302 THE TISSUES. 



It has been sometimes remarked that fat men can endure loss of 

 sleep better than the lean. So far as this is the fact and it is be- 

 lieved to be generally true the author is inclined to associate it 

 with more active powers of nutrition, which secure the deposit of 

 fat in spite of the privation of sleep. The dyspeptic, on the other 

 hand, requires more sleep ; though with it, even, he remains lean. 

 There is, however, in some, a constitutional tendency to deposit fat; 

 and who, though they become confirmed dyspeptics, still continue 

 in good condition in this respect. Indeed, there are also national 

 differences in this respect. Englishmen are more prone to corpu- 

 lence than Americans; a result, probably, of the combined influence 

 of a freer use of fermented liquors, and of a damper climate in 

 England ; for the former contain elements favorable to the depo- 

 sition of fat, and the latter induces a less active condition of the 

 skin. The Bedouin Arabs are, on the other hand, remarkable for 

 their leanness ; for which their simple and spare diet and the dry 

 atmosphere in which they live, together with their active habits, 

 must mainly account. 1 



Circumstances modifying the Deposit of Fat. 



A constitutional tendency to deposit fat has been alluded to; but 

 several circumstances also exert a powerful influence in this respect. 

 The most important are : 



1. The kind of diet. 



2. The amount of exercise. 



3. The state of the function of respiration. 



1. The non-nitrogenized elements of our food starch, sugar, 

 gum, dextrine, and fat tend specially to the development of fat. 

 So also do distilled and fermented liquors. 



1 Not a few epitaphs have been suggested by the present subject, and two may 

 be forgiven here. The first commemorates the burial-place of a remarkably cor- 

 pulent deacon : 



"Take heed, gentle traveller, and do not tread hard, 

 For here lies Deacon Stafford in all this churchyard." 



The other epitomizes the life and the death of an honest tallow-chandler, who, 

 becoming very wealthy from success in business, retired to the country, and there 

 became so obese from inaction, that he died in consequence : 



" Here lies in earth an honest fellow, 

 Who died by fat, but lived by tallow." 



