NUTRITION. 301 



10. On the other hand, when the nutrient vessels are the 

 most active, the person grows fleshy and corpulent, as in the 

 case of Daniel Lambert, who weighed seven hundred and 

 thirty-nine pounds at the age of forty ; or in that of a Lon- 

 don butcher, who weighed eight hundred pounds. There are 

 several cases on record, where men weighed eight hundred 

 pounds. 



11. (The degree of nutrition, depends much on the quanti- 

 ty and quality of the foody A person who confines himself 

 chiefly to animal diet, and drinks freely of ale and other malt 

 liquors, will usually grow fat ; but this does not indicate 

 strength but weakness. \.t shows that there is not only a 

 weakness of the absorbents, which are not ab'e to take up 

 and remove the fat ; but also a muscular debility, and a want 

 of force in the circulation. Motion is impeded ; the heart 

 is loaded and oppressed ; the breathing is laborious ; the 

 blood accumulates in the brain, and the person is every mo- 

 ment exposed to apoplexy.) In all such cases, a sparing diet 

 of vegetables, with proper exercise, will prove an effectual 

 remedy. By sweating, horse-riding, and aJow diet, jockeys 

 have not unfrequently reduced themselves 15 or 20 pounds, 

 in a week or ten days. 



12. Large accumulations of fat, it is said, sometimes take 

 place, as the sudden effect of the influence of the atmosphere. 

 Thus, in the short space of twenty-four hours, it is stated by 

 writers on natural history, that a mist will occasionally fatten 

 thrushes, robins, &c., to such a degree, than they can hard- 

 ly get out of the way of the sportsman's gun. This however 

 is not fat, but the appearance is owing to a fulness of the 

 vessels, from a suspension of evaporation. 



13. The hump of the camel appearsfto form a sort of re- 

 serve, by which, the Arabs say, he is nourished, during his 

 long journeys.^ In a period of plenty, the rapid secretion of 

 fat converts it into a pyramid, equalling a fourth of the ani- 

 mal's entire bulk ; but a journey through the desert gradual- 

 ly lowers it, so that it becomes scarcely visible. The camel 



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