Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 63293-h.htm or 63293-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63293/63293-h/63293-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63293/63293-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/fastingcure00sincrich THE FASTING CURE * * * * * * _BY UPTON SINCLAIR_ LOVE'S PILGRIMAGE THE FASTING CURE KING MIDAS PRINCE HAGEN THE JOURNAL OF ARTHUR STIRLING MANASSAS THE OVERMAN THE JUNGLE THE INDUSTRIAL REPUBLIC THE METROPOLIS THE MONEYCHANGERS SAMUEL THE SEEKER _at all bookshops_ * * * * * * [Illustration: _Mr. Sinclair's expression, as shown in the upper photograph, used to be called "spiritual." Systematic fasting has evolved the athletic figure pictured below._] THE FASTING CURE by UPTON SINCLAIR [Illustration: Logo] Mitchell Kennerley New York and London MCMXI Copyright, 1911 by Mitchell Kennerley The University Press, Cambridge, U. S. A. _TO BERNARR MACFADDEN_ _in cordial appreciation of his personality and teachings_ _Contents_ PAGE PREFACE 5 PERFECT HEALTH 9 A Letter to the _New York Times_ 34 SOME NOTES ON FASTING 39 Fasting and the Doctors 48 THE HUMORS OF FASTING 53 A SYMPOSIUM ON FASTING 62 Death during the Fast 68 Fasting and the Mind 74 Diet after the Fast 81 THE USE OF MEAT 86 APPENDIX Some Letters from Fasters 105 The Fruit and Nut Diet 132 The Rader Case 137 Horace Fletcher's Fast 143 PREFACE In the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_ for May, 1910, and in the _Contemporary Review_ (London) for April, 1910, I published an article dealing with my experiences in fasting. I have written a great many magazine articles, but never one which attracted so much attention as this. The first day the magazine was on the news-stands, I received a telegram from a man in Washington who had begun to fast and wanted some advice; and thereafter I received ten or twenty letters a day from people who had questions to ask or experiences to narrate. At the date of writing eight months have passed, and the flood has not yet stopped. The editors of the _Cosmopolitan_ also tell me that they have never received so many letters about an article in their experience. Still more significant was the number of reports which began to appear in the news columns of papers all over the country, telling of people who were fasting. From various sources I have received about fifty such clippings, and few but reported benefit to the faster.