Illustrative Cases

ILLUSTRATIVE CASES

FASTING APPLIED TO CASES OF INFLAMMATORY
RHEUMATISM, CHOREA, EPILEPSY, PREGNANCY, ETC.

Another case presents itself--that of a woman thirty-four years old, partially paralyzed and suffering from general functional disease. In this patient two of the dorsal vertebrae had been displaced in early life in such manner as to compress the spinal cord, thus causing paralysis of the lower trunk and legs. In the absence of any history of accident the only tenable theory of causation of this condition is that of lack of development of the muscles supporting the spine in the dorsal region, this in turn due to faulty nutrition in youth. In all her life this woman had never known a moment of comparative health, and intermittently in earlier days severe fevers with inflammatory intestinal symptoms had occurred, eventually creating contractions in the colon, a condition that caused constipation and consequent septicemia. When first examined, the case had been bedridden for one year, and it was evident that by reason of the very evident ankylosis existing in the displaced vertebrae referred to there was small hope of correcting the paralysis noted. The symptom that impelled the employment of means other than medicine for relief in this case was an ominous congestive chill from which the woman with difficulty rallied. The fast was entered and carried to what may be regarded as a successful end after fifty-eight days of abstinence.

The medical history of this case showed an inherited tendency towards scrofula or constitutional tuberculosis, and there had been manifested at intervals offensive running sores, the thumb and index finger of the left hand having been amputated some years previous because of a non-healing scrofulous abscess. All of the ulcers that had appeared had, without exception, been diagnosed by attending physicians as tubercular in character and had been treated from the medical viewpoint accordingly.

Two days after the beginning of the fast, an abscess broke through the surface of the skin at the base of the spine immediately over the sacrum. The discharge from this sore was most profuse and offensive, and the area affected spread until it was at least three inches in diameter, with depth such that within ten days after the skin had broken the periosteum of the sacrum was exposed. For a week hot fomentation were continuously applied, and gangrenous tissue in process of formation was cauterized by carefully focusing the rays of the sun upon the ulcer with a large reading glass. By the tenth day the discharge ceased being offensive, and shortly thereafter healthy granulation or healing began. When the fast was at an end, the sole evidence of the existence of this sore was a circular spot of slightly reddish normal skin of which a subjacent cushion of soft and healthy tissue showed that natural work of repair had proceeded despite total abstinence from food. This is undoubtedly the point of greatest interest and import to be noted in the treatment and progress of the case, for it is to be remembered that the blood of this woman had in all probability been tainted from birth, and that it had been poisoned and repoisoned for years by continuous addition to accumulated toxic substances. Elimination of body waste had never been successfully accomplished in this patient, but once it could proceed undisturbed in function, nature was able not only to cast out existing impurity, but also to repair diseased tissue by selecting healthy pabulum from the store of nutriment husbanded within.

The discharges resulting from copious daily enemas were noticeable for their exceeding foulness, and for excessive amounts of dark bilious fluid evacuated until about the thirtieth day of the fast. Loss in weight was not exceptional, totaling, as it did, but 20 pounds. When it is considered that the patient weighed but 85 pounds at the beginning of the fast, it is seen that, proportionally speaking, this loss conforms with results tabulated later in the text.

Dates are also of interest in this case, which was under treatment during the winter of 1907-8. The woman died of pneumonia early in 1923. In the interim of full fifteen years, she was able to get about in a wheeled chair, was in good general health, and conducted a business of her own, the only inconvenience she suffered being that incident to her incurable paralysis.

Another instance is that of a woman twenty-eight years old in whom poor nutrition and what is called a bilious temperament occasioned a condition of disease that was expressed in periodical headaches and in melancholia with a tendency toward mania. But for the care and devotion of an older sister, the patient, long before coming under observation, would have been placed in an institution for the insane. In fact, it was because the physician last consulted had recommended that she be restrained that her relatives in despair resorted to the fast.

Examination discovered a pulse continually at 128 or thereabouts with temperature varying from above to below normal by several degrees. Diet had consisted largely of meat and its extracts, this being at once changed to vegetable broths. Daily enemas were thoroughly administered and at first hot towel packs were used upon the spine in order to control circulation and to steady the fluctuating pulse, but these were discontinued shortly as heart action made constant improvement from the beginning of treatment. Dark, foul-smelling discharges that did not cease until the latter portion of the fast formed the bulk of the liquid in the return from the enemas.

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