As has been stated, surgical intervention is at times essential in order to correct accidental or congenital structural defect in tissue, and here was a case in which such intervention might have been successfully invoked at the time of the accident noted in its history. Neglected then, life was nevertheless prolonged despite the handicap of the abnormalities described, but at cost constant suffering.

Case 7, that of a man fifty-six years of age, presents a history of continuous disease in youth, but includes at least twenty years of adult life devoted to corrective dieting, judicious fasting, and to constant hygienic care of the body. At the time that the case was brought to the attention and placed under the direction of the writer, the patient was aware that his condition was such that recourse must be had to every agency promising relief or he must succumb. After examination, the symptoms showing marked organic irregularities, it was agreed that but one hope of prolonging life remained, and that this lay in an absolute fast. By it would be determined either the ability of the organism to continue functioning, or assurance that the human machine had reached the point where life could be no longer maintained.

The fast began, and there was no marked disturbance until the twenty-first day, while relief was such that the patient and all about him hoped and believed that the improvement noted was permanent in character; but on this day and thereafter unfavorable symptoms progressively developed, and on the thirty-second day of the fast, the case lapsed into coma, which continued until an abscess which had formed in the nasal cavity was with difficulty discharged. Great ease in all respects resulted, and the patient became conscious, assisting with interest in the efforts being made to promote his recovery. Death, however, occurred on the thirty-eighth day of fasting.

At all times during this fast large amounts of mucus were discharged in the enemas, and at intervals pain, sometimes excruciating in kind, was felt in the bladder. In the latter stages pus in abundance appeared in the urine, and during the last few days of life the bladder ceased functioning, its contents being removed by catheterization. In this case muscular strength was shown in remarkable degree, during the fast and until the day of death. The patient was able at all times during conciousness to move himself in bed, to rise at intervals, and to assist himself in ways that seemed marvelous when his condition is considered.

The following are the results of the autopsy. The brain, weighing forty-eight and one-half ounces, was perfect in structure. Here again is corroborative evidence of the truth advanced by Dr. E. H. Dewey, and developed by all who have scientifically investigated and practically applied the fast as a therapeutic measure, viz., that nerve tissue is never depleted during abstinence, since its supply of sustenance is gained directly from body reserve, not from material freshly assimilated and appropriated by cells other than those of nerve substance. The lungs of this man were in excellent condition; the heart, organically considered, was perfect, but was filled with a gelatinous mass of serum affected by post mortem change; from the cardiac opening of the stomach to within two inches of the pylorus there was not a particle of healthy membrane, and the appearance of the walls of this organ was that of smooth, wet chamois skin; the duodenum was below normal in size, the upper portion of the jejunum being, however, somewhat dilated; about midway in the tube of the small intestine a downward intussusception had taken place, in length about two and one-half inches; this was of long-standing, since the walls of the bowel had become hardened and thickened, and thus the opening through the gut had been considerably reduced; the only section of the colon that was in normal state was the cecum, and thence to the rectum the organ was infantile in size; in fact, there was not an inch of this part of the intestinal tract into which the tip of the index finger could have been introduced; the sigmoid flexure was less developed than any other portion of the gut; in reality it was not a flexure or bend, being merely a straight vertical canal continuing the descending colon to the rectum and anus; the liver was much congested, its left lobe, however, being partly cirrhosed; the gall bladder was distended with bilious fluid; the pancreas was much undersize, and the spleen was that of an infant; the kidneys were in a state of degeneration and were pocketed with pus, which discharged through the ureters into an inflamed bladder, which was itself undersize and capable of containing within its thickened walls barely three ounces of urine.

In connection with this undeveloped and functionally inadequate digestive tract, it is interesting to record that the sex organs of this man were those of a boy of twelve or thirteen. He was underweight and boyish in appearance as well. The condition met was of course the result of disease in early life with consequent arrest of organic development.

Case 9, a civil engineer, twenty-seven years of age, had suffered since childhood with intermittent acute digestive disease, which was treated as is usual in orthodox practice. Malnutrition finally became so pronounced that the subject decided that medicine could no longer suggest anything to alleviate his condition, and he entered a fast of his own volition, coming for consultation some days after its beginning. Examination at this time showed the uselessness of attempting to cope with the organic symptoms that were most plainly apparent, and it was deemed best to inform the patient that recovery was out of the question. To allay as much as was possible the fears of his family, food was given, but the stomach persistently rejected it, and the fast was perforce continued. The patient died at the end of twenty-one days of abstinence.

Post mortem examination revealed an organism with heart, lungs, and digestive organs so extremely arrested in development that, had it not been for the adult body in which they had been functioning, they would have been considered as the organs of a child four years of age.

Case 10, a man of thirty-four, whose physical history had been one of constant illness after his twentieth year, is next presented. The patient had been treated medically for indigestion, constipation, and for various fevers. All his life he had been a heavy meat eater and an inveterate user of strong tea. In later years fermentation, difficulty in breathing, and abdominal pain invariably succeeded the ingestion of a meal. For the relief of these symptoms medical correctives and tonics were taken, but the condition gradually grew worse. The patient finally decided to try a fast, but, because of interference by his family, a liquid diet was substituted and continued for thirty-five days when death occurred. In this case pulse and temperature before the dietetic regimen began had been constantly below normal, and during the period given they showed but little change, the pulse standing at fifty-four or thereabouts, with temperature as low at times as ninety-three.