The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-02
FOR FAT PEOPLE TO KNOW.
The Schweninger Treatment For
Obesity in This Country.
From the Ne,c York sun.

HIOHS Hto @NcN AOfN SNs'
The system of Prof. Ernst Schweninger
for the treatment of obesity, which was in
troduced here about two years ago, has by
this time been sufficiently tested to demon
strate that anybody who will determinedly
follow the regimen described by it can re-
duce his flesh TO any reasonable degree de-
sired, it being understood, of course, that
his physical condition is not such, by reason
of incurable heart or kidney disease, as to
make reduction perilous. And there is just
one thing about it that is hard to get used
to. That is the absolute prohibition of all
liquids during meals and for an hour before
and an hour after each meal. 1t does not
seem so difficult to do without fluids to wash
down ones food until it is tried and the
iron pressure of habit in slipping and even
gulplng water, wine, milk, tea, or coffee
while eating is realized. The very fact of
prohibition seems to make one more in
tensely thirsty, and the juiciest food takes
on the astringent dryness of chewed pome-
granite rind. OF course, one becomes ac-
customed toit after awhile, eventually does
not feel any desire for liquids at the pEohib-
tied times, and even finds less disposition
to drink at any time than he ever had be-
fore. Then his reward comes, not only i'll
the reduction of flesh, but in a surprising
diminution of the nuisance of perspiration,
which is the misery of all fat men. But to
get to that point one requires to have such
determined force of will and power of self
denial as, if developed, in a spiritual in
stead of a merely physical direction, would
make him a lofty sort of angel. The writer
of this paragraph has tried it, and deliber-
ately arrived at the conclusion that, fat, as
I. 20 ha nfra fnaf
thick and die than keep it up. But those
who have stuck to it have gained the re-
ward they so richly deserved. One lady
on Fifty-second street was reduced by it
fifty-four pounds in three months, is still
losing flesh at the same rate, and AYERS
that She has never enjoyed better health
in her life than since commencing the
treatment. And now she has got SO
that she seldom has a desire for sip of
any liquid even outside the hours of prohi-
bition.
1t must not be supposed that this shutting
off of liquids is the whole of the treatment,
though it appears to be the most important
requirement. That ranking next to it is
that one must not gorge with food especi-
ally food in which sugar and starch care
largely component parts. The only case in
which the treatment has been a conSpicu-
GUS failure has been that of a lady in Dan
bury, Conn, who, after the preliminary
course of medicine TO get her digestive and
assimilative apparatus in order, found her
self possessed of such a ferocious appetite
and felt so well that she would eat and drink
as much as she pleased and as often as
she chose, of whatever she Hked-with
the result that might have been ex-
pected. Her husband came down to town
and told the doctor he might just as well,
give up all attempts to reduce her. and he
did.
DIR. J. W. Gibbs, the independent republi-
can who when a delegate TO a county con-
vention rose up in disgust and sudden re-
form, told his fellow delegate to go to thun-
der and himself went out and joined the de-
mocracy, and subsequently scared every Nj
collite away from the Hoffman house by the
offer of a SIS 900 bet on Fellows, was the
man who brought the Schweninger system
here, having gone over to Germany for the
purpose of getting it and purchased the
knowledge of it from the originator. He
SAYS that he has proved its efficacy so thor
oughly that he is confident of reducing
obesity in any one who should be reduced
and who will follow his directions, but he
will not take all cases. A very fat young
man, not yet 80 years of age, came to him
from Pennsylvania for treatment. Upon
investigation he found that the mans heart
was weak, and nature, to protect it, had
built up a wall of'fat around it. To take
away that fat would have rendered him
liable to death at any moment One of the
Pennsylvanian's brothers and his father had
died of heart disease, and his doing likewise
was only question of time. He was will
ing to take chances on it, but DR.. Gibbs was
not, and the case was positively refused.
Another case, that of a very wealthy New
York lady, we'll known in society, was re-
fused because of the frightful and probably
incurable condition of her kidneys, which
were so affected that she could not have en-
dured the process of reduction.
These cases he mentioned TO emphasize
the warning that it is risky thing for q
fat person to commence monkeying with
his adipose tissue by the light of his own
intelligence and the general information
that news apers give him. BY the Schwen-
niger system each PERSONS case must be
treated according to its individual require
mn4lts, and is not necessarily like any
other.
Another thing about which DIR. Gibbs lifts
up his voice is the mendacious and danger
Gus paragraph somebody has set floating in
the press to the effect that the true Schwen-
niger treatment has at last been discovered
to he the swallowing of three pints of water
before breakfast daily. A more injurious
thing for fat people, ard one more dia-
metrically opposed to Prof. Schweninger's
system, it would be impossible to con
ceive.
The Iron Chancellor still lives by Schwen-
niger rules, and in so doing keeps down his
tendency to gro wing fat, and remains a
wonder of vitality and vigor at his advanced
age. No longer ago than last April one of the
SUMS special dispatches told how he re-
stricted himself in eating to light break
fast and substantial dinner, with no liquids
at meals, and only a single glass of wine
daily, taken just before retiring. One ex-
pertinent with the bogus system of three
pints of water before breakfast by Bismarck
would doubtless afford Germany another
first-class funeral
THERE'S no royal road to relief from cor
pulence that may be Travelled with ease and
safety, and without self-sacrifce. Nos
trums are from time to time ADVERT sed rs
affording it-ssch as one now doomed in
England, aud finding not few dupes hero
but they do not. Starvation, q Ia Bant-
ing, and the nostrum cures that profess TO
reduce gluttons while practising their glut-
tony if they will only take wineglassful
at each meal, " are alike dangerous humbugs.
Renouncing liquids seems to be demonstrated
the safest ana best thing when acc )mpsnied
by due moderation in eating. But in no
case is it absolutely safe for fat person to
adopt any really effective measures for re-
ducing weight without thorough prelimin-
airy knowledge of the actual condition Of his
vital organs