WHY GROW OLD? 231 



of adventitious matter throw its harmony of movement out of 

 order ! 



Work of some kind or another seems essential to the well-being 

 of the human organism. Even a machine keeps in better order 

 when it is worked, looked after, and oiled, than when it is neg- 

 lected and allowed to rust. Up to middle age persons may in- 

 dulge in any amount of hard physical exercise — that is, if they 

 are wiry and of proper physical proportion ; but if a tendency to 

 corpulency supervenes, certain changes in the blood-vessels and 

 other organs, on whose healthy action robust health depends, take 

 place. These become weakened and altered in texture, so that 

 any attempt at undue exercise is attended with a certain amount 

 of risk. Hence, any one who wishes to live to old age, and enjoy 

 it, should look with anxiety at the first indication of corpulency. 

 How many patients have consulted me to whom I have pointed 

 out personally, or by correspondence, that they have carried for 

 years an unnecessary burden in the way of surplus weight ; and 

 after, by proper dietic treatment, they have been relieved of it, 

 with improvement in health and condition, they have regretted 

 that for so many years they should have been weighted with a 

 useless and uncomfortable load. 



Of course, the tendency to corpulency is a very common one, 

 and I know of no condition that tends to shorten life and to make 

 it more of a misery, especially as years advance. The extra work 

 of carrying unnecessary fat entailed on the heart alone is quite 

 sufficient to shorten life ; but, worse than this even, it lays the 

 system more open to congestive diseases, and less able to bear 

 treatment for their cure. It is the greatest bar to enjoyable old 

 age. I suppose my experience of this condition is exceptional, as 

 I devote the whole of my professional time to remedying it and a 

 few other diseases of malnutrition, by a system of scientific diet- 

 ing now well known. As this condition is the result of taking 

 certain foods in undue proportions, its remedy lies in properly 

 apportioning these ; and as soon as those who unduly increase in 

 weight are taught what the injurious ingredients of their daily 

 diet are, and advised to curtail them for a time, the result is that 

 they lose unnecessary tissue rapidly and safely, with improvement 

 in every way. 



For a month or two the daily intake of food and its constitu- 

 ents must be carefully adjusted. ISTo purgative or other medicine 

 is necessary for the purpose ; indeed, violent purgative medicines 

 are absolutely injurious, as they simply wash the food through, 

 without giving it time to nourish the system, and debility, palpi- 

 tation of the heart, and loss of condition result. Of course, a 

 little mild aperient, in the shape of some natural mineral water, 

 such as the Franz Josef, is always harmless, and most people, 



