od
was given and retained. And all this with only water for thirst until
hunger came and a _complete cure_!

Such ignoring of medical faith and practice, of the accumulated wisdom
and experience of all medical history, I had never seen before. Had the
patient been able to take both food and medicine, and I had prohibited,
and by chance death had occurred, I would have been held guilty of
actually putting the patient to death--death from starvation. Feed, feed
the sick whether or not, say all the doctors, say all the books, to
support strength or to keep life in the body, and yet Nature was absurd
enough to ignore all human practice evolved from experience, and in her
own way to support vital power while curing the disease.

I could recall a great many cases in which because of intense aversion
to food patients had been sick for many days, and even weeks, with not
enough nourishment taken to account for the support of vital power; but
the fact did not raise a question with me.

The effect of this case upon my mind was so profound that I began to
apply the same methods in Nature to other patients, and with the same
general results. The body, of course, would waste during the time of
sickness; but so did the bodies of sick that were fed. As for medicines,
they were utterly ignored except where pain was to be relieved, though
unmedicated doses were alike a necessity with all. Not a single
medicine was given except for pain, and occasionally in cases in which I
had reason to think the entire digestive tract needed a general clearing
of foul sewage. Thence on, that supreme work, the cure of disease, in my
hands became the work of Nature only.

In a general practice I was able to carry out the non-feeding plan by
permitting the various meat teas or the cereal broths, none of which can
be taken by the severely sick in quantities to do harm. By withholding
milk I was enabled to secure all the fasting Nature required, while
satisfying the ever-anxious friends with tea and broth diversions.

This was a line of investigation that I felt ought to be of the deepest
interest to every thinking, high-minded physician, to every intelligent
layman; and very early the evidences of the utility of withholding food
from the sick during the entire time of absence of desire for it, its
absolute safety, were beyond any questioning.

I had no fatalities that were apparently in any way due to the enforced
lack of food. In cases of chronic di