Smyrna times., 1894-08-15
The Crusade Against COrpuIence.


hat we live in an age when men tend
10 adipose tissue. The advertisement
columns in our newspapers bear con-
slant witness to the fact that anti-fat
remedies are in large demand. Until
within ten years such advertisements
we're rarely seen. The evidence of our
eyes as we walk through the business
streets of any of our cities assures those
Of us who are old enough to recall the
business men of the proceeding genera
ton that the American citizen of good
is more literally "a solid
man" to day than he used to be.
A glance at the portraits of the
whole line Of our Presidents confirms
the belief that our national physical
type is becoming more pOrtly. The
pOst-bellum Presidents have been
weightier men than their professors.
Lincoln was the last of our
Chief Magistrates who in any way justi-
fed the traditional Uncle Sam, tall
and spare of flesh. All who
have followed him have been men of
good avOirdupoi%. Grant and Hayes
were the least corpulent of them, and
they were both men of ample girth and
weight. Garfield and Arthur both
made formidable impressions on the
scales, and Mr.. Cleveland is cast in the
same massive mold. Most of our car
tOOnists have taken the hint and no
of length and leanness, but as a gentle
man of well-rounded form whose food
obviously agrees with him.
So marked has the inclination to
obesity become among US that we are
constantly hearing of prominent citi-
Zens who feel constrained to undergo
vigorous courses of diet or training to
rid themselves of superfuOus flesh.
The normal weight of man whose
height is 5 feet inches is fixed at 145
pounds, and if he is a siX-foOter at 178
pounds. Allow about six pounds, more
or less, for every inch of increased or
decreased height and the normal weight t
can be ascertained. Nevertheless,
many men, and probably the majority
carry more than their due allowance
of tissue, and unless the excess is very
marked they do so Without discomfort.
1t may, indeed, be doubted if the fad of
training down" is not in danger of be-
ing OverdOne. A moderate store of fat,
according to excellent medical author
ity, tends to reduce the wear and tear
of the nervous system, and acts also as
a sort of savings bank of vital power,
to be drawn upon in an emergency. In
confirmation OF this view of the matter
it is often said that athletes have failed
in severe competitive tests because
they were trained down too fine"
There is an unfounded popular no.
ton that obesity of body and obtuse-
ness of mind go hand in hand. Litera.
ture is full of prOverbial and epigram.
matte sayings at the expense of fal
people. Charles Dickens Fat Boy is
continually chided by his master fol
his tendency to sleep and be stupid
Shakespeare, as Senator Hill lately re-
minded US, makes Julius Caesar say:
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep O. night
YOnd' CaSsius has a lean and hungry look:
He thinks too much: Such men are dangerous.
The term fat-witted, signifying men
tai dullness, is derived from the sam,
general association of cOrpulence will
inferiority of intellect. Nevertheless
it is a matter of history that not few
of the most brilliant men have haC
very cOrpulent bodies. EpaminOndas
the Greek statesman and general, wa
so fat that three men could not encir
Gle him with their arms. Louis thl
Sixth of France was so excessively fa
that he was surnamed lie Gros," bu
he was one of the ablest of Frencl
| h. IL 4,
not dull, but he was extremely corpu
lent. Napoleon the Great was by n
means stupid man, but he was exces
sively obese. David Hume, the famou
English historian; Sidney Smith. prime
of humorists; Jules Janin and Saint
Beuve, keenest of critics; the eide
Dumas, Balzac and Eugene Sue, a
three brilliant rOmanSers, were all yer
fat men. Queen Anne, Of England
suffered from cOrpulence also, an
Queen Victoria, unless her portrait
libel her, has never been down to mol
NAL weight. Lablache, the famou
singer, had to pay three fares wheneve
he rode in public conveyances, and tn
great Italian tragedian, the elder Sa
vini, was, when in this country, M
Cleveland's double. So that theI
really is no good ground for believin
that lean people have a monopoly {
talent.
Many and curious have been th
anti-fat remedies employed in differeT
ages of the world Men have bee
bled and blistered by some physician
pUrged, starved and bathed by other
1t was long supposed that the drinl
ing of vinegar was an antidOte TO ia
The Marquis of Cortona, a famous gel
eral of the Duke of Alba, is said
have drunk vinegar with such effe'
that, from a condition of enOrmou
corpulence, he became so reduced thi
he could fold his skin about him like
4 garment. DR.. T. King Chambers, WI
4 was an English specialist on obesit
wrote book in 1850 in which he eI
: tolled the virtues of liquor potassae
] a fat.killer. He advised it to be take
in teaspoonful doses in milk two
T three times a day, and at the same tin
: enjoined spare diet and plentiful exc
!. else. DIR. VIM. Wadd, another EnJ
lish expert on obesity, who published
i work on the subject in 1916, enume
ates the following among the absul
!. remedies then in use for the reductio
of fat: Prieking the flesh with needle
walking with bare feet, the removal
the fatty tissue by the scalpel, long 81
voyages, deprivation of sleep emetiC
digitalis, salvation by mercury, inhs
y alton of oxygen gas. preparation
bromine and iodine, and the free use
soap as an article of food. Mr.. Wac
relates the experience of one of b
relatives who had ordered quarter
a hundred weight of CASTLE soap for
own eating.
] Just at present there is a crusa
\ against corpulency in which a varie
of new expedients are employed. T.
favorite anti-fat formula appears to
that for which Prince Bismark set t
fashion few years ago-copious drin
!. ing of hot water aud an exclusive
= lean beef and dry toast or zureba
diet. Leading physicians, both In t
United States and Europe, have wid'
g. recommended it. But for the avera
man who enjoy good health, ev
though the scales may tell him that
is twenty pounds over the weight juI
fed by his stature, there is much v