278 Comments on Corpulency, 



*^It is a healthy deposite in an animal feeding on grass, and 

 rambling at large ; it becomes a diseased one in animals tied 

 to a rack and fed upon oil-cake ; and it appears to me, too, that 

 this disposition to sleep upon a distended stomach is the great 

 promoter of the evil, as I am credibly informed by a gentleman 

 in this neighbourhood, who formerly fattened bullocks, that all 

 those animals who became restless and would not sleep, were 

 invariably turned loose again as unprofitable subjects." 



Case VI. 



** At 30 years of age he weighed twenty-three stone, ate and 

 drank with great freedom, and in great abundance, and was 

 withal so lethargic, that he frequently fell asleep in the act of 

 eating, and this in company. 



** He felt much inconvenience and alarm from these symp- 

 toms, and went to Edinburgh to consult Dr. Gregory : in pur- 

 suance of his advice, he took a great deal of exercise, lived 

 sparingly, and slept little. The quantum of the former de- 

 pended on the season, and on the power of the patient to bear 

 fatigue. The prescribed diet consisted principally of brown 

 bread and tea, the former having a considerable quantity of 

 bran ; but as it was necessary to fill the stomach, the patient 

 ate a great quantity of apples ; and to enable him to take the 

 necessary exercise, he found a pint of port or sherry a day in- 

 dispensable. He retired to rest about eleven, and rose at four or 

 five in the morning. The only medicine he took was three brisk 

 cathartics a week. The precise time he continued under this 

 rigorous system I have not ascertained ; he is now thirty-eight, 

 and has been well some years. He reduced himself to fifteen 

 stone only, being a very large and bony man, and I understand 

 that he now eats and drinks without any restraint, so much so, 

 that it is thought he has of late got rather fatter, and may, 

 without care, be again in the state from which he recovered." 



Observations. — ^The memoranda of this case were given to 

 me by a sensible friend, who, though an adept in the " savoir 

 vivre," tempers good living with good discretion. 



Under the judicious direction of Dr. Gregory, the patient 

 was reduced eight stone, which is the most important fact in 



