Mr. L. F. Rader of Olalla, Wash., died at 12.15 P. M., May 11, 1910, at
123½ Broadway North, in the forty-seventh year of his age. Mr. Rader's
physical history is one of intermittent suffering. As the result of an
accident in childhood in which he was internally injured, his youth
and early manhood were filled with a succession of most acute attacks
of painful illness. About fifteen years ago he deserted the orthodox
means of treatment and turned to what is now known as the natural or
drugless method, with the consequence that he experienced the first
relief he had ever known. Three years ago he lay ill for three months,
and after again submitting to medical treatment he turned to the fast
and to me. In fourteen days he was up and about, and in a month he was
able to attend to his ordinary business. Since then he had no return
of acute symptoms until March 31 of this year, when, after unwonted
physical exercise and a heavy meal, he was seized with severe pains in
the intestines, which compelled him to take to his bed. His stomach
rejected food, and within a week the taking of water brought nausea. I
was then called to diagnose the case and to direct treatment. I made
the statement at that time to Mrs. Rader that there seemed but little
chance for his recovery, but tried the administration of fruit juices
and light broths.
The point was soon reached, however, when Mr. Rader refused any
sustenance, since it resulted only in nausea and excruciating pain.
In the meanwhile the patient came to Seattle, and went to the Hotel
Outlook with every symptom showing the relief that is the logical
sequence of removing food temporarily from a system struggling to
right abnormal conditions. Things progressed smoothly until meddlesome
outsiders interfered and caused the city health officials to take
cognizance of the fact that a man was "starving" in the hotel. Without
warrant Mr. Rader's rooms were entered, and he was confronted by
Drs. Bourns and Davidson, who endeavored to persuade him to return
to orthodoxy and to the care of the orthodox physicians. Mr. Rader's
indignant repudiation is of record, as is also the result of the
attempt to declare him insane.
In connection with the latter, after his removal to a quiet,
comfortable room in the upper part of the city, an order of the court,
obtained in some manner by the health officials, sent the humane
officers to the rescue, and the house was watched and guarded while the
faithful nurses prevented forcible entry attempted by these servants
of the people. The latter even went so far as to raise ladders to
the window of Mr. Rader's room, and with display of weapons tried to
force the catches in the vain effort to serve the writ which was their
excuse. To prevent their seeing the patient and to save him as much
as possible from the noisy disturbance, I carried him to the bath and
locked the door. I then climbed from one window to another across a
court into the next flat in order to call the attorney for the humane
society, who took the needful steps that eventually recalled the writ.
In the meanwhile Mr. Rader had suffered mentally to such an extent that
his life was despaired of for many hours, and he never fully recovered
from the nervous shock, which undoubtedly hastened his end. Until the
coming of these officers he was able to walk from his room to the bath,
but afterwards he continually begged to be protected from outsiders and
to be permitted to die, if need be, in peace.
When the death of a patient under my care occurs I am most anxious that
no stone should be left unturned to exhibit the cause. In this, my
seventh death in four years' practice in Seattle, I find my diagnosis
and prognosis completely corroborated. I was assisted in the autopsy by
two old-line physicians and by the deputy coroner. The results of the
post-mortem examination were as follows:
Mr. Rader's viscera showed the most abnormal characteristics it has
been my fortune to observe in years of post-mortem work. The lungs
were adherent at every point to the pleural cavity as well as to the
diaphragm in places. The heart in fair condition. Stomach dilated and
prolapsed. Gall bladder in three distinct pouches, any one of which was
the size of the normal sac, and two of these sections were filled with
126 gall stones of one grain to half an ounce in weight; the largest
was 3 inches in circumference one way and 4 inches the other way. The
small intestines collapsed to the pelvis and midway intussuscepted
so that a section of two measured yards occupied but five inches in
length; portions of these were of infantile development. The transverse
colon lay anterior to the descending colon throughout its extent,
while the ascending and descending colon showed infantile size and
cartilaginous structure. The sigmoid bend and rectum were of diameter
not larger than the adult thumb and in advanced cartilaginous state.
The kidneys fair; the liver enlarged and badly congested.
The conditions exhibited were such that the wonder in any mind
practised in the care of the human body lies in the thought that nature
was able to preserve under these handicaps this man's life until the
forty-seventh year. To me this is proof positive that "man does not
live by bread alone."
The facts given may easily be verified. Mr. Rader fasted because he
had to fast. He could not take food in any sort or in any manner, and
his death occurred because of organic disease beyond repair. He was
never without water and fruit juices; vegetable broths and prepared
foods were given whenever the occasion seemed to present itself, but
always with painful consequences. During the month of April he was
virtually fasting, although food was supplied as mentioned. It is not
at all remarkable in my work to have patients abstain from food for
thirty, forty, and fifty days, although by far the greater number do
not require this length of time.
Criticized as I have been for my methods, and realizing that the
combined efforts of the old schools are aimed at what it eventually
means, perhaps a definition may not prove amiss:
Starvation consists in denying food, either by accident or design, to a
system clamoring for sustenance.
Fasting consists in intentional abstinence from food by a system
non-desirous of sustenance until it is rested, cleansed, and ready for
the task of digestion. Food is then supplied.
The conduct of the health and humane officers in the Rader case is not
the first instance of their methods of procedure that it has been my
fate to experience. In the latter part of January, 1908, I had under my
care Mrs. D. D. Whedon, a young married woman in a critical state of
health, mother of one child and about to become the mother of another.
Officious neighbors complained to the authorities that the child was
being subjected to the fasting method and was slowly starving. Without
warrant these creatures of authority entered the apartments of Mrs.
Whedon, subjected her to a bodily examination against her will and
protests, took her child from her by force, and when her husband
attempted to regain possession of his daughter, they arrested him for
resisting an officer and had him placed in the city jail. I also was
charged at this time with practising medicine without a license, an
accusation that was quashed on appeal to the superior court.
I rather court an investigation of my work and its results, successful
and unsuccessful. Thus far the methods pursued by those antagonistic
have been the very ones that have succeeded in informing the world
at large that the work is here, that it progresses, else why the
furor? It is here to stay and to do what the truth eventually always
does--prevail.
The autopsies in each of the several deaths that have occurred in
my practice in the city of Seattle have exhibited organic disease,
the origin of which lay in the early years of life. In all of these
bodies arrested development of one or other of the vital organs
was in evidence, and in the majority the injured intestines showed
cartilaginous structure and deformation that must have required either
violent shock or continued functional disturbance to produce. In view
of the fact that these instances cover subjects who had endeavored to
follow orthodox methods until orthodoxy proved unavailing, and who then
turned to the fast and its accompaniments, I feel perfectly confident
in declaring that early drug treatment is responsible for later and
fatal disease. Nature had endowed each of these patients with strong
vitality; each of them had suffered from severe functional disorder in
infancy; each had been drug-drenched.
Broadly speaking, there is no drug that is not a poison, stimulating
or paralyzing in result, and in infancy the latter is doubly apparent
and appalling. It needs but the parallelism between the effect of
an application of a glass of brandy upon an infant and an adult to
emphasize this statement. Consider then the consequences of repeated
dosings for fevers, colic, colds, and the varied category of infantile
disease, and conceive the results upon tender, growing, human bodies.
Not one of us but has these sacred relics of the days of powdered
dried toads and desiccated cow manure to blame for organs arrested in
development or functionally ruined.
The principle embodied in the intelligent application of fasting for
the cure of disease is not to be crushed by vilification. The knowledge
of it, thanks to strenuous attacks by the medical profession, has
been distributed gratis throughout the English-speaking world; and my
own part in the work of propaganda has been made more than easy by
opposition displayed. I believe that I have a cause to defend, a truth
to uphold, a principle for which, if need be, I shall die fighting.