396 Human Physiology. 



fatten more quickly than others upon the same diet. It is 

 therefore a matter of idiosyncrasy. Fat mothers usually have 

 fat daughters. But the quantity of food has something to do 

 with it. We cannot lay on fat without in some way taking 

 its elements into the system. The carbon must come from 

 our food if the oxygen and hydrogen come from the air we 

 breathe and the water we drink. Jockeys, prize runners, 

 and prize fighters manage to get rid of their superfluous 

 weight by careful diet, exercise, and profuse perspirations. 

 They come to their best condition for the work they have 

 to do by a training which is really not a bad sort of hydro- 

 pathy; and I see no reason why every one who is too fat 

 for looks or comfort should not rid himself of his superfluity 

 in a similar fashion by living chiefly on brown bread, eggs, 

 cheese, and juicy fruit, avoiding all greasy, starchy, or sweet 

 food, taking plenty of exercise, breathing air enough to 

 burn up the carbon and hydrogen, and keeping the skin in 

 a healthy and therefore active condition. 



The influence of profuse perspiration upon the weight of 

 jockeys, for example, shows that the size and weight of a 

 person depends to a considerable extent upon the amount 

 of water in his blood and cellular tissue. Stout people may 

 be dropsical as well as fat ; and for the relief of such 

 dropsy we must depend chiefly upon the skin, which must 

 be toned to healthy action by cold baths, abundant friction, 

 exercise adapted to the strength, and the best adapted water 

 cure processes ; but here again the condition of the diges- 

 tion, and the adaptation of food to the powers of the stomach, 

 are very important. 



Dropsy may often be cured but when it is a symptom of 

 the exhaustion of life, it is only a mode of dissolution the 

 surest sign of inevitable and approaching death. The ex- 

 tremities fill with fluid which the absorbents have no power 

 to remove ; fluids press upon the abdominal viscera, and 



