# Fasting for the cure of disease/Chapter 17

​CHAPTER XVII
CURES BY FASTING
"There is no chance in results."
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
​CHAPTER XVII
CURES BY FASTING
THE cases dealt with in the following chapter are typical but not exhaustive. They are selected from a large number solely because of their representative character, and as evidence that the fast reaches indiscriminately but in like manner all phases of the functional bodily ills, and all organic disease that is not beyond repair. In the first instance the patient was afflicted with the disease symptom known as inflammatory rheumatism. When first seen, the boy, for he was but seventeen years of age, was in a precarious condition. The case had been given up by the medical adviser as hopeless, and a limit of twenty-four hours had been set within which death must occur. In the opinion of the physician the only thing that could be done was to alleviate the excruciating pain with opiates, thus permitting dissolution to take place while the youth was unconscious from their influence. The dis​tracted family, as a last resort, turned to the fasting method of treatment, and a description of the condition of the young man will perhaps throw stronger light upon the contrast that is drawn between the methods of nature and those of man.
The boy had been in bed for five weeks ; his body displayed all of the evidences of disease and of the remedies that had been applied. His left arm, wrist, and hand were greatly swollen and painful, as were also both knees and ankles. The face was flushed, the breathing stertorous, the pulse fluttering and irregular, while the body temperature was 105 degrees. In all respects the working foundation was insecure, and the preceding weeks of medical treatment had been worse than wasted from the standpoint of the natural. For two of these weeks the heart action had been stimulated with digitalis and strychnine; food had been forced upon an unwilling stomach as many times daily as the patient could be induced to swallow; and, when pain had become too great to be borne, or, when delirium intervened, codein and other opiates had been used unsparingly. In addition, within seven days before change of treatment occurred, two quarts of brandy ​had been poured into this copiously drugged interior. As a result of drugs and of disease, the boy could neither lie down nor sit up, and his position was a painful compromise.
Death seemed imminent, but food was at once withheld, every trace of drugs was removed, and a slight massage treatment was administered in order to equalize the circulation as much as was possible in the circumstances. At the end of a half hour a warm water enema brought away a large quantity of fecal matter from the colon, and, after this local treatment pulse and temperature showed decided downward tendencies, while the patient was resting more quietly and easily than he had in a week.
In acute cases, such as this, drastic measures are imperative, and on the second day vigorous application of massage and enema once more brought temperature and pulse to lower register; consciousness returned; the swelling in the arm was reduced; and the pain had abated. In one week's time the young man was able to lie at full length in bed, and the swelling, except in the ankles, was scarcely perceptible. Natural sleep had returned ere this, and temperature and pulse ​were but slightly above normal. During this interval two enemas daily had been administered and masses of impacted f eces had been removed on each occasion. Bathing of the body twice each day had relieved discomfort, and at the end of the first week tub-baths were begun and proved of great assistance in the final reduction of filthy internal condition by aiding and increasing elimination.
The fast was broken on the eleventh day with a small quantity of tomato broth fed morning and night, and the amount of food was increased as the patient became able to take care of additional supply. Five weeks from the day of the beginning of treatment, the youth was enjoying a walk of several miles daily, and, after its discontinuance, he adhered strictly to the diet and exercise prescribed and rapidly developed a healthy and robust physique.
The second case, a man 61 years of age, was stricken with paralysis of the entire right side, and, after vain search within the domain of medicine, began preparation for a complete fast. The preparatory period covered but ten days, a time too short to accomplish wholly satisfactory results, but at its completion a fast of forty days, which proved ​eminently successful in its final outcome, was undertaken. Paralysis, as is well understood, is caused directly by blood coagulation in specific localities of the brain tissue. But one course can be recommended to rely upon natural processes to absorb the clot, thus removing pressure and releasing nerve force. Constant accumulation of food material in such circumstances simply prolongs conditions that encourage excessive density of the blood, but the fast, without argument, through rest and elimination, causes natural assistance to be utilized in removing obstruction to the passage of nerve force through nerve channels.
The history of the case was such as will be found in every instance when apoplectic conditions are present in any individual. The patient referred to weighed at the time of seizure 214 pounds. Each day of abstinence testified to a loss in avoirdupois, and, at the end of the fast, the latter had been reduced to 174 pounds. Bile in abundance was discharged with the enemas, and at intervals vomiting of the same fluid occurred. The fast was broken by the administration of grape-juice and that of oranges. Within a few days food more solid was ingested. It ​is as well to quote from a personal letter dated after recovery for the subsequent history of the case.
The letter reads: "I was totally incapacitated from actual manual labor of any kind before my fast, and I lived in dread of a second stroke, with a strange, unnatural depression evident upon slight over-exertion. Great drowsiness affected me, and on occasions I would sleep thirty to thirty -six hours, almost without intermission. My mentality was impaired, my eyesight defective, and my speech impeded. My right hand and arm were clumsy and weak, and at this stage all ordinary human aid seemed powerless.
"I began the fast, and, contrary to my expectations, I had no hunger from the third day to the fortieth. To affirm that there was no inconvenience, however, would be untrue, for by every avenue of elimination most offensive impurities were thrown off, and at times these could not have been borne had the object been lost sight of. My weight, before I undertook the fast was 228 pounds, and the girth of my abdomen, 45 inches. After I had completed the total abstinence period, I weighed 174 pounds, and measured in girth 38^ inches. I am cured of my ​paralysis ; my mentality is clear and normal ; my entire digestive system is apparently perfect; my vision is better than for years; my hand and arm are strong; I have no dread of a second stroke; I have no sleepy spells; I feel lighter all over; and, when weary, I am quite refreshed and ready for further exertion after a short rest."
A case of the disease symptom known as locomotor-ataxia, complicated with general derangement of the nervous system, occurring in a female of 28 years of age, also offers itself for description. Preparation was undergone for several weeks and a fast of 22 days resulted in the return of hunger and complete restoration to health. The medical history of this case showed obstinate constipation for twenty years, and there were nervous tendencies that had been persistently aggravated. Medical advice had been followed constantly since birth, yet, when first seen, the muscles controlling legs, hands, arms, and face were in constant motion, and no effort of the will could command their action. During the first week of the fast, rapid improvement appeared, so much so that the young woman was able to walk about without any evidence of extraordinary lack ​of coordination in movement, and by the fourteenth day all muscular signs of nervousness had completely disappeared.
No unusual symptoms developed in this case. The enemas brought away solid matter until the seventeenth day, and thereafter but a small quantity of bilious fluid. Osteopathic manipulation was daily resorted to, and the loss in weight was not remarkable. There were almost no unpleasant symptoms, and for this an outdoor life and an equable disposition and temperament were largely responsible. After a time devoted to judicious exercises, the patient was discharged completely restored to health and with no remaining traces of the nervous disorder of former days. An added benefit was displayed in the fact that, although there had been decided impairment of sight, myopic in character, the patient was able to dispense with lenses six weeks after the beginning of the fast.
The distressing affliction, epilepsy, is a disease symptom that may be traced to the source of all functional disorder, the digestive machinery, and the case of a young woman, 29 years of age, will demonstrate the effect of the fast and its adjuncts upon this disease characteristic. Before entering upon ​the fast, the patient had tentatively followed a diet, and had noted decided improvement in general health, but no cessation of the attacks peculiar to the disease named. Medical attendance had been continuous for years, and no improvement had resulted ; rather the reverse, for the epileptic seizures had increased in number and in severity as time elapsed. At the beginning of the fast the attacks were recurring at intervals of two weeks, and the latest seizure had happened but three days before. For fifty-six days food was denied, and, from the moment of the inception of the fast to this present writing not a single convulsion has occurred, nor any semblance of an attack, while the general health of the patient has been better than at any time of her life.
The fast in this instance is to be noted in several minor ways, one of which is the fact that on each of the fifty-six days the patient walked a distance of at least two miles; another, that on the fortieth day of abstinence a large mass of dead intestinal worms passed from the bowels in the enema. Improvement was constant from the first, but, after the evacuation of these parasites, it was increased most rapidly, and natural hunger asserted it​self on the fifty-fifth day. The loss in weight was normal, averaging about three-quarters of a pound a day.
The medical history of the next instance tells of constant treatment for thirty years for the disease symptom known as diffuse psoriasis. At the time that the patient turned to natural methods, the inflamed, bleeding surfaces characteristic of the symptom covered at least one-third of the skin of the body, and were not confined to any particular locality, but appeared indiscriminately on trunk, arms, and legs; while hands, face, and feet were not affected. The sores were exuding blood and serum and were itching intolerably, so much so that in order to exist in anything approaching comfort, local application of mercurial preparations had long been resorted to to relieve the pain and inconvenience. But these proved only temporary in effect and the symptom returned in a short time more angry and more obstinate.
The general health of the patient was excellent, and to this a strong constitution and a robust physique contributed. Perhaps, as is often the case, the outlet that nature had established in this instance was most salutary in so far as the appearance of other disease ​symptoms was concerned. This fact is held to be proved in instances of syphilitic infection, for here all outward evidences of disease are invariably subordinated to the direct blood taint.
When first under observation the patient weighed 172 pounds, and her habits were those of a woman in comfortable circumstances with the idea ingrained that three and even four generous meals daily were necessary for the preservation of health and strength. She was, however, discouraged and disheartened because of the intolerable distress occasioned by the state of her body, and, as a last resort, considered what, to her, meant living death, the fast.
After three weeks of preparation, the period of abstinence began, and continued without interruption for 75 days. At no time during this interval was any food ingested and at no time was the patient unable daily to cover on foot the distance from her home to the place of osteopathic manipulation. Undoubtedly this was partly due to her magnificent physical organization, as well as to a will power equal to the attainment of the object in view. As a consequence the case was easy to treat and, with the gradual ​subsidence of disease, early opposition was conquered by faith in the outcome.
The fast was typical, and was remarkable in nothing save its length. The loss in weight was not unusual, and at the end of the fast but thirty-two pounds had been eliminated, and the patient weighed on this date 140 pounds. Until the twentieth day chilliness and temperature below normal were noted, and, while pulse and temperature remained below register in the early stages, by the sixth week normal register had been reached. The enemas contained solid feces until one-third of the fast had been finished, and thereafter, until the last week of abstinence, large quantities of yellowish-white mucus were discharged. This catarrhal refuse indicated that elimination had been re-established through normal avenues. Up to this point the greater part of internal filth had been cast off through the pores of the skin, an abnormal condition that had directly caused the suppurating areas on the surface of the body.
It was not until the fourth week that visible improvement in the exuding sores became noticeable in any degree. The itching subsided with the cessation of exudation, and the latter began to diminish to an appreciable ​extent about the end of the third week. From the time mentioned until hunger returned, the inflamed areas rapidly healed, and healthy skin formed in patches that increased and gradually covered the denuded spots.
After breaking the fast, the general health of the patient continued excellent, and the sole remaining signs of former disease were the scarred edges surrounding the areas that were last healed. Even these in time disappeared, and no trace, excepting slight discoloration, which was the result of the previous medical treatment that the case had received, was left as a reminder of the hideous disfigurement of earlier years.
At no time during the long interval without food was any alarm felt concerning the ultimate outcome either by the patient or by her physician. Fear enters and disaster results in cases not properly conducted solely because of ignorance of the physiology and of the philosophy of the fasting method of cure, and the case is but another instance demonstrating the fact that, in the absence of organic imperfection, there is positively no danger in abstaining from food until nature asserts that the elimination of disease is complete. ​Another case presents itself that of a woman 34 years old, in which the fast was undertaken for the relief of general disease resulting from years of wrong living and of erroneous treatment. Organically speaking, there was a mechanical defect in the dorsal vertebrae, two of which had been displaced in such manner as to compress the spinal cord thus causing complete paralysis of the lower trunk and legs. The slipping of these vertebrae was directly due to mal-nutrition of the dorsal muscles, and in all her life the patient had never known a moment of health, while intermittently in earlier days severe fevers had occurred, which finally created contractions in the descending colon, a condition that caused constipation and subsequent septicemia. When first examined, the case had been bedridden for one year, and a congestive chill was the immediate severe symptom that indicated the employment of other means than medicine for cure. The fast was entered without preparation, and was carried to a successful end after 58 days.
The medical history of this case showed an inherited tendency towards scrofula, and there had been manifest at intervals offensive running sores, while the thumb and the in​dex finger of the left hand had been amputated because of a non-healing abscess. These ulcers had been, without exception, diagnosed as tubercular in character by previous attending physicians and had been treated from the medical standpoint accordingly.
Two days after the fast began, an abscess, similar in nature to those from which the patient suffered, broke through the surface of the skin at the base of the spine immediately over the sacrum. The discharge from this sore was most profuse and offensive, and the affected area spread until it was at least three inches in diameter, while its depth became such that the periosteum of the sacrum was exposed within ten days after the breaking of the skin. For a week hot fomentations were continuously applied, and the gangrenous tissue was carefully cauterized by focusing the rays of the sun upon the ulcer with an ordinary reading glass. By the tenth day the discharge had ceased to be offensive, and a few days later healthy granulation began. When the fast was complete, at the end of 58 days, the sole evidence of the sore that remained was a circular spot of slightly reddish normal skin of which the ​subjacent cushion of healthy flesh proclaimed that natural work of repair had progressed despite the absence of food. This is the point of greatest interest and import to be observed in the treatment of this case, when it is remembered that the blood of this woman had possibly been tainted at birth, and had been poisoned and repoisoned for years by constant additions to accumulated food rubbish. Elimination had never been succesfully accomplished in this body, but, once it could proceed undisturbed, nature was able, not only to cast out existing impurity, but also to repair diseased tissue from the store of healthy pabulum husbanded within.
The results of the copious daily enemas were noticeable for their exceeding foulness, and for the large quantity of dark bilious fluid that was evacuated until the thirtieth day of the fast. The loss in weight was not remarkable and amounted to but twenty pounds, and, when it is considered that the patient weighed only 85 pounds at the beginning of the fast, the proportion of loss as given in a later table was well carried out. While the mechanical difficulty referred to was not wholly relieved at the completion of treatment, the general health of the patient ​was such at this time as to place her well forward on the road to perfect recovery.
In concluding the history of this case, attention is again called to the healing of a scrof ular abscess to the point of complete and healthy closure while the fast was in progress.
Another instance is that of a woman of 28 in whom poor nutrition and what is called a bilious temperament had brought about a condition that manifested itself in periodical headaches and in melancholia with a tendency toward mania. But for the care and devotion of an older sister, the patient would have been placed in an asylum long before coming under observation. In fact, it was because the physician last consulted had recommended that she be restrained that her relatives, in despair, resorted to the fast.
Examination showed a pulse continually at 128 and a temperature that varied from above to below normal with no apparent reason. The diet of the patient had consisted largely of meat and its extracts, and this was at once changed to vegetable broths, while the daily enemas were vigorously applied. At first hot towel packs were used upon the spine in order to control the circulation and ​to steady the fluctuating pulse, but after a short time these were discontinued since heart beat and temperature made constant improvement from the beginning. Dark, foul-smelling discharges that did not cease until the latter part of the fast formed the bulk of the liquid in the returned enemas.
The patient showed extraordinary vitality throughout the entire period of 42 days of abstinence from food, and she daily walked a distance of two miles, underwent osteopathic manipulation, and returned to her home without undue fatigue. Towards the end of treatment she was able and desirous to increase the amount of her exercise, while her mental condition improved from the very beginning of the dieting period. On the thirtieth day of fasting and thereafter the young woman performed her portion of the housework well and cheerfully. Hunger returned on the forty-first day, and the fast was broken on the morning of the fortythird. Two weeks later the sisters sailed for their home abroad, and a letter written by the patient since their arrival shows a mind in every way rational.
The case of a man 47 years old who had ​been paralyzed on the right side and who had shown signs of insanity is next noted. The medical history exhibited habitual constipation, periodical headaches, and prolonged bilious attacks. A fast without preparation was begun and continued for twenty days with results that showed the paralysis much improved, bowels regular in action, no headaches, and a steady gain in flesh and strength on diet after the fast. Three months later a second fast was begun and continued to successful completion for full forty-one days. The patient daily visited the office for osteopathic manipulation, and constant improvement was apparent from the first. In neither of the two periods of abstinence from food were there any special symptoms to be noted, and the final result embodied complete eradication of .paralysis and of its symptoms, and great improvement in general health. At the beginning of the second period of fasting the patient weighed 105 pounds; two months after its completion he had regained his normal weight of 145 pounds.
Tuberculosis of the lungs is a disease symptom that needs to be uncovered and attacked in its early stages, and the case of a woman of 82 is given to illustrate its prog​ress under the fast. This patient abstained from food for twenty-four days, but preparation, the fast, and the period of diet after the latter was concluded, covered a time of full six months. When first under observation, examination of the sputum showed numbers of bacilli typical of the symptom; both lungs were affected; chills with fever occurred daily in the afternoon; in fact, the case displayed all the signs characteristic of the symptom named. After a liquid diet for several weeks, the fast was undertaken, was continued for twenty-four days, and no unfavorable conditions of any kind developed. From the beginning an excessive discharge of sputum occurred, but this gradually diminished until evidences of the return of hunger appeared, and, at the several periodical examinations made during the time of fasting, general decrease in the number of bacilli was observed. The enemas were constantly charged with bile and with old feces, and these products disappeared only during the last week of the fast. The chills and the fever vanished by the fourteenth day, and, when the sputum was examined on the twenty-second day of abstinence, there was no trace of micro-organisms. General health ​was marked by constant improvement after the fast was broken.
The treatment of tuberculosis of the lungs by means of the fast, to insure successful issue, must be undertaken before the stage when excessive structural break-down of lung tissue has occurred. If attacked at this time, a cure is assured. Otherwise, the case classes itself with that of advanced organic disease, which, in the light of previous discussion, bars all remedy.
The symptom named in the medical diagnosis of the next case was valvular heart disease, and prognosis assumed that the patient had no hope of recovery. There was great pain in the regions of the heart, stomach, and liver, and at times in the abdomen. The heart missed one beat in every three; and, in view of the seriousness of the condition, the fast was begun without preparation immediately upon coming under observation. Enormous amounts of dark bilious fluid came away with every enema, of which four were administered daily throughout the fast. Excruciating pain and nervous excitement were experienced until the twentieth day, when at least a cupful of gallstones was evacuated. These continued to be passed until the thir​tieth day of the fast, which was broken on the thirty-fifth. The weight o:' the patient at completion was 174 pounds, a 'eduction of twenty pounds in thirty -five di /s. In the early part of this fast there was great chilliness, but temperature and pulse reached normal by the twentieth day, the latter missing no beats. Before this the pulse had been at times above, at times below register according to the degree of activity of the circulating poison. From the breaking of the fast all functions became an 1 continued normal; weight was gained gradually, and soon reached 185 pounds; and from the completion of treatment the general health was perfect.
An interesting addendum to this case is the fact that the patient, after strictly following the rules prescribed as to diet, habits, and exercise for at least a year and a half after restoration to health, lapsed and fell into laxness both in eating and in drinking, with the result that, two years subsequent to the first attack, an abscess formed upon the floor of the stomach, and the patient again came under observation and treatment, and underwent a second fast of forty-five days. The condition at this time gave great ​pain until the ulcer discharged, which was evidenced by the passage of large quantities of clotted blood and pus from the bowels. The patient hovered between life and death for several weeks, but the absence of food prevented irritation, the ulcer healed, and health returned. The application of the fasting method of cure to a condition such as was exhibited in this patient's second siege with disease is so essentially reasonable and so plain in argument that this description of the treatment of an internal ulcer should convince any unbiased mind.
A short description of a fast for chronic digestive disturbance or dyspepsia is presented in the following case, that of a man 45 years of age. The fast itself covered a period of forty-nine days, and from its beginning until t% forty-fifth day the patient was unable to rise from bed. At this date the tongue cleared as if by magic; hunger returned and with it strength; and on the forty-ninth day, when the fast was broken, the patient walked a distance of seventeen city blocks with but little fatigue. No unusual symptoms, excepting the excessive weakness mentioned, developed during abstinence ; and, from the breaking of the fast, ​improvement was constant and permanent.
In another instance the fast was undertaken for the purpose of correcting functional heart disease, coupled with extreme obesity, by a woman 41 years of age, whose weight was 200 pounds. The patient showed no medical history, excepting that she had submitted to an operation some years previous for the disease symptom known as salpingitis. Throughout the fast the patient was able to attend to her home duties and to take a daily walk to and from the office of an osteopathic practitioner, and these acts were easily accomplished during the long fast of sixty-three days. There was but little faster's chilliness, and there were no unusual symptoms, excepting that, at about the period included between the thirtieth and fortieth days, a gain in weight of from two to three pounds daily occurred, after which a gradual decrease continued, as before, until the end of the fast, when weight was reduced to 140 pounds, and heart disturbance had entirely disappeared.
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A. H. Age, thirty-seven years. Case diagnosed as cancer of the stomach by physician. Photograph taken on fiftieth day of fast just before breaking it. Weight at beginning of fast, 135 pounds. Weight at end of fast, 105 pounds. Weight two months later, 175 pounds.
suffering from a badly congested condition of stomach and upper intestines, and underwent a fast of fifty days with no marked disturbances. His weight was reduced from 145 pounds to 105 pounds, and the subsequent gain in avoirdupois and in strength was normal, with the result that in two months from breaking the fast, he had regained the former to the point of balancing the scales at 170.
Without citing individual instances, attention is directed to the ease with which the disease symptom known as appendicitis yields to the fast. The vermiform appendix in the human body is a slender blind sac opening from the caecal portion of the large intestines. It is on an aA^erage from three to six inches in length, and of a calibre of that of a lead-pencil. It is found in man and in some of the lower animals, and in a few of the latter it is large and performs a digestive function. In the human body its use is problematical, but it is more than probable that its function is that of stimulating peristalsis, either through the secretion of a lubricant or by mechanical contractions.
In the medical world, radical treatment ​of this symptom demands immediate operation and removal of the appendix. Observation of numbers of cases leads to the belief that an inflamed appendix is a symptom most rare in occurrence. The modern craze for cutting living flesh is responsible for snap judgment in diagnosis, and gas in the caecum, gall stones, inflammation of the ovary or of the bowel in the ileo-caecal region, all have been mistaken for an inflamed appendix and have occasioned unnecessary operations with serious and perhaps fatal shock.
In the treatment of any intestinal inflammation, appendicitis included, no assistance is needed other than that which complete rest of the digestive tract and constant application of the enema afford. Pain ceases and fever is reduced in every uncomplicated instance by the end of the third day, and the sole necessity for the continuance of the fast is found in seeking perfect results and the general welfare of the patient.
A young man, 23 years of age, offers a case of the insanity of syphilis. The blood taint was acquired by contact, and, when observed and first under treatment, presented what is known as the secondary stage of the ​disease symptom named. The mental condition of the patient was such that no physical act was under control, and all abnormal tendencies pursued erotic channels. His weight when treatment began was 150 pounds. After low diet and an absolute fast of twenty-eight days, the time of dieting and of the fast having occupied three months, weight was reduced to 67 pounds. There were no unusual symptoms during the period of fasting, but progress toward sanity was daily noticeable, and, at the end of the time mentioned, mental balance was entirely restored, while the blood taint has never since given any evidence that it ever existed.
A young man, 19 years old, who had been led into habits, mental and physical, detrimental to normal development, became, as a result, a victim of the disease symptom, epilepsy. For five years he suffered from the fits characteristic of the malady, recurrent at intervals of from one to two weeks. Medicine had been appealed to in vain, and when the fast was proposed, it was discovered, after careful examination, that the youth was addicted to masturbation, which, in instances of this nature, is more of a symptom than a cause. A condition of low phy​sical tone seems rather to induce a habit of this kind, and the young man was no exception to the rule. For five months a regime of restricted diet and of fasting was pursued. The absolute fast intermittently included in this time occupied a total of sixty days. Symptoms gradually subsided, and the recurrence of the epileptic seizures became reduced to such an extent that, at the end of the second short fast, four weeks intervened between attacks ; and, when feeding was permanently resumed, no further seizures were apprehended. The weight of the patient was reduced before disease was eliminated to fifty-eight pounds, but, from the breaking of the fast, a gradual increase took place, and, at the end of dieting, he had regained his normal of 148 pounds.
A woman, 36 years of age, at the end of the third month of pregnancy developed severe bilious symptoms. Vomiting of dark green bile, and a condition verging upon coma demanded immediate action, so the fast was begun and copious enemas were administered twice daily. The latter brought from the bowels dark discharges, which continued
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Mrs. E. S. Extreme bilious symptoms with stupor and nausea. Fast of twenty-two days while pregnant with child whose picture is also shown. Photograph taken six months after birth of child.
lay in a semi-conscious state, but revived on the morning of the eighteenth, when the bowel passages were almost normal in color. Rapid return to consciousness occurred, and increased strength marked all succeeding days until the twenty-second, when the fast was broken upon fruit juices, and convalescence thereafter proceeded without interruption.
The loss in weight in this case was 22 pounds. Temperature and pulse were continually above individual normal until the latter part of the fast, the former ranging between 95 and 99, and the latter from 80 to 110, although a decided drop in each was observed after the administration of an enema. No return of the nausea of pregnancy occurred after breaking the fast, and thereafter the general health of the patient was excellent. At term an eight-pound child was delivered, perfectly developed and vigorously healthy.
On the fifteenth day of this fast, in view of the gravity of the situation, a consultation was held with a former medical adviser. The latter advocated, as the only means of saving the life of the mother, the immediate removal ​of the fetus, and the abandonment of the fast. His opinion was overruled, however, and the result of the case fully justified the stand taken. As the officiating physician at the confinement, five months later, he expressed himself concerning the ease of delivery and the remarkable vitality of the infant, and acknowledged his error in judgment by a complete reversal of his condemnation of the fast.
An analogous case is that of a woman of 27, wife of a practicing physician. She was between three and four months pregnant, and was suffering severe pain in the region of the uterus and in that of the stomach. The former organ was found to be displaced. Nausea and vomiting were constantly distressing the patient when the case was presented and the fast decided upon. A preparatory period of twelve days on liquid diet preceded the latter, which continued for thirty days. No unusual symptoms arose during this time, and constant improvement was noted from the beginning, the sensation of nausea decreasing successively and disappearing about the twentieth day with no return thereafter. Pulse and temperature remained slightly below normal until eating ​was resumed. The fast was introduced and broken upon strained vegetable broths, and solid food was eaten twelve days from the date of its completion. At term the patient was delivered of a babe weighing seven pounds, as physically perfect and as healthy as that described in the previous case. The loss of weight in this fast was an even thirty pounds.
It is to be remarked that the children of these two mothers are not only physically excellent examples, but are also mentally intelligent to a marked degree. These gratifying characteristics are to be attributed to the purification in body undergone by the pregnant women at a stage early enough to provide for cell structure in the forming child unvitiated by disease in the system of the mother.
The statement of the following case is in the language of the father of the patient :
"During several weeks prior to his sixth birthday, our oldest boy had complained of sore throat and general lassitude. This finally developed into an acute tonsilitis. On the third or fourth day he complained of pain in both knees, and by evening these joints were swollen and red, and the pain had be​come so intense that the weight of the bedclothes was unbearable. The physician whom we called—one of the regular school—promptly diagnosed the case as one of inflammatory rheumatism. He advised the use of hot applications to subdue the pain, and insisted on putting the left knee, which was the worse, in a splint so that it could not be moved. On his second or third visit he discovered mitral regurgitation, that common and ominous symptom, showing that the systemic poisoning had affected the valves of the heart. His prognosis was most unfavorable. He said that the acute stage would last probably six weeks, and that it would leave the patient with organic heart trouble.
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Two Fasting Subjects F. T. on the right, J. T. on left.
F. T., the larger boy, fasted twelve days and was on a limited diet six weeks, then took a second fast of twenty-two days. The child was totally blind in connection with severe inflammatory rheumatism. A complete cure effected with sight completely restored.
J. T., the smaller boy, fasted seven days for stomach and bowel trouble. Photograph taken one year after the fast of the smaller child, and one and one-half years after the long fast of the larger boy.
"The pain kept up at intervals, intervals which grew steadily longer, however, for two days, then ceased entirely. Before the end of the week, the patient was able to be taken down town on the street car for his osteopathic treatment. His fast lasted twelve days.
"Later in the summer he had a recurrence of an old eye trouble, one resulting from an impure condition of the blood. He had been treated the summer before for this trouble, which had lasted several months. This time we began another fast, which continued for twenty-two days. At its end he stripped the bandage off his eyes one evening and looked at us and we knew that the thing was conquered. During a few of the twenty-two days he had a little orange juice, and at all times he had all the water that he desired. A daily bath and rub were given, and a copious enema each morning and evening.
​"At the time of writing, two years from the date of the last fast, there has been no recurrence of either the throat trouble, rheumatism, or eye trouble, and a regular physician, a friend of the family, who examined the boy a few months ago, pronounced his heart perfect."
The next and last case is that of a cancer of the right eyelid of twelve years standing in a man 62 years old. The patient had been twice operated upon without success, and the cancer made its third appearance in most virulent form. A consultation with a medical specialist resulted in renewed recommendation of the knife to which the patient refused to submit. He began preparation for a fast which lasted forty-five days, and at the expiration of this period all that remained of the suppurating sore was a reddish scar of its former seat. Four years later his personal report of the case shows no symptom of recurrence upon the eyelid or elsewhere, and general health superb. The eradication of this symptom of extreme blood impurity by means of the fast fixes the value of the treatment in supposedly incurable forms of disease. It bears out completely the contention that disease is a unity, ​and that its cure lies in the application of the single method of nature, elimination. Cancer is merely a symptom of general disease, and it may be eradicated when its ravages have not involved an organ to the extent of rendering it incapable of function.
A cancer, a tumor, are evidences of nature's economy in gathering her forces of cure at a single point. Medicine seeks to "drive it in;" surgery to "cut it out;" neither succeeds in removing its cause. Even though the actual growth and its nearby ramifications are extirpated by the knife, nature is still impelled to rid the body of its circulating impurity by constructing destructive cells, and only blood purification can accomplish a cure.
The cases cited in this chapter are described with as little technical language as possible, and are submitted in order to show the variety of symptoms treated, all of which revert to the fundamental principle dwelt upon and emphasized in the text that there is but one symptom of disease, impure blood; and that it has but one cause, impaired digestion; and, further, that any and all of its medically-termed manifestations, because they are results from the same origin, will ​yield to the remedy indicated and prescribed by nature.
Faster's chilliness, referred to in a number of instances in the text, should not necessarily convey the idea that body temperature in these cases was below normal. At any time chilliness is simply a condition of sensation, and in the fast it is due to the absence of food stimulation, as previously described. Then, too, it is to be recalled that normal pulse and normal temperature are relative terms, and that their limits vary with the individual. In many of the cases quoted and in others not mentioned, temperature was below register during part of the fast, but the application of the treatment and its accessories invariably restored these conditions to normal for the particular patient.
Attention has been drawn to the fact that when death has occurred during the fast, the organic trouble revealed showed in each instance that some paralyzing influence had interfered in early life with the functions and had retarded the development or structurally affected the organs. Original defects thus caused have always been located in the organs of digestion, which displayed contractions, accumulations of morbid or of ​healthy tissue, and lesions that lead to bu' one conclusion, viz. Barring congenital deficiency, these deformities, without shadow of doubt, are caused by powerful drugs with which the science of medicine formerly saturated the system.
The following table is arranged to show the diminution in weight in fasts of varying lengths. The average loss, it will be seen, is one pound daily.
No. Weight at of Days Beginning
Weight at End of
Loss in
Names Fasted of Fast
Fast
Weight
1.
G.E.D.
50
228
Ibs.
174
Ibs.
54
Ibs.
2.
I.N.M.
22
150
Ibs.
123
Ibs.
27
Ibs.
3.
N.H.L.
10
178
Ibs.
165
Ibs.
13
Ibs.
4.
F.H.W.
20
182
Ibs.
158
Ibs.
24
Ibs.
5.
J.B.
23
165
Ibs.
154
Ibs.
11
Ibs.
6.
A.B.
8
135
Ibs.
127
Ibs.
8
Ibs.
7.
G.W.T.
41
109
Ibs.
73
Ibs.
36 Ibs.
8.
F.J.C.
28
136
Ibs.
103
Ibs.
33
Ibs.
9.
T.R.A.
34
117
Ibs.
92
Ibs.
25
Ibs.
10.
R.B.
17
135
Ibs.
118
Ibs.
17
Ibs.
Totals
253
1535
Ibs.
1287
Ibs.
248
Ibs.
A reference to the chapter, "Death in the Fast," will illustrate the lack of development in bodily organs. In several of these cases, ​degeneration of one or other of the large digestive glands the liver, the spleen, and the pancreas is also revealed. In one particular subject the pancreas had become a mere cartilaginous replica of the original organ, a petrified reminder of its former self. In another case, a hardened ring of muscular material had brought the walls of the stomach to such a state of contraction that distinct and separate pouches were formed, and the floor of the organ at the contraction lay within a half -inch of its upper wall. Contractions existed also throughout the length of the small intestines, but those portions, which were in functional state between, showed conclusively that the organ had fully developed, and had been originally of normal size and function, but had been acted upon by some corrosive agent that had caused the deformation. In other autopsies intestines were of infantile size, and exhibited a condition that made known the fact that at no time after the third or fourth year of infancy had they ever added to their structure or to their capability of function. The cause of this result must also be ascribed directly to the same malignant influence the administration of poisons, of paralyzing ​extracts, that destroy nerve transmission and occasion paralysis of function and of organ.
It is evident that the word, "science," defined as "to know," cannot be applied to medicine as a curative system for disease. No practitioner is able to foretell the effect of a drug upon successive patients. One may be stimulated, another stupefied, and these results may be reversed when conditions are changed. The physician of the future will forsake symptoms except as indications for local relief, and will devote himself to the prevention of disease, to the Science embodied in the unchanging laws of nature.
While the rest and the purification that result from a completed fast are the basis of the method of treatment, additional means that can in any way assist in attaining results are never neglected, and these material aids need not ever enter the domain of medicine. Osteopathic manipulation, intelligently applied, proves of great value at all times during the fast and thereafter. Chiropractic adjustment of spinal column brings relief and comfort. And each of these schools, with their limitations recognized, are yet to be reckoned as important adjuncts ​on curative lines. The differences that arise among members of the medical profession are such as cannot occur among those who reason with nature from cause to effect, nor is it necessary for the natural practitioner to wait until disease has reached an acute stage before making diagnosis.