Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/327

 the outcome of the case was by them also pronounced hopeless. Inaccuracy in medical judgment is well exemplified by comparison of this diagnosis with the findings of the post mortem examination which followed. Death came at the end of the fortieth day of abstinence from food.

The autopsy made known a condition that the symptoms had predicted. The stomach occupied a position in the abdominal cavity such that its pyloric opening was turned forward and downward six or seven inches; the lower surface of the organ lay opposite the navel, and its normal shape was enlarged and distorted to a capacity of six fluid quarts and to a length of nearly two feet. The small intestines at numerous points were adherent to the walls of the peritoneum, and the stomach itself had to be cut from the same surface in order to expose its whole extent. The medical history of this case notes an attack of typhoid fever, complicated with peritonitis, about twelve years before death. This undoubtedly determines the date of the visceral adhesions, and, in all probability, that of the distortions in stomach and intestines. In attempting to overcome conditions, the gall bladder had enlarged to