Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/325



full realization of the gratifying relief that invariably appears in disease when organic labor is lessened by judiciously lowered diet or by abstinence from food, and, although advised of doubtful issue, insisted upon entering a complete fast.

After three weeks of gradual reduction in food quantity, the total abstinence stage was reached, and greater relief was at once experienced. On the twentieth day of the fast the patient decided for herself that the stomach could once more tolerate food. Observation demonstrates that patients who have suffered for many years from chronic functional troubles or from organic disease, and who are constantly hoping for cure, have developed, as a consequence of repeated disappointment, a disposition stubborn and willful. They instinctively distrust the hand that may prove the means of recovery, and it is a question whether the better policy lies in acquiescence or in resistance to their expressed desires. In this instance no opposition was offered to the demand for food, and vegetable broths were given. The organs of digestion, as was plainly evident to the trained mind, could not have reached the cleansed and rested state that would