The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-08
BAN77Ng AND MS SYSTEM.

man he is, or how far he is entitled to credit
as discoverer. Yet Banting is an interest
ing man, and his system, if for nothing else,
is we'll worth studying as the production of
one who, neither possessing nor laying the
slightest claim to scientific knowledge has
by his philanthropy and his untiring zeal
done what writers preceding him failed
to do-disseminated information which it was
the task of nbler men to gain. Banting's
fame and its foundation is phenomenon in
scientific literature and, if we would point
moral from it, is another added to the list of
countless examples of devotion and energy
surmounting, with the slenderest opportu-
mites, all obstacles.
In 1868 the fifth edition of Banting's
pamphlet on corpulence was published in the
United States, yet it is only quite recently
that the fourth edition was published in
England. In word, Banting's third edition
was successfully printed here as the fourth
and the fifth. The fourth, however, is his
last edition. That copies of it are somewhat
scarce in this country may be judged from
the fact that the one from which we shall
presently have occasion to quote we were
obliged to import.
Mr.. Bantings aim is merely that of a phi
lanthropist, anxious to contribute for the
good of his fellow-men what proved benef
cial to him. About his writing there is a
great charm, of which he was unconscious
for it is derived from his Inconsistencies
Of the art of writing he understands abso-
lutely nothing; probably he could not, to save
his life, have written work on any other
subject But prompted by gratitude for relief
from misery, and yearning to alleviate that
of others, he wrote book on the cure of a
raalady at whose victims mankind have al
ways conspired to laugh, and, without the
least intention or suspicion on his part made
it singularly interesting and funny. With
the candor of child, he tells all his
little ailments and trials; he mentions
that at one time his stomach was so large as
to prevent his STOPPING sufficiently to tie his
shoes; that, to avoid jarring himself, he was
obliged to go down stairs backward. When
he speaks of the table, we find ourselves in
the presence of coed liver, whom, as he
runs over the items of his former bill of fare,
we cannot help commiserating in his self
denial, and applauding in the strength of his
resolution to abstain. He confesses to a de-
| cided weakness for a certain dish; but who
can blame him, knowing what it is, or not
| forgive him, as he does himself? ''Being
fond of green peas, he remarks, ''I take them
daily in the season, and gain two or three
| pounds in weight as we'll as some little in
bulk but soon lose both when their season
| is over. For this trespass I quite forgive
| myself. With blunt truthfulness he corrects
| little misstatements that have crept into ao-
counts of him. With running commentary
Of notes, he follows Professor Niemeyer, of
Stuttgard in his lecture on Bantings System,
appended to the new edition of the pam
| phlet. The Professor said - 81 am
sorry to have been unable to ascertain whether
this William Harvey Mr.. Banting's medical
| adviser is descendant of the great William
| Harvey, who, in the seventeenth century, by
discovering the circulation of the blood, laid
the foundation of our present physiological
system" MIR. Banting-''He is not" The
| Professor, enumerating the articles which he
believed to be allowed by Mr.. Banting's die
tary, said;-"Any kind of poultry, OF venison,
a little pastry" MIR. Banting-'I avoided
pastry" The Professor stated that, ''until a
few years ago, Mr.. Banting carried on the
| DubluebS OF an uuuertdKer. fuueralB, as Is
we'll known, are conducted with much pomp
in England; and he held the appointment to H.
| II. H. the Prince of Wales" Banting-'T held
no such appointment, but was cabinetmaker,
upholsterer, and decorator to the Royal Family.
Funerals in England are frequently conducted
by this class" "a most amusing scene, y
said the Professor, Sin which the Princess
Mary of Cambridge played part, appears
to be authentic, and is highly characteristic
Her Royal Highness requested to see Mr..
Banting. He presented himself before her,
first in his former clothes, in order to show
her the old Banting and then metamorphossd
himself before her eyes into the present
Banting, by throwing off one coat after
another" Banting-"This was not true, but
q mere .jeu d'eSprit of the public journals"
So intense is Mr.. Banting's detestation of
fat that he can express himself in regard to it
only by new applications of words. ''Obe-
sity," says he, II call parasite; anything
that creates fat l call human BEANS He
rigidly adheres to what he is pleased to style
the analogy, and steadily maintains the pro-
priety of those terms, remarking that ''ths
word parasite has been much commented
upon as inappropriate to any but living,
creeping thing (of course l use the word in a
figurative sense, as burden to the fesh); but
if fat is not an insidious, creeping enemy, ]
do not know what is, and also, that perhaps
] do not wholly escape starchy, or saccharine
matter, but scrupulously avoid those beans.