He is the noblest man in the world, and could marry any one he chooses.
I don't blame him for not wishing to unite himself to such a tub as I
am. Why, Doctor, you don't know how fat I am. I am a sight to behold.
And now I have come to see if any thing can be done. I know you have
studied up all sorts of curious subjects, and I thought you might be
able to tell me how to get rid of this dreadful curse."

She had been talking faster and faster, and with more and more feeling
(after the manner of fat women, who are always emotional), until she
broke down in hysterical sobs.

I inquired about her habits--table and otherwise. She replied:

"Oh, I starve myself; I don't eat enough to keep a canary bird alive,
and yet I grow fatter and fatter all the time. I don't believe anything
can be done for me. We all have our afflictions, and I suppose we ought
to bear them with fortitude. I wouldn't mind for myself, but it's just
breaking his heart; if it wasn't for him I could be reconciled."

I then explained to her our nervous system, and the bearing certain
conditions of one class of nerves has upon the deposition of adipose
tissue. I soon saw she was not listening, but was mourning her sorrow.
Then I asked her if she would be willing to follow a prescription I
might give her.

"Willing? willing?" she cried. "I would be willing to go through fire,
or to have my flesh cut off with red-hot knives. There is nothing I
would not be willing to endure if I could only get rid of this horrible
condition."

I prepared a prescription for her, and arranged that she should call
upon me once a week, that I might supervise her progress and have
frequent opportunities to encourage her. The prescription which I read
to her was this:

1. For breakfast eat a piece of beef or mutton as large as your hand,
with a slice of white bread twice as large. For dinner the same amount
of meat, or, if preferred, fish or poultry, with the same amount of
farinaceous or vegetable food in the form of bread or potato. For
supper, nothing.

2. Drink only when greatly annoyed with thirst; then a mouthful of
lemonade without sugar.

3. Take three times a week some form of bath, in which there shall be
immense perspiration. The Turkish bath is best. You must work, either in
walking or some other way, several hours a day.

"But, doctor, I can't walk; my feet are sore."

"I thought that might be the case, but if the soles of your shoes are
four inches broad,