error of drinking water without thirst--Some earnest words to the
mothers of this land--What the No-breakfast Plan means for them
and their children--Concluding words 199

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR _Frontispiece._

MRS. A. M. LICHTENHAHN, THIRTY-SIXTH DAY
WITHOUT FOOD Opposite p. 54

REV. GEORGE SHERMAN RICHARDS " 94

MRS. E. A. QUIGGLE " 104

MR. MILTON RATHBUN SHORTLY AFTER HIS FAST " 132

MISS E. F. KUENZEL, FORTY-FIRST DAY OF FAST " 146

MR. LEONARD THRESS, FIFTIETH DAY OF FAST " 152

MISS E. W. A. WESTING, FORTIETH DAY OF FAST " 154

THE NO-BREAKFAST PLAN.

I.

A hygiene that claims to be new and of the greatest practicality, and
certainly revolutionary in its application, would seem to require
something of its origin and development to excite the interest of the
intelligent reader. Methods in health culture are about as numerous as
the individuals who find some method necessary for the health: taking
something, doing something for the health is the burden of lives almost
innumerable. Very few people are so well that some improvement is not
desirable.

The literature on what to eat and not to eat, what to do and not to do,
on medicines that convert human stomachs into drug-stores, is simply
boundless. If we believe all we read, we must consider the location we
are in before we can safely draw the breath of life; we must not cool
our parched throats without the certificate of the microscope. We must
not eat without an ultimate analysis of each item of the bill of fare,
as we would take an account of stock before ordering fresh goods; and
this without ever knowing how much lime we need for the bones, iron for
the blood, phosphorus for the brain, or nitrogen for the muscles. In
short, there is death in the air we breathe, death in the food we eat,
death in the water we drink, until, verily, we seem to walk our ways of
life in the very valley and shadow of death, ever subject to the attack
of hobgoblins of disease.

How many lives would go down in despair but for the miracles of cure
promised in the public prints, even in our best journals and monthlies,
we cannot know. It i