61
time; only he never knew It till then^ The result
was that not he, but his disease died, leaving him
alive and well. By fasting he gave the stomach/
that long-suffering and much-misunderstood organ/
all the rest that it needed ; Nature did the rest/ and
he was cured.
A CASZ OF GASTRIC ULCER
(Gashic ulcer is generally common among
anesmic v/oinen. Because ulcers appear only in
those parts of the alimentary canal which come into
contact with gastric juice, it has been stated in
medical text books that the formation of ulcers is
due to the action of hydrochloric acid in gastric
juice. At this rate there is nothing to prevent
gastric juice irorn digesting and dissolving the
stomach itself; protein is the main constituent of
stomach walls and gastric juice can digest protein,
The fact is that so long as every part oi the stomach
retains its tone and vitality, gastric juice can have
no action. The human stomach can digest the
the stomachs of other animals/ if they are killed
and eaten. Cannibals do digest the stomachs of
other men whom they kill and eat- But one's own
stomach is not digested. Why? The secret is that
a stomach which is alive, a stomach which has
a rich supply of blood/ cannot be acted on by
gastric juice When the stomach does not get its
needed supply oi blood/ it walls lose their vitality
and tone/ and it is then that gastric juice acts
on them, leading to formation of ulcers. That is
why ulcers in the stomach are associated with
an anaemic condition of the blood. Whether loss
of vitality and degeneration is associated with
a bacillus is not of importance to one who under-
stands the Natuie-Cure view of the role of bacilli
In the causation ot disease*)