Tanner lost almost 40 pounds by the conclusion of the experiment, and against the advice of his doctors began consuming meat, fruits, wine and milk immediately after.

Because no one believed his claim that he had fasted for 42 days, in January 1880, Tanner, a practitioner of hygienic medicine, announced that he would repeat his experiment to show that humans can survive without food and would agree to submit himself to be placed “under the care of any medical society” that would provide adequate housing.

[8] The many doctors on hand still expected him to keel over though upon re-feeding and although he re-fed on milk (which today would be strongly discouraged) he suffered only minimal nausea and some vomiting.

A few days later the Times began reporting on Tanner’s recovery, gaining back some of his weight and that by September 10, the “fasting doctor” had launched a lecture tour touting “starvation” as a cure for disease.

[10] Tanner's fame in the coming decades was enough for Mark Twain to mention in passing, "I think that the Dr. Tanners and those others who go forty days without eating do it by resolutely keeping out the desire to eat, in the beginning, and that after a few hours the desire is discouraged and comes no more"[11] in Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World in 1897.