He could lift 500 pounds with ease and
could kick seven feet high while standing on one leg. In 1793 he
weighed 448 pounds; at this time he became sensitive as to his
appearance. In June, 1809, he weighed 52 stone 11 pounds (739
pounds), and measured over 3 yards around the body and over 1
yard around the leg. He had many visitors, and it is said that
once, when the dwarf Borwilaski came to see him, he asked the
little man how much cloth he needed for a suit. When told about
3/4 of a yard, he replied that one of his sleeves would be ample.
Another famous fat man was Edward Bright, sometimes called "the
fat man of Essex." He weighed 616 pounds. In the same journal
that records Bright's weight is an account of a man exhibited in
Holland who weighed 503 pounds.
Wadd, a physician, himself an enormous man, wrote a treatise on
obesity and used his own portrait for a frontispiece. He speaks
of Doctor Beddoes, who was so uncomfortably fat that a lady of
Clifton called him a "walking feather bed." He mentions Doctor
Stafford, who was so enormous that this epitaph was ascribed to
him:--
"Take heed, O good traveler! and do not tread hard,
For here lies Dr. Stafford, in all this churchyard."
Wadd has gathered some instances, a few of which will be cited.
Pages:
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679