450 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



blood-vessels is vastly increased in aggregate bulk, while at the same 

 time no corresponding increase takes place in the forces which supply 

 the means of action to those capillaries. Hence there is a comparative 

 weakness in the conservative vital processes, and any injury to a part, 

 especially if remotely situated, is less easily repaired. 



The senses of hearing, taste, and smell, are frequently much im- 

 paired in corpulent people, a condition due in the majority of cases, 

 according to Dr. Harvey, to deposits of fat in the organs concerned. 

 The nasal passages, mouth, and throat, are, as all know, lined with mu- 

 cous membrane, which continues through the Eustachian tubes into the 

 middle ear. This mucous membrane may become the seat of a fatty 

 deposit, and thus impair the function of the part. The sense of smell 

 depends upon the contact of odorous emanations with the sensitive 

 olfactory membrane, and such contact can only take place when there 

 is a free passage for them through the nose. If the nasal membranes 

 become thickened from any cause, thus partially or wholly preventing 

 the passage of air, the capacity of smell is correspondingly affected. 

 The sense of taste, which, to according many physiologists, is prop- 

 erly limited to the perception of the acid, bitter, sweet, or saline prop- 

 erties of food, does not appear to suffer ; but the power to recognize 

 and enjoy flavors, which is commonly associated with taste, but which 

 in reality belongs to the nose, is sometimes lost along with the sense 

 of smell. Access of air to the middle ear through the Eustachian tubes 

 is an essential to the sense of hearing, and this, too, is greatly inter- 

 fered with oftentimes by the fatty thickening of the mucous mem- 

 brane of the nose and throat. At all events, whatever the nature of 

 the cause, it has resulted, in great numbers of cases where corpulence 

 was attended by these defects of sense, that removal of the deposit by 

 a proj:>er dietary has been immediately followed by recovery, after all 

 sorts of local remedies had failed to afford relief. 



Dr. Harvey thinks that both gout and rheumatism are aggravated 

 by corpulence. Another troublesome attendant is. a tendency to the 

 formation of gravel and calculus. In regard to this, Dr. Harvey states 

 that, after the usual remedies prescribed for its relief have completely 

 failed, he has seen a well-directed dietary, designed with a view to re- 

 straining the formation of adipose, completely successful in finally pre- 

 venting these distressing formations. 



Although obesity may be ranked among the diseases arising from 

 original imperfection in the functions of some of the organs, it is also, 

 without doubt, most intimately connected with our habits of life. The 

 inconveniences arising from it are, therefore, to be removed by correct- 

 ing those habits, especially such as relate to diet and regimen. Drugs 

 without number have been tried, both for the removal of corpulence 

 itself, and for the many troubles to which it gives rise ; but they have 

 almost uniformly failed when diet and exercise have been neglected. 

 On the other hand, attention to these points, persistently carried out, 



