368 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are a little contrary to those generally received ; but I think I 

 shall succeed in convincing those who will go carefully into the 

 matter with me that many preconceived conceptions on the sub- 

 ject of diet will not bear investigation. Perhaps the particular 

 condition of the system that I am called upon to treat obesity- 

 gives me a greater insight into the exact effect of diet than falls 

 to the lot of the ordinary physician or specialist. To begin with, 

 I will assail a time-honored belief viz., that meat is a heating 

 food that is, in the sense of giving warmth, and raising the heat 

 of the body ; and that farinaceous foods are the reverse. People 

 believe that the less meat they eat in the summer the better, 

 " because it tends to heat the system." Now, it is a curious thing 

 that in dieting people for the reduction of fat by dietetic means 

 only and this I have to do at all seasons of the year I am 

 in the habit of cutting off farinaceous foods, sugar, and fat, 

 and giving large quantities of meat, green vegetables, stewed 

 fruit, and other non-fattening substances, in quantity regulated 

 according to the height, weight, and physical or mental work of 

 the individual, male or female, as the case may be; with the 

 result that in the colder months of the year people tell me that 

 they do not feel too warm, clothe as they will. To so great an 

 extent does this sometimes occur, that I am obliged to supple- 

 ment the non-fattening diet by giving a little heat-forming food, 

 such as cream, or a slightly increased amount of bread, or a small 

 quantity of fat. The result is at once apparent. The body 

 warmth becomes more comfortable. Now, what does this show ? 

 It shows that the foods that supply heat are more particularly 

 farinaceous foods, sugar, and fat ; * and this is admitted by all 

 dieticians now. If this is so and it undoubtedly is it naturally 

 stands to reason that when the external temperature performs 

 this duty, the individual can not require so much food that will, 

 by its chemical decomposition in the body, maintain a high tem- 

 perature, and, if taken, as is usually the case, in excess, become 

 an incumbrance by being stored as fat. It must be distinctly 

 understood that the argument which I have used, where the 

 heat-forming food is cut off by me, is where the surplus fat in 

 the body is in excess that is, in corpulency and when it is 

 desirable to get rid by dietetic means of the accumulated fat in 

 the system. In this case the fat is the storehouse from which 

 the system draws to sustain its warmth, as long as the stored fat 

 is in excess. 



A fat animal will live without food months longer than a thin 

 one. A pig buried by the fall of a cliff at Dover was dug out 

 alive one hundred and sixty days after. When it was buried by 



* The Eskimo eats twelve pounds of fat a day. 



