Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/49

 an earnest determination to escape such a fate, whether it be already present, or only impending.

"Escape, yes, that is easily said, but how? Can we escape?"

It can be done. Physiology and medicine can now prescribe certain diets, administer certain drugs, lay down certain rules, which control so definitely the increase and decrease of flesh, that any one not a victim to actual disease can diminish or add to his weight with as much certainty as he can do the same with a domestic animal. These diets, these drugs, these rules, we shall now proceed to describe plainly and minutely, so that any one can follow them without doubt or hesitation.

And first, it is important to know what is the proper weight which a person ought to have in the eyes of the physician and the artist. This depends on several factors. It is always in proportion to the height, but is less in woman than in man, and greater in the same sex as years advance. We take as our standard a woman between twenty-five and thirty years, and give the following table of what her weight should be in proportion to her height—

If her height is 5 feet she should weigh 110 pounds. "  "     "     5 feet 1 inch    "      115   " "   "     "     5 feet 2 inches  "      120   " "  "     "     5 feet 3 inches  "      125   " "   "     "     5 feet 4 inches  "      130   " "  "     "     5 feet 5 inches  "      135   "