do not believe it possible for anyone to die for lack of indication
that they were eating too little.

The opposite is what people die of. If we carefully read Dr
Rabagliati's article in the same issue we shall rightly ask what would
be the results of analyses and measurements in such a case.

About a year ago we had a young woman under our care who had suffered
with deafness and other troubles for years. She had tried dietetic
treatments, "uric-acid-free" and otherwise, and had at last been told
that her deafness was incurable, being due to heredity and deficiency
in the organs of hearing. She was extremely thin when she came to us,
but we did not measure her, nor analyse unclean excreta, nor weigh
her.

She saw an M.D. who was in sympathy with the philosophy of fasting,
and she fasted (taking water only) for 28 days. She then had four days
of fruit juice, and was so disappointed at having broken her fast
prematurely that she continued it for another 12 days, making 44 in
all--40 days actual fasting.

[_During this period she was living an almost complete out-door
life._--EDS.]

During the fast many interesting phenomena were witnessed, chief among
which was the discharge from ears and nose--significant indeed to all
who study Nature's ways. Result: normal hearing restored. This was
nearly twelve months ago; and, having heard of her recently, we find
that, though she had had a cold, there has been no recurrence of
deafness. I wonder what assistance measurements would have been in
this true cure. The patient (an adult) weighed 4st. 8 lbs. at the end
of her fast and could then walk short distances.

The way in which "M.D." dismisses "a little gout" in his last
paragraph but one almost leads one to think that he is unaware of the
failure of the natural defences of the body that must have gone on in
a very serious degree before the manifestation of gout became
possible.

I respectfully submit this problem to "M.D.":--If a very thin patient
can go without food entirely for 40 days, with only benefit accruing,
_how many centuries_ will it take for a fairly fat person to die
through slightly under-eating?

As Dr Haddon has said, the proteid myth will die hard, but there are
physiologists who, with their faces to the light, are finding the
truth of man's requirements in food and who know that absolute purity
and simplicity are the ideals to be sought and that all food we eat
more than is absolutely necessary is a di