Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/153

 a battle-ground for myriad antagonistic hordes of minute organisms, but in expeditiously removing the putrid field in which alone these really invaluable servants of nature can exist.

Despite prevalent belief, disease never strikes suddenly, but is the consequence of long-continued violations of natural law. It is the result of a gradual clogging of the avenues of vitality with dead material, a longdrawn process of stifling the forces of life. "Every disease," says Dr. E. H. Dewey, "is an inherited possibility, which every violation of the laws of life tends to develop. It is never simply an attack on a well person, but rather a summing-up of the more or less lifelong violations of health laws." As a result of these transgressions, loss of digestive power occurs; disease symptoms become apparent on lines of least resistance; and the physical scales no longer balance. The decomposition of every morsel of food that enters a human stomach in excess of the need for repair of broken-down tissue and growth is always the direct cause of morbid conditions. Defining disease as here outlined, it may be succinctly stated that it is the result of the products of the decomposition of