MARCH 225 



is not a question for themselves to think on. They 

 seem to imply that it is a question solely for the medical 

 hierarchy. But these authorities are so hampered by 

 the limitations engrained in them in their medical educa- 

 tion that it is with difficulty any of them exercise a free 

 mind on the subject. You have given examples, it is 

 true, of some few ; and I know a few more, both here 

 and in America, who have broken away and have given 

 full vent to their reasoning powers. All hail to them, 

 but they want supporting. There is no doubt that if 

 doctors were to take up the reforms honestly they would 

 do good, inasmuch as there is a blind faith in them on 

 the part of the majority of people. But when has a 

 profession reformed itself? All reforms come from 

 outside. 



' There are two great assumptions on which medicos 

 act, and on which they impel their patients to act. The 

 first is, that it is positively necessary, under all circum- 

 stances, to eat every day in order to live. Dr. Keith, 

 whose book I have just seen before I got yours, is an 

 exception to this ; and Dr. Dewey, in America, in his 

 New Gospel of Health, ' ' is another. They show clearly 

 that not only is it not necessary, but under certain con- 

 ditions of illness it is positively injurious to eat. I have 

 seen, I am sorry to say, food violently forced down the 

 throat of a patient by a medical man when nature was 

 evidently telling the patient that food was no good, but, 

 on the contrary, was adding to the troubles. This is 

 quite irrespective of what is suitable food and what is 

 not. All I maintain is, that at times no food at all is re- 

 quired, for it is then only by the absence of food that 

 nature finds time to recuperate herself. The second 

 assumption that the Faculty, as a body, insist on is, that 

 meat is absolutely necessary for strength. Meat is no 

 doubt a concentrated food, but concentrated foods are 



