| Show WHAT DO YOU WEIGH TODAY St S1 Louis There is something almost pathetic in certain popular fallacies concerning bodily weight A man gets on a weighing machine and if i he turns the beam at a pound or two less than when he lie was previously sealed scaled he is immediately filled fled with wih the most gloomy apprehensions respecting his health Or should hould he le have a horror of stout stoutness stoutness stoutness ness and should he appear to have gained in weight to the same sae extent he is correspondingly depressed at the Idea that he may become a modern Lambert As a fact however every persons weight varies not merely from day da to today today day daJ but from hour to hour and ad in indeed Indeed deed from minute to minute and din dinner dinner dinner ner or any other meal increases ses it Except when we are eating or drink drinking drinkIng ing lag we are always losing weight more or less rapidly provided we are In health If I a man is sure he is below the standard he may ma perhaps be justifiably justifiably ably abl alarmed because loss of weight beyond that which takes place in nor normal normal normal mal circumstances is a sure indication of disease Any ailment even what Is called caled a ac common c cold tells speedily and markedly on bodily weight The variations which take place lace un under under under der normal conditions are regular de depending depending depending pending as they do in the one direction on the intake of or food and drink and In Inthe Inthe Inthe the other on exertion and on natural loss through perspiration etc As the results of experiments made with scientific precision It is now no pos possible sible to say sy how far such variations go goin goin goin in the case of the average a rage healthy man engaged in ordinary work At 9 a 1 m before breakfast he weighs say pounds S 8 ounces an hour later after breakfast he has gained 1 pound 12 ounces but by b noon he loses 14 H ounces of this only imme immediately immediately immediately to make It up and to add 2 ounces by lunch which brings his weight to pounds 6 G ounces Then again the fall fal begins and slow slowly slowly slowly ly continues till t dinner time though the chief meal of the day puts on 2 pounds 2 ounces fetching him up to his maximum weight He Is at his lightest Just before breakfast and at his heaviest imme immediately immediately after dinner There is a big drop during durn the night night It I amount on an average to 3 pounds 3 ounces but the loss varies from 2 3 pounds to 4 pounds according to idio idiosyncrasy Idiosyncrasy idiosyncrasy and the season of the tile year yer In making deductions from the results of ot the experiments touching variations in weight allowance must of course be made for special exertion whether bodily or mental mental That mental strain quickly tells on the frame has been established in con connection necton with wih examinations Comparative tive tests show that students in the high classes casses where the effort is necessarily greatest lose los several severa pounds more than those In the lower classes casse The loss of weight due to physical exertion is sometimes a little surprising surprisIng ing even to those who have devoted devote at attention attention attentIon to the matter mater Mr Ir Eustace Eust e Miles Mies once told an audience that 1 l b liked to lose six pounds in playing a tennis match matcha a statement which waS wad received with wih amazement But as a fact he once lost as much as eight pounds and several times seven pounds though the exertion has more mere frequently taken from him four pounds to six pounds Considerable variations in bodily weight may maJ therefore take place in exceptional circumstances and yet por portend portend portend tend nothing that need cause the slightest alarm It I is only when certain certain tain tam limits limits which in any given case can cn be discovered by a few experiments ep are passed that the abnormal Is indicated A proof of the importance of ot a rea loss of weight is that in convict pris prisons prisons prisons ons such loss Is accepted as a conclusive evidence that a man is ill i Till Ti recent years ears there was no ac accurate R accurate curate means of discovering whether r rhe he was so or not as malger in their determination to fetch tetch the te tefar farm far get into the infirmary were ere able to defeat all al the known tests Watching them giving them naus nauseous nauseous nauseous mixtures applying the battery batery these and all aU other medical arts art failed in some cases the doctors discovering too to late that they had been done But now nov a convict who complains is put on the scales and the result resul de dp decides decides whether he returns to work or goes into the infirmary |
