Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/285

 dex finger of the left hand had been amputated because of a non-healing abscess. These ulcers had been, without exception, diagnosed as tubercular in character by previous attending physicians and had been treated from the medical standpoint accordingly.

Two days after the fast began, an abscess, similar in nature to those from which the patient suffered, broke through the surface of the skin at the base of the spine immediately over the sacrum. The discharge from this sore was most profuse and offensive, and the affected area spread until it was at least three inches in diameter, while its depth became such that the periosteum of the sacrum was exposed within ten days after the breaking of the skin. For a week hot fomentations were continuously applied, and the gangrenous tissue was carefully cauterized by focusing the rays of the sun upon the ulcer with an ordinary reading glass. By the tenth day the discharge had ceased to be offensive, and a few days later healthy granulation began. When the fast was complete, at the end of 58 days, the sole evidence of the sore that remained was a circular spot of slightly reddish normal skin of which the