other things at discretion, except eggs. One point to observe is, that you cannot breakfast too early. Hitherto I have, in a kind and paternal manner, Further prescribed for the evil when it threatens A few precepts must be maxims. to approach. added for those who are already victims. Drink every summer thirty bottles of seltzer water; a large tumbler the first thing in the morning, two others before lunch, and the same at bedtime. Drink white wines, especially those that are light and acid, like that of Anjou, and avoid beer as you would the plague. Ask frequently for radishes, artichokes with hot sauce, asparagus, celery; choose veal and fowl rather than beef and mutton; and eat as little of the crumb of bread as possible. When doubtful, take the advice of a doctor who follows my principles; and at whatever stage you begin to adopt it, you will speedily improve in freshness, good looks, activity, health, and general fitness. There is a fatal doctrine prevalent amongst women that all acids, and especially vinegar, are useful for preventing stoutness. No doubt they cause leanness, but it is at the expense of the freshness of youth, health, and life; and to prove this statement of a truth which I think cannot be too widely known, I give an instance from my own personal observation. In 1776, when a student at Dijon, I formed an intimate acquaintance with a young lady, one of the prettiest girls I have ever known, and all the more from having that fulness of form, or classical embonpoint, which is one of the glories of the imitative arts. One evening I said to her, "My dear Louise, you are surely ill; you look thinner!" "Oh no!" she replied, with a sort of melancholy smile; “I am quite well, and if I am a little thinner, I can very well afford it." "Afford it!" said I, angrily, "there is no need for you being either thinner or stouter; keep as you are, a charming morsel," and other phrases of that sort suitable to a youth of twenty. Watching the young girl from that time, I soon saw a loss of colour, the cheeks becoming hollow, and her charms generally fading. Alas! what a frail and fleeting thing beauty is! At last, meeting her at an evening party, she confessed to me that, after feeling annoyed by some of her companions making fun of her and saying that in two years she would be as fat as Saint Christopher, she had for the past month been drinking a glass of vinegar every morning. A shudder passed through me at this confession. I felt the extent of the danger, and next morning I told her mother, whose alarm was equal to mine, for she was dotingly fond of her daughter. No time was lost; the best doctors were called, and consultations held and remedies tried; but all too late-for at the age of eighteen Louise fell asleep for evermore. About a week after her death, her despairing mother begged me to accompany her in paying the last visit to what remained of her daughter, and we saw with surprise that the face showed a sort of radiance, or ecstasy, which had not appeared previously. I was astonished, and the mother drew from it a favourable augury. It is not, however, rare, and there is mention of it in Lavater's "Treatise on Physiognomy." Use of a belt. Every system of treatment for the reduction of corpulence must be assisted by a contrivance which should have been mentioned sooner; to wit, the constant use, day and night, of a belt across the stomach. The patient is by no means condemned to carry it for a lifetime, but may lay it aside as soon as he has attained the desired limit.* Quinine. From several observations it appears conclusive that quinine has some property powerfully opposed to the production of fat, and I therefore recommend the use of it to the corpulent. It was a saying of Mirabeau's, referring to an excessively stout man, that God had only created him to show to what extent the human skin could be stretched without bursting.' Such are the means with which I propose to combat an inconvenience as troublesome as it is common. I have adapted them to the weakness of humanity, such as we find it in the present state of society. For that purpose I have acted on that principle of experience, that the more rigorous any system of treatment is, the less is the effect produced, because followed badly or not at all. Few patients will make a great effort. Hence, if you wish your advice to be followed, you must prescribe only what is easy, or even, if possible, what is pleasant. XXIII. ON LEANNESS. WHEN leanness is caused by the weakness or defective action of certain organs, it gives to the individual a mean and miserable look, and betrays the outline of the bony framework in all its angularity. I knew a young woman of average height who weighed only sixty-five pounds. Leanness is no great disadvantage for men, as it does not interfere with mere strength, and much assists the activity. Thus, the father of the young lady just mentioned, although quite as lean as she, was strong enough to take a heavy chair by his teeth and throw it backwards over his head. For women, however, it is a frightful evil, for with them beauty is more than life, and beauty consists especially in the roundness of limb and figure, in the gracefully curved outline. The choicest of toilettes, the most artistic of dressmakers, cannot disguise certain deficiencies or conceal certain angles. Who are destined to be lean. Those who are destined to be lean have frequently small hands, aquiline nose, almond-shaped eyes, large mouth, a pointed chin, and brown hair. In the worst form of leanness the eyes are dead, the lips pale, and the looks generally betoken want of energy, weakness, and sickliness. One might almost say they look as if they were not completely made, or as if the lamp of life within them were not yet properly lighted.* * Le flambeau de la vie-the torch of life-evidently a survival of the famous simile of Lucretius -quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt, where one generation, handing down 'the lamp of life' to another, is compared to a runner in the Grecian torch-races, who had to carry a torch and give it over unextinguished to his successor. |