The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1864-04-07
!. .cru.aas AEaln,t corpulenee. q.


lights Of hamanaspiratioif and human
hope. ! The woes Of the body and the
woes Of the spirit have been made the
opportunities Of progress, the ihspira-
tons Of charity, since first the world
was. One calamity, however, incl
dent TO mortal frailty has strangely
failed, down to- our own times, Of en-
listing the sympathies aud the efforts
Of man. Men and women have been
liable to superAuous accretion ofad-
ipose tissue since Cain and Abel first
eontended over the respective merits
Of an animal and a vegetable diet
but it was reserved for fat English
man in the nineteenth century to pro
claim with plainness Of speech the
miseries Of cOrpulence, and TO publish
with an evangelical carnestness of
faith the remedies opposite to this
melancholy estate Of man. a certain
Mr. Banting, ofLondon, is tic heaven
sent mortal who has thus waddIed in
to the Temple of Fame. TO say I've
has done good by stealth would be
hardly fair, for he has published two
editions Of n pamphlet on iatncss and
fts cure, over his own name, and hon
estly paying the publishers Of the said
pamphlet for their pains, he has eaus-
cd the same tobe gratuitously ,distrib-
utcd. To say that he blushes to find
his well doing fame would be more
than fair, for he frankly confesses that
the success Of his appeal has fiIleI him
"a pleasure and satisfaction which are
ample compensation for the trQuble
and expense he has incurred. 4
The name Of Banting "lends itself" as
the French say" to puns !" and our
readers may suspect some subtle con-
nection between this -partieipial gen
tile noun and the verb 10 banter. =
We assure them that thcir suspicions
are absurd. Imagine Joke ora hoax
perpetrated by u British commercial
character late of No. q St, James st,
Piccadilly, now of No. A The Terrace
Kensington." The thing is prepostc-
rous. Mr.. Banting is the most serious
man that ever larded the lean earth.
Fatness !,astnever been, nor is it now,
q joke TO him. lie has been fat, and
feels for those who are. He has known
the spurns that painting merit Of the
small-waisted takes. He has been
compelled TO forego the pleasure OF
the mornings trip in the omnibus,
and the evenings relaxation at the
theater, through the inadcquacy Of
average seats to the portentous dimcn-
sions of his center of gravity; it has
entered like an iron into his inm0st
soul that obesity is very little under
stood or appreciated by the faculty,
and the public, or the former would,
long ere this, have hit upon the cause
of so lamentable n disease, and applied
effective remedies, while the latter
would have spared their injudicious
indulgence in remarks and sneers, fire.
quently painful in society, and which,
even on the strongest mind; have an
unhappy tendency" life has been
in no lnetaphoiical sense "a burden y
to Banting, Two years ago, Banting,
being then about sixty -four years OF
age, "and about five feet five inches
in stature, weighed no less than two
hundred and two pounds !" light
weight for Goliah of Gath, or an aver
age white elephant; but for an Eng
lish citizen OF less than the average
height, such power of avoirdupois as
made it difficult for him . TO stoop 10
tie his shoe, and compelled him IL
the ignominious necessity of "going
down stairs slowly backward, to save
the jar of increased weight upon the
ankle and kncr- r-joints;" ]" caused him to
puff and blow with every slight ex-
ertionj' exposed him to the jeers OF
the slender and inconsiderate, and
stuffed an otherwise tranquil existence
full Of thorns and burs. The climate
OF America If not commonly held TO be
favorable to. iatncsS, yet there are fat
men in this uneasy and ovortaXed
community, and the wheeze Of Bant-
ing will, doubtless, find an echo, albeit
faint as beneath n superintendent
German bolster from many snrchar-
god heart. Let all such comfort
There is cure for all things, would
men but beIieye and hope, This, too
solid flesh which weighs upon you, Q
corpulcnt reader, may melt must
melt, ifyou will hearken to Banting
and obey his precepts Violent exer,
else, shumpooning, vapof baths, mon.
astic simplicity in diet, these poor and
obvious devices bear no fruit. Bant-
ing has found a better way, which is
at the same time a far more agreeable
way. 10 avoid "human beans is his
simple remedy; and by "humau beans
he does not intend, as onr down Ei,;
readers may imagine, the society Of
his fellow men. He is no Timon ol
Athens, nor even q mere anti-Pytha.
gorean. Tho "beansp . he denounces
are those articles Of food which, as he
discoveredi act upon the human sys-
tenn precisely as those ventose escu
lents act upon the system Of the no.
blest Of quadrupeds. Such are four
and all farinacious vegetables, leavenet
bread, sugar and sacharinc substance!
in general, beer, " bread, butter, milk
sugar, beer ard potatoes" had fol
years been the "main elements Of tht
existence" Of Banting. These, aitel
thirty years Of longing and dispair,
wise physician counseled him t
eschew. cat the first. blush" say
Banting, with pathetic simplicity, /" j
seemed to me that | had little left /,