HAVING had occasion to study diet, my attention has been directed to fasting as a therapeutic agent, and the following case seems worthy of record. The patient was a man, aged sixty-five years, who had been a hard drinker and a good eater all his life, working on contracts. He was much crushed and nearly drowned by scaffolding falling upon him. His life was for a time despaired of, but he recovered. When I saw him seven years after the accident, he was crippled on one foot, and walked with a stick very slowly. He could not sleep in the night from coughing and spitting, passed urine every hour, and could hardly turn in bed from a stabbing pain in the side. He could not dress himself, and was altogether in a pitiable condition. Having seen him, I promised him that if he would follow my advice, he would renew his youth. He was a man of powerful will, and he said that he would do anything to get well. I put him upon a little fruit twice daily. In five days he lost ten pounds in weight, and he could dress himself and lace his boots, which he had not done for years. As he lost weight, his vigor increased, and he began to work in his garden and to take long walks. All his troublesome symptoms left him, and he could sleep like a child from 9 P. M. to 4 A. M., without waking. He had to get new clothes to suit his reduced size, and in November (he began in June to restrict his diet) declared that he felt as well as ever he did, and were it not for the damage he had received in the accident, he might resume work as before. November 10 I saw him wheeling up a hill a barrowful of potatoes which he had himself dug. The change in his pulse was remarkable. I never felt nor saw a pulse more irregular and intermittent in character at first, but it gradually improved and became fairly regular. He said he was neither hungry nor thirsty on the fruit diet. He now eats only about a quarter of what he did formerly, and when the weather prevents him from working or walking, he at once gains weight. This case seems deserving of attention from the marvelous change produced by abstinence, and may encourage us to try a partial or perfect fast in suitable cases.—The Lancet.