The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1909-03-19

& Autbor ef"EathsS for a \
Purposs." "Tybs ssNee,
s Gospel E e h''as"''' 3
copyright. by Joseph B. Bowles.}
Fasting and Diet Cure.
Eating three square meals 10 q
habit. Men have lived 40, 60 days and
even longer without eating. DR.. Tan
ner tasted 40 days, more than 20
years ago. and is living at an advanced
age, hale and hearty, an advocate of
sane fasting. But some would die in
ten days II they didn't eat.
Apples correct biliousness and let
tuce and strawberries are good in
anemia, but they only supply what
nature needs. Only nature cures sick
ness. Nature will always cure, If we
do not force her to spend so much
time Tor Vitality house cleaning, that
she has none left for making repairs.
We put into the stomach a mixture
Of strange things that together form
4 very indigestible compound, requir-
ing three times the vitality needed to
digest what we really need for the
body's nourishment. And so nature is
constantly kept busy cleaning house,
until one day = crisis comes and she
catches" cold or fever, starts a big
f1re and burns the accumulated rub
bish all up. She is very likely to do
this in the spring when there is an
unusually large accumulation of waste,
after the winters heavy feeding, lack
OF air and exercise, and when there
are more germs around. We eat a lit
tie lettuce or fresh fruit and nature
takes the hint that house cleaning
time has come. Grandmother's idea
of little spring medicine was not far
wrong, though sulphur is a heroic
remedy. Proper eating makes all this
unnecessary-if the thought is right.
Fever is a means of publication, al
though the germs that help to produce
1t do harm, like the rats that cleared
away the garbage in certain tenement
districts in great cities before public
sanitation took care of It. The blood,
If 1t has the necessary strength, will
destroy the germs, by the time the
waste matter is cleaned out, but to do
this, establishing immunity from At
tack by that particular kind of fever
again Tin some cases) requires the ex-
penditure of much vitality, and while
the net result of the fever may be
good. such system of house cleaning
Is not recommended, unless there is
no other that nature can command
which there is. Whether it is wise to
prevent certain diseases when they
become necessary, by the use Of anti
toxins, 10 an interesting question
which we cannot discuss here.
II when such crisis comes, there
is a fair supply Of all the elements
needed to carry on the life processes,
1t the tissues are In the main sound,
the vital organs, especially heart,
lungs and kidneys, the patient will
recover, even though all is not done
that might be done to remove the
obstacles that hinder natures pro-
cess of cure, and to supply pure
air, water, light, right mental influence
and food that will furnish what the
system needs and yet call for the
least draft on vitality, when con-
valescence begins.
We begin life with a certain stock
Of vitality determined, largely, by
heredity; and when that is expended
death follows. Stimulants, like alco-
hol, can only draw on this vitality and
expend 1t, diverting it from the use
Of one organ to another (which may
occasionally be benedcial),- and there
is always the reaction, equal and op-
posite." Neither food nor drugs can
produce vitality. Food furnishes one
OF the conditions necessary for the ex-
penditure of energy; it is necessary
for the discharge of the various ener-
gies which constitute life on the
physical plane. Now when food is not
taken for several days, the system
feeds on it's own tissues: This requires
the expenditure of very little energy,
for there is not digestion and there
fore little waste to eliminate, the sys-
TEN taking exactly what it needs, e.
rectly from the tissues and hence in
fasting, there is wonderful elevation
of all the forces, physical and mental,
a great saving of vitality. Hence the
great value of fasting as cure, VIII EN-
wisely directed j ~ q
But, If the organism Is extremely
weak at some vital point, or If fol, a
long time the food has not furnish led
the necessary elements of nutrition,
so that there is not a full stock ON
hand (or. to be literally correct, on
body normal nutrition cannot be long
maintained without food. DEATH EQf
persons who. try the fasting cdre
without proper knowledge is frequent
~ reported in the newspapers. Slim
-ulated :by.s hearing of the wonderful!
cures wrought by fasting, but with no
knowledge Of. its physiology, Cor of Its
psychology, which is, II possible more
importantly many try IT, with fatal re-
Suits although others are permanent
~ cured of chronic ills that nothing
else seemed. to Is benefit. r Competent
guidance is necessary, and it IL re-
gretable that the average physician
gives fasting no place In his means LOT
cure-it surely cannot be too simple,
for it requires accurate knowledge Of
nutrition, Of physiology, 4 and. 81. by
chology, to conduct . fast safely sand
probably. : 5@ If