Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/50

 and so on, adding five pounds for each additional inch of height. This scale when applied to men should be increased by from ten to twelve pounds, as the bones are larger, the muscles firmer, therefore the body for the height heavier in the male sex.

Now if this flesh is properly disposed over the body, we shall find the limbs and features presenting gently waving outlines, and a predominance of curved over straight lines in all the members. The proportions between the circumferences of the different members and the body will be found to vary little in persons of the same height, and to be nearly the same in persons of any height. There is in such figures an exhaustless variety included in a perfect harmony.

We made the reservation that the rules we are about to give will be nigh infallible unless a person is a victim of some disease. It is quite important to bear this in mind, for there are diseases which first manifest their presence by a change in the figure. Many persons suppose corpulence is a sure indication of excellent health. This is far from true. Certain maladies are always attended by the deposition of layers of unhealthy fat. These persons are rarely long-lived. "Fatty degeneration" is the name given to a dangerous complaint especially characterized by a tendency of the tissues to change into fat.

Often, too, corpulence is a protection thrown out by the system against some threatening disease. If the