a vacation for the
worn-out stomach that it could begin with solid food when the time to
eat arrived. The vacation was so brief and power had accumulated so
rapidly that almost any food could be taken without discomfort, and no
trouble ever came not invited by a relapse from the better way of living
that had really created a new stomach.

This case caused more notoriety over the no-breakfast plan than any that
ever occurred in the city. As a writer of biographies and of articles in
high-class journals and magazines, this talented woman has been a
miracle of patient, persistent study and investigation.

This endorsement in high places greatly added to my reputation as a
physician with distorted mind, for the idea that any good could come
from a short fast, to be followed by the giving up of that needed
morning meal, was too absurd for sober reflection, too violently
revolutionary to be even patiently considered.

The no-breakfast plan was not so very long in becoming known over the
entire city; a bridge had been crossed, and every plank taken up and
destroyed; thence the ways into new families were nearly closed.

I am enlarging a little upon the opposition that met me from all points,
because all who are to be convinced that these are the true ways in
health culture will begin at once to enlighten their ailing friends, and
will, therefore, encounter the same opposition. "Sir, you have not had
enough opposition," said bluff, old Samuel Johnson. There will be no
need to complain of any lack of this kind in the efforts to render
suffering friends the only aid possible, that will be in persistent
efforts of Nature.

My medical brethren considered the scheme only as they would consider an
invasion of smallpox or a heresy whose methods were a danger to life.
One physician, a woman specialist, informed me that she was continually
importuned as to her professional opinion of the new craze that had
invaded the city. That all other physicians were equally called upon,
that they would condemn, was inevitable; and I permitted them the
largest liberty without the least resentment; but there was the
sustaining cheer of seeing the happiest faces that only increased as the
heresy spread.

My attendance upon the severely sick became more taxing because of the
exceeding concern in the immediate environment, that the pangs of
starvation were being added to the pangs of disease.

As none of my professional brethren ever manifested