A hibernating bear never soils his den with urine or ordure, for no waste is formed, consequently none is voided. But, after the period of winter sleep is over, the animal feeds ravenously upon young clover and grass, and extreme purging results, with succeeding rapid reduction of the fatty tissue formed as described while coma lasted.

A certain degree of cold is necessary before a bear can hibernate, but, in so far as may be ascertained, body temperature remains at standard during the experience. That is, the animal is warm to the touch, although it is in a state of constant shivering. Analogy is again evident between this condition and what is termed herein "fasters' chilliness."

Omitting from consideration mental conditions, such as fear and worry, which of necessity react upon the physical body, and setting aside severe and more or less continuous physical suffering, the average human being cannot die from lack of food for several months. This statement of fact is verified constantly in the employment of fasting as a therapeutic measure, and it has recently been brought to public attention and conclusively substantiated in instances to which reference is now made.

It would appear that the medical profession in whole or in greater part has been egregiously in ignorance of the resources of the human body when for any cause it is denied nourishment. The various encyclopedias, notably Britannica, until revisions were made in 1921, carried articles on inanition and fasting, which asserted over medical signature that from ten to fourteen days marked the extreme limit to which the human body would endure in the absence of food. In other words, starvation and death would occur were nourishment denied for approximately the period of time named. While doubt may have existed in the minds of the more advanced among the medical fraternity, revision of these articles was definitely occasioned only by the comparatively recent "hunger strike" of Terence McSwiney, former Lord Mayor of Cork, Ireland, and of several of his political colleagues.

The charge upon which Lord Mayor McSwiney was convicted, and for which he was sentenced to two years in Brixton prison, England, was that of sedition against British government. He began to serve his sentence in August, 1920, and upon his incarceration, in protest against what he considered an unjust trial and conviction, he refused to eat. In spite of constant persuasion and attempts at forced feeding, McSwiney's fasting continued until October 25th, 1920, a period of seventy-four days, when his death occurred. McSwiney was quite cognizant of the details of the method of fasting for the cure of disease, and in so far as was possible in prison surroundings, he made use of the hygienic accessories that are described herein. His familiarity with the writings of the author of this text accounted for the knowledge that permitted him to continue his fast without succumbing for two and one-half months. McSwiney might, and, in the opinion of the writer, would have lived longer had it not been that, in the latter days of his life, he became too weak to prevent efforts on the part of the jail physician to force food upon him, and, when he lapsed into unconsciousness because of strength overstrained and nerves tensed beyond limit through resistance, strychnine was injected into his veins as a heart stimulant, and he died.

Of McSwiney's political colleagues, also imprisoned and also on "hunger strike," one died after sixty-eight days of fasting, while the others all endured until McSwiney's death and after. It is reported that one of these men continued his fast for the extremely lengthy period of ninety days. And it is to be noted that, with the exception of that seditionist who succumbed at the end of sixty-eight days, all of the others, who fasted much longer than McSwiney himself, resumed feeding and rapidly recuperated to a condition of body ultimately superior to that which was theirs before they undertook their "hunger strike."

Earlier in the text cases were cited that underwent abstinence from food for periods ranging from eleven to seventy-five days. And it is to be remembered that these cases resorted to the method because they were ill, and that some of them were in an extreme state of emaciation to begin with. Yet, although no food was ingested, life was supported, functional processes were restored, and recovery resulted.

In one instance, a patient of the writer during a period of 140 days fasted absolutely 118 days. This case was bedridden, and had been so for years; the body was emaciated, and chronic functional disease and confinement to bed had caused progressive wasting of the muscles. Yet, as a consequence of the bodily purification resulting from abstinence from food, not only was great relief experienced, but recovery, save in minor degree, the aftermath of muscular non-use, occurred.

If, then, the body can exist without food for an extended time, and, if in illness the stomach instinctively objects, as it does, to ingestion, it is reasonable to infer that food not desired is not at this time necessary for bodily maintenance; and, once accepted as true, this inference is abundantly justified. The results of a practical and scientific application of the method of systemic purification defined herein are such as to lead to the conclusion that, in the absence of serious structural defects in vital organs, abstinence from food, accompanied by its natural health-restoring and health-preserving accessories, is the unfailing remedy for relief from functional ills.