When headaches occur with other symptoms, they are of course due to sudden release of toxic matter, are commonly located in the frontal portion of the brain, and are coincident with the prior stages of abstinence, when the system is accommodating itself to the physiological change of habit then in progress. As purification proceeds, headaches vanish, and in purely functional disturbances the brain experiences more rapid relief than do the organs of the trunk. Connected with headache, in severe functional derangement and when there is organic deficiency, are visual spectra, fiashes of white or colored light. And in the graver forms of organic disease a muscular tremor, accompanied with a rotary motion of the eyeball, or even with crossed eyes and faulty vision, sometimes takes place. The latter peculiar variation in symptom has been observed shortly before death, and in extreme form it would seem to indicate approaching dissolution.

Again, partial deafness with humming in the ears is apt to befall. This may ordinarily be relieved locally by careful and constant springing of the inner ears with hot water, assisted by proper manipulation with the tips of the index fingers. This procedure will usually disclose collections of wax, after the removal of which the symptoms disappear. The presence of this secretion at this time in quantity above normal again discloses the extreme of elimination to which the organism is subjected while the function of digestion is suspended. Subjects which, before fasting, have suffered from partial deafness, find this defect much aggravated until the removal of the wax is accomplished and congestion is relieved.

Types that suffer from extreme congestion of the liver or from obstruction of the upper portion of the small intestines may intermittently experience contraction of the muscles of the hands and arms with cramping pains--the legs are rarely affected. Local relief may here be obtained through hand vibration and deep manipulation along the spinal column in its cervical and upper dorsal regions.

Emaciation in the fast cannot properly be regarded as a symptom pathologic in origin. It is the result of the elimination of toxic substances from the system, and there is also a loss occasioned by the use by cell organism, and by brain and nerves, of the reserve-pabulum stored in the interstices of tissue. Diminution in weight due to the latter reason is, however, slight in comparison with that arising from toxemic elimination. It may be stated that wasting of the body is usually greater in cases in whom organic atrophy or cirrhosis exists than in those who suffer otherwise from disease, but, in a fast, loss of weight is proportionately less in the instances referred to than it is in the presence of functional disease or of organic hypertrophy.

In his True Science of Living Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey quotes from Yeo's Physiology a table purporting to show the estimated loss of the several tissues of the body in instances of starvation. The table follows:

Dr. Dewey terms this table, "Nature's Bill of Fare for the Sick," assuming that, in the absence of ingested food, both in fasting and in starving, the body is supported upon the tissues lost. It is natural and correct to infer that a portion of this missing material is in the circumstances utilized in the maintenance of cell structure, but by far the larger portion of it is purely waste, is matter that is not constructive but pathogenic. As is shown in the chapter dealing with death during fasting, there is no certainty that the proportions given in the table above result in all instances. One point, however, is observed as constant and invariable--the brain and the nerve centers with their branches are never reduced in structure nor in quality, notwithstanding the duration of the period of abstinence, unless in themselves they are organically diseased.

Delirium in disease is not always to be regarded as an alarming symptom. Temporary conditions of mental aberration apparent in confusion of thought, incoherency of speech, and, in some instances, unconsciousness, are characteristic of certain constitutions whenever body temperature rises above a fixed point. This, possibly, is an inherited tendency, for, on the other hand, there are many temperaments who retain control of the mind in any and all forms of disease, when the brain itself is not the seat of disturbance. In the treatment of disease that is functional in origin, it is rarely the case that delirium occurs during a fast, but, it may, and, if it does, its appearance is due to extreme auto-intoxication from waste deposited in the intestinal tract and not evacuated with sufficient rapidity. If delirium be present at all, it will occur when the process of elimination is at its height, and it will cease as suddenly as it began, when the cause of the toxemia has been removed from the bowels. If proper preparation for the fast has been observed, this symptom will never appear in cases of purely functional derangement. But it may appear if a fast is broken before purification of the system has been attained, or, if the patient is given food in amount beyond the capability of his organs to digest, when feeding is resumed at the end of a completed fast. In cases when abstinence from food is forced and involuntary, as for example in shipwreck and mine accident, delirium, if it occur, results from the mental strain attendant upon the situation, and it, together with the mortality that may happen, could often be obviated were knowledge of the resources of the human body more general. In organic disease, before a fast or while it endures, delirium may last for some time, and, while its first cause is one with that in functional trouble, its persistence is due to defects in organism that prevent elimination. And, even though recovery be possible, these cases are most obstinate in yielding to treatment, since the process of purification is exceedingly slow in accomplishment, while recuperation is similarly delayed. This type of patient requires more care and caution in handling than does any other, for the sufferer, losing faith in the power of nature to overcome the condition, is apt to lose courage as well. Resort to food and to drugs may be made, and the outcome, doubtful before, is now almost inevitably fatal. When one is confronted by this situation, the lesson to be learned is that of recognition of organic limitation, for while the very functioning of an organ diseased has a tendency to restore that organ to normal action, it must be remembered and emphasized that special function in the physical body is capable only of operating within bounds, beyond which lies disaster.