Weight Control

My Dad was a physician from the old school. After graduation from U of Illinois’ Med school in Chicago, he did graduate work in microbiology for the meat packing industry and delivered babies in Cicero. He told many stories and I saw some of it firsthand. I followed him around on house calls and hospital rounds, waiting in the car of course from the time I was 4 or 5 years old. The second hand cigar smoke was great and so were the stories.

One such tale involved a class mate of his who went into practice in a small town in Texas. Obesity was a problem as it is today and this young doctor had a solution. In secret he cut segments of the readily available beef tape worm and placed them in capsules dispensing them to his obese patients. (Emphatically not recommended) This was highly effective and when the patient became skinny enough he purged them with pumpkin seeds. It was not long, however, before the locals caught on. An outraged citizenry took matters into their own hands; they tared and feathered the poor doctor and rode him out of town on the rail.