78 Lineaments of Leanness. 



rest. The only peculiarities discovered, on dissection, were the 

 almost total want of fat, and the obliteration, in a great mea- 

 sure, of the lymphatic system. The lactealswere invisible ; all 

 the glands were remarkably small ; the inguinal glands, in par* 

 ticular, were quite shrunk, and the vessels leading to them were 

 almost impervious. 



Halle therefore concludes, that this case affords an example 

 of atrophy, independent of any organic affection, except what 

 resulted from the successive obliteration of the lymphatic 

 system. 



Two remarkable instances are mentioned by Lorry — one of 

 which will sufficiently illustrate this remark. 



A person advanced in years, and aflPected with melancholy, 

 became, without any evident cause, in such a dry state, as to 

 be unable to move without producing a horrid crackling noise 

 in all his bones, even the spine, to such a degree, that (being a 

 priest) he was obliged to give up saying mass, as the noise was 

 so great as to astonish the vulgar, and make children laugh. 



Sudden emaciation and absorption of fat, however the effect 

 of diseased organic structure, or acute disease, does not pro- 

 perly belong to, or characterise that opposite state, or anti-^ 

 thesis to corpulence, known by the term leanness, which is 

 always attended by extreme tension and dryness of the cellular 

 membrane, very frequently by weakness in the digestive powers, 

 but not constantly, as we sometimes find thin and lean persons, 

 eat more in quantity than others. 



It is not eating alone, however, but digestion that gives 

 strength and nourishment : yet digestion may be perfect, and 

 assimilation of chyle into blood imperfect ; for, that the quan- 

 tity of nourishment does not depend on the quantity of food, 

 is evinced, by the most voracious eaters being found among 

 the leanest of their kind. 



The act of eating gives rise to three subsequent processes, — * 

 digestion — chymefaction — and chylefaction. The production 

 of fat seems to depend most on this latter process, and whether 

 as Father Paul says, ** the little we take prospers with us," or 

 whether we fall off though fed on turtle, seems to depend on 

 the facility of chylefaction ; a process carried on out of the 

 Stomach, in the small intestines, a lower portion of the aliraen* 



