Figure 171 represents an extremely fat woman with a
well-developed beard. To end this list of obese individuals, we
mention an old gentleman living in San Francisco who, having
previously been thin, gained 14 pounds in his seventieth year and
14 pounds each of seven succeeding years.
Simulation of Obesity.--General dropsy, elephantiasis, lipomata,
myxedema, and various other affections in which there is a
hypertrophic change of the connective tissues may be mistaken for
general obesity; on the other hand, a fatty, pendulous abdomen
may simulate the appearances of pregnancy or even of ovarian
cyst.
Dercum of Philadelphia has described a variety of obesity which
he has called "adiposis dolorosa," in which there is an enormous
growth of fat, sometimes limited, sometimes spread all over the
body, this condition differing from that of general lipomatosis
in its rarity, in the mental symptoms, in the headache, and the
generally painful condition complained of. In some of the cases
examined by Dercum he found that the thyroid was indurated and
infiltrated by calcareous deposits. The disease is not myxedema
because there is no peculiar physiognomy, no spade-like hands nor
infiltrated skin, no alteration of the speech, etc.
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