The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-09-11
New York Herald.I

KIDs-FACTs EVOLVED FROM THE FORTY
! DAYS FAST.
New York Heral1.I
DIR. Robert a. Gum introduced DR.. Tan
ner in Booths Theatre Thursday evening.
The house was not half filed. DR.. Tanner
began his lecture by nstancing The his
torica and other fasts since the times OF
Moses and Elijah, and then said that
his fast OF forty days was undertaken
to silence those physicians who had set
up the cry Ui "fraud whenever they bad
spoken OF modern cases OF fasting, and to
vndcate himself, whom they had de-
nounced as pretender. In bis early prac-
tice Of medicine he discovered in fast
ing a cure for many diSeases-for ex-
ample, dyspepsia and inflammation Of
the stomach, and other diseases. He
tasted for forty-two days in Mime
apois in 1877, but the medical faculty
denied that he had done so. A case OF long
fastng-thJt OF MolIie Fancher, Il Brook
! lyn-haylng been reported, DR.. William A.
Hammond, OF this city, had declared it a
fraud, and challenged any person to abstain
from food for forty days, and this was DR..
Tanners opportunity to vindlcale himself.
DR.. Tanner quoted copiOusly from the
CORES pOndence that passed between him
and after scoring DR.. Hammond roundly,
gave his hearers DR.. Marion Sims'S opinion
OF the fast. Next the speaker said that his
forty DAYS abstinence from food had upset
the theories OF the schools and proved that
the healing principle is in the man. 1t was
his faith in this power that carried him
through the forty days. lie had learned 20
rely upon fasting to restore the vital equili-
brium without the use OF drugs. Ameri-
cans, he insisted, swallow too many nos
trums-nostrums taken to cure dyspepsia,
which is induced by neutrality-suspicious.
that produce the very diseases that they are
| said To destroy.
| Paving bis respects TO the "regulars,"
among whom he found many fools, DR..
| Tanner said he was thankful that he no
| longer wore the shackes OF ''tbe code" !;
| for physicians, be continued, "are born,
not made within college walls, and onlv
educated fools ask for special legislation"
Here the speaker hoped that there might be
no legislation to fetter the practice OF medi-
cine in New York.
After passing glance at DR.. Frank Ham
ilton's ayerment that the fast bad proved
nothing, DIR. Tanner set forth his epitome OF
what had been proved-namely, that man
can exist longer than fourteen days without
food: that the stomach Will readily resume
its functions ailer long abstinence from
food and that the animal in our nature can
be subordnated 10 the mental. DR.. Tan
ner quoted at length from the books, and
then said that the fast will necessltate re-
study OF physiology.
Let a well-fed person." the Doctor con-
tinued, "sit down in utter inactivity and
he will become mass OF purifying organ
isms and die Of blood-posoning. Activity
is necessary to throw of the ellete material
OF the body. You can live on quarter OF
the food y0u take, aud you will be all the
better for your temperance in eating. The
extra effort to digest the surplus food you
eat is cause OF Indigestion.
Fasting is eminently the specific for Gu
ring dyspepsia and rheumatism, both acute
and chronic. Rheumatism comes OF blood
poisoning. The blood becomes acid through
a arrangement OF the digestive organs, and
all food taken into the stomach iDtensies
the acidity OF the blood. Ten days OF fast
ing may eliminate the poison from the
body"
The Doctor dwelt upon the value OF pure
air as a life sustaner, saying that his ridin 9
in Central Park and on Riverside drive
when the air was charged with electricity
buoyed him up and aided him materially in
continuing his fast until the expiration OF
the fortieth day. Then he epitomized the
forces that sustain life as-frst, the INTEL.
gent governing principle, which lie styles
the soul; second, heat found in food. the
fuel for the body; third, electricity; and
fourth, animal magnetism. Life" DR..
Tanner continued, "can be maintained
longer without food than without either OF
the other forces"