On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
There are many persons in the world, who, thinking themselves either too thin or corpulent to accord with their beau ideal of symmetry and beauty of person, are constantly exercising their minds with a view of increasing or diminishing their rotundity, and in many cases applying remedies for their supposed defects, which eventually destroy their health. Young ladies of fnll habit, fearing further innovation upon the symmetry of their waists, are not slow to resort to copious. and constant draughts of acidulated liquids, without reflecting that they impair, and, in fact, arrest the operation of the digestive organs, when taken beyond a certain point. There is reason in the vulgar notion, unhappily too fondly relied on, that vinegar llelps to keep down any alarming obesity, and that ladies who dread the appearance of their graceful outline in curves of plumpness, expanding into fat, may arrest so dreadful a result by liberal potations of vinegar ; bnt this can only be aCcomplished at the far mere dreadful expense of pealth. The amount of acid which will keep them thin will destroy their digestive powers. Portal gives a case which shlruld be a warning:"A few years ago a lady in easy circumstances enjoyed good health ; ihawe was very plump, had a good appetite, and a complexion blooming with roses on a poli.hed ivory ground-work. She began to look upon her plnmpness with suspicion, for her mother was very fat, and she was afraid of becoming like her. Accordingly she consnlted a woman, who advised her to drink a glass of vinegar daily. The young lady followed the advice, and her plumpness diminished. She was delighted with the experiment ; but she soon began to experience the evil effects. A cough and slow fever came on, with a difficulty of breathing ; her body became lean and wasted away, swelling of her lower limbs and feet succeeded, and a diarrhea terminated her life." If ruddy and rotund young ladies pine for graceful slimness and romantic pallor, let them avoid vinegar and other acids destructive to health, and either accept, with a laughing grace, what natnre has bestowed on them, or else practice a proper regimen and system of habits, to avoid what they so much dread. Take plenty of exerci5e, be less indolent, and more moderate in the quantity of sleep indulged in, as much sleep implies much inactivity, and leads to an accumulation of fluids in the body, and the consequent deposition of fat in habits predisposed to secretion. Those, on the other hand, who wish more obesity, we would advise to indulge in good feeding, composed of plenty of farinaceous food, with bnt little meat, and plenty of pure fresh water, and lead a calm life, free from mental inquietude.
