Among female patients who consult me in reference to their obesity, many complain of a general sense of uneasiness, with frequent pains in the stomach, kidneys, headache, &c., asserting that their excess of fat came on after a confinement and when they had not suckled the infant, and thence infer that their obesity is owing to a decomposition of milk within the system. I am not aware that this explanation has ever been accepted, yet I do not understand why it should not be received as valid, since it is well known that any deteriorated secretion may be absorbed and prove noxious to the general system. Pus from an inflamed vein may be thus re-absorbed, and the patient under such circumstances almost invariably dies. Why may not the secreted milk be likewise re-absorbed? I have met with many fat women from whose breasts milk constantly flowed, although they had not borne children for the last ten years. A lady who has followed my method of treatment for obesity, says that she is certain that her excessive fat arose from her not suckling her last child, and that her milk turned into fat. She has had no children for the last eight years, and whenever she takes a child in her arms a peculiar feeling causes an abundant flow of milk from her breasts, which has all the properties of the healthy secretion.
It is now well understood that corpulency is the true cause of many diseases, yet it would be folly to assign obesity as a cause of every disease. To do so would be to detract from the value of the anti-obesic treatment. I feel called upon, however, to relate the following account given by one of my patients, the correctness of which was vouched for by several of her acquaintances. She had been subject for many years to a nervous affection, the attacks of which were so severe that she fell to the ground, foamed at the mouth and clenched her hands, but did not lose consciousness during the fit, which usually lasted from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour. Such are the symptoms of hysteria. Two years ago this lady went to the baths at Aix-la-Chapelle, where she heard of the anti-obesic treatment. Being very strong, she came to Paris and placed herself for two or three months under my care. She had had several fits at Aix. I do not know whether she had any during the the first few days after her arrival in Paris, but at the end of a month she told me she had been perfectly free from them, and trusted that this change was due to my treatment. Such has really been the case; for since this lady has lost her corpulence, she has been free from hysterical seizure. I am aware that many thin women are hysterical. When, however, this disease is met with in a corpulent person, and that it disappears under the anti-obesic treatment, the cure may perhaps be fairly assigned to the treatment. Excessive corpulence is the cause of many affections which are often with difficulty characterized by physicians. The superintendent of a large manufactory at Belleville received a severe blow upon the left side, several years ago. Latterly he has become very corpulent, subject to dizziness and headache; moreover the left leg is swollen, and he suffers pain in the side which had been bruised. Professor Cloquet first recommended bleedings, then leeches, afterwards frictions and plaisters. The patient at length, wearied with the aggravation rather than the amelioration of his ailings, came to consult me in the month of April, 1853. In the course of two months under my treatment he has lost his excessive corpulence, is free from pain in the side, his leg is no longer swollen; he is active, and has now no fear of being obliged to give up his business. This is another instance of disease due to obesity.
After reading the preceding remarks, some astonishment must be felt that medical writers have paid so little attention to the subject of corpulence. It has been said not to constitute a disease: that it is a normal condition: that it is a condition intermediate between health and disease: that a fat person is predisposed to disease.
For my part I cannot comprehend a condition between health and disease, with corpulence; and if such do exist it is attended with those infirmities and serious inconveniences already mentioned. Predisposition to disease and morbid tendency are, in the case of persons labouring under obesity, the precursors of serous or sanguineous apoplexy, obstructions, &c.
In fine, obesity is not always a disease, because it does not always cause suffering; but it ought, nevertheless, not to be neglected, because life cannot be of long duration under such circumstances, and may terminate suddenly at any moment.
In the midst of the various duties of a medical career, I flatter myself that I have not fallen into an error, too frequent with medical men, that of referring all diseases to one single cause. Suspicion may arise that I have fallen into such an error, because I speak here only of those diseases consequent upon excessive corpulence; but I pray the reader to remember that a vast number of diseases exist which are altogether independent and foreign to obesity. It was, however, necessary that I should point out those morbid phenomena which are due to an excessive development of fat in the system.