Dr. H. S. Tanner of Minneapolis begins a forty-day fast in New York in an effort to prove his theory that neither the human stomach nor food is required in order to sustain life. He resides in a room in Clarendon Hall that had been carefully searched for any morsel. Dropping fifty pounds and shrinking two inches, he makes it to the end, breaking his fast on a meal of milk and watermelon. Dr. Tanner moved to California and died in 1919 at the age of 87.