FASTING v. OPERATIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 953, 11 February 1911, Page 4

FASTING v. OPERATIONS.

A correspondent reminds the Wanganui Herald that a couple of years ago Dr Hatherly, of Wanganui, read a very able paper on the subject of “ Victims of the Knife ” at the congress of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association, in which he denounced the steadily-growing craze on the part of the public and the lust on the part of the medical practitioners for operative work.” The correspondent also forwards several pamphlets in which the benefits of fasting as opposed to operations are set forth with marked emphasis. The experf ence of Mrs H. D. Allen, of South Hero (Connecticut), who, under the direction of Dr C. Haskill, fasted thirty-one da} r s for the cure of cancer, is quoted. This lady underwent five operations in about a year and a half, and the fast did what the five operations failed to do —cure her—for after each time the knife was used there was a new cancerous growth, and she was constantly growing weaker. Another case cited is that of Mrs Cornelia F. Tarbox, of the same American State, who, writing under date July 25th, iqro, says she fasted in September of the previous year on Dr Haskill’s advice for a malignant cancer, which at the time of writing had almost entirely disappeared. The lady says she suffered untold agonies for five years with the disease, for which she was operated on on February 20th, 1908. The knife, however, only scattered the disease, and gave it renewed energy, and in October of the same year and on December sth, more of the growth was removed. As a last resort the patient commenced a fast, and an improvement in her condition followed immediately. This correspondent says that many similar cures could be cited, but he thinks that if fasting will cure such a malignant disease as cancer, other patients would find relief and life, which the knife too often fails to give.