Obesity, or Excessive Corpulence: The Various Causes and the Rational Means of Cure — John Shaqi
Obesity, or Excessive Corpulence: The Various Causes and the Rational Means of CureDancel, J.-F. (Jean-François)
Science
Obesity, or Excessive Corpulence: The Various Causes and the Rational Means of Cure
Dancel, J.-F. (Jean-François)
Obesity; Weight loss
I have had men under my care weighing two hundred and fifty pounds.
Upon the occasion of their first visit, having felt their limbs, I have
said, "I can diminish your weight by fifty pounds; but these enormous
muscles will be increased rather than diminished in size. You must not
expect a reduction of more than fifty pounds; but fifty pounds less
of fat, distributed among organs overloaded with it, will be highly
beneficial to health."
Guénaud is far from being thin, but he is strong and muscular, and
has the physical and moral energy of a robust young man. His enormous
size had rendered him conspicuous in that part of the city where he
carried on his business as a baker; but when he had become reduced
to the normal size of other men, the change produced considerable
sensation, and excited curiosity as to the cause. He has done justice
to the treatment which has made him once more a man. I will also do him
the justice to say that he has honestly carried out my instructions.
A beefsteak or a couple of cutlets, with a very small allowance of
vegetables, together with half a cup of coffee, constituted his
breakfast. Dinner consisted of meat and a very small quantity of
vegetables. From being a great water-drinker, he had come down to an
allowance of a bottle or a bottle and a half of liquid in a day. When
thirsty he drank but little at a time; and between meals, used to
gargle his mouth with fresh cold water.
A lady, residing in the town of Montereau, wrote to me in the early
part of September, 1849. She was twenty-six years of age, and weighed
one hundred and seventy pounds. Her corpulence was increasing to such
an extent that she would soon be unable to attend to her household
duties. She wished to know if my system of treatment would interfere
with her general health, and whether it would prevent her pursuing her
usual and indispensable daily avocations. On receiving the necessary
explanations, she immediately placed herself under my care, and upon
the 23rd of the same month, she informed me that her weight was already
considerably less, but that her size remained about the same. A letter
of the 12th October following states that she has lost fifteen pounds
weight, and that her size is materially diminished. The treatment was
continued for some time longer, and never caused the least interference
with the discharge of her domestic affairs.
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