Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/122

 though Pasteurized or sterilized, it will again take up germs if exposed to the air. In addition, sterilized milk is a different article from fresh milk, its chemical composition being altered by the process. The milk of the cow, when ingested, is changed upon encountering the gastric juices, into whey, a liquid, and into a tough mass of curd most difficult of digestion. To call milk a liquid food is absurd, for the solid matter in a pint of milk is equal to that in a half pound of meat, and in its dense coagulated form it is vastly more difficult of digestion.

In the present discussion the digestive capability under contemplation is that of an individual who has just succeeded in ridding his system of the toxic products of food in excess of the needs of the body. Hunger has returned and feeding must be resumed. If the milk of the cow is the form in which nourishment is supplied, and if, in addition, not one pint, but, as recommended, several quarts daily are imbibed, for each quart consumed, an equivalent in flesh food of one pound is offered for digestion. The purpose of the fast is at once defeated, since the most vigorous of bodies is unable perfectly to transform and to assimilate this mass of material. All