The dietetic treatment of obesity : a paper read before the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society, May 1st, 1891 / by Wm. Towers-Smith.

  • Towers-Smith, William.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dietetic treatment of obesity : a paper read before the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society, May 1st, 1891 / by Wm. Towers-Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of the rightful authority in the choice of food.” (British Medical Journal, October i8th, i8go.) Referring to the unauthorised distrust of the palate so commonly found amongst the vulgar, the same writer says : “ This puritanical view of the palate is wholly unscientific. It, moreover, to speak figuratively, implies a gross slander on a responsible and rarely endowed organ which has performed in the past, and still performs, most difficult and most complicated functions with complete success; for who shall venture to say that in the evolution of the human animal from the shortlived, immoral and stupid savage, with his diet of wild fruit, roots, raw flesh and unfiltered water, to the status of civilised man, the promptings of the palate have not played an important and even an indispensable part ? ” Applying these excellent maxims to the institution of a diet for obesity, it will be found that the palate is at once a trustworthy guide, and an exacting master. Never can the puritanical view alluded to be more fallacious, and till now it has been almost universal. It is this fact more than any other that has wrecked the previous attempts to find a cure for obesity. For my part I have reckoned with the difficulty from the outset, I have sought to become acquainted with every variety of available food stuffs. I have learnt that this is surprisingly extensive, and by degrees I have provided myself with a frumentarium of very great variety. Compelled to recognise that the tastes of hardly two people are alike, I have learnt by diligent enquiry to know from the ordinary preferences of the patient the best and the most agreeable substitutes, and in this way I am able to confirm most fully the dictum of Sir William^ Roberts. But there are some cases—and they are not always easy to discriminate—in which the forethought, knowledge and experience, without which I contend