inst the doctor is the following, from the daughter, Miss Kate Meyer.
I quote from an article in the _North American_ of May 8, 1900:

"Mrs. Hermina Meyer, devotee of an odd cult, that regards
starvation as a sure cure for all bodily ills, fasted for nearly
forty days because she was suffering from rheumatism.

"The rheumatism disappeared.

"But after twenty-five days of total abstinence from food she
sickened. Violent nausea came to her. She died.

"Nevertheless, Miss Kate Meyer, daughter of the dead woman,
says:

"'My mother did not die because she fasted. The fasting did her
good. When she began it she had been ill with rheumatism for
more than a year. She could hardly walk. Her left arm was
powerless. She could not lift it from her side. After two weeks
of fasting she was active. She could walk. The power came back
to her arm. She suffered little pain. She looked well. Then came
the attacks of nausea.

"'But Dr. Chestnut, who is our family physician, was attending
mother all the time. He called once a week. He said himself that
the fast cure seemed to be doing mother good. When she got
nausea he did not lay it to her fasting. He said it was heart
trouble. That's what mother died of. Dr. Chestnut said so.

"'Do you remember the case of Leonard Thress? He cured himself
of dropsy by fasting. Mother heard of it. She was introduced to
Mr. Thress. He told her that all he knew of the fast cure he had
learned from Henry Ritter. Mother sent and asked Mr. Ritter
about the cure. Then she began it. Mr. Ritter never charged
mother for anything. Dr. Chestnut consented that mother should
try the Ritter cure.'

"Mrs. Meyer was the wife of Charles F. Meyer, of 1233 North
Howard Street. Meyer, like his daughter, has only friendliness
for Ritter, and also favors the fast cure. Mrs. Meyer, past
middle age, had been sorely tried by her ailment. For more than
a year Dr. Chestnut attended her, but her condition did not
improve. Prescription after prescription was tested, only to
fail.

"'There is little hope for me,' said the woman to her daughter.
'I'm tired of taking medicines. They do me no good.'

"She became more melancholy as the days passed. She regarded her
case as hopeless. Dr. Chestnut acknowledged defeat. He had only
a change of climate--a long stay in Colorado-