A visit to the Reknaes Hospital for Lepers at Molde, Norway ; Notes on the successful treatment of obesity / William Allan Jamieson.

  • William Allan Jamieson
Date:
1891
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A visit to the Reknaes Hospital for Lepers at Molde, Norway ; Notes on the successful treatment of obesity / William Allan Jamieson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    refrained from yielding, and now he feels no desire for liquids In nearly every detail his diet was such as I had adopted, only lie had neither whisky nor tobacco. • 1 _ When, by the urgent advice of the late Dr Warburton Begbie, 1 cave up the Banting system of reducing corpulence and resumed niy usual diet, I very rapidly became heavier than before. I am satisfied now that the easiest way to lessen obesity with safety is to reduce the quantity of food, and especially of drink, to a minimum. A moderate amount of butter and fat should be taken daily. Sugar and starch ought to be avoided as far as possible, while potatoes and bread must be refrained from absolutely. Vegetables, however, are not contraindicated, but those which are most suitable are onions, leeks, spinach, stewed celery, cauliflower, brocoli, Brussels' sprouts, asparagus, young cabbages, and such like. From much observation, I am quite confident that fresh salmon, properly cooked,1 with no lobster or other sauce than the water in which it has been boiled, and eaten without potatoes or other objectionable vegetables, in moderate quantity is a perfectly digestible fish, not- withstanding all that has been written to the contrary.2 An occasional warm bath is to be recommended, and some such laxative as a seidlitz powder may be prescribed along with the diet I have indicated. Moderate exercise only should be taken. The plan of treatment which Dr Turnbull and James Downie have found so beneficial is one not altogether unknown, though the rationale may be more difficult to explain. Thus Dr Mitchell Bruce says,3 A copious supply of water increases nutrition up to a certain point, especially the deposit of fat, and is therefore extensively employed in hydro-therapeutics. And again Dr Thomas King Chambers remarks,4 Where heart disease is 1 Salmon, however, is seldom properly boiled, save on the hanks of the river Tweed, or by those who are acquainted with the plan of treating the fish before boiling, and of cooking it, which prevails there. The fish, as soon as possible after having been caught, must be crimped, that is, it must be split up longitudinally along the back, then cut crosswise into pieces of just suoh a size as to form a portion suitable to help to each guest. When the fish is to be cooked, the water in the fish kettle, to which twice as much as two conjoined hands can lift of salt has previously been added, is brought to the boil and the pieces of fish put in, arranged upon the drainer just as they are afterwards to be placed upon the dish. The water is again brought fully to the boiling point, and kept so assiduously by the cook for five minutes. At the termination of that period the fish-kettle is removed from the fire, and the fish taken out upon the drainer. If these details are attended to, the salmon will be boiled to perfection, and will be found not only perfectly digestible, but possessing a delicacy of flavour not brought out by any other method. To boil salmon whole, as is frequently done, is simply to do an injustice both to the fish and to the person who is to partake of it. 2 Even Dr Burney Yeo, in formulating some rules of dietary m obeBlty, which correspond on the whole pretty closely with those laid down by Dr Turnbull, says, Eels, salmon, mackerel, are best avoided.—Food in Health and Disease. Cassell & Co., 1889. 3 Materia Medicaand Therapeutics. Sixth edition, 1888, p. 151. 4 A Manual of Diet in Health and Disease, 1875, p. 342.
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