Smyrna times., 1873-06-25
MISc e IIU ID e o as.
A Chat with Fat People.
BY do LEWIS.

Perhaps you fancy your shape. You do
look comfortable and Jolly; but as physiolo.
gist, must find fault with you. Obesity, like
emaciation, is u sort of disease untavorable to
health and long lite.
This warm weather makes you pant and per-
spire.
| met one of your number down on the
beach the other day. 1t was warm after
noon. He was very uncomfortable. We
stopped to chat moment when he excaim-
ed.
Il would give ten thousand dollars to be re-
duced to one hundred and fifty pounds. |
pant, wheeze and sweat, every time | stir
and looking earnestly in my face, he said,
doctor, what can you do for me? What can
take My family doctor tells me he can
give me something that will whittle me down !;
do you think it can be done?'
."Oh yes, | replied, nothing is easier
but 1t is quite unnecessary TO take any medi-
cine. Suppose, sir you have very fat horse
much in the condition of youSelf, and some
doctor were to propose to reduce his weight
with medicine, what would you say -
81 should tell him that | could reduce
his weight by reducing the amount of his
food" -
just so, and you would be quite right
Allow me to commend the same practice to
yourself. Reduce the quantity Of your food
one quarter, and L venture to say that in a
month you will weigh from five to ten pounds
less than now. At the end of the first month
reduce the amount of your food another quar-.
ter. Within three or six months you wifi find
yourself lighter by twenty to fifty pounds
our digestion will be much healthier, your
respiration freer and your activity and enduir.
ance greatly increased. '
but, said he, Il don't eat half as much
as some thin men whom | know"
This is not Improbable, and l presume
their excessive eating keeps them thin, as with
your tendency excessive eating produces fat
1t they were to reduce the quantity of their
food, they would, like yourself, tend toward
the normal standard-they would gain in
weight, while you lose"
He promised to try it, and started on.
In horse-car the other day met six cor
pulent, uncomfortable men, all quite sure to
die prematurely. Each one of them might
in six or twelve months, be reduced to the
normal standard, and enjoy degree of health
and activity to which he is now d stranger. Is
any physiological statement more self-evident
than that every fat person eats more than he
needs?
But" exclaims some fat young woman
who would give the world to be in gooC
shape, Il cannot go hungry and faint fo
ever.
This remark shows you have never trieC
what l have suggested 1t is only the grea
eater who is troubled with hunger and "gone
ness" Ii you would reduce the quantity o
your food even one half at once, after three
days you will not suffer from iaintness o
hunger. The man who eats temporarily O
I unstimulating food rarely knows the sensation
J of hunger. -
In the light of the undeniable statements
how silly the practice, common among girls
of swallowing acids and other killing things
and among men of sleeping in tobacco, to re
$ duce their flesh
: l have personally known scores of youn
? women whose health has been ruined by drink
ing vinegar or eating chalk and other indigest
+ BILE things, all to take away their fat. And
have known a still greater number to rui
4 themselves with corsets, in the hope of keeE
e ing themselves comely and in shape.
= l have met hundreds of fat men who wei
!, besmeared and saturated with tobacco juice
'fobjects of disgust to all beholders, terrors
!. . decent housekeepers, peregrinating stencil
: pots, and all to keep their flesh down.
My poor, dear, fat simpletons, allow me
, prescribe for you:
Rise earlyi exercise much, particularly
the open air; bathe frequently, rubbing IL
skin very bard but most important of a
eat plain, coarse food, and reduce the ouanti
y until you find yourself growing thinner two
three pounds per week. Your sluggishnes
or short breath and other discomforts will soc
ID leave you, and you will become bright, clea
headed and happy. ilta ...s.T