Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/81

 are of record in which neither appetite nor a semblance of it was present throughout the entire period of abstinence. Other cases have claimed the sensation of false hunger from the beginning to the end of the fast.

Another general symptom is discovered in the fact that the tongue, immediately upon the omission of food, dons, in ordinary cases, a thick yellowish-w r hite coat, which it keeps until the impurities within the body are eliminated; and the clearing of its surface is one of the important signals that indicate a complete and successful fast. When the secretions of the body are acid in character, an apparently clean tongue may develop, and in this event strict interpretation of the symptom might lead to the inference that the system is cleansed and is ready for food. But here pulse and temperature give needed guidance, and the condition of the mucus membrane of the mouth, or cankers upon the tongue are warnings sufficient for the practiced mind. The coat deposited upon the tongue is one of the simplest visible signs of an extremely foul internal state, and of the fact that elimination is rapidly taking place. In health a clean tongue, as defined medically, is seldom in evidence with a full