Some ancient authors inform us of the means that were employed in former times by slave dealers at Rome to render their merchandize fat or lean, in accordance with the requirements of the market. But these means, in our present state of society, are no longer available. I shall briefly say that the ladies of Rome, in order to reduce the size of their breasts, which, when largely developed, were considered unsightly, were in the habit of using a poultice composed of Lemnian clay, lime, sugar, parsley and white of egg. I have used this poultice to arrest the secretion of milk after childbirth, and under its influence the breasts have diminished in size to such an extent that it was manifest a reduction of the fat surrounding the glands had taken place. Instead of Lemnian earth, I substitute an argillaceous substance possessing all its properties. This poultice is the only remedial means worth recalling: all the others which are given are based upon superstition or some vulgar error. Thus it was believed to be possible, by means of a surgical operation, to remove with safety the fat _en masse_ from the abdomen, in the case of persons labouring under obesity. This belief has derived support from a story related by the historian of a certain pacha named Schisman, who it is said always had a surgeon accompanying him in his travels, whose duty it was to remove the fat from his abdomen whenever it became troublesome. In 1718, Rothonet, a Parisian surgeon, is said to have delivered a well-known personage of that time of an enormous belly. After the operation the person became small and active. Rothonet was soon besieged on all sides by a crowd of people desirous of undergoing the operation of delarding. Rothonet explained that the person upon whom he had operated had been afflicted with a fatty hernia protruding from the umbilicus, and covering the whole external surface of the abdomen; that by removing this mass of fat he had restored the former agility of the patient; but that he would never dare to open the abdominal walls for the purpose of removing fat. Many people, however, believe to this day that it is possible thus to remove fat.