Comments on Corpulency* 275' 



with him. He had, from being as corpulent a person as I ever 

 saw, become altogether as thin. Upon inquiring what disease 

 had wrought this effect on him, I found he had been in perfect 

 health, and continued so, but sheer poverty had laid its hand 

 on him, and by depriving him of his usual good cheer, pro- 

 duced the change." 



Observations. — There are many instances on record of per- 

 sons being cured of obesity by accidental circumstances, very 

 disagreeable in themselves, but veiy salutary in their results ; 

 and many very extraordinary cases are related in ancient authors 

 bordering on the miraculous, but given with a confidence that 

 should awaken our attention if they do not entirely overcome 

 our incredulity. Of these, in Schenk's collection, is an account 

 of Francis Pechi, a great sufferer from the accumulated mis- 

 chiefs of good living, who was accidentally imprisoned. In 

 the year 1556, after a lapse of twenty years, he was found by 

 the French, who took the citadel he was confined in, to be 

 alive and well, and, moreover, cured of all his complaints, and 

 he walked through the city, with his sword by his side, without 

 the aid of a stick. Dr. Berwick notices a similar case of his 

 brother, who was confined in the Tower many years during the 

 usurpation. 



Tippoo Saib kept some English prisoners on bread and 

 water. Notwithstanding this hard fare, on their release and 

 return to Calcutta, they found themselves in better health, and 

 some of them cured of liver complaints, while others of their 

 more fortunate friends had died in the interim. 



The anecdote told by Colley Gibber, of Romeo's Apothe- 

 cary, and the case of the Brewer's Servant, mentioned in *• Re- 

 marks on Corpulency," are of the same kind, and many cases 

 similar to these must have occurred in the experience of every 

 man who has lived long and much in the world. 



Case IV. 

 A Gentleman called upon me one day, who, as soon as he 

 entered, I felt myself involuntarily exclaiming, ** Voila, mon 

 oncle ! un petit homme haut de trois pieds et demi, extraordi- 

 nairement gros, avec une tete enfoncee entre les deux dpaules," 

 — but more, be was the very epitome of good nature and good 



