Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/222

FASTING rather the child agrees with any one of the many kinds on the market, only in exceptional circumstances.

The contention that all disease has its origin in impaired digestive power is more strongly upheld when disturbances occur in the young than when the adult organism is affected. In the child, unaccustomed to continued abuse of the body and its functions, and with no harmful habits formed, the system resents any but natural treatment. If the contrary is persistently followed, disease develops.

The physical condition of a nursing mother is invariably reflected in the body of her child, and mental disturbances, temporary or permanent have like effect. Through nervous derangement of functional power, induced by disease or by anxiety, grief, or anger, such changes are occasioned in mother's milk as to cause serious illness in the suckling child. It is therefore incumbent upon the parent so to regulate her physical body through a dietary regime as to correct in herself the error in milk quality, and so to conserve her mental forces as to prevent systemic disease and nerve tension, with 208