Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/149

 apparent though it be, and weakening and distressing in its effects as it is, calls for correction as does no other in the long list of offenses against nature. From time to time many earnest seekers have advanced beliefs and theories tending to develop a panacea for disease, but so far without success. That relief is to be found is not only probable but certain, since nature deals but in cause and effect, and the tendency in all life is towards perfect bodily balance, without which health is not. One thing, however, is clearly shown in the results of the investigations thus far conducted: The human race possesses the possibility of reaching a point where nutrition and elimination shall become functions automatically performed.

The action of food within the body embodies a process more or less mechanical. Its function consists in replacing cell structure the usefulness of which is exhausted, a function that supplies and repairs the working parts of the human machine. In this process energy is liberated, utilized, and dissipated, and, in so far as the expenditure of what may be called nervous force is compensated, a balance is maintained. To accomplish its work, food must be prepared for conversion