With few exceptions, the corpulent, both male and female, drink a great deal with their meals; and I am more and more convinced, by daily experience, that the large amount of fluid thus imbibed has powerfully contributed to produce their present condition. It may be said that it is constitutional with them to require so much drink. I grant that many persons are in the habit of drinking a great deal more than others, and even that they are constitutionally so inclined; but I cannot allow that they are compelled to drink as much as they do. Habit exercises a powerful influence over all our actions; and I have no doubt that, notwithstanding the existence of a natural predisposition to drink a great deal at meal time, the inclination might be held in check, by not yielding too easily to the desire. Many people, without thinking, increase and stimulate their thirst by making use of highly seasoned dishes; it would be well that they should exercise caution in this respect. Even when using a moderate amount of beverage, a selection as to kind is necessary. Beer and cider being especially rich in aqueous and mucilaginous matter, are by virtue of these elements particularly prone to the production of corpulence. All kinds of drink, when taken in excess, act rather as depressants than stimulants of the nervous centres, and a want of physical and mental activity, alike predisposes to obesity. Alcoholic drinks of every kind tend to the development of fat, owing to the large amount of the carbonaceous element they contain. Men who use brandy in excess are frequently so puffy and soft that you can scarcely discover the presence of muscular tissue beneath the skin. When blood is abstracted from such persons, it is found to be thin, and to contain a less amount of the most important of the sanguineous elements. We must not deceive ourselves; fat is not to be taken always as an evidence of strength, but, on the contrary, should be regarded as indicative of want of tone and of vital power, as in the case of the aged, who are frequently corpulent though infirm; young chlorotic females; persons deprived of a due supply of fresh air; and such as make use of an excessive amount of alcoholic drink. With respect to the last, it may be said, perhaps, that some are to be met with who, far from being corpulent, are excessively thin, in consequence of drinking large quantities of brandy; and such is indeed sometimes the case, but it is due to the fact that some essential organ of the body is suffering under the pernicious influence. And although the person may have been, at a former period, fat and lusty, the body finally becomes wearied with this continued excess, the stomach is diseased, nutrition is impeded or wholly suspended, and a complete destruction of the vital organism results.