In personal contact with Dr. Dewey and in a voluminous correspondence he ever dwelt with great inspiration and broad vision upon what he called "New Gospel of Health", emphasizing at all times the thought that the lesson he was endeavoring to impart was one that applied to every human ill. He said so often that he wanted me clearly to see, as he did, the divine hand in cure through an evolution in reverse. By this he meant that disease in the structural changes involved is a matter of nature's own work--just as clearly as in those structural changes by which the body was originally developed. And he further added that the cure of disease is but an analogous process in reverse of its cause. This reasoning is clear and logical, and its conclusions are truth.

Dr. Dewey is dead, but his work lives, and, because his was a mind of system and of science, the foundation he laid for the new gospel of health, which nevertheless is the oldest of hygienic truths because it is nature's own system of law, will stand for all time. Natural therapy owes to Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey both recognition and honor as the first scientifically able pioneer in the field of therapeutic fasting.

Since the remainder of the chapter in hand deals with the personal work of the author, she will, it is hoped, be pardoned for speaking in the first person.

My work in natural therapy dates back nearly thirty years, to July, 1898, to be exact. As did Dr. Tanner, I arrived at my preliminary knowledge by way of illness. My girlhood, which was spent in the lake region of Minnesota, was given over to a healthful, athletic life, filled with every sort of outdoor exercise and work. My mother, who never touched animal food in her life, possessed a knowledge of dietetic combinations and of cookery, which was purely instinctive, since there were no opportunities cast her way for its acquirement. In consequence the family table was supplied mostly with food vegetarian in character. My father, who was of similar habit and belief, unfortunately at about the time I was seven years old, so far compromised with his principles as to employ a medical physician upon a yearly basis to care for the family health. This physician was convinced, as were the majority of his profession at that day, that all children harbored intestinal parasites, and that periodic doses of some vermifuge were essential. Therefore I, in company with my brothers and sisters, was given some blue mass pills, a strong mercurial preparation. I now allow, what of course I could not then suspect, that this powerful poison did irreparable injury to my intestines, retarding and preventing their development and growth to such degree that even to this day I am compelled to resort to the enema daily.

After the blue mass experience, for a long time I was never well. No diet, however carefully chosen, agreed with me, and life thereafter during the rest of my childhood and well into young womanhood became a dreary search for health. In this search I learned much of what was then taught concerning dietetics both from orthodox and unorthodox sources, but no permanent relief was ever vouchsafed me until in 1898 I heard of the work and the remarkable successes of Dr. Dewey. As a result of the inspiration I thus received, with some trepidation I attempted a fast, and went four days without food. A little later I dared still more and tried fasting for one whole week, with benefits that were so pronounced that whatever reservations I may have felt vanished completely. Since then I have fasted many times, and, when necessary, for longer periods. And I attribute the robust health which now is mine as well as the comparatively lengthy span of years I have attained to the practice of what I preach, to the taking of my own medicine.

Shortly after I began to take practical interest in fasting I made the acquaintance of Dr. Dewey, and at his invitation I placed myself under his tutelage. I was then studying osteopathy, but, after a term spent under the instruction of Dr. Dewey, and with my own fasting experience to guide me, I became convinced that osteopathy alone was not the panacea its advocates claimed, but I believed, as I still believe, that in conjunction with other remedial measures, among which dieting and fasting are of most import, its therapeutic value might be greatly increased. And I have found this so.

In Minneapolis, where I first located, my early practice proved a struggling one, but gradually I had the satisfaction of seeing it grow steadily and surely, for the results that accrued from my then rather drastic application of the complete fast were such as to surprise Dr. Dewey as well as myself. Cases pronounced incurable by medical physicians recovered under the regimen I imposed, and the symptoms presented ranged from chronic constipation, diabetes, Bright's disease, and syphilis to paralysis. Called to the Pacific Coast in 1906, I decided there to remain, and in the summer of that year I opened offices in Seattle. Soon after this I began to encounter organized persecution from medical sources, aided by newspapers controlled by the profession. Such deaths as occurred under my care received the widest publicity, and the accounts written concerning them were distorted and filled with implication, innuendo, and threat. These articles eventually accomplished the end sought by their authors, for in 1912 I was brought to trial charged with having wilfully caused the death of an English woman patient through starvation.

A jury divided amongst itself, but urged to decision by a prejudiced judge and by public sentiment inflamed by a public press, determined that my crime was that of manslaughter, and I was thereupon sentenced to a minimum term of two years in the penitentiary. I served these years day by day in anguish of body and of mind, until finally the then Governor of Washington became convinced of my innocence and of the monstrous injustice that had been done, and he granted to me an unconditional pardon, restoring all of the rights and privileges which by reason of my conviction I had forfeited.

In 1916, shortly after my pardon was granted, I was called to New Zealand to take charge of the case of a friend, and I spent nearly four years in that country, every day of the time devoted to a large and successful practice. But home ties and home duties brought me back to the home land, and here I continue the work with bettered surroundings, increased facilities, and with perspective and concept broadened by experiences to which those of my predecessors and contemporaries compare as mere bagatelles.

Because of my intimate association with Dr. Dewey in the early years of my work, because he deemed me a practitioner worthy of his confidence during his last hours, and because I have developed to the utmost his theory and his art, I do not think that I can be denied my place with him and with Dr. Tanner as a pioneer in the therapeusis of the fast.

There are others, physicians as well as laymen, to whom is due recognition as pioneers in furthering the fast as a remedial measure. Among these must be mentioned Charles C. Haskell, now deceased, also a writer and issuer of books, who was friend of Dr. Dewey and his publisher as well; Lloyd Jones, head of the firm of H. I. Jones & Son, Ltd., book dealers and publishers, of Wanganui, New Zealand, whose personal advocacy, writings and publications have done so much to spread the new gospel of health throughout Australia and the South Seas; and the late Dr. C. E. Page of Boston. All of these are entitled to place and honor for their untiring efforts in support of the doctrine promulgated in the pages of the text.