Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-06-28

Men and women who suffer from overweight
and who have worried with a score Of unsatis-
factory expedients that promised to reduce un-
comfortable adiposity will surely be interested
in the methods Of treatment which were en-
ployed in the case Of the late Senator Stanford;
treatment that would probably have been COM
pletely successful had not the fatty degenera-
ton Of the heart gone beyond the stage where
dietetic influences were Of any avail None of
the known varieties Of medicine are really
palatabls and all the courses Of treatment so far
discovered are more or less irksome to those
whose health needs repairs, and the course
which the senator was religiously adhering to
when he died was most distasteful to him.
Fried hashed beef, three times q day, washed
down with water that was hot as drink
able water can be, was the only food
that entered the senator's stomach for
the last seven weeks Of his life.
This change af regimen was one against which
the patient inwsrdly rebelled-he had lived as
he pleased and he was pleased to live well-but
he had placed himself in the hands Of physi-
clan who was an expert in the prolongation Of
threatened mems days. and was faithful to the
Instructions given. Tempted continually to
indulge IN the food on which others who sat at
his table feasted the senator consumed only
the moderate quantity of finely chopped beef,
fried until cooked through, and the ever-accom-
panying glass Of hot water. The primary result
Of this diet was the loss of tbirty-one pounds
Of flesh in fifty days and the departure of that
apoplectic horidity which has for tine past two
or three years been one of the senator's most
marked facial characteristics. How much
longer the treatment would have been contin-
ued and what the ultimate results might have
been in this particular case cannot be guessed,
for the fatty degeneration of the
heart suddenly reached the point Of
fatality and the dieting came to an
erd Medical experience would suggest, though,
that everything would have been well had
the most vital Of organs been unaffected; that
the mere bulk could easily have been removed
and future growth controlled. II is question
able whether the speed of reduction was not
too great. and although in the case under dis
cussion the rate probably had nothing to do
with the decease still the best Of the authori-
ties are satisfied that a loss exceeding ten
pounds a month is too much Of q drain upon
ordinary vitality. The principle Of the reduc-
ton is easily understood. Lean meat, being
heterogeneous, forms muscle and not fat Lean
meat eaten by a very lean person would be
difficult Of assimilation, for fat is necessary to
the assimilative process, but when swallowed
by one who is plentifully supplied with fat the
combination supports life and, of course,
diminisaes the encumbering tissue consider
ably.
The usefulness Of hot water as an anti
dyspeptic beverage has long been asserted; it
helps digestion as no other perfectly harmless
fluid can Food that is starchy or fat is
digested in the small intestines, but lean meat
distributes its good qualities from the stomach,
and in that work suficiency of hot water
materially assists the frequently ineffective
gastric juice. Altogether the ''lean-meat
remedy" seems to be the best yet known for the
removal Of snperfuous fat; and it has the ad-
vantages also Of being cheap and easy Of
application