The No Breakfast Plan and the Fasting-Cure

About this book

The No‑Breakfast Plan and the Fasting‑Cure is a health‑treatment manual written by Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey, a late‑nineteenth‑century physician who frames his ideas as a progressive evolution from “medical superstition” to a nature‑based cure. The book opens with a transcriber’s note about inconsistent spelling, then a series of endorsements from contemporary doctors and clergy, followed by a preface in which Dewey declares his conviction that enforced food and drugs are “professional barbarisms.” The contents list reveals a sprawling structure of twenty‑seven lectures, ranging from Civil‑War anecdotes and case studies of typhoid and diphtheria to detailed accounts of prolonged fasts that allegedly cured ailments such as melancholy, dropsy, alcoholism and even insanity. Dewey’s narrative promises a “new hygiene” that rejects ordinary meals, especially breakfast, and argues that fasting can restore health through natural physiology.

Written in a vigorous, conversational tone typical of turn‑of‑the‑century reform literature, the work blends personal memoir, medical anecdote, and moral exhortation. Its language is plain yet emphatic, peppered with rhetorical flourishes and frequent appeals to authority. Readers who enjoy historic medical theories, Victorian‑era health reform, or the cultural backdrop of early fasting movements will find Dewey’s fervent advocacy both a window into its time and a provocative, if unorthodox, perspective on diet and disease.