Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-14
BY ALAN MACDONALD.

"HE ever-interesting fight against
fat has taken a new and sur
prising turn. At once it is an
amusing and a tragic turn. 1t
is almost like the twist OF plot
that makes short stories suddenly amaz-
ing and good.
A generous proportion of excess bod
tly poundage, a few double chins and
KriSs Kringle bay window were not so
long ago regarded by most of the world
as funny. The Falstaff tradition re-
fused to die. The late John Bunny of
the movies made fortune on his jelly
ball architecture. Indeed, when flap
pers, debutanteS, society matrons, as
pirants to movie stardom and middle
aged men who longed to look young and
athletic refused to see anything humor-
Gus in fat and warred desperately
against it, the world laughed, too. But
the anti-fat workers were only spurred
to greater efforts. All sorts of rigorous,
sacrificial cures were INDUCED in.
Women broke their health with eX-
tracts, organisms, drugs and starvation.
QuackS flourished and so numerous
were the tragedies, even deaths, that
the medical authorities roundly de-
nounced the anti-fat craze. In word,
humans courted death to be in style to
balk ridicule.
Today science proclaims that fat is
not and never was funny; that IN
itself it actively boosts the death rate
and leads to variety of fatal diseases.
And, strangely enough, no sooner does
this view become general than all the
daring SenSationaliSm and drama drop
out of the popular method OF cures.
Starvation, drugs, thyroid extract, save
on doctors prescription, are not only
taboo but quite out Of style. The gen.
orally popular and accepted cure now
is regular, gentle exercise and balanced
rather than emaclatlng diet.
The genius behind the new order APP
pears to be Dr. Louis Bauman, director
of the metaboliSm ward of the PreSby-
terrain Hospital in New York. At any
rate, DR. Bauman brought the situation
dramatically before newspaper readers
not so long ago by announcing that his
experiments with hundreds OF over
weight persons showed that excess tat
was at least a contributing cause of
death. particularly in the United States;
that there wasn't any drug known TO
medical science, save thyroid extract,
that would overcome excessive avolr-
DUBOIS. and that in at least 80 per cent
of too-much-fat cases the sufferers had
no one or nothing to blame save tend
ency toward gluttony.
But the most starting part OF lne
doctors pronouncement was based on
Insurance statistics. He pointed out,
on the basis of figures taken from
744,672 policies. that, averagely speak
ing. So per cent more deaths occurred
among men from so to 80 pounds over
weight than among those only or 10
pounds above normal. And he but
tressed this arresting revelation with
the statement that overfat humans are
more susceptible than others to such
frequently fatal diseases as diabetes,
high blood pressure. gallstones and
heart trouble Of the last 215 patients
requiring operations for gallstones at
Presbyterian Hospital, 1873 were over
weight.
The subject of operation, 1t seemed,
shed additional light on the dangers of
fat. for as the doctor said, obese hui
mans were a much poorer surgical risk
than thin folk. In other words, the
chances of a successful operation varied
almost in direct ratio to the thinnesS
of the patient-save in cases where the
sufferer was notwithstanding to
thu doctor. because tl1o excess pound
Rnt haNdic2ps the surgeon.
Il hAVs seen operations where the