What inference can be drawn from those experiments, made for the purpose of ascertaining whether sugar is capable of producing fat, when they were made upon pigeons and doves, which were fed solely upon this substance; at one time being deprived altogether of water, and at another time allowing them as much as they chose to drink?

"Chemists wished to know if butter could engender fat, and doves have been gorged with it, being deprived of all other food during the few days that the experiment lasted; at the end of which time they died, of course excessively lean; and the experimentalists thence concluded that butter does not produce fat. What an extraordinary idea, to feed a granivorous animal upon butter solely, in order to test the question referred to! This experiment forms the subject of a paper written by me, and inserted in the proceedings of the Academy of Sciences, for the year 1844.

"Other experiments upon animals, conducted likewise by men of science, are less open to criticism than the one just referred to; yet it must be confessed that no safe inference could be drawn from them. I am about to submit a few established facts, which may throw some light upon the question as to the cause of the development of fat.

"For several years past I have given much consideration to the reduction of corpulency in cases where it interfered with the comforts of life, and I can reckon by thousands those who have followed my instructions. I have established it as a fact, without a single exception, that it is always possible to diminish obesity, by living chiefly upon meat, and partaking only of a small quantity of other kinds of food. Make use of whatever medicine you please, it is impossible to obtain the same result in the case of a person partaking indiscriminately of everything which may be placed upon the table. There is yet another condition, without which success is impossible; that is, to absorb but little fluid, whether in the shape of soup or drink, or by means of the bath. A moist atmosphere is favourable to the development of fat: we increase in weight in wet weather.

"I have thousands of cases on record, in support of my statement. Persons from all parts of the world, who have followed my teachings, have experienced a decrease of their corpulence."

The paper upon this subject ended by saying, that according to my opinion, fat might be assimilated by either of the three several methods set forth in the beginning of the essay, one not forbidding the action of the others. I begged to be acknowledged by the Academy as the first who had established the fact that, in order to reduce corpulence without interfering with the general health, it is necessary to live chiefly upon meat, avoiding an excess of vegetable and aqueous food, or of any of which the basis is carbon or hydrogen.

Madame d'Hervilly, residing in garrison at Elbœuf, with her husband, a captain in the 2nd regiment of the line, having met with my treatise on Obesity, came to Paris in order to consult me. After her return to Elbœuf, she adopted my system of treatment, and a fortnight afterwards wrote as follows:

"6th July.—Your predictions have been verified. I am now in excellent health, and no longer suffer from the great oppression to which I was formerly subject during hot weather. Your medicine, according to my experience, is everything that can be desired; but I have been a sufferer for the last thirty years, and it will take some time to effect a perfect cure. I have not perceptibly diminished in size, but am sensible of a peculiar freedom of motion of the internal organs. My husband also intends shortly to put your system in practice."

On the 11th August, this lady wrote again, to say that she was still pursuing the treatment; that she had not weighed herself, but was then several inches less in circumference than before.

The treatment was continued, and she became thin. Her husband subsequently adopted the system for a month, and derived great advantage from it. I cannot say how much his weight was diminished; but his great desire was to get rid of an unsightly cushion of fat, situated upon the back of his neck. I learn from Madame d'Hervilly that this unmilitary-like appendage has disappeared.