Title : Chapter 6: Some Letters from Fasters.: The Fasting Cure by Upton Sinclair from archive.org
link : Chapter 6: Some Letters from Fasters.: The Fasting Cure by Upton Sinclair from archive.org
Chapter 6: Some Letters from Fasters.: The Fasting Cure by Upton Sinclair from archive.org
APPENDIX
Some Letters from Fasters.
London, Ontario, May 2, 1910.
Dear Sir, — Your article in a recent
magazine very greatly interested me.
My sister, on her way home from a five-
and-a-half-weeks' visit in Boston and
New York, where she had been en-
deavouring to discover the causes of
her frightful headaches, bought that
number of the magazine and read your
experience, with, as you can well
imagine, a deep interest. In Boston
she had consulted one of the two phy-
sicians supposed to head the profes-
sion (as consultants) in that city. This
man told her she had Bright' s disease
171
THE FASTING CURE
and leakage of the heart, and he gave
her ten years to live — if she was very
careful. As she has five children
under twelve years of age, this was a
sad outlook. She weighed 122 pounds
when she left — and this was the lowest
weight since early girlhood — but on
her return, weighed on the same scales
in the same clothing, she was only 108
pounds. She looked very bad, and her
spirits were at zero.
Your article appealed to her, and
she would have unhesitatingly tried
your remedy, but that she was preg-
nant, and thought it would probably
mean the child's death. The Boston
obstetrician, who was consulted, said,
if the other doctor's diagnosis was cor-
rect, the child would have to be taken
at eight months.
After reading your experience, I
said to my sister : " You cannot per-
172
APPENDIX
haps follow Mr. Sinclair's example,
but you can approximate to it. If you
go to your own doctor he will un-
doubtedly send you to some sanatorium
where the patients are fairly stuffed.
Suppose you come over to my place
each noon and take dinner, having
eaten only a very light breakfast; then
rest from two to five, take a long bath
when you rise, go for a walk from six
to six-thirty, and then to your own
home for tea, taking only a shredded
wheat biscuit for that meal."
My sister consented, and on Satur-
day was weighed. On that light diet,
and in twelve days, she had gained
fourteen pounds. Her colour is re-
turning, she does not tire as she did,
and we are full of hope that she may
recover.
My object in writing was to thank
you for your frank recital of ills and
173
THE PASTING CURE
aches and their cure, and to get from
you the names of the books to which
you referred.
Several of my friends have read
your articles on my recommendation,
and one at least is seriously consider-
ing a lengthened fast. Reading the
article took me back to the * * no-break-
fast regime," which I followed for
five years, and then, for no especial
reason, abandoned. Already I feel
much better.
Sincerely and gratefully,
M. R. T.
Skowhegan, Maine, May 30, 1910.
Dear Sir, — I read your article in
the Cosmopolitan with deep interest,
and am to-day on my seventh day's
fast. My sensations thus far are
exactly like yours. I shall fast until
hunger returns, if it take a month.
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APPENDIX
My age is forty-eight, and I have
enjoyed the best of health nearly all
my life. Even now my digestion is all
right, but for five years or so I have
been troubled with rheumatism, not
the painful, swelling sort, but lame
joints.
I tried ** Fletcherism," and for the
last nine months have done my best to
live up to his suggestions, but fell
down, exactly as in your own case. I
can't tell what to eat, or when I have
eaten enough.
Whether this fast of yours does me
any permanent good or not, my joints
certainly move better to-day than for
six months, and I have every confi-
dence in the theory. The physicians
here to a man all laugh at me, likewise
my friends. I had lost ten pounds in
weight at the end of the sixth day ; I
lost three the first, two each for the
175
THE FASTING CURE
next two days, and a pound a day for
the next three days.
You speak of an unmistakable appe-
tite. I could eat, of course, now,
though I have no appetite, and I am
wondering how I shall know when a
real appetite returns. Mrs. W. is as
keen to try the fasting cure as I, and
her condition is very like Mrs. Sin-
clair's, but I thought one member of
the family was enough for the first try-
out. Please pardon a total stranger
for encroaching upon the time of a
busy man, but in the hunt for health,
without which life is not worth living,
one will do things he would not other-
wise think of. For your information
I will say that I have attended to my
office and business every day since my
fast began, walking to my home and
back at least three times daily, for the
exercise; driving a touring-car nights
17G
APPENDIX
and Sunday, for pleasure, exactly as
though there had been no change in my
habits. The strangest part of the ex-
perience is that I feel so well, and ex-
cept for a slight faintness, feel per-
fectly well to-day. Say — but I was
hungry for the first two days !
Yours truly,
Herbert Wentworth.
Clyde Park, Mont., May 17, 1910.
Dear Sir, — I was much interested
in your article in the Cosmopolitan on
*' Starving for Health's Sake." For
some time before I read it I had been
troubled with a coated tongue and a
nasty, bitter taste in my mouth. When
I read the article my complaint was
probably at its worst. I consulted a
doctor, who gave me some capsules to
clean out my intestinal canal, so he
said. I asked him what I could eat
THE PASTING CURE
and he said, " The less you eat the
better." So I ate nothing for a week.
Everything connected with my fast for
that week was just as you described it
— a ravenous hunger on the second day
and after that no hunger at all. How-
ever, the coated tongue was still there,
and when I next saw the doctor I men-
tioned your article and said you re-
commended rectal injections. He said
he read your article and approved of
it, and said after a thorough examina-
tion that I had an impaction of the
colon. He said he would give me some-
thing to work on my colon and also
added that if I fasted long enough the
impaction would move out of itself.
He also recommended injections. On
the 25th day, although the coated
tongue and nasty taste were still with
me, I commenced eating again, as
there was so much work to do on the
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APPENDIX
ranch, and I had to do it, as hired help
was scarce. I drank nothing but tepid
water and very thin lemonade, slij^htly
sweetened, during my fast of twenty-
four days. I dropped from 175
pounds to 143 pounds.
It is a week now since I broke my
fast and I am rapidly gaining weight.
Yesterday I weighed 152 pounds.
However, as I said, I still have the
coated tongue, although not so bad as
formerly, and when I regain more
weight, I'm going to begin another
fast. I am fifty-three years of age,
and have never used tea, coffee, whisky,
or tobacco. I want to read up on the
subject, so that when I begin again,
I'll know what to do. Your article
was all the literature I had on the sub-
ject, and it may have been imcomplete
in a great many important particulars.
Respectfully yours,
Robert Aitkin.
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THE FASTING CURE
Chicago, III., May 22, 1910.
Dear Sir, — I think you will be in-
terested to learn the experience of my
wife, who tried your fast, with the
same results as your wife, over which
we are very much delighted.
Allow me to say that it was all done
on the quiet, and no one knew of it un-
til it was all over. And then, of
course, every one thought she was rav-
ing crazy, but she has since shown her
friends that it was just the thing to
do.
In the first place it appealed to her,
and she went into it with faith. She
fasted for eleven days, after the
second day was never hungry at all,
and really began to take nourishment
before she was hungry.
The whole thing came out exactly as
in your cases and was most interesting.
She had temperature the first two days
180
APPENDIX
and ate crushed ice. After that, hot
or col.d water as desired. The tongue
was coated very badly and her breath
very bad. The tongue cleared very
slowly and was quite discouraging, but
after a few days was clear again. She
lost over ten pounds, all of which has
been regained and more, too, and she is
gaining all the time. Complexion very
clear, and the picture of health. Appe-
tite great, eats everything, no aches or
pains of any kind, and, best of all, no
constipation, which was what she tried
the fast for. She lost no strength to
speak of and didn't have to take to bed
at all; in fact, did everything about
the house as usual.
Everything has been fine now foi
three weeks, and if the troubles return,
she is to fast again and do it right,
and will take no nourishment until the
tongue clears.
181
THE FASTING CURE
She took internal baths nearly every
day, and was astonished at the
results when nothing but water was
being taken. While we don't recom-
mend it for every one, it certainly has
been a godsend in this case, and I be-
lieve because it was done right and
with faith that it was just the thing
for her. You certainly have one con-
vert, and if this interests you, shall be
pleased to know it.
Yours very sincerely,
C. D. F.
Knoxville, Tenn., June 5, 1910.
Dear Sir, — I wish to acknowledge
my indebtedness to you for a restora-
tion to such health of body and clarity
of mind as I have not known since my
sixteenth year, when first I entered the
high school. That was twenty years
ago.
19^
APPENDIX
I read your article, ** Starving for
Health's Sake," in the Cosmopolitan,
and, as you may recollect, asked you
for information as to certain books
treating of the fast as a cure for
disease.
Instead of answering me fully, you
referred my case to the Bernarr Mac-
fadden Institution in Chicago, for
which I thank you, but I did not go
there because I had neither time nor
money for that purpose.
Through a local book-dealer I
ordered a copy of '* Fasting, Hydro-
therapy and Exercise," but after two
weeks of waiting it failed to arrive,
so with your Cosmopolitan article as
my only guide and sum total of know-
ledge as to the fast, I quit eating on
May 13 and did not take anything ex-
cept water until the morning of May
26. Even then I was not hungry, but
183
THE FASTING CURE
as I did not care to remain away from
work any longer I broke the fast on the
morning of the 26th. I lost thirteen
pounds in weight, but was never too
weak not to move around. I worked
in the office for seven days, and the
balance of the time remained at home,
basking in the sunshine and reading
constantly.
My health and appetite are in such
perfect condition I can eat anything
without fear of ulterior consequences.
As a result of the fast, I have
sloughed off all my impedimenta of
disease. Constipation of ten years*
standing is gone as if by magic. Piles
and resulting pruritis of eight years'
tearing torture are nightmares of the
past. Bronchitis and eczema of scalp
have vanished. Asthma, due to ner-
vous sympathy with the pneumogastric
nerve, is no more. Catarrhal deaf-
184
APPENDIX
ness, sore throat, intestinal catarrh,
and a general neurasthenic condition
have left me. Work was never so
pleasant. I cannot get enough of phy-
sical exercise, it seems; my muscles
seem to grow stronger as the exercise
proceeds, and my weight is going up-
ward about a pound daily. I am now
three pounds heavier than I was be-
fore my fast began.
Life was never so beautiful, hope
and joy never so green, the future for
me and humanity's great movement to-
ward a better day and higher good of
existence never seemed so reasonable
and possible of every realization as
now, in the full possession of physical
health and mental strength which have
come back to me.
Heretofore my work has been
wrought out in pain.
I am through with drugs. I gradu-
185 N
THE FASTING CURE
ated from allopathy long ago, then
took up homeopathy and have now dis-
carded it. I have spent over $500 in
the last ten years trying to get well on
medicines. These professional quacks
bled me for a living and knew not how
to cure me. Your article was written
in the spirit of wishing to help suffer-
ing man. It cost me only thirty cents
to use your method, viz. : six feet of
rubber tubing to make a siphon to take
two enemas daily. For that thirty
cents I obtained relief a million-fold
more beneficial than from $500 worth
of medicine. Nay more, from your
fasting idea I got rid of $500 worth
of poisoning during ten years of medi-
cal superstition.
Sincerely yours,
H. E. Hoover.
im
APPENDIX
Northwest Society Archaeological
Institute of America.
Washington, University, Seattle,
Wash., Nov, 5, 1910.
Editor Cos?nopolitan Magazine.
Am enclosing clipping which shows
that prominent men up here in the
great Northwest are not afraid to try
out certain methods of fighting disease
merely because they are thought to be
•' new " or *' faddy " (tho' in truth
the fast cure is as old as the Old Testa-
ment).
The value of Professor Colvin's fast
experience seems to be that he has
given to the world the best method of
breaking the fast and getting on to a
solid-food diet. Upton Sinclair said
the breaking of the fast is the most
important part of it, and would be the
most dangerous were it not for the
great natural food, milk, which tides
187
THE FASTING CURE
you over. But he fails to remember
there are thousands with whom milk
does not agree, sick or well.
Shortly after interview noted in en-
closed clipping from Seattle Times,
Professor Colvin attempted to begin to
break the fast with orange juices and
utterly failed. He then tried milk
and was made so sick that he had to
fast for three more days to get into a
condition to break the fast. He then
started in with a very light veal broth
(not soup, nor tea). He soon got so he
could take a cup of it every hour and a
half. To get on to solid food he tried
a few crackers with the broth, but
found too much soda in the crackers
and abandoned their use. Finally he
hit upon the very thing that fitted the
condition of his body, dry whole-wheat
bread toasted. This toasted whole-
wheat bread he had his cook crush
188
APPENDIX
with a rolling pin into a powder and
each day mixed more of it with the cup
of broth. After this he filled the cup
three-fourths full of this toast powder
and only poured in as much broth as
the dust would absorb, making a solid
gruel, which was very appetizing and
nourishing (so much so that the pro-
fessor continues to use it for breakfast
food though his fast is closed). Now
to this gruel he added mashed baked
potato from time to time (more each
time) until he virtually supplanted the
toast dust. From this he went to
baked apple, thence to raw eggs,
thence to macaroni, thence to pigeon
squab, and thence to solid earth.
It seems to me that his discovery of
the broth-toast-gruel method is a great
discovery. Especially so for those
who live in the cities and cannot be
sure as to the absolute purity of their
THE FASTING CURE
milk. Even when the milk diet can be
used it does not afford a solution for
getting off of a liquid diet on to a solid
food basis.
In your July number appears a
letter from Mr. Buel of New York in
which he says that it would be almost
criminal to permit any one advanced
in years to enter upon the dangerous
folly of the '* fast cure." I am en-
closing you a clipping from the
Oregonian, telling of the fasting ex-
perience of Professor Colvin's friend,
Rev. J. E. Fitch. Rev. Fitch is 81
years of age and a year ago took it
into his head to out-fast Moses. Holy
Writ says that Moses fasted 40 days,
and to prove to his congregation that
one did not have to be superstitious to
believe some of these Old Testament
tales, Rev. J. E. Fitch, at the age of 80,
fasted fifty days ; and instead of losing
190
APPENDIX
flesh towards the last part of his fast
actually gained in weight. He is as
vigorous to-day as he was at 21.
Your Mr. Buel spoke of fast^rs as
cranks and faddists and intimated
that your solid citizen would not thus
be led astray. Professor Colvin is not
a crank but one of our best citizens,
being well known both in this country
and Europe, and spoken of as the
probable president of the Pan-Ameri-
can University to be located in Porto
Rico.
Very respectfully,
Thos. F. Murphy.
210 Merriman Ave.,
ASHEVILLE, N. C, 9/11/10.
Mr. Upton Sinclair,
Arden, Del.
Dear Sir, — After fasting for ten
THE FASTING CURE
days I went off for ten days. Then on
for seventeen days, during which time
I got rid of a long list of troubles, ex-
cept a cough, for which I underwent
examination by a specialist. I found
I had tuberculosis. The entire upper
right lobe of my lung and about half of
the left upper lung being affected.
Now I am up here making a very rapid
recovery. I consider that the fasts I
took were the best things that could
have happened for me, since they
eliminated a bunch of troubles that are
nearly always present with tubercu-
losis, such as indigestion, sort throat,
rheumatism, etc. All of these left me,
and I never felt better in my life than
since fasting. I do not believe that
such a rapid recovery as I am making
could be possible had I not fasted.
Fasting did not cure the tuberculosis,
but it gave me an excellent stomach,
192
•r
APPENDIX
with which to fight it, and tuberculosis
will always give way to a good
stomach. I did not know I had tuber-
culosis when I started fasting, but I
now know, since learning more about
the disease, that I had the trouble in
an active state more than nine months
before I fasted. My cough got very
tame during the fast and very nearly
disappeared, but returned as I in-
creased the amount of food I took
after breaking the fast,, but at no time
did it get as bad as it was previous to
the fast. I weighed 172 lbs. in May,
when I began my fasting and dropped
to 148 lbs., and now weigh 180 lbs. and
never felt better in my life. Have but
a slight spot of the tuberculosis affec-
tion left in my right lung.
While I would not recommend
others affected with tuberculosis to
fast, I would ask that if you have any
19;]
THE FASTING CURE
letters from consumptives who have
fasted I would appreciate a copy.
Roland A. Wilson.
New Zealand, Sept. 10, 1910.
Dear Mr. Sinclair, — Your article
" The Truth about Fasting " in
August Physical Culture to hand this
week has much interested me. The
questions you ask at end of article will,
I hope, receive many replies, and give
much information regarding the fast-
ing cure. I, personally, can supply a
considerable amount of just such in-
formation as you require, but the fact
that I am a druggist in business pre-
cludes the giving of such for publica-
tion until drugs and I part company.
Let me explain. A little under four
years ago I came upon a copy of Phy-
sical Culture. It interested me and
il»4
APPENDIX
I followed up the reading by sub-
scribing, and obtaining various books
— Dewey's, Hazzard's, Carrington's,
Desmond's, Bales', Bell's and others. I
became quite convinced that about 99
per cent, of usual medical treatment
was wrong, and, in fact, actually detri-
mental, and often death-dealing to
those who were in search of health.
More and more I felt that I was
doing a big injustice to those who
applied to me for help, and
an accessory in bad practice by the
dispensing of physicians' prescrip-
tions. Yet I know that, like myself,
the great bulk of the doctors and
chemists were acting innocently and
even conscientiously when recommend-
ing drugs and practising the accepted
drug and surgical treatments. The
belief that drugs cure disease is so
deeply rooted in the average human
195
THE FASTING CURE
mind, and the teachings in medical
and druggists' colleges so universal,
and even thorough, that doctors and
druggists can hardly be blamed for
holding to their mother-loves.
However, I had an open mind, and a
desire to hand out a square deal, and
decided to make a practical test of the
new .teachings that had come my way.
I started by carefully selecting my
patients — those who I believed had a
fair amount of intelligence, and whose
ailments had supplied them with a
fairly long course of pain, worry and
expense. Being a druggist in busi-
ness, it would have been a very foolish
thing for me to have wholly condemned
drugs. And that is one reason why I
selected chronics for a start — I was
able to use the argument that as drugs
had had a long and faithful trial, and
had proven valueless in curing, a fast
196
APPENDIX
of nine or ten days would be, at least,
worth a trial. My first case was a
lady about thirty-five years of age.
Complaint, badly swollen, highly in-
flamed and ulcerated leg, extending
from two inches below knee to one inch
above ankle, and more than half way
around. She proved a good patient.
The leg had been bad with more or less
severity for fourteen years, and had
been treated by several doctors, drug-
gists, and others. She started on an
immediate fast. Within twenty-four
hours after fast commenced, the in-
flammation decreased; by the end of
the fourth day it had entirely sub-
sided, and by the end of the eighth day
not a vestige of the trouble remained.
This fast took place over two years ago
— she has held reasonably well to the
simple foods I advised, and so far
there has been no return of the ail-
197
THE FASTING CURE
nient. Her general health has very
considerably improved.
Since then I have treated, perhaps,
fifty cases by fasting, and many others
by simple dieting. Many complete
cures have been effected that ordinary
medical methods had entirely failed to
benefit. My list comprises many ail-
ments, ranging from one to forty-five
years in evidence, while the patients
themselves have ranged in age from
one year to eighty-five years.
X.
Hastings, Mich., Sept. 11, 1910.
Editor, the Cosmopolitan.
Every reader of your magazine owes
you a vote of thanks for the Upton
Sinclair article on fasting.
Mr. Sinclair said, ' ' There are three
dangers attending the fast." In my
198
APPENDIX
case there were four — the danger of
being sent to the Insane Asylum.
All my neighbours and relations had
the utmost contempt for what they
termed " my craziness." But not-
withstanding all this, I fasted four-
teen days, and stomach trouble, heart
trouble, kidney trouble, chronic
catarrh, and rheumatism, which for
years had made life a burden, are no
more. I do not have to tell my friends,
at this date, that it was a success, they
know it. My family physician has
since said that it was probably the best
thing I ever did in my life.
I consider myself greatly indebted
to you for furnishing me so efficient a
remedy, free of cost.
Gratefully yours,
Mrs. E. L. Raymond.
199
THE FASTING CURE
Upton Sinclair.
Dear Sir, — Yes, you may use my
name in connection with my experi-
ence.
As I did not take a complete fast
the first time, I began again Sept 4th,
and fasted thirteen days, when natural
hunger returned. Had none of the
unpleasant experiences of the first
fast. Was able to be on my feet and
work more than at any time in years.
Chronic rheumatism had caused
sinewy swelling of my knee joints, that
in turn had caused numbness of the
feet and lower limbs, making it impos-
sible for me to be on my feet. What I
have suffered with them from jar of
people walking across the room, or
brushing against them, cannot be told.
The first fast removed all the pain and
soreness. The last fast has brought
them down to normal or nearly so. I
200'
APPENDIX
am confident that I shall soon be able
to walk any reasonable distance.
You are certainly entitled to a place
among the public benefactors of the
age for giving to the people the know-
ledge you had gained bv the fast.
Gratefully yours,
Mrs. E. L. Raymond.
20 Bowdoin St., Boston, Mass.
Aug. 1, 1910.
Dear Sir, — I have just read with
much interest your article in Physical
Culture and am minded to send you a
brief account of my experience, which
has been in some respects more full
than your own. In speaking thus, I
refer to the fact that my fasts, though
not of so long duration as many re-
ported, were complete in this : that my
blood and tissue had cleaned up, my
mouth was sweet, tongue moist, and
201 o
THE FASTING CURE
there were plenty of the digestive
fluids and a call for good plain whole-
some food, which was slowly eaten and
perfectly digested, and my appetite
perfectly satisfied with a very moder-
ate amount.
I suffered severely from indigestion
and rheumatism, and made up my
mind to try the effect of complete ab-
stinence from food till I was better. I
was familiar with the writings of Dr.
Dewey and was well convinced that he
was correct in his views. I was in my
office the morning of Jan. 1st, and the
bookkeeper remarked as to how ill I
looked. Seven days after that (the
first seven days of my fast) I was in
again, and he spoke of my greatly im-
proved appearance, said I looked very
much better. He did not know nor did
I tell him the reason for the improve-
ment. On the 12th day — the first after
202
APPENDIX
I had broken the fast — he said I looked
much better, which was also true, but
when I gave him an explanation of the
reason, he would not believe in it at all.
In none of the four fasts which I
have taken have I set any time limit or
taken it as a stunt at all, but only have
been guided by^ conditions as they
developed. In no instance have I
failed, and in no case was food a
temptation to me until natural hunger
returned. It seems to me an error to
attempt to gauge the length of the
fast. We ought to be governed by
nature's direction. A " wise dog "
knows when he needs to fast, and fasts
till he wants food. It seems to me
when we get to that point of wisdom,
to know as much as the dog, we will
know enough to go by intelligent needs
instead of the clock.
My experience is not in accord with
203
THE FASTING CUBE
the view expressed in your article as
regards weakness of stomach and lack
of peristalsis after fasting. It is my
experience that after a complete fast
any plain food desired can be taken
without harm. I do not favour im-
prudence, of course, but I do not think
that there is any good reason for being
compelled to take fluid foods unless one
desires to. My longest fast was nine-
teen days.
C. D. NORRIS.
39 Rue Singer, Paris, France.
Dear Sir, — I read your article in
the May Cosmopolitan and was very
much impressed with the ideas you
advocated. I had for twenty years
been troubled with constipation, which
caused colds and grippe, besides mak-
ing me very sluggish. Being a singer
and teacher, these things were great
204
APPENDIX
handicaps on my work, so after read-
ing your article I decided to try it. I
was in Paris studying singing with
Oscar Seagle and Jean de Reszke, and
of course I needed to be at my very best
all the time, but I wasn't. I couldn't
keep from taking cold, which always
knocked me out of a week or two of
work. So when my teachers went away
for their vacation, I decided to start
the fast, and on July 31 I did so.
Being a coffee ** toper," it made it very
hard for me to give up my breakfast
cup of strong black coffee, but I did it
and the first three or four days I nearly
lost my mind. Never experienced any-
thing in my life that required so much
will power. However, I stuck to it,
but I was very hungry and had a split-
ting headache for four days, after
which it got a little better. Then
about the fifth day, as my hunger be-
205
THE FASTING CURE
gan to leave me, I began to break out
as if I had measles — this kept up for
five or six days. To add to that, my
mouth and throat became inflamed and
very sore, and that didn't cure up until
about the twelfth day of the fast. I
was exceedingly miserable all these
days, but I realized how much I needed
something of the kind to get the terri-
ble poison out of my system, so I just
held on and drank much water, and
walked in the sunshine all I could.
My tongue had a thick coat on it and I
had a terrible bilious taste in my
mouth for twelve days. I believed it
would take about twenty days to fix
me up just right, so I was going ahead
when I suddenly decided to make a
hurried business trip back to Texas;
so on the fourteenth day I sailed from
Cherbourg without having broken my
fast.
90ft
APPENDIX
I carried a dozen oranges on board
with nie to make sure. When I began
to breathe the salt air I got hungry, so
on the fifteenth day I began to eat
oranges and kept it up for a day and a
half and then tried to get some milk,
but could get none that was good, and
most of what I got was of the con-
densed variety. I did the best I could
for four days, when my system rebelled
and became clogged up and I took an-
other cold as usual. So I decided not
to eat another mouthful on that ship,
and I kept the fast up until I got to Ft.
Worth. Then I went at the matter
according to your instructions, and the
results were perfect. I took up
oranges for two days, then went on the
milk diet for two days, then began on
the boiled wheat. The results have
been highly satisfactory. Going from
a cold climate like Paris into a veri-
207
THE FASTING CURE
table inferno like Texas in summer
made it very hard on me, but the wheat
diet did everything for me and gave me
unusual strength and vigour even in
that hot climate where vigour doesn't
abound much in hot weather. All my
troubles seemed to disappear. I had
not sung a tone since I began the first
fast in Paris, so I began to practise
again, and I never realized such a
change in anything. Everything went
so easy and all my friends said that
they never saw such improvement in a
human voice. I have never even
desired to taste coffee, I am living on
wheat, nuts, all kinds of fruit and
vegetables, and the result is everything
you said it would be. I have com-
pleted my business in Texas and will
start back to Paris to-day. I am pre-
paring myself for the journey this
time. I have a large '* thermos "
208
APPENDIX
bottle which I have filled with wheat
and will carry plenty of fruit and
nuts.
I thank you very much for your in-
formation along the line of health.
You have been a great blessing to me,
and I am sure you have been also to
thousands of others.
Andrew Hemphill.
Omaha, Neb.
Dear Mr. Sinclair, — I was so fas-
cinated with the story of your fast
that I immediately made the experi-
ment for myself, abstaining entirely
from food of any kind for five days.
I had no particular ailment which
seemed to need the fast cure, but felt
impelled to do a little investigating on
my own account.
I kept a diary in which I recorded
209
THE FASTING CURE
each day's experience, including loss
in weight, effect of cold bath, amount
of exercise taken, etc. Without going
into details, I can simply say I was
astonished by the results. While in
one respect my experience differed
from yours, in that the desire for food
did not entirely cease at any time, 1
was surprised to find how easily it
could be controlled after the first day.
Since the fast I have kept on drinking
large quantities of pure water — re-
sulting in a gain in weight of twelve
pounds, increased digestive powers
and a wonderfully improved appetite.
I am frank to say I was never so
pleased with, nor so greatly benefited
by anything ever previously extracted
from a magazine article.
R. E. Wheeler.
210
appendix
760 Penobscot B'ld'g, Detroit,
Oct. 19, 1910.
Dear Mr. Sinclair, — Complying
with your suggestion, will hurriedly
and briefly group my experiences
through a fast which I took largely
because of your persuasive article on
that subject. I absorbed the informa-
tion you gave as well as I could, and
having been a great sufferer for over
twenty years with stomach and bowel
troubles, began a fast which I con-
tinued for nearly eleven days, adhering
scrupulously to the program outlined
by you, in so far as I could practically
do so, except I took only one bath
(tepid) daily before retiring and
omitted the enemas after the fifth day.
Am fifty-seven years of age, power-
fully built and athletic in habit and
practice. Normal weight around two
hundred pounds, height six feet one
211
THE FASTING CURE
and one-half inches. Various causes
reduced my weight some four years
ago to about one hundred and eighty-
five pounds, and almost constant non-
assimilation of foods prevented my
regaining normal weight. Weight an
hour previous to my last lunch prior to
the fast, one hundred and eighty-six
pounds; lost fourteen pounds during
the fast, eight of which fell off me the
first three days. My indigestion had
for years been accompanied by distress-
ing, persistent constipation. This did
not yield until the afternoon of fourth
day of fast, when my entire intestinal
functions seemed to become normal,
and although I had taken no food,
solid or liquid, no fruit juices, coffee,
tea or milk, absolutely nothing in fast
except Detroit River water, hot or
cold, as fancy suggested, after the
fourth day the bowels inclined to move-
2t2
APPENDIX
ment at least twice during each
twenty-four hours. Lost strength
gradually throughout fast, but looked
after essentials in my office from six
down to three hours the last day. I
had no pronounced desire for food
from first to last. Tongue remained
heavily furred throughout the fast,
breath offensive, even to myself. I sat
at table at breakfast and evening
meals, serving same, but using only a
cup or two of hot water as my portion.
Voice lost resonancy and timbre, and I
finally felt so enervated that I broke
the fast — juice of an orange first even-
ing, and of five oranges the second
day; of six oranges the third day,
during which I also sipped a quart of
rich milk, hot. Fourth day ate six
oranges, two quarts milk, slice of old
bread and about three-fourths pound
juicy steak, after which I soon be-
213
THE FASTING CURE
gan to eat more than the usual quan-
tity of wholesome food. For over four
months had no indigestion, bowels
regular and normal.
I am hoping to see my way clear to
fast again soon, for am needing a brace
physically. ... I owe you grate-
ful thanks for inciting me to under-
take the remedy.
With best wishes for your continued
success, usefulness and happiness.
Sincerely,
M. E. Hall.
In my discussion of the question of
what to eat, I have referred to the
meat diet, and also to the raw-food
diet. By way of throwing further
light upon the problem, I reprint here
two letters, one by a follower of Dr.
Salisbury, and the other by a man
whom I was instrumental in starting
214
APPENDIX
upon raw food. The latter article is
reprinted from Physical Culture, by
courtesy of Mr. Bernarr Macfadden.
The reader may find it difficult to
understand how two people can have
had such apparently contradictory ex-
periences. I myself, however, have no
doubt of the literal truth of their state-
ments, for I know dozens of people
who are thriving upon each of these
diets. It is to me only a further proof
of the fact that our knowledge of this
subject is as yet in its infancy, and
that all one can do is to experiment,
and find out what system best agrees
with his own orgginism.
504 West Second St.,
Los Angeles, Cal., July 28, 1910.
Dear Sir, — As you say in the
August Physical Culture that you
215
THE FASTING CURE
would like to hear the experiences of
fasters, I will tell you of mine. In
1889-1890 I was very sick with catarrh
of the stomach and bowels, which
developed into consumption of the
bowels accompanied by inflammatory
rheumatism. On May 1st, 1890, I
went to the office of Dr. James H.
Salisbury and treated with him for one
year. During the first nine months I
ate nothing but Salisbury steaks, be-
ginning with one ounce per meal and
increasing gradually as I could assimi-
late it to one pound per meal, and
drank a pint of hot water an hour and
a half before meals and at bedtime.
Salisbury steak, as you probably know,
is beef pulp — round steak with all fat
and fibres removed. I dropped weight
rapidly, going from 140 pounds to 90
pounds as this loss was diseased flesh.
I then gained as rapidly on beef alone
216
APPENDIX
and this was good hard flesh. During
the next three months he allowed me a
slice of toasted bread at two meals
daily in addition to the meat. For
the past twenty years I have eaten
meat three times a day with other
foods, consequently have not needed a
physician in that time. I have foolish
spells occasionally and indulge in
fruit, vegetables and cereals, and
destroy the proper ratio, viz. : 2/3 of
meat to 1/3 of other foods, then I be-
gin to get out of shape and this brings
me to my fasting experiences — about
eight of them in the last seventeen
years and lasting from five to fifteen
days according to the time it took for
my tongue to clear off. I find that the
more hot water I drink the quicker it
clears ; during the last fast three years
ago I drank one quart every two hours
through the day. I got my stomach so
217 p
THE FASTING CURE
clean that the water tasted sweet — ^this
is the test of a clean stomach.
Fasts have benefited me and I re-
commend them, as few people will live
on beef till their blood gets pure ; that
an exclusive diet of beef will make
pure blood I saw demonstrated in New
York at Dr. Salisbury's by micro-
scopic tests of my own blood and that
of others. When you are in this con-
dition you can expose yourself as much
as you like without danger of taking
cold. If people suffering with stomach
and intestinal troubles, Bright' s
disease, diabetes, rheumatism, sciatica,
or tuberculosis, would eat nothing but
beef pulp and drink hot water be-
fore meals they would be cured in nine
cases out of ten, as this was Dr. Salis-
bury's average of cures when they
stuck to the treatment. I acknow-
ledge that one gets rid of a lot of
218
APPENDIX
diseased tissue while fasting, but not
more rapidly than on the beef diet, and
the latter has the advantage that one
is making good blood all the time. I
consider that you are doing a great
work in recommending the fast cure,
and agree with you that Hamburg
steak is not the best food to break a
fast with, as it contains 1/4 to 1/3 of
fat and *' animal fat is a lower form
of organization, in fact is often a pro-
cess of degeneration." I have seen
several Salisbury patients have slight
bilious attacks from eating over-fat
beef, but they quickly recovered by eat-
ing leaner beef. Beef pulp is the best
thing to eat after a fast as it is ab-
sorbed quickly into the circulation and
I never saw a patient whose stomach
was too weak to digest it in small
quantities, well broiled. I believe in
dry foods, well masticated — no slops.
219
THE FA.STI!^a CURE
Dr. Salisbury said to me ** a man
whose food is beef can live in a hole in
the ground and be healthy." His last
words to me were, " Stick to beef and
liot water the rest of your life and
nothing but old age will kill you bar-
ring accident." I asked him how
long he had lived on this diet, he re-
plied, '* thirty years." — " Do you ex-
pect to die of old age?" " Sure."
He died August 23rd, 1905, at the age
of eighty-two from the result of an
accident. He was a most scientific
and successful practitioner; but nearly
all physicians, aside from those he
cured, called his treatment a farce and
a delusion because his teachings if
generally followed would put the
majority of them out of business. One
New York doctor told me while I was
on the diet " unless you give up beef
and hot water you will not live five
2i0
APPENDIX
years — ^you will wear your kidneys
out." I replied, ** you doctors say I
am going to die anyway, so I might as
w^ell die clean." I immediately in-
creased my hot water from one pint to
one quart before each meal and have
kept it up ever since. When I began
drinking hot water I had a slight kid-
ney and bladder trouble; this has dis-
appeared; the constant flushing has
strengthened these organs — I am now
sixty-four.
Cold water before meals is better
than none, but is not as good as hot
water, as the latter does not chill the
stomach or gripe one, and acts as a
tonic on the internal organs; is more
quickly absorbed and starts perspira-
tion, causing the skin to share with the
kidneys the work of eliminating waste
matter. If a person is not very sick
he can eat his round steak (after re-
moving the fat) ground without re-
221
THE FASTING CURE
moving the fibre. For a regular Salis-
bury steak leave the knife loose and
clean the grinder frequently.
You have a large gontract in trying
to force medical men to recognize the
fast cure. They even told me, * ' while
we think you are honest, you are mis-
taken; you did not see Dr. Salisbury
perform the cures you think you saw."
The Doctor considered me one of his
star patients ; he said I was as far gone
as any man he ever saw cured by the
treatment, and that he would rather
have three cases of tuberculosis of the
lungs than one like mine, my disease
being in the last stage.
You can do as you like with this
letter. I write simply to strengthen
you. Persist, you are on the right
track at last. You are no ** shallow
sensationalist." I like your writings.
Very sincerely,
Jas. Y. Anthony.
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