Asthma, bronchitis, bronchorrhoea, pulmonary catarrh, in fat persons, both male and female, do they terminate favourably? If so, it is only for a while, to return, again to disappear, and finally to remain permanently, with a more or less constant cough, expectoration and oppression. In such cases, permanent cure becomes impossible, unless assisted by a reduction of fat. How are these phenomena to be explained? Some physicians will say that the lungs, being oppressed, and their movements constrained by neighbouring parts, and by the abdominal viscera, become obnoxious to inflammation; while others will maintain that these bronchial and pulmonary affections of fat people, are due to an afflux of humours to the part. Explain the presence of these affections in either way, I am persuaded that a reduced corpulency will be favourable to the restoration of health. The cases which I shall hereafter adduce will sustain my views. Let us enquire into the cause of those frequent palpitations and dull pains in the region of the heart so common in persons of excessive corpulency. Pharmacopoeal remedies are for the most part unavailing in these cases. We shall find, further on, in our cases of recovery, that they have disappeared simultaneously with the undue _embonpoint_, a proof that they frequently arise from obstruction to the motion of the heart. The fat which overloads it and the neighbouring viscera, occupies too large a portion of the space necessary for the free execution of the heart's movements, and hence the spasms, sense of oppression, &c. The fatty liver is well known to be a liver containing in its substance more than the normal amount of fat; a morbid condition intentionally induced in certain animals for the purpose of gain. In man the liver often becomes surcharged with fat, giving rise to obstruction of the liver. The term, obstruction, conveys an idea of the disease arising from this cause. The liver secretes bile, which, in order to reach the duodenum, flows through a small duct. If this duct be compressed, the flow of bile is impeded, and the result is uneasiness and disease. The liver is traversed by a vast number of arteries and veins, through which, in a condition of health, the blood finds a ready passage. If, however, an undue development of fat should take place in the tissue of the liver, these vessels become compressed. The inferior vena cava receives all the blood emerging from the liver, and conveys it to the right side of the heart, thence to be sent to the lungs, to undergo that aëration which, by changing it from venous to arterial blood, renders it fit for the nourishment of the various parts of the body. Any obstruction to the circulation through the liver must necessarily give rise to the most serious consequences; for the blood which it contains is in no wise fitted for nutrition.