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Show Fasting: is the Gure-AH Practiced in California Fasting is the new fad in California, "the land of plenty." These who have tried it declare that total abstinence from food is the cure-all of disease. Thomas Morrin. chief engineer in the big Mills building, San Francisco, has just completed a fast of forty days for dy spepsia. Other authentic cases are: I Ambrose Taylor of Uialto fasted twenty-three days for rheumatism: Mrs. Judit'h Sampson of Penrym. seventeen days for dyspepsia: James D. Wren of Martinez, twenty-three days for stomach stom-ach trouble, and Cora Brown of Redwood, Red-wood, twenty-seven days for acute nervousness. How many more people have taken up the fasting cure is past finding out, for in nearly every instance the fasters are loath to speak of their experiences. ' Engineer Morrin is very much averse to the. notoriety the affair has occasioned occa-sioned and shuns interviews. Unlike Dr. Tanner, the famous professional faster, Morrin, instead of reclining during dur-ing the period of fasting, performed all his duties as chief engineer.. All five fasters believe they ate thoroughly cured of their diseases. In Morrin's and two other cases the fasts were prescribed and directed by Dr. Albert Hiller, a reputable homeopathic physician phy-sician of San Francisco. Ambrose Taylor, Tay-lor, Mrs. Sampson and Miss Brown aciupiea inc novei treatment, oecause. as they explained, "it seemed sensible." Dr. Hiller did not permit his patients to go to bed, but insisted oji their attending at-tending to their work as usual. The others, all independent cases, sougbt rest in order to give nature, the great i physician, a chance to work. Oddly enough, a few days after Ambrose Taylor Tay-lor began his fast he was stricken with paralysis and unable to move, but he heroically stuck to his course of treatment. treat-ment. Of course, these fasters were not diligently dili-gently watc hed by unbiased outsiders, so the truth of their statements rests solely on t'heir own account, the evidence evi-dence of visiting friends and the corroboration cor-roboration of the attending physician. There is no reason to doubt their statements, state-ments, as they were in no wise "exhibition" "ex-hibition" fasters. but merely seekers after health. There is onenoint in common not one of them thinks that going so long without food is worth mentioning, but they all dwell delightfully delight-fully on the fact that the fast cured them. Mr. Morrin. who fasted forty days, is a large framed man of middle age. In perfect health he would weigh about 1!)0 pounds, but stomach troubles reduced re-duced him to 17.".. He tried all sorts of medicines without relief. At last he was reduced to a condition where he couldn't take medicine and only the lightest of fluid foods would remain on his stomach. In this extremity he went to Dr. Hiller and got his prescription pre-scription for a forty day' fast. "It was a case of must." he said, in narrating his experience. "The first day T got very hungry, but all I allowed al-lowed myself was a little water. I drank a good deal of w'ater during the forty days. The second day my hunger hun-ger increased. On the third It was the strongest. After that it began to decrease. de-crease. At the end of five days' fast ing I didn t feel violent hunger any longer. I seemed to get out of the habit of eating. During tlve fast T lost just thirty-five pounds. I was able by c arefully using my strength to go right along with my duties as chief engineer. engin-eer. "Going without food was not so difficult dif-ficult as I imagined. Perhaps my dyspepsia, dys-pepsia, had in' a way ' trained me to undertake a fast. Years ago a doctor ordered me to give un tobacco and I found it much harder to slop its use I- than I did to go without food. "After the fast was over I began to- cat light and easily digested food in small quantities and now I am getting along all right. There is not the slightest slight-est doubt that the treatment has cured my stomach trouble." Ambrose Taylor had the most painful pain-ful experience of the six fasters. He is 60 years of age and for a, long time bad been afflicted with rheumatism :n the left leg and hip. He tried all sorts -f remedies without relief. Early in last November he was reduced to a condition condi-tion where he had to give up work uid take to his bed. "As I lay there." l e said, "and in my mind ran over ail I had done in the last fourteen years trying try-ing to get well, it occurred to me that I had better go back to Mother Nature Na-ture and give her a chance. I had read about fasting, and I reasoned out that Nature was our best doctor after all if we'd only give her a chance. But you can't expect her to do you -my good when you are all the time diverting divert-ing her attention and giving her other responsibilities. Very often when you are ailing you literally force things down your throat when you really don't feel like eating. Nature can't carry on the work of digestion and doctoring doc-toring at the same time. "So 1 took my bed and set thirty j days as a limit of my fast. At first the pangs of hunger were tierce, for I was always considered a big eater. Aft-T I'd downed the pangs I got a blow that nearly finished me a stroke of paralysis. paraly-sis. You'll understand what that meant to me when I tell you my father, brother and aunt all died of paralysis. I was discouraged, hut I kept right on with my fast, thinking that if I was going to die it didn't make tiny difference dif-ference whether I ate or not. On Nov. IS. 2" and 2S I hart additional attacks of paralysis, each being milder than the preceding. When I saw how things were going I became so absorbed in watching the paralysis that I forgot the rheumatism. One day I suddenly discovered that- my rheumatic leg was very much more limber. It was an eye-opener eye-opener when you consider I hadn't been able to straighten it in four years. My son saw to it that I didn't lack for comfort during all this time, and the neighbors, when they heard what I was doing, kept dropping in to tee how I was getting along. Everybody urged me to quit the foolishness, go hack to a physician and eat something lev keep up my strength, but 1 wouldn't. During the whole time the only -iour-ishment I took was a pint of grape juice. I drank about the same amount of water as usual. I know I could have easily stuc k it out for thirty days, but at the end of twenty-three days I quit. By this time the paralysis was gone and the last trace of the rheumatism was disappearing. I believe I'm a sound man now for my age 60 years. During the fast I dropped from 170 to 164 pounds, not as much as you'd think." It must be borne in mind that all of these cures are of recent occurrence, so that time has not yet had a chance to demonstrate whether the maladies have been completely eradicated. The three moderns who made reputations repu-tations for themselves as "rasters" were Dr. Tanner. Succi and Merlotti. Each of these cases was experimental, and was made under careful arrangements. arrange-ments. Dr. Tanner fasted forty days. Succi thirty days and Merlotti sixty days. Merlotti at a tat goose, hone. and all. before beginning. Succi took a drink, to which he attached great importance. im-portance. In Merlotti's case the di-minuation di-minuation in weight amounted to 27 per cent at the end of fifty days, and there was great danger of a fatal result from the enfeebleness of the nervous system. sys-tem. The faster persisted -In going en to the end. after being advised to dis1 contlnue the experiment, and' after vomiting immediately after taking (he first food. Nevertheless, he presided f.t a banquet given in his honor, and fully recovered at the end of two months. |