Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/314

 degeneration of one or other of the large digestive glands the liver, the spleen, and the pancreas is also revealed. In one particular subject the pancreas had become a mere cartilaginous replica of the original organ, a petrified reminder of its former self. In another case, a hardened ring of muscular material had brought the walls of the stomach to such a state of contraction that distinct and separate pouches were formed, and the floor of the organ at the contraction lay within a half -inch of its upper wall. Contractions existed also throughout the length of the small intestines, but those portions, which were in functional state between, showed conclusively that the organ had fully developed, and had been originally of normal size and function, but had been acted upon by some corrosive agent that had caused the deformation. In other autopsies intestines were of infantile size, and exhibited a condition that made known the fact that at no time after the third or fourth year of infancy had they ever added to their structure or to their capability of function. The cause of this result must also be ascribed directly to the same malignant influence the administration of poisons, of paralyzing