A SIGNIFICANT CASE.

 ACCOUNT OF A FAST, UNDERTAKEN FOR THE CURE OF A PROFOUND BLOOD
 DISEASE.

The following account of a fast is worthy of attention.  It is rigidly accurate in principle, as far as I could make it so, and I am responsible for its truthfulness.  But the subject of it, feeling that he is engaged in a duty and “labour of love,” as he expresses it, is yet naturally anxious to prevent his identity from being discovered; and so, while the facts of the narrative are true in principle they have been varied in a few details for the purpose of preventing the recognition of the subject of them.

They occurred in the history of a man of about 40 years of age, who fell ill of an infectious disease some 20 years ago, while living abroad.  The exact time of the infection is not known.  The patient was treated by qualified doctors living in the same country as himself, and there is no reason to believe that he was not properly and skilfully treated.  He had, however, for years buoyed himself up with the hope that he should be able to come to England for the best treatment, and recently he found himself in this country for that purpose.  It goes without saying that the eminent men consulted treated him after the most modern and approved methods, which were also, so far as knowledge goes, the most likely to benefit him.  Not only as to treatment must it be assumed that the best was done, but the diagnosis also is supported by the authority of the doctors seen, and was confirmed by physiological and pathological investigation.  This would be recognised if it were possible to publish names, places and dates which are withheld from the courteous reader for the reason already given.  I can only say that I entirely concur in the diagnosis and in the suitability of the treatment.

The man came under my care on a Sunday, the fast, which is the subject matter of this communication, having been commenced on the Friday six weeks before that day, the last food having been taken on the Thursday at 5 P.M.  I saw him, therefore, on the forty-fifth day of the fast.  His pulse was 59, soft, steady, regular.  Temp. 96.8 degrees, about 11 A.M.  He was able to be up, and walked actively, all his bodily movements being active and his mind quite clear and rational.  His weight on the day after I first saw him was, in the same clothes as when weighed at the beginning of the fast, 1291/2 lbs.  He said he weighed 171 lbs. on the machine at the commencement, and therefore the loss of bodily weight up to that time was 41.5 lbs.  The average loss of weight during the 46 days of the fast was about nine-tenths of a pound daily if the 41.5 lbs. loss is divided by the 46 days of the continuance of the fast up to that time—­41.5/46=.9 lbs. almost exactly.

When he came to my consulting room on the forty-sixth day, about 2.15 P.M., the pulse was 64, temp. 95.6 degrees (thermometer 3 minutes under tongue).