Corpulence

“ I am under obligations to most of those advisers for the pains and interest they took in my case; but only to one for an eftectual remedy.
When a corpalent man eats, drinks, and sleeps well, has no pain to complain of, and no particular organic disease, the judgment of able men seems paralyzed,—for I have been generally informed that corpulence is one of the natural results of increasing years ”

“ 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. ”

“ The gracefulness of figure and motion, and a countenance enlivened by expression, are by no means essential points in their standard: with them, corpulence and beauty appear to be terms nearly synonymous. ”

“ The result of this treatment was a gradual reduction of forty-six pounds in weight, with better health at the end of several weeks than had been enjoyed for the previous twenty years. The delight at being so much relieved by means so simple induced Banting to write and publish a pamphlet entitled ‘A Letter on Corpulence, addressed to the Public,’ 1863. Written in plain, sensible language, the tract on the ‘parasite corpulence’ at once gained the attention of the public. ”

“ The conditions which appear to favor an excessive deposit of fat are the following: First, an inherited tendency which predisposes to corpulence, yet always requiring the influence of some exciting cause to bring it into activity. No one can doubt that certain families have a natural tendency to corpulence, which can be often traced through successive generations. ”

“ But permanent dimples interrupt the regular gradation of the beauty-curve, and too often indicate that the plump roundness, so fascinating in a woman’s face, has passed the line which indicates corpulence and obliterates the delicate lines of expression. ”

“ Experience has taught me to believe that these human beans are the most insidious enemies man, with a tendency to corpulence in advanced life, can possess, though eminently friendly to youth. ”

“ In order to show how far Lambert surpasses all other men who have hitherto been distinguished for bulk and corpulence, we shall subjoin a brief account of some who have been particularly remarked on this score. ”

“ But this method was confined to those who seemed to be of a superior rank; and the men, in that case, were also generally distinguished by their size and corpulence, unless very young. The women of an advanced age had their hair cropped short ”

“ The want of adequate bodily exercise will in a similar manner produce a like effect, and it is probable that many cases of corpulence are to be ascribed to this cause alone, from the well-known facts that many persons of sedentary occupation become stout, although of most abstemious habits, and that obesity frequently comes on in the middle-aged and old, who take relatively less exercise than the young, in whom it is comparatively rare. ”

“ Few men have led a more active life—bodily or mentally—from a constitutional anxiety for regularity, precision, and order, during fifty years' business career, from which I have now retired, so that my corpulence and subsequent obesity was not through neglect of necessary bodily activity, nor from excessive eating, drinking, or self-indulgence of any kind, except that I partook of the simple aliments of bread, milk, butter, beer, sugar, and potatoes more freely than my aged nature required, and hence, as I believe, the generation of the parasite, detrimental to comfort if not really to health.
I will not presume to descant on the bodily structural tissues, so fully canvassed in the Cornhill Magazine, nor how they are supported and renovated, having no mind or power to enter into those questions, which properly belong to the wise heads of the faculty. ”

“ My kind and valued medical adviser is not a doctor for obesity, but stands on the pinnacle of fame in the treatment of another malady, which, as he well knows, is frequently induced by the disease of which I am speaking, and I most sincerely trust most of my corpulent friends (and there are thousands of corpulent people whom I dare not so rank) may be led into my tramroad. To any such I am prepared to offer the further key of knowledge by naming the man. ”

“ As a really permanent cure for corpulence, combining remarkable fat-reducing properties with tonic principles of the highest quality, “Antipon” is justly regarded by the most competent authorities as one of the most valuable discoveries in modern therapeutics, solving once and for all the vexed question of the radical cure of obesity without harmful after-effects. “Antipon” absolutely and definitely replaces all the weakening and frequently dangerous processes, systems and medicines which have hitherto done duty as remedies for the disease of obesity. ”

“ CORPULENCE. Of all the parasites that affect humanity I do not know of, nor can I imagine, any more distressing than that of Obesity, and, having just emerged from a very long probation in this affliction, I am desirous of circulating my humble knowledge and experience for the benefit of my fellow man, with an earnest hope it may lead to the same comfort and happiness I now feel under the extraordinary change,—which might almost be termed miraculous had it not been accomplished by the most simple common-sense means. ”

“ Although no very great size or weight, still I could not stoop to tie my shoe, so to speak, nor attend to the little offices humanity requires without considerable pain and difficulty, which only the corpulent can understand ”

“ Oh! that the faculty would look deeper into and make themselves better acquainted with the crying evil of obesity—that dreadful tormenting parasite on health and comfort. Their fellow men might not descend into early premature graves, as I believe many do, from what is termed apoplexy, and certainly would not, during their sojourn on earth, endure so much bodily and consequently mental infirmity.
Corpulence, though giving no actual pain, as it appears to me, must naturally press with undue violence upon the bodily viscera, driving one part upon another, and stopping the free action of all. ”

“ It may be viewed as some sort of probable rule, yet only as an average,—some in health weighing more by many pounds than others. It must not be looked upon as infallible, but only as a sort of general reasonable guide to Nature's great and mighty work. ”

“ My weight is reduced 46 lbs., and as the very gradual reductions which I am able to show may be interesting to many, I have great pleasure in stating them, believing they serve to demonstrate further the merit of the system pursued. ”

“ It is true I gained muscular vigour, but with it a prodigious appetite, which I was compelled to indulge, and consequently increased in weight, until my kind old friend advised me to forsake the exercise. ”

“ And you, poor deluded victim, are more than half willing to believe that your increasing size is an equivalent to increasing health and strength, especially as your wife emphatically takes that view, and regards your augmenting portliness with approval. Ten years have now passed away since you were forty, and by weight twelve stone and a half a fair proportion for your height and build. Now you turn the scale to one stone more, every ounce of which is fat; extra weight to be carried through all the labors of life. ”

“ It is easy enough to see why thorough and regular exercise is absolutely necessary to health.
We all know—at least, we all should know—that the general size of the human body depends on muscular development. The same bony frame which makes a slim-jim girl that tips the scales at seventy-five pounds can be padded with good solid flesh until it boasts of a triple chin, fingers like wee roly-poly puddings, and a full 200 pounds in weight. The framework of the body counts little toward size. ”

“ If you can imagine a very heavy weight let somewhat gradually, but irresistibly, down upon young and tender shoulders, then gently lifted again, little by little, by a sympathizing and unlooked-for helper, and lastly tossed by him unexpectedly into the air, only to fall back with redoubled weight, and crush the frame that was but bowed before, you can form some idea of what had just happened to me. ”

“ Imagine, if you can, a man weighing all of three hundred pounds, not more than five feet ten-and-one-half inches in height and yet of so lithesome a build that he gave not the least sense of either undue weight or lethargy. ”

“ Judged by this standard, the rule of exercise must be a good one, for the instances of lean arms and legs filled out, and of scrawny necks and hollow shoulders made round and plump by exercise, outnumber the other ten to one.
Many lean persons, impressed with the apparent discomfort and inconvenience of obesity, are content with their slender measure of flesh. This is especially true of men, who, as a rule, have less regard for beauty of form than those of the other sex. ”

“ I could hardly support my own weight; my legs were trembling with the burden; sweat broke out over my whole body; the rays of light beat down upon me fiercely, overpoweringly....
Desperately, I quickly turned the dial until the two red marks coincided. A great weight, soft and enveloping, seemed to drop upon me. The senses of sight and hearing and feeling all left me. ”

“ Any weight above two and one-half pounds to the inch in stature may be considered as excessive, inasmuch as it adds nothing to one’s mental or physical efficiency, and is frequently the forerunner of obesity, the remedy for which is to live on a selected diet and to burn up more through exercise. ”

“ Length of limb is also some equivalent for circumference.
To get these measurements, thousands of men, nude, have been measured since 1870.
The all-round man who exercises at all kinds of physical exercises and competes but little in any of them; who does his work daily for health and fun's sake, is sure in time to have the most shapely and enduring body. The person who aims to excel in some one thing, rarely has a well-shaped body. ”

“ Each one of us has from the moment of his existence a certain stature allotted, as it were, to which he will attain. In this way some will be tall, others will be short, so that the height of the body is something quite beyond our control, as we know by the interrogation, "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?" But in contradistinction to height, we know that the muscles of the body can be developed and increased in size by use. ”

“ I am now in that happy comfortable state that I should not hesitate to indulge in any fancy in regard to diet, but if I did so should watch the consequences, and not continue any course which might add to weight or bulk and consequent discomfort. ”

“ One hundred and eighty thousand pounds—the weight of twelve hundred average sized men—of fiercely burning, intense virility. Even continuous eating—of his own world's food—could not supply the demands of that body. ”

“ Measure the slim man where you will, about his arm or shoulders, chest or thigh or calf, and the other out-measures him; the only girth where he is up, and perhaps ahead, is that of his head—for thin fellows often have big heads. The muscles of the stronger youth are larger as well as stronger. ”

“ Painful it was, to one accustomed to the ruddy well-grown peasant girl, stalwart, even when, as often, squat and plain, to remark the exceedingly small size of the average young woman; by which I do not mean mere want of height—that is a little matter—but want of breadth likewise; a general want of those large frames, which indicate usually a power of keeping strong and healthy not merely the muscles, but the brain itself. ”

“ Take a tape-measure and get the girth of chest, upper and forearm, of waist, hips, thighs, and calves of these little fellows, likewise their heights and ages. Now send to England and get the statistics of the boys of the same age who are good at hares-and-hounds, at foot-ball, and see the difference. In every solitary measurement, save height, there is little doubt which would show the better figures. Even in height, it is more than probable that the article just quoted would find abundant foundation for calling our boys "undersized." ”

“ According to our best authorities, we are subjected to the weight of fifteen pounds to each square-inch of surface, and a man of ordinary size sustains a pressure on him of some thirty-thousand pounds of air. I am a man of ordinary size, but I no more knew that I laboured under the burden of thirty-thousand pounds than I did that I was subjected to the pressure of about the same burden of Mrs. Cribbage who sits on my shoulders all day and squats on my chest all night, till I turned up the matter in an encyclopædia. ”

“ A soft, flabby flesh makes as good a show as a firm one; but though to the careless eye, a child of full, flaccid tissue may appear the equal of one whose fibres are well toned, a trial of strength will prove the difference. Obesity in adults is often a sign of feebleness. Men lose weight in training. ”

“ I am below the average stature for a man, and unusually light for my volume, weighing only 110 pounds stripped from the age of nineteen to twenty-five, after I had attained my maximum height of five feet five inches. ”

“ No one wants to be fat and heavy of body—then why of head? For some clumsy reason we have come to confuse strength with weight. The crude methods of early building undoubtedly had much to do with this. The old ox-cart weighed a ton—and it had so much weight that it was weak! ”