Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/354

 disease were such as not to be mistaken from the first. The result in each instance must be death, and all that could be done to aid possible recovery would, in the circumstances, prove of no avail. Because of family anxiety and the hoplessness of cure, these cases were placed upon restricted diet, a diet that put no undue strain upon the failing functions, but that, nevertheless, did not ameliorate the distress of disease as an absolute fast would have done. Life was prolonged for several weeks in these instances, but, if food had been entirely omitted, relief would have been greater, and days would have been added to existence.

The passing of the life of a human body in cases that are medically treated, in the majority of instances, happens under the influence of opiates that deaden pain and paralyze consciousness. In the fast the end of a life occurs as a quiet sleep, painless, peaceful, and beautiful.

Disease is self -limited ; the amount of poison manufactured is determined by the intake of food or of drugs, and eradication of disease is fixed in limit of time by the ability of the vital organs to cast out toxic