Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/97

 temperature rises above a fixed point. This is possibly an inherited tendency, for, on the other hand, there are many temperaments whose minds retain control in any and all forms of disease, when the brain itself is not the seat of disturbance. In the treatment of functional disease by the fast, it is rarely the case that delirium occurs, and, if it does, its appearance is due to extreme auto-intoxication from excessive waste thrown into the intestines and not evacuated with sufficient rapidity. If present at all, it will be evident within a day or so after the fast begins, and it will cease when elimination has proceeded to the point of clearing the bowels from the congested mass of old f eces. This symptom need never appear in cases of purely functional derangement, if proper preparation for the fast has been observed. In instances where abstinence from food is forced and involuntary, as is the case in mine accidents and in shipwrecks, the mental strain produced by the situation causes delirium, which, together with speedily fatal results, might be obviated were knowledge of the resources of the human body more general. In organic disease, in the fast or before it, delirium may continue for some time, and, while its