Feb 



1883] 



• KNOWLEDGE • 



73 





CORPULENCE.* 



NOTHING is more common than to hear stout people 

 _ wish they were thinner, while not a few spare people 

 wish for more adipose tissue. Much of this arises from 

 man's nature not to lie satisfied witli things as they are ; 

 but some of this complaint rests on better grounds. There 

 are certain disadvantages connected with carrying around 

 an excessive quantity of useless fat. It is evident that the 

 labour expended in carrying three hundred pounds of 

 human flesh from place to place, or lifting it up a flight of 

 .stairs, is twice that required to handle one hundred and 

 fifty pounds. The exertion Vieing greater, the muscles 

 should be stronger but. unfortunately they are usually 

 weaker. All this weight must be borne by the same pair 

 of feet, which frequently sutler from the strain, or are 

 crushed by the superincumbent weight. An accumulation 

 of fat about the trunk impedes respiration, and makes 

 exercise almost impossible. For these and similar reasons 

 that will readily occur to the reader, corpulent people are 

 generally anxious to get rid of the excess. This is par- 

 ticularly the case with ladies of fashion, for " too much fat 

 spoils the figure." 



In the case of our domestic animals, we have it largely 

 within our own control to say whether they shall be fat or 

 thin. Every farmer knows how to fatten his cattle, and a 

 fat horse is considered an index to the liberality of his 

 feeder. Lea\-ing out of account a few unhealthy itidi"i- 

 duals, most animals fatten when allowed to eat their fill 

 and take their ease, liut soon lose flesh when the feed is 

 limited or bad. 



In the human species, the rule fails as often as it holds 

 good. Most lean men are notoriously large eaters, and 

 .some are, in addition, excessively lazy. Apparently all the 

 conditions favourable to fattening are present, yet the indi- 

 vidual remains spare and thin. Others attain great size on 

 a limited diet of the poorest food. Nothing is more com- 

 mon than to see two individuals, a husband and wife, two 

 brothers, or two sisters, living and working side by side, 

 eating the same food, and drinking the same beverages, 

 apparently taking an equal amount of exercise, yet one 

 will weigh nearly twice as much as the other. The only 

 explanation that has lieen offered for such cases, if both 

 are in health, is that one is predisposed to einhonpoinl, the 

 other not No doubt the natural disposition, too, has a 

 great influence ; worry, rather than work, consumes the 

 flesh, so that men who take the world easy frequently stay 

 fat on the most limited dieti 



The predisposing causes of corpulency, according to 

 Immermann, are as follows : — 1. IJercditi/, although it 

 may not show itself until middle life. 2. Period of life. 

 Nursing babies and people over forty are most inclined to 

 be fat. Sex ; the female is more inclined to be stout than 

 the mal& i. I'hysiolof/ical consli/ittioyi : full-blooded 

 people throw up more fat than most thin-blooded ones, but 

 there is a sort of amemic condition that also favours cor- 

 pulence. 5. Temperament. 6. Genital anomalies ; we 

 know that wethers, oxen, and capons, as well as eunuchs, 

 are usually fat. Although the above-mentioned causes, 

 which are beyond the control of the individual, favour cor- 

 pulence, they do not produce it. 



That a large number of corpulent persons are anxious to 

 exchange their estate is shown by the large sale that " anti- 

 fat" nostrums have, although their dangerous character is 

 evident from the fact that at least one death has been 

 traced to their usa It is not stated whether the victim, 

 who had taken eighteen bottles of the medicine, had 



* From the Bcientific American. 



acijuired the desired degree of tenuity before her death, but 

 we infer that she had not, as she is spoken of as being 

 " very stout." We conclude that " anti-fat " is not what it 

 pretends to be, notwithstanding its dangerous character, 

 and some authorities say that its chief ingredient is yWw.i 

 r-r.viculom.% or tangle, a kind of seaweed, also used in some 

 places to fatten hogs. If it really possesses any virtue, 

 which is exceedingly doubtful, it is due to the iodine which 

 it contains. 



(To ha continued.) 



AX OPTICAL EXPERIMENT. 



I HAVE recently bec^n struck by the very beautiful 

 experiment which can be made with an ordinary hand 

 lens and a bucket of turbid water. If the lens lie held 

 near to the surface of the water (rain-water, after the 

 grosser particles of soot have l>een deposited, answers very 

 well), and exposed to a noon-day sun, the cone of light will 

 track itself through the turljid water in the same manner 

 as a beam of light through the dusty air of a darkened 

 room. And now, supposing the lens not achromatic, and 

 of short focus, there will be seen the eftects of both the 

 spherical and the chromatic aberration painted on the 

 motes suspended in the water. The former shows itself as 

 a central bright line, shooting somewhat beyond the apex of 

 the cone formed by the rays from the marginal parts of 

 the lens, as well as by the form of the caustic curve near 

 the focus, when the rays cross to form the reversed cone. 

 But it is the chromatic aberration which is most beautiful 

 in this experiment Before the crossing of the rays at the 

 focus the cone of light is tinged with red, and after having 

 crossed the colour is blue, the latter rays having passed 

 from the inside to the outside of the cone. On intercepting 

 the light at any point of its path through the water by a 

 piece of white cardboard, both red and blue rays can be 

 observed in their proper relative positions. After making 

 the experiment, it is satisfactory to try the efiect of 

 an achromatic lens of about equal focal distance for 

 comparison. 



This suggests to me that a few papers from your pen on 

 this very interesting subject of optics would be acceptable, 

 perhaps, to a wider circle of readers than purely astro- 

 nomical matter, which seems to be of limited interest The 

 number of optical instruments of various kinds in the hands 

 of the public is now very large, and therefore illustrations 

 and experiments drawn from the whole range of optical 

 instruments should be of proportionate interest — A. N. S. 



A Toad's Citn'ntnt,. — Charles White, of New Castle, 

 has a brood of chickens which have the run of a portion of 

 the yard, the old hen being kept shut up. The chickens 

 are fed with moistened meal, in saucers, and when the 

 dough gets a little sour it attracts large numbers of flies. 

 An observant toad has evidently noticed this, and every 

 day, towards evening, he makes his appearance in the 

 yard, hops to a saucer, climbs in, and rolls over and over 

 until he is covered with meal, having done which he awaits 

 developments. The flies, enticed by the smell, soon swarm 

 around the scheming batrachian, and whenever one passes 

 within two inches or so of his nose, his tongue darts out 

 and the fly disappears ; and this plan works so well that 

 the toad has taken it up as a regular business. The 

 chickens do not manifest the least alarm at their clumsy 

 and big-mouthed playmate, but seem to consider it <]uite a 

 lark to gather around him and peck off his stolen meal, 

 even when they have plenty more of the same sort in the 

 saucers. — Nev; Hampshire Gazette. 



