Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/11

PREFACE Every step that is taken in developing the practice of treatment of disease by natural methods is met with opposition which, in many instances, amounts to persecution. The research covered by this work, and especially that which involved post mortem examination, was hampered by medical intervention and was accomplished only through sheer determination and the assistance of a few broad minds in authority. The author believes that these autopsies are unique in the history of the healing art. No other investigator in her ken has had opportunity to connect the origin of disease with the immediate cause of death—its organic consequence. The latter, in all cases, have the additional advantage and scientific value of being exhibited free from the effects of drugs.

Stress must be laid upon the truth in the statement that the fast is but a means to an end. Full vigor and complete recuperation are not to be had in a moment, and the completed benefits of the treatment are seldom enjoyed until three, four, or six months after the end of abstinence. Patience, self-denial, and faith are the moral requirements, with physical regeneration as the reward for their exercise. vii