DR. TANNER'S FORTY DAY FASTS:
FASTING EXPERIENCES OF DR. E. H. DEWEY:
BRIEF ACCOUNT OF DR. HAZZARD'S WORK
FOR THIRTY YEARS

IN THIS chapter the author proposes to speak of her personal acquaintance and friendship with those two pioneers in the cause of natural therapy whose names and deeds stand forth as do none other by reason of their intellectuality, their courage, and their ability to grasp the fundamental truths which more or less accidentally were revealed to each of them approximately at the same time. The chapter also purposes a short resume of the contribution of the author to therapeutic fasting and of the difficulties and persecution to which she has been subjected.

It is now about half a century since the newspapers of this country were filled with articles dealing with Dr. Henry S. Tanner and his claim that he had gone without food for forty-two days. One of my purposes in writing this chapter is to dissipate the fiction that the fasts that Dr. Tanner undertook were made in order to attract notoriety—for the mere sake of advertisement They were not. Naturally these fasts attracted attention, and such periods of abstention from food still would attract attention were they brought to public notice. But Dr. Tanner had another object in view, and it is best expressed in his own words as contained in a personal letter dated December 28, 1911.

He says: "I really believe that I am entitled to be called the father of therapeutic fasting in this country, for away back in 1877 I had given up hopes of ever regaining what might be called normal health. I was then in Minneapolis in the practice of my profession, and, after a strenuous time with a patient critically ill, I virtually collapsed. I was at such a low ebb physically and mentally at the time that I did not care whether I lived or died, and I determined that, since my drugs gave me no relief, I would starve myself to death ere I again would suffer the physical misery that had been mine for months preceding. I accordingly told Dr. Moyer, my consulting companion, that I would not again eat food until I was dead or recovered in health." It will be remembered that Dr. Tanner was a fully accredited doctor of medicine.

The facts as recorded are these. On the 15th of July, 1877, Dr. Henry S Tanner was called in consultation with Dr. A. Moyer of Minneapolis, Minnesota, to attend a critical case that detained them late into the night. The next day Dr. Tanner felt ill and did not leave his room. During the day he drank some milk, as he did on the day following. But this was the last food taken by him until August 29th following, a period of forty-two days. Both Dr. Tanner and Dr. Moyer concurred in the opinion that from the viewpoint of medical diagnostics the symptoms in the case were those of low gastric fever. During "treatment" Dr. Tanner occupied a room in the home of Dr. Moyer, and he was not at any time confined to his bed. He took during the entire forty-two days of abstinence nothing but water into his stomach, but of this he drank freely when thirsty.

At the end of ten days of fasting the symptoms of his disorder disappeared; he gained in strength, and in every way showed physical and mental improvement. Dr. Moyer, however, frequently remonstrated with Dr. Tanner for pursuing what he, Dr. Moyer, believed to be a suicidal course, but Dr. Tanner persisted, and we have in the small volume, Forty Days Without Food, a record of the full fast from Dr. Moyer's pen. The latter says, after detailing the daily experiences of his "patient" for forty days: