The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-04-06
Medical Notes.

a ~ ~ 1904 ANV ~SSS
NN~~~~o@-~~~~~~~
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men, and such sleep
Yond' Cassius has lean and hungry
look;
He thinks too much; such men are 0an-
gerouS."
When shakspere put these words into
the mouth of Caesar he mirrored the
popular idea about the fat man, who,
even today, is believed to be especially
good-natured and possibly innocent OF
guile, although Falstaff rather bellies that
idea; yet even he was full of jollity.
in reality the corpulent person is far
from comfortable, but as a rule he is
phlegmatic so that he bears his ills philo-
sophically; he acquiesces graciously In
the inevitable because he can't help him
self He is heir to an inheritance, lavish
in the extreme but not especially desir-
able In other words corpulency runs in
the family; a fat father has fat son and
ccntrawise a corpulent girl usually has a
coTpulent mother But that this inherit
ance may become visible there must be
an existing cause. Usually this cause is
high living.
High living is not an absolute but a
relative term. Two men, spare and ac-
tive, may sit at the same table; one eats
Sparingly; the other eats ravenously; yet
neither gains flesh; they both remain thin
and like CasSiuS :Iways have a lean and
hungry look. In the one only sufficine t
1000 Is taken to supply the vital needs
IN the other the surplus is eliminated in
am undigested FORM in other words to
compare the process to a mechanical one
me stomach in the one case is like a CRATE
IN which all the coal put into it is burned
10 ashes while in the second case the
surplus sup--y of fuel is raked out as
cinders and unburnt coal Now another
man eating heartily of good things
OF the table gains flesh rapidly with
out any apparent reason; the fuel
leaves clinkerS behind which clog the
CRATE and deaden the fire.
The reason is that the latter man has
an inherited tendency to gain flesh, a
tendency which may not assert itself
until the prime Of manhood. Partaking
freely if not excessively of the necessaries
and delicacies of the table there is a GER
tam amount of food which is not convert
cd into energy, that is not used in making
blood and flesh. or exerted in muscular
work, but which does not escape from the
system; 1t is stored up as fat first in and
under the skin; later around and within
me tissue of the various organs To I'M
derstand the process it is necessary +o
know that there is a certain amount of
TAT IN the body in a normal condition
Whlch gives roundness to the form. If
mere is a tendency to obesity the first;
deposits of fat are within these fat cells
ara when then are distended to their ut
most capacity the fat begins to increase
py accreuon around then until it eventu-
ally becomes pad of fat which may be
compared to the cotton batting which is
quilted into a comforter
Inc more the fat accumulates the fast
er more fat is stored up. and eventually
organs which do not naturally have any
or but little fat in or about them be-
come involved in the invasion Exercise
Incomes more difficult as the mass of fat
increases, and hence the corpulent man
becomes torpid and inactive because, of
the difficulty of moving about. The mass
q rat acts like thick oVercOat and
Keeps the body in continual state of
perSpiTatiOn, the sweat often having A
1oul smell because of the organic matter
In 1t " hich readily decomposes The fat
IS poor conductor Of heat and cold.
hence any eXeTtion which causes heat
In the body is followed by a sense of
discomfort because the increased temper
allure is not lowered as rapidly as il
should be by radiation. The body being
constantly moist, the corpulent person
catches cold more easily than A snare
person, and when he does catch cold he
suffers more from it because the various
organs are torpid and the functions are
sluggish.
In a state of health there is a stream
of fat periodically flowing through the
liver, but the organ its>l contains no
lat t''e"o is q tendency to obesity the
hNef - the mr. --an o undergo fattv
lnhltration and accretiOn because of this
supply OF fat. The liver actually becomes
enlarged and literally greasy" so that
II 1t Is cut through at a post-mortem the
Knife will appear and feel as if dipped in
oil. This enlargement of the liver cat1s-
es pressure upon the diaphragm which
itself, also, becomes permeated with fat.
and this in turn lessons the force and
capacity of breathing so that a corpulent
person becomes shCrt-winded and prrs
upon the slightest violent exertion.
The most important alteration however
is that of the heart and blood vessels
A fatty neaIt is a weakened heart as far
as the tissue itself is concerned, but in
the common form of obesity the heart
beats fall and fCrcibly We call such
people }ethoric, or fuIl-blooded the face
IS flu ID; they suffer from vertigo and
head<- ne. Son etjmes the rush of blood
Is so great that it seems as if they
were drowning in their own blood. On
the other hand, there is a form of obesity
due to or combined with ammonia or blood
Iessness, and in these cases the fatty
Its
force is weakened and urder exertion Or
excitement fainting fits may occur.
At the same time the arteries undergo
1aJly degeneration; the walls are filled
with tat glObuleS; they become weaken
CO. ike a rotten hose pipe, as it were,
and under any sudden, unusual pressure.
as IN violent eXertiOn, the blood is forced
through them, the walls being rent in
twain; an accident that occurs most fire.
Quently in the brain. and is followed nv
q pouring out of the blood within the era
mum winch presses upon the brain.
ana thus causes insensibility and par
aIySlS IhlS is so common an accident
IN plethOric and corpulent people that
even physicians speak of such as of an
apopleuc build not without reason. In
Cldentally the fatty heart leads indirectly
to kidney disease, the amount of blood
passed through the kidneys, or its randi
lty OF passage, being such that they can
not properly perform their functions
which may be still further impaired
by actual fatty degeneration of the kid
neys; hence the govt is commonly allied
with obesity, due in part to Incorporate
lVlng bat also due to disordered circula-
ton and excretion. For the same roo
soh corpulent persons are liable to
Brlghts disease, aIbuminuria and dia-
betes.
10 use homely metaphor, the tissues
OF an obese person become soggv. tho
skin is oily and seldom fair or smooth
ana when the cOrpulence becomes SO
great as to make wrinkles eczema an1
similar skin diseases NAV be causes hv
friction of one surface against another
Wrinkles, by the way, in corpulent neo-
pie, are due to the primary structure of
The body. Fat deposit always occurs in
parts already voluminous, and not in
thcse parts which are closely adherent to