Now you’re going to cry, “Nonsense! Look at Mrs. Plenteous; she’s enormous, and as healthy as a horse.” Well, we don’t know Mrs. Plenteous personally, but we’ll take your word that she’s a human being, and as such she was never intended to be enormous. She was made according to a careful pattern that hasn’t varied in thousands of years, by an expert designer who put strength and usefulness and beauty into his designs. Mrs. Plenteous has the regulation number of bones, muscles, and vital organs (barring operations). None of them is enormous. Each was built to carry around a certain weight without undue strain. If Mrs. Plenteous is enormous, her organs are carrying around an enormous strain. They _can_ take it—for a while—and they _will_—for a while. But Mrs. Plenteous is not really healthy, she’s just lucky—so far. DON’T TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT Ask your doctor. Ask your insurance agent (if you can edge in a word). They will tell you, we think, that excessive waistlines tend to go along with shorter lifelines. Medical records warn us that the overweight (or underweight, see page 21) person is much more susceptible to illness than the person whose weight is normal. And how surgeons loathe operating through layers of fat! And by the way, look around you at a roomful of elderly people. Aren’t most of them rather willowy? The “enormous” ones left early. SAFETY FIRST! There are so many tricky health questions involved in reducing that we are not going to take the responsibility of advising you specifically how to do it. We do suggest, however, that you: 1) See your doctor. If you haven’t a doctor of your own, see somebody else’s. He’ll be glad to become yours for the asking. He knows much more about you than you do, having spent a great deal of time and money to learn it, which you never did. Perhaps an ordinary reducing diet is not for you. Perhaps you have funny glands or a messy metabolism, which he will discover by careful tests and experiments. Perhaps you are not as overweight as you think you are. 2) Do what your doctor tells you. This will surprise him very much, but will also please and flatter him, and will cause him to work like mad on your case. [Illustration: uncaptioned] 3) Don’t take any advice from your friends. You know very well that you don’t agree with their politics, approve of their hats, or care much for their children. Why should you trust them on a matter much more intimate and vital? 4) Don’t try short cuts. It took time to put on those extra pounds, and it will take time to get them off. Don’t be beguiled by success stories of fad diets or slimming salts. You want to reduce your weight _only_—not your chances of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These magic potions may be harmless in nine cases out of ten, but it’s maybe just _your_ luck to draw number ten! [Illustration: uncaptioned] WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE, GIRLS?