Fasting for the cure of disease/Chapter 18

by Linda Burfield Hazzard

CHAPTER XVIII

DEATH IN THE FAST

"It is hard to take

The lesson that such deaths mill teach,

But let no man reject it,

For it is one that all must learn,

And is a mighty universal Truth."

Charles Dickens.

CHAPTER XVIII

DEATH IN THE FAST

DEATH under medical treatment, in the majority of instances, results from disease that is functional, not organic. In the experience of the writer, death in the fast never has occurred when merely FUNCTIONAL disease was present, and never has resulted from abstinence from food, but was the inevitable consequence of obstruction by ORGANIC imperfection of the avenues through which the energy of the body is expressed. In this chapter medical evidence in cases of death from alleged starvation is compared with first-hand knowledge obtained in applying the fast for the cure of disease, and from post mortem examination of the bodies of patients who died while under treatment.

The immediate cause of the cessation of life is discovered in the fact that the brain becomes unable, through disease or shock, to draw upon its reserve store of sustenance for structural maintenance. Some paralyzing influence prevents nourishment of nerve centers and shuts off the life current. No agent more destructive of both physical and mental functions exists than unreasoning fear, and it plays its part in accidental situations where food is denied, such as mine disasters, shipwrecks, and the like, since here mental suffering affects the physical balance, and the cause of death lies in the conditions of the circumstances, and not in the fact that the body is deprived of food, for, in favorable surroundings, weeks and even months may pass ere death occur from lack of sustenance.

It is questionable whether, in a conscious being not afflicted with organic defect, or not situated so that food cannot be supplied when hunger calls, death has ever resulted from starvation, or, in other words, from the exhaustion of brain food stored in body tissue. No conclusive evidence shows that this has ever happened.

The autopsies that were held upon the bodies of the patients, of whom the causes of death are here described, disclosed in every instance organic disease, the origin of which lay in the earlier years of life. In most of these bodies, arrested development of one or more of the vital organs was found, and in all of them defective intestines displayed cartilaginous structure and malformation that must have required either acute inflammation or continued functional disturbance to produce. These cases cover subjects who had followed orthodox methods until orthodoxy proved of no avail, and who then turned to the fast and its accompaniments. Hence it is certain that erroneous diet, with subsequent lowered nutrition, occurring in the developing period of life and later, together with the baneful effects of drugs administered in the attempt to remedy disease, were responsible for the fatal issue. Nature had endowed each of these patients at birth with normal vitality; each of them had suffered in early life from severe functional disorder; and each, with one exception, had been drug-drenched.

Broadly speaking, there is no drug that is not a poison, stimulating or paralyzing in its effect; and, while harm ensues when drugs are employed for the treatment of disease in mature years, the consequences of applying ordinary medical remedies in infancy and in youth are doubly apparent and appalling. It is only necessary to draw the parallel between the results of administering brandy to a child and to an adult to emphasize this statement. What, then, must follow in the event of repeated dosage for fever, colic, colds, and the varied category of infantile disease? And what are the effects of this treatment upon growing human bodies? Not one of us but has the sacred relics of the day of powdered dried toads to blame for organs functionally disordered, arrested in development, or wholly ruined.

Repeating the distinction:

Starvation is the consequence of food denied, either by accident or design, to a system clamoring for sustenance.

Fasting consists in intentional abstinence from food by a system diseased, and, as a result, non-desirous of sustenance until rested, cleansed, and again ready for the labor of digestion. Then, and not till then, is food supplied. Then, and not till then, does starvation begin. The law of hunger draws the line of demarcation.

It may be repeated that, in functional disease, the fast can be carried to its logical end without a, particle of anxiety, because the law of hunger marks the limit beyond which abstinence cannot continue lest the body die. Hence, death from starvation is impossible in a fast properly applied, when it is conducted for the cure of disease not organic. Hunger must return, and food must be supplied. The result in the presence of structural defect is not assured. When the latter is of slight degree, repair is possible and recovery will follow; but, when the faults are such that functioning of one or more organs is prevented, no hope of cure exists, although, by lessening the strain upon other vital parts, life may be prolonged and distress relieved.

Eleven instances of death occurring while the fast or a course of diet was in progress are quoted because of the light they cast upon the diagnosis of disease when natural methods are applied, and because of the exposition made by the autopsies of the effects of erroneous diet and of drug treatment upon the human body. In each case it is shown conclusively that the cause of death was organic disease beyond repair, and that, at the stage reached when the fast was undertaken, no means of cure could have brought about recovery. Two of the deaths described occurred while the patients were dieting, not fasting, but the conditions in these show no contrast, excepting in respect to food or its omission. Death was certain, fasting or feeding. This list of eleven deaths is selected from a total of eighteen, the latter figure comprising all the fatalities of sixteen years of the practice of fasting for the cure of disease. The number of cases treated during this time reaches nearly two thousand, five hundred, each of whom fasted continuously for periods varying in duration from eight to seventy-five days. The death rate is thus seen to be about seven-tenths of one per cent.

CASE 1. A married woman, 38 years of age, who had devoted twenty years of her life in vain attempt to enjoy normal existence under medical treatment, finally ascertained that periods of dieting and of abstinence from food were the only means whereby she could obtain relief. At consultation a perilous condition indicating the presence of organic disease was evident, and careful dieting and the employment of the hygienic accompaniments of the treatment were prescribed and continued until six months later. At this time the patient, with

full realization of the gratifying relief that invariably appears in disease when organic labor is lessened by judiciously lowered diet or by abstinence from food, and, although advised of doubtful issue, insisted upon entering a complete fast.

After three weeks of gradual reduction in food quantity, the total abstinence stage was reached, and greater relief was at once experienced. On the twentieth day of the fast the patient decided for herself that the stomach could once more tolerate food. Observation demonstrates that patients who have suffered for many years from chronic functional troubles or from organic disease, and who are constantly hoping for cure, have developed, as a consequence of repeated disappointment, a disposition stubborn and willful. They instinctively distrust the hand that may prove the means of recovery, and it is a question whether the better policy lies in acquiescence or in resistance to their expressed desires. In this instance no opposition was offered to the demand for food, and vegetable broths were given. The organs of digestion, as was plainly evident to the trained mind, could not have reached the cleansed and rested state that would

permit them to resume their labors, and the administration of food resulted in nausea with vomiting, outward symptoms of organic inability to handle even the small amount ingested. Hiccoughs in severe form, a sign most apprehensive in character and usually indicative of intestinal obstruction, were also in evidence, and continued persistently at intervals until death intervened.

When a case such as this exhibits the symptoms noted in aggravated form, and when, moreover, its history shows years of constant suffering, it is a virtual certainty that organic defects exist that can in no wise be overcome. But, to allay the anxiety of the members of the family, the condition of the patient was brought to the attention of several medical practitioners, who could suggest nothing, for the stomach rejected nourishment, and great difficulty was experienced even in the retention of water. This state continued for more than two weeks, with pulse and temperature at average normal, but with no material improvement. As a final resort, a consultation of medical men was called. Their unanimous diagnosis, based upon the color of the bowel discharges, named the disease symptom as cancer, and the outcome of the case was by them also pronounced hopeless. Inaccuracy in medical judgment is well exemplified by comparison of this diagnosis with the findings of the post mortem examination which followed. Death came at the end of the fortieth day of abstinence from food.

The autopsy made known a condition that the symptoms had predicted. The stomach occupied a position in the abdominal cavity such that its pyloric opening was turned forward and downward six or seven inches; the lower surface of the organ lay opposite the navel, and its normal shape was enlarged and distorted to a capacity of six fluid quarts and to a length of nearly two feet. The small intestines at numerous points were adherent to the walls of the peritoneum, and the stomach itself had to be cut from the same surface in order to expose its whole extent. The medical history of this case notes an attack of typhoid fever, complicated with peritonitis, about twelve years before death. This undoubtedly determines the date of the visceral adhesions, and, in all probability, that of the distortions in stomach and intestines. In attempting to overcome conditions, the gall bladder had enlarged to

the size of a pint measure, while the liver was utterly disintegrated.

In the abnormal physical existence of this woman medicine had rendered no assistance, but rather the reverse, and as years passed, disease grew greater. Before the fast, bilious discharges and weakened heart action were symptoms that never varied except to increase in intensity. The fast disclosed from its first day immense quantities of vile, black filth that had been stored within the body, with the result that, from its beginning until just before death, the case showed decided relief and lessened pain. There was, however, no decrease in the amount of waste revealed at each application of the enema, and finally nature indicated that organic trouble defying repair existed, and that death was inevitable.

At the time when typhoid symptoms appeared, all of the organs of the body of this patient had fully matured, but the treatment of the fever and inflammation with drugs, while feeding was in constant progress, led to the formation of the organic lesions described, to which is directly traceable the fatal issue of the case. CASE 2 is that of a married woman, 39 years old, who had been a sufferer from disease for all of the adult period of life, and who had subsisted upon a diet of liquids for two years previous to death. Since girlhood, she had been treated without drugs (which she refused) by many different physicians for stomach derangement, but without success. Her condition grew worse month by month, until, in sheer despair, the fast was invoked, and, while death occurred at the end of fifty-seven days, the relief experienced leads to the expressed opinion that the treatment prolonged life for some weeks.

When the body was examined after death, the condition revealed was this: In the duodenum, just below the pyloric opening of the stomach, there must at one time have existed an ulcer or acute inflammation. Nature in her efforts at repair had deposited tissue cells at this point to the degree that the entire lumen of the intestine had finally been obstructed with the growth. There was no evidence of the characteristic cell formation of cancer, but merely that of an accumulation of tissue that occluded the gut. The right kidney was in a state of complete disintegration, but the other organs, and the intestines throughout, with the exception of the portion named, were normal in size and position. Until a year or more preceding death there may have been a small passage through the growth described, but this had finally closed, and the woman had lived only by the absorption of such liquid food as she could ingest and retain. The condition of the major portion of the intestines as to size and position is affirmative proof that the patient had never been subjected to drug dosage in the developing period of life. In this respect this case cannot parallel the one first cited, for in it drugs had played a disastrous part, and were the direct cause of the deformation of the digestive tract. Here the defect was occasioned by natural processes operating for local repair.

CASE 3. A young married woman of 24s had been since maturity a sufferer from severe intestinal troubles, and from acute bilious symptoms. She had been medically treated for so-called appendicitis four years before her death, and an operation had been advised, but to this she refused to submit. In this connection it is interesting to note that the autopsy on this body disclosed an appendix in normal state, with no signs of former inflammation.

Eight months before death the patient had undergone a fast of twenty-eight days and had convalesced into the most satisfactory physical condition that she had known since childhood. During the time of this fast and thereafter she cared for a young baby, and continued to do so until acute bilious derangement, accompanied by symptoms of organic disease, was manifested. The case fasted until death an even sixty days, and it was found, after a few weeks of abstinence, that pregnancy of several months added somewhat to the complications that arose. From the beginning of the fast excessively foul black discharges came away with the enemas, and there was a constant, slight daily rise in temperature, which, however, was invariably reduced to average normal after the administration of the internal bath.

At the post mortem examination it was discovered that the liver was in a condition of complete disintegration; the stomach exhibited an extreme hour-glass contraction, and its pyloric opening would not permit the insertion of a lead pencil, nor could it be stretched without tearing, on account of the hardened nature of its walls ; the small intestines and the colon throughout their length displayed a series of cartilaginous contractions. In this instance these contractions were formed after full development to adult life had taken place. They undoubtedly were the results of powerful drugs administered from time to time after the eighteenth year, since all other portions of the intestines were of normal size. The fetus was removed from the uterus at the autopsy and was found to be in perfect condition, exhibiting the normal development of an unborn child of four months.

CASE 4, that of a married woman of 85, was similar in many respects to the one preceding. This patient fasted fifty-nine days from the beginning of illness until death, and the case was complicated with an extra-uterine pregnancy in the right Fallopian tube, which aggravated conditions until the fetus was prematurely delivered. The whole adult life of this woman had been made wretched by digestive disturbance, bilious attacks, and menstrual difficulties. Drugs and patent medicines had done their worst until two years before death, when, in hopeless apathy, the patient consented to undergo a fast, and completed one of thirty days with such success that she experienced entire relief from the menstrual pain thereafter, and had no digestive distress unless careless in diet.

The cause that compelled the patient to enter a second fast lay in organic disease that had progressed to the point that the functions became inoperative. Disintegration of the liver must have existed for some time previous to the beginning of the fast, for from its first day large amounts of black bilious discharge came away in the enemas. The condition gradually became so aggravated that the thought of food was nauseating, and its odor and even the perfume of flowers could not be borne. This was also true of the second case cited. Organic defect existed when the former fast took place, and its symptoms were present at that time, but the organs, recuperated by their enforced rest, were enabled to continue partial functioning for some months longer.

In this second fast pulse and temperature rose above normal several beats and degrees each day between the administrations of the

enema, but invariably fell to register after the internal bath, which was given twice daily. The fact of an extra-uterine pregnancy having been determined about the third week of the fast, it was discovered on the forty-first day that contractions of the uterus were occurring; the os was dilated, and it was evident that an attempt was in progress to deliver the forming child through natural channels. By outside and inside manipulation of the uterus, a dead, misshapen fetus was finally removed with little or no pain. General relief was instantaneous, and was of such nature as to offer hope of ultimate recovery, but it lasted only a few days, when a decline set in that ended in death on the fifty-ninth day from the beginning of the fast.

Hiccoughs in mild form were present at times during the latter days of fasting, and there was some vomiting of black bile. It was useless to attempt feeding at any stage, for, from the first, the stomach rejected food and water, and the only fluid that the body received during the period named was obtained from the internal and external baths.

The post mortem findings follow: The liver was in such state of disintegration that even the slightest functioning could not have occurred for months. The gall cyst was at least four times its normal size and contained black bilious fluid. The kidneys were hypertrophied and pocketed with pus. The pancreas likewise was hypertrophied and was so hardened in texture as to resist the knife. The spleen was disintegrated to the extent that it was held together merely by its surrounding membrane. The small intestines were normal in size and position, as was the colon, excepting the transverse portion of the latter, which had dropped below the navel and was no larger in diameter than an adult thumb. The right ovary contained a cyst filled with serous fluid, and the right Fallopian tube was bent twice upon itself. The left ovary was in a state of atrophy and was no larger than a lima bean. The heart and the lungs were normal.

CASE 5 is that of a man of 24 who had been syphilitically infected five years before his death, and had treated the symptoms medically and with advertised nostrums. At the time of consultation the syphilitic sores still remained, and there were other evidences of the ravages of the blood taint present as

well. Among the latter was a loss of mental control that compelled the family of the patient to employ a keeper for the youth. About six months before death a fast of twenty-eight days was undertaken and successfully accomplished. The syphilitic sores were completely eradicated at its completion, and relief in general was such that the patient was enabled to dispense with his attendant and thereafter cared for himself. But some months later the signs of organic disease, including loss of mental control, again became apparent. From this time there was a copious discharge of watery mucus from the nasal passages and throat, and a constant, profuse exudation of sweat about the face and the head. The latter symptom was present in such degree that the hair of the patient dripped moisture continuously and his pillow needed changing every hour. Quantities of solid f eces and of catarrhal mucus appeared in the enemas, and for a month before death speech was impossible and no function could be performed without assistance. During the last nineteen days of life no food was ingested. The post mortem findings showed a brain, the right hemisphere of which was softened and pus-laden. The left hemisphere was structurally normal. The right jugular vein was filled with a whitish hardened mineral deposit, but the heart was in normal condition. The right lung had atrophied and was. in a state of embolism; it was virtually a solid mass of blood clots and was useless as an organ. The left lung was normal. The liver was partially disintegrated. In this case no abnormality existed in the entire length of the alimentary canal, and the kidneys, the pancreas, and the spleen were in functioning condition.

CASE 6, that of a man 46 years of age, presents a physical history of intermittent suff ering. As the result of an accident in childhood, in which the patient was internally injured, both youth and early manhood were filled with a succession of acute illnesses, which were treated in orthodox manner without permanent alleviation. About fifteen years before death, the patient abandoned medicine and turned to the natural or drugless method of cure, with the outcome that the first physical relief of permanence was obtained. Three years before his last illness acute disease again appeared, and, because of peculiar circumstances, medical treatment was resorted to for a short time but without benefit. Reverted to finally, the fast and its accompaniments succeeded in relieving con.ditions to such degree that in fourteen days the patient was able to resume the practice of his profession. Although suffering at intervals from that time on, there was no return of acute symptoms until the month preceding death, when, after unwonted physical exercise, followed by a heavy meal, severe pains in the intestines developed. The stomach rejected food; within a week drinking of water brought on nausea; and the point was soon reached when any attempt at the administration of sustenance occasioned excruciating pain. This condition continued for thirty days, at the end of which death occurred.

The post mortem examination showed most abnormal characteristics in the vital organs. The lungs were adherent at every point to the walls of the pleural cavity and to the diaphragm. The heart was in fair condition. The stomach was dilated and prolapsed. The gall bladder exhibited three distinct pouches, any one of which was the size of a normal sac, and two of these sections were filled with one hundred and twenty-six stones, one measuring four inches in circumference. The small intestines were collapsed to the pelvis and were intussuscepted midway in their lower portion so that two yards of their length were telescoped into five inches, and this part measured in diameter of lumen only one-quarter inch. All of the small intestines were below normal in size; the transverse colon lay in front of the descending bowel, an abnormality which largely increased the labor of disposing of body waste; the ascending and descending portions of the colon showed lack of development and were cartilaginous in structure; the sigmoid bend and the rectum were of diameter not to exceed that of an adult thumb, and were also in advanced cartilaginous state ; the kidneys, the liver, the pancreas, and the spleen were all in a condition of partial atrophy; the brain and the nerve centers showed no deterioration.

An excuse for surgical intervention sometimes exists, and here was a case in which a condition requiring internal adjustment was presented at the time of the accident noted in its history. Neglected then, life was prolonged by nature in spite of the handicap of physical defect, but at cost of constant suffering.

CASE 7, that of a man 56 years of age, exhibits a history of continuous disease in youth, but includes at least twenty years of later life devoted to diet, to the fast, and to hygienic attention to the body. In fact this part of the man's existence was distinguished by work along all lines of progressive thought. At the time that the case was presented, the patient was aware that, despite all efforts at conservation of health, his condition was such that he must have recourse to every means of assistance that nature could suggest, or he must succumb to the inevitable. After examination, with the discovery that the symptoms showed marked organic disturbance, it was agreed that but one hope of recovery remained, and that this lay in a complete fast. By it would be determined either the ability of the vital organs to continue functioning, or the assurance that the human machine had reached a point where life could be no longer maintained.

The fast began, and there was no marked disturbance until the twenty-first day, while relief was such that the patient regarded his case as one that showed constant and permanent improvement; but, after this date and during the succeeding ten days, the symptoms became unfavorable, and upon the thirty-second day he sank into a comatose state in which he lay until by manipulation an abscess in the nasal cavity was with difficulty discharged. This release of foul pus eased the patient ; he became conscious and assisted with interest in the efforts being made to promote his recovery.

This case fasted thirty-eight days until death. At all times large amounts of mucus were discharged from the colon in the enemas, while pain, sometimes of an excruciating character, was felt in the region of the bladder. In the later stages of the fast and just before death, pus in abundance was present in the urine, and in the last few days of life the urinary organs were utterly unable to evacuate the contents of the bladder, for which purpose an irrigating bougie had to be employed. In spite of the quantity of refuse stored within this body, muscular strength was exhibited in remarkable degree during the fast and until the day of death. The patient was able at all times to move himself in bed, to rise at intervals, and to help himself in ways that seemed marvelous when his physical condition was considered. The results of the autopsy follow: The brain, weighing forty-eight and one-half ounces, filled the entire cavity of the skull, and was perfect in structure. These facts add corroborative evidence to the truth of the theory advanced by Dr. E. H. Dewey, and developed by all who have -given time and practical thought to the treatment of disease by the fast, viz., that, in a fast, nerve tissue is never depleted since its supply of nourishment is gained directly from body reserve and not from food ingested. The lungs were in excellent condition; the heart, organically speaking, was perfect, but was filled with a gelatinous mass of serum affected by post mortem change; from the cardiac opening of the stomach to within two inches of the pylorus there was not one particle of healthy muscular tissue, and the appearance of the walls of the organ was that of smooth, wet chamois skin; the duodenum was below normal in size, but the upper portion of the jejunum was considerably dilated; about midway in the tube of the small intestine a downward intussusception had taken place, in length about two and one-half inches ; this was of long-standing, since the walls of the bowel had become cartilaginous and thickened, and in so doing had closed the opening of the gut so that it would have been difficult to insert a lead pencil into the passage; the only section of the colon that was in a natural state was the cecum, but thence to the rectum the organ was of infantile proportion; in fact, there was not one inch of this part of the bowel into which the end of an index finger could have been introduced; the sigmoid flexure was less deveolped than any other portion of the gut ; its bent form was absent, and it had become merely a straight, vertical canal continuing the descending colon to the anus; the liver was badly congested, with its left lobe partially cirrhosed, but its functions had probably been performed with better success than those of the other digestive organs ; the gall bladder was distended with bile; the pancreas was extremely small, and the spleen was that of an infant; the kidneys were disintegrated and pocketed with pus, which discharged through the ureters into an inflamed and congested bladder; the latter was very undeveloped and held within its thickened walls barely three ounces of liquid.

The conditions recited were not the results of a fast of thirty-eight days, but were those of disease and subsequent arrested development in early life. While there may have been a lack of general physical growth in the individual, some paralyzing agent introduced from without was responsible for the marked deformity found in the intestines.

In view of the undeveloped and mechanically inadequate state of the digestive tract, it is interesting to record that the sexual organs of this man were those of a boy. He was under height and boyish in appearance as well. Nervous shock presumably received through drugs administered in infancy caused functional paralysis and arrested growth of the digestive organs, and general development suffered in consequence.

CASE 8, that of a young man of 22, suffered for the greater part of his life from acute indigestion attended with distressing symptoms of an apoplectic kind. From the beginning of the fast the enemas brought away merely colored water, but general relief was felt until the twentieth day of abstinence. Then a profuse hemorrhage from the nose occurred, indicating obstructed circulation, and, after the twenty-second day, the patient kept his bed with nose-bleed and hiccoughs intermittently present. At this stage of the treatment the latter symptom in severe form is conclusive of organic defect, and three days before death, when the hiccoughing had become continuous, the patient sank into coma and never regained consciousness. He died forty-nine days from the beginning of the fast.

From the twenty-first day quantities of black bile were vomited, which, as are hiccoughs, is a sign that intestinal obstruction exists, and this diagnosis was completely corroborated by the autopsy. Ten feet of the upper portion of the small intestine proved to have been arrested in growth in childhood, and the walls of the organ were of cartilaginous nature. In the duodenum was discovered an accumulation of hard tissue, similar to that described in CASE 2, which entirely closed the bowel. No food material could possibly have passed this point for months previous to the fast. The presence of this abnormal formation explains two facts observed in the case: the first, that the patient had been compelled to subsist for a year before his last illness upon liquids alone; the second, the absence of solid particles in the returned fluid of the enemas. Repair of body tissue had been accomplished but imperfectly by absorption through stomach walls and those of the short length of upper intestine that might have functioned. The colon at both bends was contracted so that it was barely possible to insert a finger into the lumen, and the right bend had adhered to the transverse portion of the organ in such manner as to form a loop. The kidneys were greatly congested; the gall cyst was much enlarged; the pancreas and the spleen were, however, normal; adhesions of both upper and lower bowels to the walls of the peritoneal cavity had formed at frequent intervals.

In tracing the medical history of the case, it was later discovered that, at seven years of age, a severe fever accompanied by inflammation of the intestines had been treated medically with opiates, and the heart action, as is usual in cases of this nature, had been stimulated to the highest degree with strychnine and digitalis.

CASE 9, a civil engineer, 27 years of age, had suffered since childhood with acute digestive ailments, which were treated as is usual in orthodoxy. Malnutrition finally became so pronounced that the subject decided that medicine could suggest nothing that would alleviate the condition, and he entered a fast of his own volition, coming for consultation some days after its beginning. He died at the end of twenty-one days of abstinence from food. In the state in which this patient was at the first examination, the uselessness of attempting to cope with the organic symptoms that were plainly apparent was so certain that it was deemed best to inform him that recovery was out of the question. Food was administered at this point, but the stomach was unable to retain it, and repeated trials at feeding met with the same result. The fast was perforce continued, and death came, as stated, after twenty-one days.

The post mortem examination revealed an interior with heart, lungs, and digestive organs so extremely arrested in development that, had it not been for the adult body in which they were enclosed, they would have been taken for the organs of a child four years of age. If comment is needed upon this remarkable combination of a mature body with infantile instruments of function, it should be based upon the causes of the lack of structural growth noted. And again the conclusion is forced that, in disease drugtreated in early life, lies the solution.

CASE 10, a man of 34, whose physical history had been one of constant illness after the twentieth year, is next presented. The patient had been treated medically for indigestion, constipation, and various fevers. All his life he had been an inveterate user of strong tea, and in later years fermentation, gas, difficulty in breathing, and abdominal pain invariably succeeded the ingestion of a meal. For the relief of these symptoms medical correctives and tonics were taken but the conditions gradually grew worse. The patient finally decided upon a fast, but, because of family interference, a liquid diet was substituted and continued for thirty-five days, when death occurred. In this case pulse and temperature before the fast had been habitually below normal, and they made but little change during the period before death, the former remaining at fifty-four or thereabouts, and the latter so low that it could not be registered on the ordinary clinical thermometer. There was constant feeling of chilliness.

The autopsy discovered the lungs completely filled with an exudation of serous fluid, a condition comparable to that in croupous pneumonia, and one that was the immediate cause of death. The body, for several weeks, had been blotched or sinused beneath the surface of the skin, the dilated veins showing a circulation obstructed, presumably in the liver. This symptom is always present in cases of cirrhosis or hardening of the liver, and the latter organ on examination was found in an advanced stage of atrophic cirrhosis. The stomach held but eight fluid ounces, and it could hold no more, for its outside muscular coat was in a permanent state of contraction, and the mucus coats were very much thickened, making the whole organ at least one inch in depth of wall. As a result of the contraction of the outside coating of the stomach it had become elongated into a tube, and its normal capacity was much diminished. The duodenum and the upper three feet of the small intestine were dilated so that the lumen was three inches in diameter, a structural change which suggests the thought that nature had attempted to remedy in this portion of the alimentary canal the deficiency in size and function existing in the stomach. It is said that cirrhosis of the stomach is a very rare symptom in disease, but in this case and in the one that follows, this organic change was present in forms that could scarcely have been more perfect examples of their kind. Below the dilated section of the intestines the bowels, including the colon, were apparently normal. The gall bladder was quite small, while the kidneys, the pancreas, and the spleen all exhibited incipient hardening of tissue.

CASE 11, an unmarried woman of 38, had never passed a year during infancy and girlhood free from acute illness, and had been a sufferer for all of later life from nervous exhaustion that at frequent intervals took the form of morbid craving for food, which had been greatly increased when her medical adviser, about five years before death, prescribed its satisfaction by ordering her sustenance every two hours, with a meal the last thing at night. Excruciating pain at the menstrual period compelled the patient for many years to lose four or five days from her duties each month, and left her prostrate and nervous for much of her other time. She had sought the world over for relief, and had turned to the fast and to general natural means two years before consultation, but had undergone only one fast of ten days. Upon examination there was no question that organic disease was present, and, because it existed in aggravated form and no encouragement could be offered in prognosis, it was agreed that the treatment given should be aimed solely at the relief that a light diet would be certain to aiford. This course was accordingly pursued and the patient continued upon it for a period of eighty days when death occurred. In this case a sinused condition of the skin of the face and body was noted when first seen; the cheeks were blue and veined, as was also the nose, and the whole body showed deplorable deficiency in venous circulation. This state improved to some extent after entering upon the diet prescribed, but it was never wholly corrected. The examination of the body after death revealed a liver and stomach cirrhosed in structure, and the stomach walls, in addition, showed no evidence of glandular function, their surface being without corrugation, the mucosa having thickened as in the preceding case. The stomach was functionally useless, and its walls were three-quarters of an inch in thickness. The small intestines, infantile in size, were cartilaginous in sections, and adhesions occurred at frequent points. The colon was no larger than an adult thumb throughout, and also exhibited adhesions in various places. The only organs of the body that were in anything like a condition of functional activity were the lungs and the heart. The kidneys, the spleen, and the pancreas, as in the previous case, were incipiently hardened.

It has been mentioned in several of the cases quoted that the patient, after beginning the fast, experienced a renewal of vitality for which no solid physical foundation existed. This was true to a degree in each of the other cases, and was so marked at times that there was hope of ultimate recovery. Nature, struggling to restore organic function, makes the effort commensurate with the gravity of the existent defect. By 'the removal of the labor of digestion at least one-half of the total organic work of the body ceases, and relief that simulates recuperation is manifested despite structural deficiency in the machine. These favorable symptoms continue until elimination of refuse is well under way and proves a task beyond the organs to accomplish when decline begins and progresses until nerve centers and brain can no longer receive adequate support, and the body dies. In Cases 3 and 4 the relief experienced after the first fast in each case was sufficient, with organs still partially able to function, to enable the system to maintain itself until accumulation again became too great to permit of balance. The defects in structure, too serious to have been corrected in the earlier treatment or in the interim, now reached the stage of disintegration or of atrophy, and the liberation of the life principle was no longer possible.

At the time of consultation the presence of serious organic defect cannot always be determined, but no doubt is permitted shortly after the fast begins, for within a week or ten days symptoms are displayed that fix conditions as they exist. The third week positively decides the outcome. In the two cases last described the signs of organic disease were such as not to be mistaken from the first. The result in each instance must be death, and all that could be done to aid possible recovery would, in the circumstances, prove of no avail. Because of family anxiety and the hoplessness of cure, these cases were placed upon restricted diet, a diet that put no undue strain upon the failing functions, but that, nevertheless, did not ameliorate the distress of disease as an absolute fast would have done. Life was prolonged for several weeks in these instances, but, if food had been entirely omitted, relief would have been greater, and days would have been added to existence.

The passing of the life of a human body in cases that are medically treated, in the majority of instances, happens under the influence of opiates that deaden pain and paralyze consciousness. In the fast the end of a life occurs as a quiet sleep, painless, peaceful, and beautiful.

Disease is self -limited ; the amount of poison manufactured is determined by the intake of food or of drugs, and eradication of disease is fixed in limit of time by the ability of the vital organs to cast out toxic products. The possibility always exists that these organs may prove unequal to their work, and this possibility becomes a certainty, with death as the outcome, in two situations one, when the organs themselves are structurally defective, and the other, when their powers are stimulated through food or through drugs, or both, to the point of exhaustion. Only one of these conditions, that of organic defect presents itself in treating disease by means of the fast. Both are met in the therapeutics of medicine.

The results displayed in the post mortem findings cited, and the comparisons made in the statement that follows, are tangible assets in the claim that, in the absence of defects in the organs of the body, abstinence from food, with other natural health-giving and health-preserving accompaniments, is the unfailing remedy for the cure of functional ills. The physician and the patient from the outset of the treatment possess the assurance of recovery; and confidence that rests on infallible natural law is in itself of the greatest assistance in accomplishing results. COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF POST MORTEM FINDINGS IN DEATH BY STARVATION (MEDICAL) , AND POST MORTEM FINDINGS IN DEATH DURING THE FAST AS NOTED IN THE TEXT.

DEATH BY STARVATION. DEATH IN THE FAST.

EMACIATION.

Marked. In cases where cirrhosed

state of liver or stomach existed, emaciation was similar to that in chronic ailments, but in the other instances it was not at all marked.

SKIN.

Shrivelled and wrinkled; Smooth and pliable in all emits a fetid odor ; sometimes cases ; free from odor ; no dark brown, varnishy coat- coating; not adherent. Exing; tightly adherent to parts cept in cases of cirrhosis of beneath; rough, scurvy sur- liver or stomach, perfectly face. white. In the latter sinused

condition as noted.

SUB-CUTANEOUS FAT.

Absent. In all cases sub-cutaneous

fat was present. This was especially so where disintegration of the liver is noted ,

POST MORTEM RIGIDITY.

Pronounced. Very slight. PUTREFACTION.

Sets in at once and pro- Very slow in progress. No gresses very rapidly. preservatives were used on

any body before holding the autopsy. In one instance post mortem was held one month after death, and putrefaction was hardly noticeable. Slowness of decay is attributable to the constant employment of both external and internal baths during treatment. Fasting is a process of elimination in immediate result, and the products that tend to swift decomposition are removed from the body as rapidly as formed.

HEART.

Usually contracted, con- Normal in all cases. taining only a small amount of blood. Sometimes distinct atrophy.

LUNGS.

Normal but smaller. Normal except as noted.

BLOOD.

Lessened in amount, but Abundance of blood. No thin and fluid from anemia. apparent anemia.

BLADDER.

Invariably empty. Some- In all cases contained some times much atrophied. water. Pus as noted. No

atrophy except in CASE 7. SPLEEN.

Not noteworthy. Normal in majority of

cases. Disintegration noted in CASE 4, atrophy in CASES 6 and 7.

PANCREAS.

Always atrophied, some- Atrophy noted in CASES times to practical disappear- 6 and 7; hypertrophy with ance. cirrhosis in CASE 4; incip ient cirrhosis in CASES 10 and 11. Others normal.

OMENTUM.

Transparent and destitute In all cases some fat; of fat in CASE 4 excessive fat.

Transparent in no case.

LIVER.

Unaltered except in size, Noted in all cases. There which is lessened. were no general character istics; the organ varied in size and structure with the individual.

GALL BLADDER.

Usually full; contents CASE 8 was the only int lining adjacent tissues. stance in which there was

staining of adjacent tissues. Others were as noted or normal. STOMACH.

Small, contracted; walls Several cases showed exthin; mucosa corrugated treme dilation; two were in and pale. state of cirrhosis; none

showed contractions except CASE 3 (hour-glass), and CASES 10 and 11 (cirrhosis). Other variations as noted.

INTESTINES.

Show uniform contraction The condition of the intes as to lumen and length ; walls tines is specifically noted in

usually thin and transparent all cases. There were no

to light; their atrophy in this general characteristics, but

connection is characteristic. in no instance were the walls

Sometimes empty ; some- unduly thin, times containing dark mucus; sometimes distended with gas.

KIDNEYS. Do not seem to suffer. Suffered as noted.

One fact of significance shown in the post mortem findings and in the comparison noted above is that, no matter how general were the defects in other organs, nor how emaciated the body, unless they themselves were organically imperfect, the heart, the lungs, and the brain were normal in size and in functional ability. It may be added that, although not always specifically stated, the brain in each instance in the cases cited was thoroughly dissected.

Through the facts related, the immediate cause of death in every instance quoted can easily be traced to its origin. Organic deficiency is the direct result of functional digestive impairment. The scientific worth of this observation is much enhanced by the fact that in these autopsies the organs were presented unaffected by recent drug paralysis. The cases that exhibited glands that were hardened or atrophied were invariably of an emaciated or wiry physique, while those in which a softening of the organs had occurred were inclined to obesity. It is also interesting to note that, where mental control was lacking at any stage of the fast, the colon at dissection showed displacement and distortion that rendered evacuation of its contents almost impossible, even with enemata.

From the scientific viewpoint the observations included in the present chapter are undoubtedly of greatest import in the text. By them the theory of Fasting for the Cure of Disease is substantiated as a fact, and proof of its efficacy as a remedy is rendered incontrovertible.