Preface
In the Cosmopolitan Magazine for May,
1910, and in the Contemporary Review (London) for April, 1910
I published an article dealing with my experiences in fasting.
I have written a great many magazine articles, but never one which
attracted so much attention as this. The first day the magazine
was on the news-stands, I received a telegram from a man in Washington
who had begun to fast and wanted some advice; and thereafter I
received ten or twenty letters a day from people who had questions
to ask or experiences to narrate. At the date of writing eight
months have passed, and the flood has not yet stopped. The editors
of the Cosmopolitan also tell me that they have never received
so many letters about an article in their experience. Still more
significant was the number of reports which began to appear in
the news columns of papers all over the country, telling of people
who were fasting. From various sources I have received about fifty
such clippings, and few but reported benefit to the faster.
As a consequence of this interest, I was
asked by the Cosmopolitan to write another article, which appeared
in the issue of February, 1911. The present volume is made up
from these two articles, with the addition of some notes and comments,
and some portions of articles contributed to the Physical Culture
magazine, of the editorial staff of which I am a member. It was
my intention at first to work this matter into a connected whole,
but upon rereading the articles I decided that it would be better
to publish them as they stood. The journalistic style has its
advantages; and repetitions may perhaps be pardoned in the case
of a topic which is so new to almost everyone.
I have reproduced in the book several
photographs of myself which appeared in the magazine articles.
Ordinarily one does not print his picture in his own books; but
when it comes to fasting there are many "doubting Thomases,"
and we are told that "seeing is believing." The two
photographs of myself which appear as a frontispiece afford evidence
of a really extraordinary physical recuperation; and the reader
has my word for it that there was nothing in my way of life to
account for it, except three fasts, of a total of thirty days.
There is one other matter to be referred to. Several years ago
I published a book entitled Good Health, written in collaboration
with a friend. I could not express my own views fully in that
book, and on certain points where I differed with my collaborator,
I have come since to differ still more. The book contains a great
deal of useful information; but later experience has convinced
me that its views on the all-important subject of diet are erroneous.
My present opinions I have given in this book. I am not saying
this to apologize for an inconsistency, but to record a growth.
In those days I believed something, because other people told
me; today I know something else, because I have tried it upon
myself.
My object in publishing this book is two-fold:
first, to have something to which I can refer people, so that
I will not have to answer half a dozen "fasting letters"
every day for the rest of my life; and second, in the hope of
attracting sufficient attention to the subject to interest some
scientific men in making a real investigation of it. Today we
know certain facts about what is called "autointoxication";
we know them because Metchnikoff, Pawlow [sic] and others have
made a thorough-going inquiry into the subject. I believe that
the subject of fasting is one of just as great importance. I have
stated facts in this book about myself; and I have quoted many
letters which are genuine and beyond dispute. The cures which
they record are altogether without precedent, I think. The reader
will find in the course of the book (page 63) a tabulation of
the results of 277 cases of fasting. In this number of disparate
cases there were only about half a dozen definite and unexplained
failures reported. Surely it cannot be that medical men and scientists
will continue for much longer to close their eyes to facts of
such vital significance as this.
I do not pretend to be the discoverer
of the fasting cure. The subject was discussed by Dr. E. H. Dewey
in books which were published thirty or forty years ago. For the
reader who cares to investigate further, I mention the following
books, which I have read with interest and profit. I recommend
them, although, needless to say, I do not agree with everything
that is in them: "Fasting for the Cure of Disease,"
by Dr. L. B. Hazzard; "Perfect Health," by C. C. Haskell;
"Fasting, Hydrotherapy and Exercise," by Bernarr Macfadden;
"Fasting, Vitality and Nutrition," by Hereward Carrington.
Also I will add that Mr. C. C. Haskell, of Norwich, Conn., conducts
a correspondence-school dealing with the subject of fasting, and
that fasting patients are taken charge of at Bernarr Macfadden's
Healthatorium, 42nd Street and Grand Boulevard, Chicago, Ill.,
and by Dr. Linda B. Hazzard, of Seattle, Washington.