Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/105

 CHAPTER VI.

THE DURATION OF THE FAST

THE duration of the complete fast is a matter that can neither be foretold nor prescribed in any individual case, for the treatment has its beginning in disease and its end in the hunger that marks the return of digestive power. Until the latter makes itself apparent, and it cannot be mistaken, the fast should continue. Then, and not till then, is the system in condition again to receive and transform food into tissue structure.

The sensation of hunger is a safeguard established by nature to insure bodily maintenance. It is the first instinct that the infant exercises at birth, and its office in all life is that of a watchful caretaker entrusted with interests beyond the ordinary in value.. The natural consciousness of hunger has, in most individual instances, been usurped by artificial craving produced through the cultivation of the sense of taste and through regularity