COlirULENCE CORPUS CHRISTI. 



4-65 



Corpt dt bataiilt is the. main body of an army, 

 draw n up for battle bet\\ t-en the wings. 



CORPULENCE; the state of the human body, 

 when loaded with an excessive quantity of flesh and 

 fat. The flesh forms the muscular system ; audits ex- 

 tent being limited by the form of the particular mus- 

 cular parts, its quantity can neither exceed nor fall 

 below a certain bulk. The fat is much less limited, 

 and the production and deposition of it is confined to 

 no such definite form. The formation of the muscular 

 fibres, or the change of blood into flesh, takes place 

 in the capillary system, formed by the minutest por- 

 tions of the arteries at their termination in the mus- 

 cles. (Concerning the production of fat, see Fat.) If 

 blood is copiously furnished with nutritive matter, 

 it is converted readily mto muscular fibres and fat. 

 The secretion of flit depends, in a certain degree, on 

 the state of the health. Children and females have 

 a larger proportion of it than adult men. It is pro- 

 moted by rich diet, a good digestion, corporeal inac- 

 tivity, tranquillity of mind, &c. There is, however, 

 a diseased state of the system, which, independently 

 of all these influences, will increase the production 

 and deposition of fat. We see young people and 

 men, even such as are intelligent, and continually 

 engaged in active business, very corpulent. The 

 enormous corpulence of many men appears to bear no 

 proportion to their food, and is evidently a disease, as 

 many other secretions in the body; for example, the 

 preparation and secretion of the bile, saliva, &c., are 

 augmented by disease. Sandiford mentions an unborn 

 child, in which he observed a monstrous mass of fat. 

 Tulpius saw a boy five years old, who weighed 150 

 pounds. Bartholini makes mention of a girl aged 

 eleven years, who weighed above 200 pounds. John 

 Love, a bookseller of VV eymouth, who died in October, 

 1793, weighed twenty-six stone, or 364 pounds, and 

 was absolutely suffocated by excessive fatness. i d 

 ward Bright, grocer of Maiden, in Essex, when only 

 twelve years old, weighed ten stone four pounds, or 

 1 44 pounds ; when twenty, he had increased to twenty- 

 four stone, after which he gained two stones yearly; 

 tor, at his death, which took place in 1750, in the 

 thirtieth year of his age, he weighed forty-four stone, 

 or 616 pounds. His height was five feet nine and a 

 half inches. He is said to have been in the habit of 

 drinking one gallon of small beer daily, and once for 

 a wager, seven young men of twenty-one years of 

 age were included in one of his waistcoats. Daniel 

 Lambert, who was exhibited in London, in 1806, 

 when only twenty-three years of age, weighed thirty 

 stone. When in London, his weight was fifty stone, 

 or 704 pounds, and his height five feet eleven inches ; 

 he measured nine feet four inches round the body, 

 and three feet one inch round the leg. A Canadian, 

 n<:med Maillot, who exhibited himself in Boston, in 

 1829, weighed 619 pounds. Corpulency is often 

 only the repletion of the cells of the cellular mem- 

 brane with watery, gaseous, and vaporized matter, 

 r.rising from a marked tendency to disease, and ofien 

 the commencement of actual dropsy. Moderate cor- 

 pulence (embonpoint, in French) rs consistent with 

 health, and is not opposed to I eauty, as it prevents 

 angularity and uncveiiness in the surface of the body, 

 Etna gives tfie parts rotundity. For this reason, mo- 

 ilrrately corpulent women and men preserve a beau- 

 tiful and youthful appearance longer than lean per- 

 sons. But if corpulence is excessive, it becomes 

 troublesome, and, at length, dangerous. Water 

 should then be drunk instead of wine ; milk, beer, 

 and brandy should be avoided ; active bodily exer- 

 cise should be taken, and employment provided for 

 the mind. Anxiety soon takes off superfluous fat, 

 tl.ough grief sometimes produces it. In what cases 

 iiicdicine is t > be moiled to, nnd what kinds should 

 ii. 



be used, must be left to the judgment of physicians. 

 People sometimes resort to violent and injurious 

 means to rid themselves of superfluous flesh. Madam 

 Stitch, the best actress in the theatre at Berlin, took 

 poison to reduce her person to the right dimensions 

 tor performing Shakspeare's Juliet, and succeeded, 

 though at the expense of her health. Instances ot 

 leanness as remarkable as those of corpulence are by 

 no means rare. In 1830, a native of Vermont exhi- 

 bited himself in America. He called himself the liv- 

 ing skeleton. II is legs and arms were almost entirely 

 deprived of flesh. The man was about forty-five 

 years old, and weighed sixty pounds. 



In curing corpulency, due attention must be paid 

 to the regulating of the diet, exercise, and sleep of 

 the individual. The most noted case of cure is that 

 of Mr Thomas Wood, miller of Billericay, in Essex, 

 whose case is related by Sir George Baker, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions. When at the age of 

 forty-four, this individual was of a monstrous size, and 

 was habitually suffering under severe gout and rheu- 

 matism, attended with thirst, heart-burn, pain in the 

 stomach, headache, and giddiness, and had even had 

 two severe fits of epilepsy, with a constant horror of 

 being suffocated after every meal. But he was gra- 

 dually freed from all these dreadful complaints by 

 making a complete change in his mode of life. 

 First, taking small beer instead of strong ale, then 

 drinking water only ; using dumb-bells, then leaving 

 off drinking even water ; anfl next abstaining from but- 

 ter and cheese, and, lastly, all animal food ; confining 

 himself for several years t > a sort of hasty pudding, 

 made of milk, sea biscuit, and an egg, and abridging 

 his hours of sleep to seven, and labouring with a 

 spade in his garden. His voice, which had been 

 lost, returned. He became active, vigorous, and 

 cheerful, and attained the age of sixty-four years 

 dying, at length, from an inflammation in his bowels 

 a disease hereditary in his family. In nine cases 

 out of ten, corpulency may be traced to the pernici- 

 ous h;; bit of swilling large quantities of malt liquor, 

 or inilk, or cream, or tea ; and nothing is more effica- 

 cious than to abstain, as much as possible, from over 

 indulgence in tfie use of fluids. Some writers on 

 corpulency have recommended the use of Castile soap 

 in pills, or boluses, taken to the extent of two or 

 three drachms daily, but the safer plan is to follow the 

 example of tiie miller of Billericay. See Dr Flem- 

 ing's Pamphlet on Corpulency ; Dr Cullen's First 

 Lives ; trauvtige's Nosol. Method. Article, Polysarcia ; 

 and Philosophical Transactions. 



CORPUS CHRISTI, or corpus Domini Jes/t 

 Christi, means the consecrated host at the Lord's 

 supper, which, according to the doctrines of the Ca- 

 tholic church, is changed, by the act of consecration, 

 into the real body of Jesus the Saviour. .This doc- 

 trine, which was prevalent even in the 12th century, 

 caused the adoration of the consecrated host, which, 

 as it was thought, should be worshipped as the true 

 body of Jesus. On that account, the people in the 

 Catholic churches fall upon their knees whenever 

 the priest raises tfie host ; and throughout all conn 

 tries in which the Catholic religion is the only one 

 tolerated, as Spain, Portugal, Italy, &c., the viaticum 

 (the name of the host when carried to the house of a 

 sick or dying man that he may partake of it private- 

 ly) is salutecl with the same marks of adoration by 

 every one -who sees the priest pass with it, or who 

 hears the bell of the boys of the choir, when they go 

 by. All who are riding dismount or leave their car- 

 riages to exhibit this mark of respect. All business, 

 conversation, and amusement is interrupted until the 

 viaticum lias passed. 



The Catholic church has ordained, for the conse- 

 crated host, a particular festival, called the cvrpitt 



