Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/352

 showed no evidence of glandular function, their surface being without corrugation, the mucosa having thickened as in the preceding case. The stomach was functionally useless, and its walls were three-quarters of an inch in thickness. The small intestines, infantile in size, were cartilaginous in sections, and adhesions occurred at frequent points. The colon was no larger than an adult thumb throughout, and also exhibited adhesions in various places. The only organs of the body that were in anything like a condition of functional activity were the lungs and the heart. The kidneys, the spleen, and the pancreas, as in the previous case, were incipiently hardened.

It has been mentioned in several of the cases quoted that the patient, after beginning the fast, experienced a renewal of vitality for which no solid physical foundation existed. This was true to a degree in each of the other cases, and was so marked at times that there was hope of ultimate recovery. Nature, struggling to restore organic function, makes the effort commensurate with the gravity of the existent defect. By 'the removal of the labor of digestion at least one-half of the total organic work of the