Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, February 1885Various
Religion
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, February 1885
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
Of the evils of the increase of fat most people who suffer from it are
only too conscious. But besides the more visible ones, they are usually
poor-blooded, and consequently lacking in vital energy, while the fat
diminishes the necessary space for the circulation of the blood and the
respiratory organs. The first of these evils shows itself in flushing
of the face when the circulation is quickened by exertion, and in the
difficulty felt in the return of the blood from the lower parts of the
body to the heart, which causes lassitude in the legs, and a tendency
to varicose veins; while, if the circulation of water in the system
be also impeded, dropsical swellings in the legs will ensue. The
limitation of space due to fat hinders also the free play of the lungs,
and the obese are disabled from exceptional exertion which necessitates
fuller breathing than usual.
Thus every one wishing to preserve health and working capacity, must
keep strict watch on the deposit of fat going on in the body; and all
such symptoms must be taken as evincing a wrong system of living;
and in order to stay its further accumulation and get rid of what is
superfluous, recourse must be had to augmented action of the skin.
The increased percentage of water and fat in the system renders it also
more liable to disease, more sensitive to cold, and disposed to chest
affections in the winter. In addition, the working powers of the mind
are sensibly lessened. Dr. Jaeger has discovered that their presence
in excess can be tested by the specific gravity and the rapidity of
the nervous action: and he has constructed an air-tight chamber where
experiments may be conducted on the former, and a stop-watch tests the
rapidity of the latter.
Not less interesting is Dr. Jaeger’s theory of the source of the
emotions, which he places in the albumen in the bodily tissues,
emanating in the form of subtile essences, which are opposed to each
other in the effect they produce, and which may be distinguished
as “salutary” and “noxious.” As a rule, the sanitary principle is
fragrant, the noxious tainted and offensive. The odor may be most
readily perceived in the hair of the head, and is more evident in the
adult than the child. If the subject of the test be in a cheerful mood,
the scent will be agreeable and sweet; but if sorrowful, depressed, or
in pain, the scent will be disagreeable. This odor may be noticed in
the anguish of fever, under the influence of terror, and exhales from
the mouth and nose, and, as Dr. Jaeger has proved by experiment, from
the brain as well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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