nd certain of the
internal organs. In all healthy persons a greater or less amount of fat
is present in these parts, and serves important physiological ends,
besides contributing to the proper configuration of the body (see
NUTRITION). Even a considerable measure of fatness, however
inconvenient, is not inconsistent with a high degree of health and
activity, and it is only when in great excess or rapidly increasing that
it can be regarded as a pathological state (see METABOLIC DISEASES). The
extent to which excess of fat may proceed is illustrated by numerous
well-authenticated examples recorded in medical works, of which only a
few can be here mentioned. Thus Bright, a grocer of Maldon, in Essex,
who died in 1750, in his twenty-ninth year, weighed 616 [lb]. Dr F.
Dancel (_Traite de l'obesite_, Paris, 1863) records the case of a young
man of twenty-two, who died from excessive obesity, weighing 643 [lb].
In the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1813 a case is recorded of a
girl of four years of age who weighed 256 [lb]. But the most celebrated
case is that of Daniel Lambert (q.v.) of Leicester, who died in 1809 in
his fortieth year. He is said to have been the heaviest man that ever
lived, his weight being 739 [lb] (52 st. 11 [lb]). Health cannot be long
maintained under excessive obesity, for the increase in bulk of the
body, rendering exercise more difficult, leads to relaxation and
defective nutrition of muscle, while the accumulations of fat in the
chest and abdomen occasion serious embarrassment to the functions of the
various organs in those cavities. In general the mental activity of the
highly corpulent becomes impaired, although there have always been many
notable exceptions to this rule.

Various causes are assigned for the production of corpulence (see
METABOLIC DISEASES). In some families there exists an hereditary
predisposition to an obese habit of body, the manifestation of which no
precautions as to living appear capable of averting. But it is
unquestionable that certain habits favour the occurrence of corpulence.
A luxurious, inactive, or sedentary life, with over-indulgence in sleep
and absence of mental occupation, are well recognized predisposing
causes. The more immediate exciting causes are over-feeding and the
large use of fluids of any kind, but especially alcoholic liquors. Fat
persons are not always great eaters, though many of them are, while
leanness and inordinate appetite are not infrequentl