Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/293

 pain until the ulcer discharged, which was evidenced by the passage of large quantities of clotted blood and pus from the bowels. The patient hovered between life and death for several weeks, but the absence of food prevented irritation, the ulcer healed, and health returned. The application of the fasting method of cure to a condition such as was exhibited in this patient's second siege with disease is so essentially reasonable and so plain in argument that this description of the treatment of an internal ulcer should convince any unbiased mind.

A short description of a fast for chronic digestive disturbance or dyspepsia is presented in the following case, that of a man 45 years of age. The fast itself covered a period of forty-nine days, and from its beginning until t% forty-fifth day the patient was unable to rise from bed. At this date the tongue cleared as if by magic; hunger returned and with it strength; and on the forty-ninth day, when the fast was broken, the patient walked a distance of seventeen city blocks with but little fatigue. No unusual symptoms, excepting the excessive weakness mentioned, developed during abstinence ; and, from the breaking of the fast,