The Healthy Life, Vol. V, Nos. 24-28: The Independent Health Magazine — John Shaqi
The Healthy Life, Vol. V, Nos. 24-28: The Independent Health MagazineVarious
Science
The Healthy Life, Vol. V, Nos. 24-28: The Independent Health Magazine
Various
Health -- Periodicals; Medicine, Popular -- Periodicals; Nutrition -- Periodicals
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, 129+1/2 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). He was much troubled with a nasty expectoration of
mucus. His breath was very offensive. No enlarged glands could be felt
in either groin--perhaps a trifling enlargement in the right. In
middle of front border of right tibia a little irregularity is felt,
and a small hollow, which he thinks is filling up; but it might be
that the exudation on the bone immediately above and below the hollow
is somewhat reduced, as this would equally give the suggestion that
the hollow is filling up. There is a similar but rather smaller
irregularity on the left tibia also. He felt rather weak that day,
which he attributed to not having had his usual walk the day before.
The nasal cavity consists of a large grey septumless cavern showing
dry crusts. The issuing breath is most offensive. Patient had drunk
freely of water, he said, to the extent of 4 or 5 quarts a day during
the fast but when I said--do you mean that you have been taking over a
gallon of water daily?--he rather hesitated, and did not think it was
so much as that. He had not measured it and had taken it cold usually,
though occasionally hot, and had taken it without stint as he wanted
it. On the forty-eighth day of the fast he complained of being weak
but worst of all, he said, his breath was very offensive to himself.
It was so to me also--faint, fetid, putrid. His sense of smell was
greatly impaired, so much so that he could not smell the offensiveness
of the bowel-excreta which came away every day on using the
gravitation-enema, and which were horrible to by-standers. It would
seem from this as if his distress at the bad smell of his breath was
probably due to a perversion of the sense of smell, which can be
easily understood if we reflect that the disease-process was going on
in the region where the smell-apparatus is specially located. The
temperature was 96.2 degrees that morning the patient said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account