[4V50 Gary]

Where have we heard this before?

RICHMOND [VA] WHIG, March 18, 1864, p. 1, c. 4
A Cure for Corpulence.—A philanthropist has lately laid his story before the public, and although the record may provoke a passing smile, yet no one who reads it can doubt the correctness and sincerity of the writer, or his hearty desire to benefit his fellow creatures. It is simply the narrative of a man who was tremendously fat, who tried hard for years on years to thin himself, and who was at least successful. He wished to let the world know how he had vanquished his terrible enemy, and how at last the demon of corpulence fled from him. This is really a great kindness, and a man who, without fear of ridicule, and simply from benevolent motives, comes forward to reveal an experience of this kind, is doing a service which his fellow-creatures ought to recognize. Mr. Banting, the gentleman who has had the courage and good feeling to write and publish this narrative, not long ago measured five feet five inches, and weighted about fourteen stone and a quarter. He owns that he had a great deal to bear from his unfortunate make; in the first place, the little boys in the street laughed at him; in the next place he could not tie his own shoes; and lastly, he had, it appears, to come down stairs backwards. But he was a man who struggled gallantly, and whatever he was recommended to do he honestly tried to carry out. He drank mineral waters, consulted physicians, and took sweet counsel with innumerable friends, but all was in vain. He lived upon sixpence a day, and earned it, so the favorite recipe of Abernathy failed in his case. He went into all sorts of vapor baths and shampooing baths. He took no less than ninety Turkish baths, but nothing did him any good; he was still as fat as ever. A kind friend recommended increased bodily exertion every morning, and nothing seemed more likely to be effectual than rowing. So this stout warrior, with fat, got daily into a good, safe, heavy boat, and rowed a couple of hours. But he was only pouring water into the bucket of Danaides.—What he gained in one way he lost in another.—His muscular vigor increased, but then, with this there came a prodigious appetite, which he felt compelled to indulge, and consequently he got even fatter than he had been. At last he hit upon the right adviser, who told him what to do, and whose advice was so successful that Mr. Banting can now walk down stairs forwards, put his clothes quite over the suit that now fits him, and, far from being made the victim of unkind or ill-judged chaff, is universally congratulated on his pleasant and becoming appearance. The machinery by which this change was effected was of a very simple kind. He was simply told to leave off eating anything but meat. It appears that none of his numerous friendly advisers, and none of the physicians he consulted, penetrated so far into the secrecy of his domestic habits as to have discovered that twice a day he used formerly to indulge in bowls of bread and milk. The Solomon who saved him, cut off this great feeder of fat, and since then Mr. Banting has been a thinner and happier man.—London Saturday Review.

I have the honour, Sirs, to be your friendly correspondent at TFL and

Your Humble and Obedient Servant,

4v50 Gary

Edited: Here's more and this time, you get to have your nightcap!

RICHMOND [VA] WHIG, July 18, 1864, p. 1, c. 2
The Cure for Corpulency.—Mr. Banting's Course of Treatment.—The means by which Mr. Banting managed to reduce his physical proportions may be interesting to some of our readers. Breakfast—four or five ounces of beef, mutton, kidneys, boiled fish, bacon, or cold meat of any kind except pork, a large cup of tea (without milk or sugar) and one ounce of dry toast. Dinner—five or six ounces of any fish except salmon, any meat except pork, any vegetables except potatoes, one ounce of dry toast, fruit out of any pudding, any kind of poultry or game, and two or three glasses of good claret. Nightcap, if required, a tumbler of grog, (gin, whisky, or brandy, without sugar), or a glass or two of claret or sherry. The quantities of the different articles specified in this liberal diet roll, Mr. Banting states, must be left to the natural appetite, but for himself he took at breakfast six ounces of solid and eight of liquid; at dinner, eight ounces of solid and eight of liquid; at tea, three ounces of solid and six of liquid; and the nightcap he introduces to show that it is not injurious, whilst for the encouragement of smokers it may be mentioned that tobacco is allowable. When Mr. Banting began this treatment in August, 1862, he weighed 202 lbs., and after a year's perseverance in it, in September, 1863, he had lost 46 lb., and reduced his girth 12¼ inches.