The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-09-17
THE FAT ONES.
Some Considerations That May In
terest Them.
New York Evening Post

Probably no question of personal hygien
has occupied so much attention from laymer
or laywomen as the questions how to avoi,
growing fat. Doctors, we think, as rul
take little interest in it as long as it does no
result in some form of illness. About the in
convenience of being fat, there is general,
little use in consulting them. Until within
about TWENTY-FIVE years the fat people, if w
may use the expression, lay down unde
their fat. The opinion that fairness was ir
remediable was fact widely diffused Mrs
Fannie kemble used to say, in her grand
manner, that when there was constitution
al tendency to fat, nor diet, nor exercise, MOI
sorrow would avail"
Since she took this view, however, 8
great change has come over what we may
longer to accept their fatness as hopeless
They deny that any portion of the human
family has been set apart by Nature as the
prey of obesity. This great awakening was
due in large degree to the celebrated Bant
ing, an Immensely rat man, who, by greatly
reducing his weight by combining himself t
heterogeneous food, filled all fat people will
the anticipation Of better day. Tens Of
thousands followed his example, and GU
down their size immensely. Unfortunately
he died very soon after he became lean, anC
a panic spr cad through his followers. Dis
trust about the effect of his system on the
general health began to gain ground. Many
people suffered severely in strength and
spirits by following his regimen too strictly,
and it fell into more or less discredit. Ii
would now be as hard to find an original out
and-out disciple of Banting as of Priessnitz
the hydropathist, or of Hahnemann, the
homeopathic. b ut many still follow hin
in slight degree. by eschewing butter, eat
ing but little bread and potatoes. and stick.
ing steadily to lean meat.
Ii his teachings and example had had NO
effect at all, however, 1t would have proved
that the fat people were less enterprising and
energetic than other civilized men in our day
ever are. They refused to consider Bant-
ing's failure as final. They declined to ac-
cept the doctors advice to 'let well enough
alone" They continued their demand that
obesity should be treated as disease, and a
cure found for it. Accordingly every few
years a new fat doctor appears on the scene
and the quacks fill up the intervals with the
sale VI more or less deadly specifics. No
great progress was made, however, until Bis
marck became dissatisfied with his fat, and
called for a physician who could relieve him
OF 1t. This physician appeared in the per-
son of q certain Dr.. Schweniger, who cut
down the Chancellor's weight to such an ex-
tent that he had him nominated to a profess
sorship in the faculty of medicine in the Ber-
lin University, and insisted on his appoint
ment in the teeth of the opposition Of the
other doctors, who had either never heard OF
Schweniger before, or heard what was bad,
To the argument that he had won no distinc.
tion in the profession, the answer was that
he had won no distinction in the profession.
the answer was that he had taken fifty OF
sixty pounds off the Princes huge frame.
Schweniger accordingly rapidly became an
authority on fairness, and the pamphlet con-
tanning his system is sold by tens of thou
sands.
The well-known DR.. Yeo of London dis.
cusses this system in the last namber of the
Nineteenth Century. 1t ought to be said en-
paSSdnt that Schwenigers cure is claimed
also by Prof. Oertel of Munich, who SAYS he
discovered it, but this avails him little, be-
cause Re did not treat the, Chancellor.
Schweniger maintains that the chief cause of
fat among men, as among animals, is eating
too much, no matter of what, and drinking
TOO much, even of water, at ones meals, but
especially of wine, beer, and spirits. The
central principle of his system is, that unless
you live by muscular toll, you must cut down
the quantity you eat, and must drink but
little, If any, with your meals. OF course he
has minor Jules and makes distinctions be-
tween different articles of food, but to him
quantity is the great enemy of the obese.
After him comes a certain EbsteiD. who also
has his system which differs from both Ban
lungs and Schweniger's. but all three agree
that 10 be lean you must greatly reduce your
consumption OF the carlo -hydrates or starchy
things.
Uermany is the country where the most
vigorous fight with fat is carried on. and
where fat cures excite most interest, owing,
1t is said, to the great prevalent of obesity, a
result In part OF the consumption of beer and
in part. doubtless, of the frequency and
heartiness of the meals. Accordingly the
number of people who go to the various baths
for simple corpulency is very large. Oertel
makes provision for this class by prescribing
carefully graded walks, in which the ascent
VIII stimulate the hearts action and
=, All the masters agree that it is mainly
through Its effect on the heart that fat he
comes dangerous. If you surround yonr
heart thickly with fat, you impede its work
ing, and it gradually grows weaker. and then
some fine day, when you have put a little
more fat on it. and call on it for extra exer-
lions, it stops short, and down YOU 90 Fat
does not greatly trouble the young and active
in any country. 1t is when, in middle life
exercise begins to be distasteful. but the an,
petite remains as good as ever, that it comes
on people like strong man armed and
makes exerti0n, especially in hot weather
very formidable. But the fat people are
aroused, and we feel sure their humber in
proportion to population, will hereafter be
diminished.