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CORPULENCE (Lat. corpus, body), or OB...

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 193 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CORPULENCE (See also:Lat. corpus, See also:body), or OBESITY (Lat. ob, against, and edere, to eat)  , a See also:condition of the See also:animal See also:body characterized by the over-See also:accumulation of See also:fat under the skin and around certain of the See also:internal See also:organs . In all healthy persons a greater or less amount of fat is See also:present in these parts, and serves important physiological ends, besides contributing to the proper configuration of the body (see See also:NUTRITION) . Even a considerable measure of fatness, however inconvenient, is not inconsistent with a high degree of See also:health and activity, and it is only when in See also:great excess or rapidly increasing that it can be regarded as a pathological See also:state (see METABOLIC DISEASES) . The extent to which excess of fat may proceed is illustrated by numerous well-authenticated examples recorded in medical See also:works, of which only a few can be here mentioned . Thus See also:Bright, a See also:grocer of See also:Maldon, in See also:Essex, who died in 1750, in his twenty-ninth See also:year, weighed 616 lb . Dr F . Dancel (Traite de l'obesite, See also:Paris, 1863) records the See also:case of a See also:young See also:man of twenty-two, who died from excessive obesity, weighing 643 lb . In the Philosophical Transactions for 1813 a case is recorded of a girl of four years of See also:age who weighed 256 lb . But the most celebrated case is that of See also:Daniel See also:Lambert (q.v.) of See also:Leicester, who died in 1809 in his fortieth year . He is said to have been the heaviest man that ever lived, his See also:weight being 739 lb (52 St . II lb) . Health cannot be See also:long maintained under excessive obesity, for the increase in bulk of the body, rendering exercise more difficult, leads to relaxation and defective nutrition of muscle, while the accumulations of fat in the See also:chest and See also:abdomen occasion serious embarrassment to the functions of the various organs in those cavities .

In See also:

general the See also:mental activity of the highly corpulent becomes impaired, although there have always been many notable exceptions to this See also:rule . Various causes are assigned for the See also:production of See also:corpulence (see METABOLIC DISEASES) . In some families there exists an hereditary predisposition to an obese See also:habit of body, the manifestation of which no precautions as to living appear capable of averting . But it is unquestionable that certain habits favour the occurrence of corpulence . A luxurious, inactive, or sedentary See also:life, with over-See also:indulgence in See also:sleep and See also:absence of mental occupation, are well recognized predisposing causes . The more immediate exciting causes are over-feeding and the large use of fluids of any See also:kind, but especially alcoholic liquors . Fat persons are not always great eaters, though many of them are, while leanness and inordinate appetite are not infrequently associated . Still, it may be stated generally that indulgence in See also:food, beyond what is requisite to repair daily See also:waste, goes towards the increase of flesh, particularly of fat . This is more especially the case when the non-nitrogenous (the fatty, saccharine and starchy) elements of the food are in excess . The want of adequate bodily exercise will in a similar manner produce a like effect, and it is probable that many cases of corpulence are to be ascribed to this cause alone, from the well-known facts that many persons of sedentary occupation become stout, although of most abstemious habits, and that obesity frequently comes on in the See also:middle-aged and old, who take relatively less exercise than the young, in whom it is comparatively rare . See also:Women are more prone to become corpulent than men, and appear to take on this condition more readily after the cessation of the See also:function of menstruation . For the prevention of corpulence and the reduction of superfluous fat many expedients have been resorted to, and numerous remedies recommended .

These have included bleeding, blistering, purging, starving (see See also:

FASTING), the use of different kinds of See also:baths, and of drugs innumerable . The drinking of See also:vinegar was long popularly, but erroneously, supposed to be a remedy for obesity . It is related of the See also:marquis of See also:Cortona, a noted general of the See also:duke of See also:Alva, that by drinking vinegar he so reduced his body from a condition of enormous obesity that he could See also:fold his skin about him like a garment . In 1863 a pamphlet entitled " See also:Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public by See also:William Banting," in which was narrated the remarkable experience of the writer in accomplishing the reduction of his own weight in a See also:short space of See also:time by the See also:adoption of a particular kind of See also:diet, started the See also:modern dietetic treatment, at first called " Banting " after the author . After trying almost every known remedy without effect, Banting was induced, on the See also:suggestion of Mr See also:Harvey, a See also:London aurist, to See also:place himself upon an entirely new See also:form of diet, which consisted chiefly in the removal, as far as possible, of all saccharine, starchy and fat food, the reduction of liquids, and the substitution of See also:meat or See also:fish and See also:fruit in moderate quantity at each See also:meal, together with the daily use of an antacid See also:draught . Under this regimen his weight was reduced 46 lb in the course of a few See also:weeks, while his health underwent a marked improvement . His experience, as might have been expected, induced many to follow his example; and since then various regimens have been propounded, all aiming at treating corpulence on modern physiological principles (see also See also:DIETETICS, METABOLIC DISEASES and NUTRITION) . It iS important, however, to See also:bear in mind that the treatment should be followed under medical See also:advice and observation; for, however desirable it be to get rid of superabundant fat, it would be manifestly no gain were this to be achieved by the See also:sacrifice of the general health .

End of Article: CORPULENCE (Lat. corpus, body), or OBESITY (Lat. ob, against, and edere, to eat)
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