brain. During the fast constant improvement in mental capacity is shown after proper preparation on restricted diet and omitted meals; and, as the fast progresses, the return to sanity proceeds at a rate commensurate with physical advance. A general fact observed in treating this symptom of disease, when functional in origin, is the presence of quantities of dark, foul-smelling discharges from the bowels, which do not decrease, either in amount or in vileness, until long after the period indicated in ordinary disease. The value of the fast as employed in cases of extreme nervousness and of insanity from functional causes, is almost unknown to alienists, but in the near future it is bound to receive recognition as a certain means of cure.
Due to superficial observation of the delirium of auto-intoxication sometimes present in the early stages of the fast, the criticism has been advanced that prolonged abstinence from food not only produces weakened mentality in the patient, but that it will eventually cause insanity. Fasting never entails a loss of mental power, and this statement is based upon experience gathered from considerably over two thousand cases of fasting
