Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/68

 machine. And this, of course, is true with reference to the functions of any other of the vital organs of the body ; but so closely is the liver allied to the immediate work of digestion that the detailed description given of its labors is deemed essential to a full understanding of the method discussed herein.

As will be discovered, there are two distinct plans to be followed when the fast is used as a means for the relief and cure of disease. One of these requires the patient to continue the period of abstinence to its logical and complete conclusion, the return of hunger, and its duration is problematical. The other, of equal value in milder complaints than those for which the finish-fast is employed, makes use of shorter intervals of abstinence from food, alternating with periods of restricted diet. What has been written in this connection may then be qualified to the extent that, when short fasts of one or two days, or of a week, are undertaken for the relief of temporary indisposition or for the prevention of acute disease, no such extended preparation as is described is needful. For the long fast, the fast that cleanses the system to purity, preparation as outlined must be precedent. The short fast and the compulsory