On corpulence in relation to disease : with some remarks on diet / by William Harvey.
- Date:
- 1872
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On corpulence in relation to disease : with some remarks on diet / by William Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![6veryoiiG that it is not universally true. Raggi, an Italian physician, who was a great authority on corpulence, relates many cases of extreme corpulence in which the intellect remained quite alert to the last. Many of us were acquainted, from personal observation, with the huge bulk of that remarkable man Dr. Woolff, the Bokhara missionary, one of the fattest of men, and whose intellect was a marvel of restless activity. Fats are obtained abundantly from both the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Their predominating ele- ments are carbon and hydrogen. They never contain nitrogen, except as an accidental ingredient. They are made up of three closely allied bodies—viz., stearin {<TT£ap, suet), margarin (from its lustrous appearance, papyapov, a pearl), and olein (oleum, oil) which is fluid. When fatty matters are heated with the hydrated alkalies, they undergo saponiflcation, during which ]3rocess a viscid sweet fluid, glycerine (yXvKvg, sweet), is yielded. Now several physiological studies lead to the conclusion that oils and fats may not only be formed in the system from food which contains it ready prepared, but also from chemical transformation of starch or sugar. Many experiments have been made on geese, ducks, and pigs, which have proved that these animals accumulate much more fat than could be accounted for by that present in the food. M. Flourens had the bears in the Jardin des Plantes fed exclusively on bread, and they became excessively fat.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21950520_0120.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
