the nutrition of muscles, for, while it is true that in
wasting from nerve-lesions the muscular and fatty tissues alike lessen,
it is possible to cause by exercise rapid increase in the bulk of muscle
in a limb or a part of a limb, but not in any way to cause direct and
limited local increment of fat.

Looking back over the whole subject, it will be well for the physician
to remember that increase of fat, to be a wholesome condition, should be
accompanied by gain in quantity and quality of blood, and that while
increase of flesh after illness is desirable, and a good test of
successful recovery, it should always go along with improvement in
color. Obesity with thin blood is one of the most unmanageable
conditions I know of.

The exact relations of fatty tissue to the states of health are not as
yet well understood; but, since on great exertion or prolonged mental or
moral strain or in low fevers we lose fat rapidly, it may be taken for
granted that each individual should possess a certain surplus of this
readily-lost material. It is the one portion of our body which comes and
goes in large amount. Even thin people have it in some quantity always
ready, and, despite the fluctuations, every one has a standard share,
which varies at different times of life. The mechanism which limits the
storing away of an excess is almost unknown, and we are only aware that
some foods and lack of exertion favor growth in fat, while action and
lessened diet diminish it; but also we know that while any one can be
made to lose weight, there are some persons who cannot be made to gain a
pound by any possible device, so that in this, as in other things, to
spend is easier than to get; although it is clear that the very thin
must certainly live, so to speak, from hand to mouth, and have little
for emergencies. Whether fat people possess greater power of resistance
as against the fatal wasting of certain maladies or not, does not seem
to be known, and I fancy that the popular medical belief is rather
opposed to a belief in the vital endurance of those who are unusually
fat.

That I am not pushing too far this idea of the indicative value of gain
of weight may be further seen in persons who suffer from some incurable
chronic malady, but who are in other respects well. The relief from
their disease, even if temporary, is apt to be signalled by abrupt gain
in weight. A remarkable illustration is to be found in those who suffer
periodically from