Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/338

 of peculiar circumstances, medical treatment was resorted to for a short time but without benefit. Reverted to finally, the fast and its accompaniments succeeded in relieving con.ditions to such degree that in fourteen days the patient was able to resume the practice of his profession. Although suffering at intervals from that time on, there was no return of acute symptoms until the month preceding death, when, after unwonted physical exercise, followed by a heavy meal, severe pains in the intestines developed. The stomach rejected food; within a week drinking of water brought on nausea; and the point was soon reached when any attempt at the administration of sustenance occasioned excruciating pain. This condition continued for thirty days, at the end of which death occurred.

The post mortem examination showed most abnormal characteristics in the vital organs. The lungs were adherent at every point to the walls of the pleural cavity and to the diaphragm. The heart was in fair condition. The stomach was dilated and prolapsed. The gall bladder exhibited three distinct pouches, any one of which was the size of a normal sac, and two of these sections