The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-05
THE BODY's WEIGHT.
Constant Changing of the Human
Avoirdupois.


Many people weigh themselves fire.
auently and imagine that they know their
weight. Sweet illusion! Nothing is more
difficult than to know ones weight exact
ly, even with access to first-class scales.
We hear one say: II am making flesh.
have increased two pounds" and an
other: 81 am getting into form. 1 weigh
three pounds less" But, while 1 do not
wish to make myself disagreeable, espe-
cially to people who keep account of their
weight, l am convinced that in most OF
such cases there is really not an ounce OF
gain or loss; or, if there is any variation, it
is not what the scales record.
The ordinary methods of determining
variations in weight give absolutely falla-
cious results. The causes which influence
weight are numerous and rarely taken into
consideration. For example, Was the
weight taken Immediately after breakfast
or long after, or following active exercise
attended with free perspiration?
Ones weight is like mobile expression
it changes every instant. The study of
the matter is, nevertheless of considerable
physiological and hygienic Importance
fact of which | have become thoroughly
convinced in the course of over ten years
investigation of the subject.
The inaccuracy of ordinary balances,
such as one finds at railway stations, deter
mined me to make a portable balance to
weigh go pounds and to be exact to within
an ounce, and since then I have weighed
myself regularly every day at the same
hour in the morning and under identical
conditions, and to-day I possess a record of
five years of experiments, conducted with
the utmost precision from day to day.
Every day when weighing myself I re-
cord the barometric and hydrometric va
riationsJ the temperature and the dinner
menu for the day. These experiments have
convinced me more than ever that our
weight is in a perpetual state of huctua-
ton. After eliminating the errors of the
instrument, our weight varies, subject to
innumerable influences. After breakfast
on warm day one loses more than fifteen
grains an hour.
How, then, are you to arrive at your true
weight when it is subject to such incessant
fluctuations? When we remember that 70
per cent of our body is water, there is little
difficulty in understanding that our weight
must vary continually with the transpira-
tions of the moisture; moreover, it varies
with the pressure of the atmosphere The
mere variations in atmospheric humidity
suffice to account for change of more than
pound, and other causes may suffice to
account for another pound.
The person who only weighs at inter-
walls may infer from this that he is growing
lighter or heavier, but the conclusion is
unwarranted. There are some people. on
the other hand, who will tell you that their
weight never changes. This, too, is an
error; it is continually fuctuating.
The fault is that the scales used do not
record variations of a pound or so. For
ordinary purposes this is of no conse-
quence, but for recording changes of
weight in sickness it is of very serious
moment. The scales are not without their
importance in medical practice, especially
with infants.
The weight of an infant increases in
definite proportions during the first weeks
of life, and there can be no departure from
this regularity of increase without impair
ment of health.
For adult persons. too, it is good to con-
suit the scales, for they are the barometer
of health. Any sudden increase of weight,
amounting to pound or so in day, indi-
Gates tendency to disease. 1t is evidence
of health when the weight does not f1uctu-
ate more than three or four ounces from
day to day. Great fuctuation implies de-
rangement.-New York Dispatch.