"Here," he continues, "was an object lesson:

"(1) Vital power supported without food.

"(2) Mental and physical strength increasing with the decline of symptoms.

"(3) A cure without the aid of remedies, and one that was eminently complete in every way.

"(4) No unusual wasting of the body."

In later years, when relating his early experiences in connection with fasting in disease, Dr. Dewey, both in conversation and in writing, dwelt at great length upon the complete reversal of personal opinion and belief which the conditions and the outcome of this case produced. He gives in detail in his several books the results of this change of thought, and the tale is as interesting as is one of adventure or romance, for it led this man into life-long advocacy and practice of a method diametrically opposed to that for which he had been trained, and which he had theretofore made his profession. It also brought to him controversy, ridicule, and persecution.

He who becomes a renegade from an established creed is more than likely to find himself an outcast from the society of believers in that creed. And Dr. Dewey, once launched upon a course which he deemed that of the truth, proved no exception to the common fate. His medical confreres at first dubbed him eccentric--even crazy. And it was not long before his presence in consultation and in professional assemblage was no more desired. In fact, the local medical society requested his resignation as a member of its body. But Dr. Dewey possessed among other sterling qualities, courage, and he never wavered, but sturdily and steadily continued in his chosen path until recognition of his discovery and of his teachings was forced, first upon his clientele, and then upon his colleagues, by the results which his methods obtained.

Dr. Dewey is perhaps best known to the world as the strenuous advocate of the "No Breakfast Plan", and his book with this title has circled the globe. But his other works, notably The True Science of Living, well bear careful reading, even though in the light of later and more scientific investigation discovery, his theory and practice of the fast leave many things to be supplied.

It is not, however, the purpose of the author to write in criticism of the work of the pioneers in the art and science of physiatrics, for it is sufficient that these men first made exposition of present-day natural practice, later to be developed and elaborated by their disciples. And it is also to be remembered that, as is the destiny of every pioneer, they proved no exception to the rule, and were reviled and persecuted exquisitely by those who should have supported their investigations, those who should have worked out with them the possibilities of their discoveries. Intrenched authority invariably escapes ridicule and persecution, since in most instances it is individually devoid of acumen and initiative, and is smugly content to dwell within the vicious thrall of orthodoxy.

Dr. Dewey was born at Wayland, Pennsylvania, in May, 1839. In the late fifties he entered thc employ of a local druggist, and he spent two years dispensing remedies and absorbing pharmaecopoeial lore. He says for himself that at that time he came into contact with all kinds of physicians and with all kinds of "isms" in medical practice, and that the prescription counter is a wonderful revelator of the literary and scientific attainments of the medical profession, yet it fails to account for the relative degree of success of men who are without the slightest shade of scientific conception of the action of a remedy or of its indicated need as revealed by symptoms. He further says that his drugstore experience led to a slowly developing conviction that, as an adaptation of means to an end, the administration of drugs for the cure of disease is one of the most unscientific of human vocations. It is evident that this conviction did not then become an entity in the doctor's mind, for it did not deter him from going. ahead with those studies that finally brought him to the College of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Michigan. From this college he was graduated in 1864 with a medical degree, and almost immediately we find him as an acting assistant surgeon in the army of the United States on duty at a field hospital at Chattanooga, Tennessee. When discharged at the close of the war, the doctor chose Meadville, Pennsylvania, as his field of labor, and in the autumn of 1866 he became a general practitioner in that small city, then numbering about ten thousand souls. Here for eleven years he followed the paths of orthodoxy, still with that slowly developing conviction disturbing his professional thought, until, as has been related, in 1877 sudden light was given and his conviction, now confirmed, became the guiding principle of the remainder of his life.

Thenceforth Dr. Dewey was eminently successful in a practice based upon causing his patients to abstain from food for periods short or long; upon inaugurating the no-breakfast plan; and upon impressing upon his followers in illness and in health the beneficent effects of fresh air, pure water, and sunshine. But, as has been indicated, there was much in the fundamentals of his method that needed revision, and he was lamentably lacking, as was Dr. Tanner, in perceiving that prompt and efficient auxiliary hygienic means must constantly be employed while the extreme process of elimination occasioned by a fast is in progress. He repudiated the use of the enema or internal bath, and preferred and insisted upon waiting upon the bowels to act "naturally", as he termed it. In later years, when the writer enrolled as a student with Dr. Dewey, her own thought led her first to suggest and then to remonstrate upon this and other vital omissions in procedure, and at one time only her friendship for her preceptor prevented a break in relations. It was not until a few months before Dr. Dewey died that he partially acknowledged his error in these respects and deplored the fact that he had continually advised against the use of the enema, which he had finally come to recognize as the most essential of hygienic accessories connected with a scientifically conducted fast.

The physiology of abstinence from food for the prevention and relief of disease as determined by Dr. Dewey and published to the world in his books is beyond all doubt correct. But the doctor was much astray in the hygiene necessary to the successful issue of therapeutic fasting. Accepting neither the eliminative assistance of the enema nor that of daily cleansing the surface of the body, he ignored as well the dietetic requisites, both preparatory and subsequent to the total abstinence interval. And as to diet in health, the doctor exhibited the common failing of the medical profession, which then as now seems to consider food merely as fuel for the body, with but little regard for its digestibility or its nutritive content.

Dr. Dewey died from paralysis, a condition that arose solely from error in personal dietary. He conscientiously observed the "no breakfast plan," which he advised for others, but food values, food adaptability, food combination, all were ignored in the two daily meals he permitted himself. Meats and fish, eggs and milk, breads and pastries, with comparatively few vegetables in combination, and these mostly of the starchier kinds, formed his food supply. What wonder that hardened veins, high blood pressure, and ultimate paralysis developed!

Dr. Dewey suffered his first stroke of apoplexy on March 28, 1904. For sixteen days he fasted and gradual improvement took place, so much so, that in several months he again became active in his profession. At that time the author was most desirous that the doctor accept her proved conclusions concerning the internal bath and the dietary essential when a fast is broken. But to no avail, and her warning went for a time unheeded, until untoward symptoms again arising, Dr. Dewey consented to close his practice and to come to Minneapolis there to be under the care and direction of his erstwhile pupil. He was delayed in departure, and a second paralytic seizure occurred on December 10, 1904, resulting in his death on the 21st of the same month.