THE FASTING CURE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 55, 28 November 1907, Page 2

THE FASTING CURE.

ANOTHER LETTER BY DR. BAKEWELL. A CHALLENGE. (BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL COHRESPONL'ENT.) Auckland, November 27. I have already sent you some of the views expressed by Dr. Bakewell regarding the fasting cases at Wanganui, and Mr. Lloyd Jones's reply, thereto. The sceptical doctor returns to the charge to-day in a long letter to tho Press, in the course of which he states: —"If anyone had told me fifty years ago that the time 'would come when I should have to write a defence of the practice of eating food as a means of sustaining health and life, I should have smiled the smile of incredulity; but so it is, and, moreover, a gentleman, whom I have not. the.pleasure of knowing, calmly advises me, a mail in my seventy-seventh year..to fast for two or three days, with the assurance that tliero could be no-possible danger in it. Even accepting Mr. Llovd' Jones's dictum about danger, I am quite sure that there would be a greatdeal of discomfort, and I don't feel inclined to endure that without Necessity. I have read Mr. Jones's letter -with caro. I have also read all the pamphlets, etc., ho has been so good as to. send mo, for which I beg that he will accept my thanks. As 110 name was attached to them, 1 could not acknowledge tliom before. Mr. Jones's letter contains accounts of the statements and opinions of a numbor of persons in the United States, who seem to bo enthusiastic admirers of what t'uey call tho 'new gospel.' Dr. B. 13. Perkins, of Philadelphia, says: 'It impressed me as the most important announcement mado to tho world since the angels proclaimed the birth of Christ.' You can hardly beat that. Mr. Lloyd Jones calls this a mass of extract ' evidence.' If he over was a member of a jury, or'if ho over attended in a CXiurt of Justice in Great- Britain or in any of. her colonics, ho must know that it is not evidence at all; that any counsel who would venture to place such ' evidence' before a Court would be laughed at. All it amounts to in the way of evidence is that Mr. Lloyd Jones has read certain printed statements purporting to be made by certain persons residing in the United States of America, and that lie believes those statements to be true. That is all on.his sido. I don't believe them. That is all on my side. Mr.. Lloyd Jones has read them, and believes them. I have read them, and don't believe them. How can we get. any .' forrader ' P Well, I will propose a simple test —not on a human being, because I have tho fear of a trial for manslaughter before mo, and in fifty-three years as a qualified medical practitioner I never have been tried for • that. But let is tako a horse, either a diseased horse or a healthy one. If the latter, his valuo is not to exceed £25. Now, if Mr. Lloyd Jones can keep this horse in' good condition for twenty-five days, doing his' ordinary day's work, on nothing but water, or water and lemon juice, I.will pay for the horse, and it shall become the property of Mr. Lloyd Jones. That gentleman must undertake, on the other hand, to pay for the horso if tho experiment fails, and to pay any lines or submit to any term of imprisonment that may bo inflicted for cruelty to animals. Now, this is a fair offer. Or I will take a healthy draught bullock, who is to da a fair day's work every day in-logging or ploughing, \,n tho same terms." Dr. Bakowoll adds: "If Mr. Lloyd Jones and, his friends at Wanganui had boon into the hovels I have visited; had seen the emaciated forms 1 have seen; had had to provide as a first necessary, before any purely medical treatment could be of tho slightest sendee, beef or mutton for broth, milk, bread, flour, sugar, tea, and fuel to cook with; and had known as I knew for a dreadful fact that only a fraction of tho supplies would reach the patient,, and ell tho rest would bo devoured by tho hungry I women and children! around him; if he had scon the natural affections so perverted by long continued rnisory that tho dying have been loft to die untended and unfed, lo would rcaliso hotter than anyone, in this over-fed community oau do, tho bitterness of real starvation. ■