FATS. 267 
animal diet makes for leanness. Where, on the other hand, it 
is desired to reduce the amount of bodily fat, as in obese persons 
who are encumbered thereby, it will be proper to reduce the 
number of fat- and heat-producers in the daily food; also to 
increase the output of energy as supplied in the food, by taking 
more exercise, or doing more daily active work, or by a com- 
bination of these methods. The richer meats should be used 
very sparingly, such as pork, and goose ; likewise the fatty fish, 
as salmon, mackerel, eels, herrings, sardines in oil, and sprats ; 
the coarser sorts of bread will be best, such as contain much 
unassimilable bran. Potatoes are not so fattening as white bread, 
and may be allowed in moderation. Fresh fruits will be very 
useful, but not so the dried sweet fruits. Thick soups, sauces, and 
pastry are fat-producing, likewise starchy farinaceous foods. 
Lean meat may be taken liberally. Rest and sleep seem to 
lessen the waste of fat. But sleep is useful as an aid to diges- 
tion only in the case of invalids, and aged persons, and even 
then it may be injurious, because of the depressed circulation 
meanwhile. 
At first, for those newly convalescent from a wasting disease, 
pounded meat should be added to soups in the form of purées ; 
then passing on to the more easily digested forms of animal food, 
such as chicken, fish, and eggs. Jellies properly made from lean 
superior meat are to be commended, likewise custard, and light 
milk puddings, which are proteid-sparers. The enrichment of 
the diet in fat for such patients may be wisely deferred until 
later, being then accomplished, if desirable, by the free use of 
cream, butter, bacon, and suet. 
Warner, in his Literary Recollections, tells of an eccentric lady, 
Mrs. Jefferys, the sister of Wilkes, who lived at Bath, and who 
dined every day at a boarding-house, with a bottle of Madeira 
at her side, eating largely of some big joint particularly abundant 
in fat. She was served with frequent slices of this fat meat, 
which she swallowed alternately with pieces of chalk, neutralizing, 
as she supposed, the acids of the fat with the alkaline basis of the 
chalk. Furthermore she amalgamated, diluted, and assimilated 
the delicious compound with half a dozen glasses of her 
Madeira. 
Charles Lamb, in Grace before Meat, inveighs against overfed, 
obese greedy eaters. “Gluttony and surfeiting,” says he, “are 
no proper occasions for thanksgiving. We read that when 
