id extract
with decided benefit. So soon as the administration of the remedy was
stopped the loss of weight ceased, but with the renewal of the remedy
the loss of weight again ensued to a certain point, beyond which the
extract seemed powerless to act. Ewald also reports good results from
this treatment of obesity.

Remarkable Instances of Obesity.--From time immemorial fat men and
women have been the object of curiosity and the number who have
exhibited themselves is incalculable. Nearly every circus and dime
museum has its example, and some of the most famous have in this way
been able to accumulate fortunes.

Athenaeus has written quite a long discourse on persons of note who in
the olden times were distinguished for their obesity. He quotes a
description of Denys, the tyrant of Heraclea, who was so enormous that
he was in constant danger of suffocation; most of the time he was in a
stupor or asleep, a peculiarity of very fat people. His doctors had
needles put in the back of his chairs to keep him from falling asleep
when sitting up and thus incurring the danger of suffocation. In the
same work Athenaeus speaks of several sovereigns noted for their
obesity; among others he says that Ptolemy VII, son of Alexander, was
so fat that, according to Posidonius, when he walked he had to be
supported on both sides. Nevertheless, when he was excited at a
repast, he would mount the highest couch and execute with agility his
accustomed dance.

According to old chronicles the cavaliers at Rome who grew fat were
condemned to lose their horses and were placed in retirement. During
the Middle Ages, according to Guillaume in his "Vie de Suger," obesity
was considered a grace of God.

Among the prominent people in the olden time noted for their embonpoint
were Agesilas, the orator Licinius Calvus, who several times opposed
Cicero, the actor Lucius, and others. Among men of more modern times we
can mention William the Conqueror; Charles le Gros; Louis le Gros;
Humbert II, Count of Maurienne; Henry I, King of Navarre; Henry III,
Count of Champagne; Conan III, Duke of Brittany; Sancho I, King of
Leon; Alphonse II, King of Portugal; the Italian poet Bruni, who died
in 1635; Vivonne, a general under Louis XIV; the celebrated German
botanist Dillenius; Haller; Frederick I, King of Wurtemberg, and Louis
XVIII.

Probably the most famous of all the fat men was Daniel Lambert, born
March 13, 1770, in the parish of Saint Margaret, Leice