884 FATTENING. [BOOK n. 



is so uncertain that it may be doubted whether any change in 

 the normal diet, beyond some increase in the whole, should be 

 made to meet a cold climate. Similar reasons would lead one 

 to infer that man in the warmer climate would maintain on 

 the whole the same normal diet, the only change perhaps being to 

 increase it slightly, possibly throwing the increase chiefly on the 

 carbohydrates, which can provide water at a less expenditure 

 of energy, with the special view of furthering perspiration. 



556. A special diet for the purpose of fattening, that is to 

 say for the accumulation of adipose tissue out of proportion to the 

 rest of the body, is not needed in the case of man. The power to 

 store up fat in adipose tissue is much more dependent on certain 

 inborn qualities of the organism which we cannot at present define 

 than on the kind of food ; of two bodies living on the same diet, 

 and under the same circumstances, one will become fat while the 

 other will remain lean ; and it is an object of the agriculturist to 

 develope by breeding and selection a " constitution " which will store 

 up the most fat on the cheapest diet. In fattening animals, the 

 chief care, when the selection of the kind of animal has been 

 made, is to provide adequate carbohydrate food, which as we have 

 seen is the chief fattener ; and the object of the farmer in rearing 

 stock for the butcher is mainly to convert cheap vegetable carbo- 

 hydrate into dear animal fat. Further aids in fattening may be 

 found in providing repose for the body of such a kind that, while 

 sufficient energy is expended to secure adequate digestion and 

 absorption of food, all causes leading to an increase of metabolism, 

 by which energy is set free and leaves the body, are avoided as 

 much as possible. 



To avoid fat rather than to increase it is often an object of 

 human care. This may be effected by diminishing fats and 

 carbohydrates, but also, in a very marked manner, by relatively 

 increasing the proteids. Proteid food as we have seen augments 

 the whole metabolism of the body, hurrying on the destruction not 

 only of proteid but of carbon food ; and a tendency to corpulency 

 may be counteracted by a diet in which fats and carbohydrates 

 are much restricted, and proteids are largely increased. When, 

 as in what is known as the Banting method, the diet is almost 

 exclusively proteid, the nitrogenous overwork entails dangers on 

 organisms which do not possess the power of ridding themselves 

 freely of the large amount of nitrogenous waste which such a diet 

 produces. A less severe method in which the fats and carbo- 

 hydrates are diminished only, not entirely done away with, and 

 the proteids only moderately increased, is less open to objection ; 

 and such a diet, assisted by other hygienic conditions, has proved 

 successful. 



An increase of daily food, largely proteid in nature, given 

 under circumstances, such as a large amount of passive exercise 

 and skin stimulation, known as ' massage,' which will not only 



