§74 €ommenis on Corpulency. 



consumers of ale ; and it is recorded of a Welsh 'squire, Wm. 

 Lewis, who died in 1793, that he drank eight gallons o? de 

 per diem, and weighed forty stone ; which, for the reasons stated 

 in the Latin verses, is not improbable. 



This Vinum Britannicum, borrowed from the Egyptians, 

 was originally patronised by the Welsh, and has subsequently 

 been considered the natural beverage of Englishmen. I have 

 known some honest Cambrians, who, like Boniface, '^ ate it and 

 drank it," and would continue drinking it under constitutional 

 derangements that would have killed an ordinary man. 



" Nothing will stay on my stomach," said an old toper, " but 

 beef-steaks and Hodgson's ale! — What do you think of my 

 stomach, eh doctor ? " *^ Why I think your stomach a very sen- 

 sible stomach,'* was the equivocal reply. 



Case IIL — From a Country Practitioner. 



" I should before have replied to your letter of the 31st ult. 

 had I not been waiting to see the person whose case I am 

 about to give you ; this I did yesterday, and, although the re- 

 duction is not so great as I had previously supposed, yet the 

 particulars may not be irrelevant." 



He then proceeds to give a long history, almost amounting 

 to the birth, parentage, and education of a man five feet high — 

 twenty-seven years of age — weighing twenty-three stone ; and 

 enters into a detail of his plans for reducing his bulk, the short 

 abstract of which is, that 



June 17, 1820, the weight of this person was, as stated, 



July 27 



Sept. 10 



Oct. 10 



Nov. 10 



Dec. 10 

 » 25 

 being a reduction of five stone one pound. 



** I have always found it very difficult to get corpulent per- 

 sons to give up those habits which lead to obesity ; they are, 

 for the most part, great lovers of the table, and not easily in- 

 duced to forego the pleasures of it. On returning home, after 

 some years' absence, I passed a man in the street without 

 knowing him, although I had previously been well acquainted 



