Chapter 7,8,9: The Fruit and Nut Diet.: The Rader Case: Horace Fletcher's Fast: The Fasting Cure by Upton Sinclair from archive.org

appendix 

The Fruit and Nut Diet. 

From early childhood until January 
9, 1910, or about twenty years in all, I 
had been a sufferer from asthma, and 
chronic catarrh in addition. As a 
child I was sick a great deal of the 
time, having regular attacks every few 
weeks, of such little troubles as bilious 
fevers, chills and la grippe, with pneu- 
monia, typhoid, measles, whooping 
cough and the like sprinkled in at 
times. I have taken gallons of castor 
oil, and pounds of calomel and quinine, 
I think. I don't believe I ever had 
more than one cold, but I was never 
really free of that. 

The first attack of asthma came 
shortly after the disappearance of a 
severe case of eczema, and from that 
time on throughout the entire twenty 
years, I did not pass a single moder- 
ately cold night without having at least 

223 



THE FASTING CURE 

one, and more often, two and three 

spasms of asthma during the night. 
These were relieved temporarily, only 
after sitting up in bed and inhaling, 
for several minutes, the smoke from a 
green powder which I burned for that 
purpose. Frequently attacks would 
last continually for three and four 
days or a week, during which time I 
was not able to draw a single free 
breath, and would suffer so intensely 
that on many occasions I felt as if I 
was breathing my last. I mention all 
this for fear some Salisbury followers 
may doubt that mine was a real 
genuine case of asthma. In that case, 
I think I can get satisfactory evidence 
from our family physician and others 
who were with me a great deal during 
that time. 

As I grew older, and about the time 
I went to work for myself, I began to 

224 



APPENDIX 

be interested in physical culture 
methods, and noticed a great improve- 
ment by exercising and cutting down 
my diet, and afterwards adopting the 
two-meal-a-day plan. However, there 
was one thing which is strongly em- 
phasized in these methods that did not 
work with me at the time, but seemed 
to make the asthma worse; and that 
was the fresh air idea. I always had 
better results, and the attacks were less 
frequent and not so severe, when I 
closed the windows and doors, and 
filled the room with the smoke and 
fumes of the remedy I used. That was 
due mostly to the narcotic effect of the 
remedy when breathing the smoke and 
fumes continually. I mention this for 
fear some one may suggest that the 
ultimate permanent relief was brought 
about simply by breathing fresh air 
continually when I did begin to open 
the windows. 

225 



THE FASTING CURE 

During all this time, I ate meat witli 
each meal, or twice daily. 

I began to notice that nuts and 
especially pecans, of which I am par- 
ticularly fond, and which are quite 
plentiful in that part of the country 
in which I live, seemed to have a 
decidedly bad effect on my asthma, and 
a greater part of the time I would not 
touch them on this account. At that 
time, however, I had the impression 
that generally prevails among a large 
majority of people, that nuts or fruits 
were only good for eating between 
meals, or as a dessert at the end of a 
meal, and in addition to the regular 
food that was eaten ; and that was the 
way I had eaten them. 

Mr. Upton Sinclair's first article in 
the Physical Culture magazine on the 
fruit and nut diet was the first hint I 
ever had that fruit and nuts eaten 



APPENDIX 

alone as a diet had any real substantial 
food value. From this time on I began 
experimenting with short fasts of one 
meal or one day, and also began substi- 
tuting fruit for some meals, and at the 
same time cut down my meat eating 
from twice daily to two or three times 
a week. I noticed a great improve- 
ment in both asthma and catarrh, al 
though I continued having attacks of 
asthma almost every night, as this was 
during the winter and most of the 
nights were quite cold. 

After the appearance of his second 
article, I determined to try this diet 
out in my own case, hoping to lessen 
the attacks of asthma at least, never 
dreaming of the real surprise that was 
in store for me. I fasted the last two 
days of December, 1909, and started in 
January 1st, eating mostly acid fruits, 
such as lemons, oranges, grape fruit. 

227 



THE FAfsTING CURE 

etc. (This in order to relieve the con- 
stipation that I was then, and had 
been troubled with more or less for the 
past two or three years.) As a result 
of the fast, and of what might be 
termed a partial fast for a few days 
after, I lost several pounds in weight, 
which I did not regain until after I 
had been eating other fruits for several 
days, such as dates, figs, bananas and 
apples, also all kinds of nuts, includ- 
ing the much dreaded pecan, which 
seemed to cause so much trouble before. 
On the night of January 8th, 1910, 
I had my last attack of asthma, and 
have had none since. By that time my 
bowels were perfectly free, and ail 
traces of constipation gone. The night 
of the 9th I spent in peaceful, dream- 
less sleep, my head perfectly clear of 
any cold or catarrh, enabling me to 
breath freely through my nose during 



APPENDIX 

sleep, which had never been possible 
before this. Although the tempera- 
ture outside was a little above zero, 
and stood close around there during 
the greater part of January and 
February where I was, two windows in 
my room were wide open all of the 
time, and I slept between them; also 
there was no stove or other heating ap- 
pliances in the room to warm me on 
retiring and arising. 

I stuck rigidly to the fruit and nuts, 
living on them alone until the weather 
began to grow warmer. I then grew 
so confident, that I gradually lapsed 
into a general raw-food diet, and later 
on, to a partly raw and partly cooked 
diet, but no meat at all, save at times, 
when it was necessary in order to avoid 
unpleasant controversies and explana- 
tions among people who knew nothing 
on the subject, and were therefore 

229 



THE FASTING CURE 

sceptical, and often inclined to ridi- 
cule me. 

With the return to cooked foods, 
came a return of constipation, and 
with it, traces of the old cold or 
catarrh. This is one thing I noticed 
in particular ; that when my bowels 
were moving freely, then and only then 
was I free of catarrh or cold. I am 
situated at present where I am away 
from the influences of kind-and-well- 
meaning friends and members of my 
own family, so am living on a raw-food 
diet entirely, doing heavy gymnasium 
work every day, also quite a bit of 
study and other brain work besides, 
which in all keeps me quite busy most 
of the day. I am enjoying the best of 
health in every particular all the while. 
H. Mitchell Godsey. 



230 



appendix 

The Rader Case. 
Mr. L. F. Rader of Olalla, Wash., 
died at 12.15 p.m., May 11, 1910, at 
123J Broadway North, in the forty- 
seventh year of his age. Mr. Rader's 
physical history is one of intermittent 
suffering. As the result of an acci- 
dent in childhood in which he was in- 
ternally injured, his youth and early 
manhood were filled with a succession 
of most acute attacks of painful ill- 
ness. About fifteen years ago he 
deserted the orthodox means of treat- 
ment and turned to what is now known 
as the natural or drugless method, with 
the consequence that he experienced 
the first relief he had ever known. 
Three years ago he lay ill for three 
months, and after again submitting to 
medical treatment he turned to the 
fast and to me. In fourteen days he 
was up and about, and in a month he 

231 



THE FASTING CURE 

was able to attend to his ordinary busi- 
ness. Since then he had no return of 
acute symptoms until March 31 of this 
year, when, after unwonted physical 
exercise and a heavy meal, he was 
seized wdth severe pains in the intes- 
tines, which compelled him to take to 
his bed. His stomach rejected food, 
and within a week the taking of water 
brought nausea. I was then called to 
diagnose the case and to direct treat- 
ment. I made the statement at that 
time to Mrs. Rader that there 
seemed but little chance for his re- 
covery, but tried the administration of 
fruit juices and light broths. 

The point was soon reached, how- 
ever, when Mr. Rader refused any sus- 
tenance, since it resulted only in nau- 
sea and excruciating pain. In the 
meanwhile the patient came to Seattle, 
and went to the Hotel Outlook with 

232 



APPENDIX 

every symptom showing the relief that 
is the logical sequence of removing 
food temporarily from a system strug- 
gling to right abnormal conditions. 
Things progressed smoothly until 
meddlesome outsiders interfered and 
caused the city health oflBcials to take 
cognizance of the fact that a man was 
" starving " in the hotel. Without 
warrant Mr. Rader's rooms were 
entered, and he was confronted by Drs. 
Bourns and Davidson, who en- 
deavoured to persuade him to return to 
orthodoxy and to the care of the ortho- 
dox physicians. Mr. Rader's indig- 
nant repudiation is of record, as is 
also the result of the attempt to de- 
clare him insane. 

In connection with the latter, after 
his removal to a quiet, comfortable 
room in the upper part of the city, an 
order of the court, obtained in some 

233 Q 



THE FASTING CURE 

manner by the health officials, sent the 
humane officers to the rescue, and the 
house was watched and guarded while 
the faithful nurses prevented forcible 
entry attempted by these servants of 
the people. The latter even went so 
far as to raise ladders to the window 
of Mr. Rader's room, and with display 
of weapons tried to force the catches 
in the vain effort to serve the writ 
which was their excuse. To prevent 
their seeing the patient and to save 
him as much as possible from the noisy 
disturbance, I carried him to the bath 
and locked the door. I then climbed 
from one window to another across a 
court into the next flat in order to call 
the attorney for the humane society, 
who took the needful steps that 
eventually recalled the writ. In the 
meanwhile Mr. Rader had suffered 
mentally to such an extent that his life 
m 



APPENDIX 

was despaired of for many hours, and 
he never fully recovered from the ner- 
vous shock, which undoubtedly has- 
tened his end. Until the coming of 
these officers he was able to walk from 
his room to the bath, but afterwards he 
continually begged to be protected 
from outsiders and to be permitted to 
die, if need be, in peace. 

When the death of a patient under 
my care occurs I am most anxious that 
no stone should be left unturned to ex- 
hibit the cause. In this, my seventh 
death in four years' practice in Seattle, 
I find my diagnosis and prognosis com- 
pletely corroborated. I was assisted 
in the autopsy by two old-line physi- 
cians and by the deputy coroner. The 
results of the post-mortem examina- 
tion were as follows : 

Mr. Rader's viscera showed the most 
abnormal characteristics it has been 
3» 



THK FASTING CURE 



my fortune to observe in years of post- 
mortem work. The lungs were adher- 
ent at every point to the pleural cavity 
as well as to the diaphragm in places. 
The heart in fair condition. Stomach 
dilated and prolapsed. Gall bladder 
in three distinct pouches, any one of 
which was the size of the normal sac, 
and two of these sections were filled 
with 126 gall stones of one grain to 
half an ounce in weight; the largest 
was 3 inches in circumference one way 
and 4 inches the other way. The small 
intestines collapsed to the pelvis and 
midway intussuscepted so that a sec- 
tion of two measured yards occupied 
but five inches in length; portions of 
these were of infantile development. 
The transverse colon lay anterior to the 
descending colon throughout its ex- 
tent, while the ascending and descend- 
ing colon showed infantile size and 



APPENDIX 

cartilaginous structure. The sigmoid 
bend and rectum were of diameter not 
larger than the adult thumb and in ad- 
vanced cartilaginous state. The kid- 
neys fair ; the liver enlarged and badly 
congested. 

The conditions exhibited were such 
that the wonder in any mind practised 
in the care of the human body lies in 
the thought that nature was able to 
preserve under these handicaps this 
man's life until the forty-seventh year. 
To me this is proof positive that 
" man does not live by bread alone.'* 

The facts given may easily be veri- 
fied. Mr. Rader fasted because he had 
to fast. He could not take food in 
any sort or in any manner, and his 
death occurred because of organic 
disease beyond repair. He was never 
without water and fruit juices; vege- 
table broths and prepared foods were 

237 



THE FA3TINQ' CURE 

given whenever the occasion seemed to 
present itself, but always with painful 
consequences. During the month of 
April he was virtually fasting, al- 
though food was supplied as men- 
tioned. It is not at all remarkable in 
my work to have patients abstain from 
food for thirty, forty, and fifty days, 
although by far the greater number do 
not require this length of time. 

Criticized as I have been for my 
methods, and realizing that the com- 
bined efforts of the old schools are 
aimed at what it eventually means, 
perhaps a definition may not prove 
amiss : 

Starvation consists in denying food, 
either by accident or design, to a sys- 
tem clamouring for sustenance. 

Fasting consists in intentional ab- 
stinence from food by a system non- 
desirous of sustenance until it is 

238 



APPENDIX 

rested, cleansed, and ready for the task 
of digestion. Food is then supplied. 

The conduct of the health and 
huinane oiGBcers in the Rader case is 
not the first instance of their methods 
of procedure that it has been my fate 
to experience. In the latter part of 
January, 1908, I had under my care 
Mrs. D. D. Whedon, a young married 
woman in a critical state of health, 
mother of one child and about to be- 
come the mother of another. Officious 
neighbours complained to the authori- 
ties that the child was being subjected 
to the fasting method and was slowly 
starving. Without warrant these 
creatures of authority entered the 
apartments of Mrs. Whedon, subjected 
her to a bodily examination against 
her will and protests, took her child 
from her by force, and when her hus- 
band attempted to regain possession of 

230 



THE FASTING CURE 

his daughter, they arrested him for re- 
sisting an ojfficer and had him placed 
in the city jail. I also was charged at 
this time with practising medicine 
without a licence, an accusation that 
was quashed on appeal to the superior 
court. 

I rather court an investigation of 
my work and its results, successful and 
unsuccessful. Thus far the methods 
pursued by those antagonistic have 
been the very ones that have succeeded 
in informing the world at large that 
the work is here, that it progresses, 
else why the furor ? It is here to stay 
and to do what the truth eventually 
always does — prevail. 

The autopsies in each of the several 
deaths that have occurred in my prac- 
tice in the city of Seattle have exhi- 
bited organic disease, the origin of 
which lay in the early years of life. In 

240 



APPENDIX 

all of these bodies arrested develop- 
ment of one or other of the vital organs 
was in evidence, and in the majority 
the injured intestines showed cartila- 
ginous structure and deformation that 
must have required either violent shock 
or continued functional disturbance to 
produce. In view of the fact that 
these instances cover subjects who had 
endeavoured to follow orthodox 
methods until orthodoxy proved un- 
availing, and who then turned to the 
fast and its accompaniments, I feel 
perfectly confident in declaring that 
early drug treatment is responsible for 
later and fatal disease. Nature had 
endowed each of these patients with 
strong vitality; each of them had suf- 
fered from severe functional disorder 
in infancy; each had been drug- 
drenched. 
Broadly speaking, there is no drug 

241 



THE FASTING CURB 

that is not a poison, stimulating or 
paralyzing in result, and in infancy 
the latter is doubly apparent and ap- 
palling. It needs but the parallelism 
between the effect of an application of 
a glass of brandy upon an infant and 
an adult to emphasize this statement. 
Consider then the consequences of re- 
peated dosings for fevers, colic, colds, 
and the varied category of infantile 
disease, and conceive the results upon 
tender, growing, human bodies. Not 
one of us but has these sacred relics of 
the days of powdered dried toads and 
desiccated cow manure to blame for 
organs arrested in development or 
functionally ruined. 

The principle embodied in the intel- 
ligent application of fasting for the 
cure of disease is not to be crushed by 
vilification. The knowledge of it, 
thanks to strenuous attacks by the 

242 



APPENDIX 

medical profession, has been distri- 
buted gratis throughout the English- 
speaking world; and my own part in 
the work of propaganda has been made 
more than easy by opposition dis- 
played. I believe that I have a cause 
to defend, a truth to uphold, a prin- 
ciple for which, if need be, I shall die 
fighting. 

Linda Burfield Hazzard. 

Seattle, Wash., May 16, 1910. 

Horace Fletcher's Fast. 

Dec. 11, 1910. 
Mr. Horace Fletcher, 

Care Editor of Good Health, 

Battle Creek,, Mich. 
My dear Mr. Fletcher, — It must 
have been a year and a half ago that 
we had our talk on the subject of fast- 
ing; you promised me that you would 



THE FASTING CURE 

investigate it. I have only just seen 
the copy of the November Good 
Health, and discovered that you car- 
ried out your promise. There are 
some things in connection with your 
account about which I want to ask you. 
You say that you have come to agree 
with Dr. Kellogg, that autointoxica 
tion continues during the fast; and 
that your reason for this is that at the 
end of a couple of weeks you found 
yourself developing weakness, bad 
breath, coated tongue, etc. You broke 
your fast because these symptoms grew 
worse and worse. Now surely if a per 
son is going to give a fair trial to the 
claims of the fasters, he should follow 
their instructions and he should not 
proceed in opposition to their most im- 
portant advice. You say that for four 
days you took no water, and that after 
that you took only a pint or so a day. 

M4 



APPENDIX 

In this you violated the leadinj^ in- 
junction of every advocate of fasting 
with whose writings I am acquainted; 
I have read the books of Bernarr Mac- 
fadden, C. C. Haskell, and Dr. L. B. 
Hazzard, all of whom have treated 
scores and hundreds of patients by 
means of the fast, and all of whom are 
strenuous on the point that one should 
drink as much water as possible. I 
myself while fasting have taken at 
least a glass every hour. I believe that 
a very great deal of your trouble may 
have been caused by your procedure in 
this respect. 

Another point which you do not 
mention is whether or not you took an 
enema during the fast. This is a very 
important point. It may very well be 
true that poisons are excreted into the 
intestinal tract, and that owing to lack 
of food they are reabsorbed ; if we can 



THE FASTING CUHB 

aid nature by washing these poisons 
out at once, can we not overcome this 
difficulty ? May not the reason for the 
non-success of your fast lie here ? 

If it be true that the fast leads to 
constantly increasing autointoxica- 
tion, how do you account for those 
phenomena which are summed up in 
the phrase, " the complete fast " ? I 
personally do not advocate the com- 
plete fast ; I only advocate the investi- 
gation of it. I have never taken one, 
but I have letters from many people 
who have taken them, and they are in 
agreement upon the point that there 
comes a time during the fast when the 
tongue clears, the breath becomes pure, 
and hunger manifests itself in unmis- 
takable form. How can this possibly 
be true if Dr. Kellogg' s explanation of 
the symptoms of fasting is correct? 
Would it not happen just to the con- 



APPENDIX 

trary, would not the symptoms of auto- 
intoxication increase, until death 
through poisoning resulted? 

Dr. Kellogg' s argument is a very 
plausible one; for many years it suf- 
ficed to keep me from trying the ex- 
periment of the fast. I know that it 
has kept many other people. His 
claim is, in brief, that during the fast 
the body is living off its own tissue; 
that we are therefore meat-eaters, and 
even cannibals, while fasting. We are 
living on a kind of food which is over- 
rich in proteid, and which generates 
excessive quantities of uric acid, indi- 
can, etc. This, as I say, sounds plau- 
sible, but I found by actual experiment 
that the facts do not work out accord- 
ing to the theory. I myself have taken 
a week's fast recently, with perfect 
success. During this time I had not 
one particle of weakness or trouble of 

247 



THE FASTING CURE 

any sort. Perhaps it may be that my 
body was excreting undue amounts of 
uric acid and indican, but I did not 
know it, and it did me no harm so far 
as I could discover. I am much less 
afraid of the consequences of living 
from my own body tissue, since I have 
tried for myself the experiment 
of living on the tissues of other 
animals. 

I am trying to get at the truth about 
these questions, and I know that you 
are trying to do it also. For three 
years I did myself incalculable harm 
by accepting blindly statements that 
meat was the prime cause of autoin- 
toxication, together with other high 
proteid food. I lived on starches and 
sugars, grew pale and thin and chilly, 
and, as I was accustomed to phrase it, 
was never more than fifteen minutes 
ahead of a headache. I can give my- 



APPENDIX 

self a headache at any time at present 
by two or three days of eating rice, 
potatoes, white flour, and sugar. Ap- 
parently I cannot give it to myself by 
eating any possible quantity of broiled 
lean beef. So far as I can make out, 
beef is the one article of diet which 
never does me any harm, no matter 
how much of it I eat. The same thing 
is true, apparently, with my little boy. 
I wish you would tell me what you 
think about all this. I wish that 1 
could induce you to try the experiment 
of fasting again with the use of the 
enema and the copious water drinking. 
Still more do I wish that you could be 
induced to try it with some people who 
need it — some people who are desper- 
ately ill, and who have not been able 
to get well by following the low pro- 
teid diet Sincerely, 

Upton Sinclair. 

24» B 



THE FASTING CURE 

Norwich, Conn., U.S.A. 
Dec. 23, 1910. 

My dear Mr. Sinclair, — Your 
valued favour of the 14th inst. received 
enclosing copy of your letter to Horace 
Fletcher. I have read your letter to 
Mr. Fletcher with much interest, and 
I have also read Mr. Fletcher's letter 
to Dr. Kellogg in Good Health. 

I am so crowded with work that I 
cannot take the time to write you on 
this subject of Fasting as I would like. 
I have had nearly seventeen years' ex- 
perience studying and practising the 
"no-breakfast plan and fasting for 
the cure of disease." I have followed 
the no-breakfast plan all that time 
without a single break, and I know it 
has been of exceedingly great value to 
me. It has also been my privilege and 
pleasure to advise in thousands of 

250 



APPENDIX 

cases covering nearly all forms of 
disease, and where the Law of Fasting 
has been followed faithfully, there 
have always been splendid results. 

Aside from the omission of the 
breakfast, I have fasted a great many 
times from one day to four weeks, and 
always the results have been beneficial. 
This could not have been the case if Dr. 
Kellogg 's contention is correct, that 
autointoxication continues and in- 
creases during a fast. If his idea is 
correct on this point, instead of one 
improving and at last overcoming the 
disease entirely, there would not only 
be a continuation of the disease but an 
increase, and death would naturally 
result. Should autointoxication con- 
tinue and increase while one is fast- 
ing, the time would not come when the 
tongue would be clean and natural 
hunger manifest itself. On the con- 

251 



THB FA8TINO CURB 



trary, there would be an increase of the 
coating on the tongue until death 
finally resulted. 

I think if Mr. Fletcher had con- 
tinued his fast until his tongue had 
become clean, which certainly would be 
the case, he would have written a very 
different letter. In the case of Mrs. 
Tarbox, whose letter I enclose, on the 
thirty-seventh day of her fast, her 
tongue was perfectly clean and she had 
natural hunger, and she was well on 
the way to recovery from the terrible 
cancerous growth and condition in 
which I found her. Since Mrs. Tar- 
box' cure, I have had several other 
cases of cancer cured through fasting. 
You will note the case of Mrs. Hobson, 
copy of whose letter I enclose, and the 
case of Mr. Davis is another very in- 
teresting case as well as that of Mrs. 
Osborne. These persons would not 



APPENDIX 

have been cured if autointoxication 
had been going on and increasing. 

Dr. Dewey's contention I know to 
be true, that during a fast the heart, 
lungs, and brain are supported by the 
predigested food stored up in the body. 
These organs take the nourishment 
and not the poison, for during a fast 
the eliminating organs work to the 
very limit to force the poison out of 
every cell of the body, so that during a 
fast all the poison in the body is grow- 
ing less every hour, and when it is all 
eliminated natural hunger manifests 
itself, the tongue is clean, and the 
patient is ready to build up and have a 
clean physical organism. The use of 
the enema is exceedingly important 
during a fast. I believe that it 
hastens the cure at least twenty-j&ve 
per cent., and perhaps more than that. 

Mr. Fletcher's own letter is to my 

258 



THB FASTING CURE 

mind a refutation to Dr. Kellogg's 
claim as to the continuation and in- 
crease of autointoxication, for he tells 
the benefits that he has received during 
his fast of seventeen days, and those 
benefits would have been greatly in- 
creased if he had continued the fast 
until his tongue was clean. His sense 
of taste had become so refined by the 
fast that his food was more delicious 
than ever before, which showed that 
the refining process had been going on 
all through his body. Another benefit 
that he mentions is the lessening of 
his desire for sugar, that he is satisfied 
with the sugar sweet that is in the food 
itself, which is so much more healthful 
than the cane sugar. Another thing 
that he speaks of is the reduction in 
his weight, which he needed. I sin- 
cerely hope that Mr. Fletcher will fast 
again, and make it a complete fast, for 

254 



APPENDIX 

I think he will have a very different 
story to tell from what he tells in this 
letter. 

Charles Courtney Haskell. 

Dec. 28, 1910. 

Dear Mr. Sinclair, — I have your 
letter of the 14th inst. and its en- 
closures. 

To those who have carefully and 
scientifically undergone or advised the 
fast, the cause of the symptoms that 
Dr. Kellogg and all of the rest of us 
recognize as indicating self-poisoning, 
is readily discovered to lie in the in- 
ability of the organs of elimination to 
promptly convey from the body the 
products of food supplied in excess of 
digestion. It is a conclusion that can- 
not be escaped that, when the refuse 
from broken-down tissue and from 
food ingested beyond the needs of the 

2fi5 



TUE FASTING CURE 

body is discharged into the intestines, 
and when means of removal are not at 
hand, re-absorption at once begins and 
continues until the canal is cleansed. 
Self-poisoning, autointoxication, en- 
sues, and all of its symptoms were em- 
phatically shown in the fast of seven- 
teen days that Mr. Fletcher essayed. 
These results are also often observed 
when feeding is in progress, and in 
this connection I refer to an article 
written by Dr. Kellogg for Good 
Health in the summer of 1908. In it 
he says, " The writer's observations, 
extending over a considerable number 
of years, have brought him to the con- 
clusion that the cases which are bene 
fited by fasting are practically with- 
out exception cases of autointoxication, 
generally cases of intestinal autoin- 
toxication, though perhaps also in 
eluding some cases of metabolic auto- 

1B6 



APPENDIX 

intoxication." It seems to me that the 
Doctor has not made it quite clear just 
why, if the fast is the certain producer 
of the condition, he recommends it for 
the cure of the condition. Perhaps 
' ' similia similibus " or " the hair of 
the dog theory " is implanted in the 
Doctor's ego. 

As we review the situation, covering 
in origin thousands and thousands of 
years of wrong living, the facts are 
patent. The processes of digestion 
and assimilation as functions have 
long since lost natural expression. 
Drugs and heredity have created in 
them an inability to cope with their 
work without assistance, and have in 
many instances caused a positive ces- 
sation of normal action. 

Dr. Kellogg would have us accept 
his dictum that the cause of loss of 
weight during the fast is to be found 

257 



THE FASTING CURE 

in the impoverished state of the blood, 
and in the fact that, food being denied, 
no upbuilding of tissue can occur. 
Can he explain in this manner the 
wasting of tissue in illness when food 
is regularly supplied? It should be 
readily understood that, in either in- 
stance, the process of elimination of 
decomposed excess food has at last be- 
come the predominant function of the 
diseased system. Fasting is the volun- 
tary act that permits rapid accom- 
plishment of the result ; and disease it 
self is but Nature's attempt to cleanse 
and purify by means of elimination. 
The longer this thought is dwelt upon, 
and the more its details are verified by 
experiment, the stronger becomes the 
conviction that we are facing the truth 
of the matter. 

When coated tongue, foul breath, 
and vertigo appear, whether feeding 

258 



APPENDIX 

or fasting, hunger is absent. It must 
have disappeared many days before 
these signs became acute, although 
Nature's warnings did not fail of dis- 
play. The sensation of hunger, the 
desire for food for the purpose of re- 
storing cell life, is the human body's 
greatest natural safeguard. A sen- 
tinel of lower rank is the sense of taste, 
which, however, like other outposts, 
often becomes debauched and valueless. 
But hunger never can be turned from 
its protecting task, and it cannot be 
stimulated into action. Hunger is the 
one natural function that is incor- 
ruptible, for once abused it withdraws. 
Its deceptive counterpart, appetite, is 
the product of taste-stimulation, and, 
as Mr. Fletcher says, takes upon itself 
the guise of habit. Or, as expressed 
in the text of my book, " Appetite is 
craving; Hunger is desire. Craving 

259 



THE FASTING CURE 

is never satisfied; but Desire is re 
lieved when Want is supplied. Eat- 
ing without Hunger or pandering to 
Appetite at the expense of Digestion 
makes Disease inevitable." 

Had real normal hunger been pre- 
sent when Mr. Fletcher broke his fast, 
the demand for food would have been 
so great and so insistent that no denial 
would have been tolerated. Mr. 
Fletcher states that he did not want 
food until he had tasted it — a clear 
case of taste-stimulation or appetite. 
Even this was momentary and was but 
the expiring flame of taste relish left 
after seventeen days free from the pro- 
gressive accumulation of excess food. 
Despite his care in the selection and 
the mastication of his food, Mr. 
Fletcher must still have continually 
eaten without hunger, and must, as a 
result, have stored within his system 
an unusual amount of material beyond 

260 



APPENDIX 

the needs of his body. Had this not 
been true, he would not have exhibited 
the coated tongue, foul breath, and 
vertigo. Hunger would have been 
ever present, and it would have been 
impossible for him to fast. 

My only comment upon the neglect 
of the enema that seems to have 
occurred in the conduct of Mr. 
Fletcher's fast is that it was a most 
vital error. The enema is absolutely 
necessary. The question of diet also 
need not be discussed, for experience 
shows that the feeding of the body is 
a matter of individual requirement. 
If normal physical balance be ever 
reached, fixed laws to govern the diet 
problem could be formulated. In its 
present state, argument resolves itself 
into mere utterances of individual 
opinion and prejudice. 

Faithfully yours, 
Linda Burfield Hazzard. 

261 



^ /^^ 



University of California 

SOUTHERN REGiONAL LiBRARY FACILITY 

405 Hllgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 

Return this material to the library 

from which it was borrovifed. 




UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 



A 000 825 314 8