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
An English lady wrote to me from Dieppe, on the 15th of July, 1852. The
following is an extract from her letter:--"Arrived here only a short
time ago. I at once made trial of your plan for the cure of obesity,
and have already experienced considerable improvement. I have not
yet had an opportunity of being weighed, and therefore cannot assert
positively that my actual weight is less than it was, but I certainly
feel lighter, and my hands are neither so red nor so fat as formerly."
Madame Meuriot, an actress, then staying at Chatellerault, addressed me
under date the 21st of August, 1851. Her letter is exceedingly lengthy
and full of minutiæ, that would be improper to lay before the public.
But she informs me that her weight in the course of a single year had
increased from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and seventy-five
pounds. In order to retain her theatrical engagements, she determined
to use every possible means to overcome this troublesome _embonpoint_.
She took her food in quantity barely sufficient to sustain nature; made
use of sea biscuit instead of bread that she might eat less. For some
time past she has been taking daily forty drops of the tincture of
iodine, under the direction of a physician, but without appreciable
benefit. Every portion of the body was loaded with fat, and the lower
part of the legs were swollen. Having met with my book and dreading
the effects of the iodine upon her general health, she was anxious
that I should advise her. I did so; and sent the medicine, together
with necessary directions from Paris to Perpignau, where she was then
staying. I received a letter from her on the 9th of October following,
in which she says:--"I am happy to inform you that your treatment has
been attended with the most satisfactory results. My legs are no longer
swollen. I walk with greater ease than formerly, and my breathing is no
longer oppressed. I am unable to say how much my weight has decreased,
not having ready access to platform scales; but my gowns tell me that
my size is less than it was, yet not as small as could be desired." In
conclusion she wished to know whether she might continue the treatment
a month or two longer, and if I thought so, to please send her the
requisite medicine. I did so, and heard nothing further from Madame
de Meuriot until the month of August in the following year. She was
then on her way to fulfil an engagement at Lille, and called to see
me. She expressed great delight in having got rid of her troublesome
_embonpoint_, and said that she had not been afflicted with swelling of
the legs since placing herself under my treatment. "But something has
occurred which I did not in the least expect: since my corpulency has
left me, I have become _enceinte_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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