The Metamorphoses of Fat by George Vigarello

Author:George Vigarello
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS054000, History/Social History, SOC002010, Social Science/Anthropology/Cultural
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2013-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

The Archaic and the Modern

Every diet recommended in the early nineteenth century does not rely on the new chemistry. Earlier beliefs and habits persist to varying degrees and with more or less public acknowledgment. The conviction about the usefulness of acids is one example. In 1838, William Wadd asserts with pride that regular doses of vinegar cured the Spanish general Chiapin Vitellis of his obesity.25 In 1846, Antoine Bossu also notes the persistence of popular customs.26 And in 1857 Michel Lévy continues to miss the use of lemons and other sour foods “by young people secretly hoping to reduce the precocious onset of exuberant forms.”27 This is hardly surprising and demonstrates that in the first half of the century the new chemical knowledge and the “combustion” theory of food had not yet spread beyond a relatively select scientific community. The entry for Diet [“Régime”] in the Encyclopédie moderne (1830) is evidence of this with its classic recommendation of “sobriety” and not the least mention of the nitrogen or carbon content of foods.28

There is however no getting around the striking rupture that the chemistry of Lavoisier and his followers introduced. One can also not overlook the increasingly systematic references to slimming techniques in discussions of obesity. This observation by Brillat-Savarin is typical: “Having the proper amount of plumpness, neither too much nor too little, is for women a lifetime’s occupation.”29 Along the same lines, but with a dose of irony, magazine authors of the day could insist on the “fashionable woman’s” unceasing watchfulness of what she eats: “What! you say, she’s eating! Yes, she sure eats.” And what these women are eating are foods and drinks that are “stomachy, chesty, incisive, and softening.”30 This teasing demonstrates the increasing importance of female slenderness that is both sought after and expected—to the point of becoming according to all available evidence a matter of daily concern. There seems little exaggeration in George Sand’s declaration during a trip through southwestern France in the 1830s that it was next to impossible for her to eat the “sauces and fat” that she considered to be “a type of poisoning.”31

Consider, finally, the archaism and modernity of the corset. The old sheath lives on. The flesh remains shapeable even if the conception of its material substance is altered by constant research and demanding commentaries. Patents multiply in the pursuit of flexibility and comfort. Sixty-eight patent applications are filed between 1828 and 1848 alone.32 The criteria are highly precise: ease of lacing, respect for the various positions, retaining the possibility of movement, and use of noble materials—“watered silk,” “satin,” “silk taffeta.”33

Masculine obesity at this time can also incite the wearing of corsets. The wealthy bourgeois described by Eugène Briffault in 1845 at a swimming school is no more than a “deformed” bare-chested figure at the edge of the pool once he has taken off his corset “at the door” of the swim club.34 The rigid enclosure of the “chest” continues to exert its usefulness in the popular imagination at the

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