It is erroneous to think that water produces fatness. If this were the case we would advise the poor people to drink plenty of water that costs nothing, to get fat. It is not water that makes fat, but water that is taken with the meals, together with copious food, thus aiding the absorption and assimilation of the same. To avoid obesity after rich food it is therefore advisable not to drink with the meals, but at other times. Copious food must be avoided, especially fat, starchy food and sweets. A diet consisting of plenty of meat, fats, and above all milk and butter and sweets, is the surest road to obesity. They must be avoided and the preference given to a diet of little meat, green vegetables and fruits. For further details of such a diet I must refer to the chapter, “The Treatment of Obesity,” in my book, “Health and Longevity through Rational Diet,” publishers, F. A. Davis Co., Philadelphia. I must emphasize the necessity of great prudence in reducing cures, for, as I know from my practice in Carlsbad, there is scarcely anything, unless a serious disease, that can produce so rapidly the appearance of age in young persons and the more in riper years, than imprudent and reckless obesity cures, causing wrinkles and the hanging and sunken cheeks. I must certainly blame the eagerness of many ladies to transform their fresh, round and elastic forms into lean and skinny ones, thinking that thus they will look younger. No; I am certain that many young women look considerably older after these atrocious and imprudent diet-cures. Dieting is more permissible with older persons, if not exceeding certain limits; but young women and girls I would strongly advise to eat hearty meals of mixed food, for, as I also show in my above-mentioned book on Diet, we are introducing in our systems very valuable substances, which are in reality useful remedies with certain articles of food. Most important among these are fresh milk (uncooked), numerous fruits, certain kinds of animal food, which all contain considerable quantities of important mineral salts, indispensable to our well-being, and to the freshness and elasticity of mind and body. Besides these salts and valuable ferments these articles of food contain also a most important substance, called _vitamines_, which, as its name shows, conveys a kind of vitality to the tissues. It is indispensable to the well-being of the nervous system and also of the muscles, and thus also to the most important muscle of the body, the heart. The vitamines are largely represented in the outer coverings of the rice, of the corn, and also in eggs, potatoes, etc. In fine white bread there is scarcely any, but there is far more in the brown bread containing all parts of the grain. Milk also contains them, but mainly fresh, uncooked milk; strong cooking destroys the vitamines in the plants and the animal food, and besides such cooking, as I show in the chapter on “Rational Cooking” of my book