Exposition one hundred and twenty-five and three-quarters
pounds; no sense of tired feeling, but hunger started to assert
itself for a period of about three hours, after which it passed
over.
"On the thirty-fourth day went driving; thirty-fifth day, walked
one mile, then went to the asylum to show the results. The
physicians in charge were simply astounded, and would hardly
believe it possible for one to be so active while taking no
food. I believe we have done quite a little good there, as they
have expressed the desire to try the same on others. They
examined the tongue and took the pulse, finding both in good,
normal state; in the evening walked another mile, visiting the
other doctors whom her parents called in. On the thirty-sixth
day walked one and a half miles; thirty-seventh day, walked
seven miles, hunger sensation becoming decided.
"I have given you a sketch of this case because it seems to me
an unusual one owing to the great activity."
"November 18, 1899.
"Miss Kuenzel's hunger arrived as per Nature's demand on the
forty-fifth day at noon. One poached egg and two slices of
toast (whole wheat). There was an intense relish for her simple
fare, but not the least sign or desire for haste in eating. She
was amply satisfied for the day, and relished the same bill of
fare and quantity for the forty-sixth day, with a very slight
luncheon in the evening. We had been to the Exposition the night
of the forty-fourth day, when the tongue again started cleaning
and a most distinct craving for food presented itself. It
persisted on retiring, and also on the next morning, when she
felt that Nature again was ready for her wonderful chemistry of
digestion. I had her weight taken after her first meal, which
revealed a loss of twenty pounds. We called to see the professor
under whom she was last placed, and he was surprised with the
clearness of her mental condition and good general appearance,
though he observed she had gotten a trifle thinner, but which he
had also in view to accomplish upon a five-meal plan per day. He
tried his best to confuse and trouble her with questions, etc.,
but found her too intensely awake, and she won the victory by
cornering him in his own set traps. We received his
congratulations and were made to promise to call again. I have
now been with her to seven physicians who were interested, and
have shown them Nature's own unhampered work.
"Miss Kuenzel has now an intense desire to help others. You are
at liberty to make use of Nature's work in her case for the
benefit of others, and I shall be only too glad to give you any
desired information that may be of use. The good work you have
started will, I am sure, never end; and it will prove a pleasure
to me indeed to work with added interest for the benefit of
those in need of the same in the future."
The forty-fourth day of the fast was the busiest of all with her. She
arose at 8.30 A. M. to attend to her affairs until the late afternoon,
when she and her friend met a sister, by appointment from her home, at
the Exposition. Several hours were spent there, and when they took the
street car for return the only vacant seat was accepted by the sister,
because she was tired, and not knowing that there were forty-four days
without food with her sister, who was not tired. A striking feature of
these daily walks was that they did not cause marked fatigue. Miss
Kuenzel retired near midnight without unusual fatigue, and so ended the
forty-fourth day of the fast.
I quote from the _Chester County Times_ of Feb. 12, 1899:
"'Conclusive evidence is being multiplied as to the wonderful
power of fasting in the restoration of health, but it is only
more recently that its power in the case of insanity is even yet
more wonderful. A recent case is as near home as the city of
Philadelphia, and those interested are very willing that others
may know of it, so that its usefulness may be extended and its
value appreciated. The discovery was made by Dr. E. H. Dewey, of
Meadville, Pa., and tidings of the good work are being spread by
Charles C. Haskell & Son, of Norwich, Conn. The editor of this
paper knows somewhat the value of the discovery by an experience
of several years. We give a letter from the lady who was cured.
"'PHILADELPHIA, PA., Dec. 12, 1899.
"'_My Dear Mr. Haskell:_
"'I have received your letter of the 9th inst., and at last find
time to fulfil the request for a statement. In regard to my
_wonderful cure_ through "The New Gospel of Health," I would
state that the second week after Christmas, 1898, I first had a
paralyzing effect which affected the right side of face, body,
and limbs, also tongue, which nearly prevented my speaking. This
passed over and I again began working at my position as milliner
in a large establishment, and after a short while became so
dizzy and confused that I was compelled to ask my friends to
direct me home. (This was around Easter, 1899.) I was then taken
to a doctor, who at once requested me to stop working, and to
take a _complete rest_, but not for the stomach, as he
prescribed a severe and exacting master to stimulate the _tired
and overworked stomach_ to _renewed life_, and so give the
nerves plenty of pure food, as they were in need of same. I
then, after getting a ravenous hunger, weakened myself still
more and became worse. My stomach felt numb and paralyzed, as
did also my other internal organs, but this was put down against
me as an illusion. So a _professor of nervous diseases_ was
called in consultation, owing to my many desires to die (as life
had no sunshine, flowers, or music for me); I was simply living
a living death of torture which these professors would have were
illusions. My parents were then informed that I must be sent to
an asylum, where I was for ten long weeks. _They_ also told me
that my feelings were illusions, and proceeded to banish the
same by giving the _tired-out nerves a little rest_ and _plenty
of nourishment_ on a _five-meal_ plan per day. If refused (owing
to a loss of appetite), I was threatened to have nature helped
by the aid of a stomach or nasal tube. I lost none of my
illusions while there, as I could not feel any improvement in my
feelings. I left the institution June 28, 1899, feeling no
better; in fact, worse than when I arrived there. I was then
taken from one doctor to another, the one wishing to operate,
the other not; one advising me to go to the seashore, country,
etc., but _none_ to give my stomach the needed vacation.
"'It was then that my friend, Mr. Ritter, stepped in, as he saw
the failures of professors and specialists, and begged my
parents to let him have a chance to demonstrate what Dr. Dewey's
method would do for melancholy illusions and tired-out stomachs
and nerves. I then went to friends, and, in entire ignorance of
my parents, began under directions of Mr. Ritter the most
natural, sensible, and cheapest of all cures. I began my fast on
Oct. 3, and broke the same on Nov. 16. During the first week of
my fast I was in bed; during the second (excepting the eleventh
day, when I took my first walk of seven-eighths of a mile) I was
in bed, in rocker, reading, etc. On the twentieth day, after a
drive of three hours, went to church, walking two and
one-sixteenth miles. I then stayed indoors again on the
twenty-first and twenty-second days, and then started taking
daily walks (weather permitting). I went out walking
twenty-three out of the forty-five days of my fast, and during
that time walked one hundred and twelve miles. This was besides
the carriage-drives, Exposition, and evening gatherings (walking
to same included). I did not in the least feel tired or weak,
but happier and brighter each day of the fast, as I could feel
the effects of a new life throughout my whole body. My mind also
became clearer and dizziness became a thing of the past. This
was indeed _joy supreme to me_, and life became once more a joy
instead of a burden. Sunshine, trees, flowers, etc., again made
an impression, and my parents, sisters, and friends are rejoiced
to see me in my happy normal state of health.
"'I have gone through a year of unspeakable torture brought on
by overwork and _human-wise professors_; but at last, through
the wonderful teachings Dr. Dewey has given to mankind, and
through a friend, who was able to preach the "New Gospel of
Health," am now well, strong, and happy. May God only help and
bless the many sufferers throughout the world (especially in the
asylums) with the rays of this Gospel. I have been saved, no
doubt, from a gloomy future, and may such be the realization of
many more unfortunate souls is the sincere wish through
experience of
"'Yours very sincerely,
"'ESTELLA F. KUENZEL.'"
This case was summed up in the Philadelphia _Public Ledger_ of Dec. 25,
1899, whose columns are guarded with unsurpassed care, as follows:
"One of those cases which a judicious editor ponders in no
little perplexity is that of a young lady who was taken out of
an insane hospital and subjected to a protracted fast, without
medical supervision, and with results that appear to have been
quite successful. On the one hand, there is the benefit that may
be derived by having the attention of the profession called to
the subject, with possibly good results; on the other hand,
there is the danger of having a lot of ignorant or impulsive
people risking their lives by starving themselves for this or
that real or fancied disease, forgetting the adage that a little
knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially in therapeutics.
"The mind of the young lady referred to became affected about a
year ago, and after what was regarded by her parents as an
unprofitable period of treatment for two and a half months in a
hospital for the insane she has been apparently cured by
fasting--some would call it starvation. The case has been
attracting attention and discussion lately in a growing circle
that has included a few physicians.
"The subject is a Miss K., aged twenty-two years. Henry Ritter,
who has charge of the Photography Department of the Drexel
Institute, and who is better acquainted with the matter than any
one else, furnished a _Ledger_ reporter with the particulars as
they are here given, the name and address of the young lady, for
obvious reasons, being omitted. Mr. Ritter was at first loath to
have any publicity given the case, but felt upon reflection that
the results were properly a subject matter for inquiry by
physicians, at least, not to speak of others who may be
interested.
"Miss K., by the advice of specialists who had treated her at
home, was put under treatment for melancholy in an institution
for the insane. Mr. Ritter, being an intimate friend of the
family, visited her, and, he says, found her retrograding. She
was receiving three meals a day, with two luncheons between
them. Having built up his own digestive powers by following the
tenets laid down by Dr. Dewey, a Crawford county physician, he
had become a student and advocate of the latter's theory,
briefly stated, that no food should be given to a patient except
in response to a natural call or appetite for it. Believing that
no improvement could result from the course Miss K. was
receiving in the hospital, he prevailed upon her parents to
permit him to have her placed in the home of a friend, and
suggested the fasting process. This was the more readily done as
the physicians in whose care she had been advised her parents to
leave their daughter as much as possible among strangers.
"This young lady, according to Mr. Ritter, was absolutely
without food for forty-five days, beginning October 3 and ending
November 16. He says he did not fear, as others did, that she
would starve, as the authority he depended on had never fed a
sick patient during a practice covering twenty-two years, no
matter how protracted the case might have been, and claimed to
have had only the best results. 'This,' said Mr. Ritter, 'is on
the theory that, since all bodily energy is the result of the
brain, by abstaining from feeding in the absence of appetite
there is all the energy of cure undiverted by needless waste in
the stomach. Feeding the sick, this physician contends, is a tax
on their vital power, adding indigestion to whatever other
troubles exist: because the brain has the power in sickness to
absorb nourishment from the body, as predigested food, so that
it never loses weight, even in death from starvation.'
"The patient herself became interested, Mr. Ritter says, and
evidenced great relief from abstinence from enforced periodic
feeding. Gradually a numb feeling of which she had complained as
affecting her internal organs, and which had been ascribed to
her illusions, left her, and she appeared to gain daily in
strength and brightness. Mr. Ritter's narrative proceeds:
"'On the eleventh day of her fast a walk was suggested, and she
covered about seven-eighths of a mile; on the twentieth day she
was taken for a carriage drive of three hours in the afternoon,
and in the evening she walked to church and back, a distance of
something more than two miles. From the twenty-third day she
took walks daily, excepting on October 31 and November 3, when
rain prevented. She visited friends and the theatre and the
Exposition, went to church several times, to the hospital where
she had been a patient--this on the thirty-fifth day of her
fast--and to the Drexel Institute on the thirty-ninth and
forty-second days. A table of dates shows that she walked from
two or three to six and eight and as high as nine miles a day
during the period of forty-five days that she abstained from
food, with a general increase of strength and cheer and no sign
of fatigue. Hunger sensations were marked on the forty-fourth
day and night, and on the morning of the forty-fifth day Miss K.
broke the fast by eating a poached egg and two slices of
buttered whole wheat toasted bread.
"'During her fast she was seen by seven physicians and medical
professors, President MacAlister and professors of the Drexel
Institute, and many others.'
"The young lady's weight at the beginning of the fast, Mr.
Ritter says, was one hundred and forty pounds, and just after
the meal with which she broke the fast she weighed one hundred
and twenty pounds. By December 15 she had regained nine pounds,
meanwhile eating one meal daily and sometimes two, with an
occasional light luncheon.
"Dr. Chase, medical director of the institution above referred
to, was visited on Saturday by a _Ledger_ reporter in regard to
the case of Miss K. He had been informed of her long fast and
of its results, and had seen Miss K. herself when she called at
the asylum on the thirty-fifth day of the fast. He said that
when she was first brought to the asylum she was suffering from
melancholia, and was put under the treatment which all the
leading alienists had found most beneficial for persons
suffering from nervous disorders, viz., quiet, rest of mind and
body, and full, nourishing diet, carefully selected to produce
the best results. During the time she remained at the asylum she
improved both in bodily and mental health.
"Referring to the treatment she had received under Mr. Ritter's
supervision since leaving the asylum, Dr. Chase said he had
first heard of the system through a work published two years ago
by Dr. George S. Keith, of London, from which he first learned
of Dr. Dewey, who also uses the fasting cure. In all the cases
cited by Dr. Keith none had been afflicted with any mental
disorder. He looked upon the cases, however, as showing some
remarkable results, warranting a careful study. But it would not
do to adopt such a system without a most thorough examination.
As 'one swallow does not make a summer,' neither will one case
nor half a dozen cases cured by such a method prove anything. No
universal method can be adopted for treating disease. Hardly two
cases are alike. Cures also may be brought about in different
ways if the exact condition of the patient is understood.
"'Mr. Ritter says the patient lent herself very willingly to the
treatment, which was a great deal to start out with in her case.
But I am surprised that a young man with no medical knowledge
would do a thing like that. The treatment might easily have
resulted differently. If he had been a doctor, he would have had
that fact to sustain him in case he got into trouble. The case
might very well have resulted fatally, because the treatment was
so contrary to what would naturally be pursued by physicians in
nervous cases.
"'I do not ridicule the system. There have been cases which were
cured by ways not recognized by the general practitioner after
they had been given up. I am a firm believer that in selected
cases the fasting method would be efficacious, but I do not
believe in its general application.
"'Mr. Ritter is evidently an enthusiast, and apt to overstate
the points in favor of the method, neglecting those which tell
against it. It is too early yet to say what the outcome of Miss
K.'s case will be. I think the matter ought to be looked into
more fully. Mr. Ritter could not have been with the patient at
all times. It is a remarkable thing that she should have kept up
and had the strength reported, unless she had some food. He may
have been deceived in that.'"
During several months since the fast there have been the best physical
_health_ and mental condition, the weight having increased several
pounds above the former average.
Mr. Ritter conducted this case in a blaze of publicity. He showed it to
no less than seven physicians, some of whom were college professors, and
one of them at near the close of the fast suggested that if food were
not soon taken a sudden collapse would be the result. There seemed to
have been less danger of this calamity on the forty-fourth day than on
any other.
The reliability of the fast was so clearly evident that the leading
papers of the city accepted it as authentic news and of the most
startling kind. _The Times_ gave several columns of its first page to an
illustrated article.[1]
The accompanying illustration shows Miss Kuenzel on the
forty-first day of her fast. She walked seven miles on this day
without any signs of fatigue.
[Illustration: Copyrighted 1900, by Henry Ritter.
MISS ESTELLA F. KUENZEL,
FORTY-FIRST DAY OF FAST.]
The following table of miles walked were measured from exact diary notes
with bicycle and cyclometer after the fast was broken. The table gives
the total sum of each day, walks being taken both afternoon and evenings
of same day.
Date. Miles.
October 3
" 4
" 5
" 6
" 7
" 8
" 9
" 10
" 11
" 12
" 13 7/8
" 14
" 15
" 16
" 17
" 18
" 19
" 20
" 21
" 22 2-1/16
" 23
" 24
" 25 3
" 26 6-5/8
" 27 5-7/8
" 28 4-1/2
" 29 4-1/8
" 30 5-5/8
" 31, rain
November 1 6-3/4
" 2 8
" 3 rain
" 4 9
" 5 6
" 6 3-3/4
" 7 1-1/2
" 8 7-1/4
" 9 7
" 10 4-1/4
" 11 2-5/8
" 12 7
" 13 2-1/4
" 14 3-1/4
" 15 5
" 16 5-3/4
--------
112-1/16
The next fast, under the care of Mr. Ritter, still holds the record as
being the most remarkable for its number of days and the miracle of
results. The following account of it appeared in the _North American_,
one of whose editors had personal knowledge of its history:
"Leonard Thress, of 2618 Frankford Avenue, has learned how to
live without eating. By physical experience he has proved not
only that food is not a daily necessity of the human system, but
that abstinence therefrom for protracted periods is beneficial.
Indeed, it saved his life. He has just finished a fifty days'
fast. When he began it he was on the brink of the grave and his
physicians had abandoned hope. When he ended it he was in better
health than he had enjoyed for years, although in the meantime
he had lost seventy-six pounds, falling away from two hundred
and nine to one hundred and thirty-three pounds.
"Thress, who is about fifty-seven years old, was attending the
Grand Army Encampment at Buffalo in the fall of 1898, when he
caught a violent cold, which settled in his bronchial tubes. It
proved so stubborn that his general health became affected, and
a year later dropsy developed. His condition grew steadily
worse, and at Christmas time, 1899, it was such that he could
neither walk nor lie prostrate, but was compelled to sit
constantly in an armchair. His doctors exhausted their skill in
the effort to bring relief, and eventually, in the early part of
last January, they told him that their medicines refused to act,
and that his death was a question of only a few days.
"Up to this time Thress had been subsisting on the meagre diet
permitted to a man in his condition, but his stomach rebelled
even at that. He had heard of the Dewey fasting cure and its
boasted efficacy against all human ills, and, though he had
little faith, death was already looming before him, and he knew
that he could lose nothing by the experiment.
"He began to fast on January 11 by taking in the morning a
portion of Henzel's preparation of salts in a glass of water and
the juice of two oranges, and in the evening a hot lemonade. For
twenty-five days he also drank a teaspoonful of a tonic
consisting chiefly of iron, but the rest of the diet he
continued until two weeks ago, when he discontinued the salts
and orange juice and confined himself to a hot lemonade at
morning and evening. This was his only sustenance until last
Thursday.
"According to Thress's own recital, the effects of this course
of treatment were amazing. He says that the natural craving for
food was gone after the first day. Three days later he had
regained so much strength that he was able to go upstairs to
bed and enjoyed a good night's sleep. From that time on,
although he steadily lost in weight, his vitality grew greater,
and on January 22 he left the house and took a half-mile walk.
"Before three weeks of his fast had elapsed his dropsy had
disappeared, and thereafter he took almost daily walks,
increasing the distance with his strength. Some days he covered
as many as five miles, and never less than two, even while he
was growing thinner and thinner, as the accompanying table
shows.
"For the first time since the beginning of his fast he became
hungry last Thursday, March 1, and he felt that he should like
some pigs' feet jelly. It is one of the prescriptions of the
fasting cure that when hunger finally comes the patient shall
eat whatever he craves, so Thress consumed two slices of the
jelly and one piece of gluten bread, with butter. He says he
enjoyed it and felt well afterward.
"He ate no more that day, but at noon yesterday he became hungry
again, and this time his appetite was for something more
substantial. He disposed of a dish of mashed potatoes, some red
cabbage, another portion of pigs' feet jelly, apple sauce, and a
cream puff for dessert. He even smoked a cigar after the meal,
enjoyed it, and felt still better. He says he will eat no
regular meals, but only when he becomes hungry.
"While he looks haggard and worn from the loss of flesh, Thress
declares that all his ailments have left him and that he never
felt healthier and heartier in his life."
* * * * *
"The following table shows how Thress grew stronger and walked
miles while he was constantly losing weight from a fifty-days'
fast:
Weight.
January 11 209
" 12 207
" 13 205
" 14 202
" 15 201
" 16 200
" 17 199
" 18 196
" 19 192
" 20 190
" 21 188
" 22 186 Walked 1/2 mile.
" 23 180 " 2 miles.
" 24 177 " 2 "
" 25 172 " 3 "
" 26 167 " 3 "
" 27 165 " 3 "
" 28 162 " 2-1/2 "
" 29 160 " 3 "
" 30 157
" 31 155 " 3 "
February 1 154
" 2 153
" 3 152 " 3 "
" 4 151
" 5 149 " 3 "
" 6 147 " 3 "
" 7 146 " 3 "
" 8 145
" 9 145 " 4 "
" 10 145 " 4 "
" 11 145
" 12 145 " 4 "
" 13 145
" 14 145 " 3 "
" 15 144 " 2 "
" 16 142
" 17 140
" 18 140
" 19 140
" 20 138 " 2 "
" 21 137 " 4 "
" 22 135 Walked 3 miles.
" 23 135 " 3 "
" 24 135
" 25 135
" 26 135
" 27 133 " 2 "
" 28 133
March 1 133
A. H. Potts, Editor of the _Chester County Times_, a man who has the
largest faith in eating only to restore the wastes of the body, thus
gives vent to his emotions after seeing the case by invitation of Mr.
Ritter: