Obesity, or Excessive Corpulence: The Various Causes and the Rational Means of Cure

by J.-F. Dancel

It has been said, moreover, that excessive corpulence modifies the intellectual faculties, diminishes their power, and may even completely annihilate them. The incessant desire for sleep, the somnolence with which fat people are tormented, is sufficient proof of the correctness of the assertion.

The experience of all medical men goes to shew that when persons of obesity are attacked by any acute form of disease, they succumb more easily than those possessing an ordinary embonpoint. Death usually occurs in such cases unattended with great suffering. Destruction goes on so quietly and imperceptibly, that the physician becomes aware of it only when it is too late to grapple with it.

Excessive corpulence is promoted by want of sufficient exercise, riding in a carriage, lying in bed too much, and the continued use of the warm bath. Having been told by many females, as I have said before, that their embonpoint had commenced after giving birth to their last child, which they had not suckled, and that they attributed the development of this embonpoint to their not having suckled the child, it may be asked, can this be assigned as one of the causes of excessive corpulence in females? I mention these facts without venturing at present to give an opinion.

Some physicians, and many of the laity, think that repeated bleedings tend to the development of fat. For my part, the fact is indisputable, both theoretically and as the result of experience. Bleeding removes a portion of the blood, which is flesh in a fluid state, having for its object not only the nutrition of the several organs, but also the stimulation of the heart's movements, and thus the maintenance of life. Taking a little blood, is taking a little of that which maintains life, and is therefore a weakening of every organ of the body. Areolar tissue, which becomes more extensible in proportion as the body becomes more feeble, must have its power of resistance diminished by the bleeding, and more readily permit the deposition of adipose matter. This affords an explanation of the fact stated by many of my female patients, that their excessive corpulence had manifested itself subsequent to repeated blood-lettings.

Bleeding encourages the development of fat in the lower animals, as well as in the human species; a fact well understood by cattle-breeders, who put it in practice in the case of cattle which they wish to fatten. The only exception made by them to this rule, is in reference to those animals which have a soft and yielding skin, as more frequently happens with beasts of a red-and-white colour, which are said to fatten readily. With this intention, agricultural writers recommend the use of blood-letting. An article which appeared in an agricultural journal recommends that every animal intended for fattening should be bled twice, at an interval of a few days.

Some people think that exercise on horseback is apt to produce corpulency, while others entertain a different opinion. The former maintain that persons whose business requires them to be much on horseback, are frequently fat; a remark which is made especially in reference to cavalry officers, and which is quite true. But the following explanation may be offered: A man on horseback undergoes severe exercise; and if he possesses a strong constitution, and takes a sufficient amount of food, this exercise will facilitate the digestive function, and the volume of his body will be increased. But it is necessary that the horseman should be of a very vigorous constitution. In truth, few cavalry officers are corpulent, and these few are to be met with among those who are somewhat advanced in life, and who are by nature well adapted to the profession. The greater number of cavalry soldiers, whether officers or privates, suffer much at first from fatigue. The young men who join a cavalry regiment soon grow thin, and, with but few exceptions, remain thin so long as they are in the service; and indeed it has happened that both in the case of officers and privates, in consequence of not being able to endure horse exercise, they have been obliged to be transferred to the infantry. It is therefore incorrect to regard this kind of bodily exercise as favourable to the development of corpulence.

For the development of obesity, there must exist a certain predisposition. We meet with many who do all in their power to grow fat, and who still remain thin, because, no doubt, they possess some peculiarity of organization which prevents the development of fat.

Obesity may be hereditary; that is to say, the father or the mother may transmit to their children a peculiar formation, having a tendency to make fat. From certain physiological conditions, we may recognize at an early age a natural tendency on the part of some persons to become corpulent. In the young of both sexes, where this predisposition exists, the face is broad and short, the eyes round, and the nose short and thick; the hands and feet are small, and there is a general roundness of limb. When possessed of such an organization, obesity may be warded off by a rational system of diet, to be indicated in the following pages. But the immediate and producing cause of corpulence is to be sought and discovered in the character of the food. The present system is founded upon this principle. Medical authors assert that food has a most important bearing in the production of corpulence. They forbid the use of meat, and recommend watery vegetables, such as spinage, sorrel, salad, fruit, &c., and for beverage water; and at the same time they direct the patient to eat as little as possible. These instructions, like too many others, are given because they are asked, and that in every disease, curable or incurable, the physician is bound to offer some advice. Medical men themselves put no faith in them, since they pronounce obesity to be incurable.

Having devoted a great deal of attention to this enquiry, I have arrived at the conclusion that it is not to be wondered at that obesity should be incurable, because the very means which have been recommended to overcome it, are exactly those best fitted to induce and maintain it.

I lay it down as an axiom, in opposition to the received opinion of centuries, that a very substantial diet, such as meat, does not develop fat, and that nothing is more capable of producing the latter than aqueous vegetables and water.