The Value of Fasting.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3, 17 July 1912, Page 5

The Value of Fasting.

It used to be thought that fasting purified the spirit and made the intelle t clearer. The mind with wings unelogged by the gross appetites of the body was supposed to be more free and nimbi'. The “British Medical Journal” does not believe that the intellect, is strengthen d by fasting, though undoubtedly it may be clouded by over-eating. On the other hand, fasting has often evil effects on the temper, which undo whatever spiritual good it may do in other ways; and, as regards the intellect, it is a truism that the brain must be fed like any other part of the body. The quantity of food required to keep one in sound condition varies so largely that it is impossible to lay down more than a tentative average, standard. The quality is a matter of ctifftom and environment; here, too, no rigid universal rule can be enforced. Bacon’s teaching, that whatever a man ‘‘finds good of” is for him the best, is sounder than any dogmas framed in the laboratory.