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
A letter from this lady, dated Lille, the 13th October last, begins
thus:--"Since I last had the pleasure of seeing you, on the occasion of
my departure from Paris, I have become fully satisfied that I am in the
family way, and have been so for the past eight months." My advice was
requested on some points having reference to her then condition.
The preceding facts tend to shew that reduced corpulency is favourable
to conception.
Towards the latter end of 1850, the wife of Dr. Pecquet, of Paris,
purchased my work on Obesity. Having read it, she spoke to her husband
about it, who said that, like most medical men, he was persuaded that
the only way to reduce corpulency, is to eat less than the system
demands.
Madame Pecquet, then about sixty years of age, had long been troubled
with excessive corpulency, and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds.
She had, in consequence of this affliction, passed the greater part of
the last eighteen years either in her arm-chair or in bed. According
to some of the most celebrated physicians of Paris, and also of her
husband, her disease at one time was said to be pulmonary catarrh--at
another time, disease of the heart--and again, something else; till at
length Madame Pecquet had no rest, day or night.
If she attempted to go to sleep in the horizontal position, she was
immediately troubled with a rush of blood to the head, accompanied
with the most distressing hallucinations, which utterly prevented her
from sleeping. She was unable to take exercise on foot, even when her
ailments allowed her any respite, owing to the excessive pain she
experienced in the region of the kidneys, and the abundant perspiration
of the head, which a walk of even a few steps was sure to induce. It
was consequently impossible for her to go out, unless in a carriage.
Those only who are unable to enjoy this pleasure, know how great a
privation it is not to be able to take a walk on a fine day, and how
wearisome it is to be compelled to make use of a carriage in order to
enjoy the advantages of fresh air, or to move from place to place.
Madame Pecquet was so situated, and many a time she has
said,--"Eighteen long years have I been in this condition! Eighteen
years of suffering and misery, in spite of every medical aid which
has been bestowed upon me!" Under these circumstances, we can readily
understand how anxiously she must have sought a means of cure. One day,
without the knowledge of her husband, she took a carriage, and called
to consult me.
Those who believe as I do, that an excessive development of fat may
induce and sustain a generally diseased condition of body, will readily
admit that the diminution of excessive obesity is the only rational
means of cure in such a case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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