BANTING'S PERFECT CURE.

Bruce Herald, Volume II, Issue 41, 19 January 1865, Page 6

BANTING'S PERFECT CURE.

The London correspondent of the ' Hereford Times,' furnishes t]ie following resv peering Banting and his remedy for reducing the human, form divine, to. its moral condition.

But Banting- — Banting- — the Banting 1 system ; who is Banting' ? What is his S3 r stern ? Have you not read Banting's letter on corpulence, price sixpence ?' You have. Well, then, you prooably know that he has published 50,000 copies of the last edition, and tens of thousands more he will publish, The pamphlet, which may be read in a, few minutes, is being 1 translated for publication in France, and will go through the same process_ in every other continental state, nay, throughout the civilised world. But, although many of your readers know as much about ; " Banting on corpulence" as I do, I venture to think that there are thousands of them who do not. and for their edification let me briefly state who and what lie is, his object, &c, &c, &c. Well then. Banting- is a respectable tradesman j he was upholsterer to the Queen ; he is an intelligent, good-natured man, in stature 5 feet 5 inches high ; in bulk — but more of that anon ; he is QQ years of .age ; but when as I understand he was between 30 and 65, he was the victim of obesity — sq fat indeed that he was obliged to descend the stairs backwards otherwise lie would have to come to grief ; he could not tie. his own shoe?, nor incleed. perform many other personal offices, the easy performance of which is needful to one's pomfort. , But, saddest fact of all the fat Banting was laughed at ; his obesity excited the sneers and remarks of the cruel and injudicious, in public assemblies, in public vehicles, and amidst the ordinary street! traffic ; he was constantly annoyed in finding no adequate space in a public assembh r , if he should need amusement or re* fresh men t. Such were the sorrows of Banting- the fat. But let it not be supposed that Banting quiescently, though perhaps meekly, bore his day-and-night tribulation. Like a true Anlgo-rSaxon, Banting- attacked the enemy again, and •again,- and at leng-tli he was: victorious* And hqw did he achieve the victory ? ; — ?that is the . question. Years ; ago he sought advice from the faculty, who one and all, admonished him to be active and industrious, and to be frugal and temper • rate in his habits and diet.' All this did j Banting daily practise, still Banting, conI tinued f at. . The more -he worked,; the ! more t hungry he became.^ he .confesses

that lie has H.veduipoff-si^peiiG!s"a > --filay, and has earned it first— still fatt&?.aad- fatter he grew, Obesity impaired his vision, impaired his hearing:, and he called upon Mr Wm. Harvey, F.R.C.S., No 2, Sohosquare, to consult him as to; his deafness. Happy Gall? happy Banting* -for! havingmade that call j for Banting learned from that ahlo suvgeon-aurist the real cause' of his obesity, and obtained from him the panacea for its cure. Banting*;learned from Mr IJavey that, inasmuch as cattle and sheep feed exceedingly fat upon food containing- abundant starch and saccahrine matter, in like ; -manner had Banting fed and become exceedingly fat. Now, Banting*, Ji^e your humble servant, ljad p (retaken all his life freely but not excessively, of bread, of milk, of sugar, of pork, of veal, of salmon, of eels, of herrings, of potatoeSj of beer, of port, of champagne, of swedes, of parsnips, of beet-root, and of carrots, never; dreaming that his adipose condition was a consequence of the starch and saccharine matter in the above eatables and drinkables. Of all these things I say, had Banting partaken through his manhood, moderately though, as I trust, you, I, and the courteous reader do, knowing them to be delicious in flavor and believing them to be nutritious in character, and, moreover when taken temperately, altogether harmless. And verily, with Banting, we vere all right up to the age of 30, at which time the proclivity of the human body in a man and woman, is to grow fat, and fat it will grow if nurtured by starch and saccharine, mattei'. Thus it came to pass that from the age of 80, downwards or upwards,, as the reader may please. Banting grew fat in spite of himself ', and therefore he became a man of sorrow, Now, in the human race, like in the bovine, ovine, and porcine kingdom, there are numbers of what are known as " Pharoch's lane kine ;" but, on the other hand, there are numbers, mostly too, of a jolly teuiperament=™-(' laugh and grow fat" is [ a proverb)- — whose bodies are so prone to obesity, that starchy and saccharine matter in but moderate quantities rapidly produces abundant fat. Now, Banting' was one of them. Well, as. I have before said, this feeding food may be taken with impunity, nay, with substantial advantage, by those fortunate people who. are underSO years of age; but, when they turn that critical point of their lives they must graduall} diminish the amount of feeding mixture $ indeed at thirty-five or forty, abandon it altogether, otherwise they will do as Banting did — grow h*%x and fatter every day. Lee us now c Banting's | subsequent experience, that js, after he had ! learnt wisdom from Mr Harvey. On the : 26th of August, 1869, Banting weighed 2081bs-~rft pretty portly man, of oft sin ; stature. On that day he did, in Carlyle phraseoloy, abjure, renounce, reject, and , discontinue the eating of the said feedingviands and beverages; when Iq ! o.n the 12th of September — only 17 days afterwards, the Banting- of"2o2lbs had become Banting of only loGlbs, having in that period sunk 461bs in weight ; while in April, 1864 (as I read the work), he ha.d descended in the scales to the happy medium,: for- he then weighed un.der II stone, and had diminished in girth, or his waist was 12£ in smaller than it was on the 23nd: of August, 1862 ! But what about the modus operandi ? Had Banting obtained this joyable condition through a course of demi-starvation } — had he gone into training like a jockey of the turf or a man Qfth.erin.g-? By no means ; . Banting tells he is now a much jollier fellow than ever; that he has not been so well for twenty years— suffers no inconvenience, can come down stairs, as he oug-ht to. do. that is, forward, naturally, with perfect ease; go up stairs, and take ordinary exercisej and. perform personal offices for himself, with comfort; his sight is restored, fpr fatness has impaired, itj his hearing is improved, for the fatness has deadened it. In short, if not a.s " active as. 3 kitten," he is every respect as well as needs be all of which miraculous changes he attributes to his not eating the starch and saccharines named.

And, now thus Banting lives ■:—-*' For breakfast, X, take : four : or five ounces of beef, mutton^kidneys, broiled, fish) bacon, or cpld meat . oi' any kind, except pork; a large cup of tea, (without milk or sugar), a little biscuit, or one ounce of dry toast.; Por; dinner, five or six; ounces of any fish,except., saltnon ; meat, . except pork j any, ; yeg;eta,ble r except one rounce

'of dry- toast, fruit out of a pudding-, any kind of poultry.org-ameyand two or three glasses of claret, sherryjor Madeira-^ Champagne, port, • and -beet forbidden, Forteay two or three ounces of fruit) a rusk or two, and a cup of tea- (without milk" or sugar). For: supper, three- or four dunces of meat or fish <; similar- to dinner, with a glass or two of claret. For night* cap (if required;, a tumbler of gTQg--(gin, whiskey, or brandy, without sugar)— or $ glass or two of claret- or sherry. This plan leads to an excellent night's rest, with from six to eight hours' sound sleep, The h dry toast or rusk may have a tablespoon^ 3 full of spirits to soften it, which will prove acceptable.. Perhaps I did not wholly es* cape starchy or saccharine matteiybut scrupulously avoided such as milk, sugar, beer, butter, &c, which were known to con tain them ." There you have the whole sscvat of Bantipg's "descending scale.'* And is he wrong? Does not the espe^ rience of the stock-fanner assure him that Banting is right/ for that saccharine food is beyond compare the most fattening of ' all food ? Well, now, having sportively ventilated the Banting-subject, let me now say seriously, that I believe Mr Banting to have deserved well of his country and of his fellow-men, It is beyond doubt that he has been actuated by motives of -pure philanthropy in putting the whole thingbefore the public 5 and, although I must myself plead guilty of the bad manners* or bad taste, though I hope not bad feeling dfc of smiling at a Banting of sft Sin stature^ and of such a girth as was Banting before the 26th of August, 1862, no one ia more ready to return him thanks for the benevolent way in which he, having ex-= perienced great benefit himself; has per-, severingly endeavored to extend similarbenefit to his fellow-men. Let me theu recommend your readers.. to buy his pamphlet — its price is only sixpence— and I shall be suprised if the purchaser doea not peruse it with amusement and instruct tion, thanking me fb.r recQnar«.Qii.iiiu^ and Banting- fqr writing it.