The eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and the condition of obesity have been known since earliest times in Western civilization. Well-documented case reports of anorexia nervosa are found in literature describing early Christian saints. Bell (1985) reported the severe starving behavior and bingeing episodes of Saint Catherine of Siena, described the kind of reed she used to induce vomiting, and listed the herbal cathartics that she used for purging. Although binge eating and purging behavior are certainly described in Roman civilization, the disorder of bulimia nervosa as we define it today has not been so well documented.