FAT MEN AND WOMEN

Evening Star, Issue 19410, 19 November 1926, Page 13

FAT MEN AND WOMEN

HUSBANDS OVERFED T“ , LAMBERT—S2ST 11LB Tho Western World has decided, sesthelically, against fat women. During the last ten years this decision has become more pronounced than ever. To-day the lot of a fat woman is a hard one. Fashion entirely neglects her, and the mysterious gentlemen who design the seating accommodation in omnibuses and trains never consult her convenience. And the result? It is that woman has decided she will not be fat. It is a rare thing nowadays to see a really fat woman, fat to the degree of obesity. The will to be slim triumphs among them in a way to make mere man marvel.

Nevertheless, the spectre of obesity, is always present among men as well as women —a fact that lends general interest to Dr Leonard Williams’s new study of the universal bugbear, ‘ Obesity ’ (Oxford Medical Publications). He divides corpulence into two kinds—the one alimentary in origin and caused by surfeit, tho second endocrine in origin and caused by under acton of an vndoexino aland. CONSTITUTIONALLY FAT.

What is popularly known as being “constitutionally fat" is duo to this latteycauseAt the present time in this country it may be accepted as a rule with few exceptions that fat women under forty—and, indeed, many above that age—are fat from causes which are endocrine and not alimentary. Tho reason is that women exercise so much care and self-restraint in matters of diet.

Woman’s prospect of longevity, despite tho risks of maternity, is greater than that of men. This has generally been attributed to the more sheltered life she leads. Dr Williams pronounces tho real reason to be that the majority of women are careful to guard against obesity, which is the most consistent confelerate of all the deadly diseases. Why does woman, while thus regulating her own life upon a high plane of simplicity and restraint, nevertheless insist upon overfeeding her mate—regularly, as though part of a settled policy? You can find the answer in Shakespeare. LEAN AND HUNGRY.

Cmsar distrusted Cassius because of his “ lean and hungry look.” Such men are always alert and liable to be dangerous. Like Ciesar, woman realises by a sort of hereditary sox instinct that a fat man is easy-going, yielding, uncritical. One of the most interesting passages in tho book deals with the effect of games on woman from the point of view of her fatness. Dr Williams declares that physical exercise in woman, unless it he eshaustingly vigorous and long sustained, leads, not to slimness, but to an increased deposit of adipose tissue. . ~ Sedentarism in woman, m fact, should, not be visited with tho wholesale condemnation quite proper where man is concerned. Man is intended by Nature to hunt for his food, or exorcise Ids muscles in an _ equivalent way. Failing to do this, he risks storing fat and becoming corpulent. When a man puts on flesh he does so in a manner that caricatures his natural, outlines, whereas when a woman puts on flesh she merely emphasises her normal contour. His obesity is disorderly; hers orderly. The exaggeration of tho ordinary feminine contour is what is known as “the middle-aged spread,” which is the result of changes caused by a reduced body temperature in woman during a certain period of her Me. This “middle-aged spread,” when really true to type, will generally pass oft with slight dietetic restriction. FEWER RISKS.

A fat woman runs fewer risks from the condition than does a fat man. She has a greater adaptability to the stresses imposed by fat, because fatness is in her nature, whereas it is not in his. Of two people,” says Dr Williams, “ a man , and a woman of the same height and the same weight, assuming that weight to he excessire, the woman will live longer-much longer—than the man. But she is much more difficult to reduce.” . Woman does not respond to stimuli m the same way as a man. The two react differently to such an everyday stimulant as a glass of wine. The male is thereby provoked to action—he. wants to go out and kill something. The female is stimulated to storage. Tie works off his newly-con-ferred energy: she, being physiologically more provident, puts it by for a rainy day. It is the same with stimulants of other kinds—physical exercise, for instance. Discussing corpulence, produced not by overfeeding, but with a glandular origin, iJr Williams points out that to explain the meaning of some well-known cases wo have to suppose that certain people are horn with feeble pituitary glands, and that these glands wear out prematurely. The, phenomenal obesity of the celebrated, Daniel Lambert is explained m this way. Of Lambert it was said that, in > corporeal greatness ho had no competitor.’ In youth he was on the fat side, and ot twenty-three years of age he weighed 32st“At this period it is related that he walked from Woolwich to the metropolis with much less apparent fatigue than several iniddlo-ft-cd men who accompanied him. Lambert died at the age of forty, weighing 52st lllb.” NAPOLEON’S HOT BATHS. The great Napoleon appears to have afforded another instance. On this point Dr Williams quotes the conclusions of the late Dr Leonard Guthrie, who made a close study of the matter. Napoleon showed several physical signs of the condition, including the feminine appearance of the body, the fineness in texture of the skin, and the delicacy of the extremities. In later life other, indications appeared. His somnolence at inconvenient moments began to manifest itself after the retreat from Moscow (says the London ‘Weekly Dispatch ’) An inordinate fondness for hot baths, revealing his subnormal tomperwture, was frequently commented on in the days of his greatness. Always inclined to bo corpulent, when he had been at St. Helena for some time bo became enormous. Napoleon’s case is interesting because it shows that this condition of feebleness and early atrophy of the pituitary gland, can exist in a person' of the most exceptional competence and the most tireless energy. Fatness arising from, this cause, indeed, is veiy often accompanied by great strength.

The man who has acquired the habit of reading good literature . • has achieved an independence which anyone may envy.—Viscount Grey, Sea bathing was held scandalous in England until the beginning of the nineteenth century ,and persons who took a , dip in tho ocean were apt to be forcibly “ retrieved ” by those who thought they had gone mad.