How to Get Thin

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HOW TO GET THIN.

Superfluous flesh, though a frequent concomitant of easy digestion and consequent good humor, is not generally regarded as indicative of shrewdness or wisdom. It is commonly supposed that the brilliant genius of the first Napoleon paled in proportion to the growth in his later years of "a fair round belly, capon-lined;" and a similar remark has often been made in reference to Senator Douglas and other prominent men. On the other hand, when we meet a man wearing the "lean and hungry look" of a Cassius, the association of ideas is likely to be complimentary to his intellect, though it may be unfavorable to his social qualities. How to get thin, is a question of vast importance to many people. There are classes of persons whose obesity is a painful misfortune to them. Literary men, for instance, and all whose support depends upon the activity of their brain, often find their faculties clouded by and as it were buried under an accumulation of corporeal substance. Nor is this the only inconvenience attending the undue development of the physical man.

Embonpoint¹ is a constant cause of sterility, both in man and beast. A fat queen may cause an ancient dynasty to become extinct, for want of an heir to the throne. The very peasants sell off their fat hens, as unproductive of eggs. Over-luxuriant plants produce no flowers, or barren ones. Excess of fat causes the human epidermis to crack, mottling the skin with white speckles and streaks; it induces hernias of various distressing forms; it is the parent of ulcerated legs; it gives rise to headaches, giddiness, and dimness of sight. Such evils are often sought to be remedied by bleeding; but every medical man is aware that repeated bleedings are prodigiously conducive to the development of fat. The palliative of bleeding, therefore, is only temporary; the more you are bled, the sooner are you stricken with apoplectic fat. And note this, for your comfort; fat people attacked by apoplexy are almost sure to die, while lean people have a very fair chance of recovery. The inquiry into the causes and remedy of obesity, therefore, is by no means an unimportant one.

Many people are constitutionally predisposed to corpulence; and they assist this tendency by excessive indulgence in sleeping and eating, instead of laboring to counteract it.

Hydrogen is one of the main elements of fat. Chemistry tells us that the principal base of meat is azote, which does not enter into the composition of fat; while the principal elements of fruits, sugar, flour, and starch, are carbon and hydrogen, the elements of fat. If you live principally on lean meat, you will not fatten so fast as those who follow a regimen composed of carbonic and hydrogen bases.

Overladen sufferers ought to take internally certain substances which aid in the decomposition of fat. The alkalis, for instance, combining with it, form soaps. Such alkalis, administered in ordinary doses, never produce inconvenience; they increase, rather than diminish the appetite, and thus favor the decrease of fat. But this is not enough, without a careful attention to the above rules of diet.

Even when living exclusively on meat, you may spoil all by drinking too much. The absorption of the smallest possible quantity of liquid is an indispensable condition, whether in the form of food, drink, or baths. A moist atmosphere even encourages the growth of fat: some people become sensibly heavier in muggy weather. As a warning, be it mentioned that draughts of vinegar and other acids produce leanness (when they do not cause death) only by deranging the general health through the injury they cause to the digestive canal.

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