FASTING AND STARVING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18570, 24 November 1920, Page 4

FASTING AND STARVING.

EFFECTS OF ABSTINENCE. SOME NOTABLE CASES. What is the difference between a fsuA and ii hunger strike? This is an important question raised by the worldwide interest in the case .of Air * M'Swiney, Lord Mayor of Cork (says the “ »Sun and New York^Herald.**). The reason generally given to ae- : count for tho wide differences between fasting and starvation is psychological & in its nature. The mind or the will, according to psychologists who have studied the subject, has more 'to do with bringing abont good <w result than the body. But as the safMi physical condition exists in -both a fast and a strnvation bout—that is,, abstinence ftom food of any kind-r-the laity will find it difficult to agree with the doctor^. CARRINGTON ADVOCATES FASTING. “ Fasting and starring," writes fclcreward Carrington, in his report to-; the American Institute of Scientific Research, “ are different things. Fasting is beneficial to the body and etarvatkh is tho reverse." “ h asting," he continues in another place “will never become a popular 'method of cure, involving, as it does,too much self-denial. ' Tho starving doctor, however, advocates properly conducted therapeutic fasting." And in his volume devoted to- the practice of fasting, and sfrongly, even " vehemently, advocating ita general adoption, this writer says:— “ Fasting is a scientific method for ridding the system of diseased tissue and morbid matter, and is invariably accompanied by beneficial results. Starvation Is the deprivation of the tissues from tho nutriment which they. require and is as invariably followed by' disastrous consequences. “ Fasting begins with the first meal that is omitted and ends with the return of natural hunger. Starvationonly begins with the return of natural hunger and terminates in death. Where the one ends the other begins." Dr Graham, who as early as 1843 ad-; vonced ideas of abstinence from every kind of food as a cure for paralysis, locomotor ataxia and kindred ills, include ing chronic rheumatism, went further than later men have gone in that he advocated forcible abstention if necessary. in a sense, also, this' was the practice of Dr Dewey, whore name is everywhere associated with the rwactico of fasting for health reasons. The latter said: ' |

“ Take any food from a sick man’s stomach and y,on have begun not to starve the rick man but the disease."' THE SPIRITUAL FACTOR. ?

This in a nutshell is the whole science and philosophy of fasting. It does not, however, cover tho cases of voluntary abstention from food by perfectly healthy persons (or persons supposed th bo healthy) who have from political or other reasons, like the Lord Mayor of Dork and Mrs Pankhurst, refused to take nourishment. In such cases the attitude of mind seriously operates against producing results that the fnstors claim are legitimate. The Latter class do nob deny this; indeed, they make a point of admitting tho superior power of the mind and go so far as to base the universe on a spiritual and not a material support, claiming that this has the support of modem philosophy and also of the latest discoveries of science. ’

Later advocates of fasting, in tho vaststrides that have been mado in the study of the mind and the will, make a strong distinction between voluntsry fn sting and involuntary, which they Frankly denominate starvation, and paint in unpleasant colours all the latter's ills. In language suited to tiri common understanding, the difference sought between the two things which seem alike to that understanding is otto of scientific and unscientific starvation.

TANNER’S FORTY DAY'S FAST. ’ Easters we have always had with uv Tho Yogis of India have practised it for centimes and there have been episodic examples which have stirred the people to curiosity but not to emulation. Men have only to be in middle life to rememb'e rthe as© of Dr Tanner, who fasted for weeks on » public exhibition. Everybody was kept on the/ qui vivo tp see if he would survive the ordeal of not eating for forty days. He did, and almost everybody doubled not that attendants had “ passed Tanner something.” And tho same popular cynicism has attended later examples of endurance, but without disturbing the “faddists,” wfti continue to claim. that fasts of three days or nine days or ninety days are Equally harmless if properly directed / Religious fasting has been;,common’ Bine© the beginning of any religion, and religions fasts arc common to-day. But the hunger strike of Bishop Eusebius, who was canonised after his death, was, a-result of the great battle between churchmen on the issue of Arianism.. Eusebius vehemently opposed Arius and! was imprisoned by hfs disciples. Therefore he refused to eat and drink for. fear, as he explained in a letter to Rome, he held communion with them.: It is a- fast of, the fourth century.

The words of Eusebius were : “ Unless they permit my disciples to come, to me and bring me food and drink. I shall accept nothing from these heretics and they will be responsible for my death.”

Little cared the so-called heretics, who would hare let the bishop starve to death had not public opinion forced; his gaolers to admit the bishop’s disciples with food. A week later the Arians were forced by the same power to releaso him from prison.

THE CELEBRATED CASE OF ANN MOOR/

A most celebrated case is that of Ann Moor, of Tutbury, Staffordshire, England. Her extraordinary abstention . from food, liquid and solid, according/' to physicians who had her in charge and to other reliable witnesses, endured for three years. This case is related in an old pamphlet. “ Wo know we can go without nutriment of any kind with safety and benefit,” asserts Hereward Carrington in his .physiological work entitled "Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition,” and he adds, “and that for a period of not. less than several weeks. . In all observed conditions Nature will clearly indicate when food is needed by sending up an urgent call for it. Why not continue the treatment to its legitimate conclusion b” - , . “Tho habit hunger” lasts two or three days after the faster has begun < treatment, but it then finally disappears., although the time naturally varies in individual cases. Whee onne this period has passed no hunger will, in any case, be experienced until tho fast is completed—is ready to be: broken and natural hunger then announces itself and shows that the system is fre* from its previously diseased conditionThis is how the. different professors of fasting speak of itsprogres. They have not the same unanimity when discussing what tp give the patient, after the.fast is broken.

Dr Charles E. Page, of Boston, records his belief in the efficacy of therapeutic fasting—fasting for euro - m these strong words u It has been tjo sheet anchor of all bedrock dietitians for generations, but these have /been comparatively few in number./Therapeutic fasting is ny no means starving, whereas feeding: in ©©rsaltt eases t* both starving and poisoning- The actual cause of disease is wrong living habits. A few mcata skipped are beneficial in many cases of health breakdown- If we give the stomach timei for rest and healing, the patient taking small portions of fresh water occasionally, we clear away threatened intestinal autotoxemia.”-