Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/210

 extreme mental disorder. It may be deduced that a functionally perfect brain is the product of a physically perfect body.

To illustrate the effect of abnormal physical conditions upon mind-function, the following case is cited: The patient, a man thirty years of age, presented himself with a history of continuous digestive trouble, accompanied with strongly developed mental disturbance. Examination created the impression that the disease of the mind was the direct result of functional inactivity of the digestive tract, complicated with decided organic symptoms. A tentative diet of fruit juices and vegetable broths afforded the relief usual when organic labor is progressively decreased. Experience is needful to distinguish between temporary mitigation of the distress of disease and progress towards cure, and, though the symptoms were favorable to the extent of raising the belief in the mind of the patient that recovery would ensue, no definite hope was extended. At the end of four weeks of preparatory treatment, the patient ceased his visits, and a month later his body was found, dead by suicide, an act committed, as its condition showed, within a few days after discontinuing treatment. The