Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/76

 as is necessary in acute disease, the resultant symptoms are in general alike. When the intake of food is stopped, the stomach is naturally emptied and commences its enforced vacation. All of its energy as an organ is then applied to recuperation, to allaying with the assistance of a blood-current continually gaining in purity, inflammation that may be present in its structure, and to relieving congestion in veins and in glands. It will from time to time be disturbed in this work by its neighboring organ, the liver, which, during the fast, becomes solely an instrument of elimination, and discharges quantities of refuse into the alimentary canal. The secretion of the liver is always a waste product, but, even as such, it has its use as a digestive fluid in health. When the fast is in progress, however, this product of elimination is discharged into the intestines, and is nothing more than poisonous refuse excreted from tissue, blood, and organs, which must be at once removed from the body lest it be reabsorbed into the circulation.

When food is taken away, the bowels still proceed to collect the waste deposited in them by the blood and the liver; the kidneys, the lungs, and the skin continue the process of