Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/303

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sixteenth, and seventeenth days the patient lay in a semi-conscious state, but revived on the morning of the eighteenth, when the bowel passages were almost normal in color. Rapid return to consciousness occurred, and increased strength marked all succeeding days until the twenty-second, when the fast was broken upon fruit juices, and convalescence thereafter proceeded without interruption.

The loss in weight in this case was 22 pounds. Temperature and pulse were continually above individual normal until the latter part of the fast, the former ranging between 95 and 99, and the latter from 80 to 110, although a decided drop in each was observed after the administration of an enema. No return of the nausea of pregnancy occurred after breaking the fast, and thereafter the general health of the patient was excellent. At term an eight-pound child was delivered, perfectly developed and vigorously healthy.

On the fifteenth day of this fast, in view of the gravity of the situation, a consultation was held with a former medical adviser. The latter advocated, as the only means of saving the life of the mother, the immediate removal