of those two men in its fatal grasp; their stomachs were full of food
when they were already tired out by their long trip that was nearly at
its close, and for them those untimely meals were the last.
Of all men who ought to work with empty stomachs for the sake of the
best possible reach of the memory it is the railroad engineer and
conductor; so also every man who is in any way responsible for the
safety of the trains. If we had the history of all the derailments,
collisions, of cars with human freight converted into funeral pyres, a
frightful percentage of them could be traced to where "some one had
blundered" because of the torpor from handling meals when the brain was
compelled to higher services. Digestive, indigestive torpor is also
torpor of the sense of _responsibility_.
In the city where I live is the point between two divisions of the Erie
Railroad, each somewhat more than a hundred miles long. Before I began
the agitation of the No-breakfast Plan all trainmen felt that filling
their stomachs was the last duty before entering upon their taxing
trips, and tired wives would have to get up at all times of the night to
prepare general meals. In this city a mighty revolution for the good of
wives, for the good of men themselves, and for the safety of the trains
and the hapless passengers has been going on for some years.
In former times when these men came home from their rounds generally
tired out, and with a feeling that in proportion to the sense of
exhaustion was the need to eat, general meals had to be prepared at any
time of night. All this is changed in a large measure. Trainmen have
been finding out that the less food in their stomachs they take into bed
with them and on to their trains, the better it is for them in every
way.
More and more they are getting into the way of having a general meal
when they can eat it with leisure and leisurely digest it; and I predict
that a time will come when all who are in any way responsible for the
running of trains will have to know how to take care of their stomachs,
in order that they shall attain and maintain the highest efficiency for
services where human lives so much depend on the best there is in
memory, reason, and judgment. This will be a part of their preparatory
education.
The "block system" has wonderfully added to the safety of the trains,
but there should be a block system added to the stomachs of the
dispatchers and all whose duties are so grave as the handling of human
freight. There is no division so long that it cannot be doubled with
less fatigue and better mental condition if the stomach be not on duty
at the same time. In this I speak with the authority that comes from the
study of the experiences of trainmen during many years: with one accord
they speak of their trips as taken with clearer heads and stronger
muscles than when large meals were thought a necessity while on duty.
With an empty stomach it takes a very long time to get into such
torpor--drowsiness--as compels the after-dinner sleep. That engineer who
once told me of such sleepiness as made him nod while on duty was not
suffering from either lack of sleep or overwork of his body: it was
simply a case of the torpor of indigestion, and this was when there was
no block system to lessen the danger of such services.
There is a great deal of imperfection in what man does for man that
comes from the indifference arising from the torpor of untimely food,
and far more than there is any conception in what man does against man
from the destruction of power in this way.
There is now one of the Erie conductors who five years ago was losing
at least half of his time from asthma; there is another who was equally
disabled from sudden head symptoms that would immediately disable. These
men have lost no trips since they began to run their stomachs with the
same care as their trains. And there is an engineer whose trips to the
physician and to the drug-store for many years were as frequent as those
to his engine. There has since been a half dozen years of wiser care of
his stomach, and his wife says that the change for the better in his
disposition is beyond description. These men have rendered far more
service, and who cannot see that these services have been of far higher
character for the company, and that they have been infinitely better
husbands, fathers, and citizens?
The following case will interest trainmen: D. S., a brakeman, reached
the burden of two hundred and forty-six pounds, with resulting
breathlessness and other ailings that taxed all his resources to perform
his duties. He was induced to cut down his daily food as the only means
for relief, and to add to his strength. It took him a long time to
master the fact that his strength was not kept up by food, but the
gradual loss of weight with the general improvement made this more and
more evident. He finally reached a time when he was able to make his
round trip of one hundred and ninety-six miles without a morsel of food
the while, and with much less fatigue than when there was a midnight
meal from a lunch-pail. Within a year the weight has gone down to one
hundred and eighty-eight pounds. To my professional eye there is beauty
in the bright eyes, in the condensed, smooth face, in the body enfolded
with clothes that flap in the breeze like the sails of a ship. No
accident will happen to precious human freight through his brain kept
free from digestive torpor while on duty.
Ever since my book has been out I have been in more or less trouble with
cases that badly needed my personal care, and not few in which death was
inevitable. For instance, there is a woman in Illinois who has been
ailing for years, and in spite of the No-breakfast Plan has had to take
to her bed with acute aversion to food. Medical art had utterly failed
before she changed her dietary methods.
Her dietary views are known, and so she is held in severe censure
because the sick stomach is not compelled to a futile service; and
though I am informed of an enlargement in the region of the bowels that
has been perceptible and tender for years, her death will be considered
suicidal from _starvation_.
A Warrensburg, Ill., editor began his fast by throwing up his food and
continued it to the end; yet because he had talked about a fast it was
supposed to be a case of suicide of the stupid kind; and though the
post-mortem revealed a diseased gall-bladder, the doctors who made it
did nothing to lessen the suicidal impression, and the death from
"starvation" appeared under large headlines in the public prints.
When men as learned, able, and eminent as Dr. Shrady, of New York, go
into print to inform the public that people may starve to death in ten
days, and when such men as Prof. Wood, of the University of
Pennsylvania, do not see any starvation in the wasting pounds of acute
disease, the care of acute sickness as Nature would have it is a grave
matter for the physician.
In five fatal cases under my care in which there was no possibility of
feeding, there was such agitation over the question of starvation as
would have subjected me to violence had my city been nearer the equator.
In all these cases I was compelled to have a post-mortem to silence
heathen raging. In one case in which a young man had died after weeks of
inability to take food, even one of my medical brethren carried the
conviction with him for years, and without seeking to inform himself,
that there was a death from starvation. In this case there were spells
of hunger in a fury, when meals would be taken, only to be soon thrown
up, and he finally took to his bed to starve slowly to death. There was
mind enough left to make a will, though the body had lost apparently
more than half the normal weight; the post-mortem revealed a stomach
seared, thickened, and not more than a third of the normal size.
The physiology of fasting in time of sickness is so entirely new to the
medical world that every death that occurs with those who practise it is
certain to be attributed to starving.
Early in this year (1900) a woman of seventy, in high circles, died from
an obscure stomach trouble. For thirty-eight days there averaged nearly
a half-dozen spells of vomiting; and yet it was generally believed that
it was clearly a case of death from starvation, believed by those whose
power to receive impressions is far stronger than their power to
consider.
Fasting, because it is Nature's plan, will win the victory in all cases
in which victory is possible; and yet wherever it is adopted, to become
known about, there will be the same confusion of tongues as would be
were violent hands laid upon gods of wood and stone in heathen temples.
"Starved to death" is the verdict.
Fasting during sickness, because of the vast utility and from the
impetus arising from the cases in Philadelphia, is bound to spread as by
contagion; but when death occurs, all friends involved will be charged
as abettors of homicide. To be fair to the opposition, and to let all
readers know what chances for public censure will be theirs, whenever
they see fit to let their friends recover on Nature's plan or die
natural deaths, the following case is given. I quote from the
Philadelphia _Press_ of May 7, 1900:
"In the death notices of April 26 appeared the name of Mrs.
Hermina Meyer, fifty years of age, of 1233 North Howard Street.
At the time this short and simple record of the passing away of
an ordinary, obscure woman attracted no more attention than the
hundred similar names that constituted the necrological annals
of April 25. But there is a startling aftermath that at once
gives significance to this brief record, and rude and bitter
awakening to the followers of the so-called 'Starvation Cult,'
that has gained a considerable acceptance in the northeast
section of the city.
"Mrs. Meyer was a believer in the fasting treatment. She was
apparently a victim of this strange and heretical therapeutical
faith. Kensington is buzzing with gossip concerning the
deplorable death of the unfortunate woman. C. F. Meyer, the
husband of the victim, accepts the death of his wife as due to
heart-failure, and apparently is not disposed to complain.
"Mr. Meyer talked freely with a _Press_ reporter yesterday
concerning the sickness and death of his wife. He said that Mrs.
Meyer had been ill for about a year, her malady having been
diagnosed as chronic rheumatism. She had been treated by the
family physician for this disease, but without relief. In
despair she turned to the fasting treatment.
"From time to time she had read of the remarkable cures claimed
to have been effected by complete abstention from food. Through
a friend she met and talked with the family of Leonard Thress,
of 2618 Frankford Avenue, whose case is proclaimed as one of the
most remarkable that had been successfully treated by the
fasting system. Thress was widely advertised as a victim of
dropsy, who, after a complete fast of more than a month, was
restored to sound health.
"Mrs. Meyer believed, and sent for Henry Ritter, the chief
advocate and adviser of the fasting cult in Philadelphia. His
belief in the weird treatment of disease he has adopted is
seemingly unshakable.
"Ritter has superintended many cases of starvation treatment,
wherein, according to his own statements, the patients have
totally abstained from actual food for periods of from four to
six weeks. He claims that in every case the afflicted person has
completely recovered health--with the single exception of Mrs.
Meyer.
"In response to her request, Ritter called upon Mrs. Meyer. She
at once began her fast. Nothing was allowed to pass her lips but
a small quantity of tonicum and some physiological salts,
dissolved in water. Of each of these she was permitted to take
sparingly every day. It is claimed by Ritter, a fact well-known
to physiologists, that there is no actual food in either of
these thin condiments. They are simply stimulants. These
liquids, according to Ritter, are the only things given to any
of the patients whose cases he has supervised.
"For twenty-five days, so says Mr. Meyer, his wife fasted and
improved. At the expiration of that time, he says, her health
was very much improved. She was able to walk about her room, a
thing she had not been able to do for many weeks. Then there was
a sudden and violent change for the worse. The patient was
seized with convulsive vomiting.
"For sixteen days she suffered the excruciating pains of these
convulsions. But, under Ritter's advice, Mrs. Meyer continued
her fast. Till the thirty-fifth day she tasted no food. The
vomiting continued unabated. On the thirty-sixth day she felt a
craving for food for the first time since her long fast began.
She was given oatmeal porridge. But the vomiting continued
unabated.
"She grew weaker and weaker. From one hundred and fifty pounds
weight she was reduced to a gaunt skeleton. When, upon the
resumption of a food diet, the vomiting did not cease, the
family was alarmed. The family physician was sent for in dismay.
But he could do nothing. Flesh-building foods were prescribed,
but they accomplished nothing. The vomiting continued, and three
weeks following the breaking of the fast Mrs. Meyer died.
"The death was put down to a depleted blood-supply, or
heart-failure. Ritter claimed that this unexpected turn could
not have been anticipated, as the fact that the patient was
subject to heart disease was previously unknown.
"He had treated her for rheumatism, and the cure was apparently
in sight when heart-failure carried the patient to her grave.
"These facts were detailed by Mr. Meyer. He added that Mr.
Ritter was not a physician; that he charged no fees; that he did
not claim to prescribe remedies, but only advised.
"So ends the case of Mrs. Hermina Meyers, first victim of the
starvation cult."
The following is from the _Press_ of May 8:
"The death of Mrs. Hermina Meyer, after undergoing the fasting
treatment for thirty-five days, has not at all shaken the faith
of the adviser responsible for the ordeal, Henry Ritter, who
claims to have restored tireless persons to health. He affirmed
that the ravages of chronic disease had progressed too far for
his treatment to conquer them, and that his attendance was
advised by the family physician.
"Against this comforting declaration, however, stands the fact
that the certificate of death, signed by Dr. James Chestnut,
Jr., gave as the cause prolonged abstinence from food; in other
words, _starvation_. Dr. Chestnut also has stated that the case
was taken out of his hands, and Ritter installed as medical
adviser, by what was virtually a dismissal. Dr. Chestnut was
summoned again when the condition of the woman became critical,
after twenty-five days of fasting, but she became rapidly weaker
with violent convulsions and vomiting, and was beyond medical
aid.
"She had never been treated for cancer of the stomach, which
Ritter says he thinks she may have had, although she had a
valvular affection of the heart which had existed for some time.
But the fact that the cause of her death was officially attested
by the family physician as due to her long fast contradicts
flatly the position taken by the self-constituted healer, who
made the following statement last night:
"'I have seen all the members of Mrs. Meyer's family to-day, and
they are entirely satisfied that my treatment was in no way
responsible for her death. I was called in at their urgent
request, as their own relatives were numbered among the cures to
the credit of the fasting treatment, as well as Mr. Thress. I
accept no money for my work; they knew it was a labor of love,
and the family physician, Dr. Chestnut, agreed with them as to
the advisability of this system which they had seen tested.
"'Mrs. Meyer improved rapidly for a time, her chronic rheumatism
causing her less trouble than in years, after the first three
weeks of fasting. She had been treated previously for catarrh of
the stomach, and it is probable that a cancer afflicted her. I
am using no new system. The method has been used with very
notable success by Dr. Edward H. Dewey, of Meadville, whose
reputation and standing are distinguished. This is the first
case I have lost out of twelve patients who had been given up as
hopeless by regular physicians. It is Nature's cure, nothing
more; but it was applied too late in the case of Mrs. Meyer.'
"Dr. Chestnut would not allow himself to be quoted because of
the rigid rules of medical ethics. It may be stated, however, in
addition to what has been said, that he does not wish to be
considered as having encouraged the experiment, and that the
death certificate defined his view of the responsibility."
A verdict on the part of the doctor _without a post-mortem_.
Against the doctor is the following, from the daughter, Miss Kate Meyer.
I quote from an article in the _North American_ of May 8, 1900:
"Mrs. Hermina Meyer, devotee of an odd cult, that regards
starvation as a sure cure for all bodily ills, fasted for nearly
forty days because she was suffering from rheumatism.
"The rheumatism disappeared.
"But after twenty-five days of total abstinence from food she
sickened. Violent nausea came to her. She died.
"Nevertheless, Miss Kate Meyer, daughter of the dead woman,
says:
"'My mother did not die because she fasted. The fasting did her
good. When she began it she had been ill with rheumatism for
more than a year. She could hardly walk. Her left arm was
powerless. She could not lift it from her side. After two weeks
of fasting she was active. She could walk. The power came back
to her arm. She suffered little pain. She looked well. Then came
the attacks of nausea.
"'But Dr. Chestnut, who is our family physician, was attending
mother all the time. He called once a week. He said himself that
the fast cure seemed to be doing mother good. When she got
nausea he did not lay it to her fasting. He said it was heart
trouble. That's what mother died of. Dr. Chestnut said so.
"'Do you remember the case of Leonard Thress? He cured himself
of dropsy by fasting. Mother heard of it. She was introduced to
Mr. Thress. He told her that all he knew of the fast cure he had
learned from Henry Ritter. Mother sent and asked Mr. Ritter
about the cure. Then she began it. Mr. Ritter never charged
mother for anything. Dr. Chestnut consented that mother should
try the Ritter cure.'
"Mrs. Meyer was the wife of Charles F. Meyer, of 1233 North
Howard Street. Meyer, like his daughter, has only friendliness
for Ritter, and also favors the fast cure. Mrs. Meyer, past
middle age, had been sorely tried by her ailment. For more than
a year Dr. Chestnut attended her, but her condition did not
improve. Prescription after prescription was tested, only to
fail.
"'There is little hope for me,' said the woman to her daughter.
'I'm tired of taking medicines. They do me no good.'
"She became more melancholy as the days passed. She regarded her
case as hopeless. Dr. Chestnut acknowledged defeat. He had only
a change of climate--a long stay in Colorado--to recommend. A
very domestic woman was Mrs. Meyer. She looked with horror upon
a journey. She said she would remain at home and die.
"But one day last March there gathered at a banquet in the home
of Leonard Thress about a dozen persons, very happy, very
healthy (or believing themselves to be so), all members of the
'starvation cure' cult.
"Each had to tell the story of a long fast that brought a
remarkable cure. Newspapers gave publicity to the dinner of the
little band with the odd faith in fasting. Mrs. Meyer heard of
it. Here was a chance--a gleam of hope! She came to know Leonard
Thress, and, through him, Henry Ritter, the apostle of the fast
cure. He told her of remarkable recoveries. She caught his
enthusiasm.
"But, according to Mr. Meyer, the young man was careful first
that the family physician should consent. He never hinted at
compensation for his services; never got it. Aside from advising
total abstinence from food, he supplied small quantities of
tonicum and salts dissolved in water. These contained no food
matter; they were merely stimulative.
"In two weeks hope was strong with Mrs. Meyer; with all the
family. Certainly, she was improving. She could walk; her arm
that had been stiff and painful moved with ease--hurt no more.
She still suffered occasional twinges, and decided to continue
her self-imposed starvation until every rheumatic germ in her
body was eradicated.
"She regarded herself as almost cured, when, after twenty-five
days, she was attacked with nausea. She was very ill. It lasted
sixteen days. After the first few days of fasting all desire for
food had vanished. But on the thirty-sixth day she was hungry.
"Oatmeal porridge was given her sparingly. The nausea, however,
did not cease. She began to grow alarmingly emaciated. She had
weighed one hundred and fifty pounds. Her weight had fallen to
one hundred.
"The family physician prescribed light food, but her stomach
repulsed it. She grew very weak.
"On April 26 she died. Dr. Chestnut unhesitatingly issued a
death certificate, ascribing her death to heart-failure. He also
suspected a cancer of the stomach, but was not sure.
"Mrs. Herman Reinhardt, a cousin of the deceased woman, is
firmly convinced that fasting had nothing to do with her death.
"'For more than fifteen years Mrs. Meyer suffered from some
acute stomach trouble,' Mrs. Reinhardt said yesterday, 'and it
is my belief that it caused her death. Her general health had
been greatly benefited by abstaining from all food, but the
disorder from which she suffered most could not be cured. My
husband fasted for twenty-five days and was completely cured of
stomach trouble, and there were no ill effects in his case.'"
The impression of this death and of these fasts upon the minds of the
medical profession was perhaps fairly summed up by the eminent Horatio
C. Wood, M. D., LL. D., Clinical Professor of Nervous Diseases in the
University of Pennsylvania. He disregarded the legal phase of the
question, the question of the legality of a layman dealing out words of
cheer and comfort in cases in which the medical profession had retired
in total defeat. The question had been seriously raised as to whether
Mr. Ritter had not committed a crime against the laws of Pennsylvania,
and for what? For simply advising these people to stop all eating until
there would come a natural desire for food!
Professor Wood thus gave utterance in the _Press_ of May 10:
"'These people are falsifying,' he said, 'There have been liars,
you know, and they are not all dead. I don't believe for an
instant such stories as fasting totally for forty or fifty days
and keeping up energy and activity. It is contrary to common
sense as well as to all we know about the human body. I don't
know the object of deception, but somebody must be making money
out of it, or having a craving for notoriety. It is
preposterous. I understand that one of these fasters walked ten
miles a day, after doing altogether without nourishment for a
month or so. If these persons did what they claim to have
undergone, more than one death would have been charged against
the treatment, you may be sure.
"'You will remember that the professional forty-day fasters,
Tanner and Suci, were reduced to mere skin and bone, were almost
helpless, carefully husbanded every bit of their vital energy,
and took no exercise. They were _watched_ and studied
scientifically. And here is a woman, weighing only one hundred
pounds when she started fasting, claims she began to eat after
thirty-eight days of starvation, and had more energy and took
more exercise than in years. It is all amazingly absurd,
whatever the motive may be.'"
Tanner and Suci, "skin and bones?" Cowen weighed one hundred and
seventy-five pounds when he began his forty-two day fast, and lost only
thirty pounds. My case of acute rheumatism revealed a loss of only
forty pounds after a forty-six days' fast; and the woman of fifty-seven
who began eating on the forty-third day was so well padded with muscle
and fat as not to reveal the slightest suggestion of starvation as she
sat down to the first meal. "Skin and bones?" This is a matter for
months, and not for days.
"Falsifiers, these fasters?" Science settles important questions by
investigation, not by epithet.
XVI.