and a half pounds weight in thirty hours. Everybody was astonished,
and the doctors were confounded; the crowd cheered, and the music
resounded as the fast was finished and the feasting began in Clarendon
Hall, the doctor being in as good health and spirits as when he began,
except as to physical strength.

Now it is proper to mention what I believe has not before been
published, having been carefully concealed by Dr. Tanner. As he was
encountering the whole force of a brutal prejudice in the medical
profession, and trickery and falsehood were used to defeat him by Dr.
Hammond and Dr. Landon C. Gray, (a shabby story indeed, if the whole
truth is ever told,) Dr. Tanner did not think it safe to elicit any
additional hostility by confessing his mediumship.

The whole performance was a _triumph of spiritual power_! Dr. Tanner
came to me in New York to aid him in giving a demonstration of his
fasting power, which had been denied in an insolent and scurrilous
manner by Dr. Hammond and others. Dr. Hammond, with a great deal of
duplicity and unfairness, evaded the test, and it was carried out with
the aid of other parties in a very satisfactory manner.

The organization of Dr. Tanner was not such as I would have selected
for a fasting performance, and he did not undertake it on his own
resources alone. He was thoroughly a medium, and, when in my parlor,
Indian spirits would take control of him, and carry him through a
lively performance, speaking through his lips, and promising to
sustain him through the fast; and they did. I have no doubt that with
a suitable organization, such as is more frequently found in India
than in America, a fast could be sustained by spirit power for six or
twelve months. Indeed, there are records of such fasts in the old
medical authors, which are omitted in all recent works. The spirit of
dogmatic scepticism had carried the medical profession generally into
such a depth of ignorance on these subjects that Dr. Landon C. Gray
declared that a forty days' fast had never occurred, and that if Dr.
Tanner attempted it, it must be assumed "that he will cheat at every
turn."

The kind of sentiment cultivated by colleges in the medical profession
was shown by the deportment of the medical visitors. The report of the
fast says:--

"The most curious episodes, probably, on the whole, were afforded by
the appearance of sceptics, and members of the medical profession from
the country. Many of the latter came