Obesity, or Excessive Corpulence: The Various Causes and the Rational Means of Cure

Chapter 3: AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

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About This Book

The work analyzes excessive bodily fat, examining its physiological and chemical composition, proposed causes, and associated health problems such as reduced fertility, respiratory and circulatory impairment, hepatic and skin disorders, and hernias. It develops a treatment system grounded in chemical reasoning and clinical observation, recommending dietary selection to avoid fat-forming elements, moderation of beverages, increased muscular activity, and specific agents such as acids, iodine, and alkalis to encourage fat disappearance without harming other tissues. Numerous case studies and practical guidance illustrate methods, typical results, and complications, and chapters discuss measurement, experimental feeding, and the role of exercise and metabolism.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

To the many individuals of both sexes who are afflicted with an excessive development of fat, rendering the ordinary duties of life not only irksome but ofttimes impossible,—an easy method of reducing obesity, in nowise interfering with the ordinary daily avocations of the patient, nor demanding any diminution in the actual amount of food consumed; requiring the use of none but the mildest and most harmless medicinal agents; improving at the same time the general health, and augmenting bodily and mental vigour,—must prove acceptable.

The process will be found not a mere speculative theory, but one based upon the great laws of Nature, as manifested throughout the whole of the animal kingdom.