Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/286

 subjacent cushion of healthy flesh proclaimed that natural work of repair had progressed despite the absence of food. This is the point of greatest interest and import to be observed in the treatment of this case, when it is remembered that the blood of this woman had possibly been tainted at birth, and had been poisoned and repoisoned for years by constant additions to accumulated food rubbish. Elimination had never been succesfully accomplished in this body, but, once it could proceed undisturbed, nature was able, not only to cast out existing impurity, but also to repair diseased tissue from the store of healthy pabulum husbanded within.

The results of the copious daily enemas were noticeable for their exceeding foulness, and for the large quantity of dark bilious fluid that was evacuated until the thirtieth day of the fast. The loss in weight was not remarkable and amounted to but twenty pounds, and, when it is considered that the patient weighed only 85 pounds at the beginning of the fast, the proportion of loss as given in a later table was well carried out. While the mechanical difficulty referred to was not wholly relieved at the completion of treatment, the general health of the patient