Since the earliest period of history, there seems to have been an anxiety to secure some regimen of general application that would reduce or combat obesity.  Thus Hippocrates says: 

Fat people, and all those who would become lean, should perform laborious tasks while fasting, and eat while still breathless from fatigue, without rest, and after having drunk diluted wine not very cold.  Their meats should be prepared with sesamum, with sweets, and other similar substances, and these dishes should be free from fat.

In this manner one will be satiated through eating less.

But, besides, one should take only one meal; take no bath; sleep on a hard bed; and walk as much as may be.

How much has medical science gained in this direction during the interval of more than two thousand years?  Let us see: 

First among moderns to seek to establish on a scientific basis a regimen for the obese, was Dancel, who forbade fats, starchy foods, etc., prescribed soups and aqueous aliment, and reduced the quantity of beverage to the lowest possible limit; at the same time he employed frequent and profuse purgation.

This regimen, which permits, at most, but seven to twelve ounces of fluid at each repast, is somewhat difficult to follow, though it may be obtained, gradually, with ease.  Dr. Constantine Paul records a case in which this regimen, gradually induced, and followed for ten years, rewarded the patient with “moderate flesh and most excellent health.”

In Great Britain, a mode of treatment instituted in one Banting, by Dr. Harvey, whereby the former was decreased in weight forty pounds, has obtained somewhat wide celebrity; and what is more remarkable, it is known as “Bantingism,” taking its name from the patient instead of the physician who originated it.  The dietary is as follows: 

Breakfast.—­Five to six ounces of lean meat, broiled fish, or smoked bacon—­veal and pork interdicted; a cup of tea or coffee without milk or sugar; one ounce of toast or dry biscuit (crackers).

Dinner.—­Five or six ounces of lean meat or fish—­excluding eel, salmon, and herring; a small quantity of vegetables, but no potatoes, parsnips, carrots, beets, peas, or beans; one ounce of toast, fruit, or fowl; two glasses of red wine—­beer, champagne, and port forbidden.

Tea.—­Two or three ounces of fruit; one kind of pastry; one cup of tea.

Supper.—­Three or four ounces of lean beef or fish; one or two glasses of red wine.

At bed-time.—­Grog without sugar (whisky and water, or rum and water), and one or two glasses of sherry or Bordeaux.

“Bantingism,” to be effective, must be most closely followed, when, unfortunately also, it proves extremely debilitating; it is suitable only for sturdy, hard riding gluttons of the Squire Western type.  The patient rapidly loses strength as well as flesh, and speedily acquires an unconquerable repugnance to the dietary.  Further, from a strictly physiological point of view, the quantity of meat is greatly in excess, while with the cessation of the regimen, the fat quickly reappears.