Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-10-11
ECCENTRICITIEs OF FLESH.
Fot Men md Fat Women, and the
Cause Of Their C0rpulence.
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The witty Sidney Smith once remarked Of an
inordnately stout lady, whose dimensions were
being somewhat humorousy commented upon
in his presence '.that were she to rise in revolt
against the constituted authorities it would be
necessary to read the riot act and dispense her. :"
What extravagancies of comical speculation
would the witty Canon have INDUCED in were
he alive to-day and noted the growing plump
ness and portly rotundity of our middle-aged
women. Mature observers have noticed the de-
velOpment OF the American society female from
the national lean type to embonpoint. English
matrOns are proverbially portly, and undoubt-
edy their American cousins the country
grows older. and good care and the refinements
of life are more enjoyed are destined to be
similarly clrcumstanced. The admixture of
Ieutonic blood in our American women will not
cause them to deteriOrate any i'm obesity Cl;-
mate has undoubtedly much TO do VIII. corpu-
iency. The number 81 neshy people met on the
streets vi Our city, compared with their scarcity
in Boston, suggests that the lack of the piercing
east winds Of the rock-ribbed New England
coast forms no unimportant reason.
THE CAUSES
of embOnpOint are various. First and foremost.
cOrpulent people are always associated with
good eating. Commanding and pOnderOsty
of paunch are twin brothers. though in these
modern days some of the latest people are the
most delicate eaters. There is one very fieshy
business man in this city who eats but one
meal day, and that very light one. Yet his
avordupois is constantly increasing.
Shakespeare makes "FalStaf'' pOrty and fat
and he is ever talking of his big feats of eating
and drinking. The poets and writer's have all
the same idea, for BOniface is always repre-
sented as fat. and having all the outward
marks of good cheer. However true the
theory that enormous eating and flesh may
be in poetry, in recent years it has been some
what modified by the kind and class Of food.
The idea was first promulgated in small
pamphlet by Banting, now we'll nigh forgotten.
The sum and substance of Banting's theory was
that flesh may be reduced by eating nothing but
meat. Mr. Banting was an English gentleman
five feet in height, aud weighed over $50 pounds.
His appearance with these proportions was
cOmlcal in the extreme; and while his adipOse
was great personal Inconvenience, preventing
him tying his shoes, forcing him to walk down
stairs backward and do other uncomfortable
things. it also led to his being jeered at and
secuted by the street gamns, greatly to his
mental disquietude and modification. COnse-
quently he tried every possible method to
reduce himself. He took ninety Turkish baths
in succession, drank mineral waters, walked
and otherwise exercised himself and lived
on sixpence a day, but all in vain. At last he
hit upon doctor who suggested regimen.
He followed it and succeeded in reducing him
SELF TO comfortable proportions. 1t was simply
to eat meat and nothing else and avoid the fatty
productions of milk. vegetables and the like,
of which Bantng and all other cOrpuent people
are so excessively fond. There is this much to
say about Banting diet, that when once tried it
must be kept up, and any neglect from day to
day or violation of the dietary regimen results
disastrOusly. DR.. JonsOn. a well-known physi-
clan of st. Louis, and a very cOrpulent man.
some years since tried the Banting regimen and
continued it until checked by a stroke of par
aysis
OTHER CAUSES
OF obesity are found IN oversleeping, insufficient
exercise and consequent non-elmnation. the
taking of too much alcoholic beverage. especially
beer. Medical men claim that the use of Ger
tain medicines increases fatty secretions Mer-
curry is one of Them and often forms the basis
of anti-lean noStrums. DR.. LegeOis of the Hos
pital du Medici at Paris, considers mercury the
heroic remedy for eanness. and advises fat peo-
pie TO avoid it whenever possible