Corpulence, or, Excess of fat during pregnancy : a letter to Dr. Lee / by Thomas King Chambers.

  • Chambers, Thomas King, 1818-1889.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Corpulence, or, Excess of fat during pregnancy : a letter to Dr. Lee / by Thomas King Chambers. 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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    fatty degeneration is more common in corpulent than in thin persons. Arguing by analogy ' from this fact, it is fair to expect the degenera- tion in the placenta to follow the same rule. If this be the case, frequent miscarriages find a ready explanation. The increase of fat does not usually cease after parturition, but it rather augments during suckling, and goes on unchecked till after weaning. Nay, even then it is often not stayed, but the patient remains over corpulent for life. Another case is where the excess of adipose tissue does not make itself perceived till after parturition. This is very much more common, but seems not to cause nearly the same amount of inconvenience; nor does the patient run any risk beyond the chance of the obesity becoming permanent. The development of this hypertrophic ten- dency is even remarked as a peculiarity of some whole races. Those few travellers, ladies of course, who have been introduced to the do- mestic circles of the native princes of India, remark, that while the girls are elegantly slim, the married women, though only a year or so older, are invariably, in the upper classes, obese. The time of their becoming so is fixed by Madame Ida Pfeiffer as that of suckling,