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.
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