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- Herausgeber: Pushkin Press
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Serie: The London Library
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
Oh! that the faculty would look deeper into and make themselves better acquainted with the crying evil of obesity - that dreadful tormenting parasite on health and comfortWilliam Banting, a short man who suffered great personal distress from his increasing fatness, finally happened upon a 'miracle cure'. So great was his relied that he wrote and published A Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public. In singling out sugar and fats as the main cause of obesity, he was remarkably ahead of his time. The tract was an immediate success: thousands took up his diet; there were four editions of his book by 1869; and 'to bant' or 'banting' became a popular phrase for slimming, which lasted well into the twentieth century.Contains also a small piece by Lewis Carroll on 'feeding the mind', in which he tells us the best way to 'consume' books.On Corpulence is part of 'Found on the Shelves', published with The London Library. The books in this series have been chosen to give a fascinating insight into the treasures that can be found while browsing in The London Library. Now celebrating its 175th anniversary, with over 17 miles of shelving and more than a million books, The London Library has become an unrivalled archive of the modes, manners and thoughts of each generation which has helped to form it.
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PUSHKIN PRESS — THE LONDON LIBRARY
Fat seemed to be getting fatter under Queen Victoria: Tweedledum and Tweedledee; Joe “the fat boy” in The Pickwick Papers; even the first known report of childhood obesity in 1859. But for the short, corpulent (and extremely successful) undertaker William Banting, the overweight life was not a bundle of laughs. It was only at the age of sixty, when he was unable to even “attend to the little offices which humanity requires, without considerable pain and difficulty”, that he finally stumbled upon a cure: an early incarnation of the Atkins diet. Butter, potatoes, sugar, milk—all gone, in favour of fish, meat, dry toast (and seven glasses of claret a day).
And with the diet for the body came a diet for the mind: for Lewis Carroll, an indiscriminate intake of “fatty” information was just as harmful as carbohydrates—and in today’s society of ever-increasing “consumption” of food, news and even relationships, Banting and Carroll are remarkably ahead of their time.
The books in “Found on the Shelves” have been chosen to give a fascinating insight into the treasures that can be found while browsing in The London Library. Now celebrating its 175th anniversary, with over seventeen miles of shelving and more than a million books, The London Library has become an unrivalled archive of the modes, manners and thoughts of each generation which has helped to form it.
From essays on dieting in the 1860s to instructions for gentlewomen on trout-fishing, from advice on the ill health caused by the “modern” craze of bicycling to travelogues from Norway, they are as readable and relevant today as they were more than a century ago—even if contemporary dieticians might not recommend quite such a regular intake of brandy!
onCORPULENCE
Feeding the Body&Feeding the Mind
Contents
LETTER ON CORPULENCE
Addressed to the Public
BY WILLIAM BANTING, 1864
WILLIAM BANTING was one of the foremost undertakers of the 19th century, and was personally responsible for the funerals of both the Duke of Wellington and Prince Albert. He was a short man who suffered increasing personal distress from fatness as he aged. His dieting pamphlet, Letter on Corpulence, was a runaway success, and he donated all proceeds to charity. William Banting died happy and healthy in 1878, aged eighty-one.
Preface to the Third Edition
The second edition of this pamphlet (consisting of 1,500 copies) being exhausted, and the result being very gratifying to my mind, in the large amount of satisfaction and benefit which I am able to report from evidence of others (beyond my most sanguine expectations), considering the hitherto limited circulation, I have felt impelled to publish, advertise, and sell this third edition, at cost price, which I am informed must be sixpence a copy. If this small charge, however, should yield any profit, I shall devote it to the Printers’ Pension Society, or some other benevolent institution; but I have no such expectation, or would very gladly reduce the charge at starting.
The first and second editions were no very serious expense to me, scarcely three pence a copy, but the circulation of them, and the correspondence involved, have cost me far more; yet, I saw no way of securing my motives from misconception except by gratuitously presenting the pamphlet to the public.
The truthful tale has, however, made its way into a large circle of sufferers with marvellous effect; and I can now believe the public will rather prefer to purchase the third edition at a reasonable charge than be under obligation to me for a gratuitous supply. I therefore humbly trust, and fully believe, that by this means the useful knowledge will be distributed twenty-fold to the benefit of suffering humanity, which, indeed, is my sole object.
KENSINGTON,
December, 1863.
This letter is respectfully dedicated to the Public simply and entirely from an earnest desire to confer a benefit on my fellow creatures.
W. B.
Corpulence
Of all the parasites that affect humanity I do not know of, nor can I imagine, any more distressing than that of Obesity, and, having just emerged from a very long probation in this affliction, I am desirous of circulating my humble knowledge and experience for the benefit of my fellow man, with an earnest hope it may lead to the same comfort and happiness I now feel under the extraordinary change,—which might almost be termed miraculous had it not been accomplished by the most simple common-sense means.
Obesity seems to me very little understood or properly appreciated by the faculty and the public generally, or the former would long ere this have hit upon the cause for so lamentable a disease, and applied effective remedies, whilst the latter would have spared their injudicious indulgence in remarks and sneers, frequently painful in society, and which, even on the strongest mind, have an unhappy tendency; but I sincerely trust this humble effort at exposition may lead to a more perfect ventilation of the subject and a better feeling for the afflicted.
It would afford me infinite pleasure and satisfaction to name the author of my redemption from the calamity, as he is the only one that I have been able to find (and my search has not been sparing) who seems thoroughly up in the question; but such publicity might be construed improperly, and I have, therefore, only to offer my personal experience as the stepping-stone to public investigation, and to proceed with my narrative of facts, earnestly hoping the reader will patiently peruse and thoughtfully consider it, with forbearance for any fault of style or diction, and for any seeming presumption in publishing it. I have felt some difficulty in deciding on the proper and best course of action. At one time I thought the Editor of the Lancet would kindly publish a letter from me on the subject, but further reflection led me to doubt whether an insignificant individual would be noticed without some special introduction. In the April number of the Cornhill Magazine I read with much interest an article on the subject— defining tolerably well the effects, but offering
