From Chemistry to Energy
From Chemistry to Energy
This chapter discusses the more objective perceptions of fatness in the early nineteenth century. Numbers and measurements accentuated a more precise reckoning of fatness while categories were established. Differences in size carried social consequences often defined through tolerances or rejections. Heavy profiles, male of course, may have a positive value that confirmed ascendancy, but may also be “deflated” with irony. Alongside this social dimension, the scientific work on pathologies, material identifications, and chemical changes resulted in a body of knowledge about fat that was increasingly distant from the spontaneous popular notions of earlier times. These new ideas led to very different ways of thinking about the causes and prevention of fatness. A turning point was clearly established once the mechanism of organic combustion began to be understood. Once the body was considered like a fire-powered engine, the source of fat was reconceived as “unburned” fuel. This redefinition entirely upended ideas about obesity as well as about its treatment, including slimming programs whose logic seems irrefutable.
Keywords: fat, fat people, obesity, nineteenth century, organic combustion, slimming programs
Columbia Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
