Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/306

FASTING come so intense that the weight of the bedclothes was unbearable. The physician whom we called—one of the regular school—promptly diagnosed the case as one of inflammatory rheumatism. He advised the use of hot applications to subdue the pain, and insisted on putting the left knee, which was the worse, in a splint so that it could not be moved. On his second or third visit he discovered mitral regurgitation, that common and ominous symptom, showing that the systemic poisoning had affected the valves of the heart. His prognosis was most unfavorable. He said that the acute stage would last probably six weeks, and that it would leave the patient with organic heart trouble.

"At this point we decided to resort to a method in which we had long believed, but which we had failed to try at the outset of this sickness because we had not realized the seriousness of the case. We discharged the physician and began the treatment described herein under the direction of a competent natural practitioner. She took off the splint and gave both knees a careful but thorough rubbing. They had been apparently too sensitive to touch before this, but by the 284