The Best Lines From T.C. Duncan's 1878 "How to Be Plump: Talks on Physiological Feeding"

You can read the original for free here.

“I have fleshed up remarkably this year (a wet year).”

“Never till after the great Chicago fire did I fully appreciate the fact that the best physiological diet is the cheapest and most convenient.”

“Prof. Blot says, ‘Soups are to old people what milk is for children.’ If he had said that soups are to all people what milk is for babies, he would have come nearer the truth.”

“Yes, I have consumption three times a day,” said Doctor — laughing. “If people fed better, there would not be so much phthisis.”

“I have seen nervous women go weeks without eating enough to keep a bird alive.”

“A thin person needs water badly, but often, as in your case, they say, ‘I don’t care for it.’”

“He was absent six weeks and gained ten pounds, was very buoyant and painted more cheerful pictures. His artist friends noticed the change in his paintings. The great Chicago fire swept all these away, however, and he left the city, ‘crushed.’”

“As a rule they state that they take ‘very little,’ ‘never drink,’ ‘don’t take a drink of water once a month,’ or ‘only drink during hot weather,’ etc.”

“‘Soup! Soup!’ was [the baby’s] cry all day, and if awake in the night would call for ‘soup.’”

“Accidentally, or perhaps through necessity, I began to eat oysters as a steady diet, day after day.”

“Profuse sweating at any time is an evidence of weakness, and should not be encouraged.”