VEGETABLE DIET: AS SANCTIONED BY MEDICAL MEN, AND BY EXPERIENCE IN ALL AGES. INCLUDING A SYSTEM OF VEGETABLE COOKERY. BY DR. WM. A. ALCOTT, AUTHOR OF THE YOUNG MAN'S GUIDE, YOUNG WOMAN'S GUIDE, YOUNG MOTHER, YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER, AND LATE EDITOR OF THE LIBRARY OF HEALTH. SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. NEW YORK:FOWLER AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS, No. 308 BROADWAY1859. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, BY FOWLERS & WELLS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District ofNew York. BANES & PALMER, STEREOTYPERS, 201 William st. Corner Frankfort, N. Y. PREFACE The following volume embraces the testimony, direct or indirect, of morethan a HUNDRED individuals--besides that of societies andcommunities--on the subject of vegetable diet. Most of this one hundredpersons are, or were, persons of considerable distinction in society;and more than FIFTY of them were either medical men, or such as havemade physiology, hygiene, anatomy, pathology, medicine, or surgery aleading or favorite study. As I have written other works besides this--especially the "YoungHouse-Keeper"--which treat, more or less, of diet, it may possibly beobjected, that I sometimes repeat the same idea. But how is it to beavoided? In writing for various classes of the community, and presentingmy views in various connections and aspects, it is almost necessary todo so. Writers on theology, or education, or any other important topic, do the same--probably to a far greater extent, in many instances, than Ihave yet done. I repeat no idea for the _sake_ of repeating it. Not aword is inserted but what seems to me necessary, in order that I may beintelligible. Moreover, like the preacher of truth on many othersubjects, it is not so much my object to produce something new in everyparagraph, as to explain, illustrate, and enforce what is already known. It may also be thought that I make too many books. But, as I do notclaim to be so much an originator of _new_ things as an instrument fordiffusing the _old_, it will not be expected that I should be twentyyears on a volume, like Bishop Butler. I had, however, been collectingmy stock of materials for this and other works--published orunpublished--more than twenty-five years. Besides, it might be safelyand truly said that the study and reading and writing, in thepreparation of this volume, the "House I Live In, " and the "YoungHouse-Keeper, " have consumed at least three of the best years of mylife, at fourteen or fifteen hours a day. Several of my other works, asthe "Young Mother, " the "Mother's Medical Guide, " and the "Young Wife, "have also been the fruit of years of toil and investigation andobservation, of which those who think only of the labor of merely_writing them out_, know nothing. Even the "Mother in her Family"--atleast some parts of it--though in general a lighter work, has been theresult of much care and labor. The circumstance of publishing severalbooks at the same, or nearly the same time, has little or nothing to dowith their preparation. When I commenced putting together the materials of this little treatiseon diet--thirteen years ago--it was my intention simply to show theSAFETY of a vegetable and fruit diet, both for those who are afflictedwith many forms of chronic disease, and for the healthy. But I soonbecame convinced that I ought to go farther, and show its SUPERIORITYover every other. This I have attempted to do--with what success, thereader must and will judge for himself. I have said, it was not my original intention to prove a vegetable andfruit diet to be any thing more than _safe_. But I wish not to beunderstood as entertaining, even at that time, any doubts in regard tothe superiority of such a diet: the only questions with me were, Whetherthe public mind was ready to hear and weigh the proofs, and whether thisvolume was the place in which to present them. Both these questions, however, as I went on, were settled, in the affirmative. I believed--andstill believe--that the public mind, in this country, is prepared forthe free discussion of all topics--provided they are discussedcandidly--which have a manifest bearing on the well-being of man; and Ihave governed myself accordingly. An apology may be necessary for retaining, unexplained, a few medicalterms. But I did not feel at liberty to change them, in thecorrespondence of Dr. North, for more popular language; and, havingretained them thus far, it did not seem desirable to explain themelsewhere. Nor was I willing to deface the pages of the work withexplanatory notes. The fact is, the technical terms alluded to, are, after all, very few in number, and may be generally understood by theconnection in which they appear. THE AUTHOR. WEST NEWTON Mass. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. The great question in regard to diet, viz. , whether any food of theanimal kind is absolutely necessary to the most full and perfectdevelopment of man's whole nature, being fairly up, both in Europe andAmerica, and there being no practical, matter-of-fact volume on thesubject, of moderate size, in the market, numerous friends have been forsome time urging me to get up a new and revised edition of a work which, though imperfect, has been useful to many, while it has been for sometime out of print. Such an edition I have at length found time toprepare--to which I have added, in various ways, especially in the formof new facts, nearly fifty pages of new and original matter. WEST NEWTON, Mass. , 1849. CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF THIS WORK. Experience of the Author, and his Studies. --Pamphlet in 1832. --Prize-Question of the Boylston Medical Committee. --Collection of Materials for an Essay. --Dr. North. --His Letter and Questions. --Results, 13-20 CHAPTER II. LETTERS TO DR. NORTH. Letter of Dr. Parmly. --Dr. W. A. Alcott. --Dr. D. S. Wright. --Dr. H. N. Preston. --Dr. H. A. Barrows. --Dr. Caleb Bannister. --Dr. Lyman Tenny. --Dr. J. M. B. Harden. --Joseph Ricketson, Esq. --Joseph Congdon, Esq. --George W. Baker, Esq. --John Howland, Jr. , Esq. --Dr. Wm. H. Webster. --Josiah Bennet, Esq. --Wm. Vincent, Esq. --Dr. George H. Perry. --Dr. L. W. Sherman, 21-55 CHAPTER III. REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING LETTERS. Correspondence. --The "prescribed course of Regimen. "--How many victims to it?--Not one. --Case of Dr. Harden considered. --Case of Dr. Preston. --Views of Drs. Clark, Cheyne, and Lambe, on the treatment of Scrofula. --No reports of Injury from the prescribed System. --Case of Dr. Bannister. --Singular testimony of Dr. Wright. --Vegetable food for Laborers. --Testimony, on the whole, much more favorable to the Vegetable System than could reasonably have been expected, in the circumstances 56-66 CHAPTER IV. ADDITIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Letter from Dr. H. A. Barrows. --Dr. J. M. B. Harden. --Dr. J. Porter. --Dr. N. J. Knight. --Dr. Lester Keep. --Second letter from Dr. Keep. --Dr. Henry H. Brown. --Dr. Franklin Knox. --From a Physician. --Additional statements by the Author. 66-91 CHAPTER V. TESTIMONY OF OTHER MEDICAL MEN, BOTH OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. General Remarks. --Testimony of Dr. Cheyne. --Dr. Geoffroy. --Vauquelin and Percy. --Dr. Pemberton. --Sir John Sinclair. --Dr. James. --Dr. Cranstoun. --Dr. Taylor. --Drs. Hufeland and Abernethy. --Sir Gilbert Blane. --Dr. Gregory. --Dr. Cullen. --Dr. Rush. --Dr. Lambe. --Prof. Lawrence. --Dr. Salgues. --Author of "Sure Methods. "--Baron Cuvier. --Dr. Luther V. Bell. --Dr. Buchan. --Dr. Whitlaw. --Dr. Clark. --Prof. Mussey. --Drs. Bell and Condie. --Dr. J. V. C. Smith. --Mr. Graham. --Dr. J. M. Andrews, Jr. --Dr. Sweetser. --Dr. Pierson. --Physician in New York. --Females' Encyclopedia. --Dr. Van Cooth. --Dr. Beaumont. --Sir Everard Home. --Dr. Jennings. --Dr. Jarvis. --Dr. Ticknor. --Dr. Coles. --Dr. Shew. --Dr. Morrill. --Dr. Bell. --Dr. Jackson. --Dr. Stephenson. --Dr. J. Burdell. --Dr. Smethurst. --Dr. Schlemmer. --Dr. Curtis. --Dr. Porter, 92-175 CHAPTER VI. TESTIMONY OF PHILOSOPHERS AND OTHER EMINENT MEN. General Remarks. --Testimony of Plautus. --Plutarch. --Porphyry. --Lord Bacon. --Sir William Temple. --Cicero. --Cyrus the Great. --Gassendi. --Prof. Hitchcock. --Lord Kaims. --Dr. Thomas Dick. --Prof. Bush. --Thomas Shillitoe. --Alexander Pope. --Sir Richard Phillips. --Sir Isaac Newton. --The Abbé Gallani. --Homer. --Dr. Franklin. --Mr. Newton. --O. S. Fowler. --Rev. Mr. Johnston. --John H. Chandler. --Rev. J. Caswell. --Mr. Chinn. --Father Sewall. --Magliabecchi. --Oberlin and Swartz. --James Haughton. --John Bailies. --Francis Hupazoli. --Prof. Ferguson. --Howard, the Philanthropist. --Gen. Elliot. --Encyclopedia Americana. --Thomas Bell, of London. --Linnæus, the Naturalist. --Shelley, the Poet. --Rev. Mr. Rich. --Rev. John Wesley. --Lamartine, 176-222 CHAPTER VII. SOCIETIES AND COMMUNITIES ON THE VEGETABLE SYSTEM. The Pythagoreans. --The Essenes. --The Bramins. --Society of Bible Christians. --Orphan Asylum of Albany. --The Mexican Indians. --School in Germany. --American Physiological Society, 223-235 CHAPTER VIII. VEGETABLE DIET DEFENDED. General Remarks on the Nature of the Argument. --1. The Anatomical Argument. --2. The Physiological Argument. --3. The Medical Argument. --4. The Political Argument. --5. The Economical Argument. --6. The Argument from Experience. --7. The Moral Argument. --Conclusion, 236-296 * * * * * VEGETABLE COOKERY. CLASS I. FARINACEOUS OR MEALY SUBSTANCES. Bread of the first order. --Bread of the second order. --Bread of the third kind. --Boiled Grains. --Grains in other forms--baked, parched, roasted, or torrefied. --Hominy. --Puddings proper, 291-308 CLASS II. FRUITS. The large fruits--Apple, Pear, Peach, Quince, etc. --The smaller fruits--Strawberry, Cherry, Raspberry, Currant, Whortleberry, Mulberry, Blackberry, Bilberry, etc. , 308-309 CLASS III. ROOTS. The Common Potato. --The Sweet Potato, 309-311 CLASS IV. MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES OF FOOD. Buds and Young Shoots. --Leaves and Leaf Stalks. --Cucurbitaceous Fruits. --Oily Seeds, etc. , 311-312 VEGETABLE DIET. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF THIS WORK. Experience of the Author, and his Studies. --Pamphlet in 1832. --Prize Question of the Boylston Medical Committee. --Collection of Materials for an Essay. --Dr. North. --His Letter and Questions. --Results. Twenty-three years ago, the present season, I was in the first stage oftuberculous consumption, and evidently advancing rapidly to the second. The most judicious physicians were consulted, and their advice at lengthfollowed. I commenced the practice of medicine, traveling chiefly onhorseback; and, though unable to do but little at first, I soon gainedstrength enough to perform a moderate business, and to combine with it alittle gardening and farming. At the time, or nearly at the time, ofcommencing the practice of medicine, I laid aside my feather bed, andslept on straw; and in December, of the same year, I abandoned spirits, and most kinds of stimulating food. It was not, however, until nineteenyears ago, the present season, that I abandoned all drinks but water, and all flesh, fish, and other highly stimulating and concentratedaliments, and confined myself to a diet of milk, fruits, andvegetables. In the meantime, the duties of my profession, and the nature of mystudies led me to prosecute, more diligently than ever, a subject whichI had been studying, more or less, from my very childhood--the laws ofHuman Health. Among other things, I collected facts on this subject frombooks which came in my way; so that when I went to Boston, in January, 1832, I had already obtained, from various writers, on materia medica, physiology, disease, and dietetics, quite a large parcel. The results ofmy reflections on these, and of my own observation and experience, were, in part--but in part only--developed in July, of the same year, in ananonymous pamphlet, entitled, "Rational View of the Spasmodic Cholera;"published by Messrs. Clapp & Hull, of Boston. In the summer of 1833, the Boylston Medical Committee of HarvardUniversity offered a prize of fifty dollars, or a gold medal of thatvalue, to the author of the best dissertation on the following question:"What diet can be selected which will ensure the greatest health andstrength to the laborer in the climate of New England--quality andquantity, and the time and manner of taking it, to be considered?" At first, I had thoughts of attempting an essay on the subject; for itseemed to me an important one. Circumstances, however, did not permit meto prosecute the undertaking; though I was excited by the question ofthe Boylston Medical Committee to renewed efforts to increase my stockof information and of facts. In 1834, I accidentally learned that Dr. Milo L. North, a distinguishedpractitioner of medicine in Hartford, Connecticut, was pursuing a courseof inquiry not unlike my own, and collecting facts and materials for asimilar purpose. In correspondence with Dr. North, a proposition wasmade to unite our stock of materials; but nothing for the present wasactually done. However, I agreed to furnish Dr. North with a statementof my own experience, and such other important facts as came within therange of my own observations; and a statement of my experience wassubsequently intrusted to his care, as will be seen in its place, in thebody of this work. In February, 1835, Dr. North, in the prosecution of his efforts, addressed the following circular, or LETTER and QUESTIONS, to the editorof the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, which were accordinglyinserted in a subsequent number of that work. They were also publishedin the American Journal of Medical Science, of Philadelphia, and copiedinto numerous papers, so that they were pretty generally circulatedthroughout our country. "To the Editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. "SIR, --Reports not unfrequently reach us of certain individuals who havefallen victims to a prescribed course of regimen. Those persons aresaid, by gentlemen who are entitled to the fullest confidence, to havepertinaciously followed the course, till they reached a point ofreduction from which there was no recovery. If these are facts, theyought to be collected and published. And I beg leave, through yourJournal, to request my medical brethren, if they have been called toadvise in such cases, that they will have the kindness to answer, briefly, the following interrogatories, by mail, as early as convenient. "Should the substance of their replies ever be embodied in a smallvolume, they will not only receive a copy and the thanks of the author, but will have the pleasure to know they are assisting in the settlementof a question of great interest to the country. If it should appearprobable that their patient was laboring under a decline at thecommencement of the change of diet, this ought, in candor, to be fullydisclosed. "It will be perceived, by the tenor of the questions, that they aredesigned to embrace not only unfortunate results of a change of diet, but such as are favorable. There are, in our community, considerablenumbers who have entirely excluded animal food from their diet. It isexceedingly desirable that the results of such experiments, so difficultto be found in this land of plenty, should be ascertained and thrownbefore the profession and the community. Will physicians, then, have thekindness, if they know of any persons in their vicinity who haveexcluded animal food from their diet for a year or over, to lend themthis number of the Journal, and ask them to forward to Milo L. North, Hartford, Connecticut, as early as convenient, the result of this changeof diet on their health and constitution, in accordance with thefollowing inquiries? "1. Was your bodily strength either increased or diminished by excludingall animal food from your diet? "2. Were the animal sensations, connected with the process of digestion, more--or less agreeable? "3. Was the mind clearer; and could it continue a laboriousinvestigation longer than when you subsisted on mixed diet? "4. What constitutional infirmities were aggravated or removed? "5. Had you fewer colds or other febrile attacks--or the reverse? "6. What length of time, the trial? "7. Was the change to a vegetable diet, in your case, preceded by theuse of an uncommon proportion of animal food, or of high seasoning, orof stimulants? "8. Was this change accompanied by a substitution of cold water for teaand coffee, during the experiment? "9. Is a vegetable diet more--or less aperient than mixed? "10. Do you believe, from your experience, that the health of eitherlaborers or students would be promoted by the exclusion of animal foodfrom their diet? "11. Have you selected, from your own observation, any articles in thevegetable kingdom, as particularly healthy, or otherwise? "N. B. --Short answers to these inquiries are all that is necessary; andas a copy of the latter is retained by the writer, it will be sufficientto refer to them numerically, without the trouble of transcribing eachquestion. "HARTFORD, February 25, 1835. " This circular, or letter, drew forth numerous replies from various partsof the United States, and chiefly from medical men. In the meantime, theprize of the Boylston Medical Committee was awarded to Luther V. Bell, M. D. , of Derry, New Hampshire, and was published in the Boston Medicaland Surgical Journal, and elsewhere, and read with considerableinterest. In the year 1836, while many were waiting--some with a degree ofimpatience--to hear from Dr. North, his health so far failed him, thathe concluded to relinquish, for the present, his inquiries; and, at hisparticular request, I consented to have the following card inserted inthe Boston Medical and Surgical Journal: "DR. NORTH, of Hartford, Connecticut, tenders his grateful acknowledgments to the numerous individuals, who were so kind as to forward to him a statement of the effects of vegetable diet on their own persons, in reply to some specific inquiries inserted in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of March 11, 1835, and in the Philadelphia Journal of the same year. Although many months elapsed before the answers were all received, yet the writer is fully aware that these communications ought to have been published before this. His apology is a prolonged state of ill health, which has now become so serious as to threaten to drive him to a southern climate for the winter. In this exigency, he has solicited Dr. W. A. Alcott, of Boston, to receive the papers and give them to the public as soon as his numerous engagements will permit. This arrangement will doubtless be fully satisfactory, both to the writers of the communications and to the public. "HARTFORD, November 4, 1836. " Various circumstances, beyond my control, united to defer thepublication of the contemplated work to the year 1838. It is hoped, however, that nothing was lost by delay. It gave further opportunity forreflection, as well as for observation and experiment; and if the workis of any value at all to the community, it owes much of that value tothe fact that what the public may be disposed to regard as unnecessary, afforded another year for investigation. Not that any new discoverieswere made in that time, but I was, at least, enabled to verify andconfirm my former conclusions, and to review, more carefully than ever, the whole argument. It is hoped that the work will at least serve as apioneer to a more extensive as well as more scientific volume, by someindividual who is better able to do the subject justice. It will be my object to present the facts and arguments of the followingvolume, not in a distorted or one-sided manner, but according to truth. I have no private interests to subserve, which would lead me tosuppress, or falsely color, or exaggerate. If vegetable food is notpreferable to animal, I certainly do not wish to have it so regarded. This profession of a sincere desire to know and teach the truth may bean apology for placing the letters in the order in which theyappear--which certainly is such as to give no unfair advantages to thosewho believe in the superiority of the vegetable system--and for thefaithfulness with which their whole contents, whether favoring one sideor other of the argument, have been transcribed. The title of the work requires a word of explanation. It is notintended, or even intimated, that there are no facts here but what reston medical authority; but rather, that the work originated with themedical profession, and contains, for the most part, testimony which isexclusively medical--either given by medical men, or under theirsanction. In fact, though designed chiefly for popular reading, it is ina good degree a medical work; and will probably stand or fall, accordingto the sentence of approbation or disapprobation which shall bepronounced by the medical profession. The following chapter will contain the letters addressed to Dr. North. They are inserted, with a single exception, in the precise order oftheir date. The first, however, does not appear to have been elicited byDr. North's circular; but rather by a request in some previous letter. It will be observed that several of the letters include more than onecase or experiment; and a few of them many. Thus the whole seriesembraces, at the least calculation, from thirty to forty experiments. The replies of nearly every individual are numbered to correspond withthe questions, as suggested by Dr. North; so that, if there shouldremain a doubt, in any case, in regard to the precise point referred toby the writer of the letter, the reader has only to turn to the circularin the present chapter, and read the question there, which correspondsto the number of the doubtful one. Thus, for example, the variousreplies marked 6, refer to the length or duration of the experiment orexperiments which had been made; and those marked 9, to the aperienteffects of a diet exclusively vegetable. And so of all the rest. CHAPTER II. LETTERS TO DR. NORTH. Letter of Dr. Parmly. --Dr. W. A. Alcott. --Dr. D. S. Wright. --Dr. H. N. Preston. --Dr. H. A. Barrows. --Dr. Caleb Bannister. --Dr. Lyman Tenny. --Dr. J. M. B. Harden. --Joseph Ricketson, Esq. --Joseph Congdon, Esq. --George W. Baker, Esq. --John Howland, Jr. , Esq. --Dr. Wm. H. Webster. --Josiah Bennet, Esq. --Wm. Vincent, Esq. --Dr. Geo. H. Perry. --Dr. L. W. Sherman. LETTER I. --FROM DR. PARMLY, DENTIST. To Dr. North. MY DEAR SIR, --For two years past, I have abstained from the use of allthe diffusible stimulants, using no animal food, either flesh, fish, orfowl; nor any alcoholic or vinous spirits; no form of ale, beer, orporter; no cider, tea, or coffee; but using milk and water as my onlyliquid aliment, and feeding sparingly, or rather, moderately, uponfarinaceous food, vegetables, and fruit, seasoned with unmelted butter, slightly boiled eggs, and sugar or molasses; with no condiment butcommon salt. I adopted this regimen in company with several friends, male and female, some of whom had been afflicted either with dyspepsia or some otherchronic malady. In every instance within the circle of my acquaintance, the _symptoms_ of disease disappeared before this system of diet; and Ihave every reason to believe that the disease itself was wholly or inpart eradicated. In answer to your inquiry, whether I ascribe the cure, in the casesalleged, to the abstinence from animal food or from stimulating drinks, or from both, I cannot but give it as my confident opinion that theresult is to be attributed to a general abandonment of the _diffusivestimuli_, under every shape and form. An increase of flesh was one of the earliest effects of the_anti-stimulating_ regimen, in those cures in which the system was inlow condition. The animal spirits became more cheerful, buoyant, anduniformly pleasurable. Mental and bodily labor was endured with muchless fatigue, and both intellectual and corporeal exertion was morevigorous and efficient. In the language of Addison, this system of ultra temperance has had thehappy effect of "filling the mind with inward joy, and spreading delightthrough all its faculties. " But, although I have thus made the experiment of abstaining wholly fromthe use of liquid and solid stimulants, and from every form of animalfood, I am not fully convinced that it should be deemed improper, on anyaccount, to use the more slightly stimulating forms of animal food. Perhaps fish and fowl, with the exception of ducks and geese, turtle andlobster, may be taken without detriment, in moderate quantities. And Iregard good mutton as being the lightest, and, at the same time, themost nutritious of all meats, and as producing less inconvenience thanany other kind, where the energies of the stomach are enfeebled. And yetthere are unquestionably many constitutions which would be benefited byliving, as I and others have done, on purely vegetable diet and ripefruits. In relation to many of the grosser kinds of animal food, all alcoholicspirits, all distilled and fermented liquors, tea and coffee, opium andtobacco, --I feel confident in pronouncing them not only useless, butnoxious to the animal machine. Yours, etc. , ELEAZER PARMLY NEW YORK, January 31, 1835. LETTER II--FROM DR. W. A. ALCOTT. BOSTON, December 19, 1834. DEAR SIR, --I received your communication, and hasten to reply to as manyof your inquiries as I can. Allow me to take them up in the very orderin which you have presented them. Answer to question 1. I was bred to a very active life, from my earliestchildhood. This active course was continued till about the time of myleaving off the use of flesh and fish; since which period my habitshave, unfortunately, been more sedentary. I think my muscular strengthis somewhat less now than it was before I omitted flesh meat, but inwhat proportion I am unable to say; for indeed it varies greatly. Whenmore exercise is used, my strength increases--sometimes almostimmediately; when less exercise is used, my strength again diminishes, but not so rapidly. These last circumstances indicate a more directconnection between my loss of muscular strength and my neglect ofexercise than between the former and my food. 2. Rather more agreeable; unless I use too large a quantity of food; towhich however I am rather more inclined than formerly, as my appetite iskeener, and food relishes far better. A sedentary life, moreover, as Iam well satisfied, tends to bring my moral powers into subjection to thephysical. 3. My mind has been clearer, since I commenced the experiment to whichyou allude, than before; but I doubt whether I can better endure a"laborious investigation. " A little rest or exercise, perhaps less thanformerly, restores vigor. I am sometimes tempted to _break my day intotwo_, by sleeping at noon. But I am not so apt to be cloyed with study, or reflection, as formerly. 4. Several. 1. An eruptive complaint, sometimes, at one period of mylife, very severe. 2. Irritation of the lungs; probably, indeed mostcertainly, incipient phthisis. 3. Rheumatic attacks, though they hadnever been very severe. The eruptive disease, however, and the rheumatic attacks, are not whollyremoved; but they are greatly diminished. The irritation at the lungshas nearly left me. This is the more remarkable from the fact that Ihave been, during almost the whole period of my experiment, in or aboutBoston. I was formerly somewhat subject to palpitations; these are nowless frequent. I am also less exposed to epidemics. Formerly, like otherscrofulous persons, I had nearly all that appeared; now I have very few. You will observe that I merely state the facts, without affirming, positively, that my change of diet has been the cause, though I am quiteof opinion that this has not been without its influence. Mental quietand total abstinence from all drinks but water, may also have had muchinfluence, as well as other causes. 5. Very few colds. Last winter I had a violent inflammation of the ear, which was attended with some fever; but abstinence and emollientapplications soon restored me. In July last, I had a severe attack ofdiarrhoea unattended with much fever, which I attributed to drinkingtoo much water impregnated with earthy salts, and to which I had beenunaccustomed. When I have a cold, of late, it affects, principally, thenasal membrane; and, if I practice abstinence, soon disappears. In thisrespect, more than in any other, I am confident that since I commencedthe use of a vegetable diet I have been a very great gainer. 6. The experiment was fully begun four years ago last summer; though Ihad been making great changes in my physical habits for four yearsbefore. For about three years, I used neither flesh nor fish, nor eveneggs more than two or three times a year. The only animal food I usedwas milk; and for some long periods, not even that. But at the end ofthree years I ate a very small quantity of flesh meat once a day, forthree or four weeks, and then laid it aside. This was in the time of thecholera. The only effect I perceived from its use was a slight increaseof peristaltic action. In March last, I used a little dried fish once ortwice a day, for a few days; but with no peculiar effects. After myattack of diarrhoea, in July last, I used a little flesh severaltimes; but for some months past I have laid it aside entirely, with nointention of resuming it. Nothing peculiar was observed, as to itseffects, during the last autumn. 7. I never used a large proportion of animal food, except milk, since Iwas a child; but I have been in the habit, at various periods of mylife, of drinking considerable cider. For some months before I laidaside flesh and fish, I had been accustomed to the use of more animalfood than usual, but less cider; though, for a part of the time, I madeup the deficiency of cider with ale and coffee. For several monthsprevious to the beginning of the experiment, I had drank nothing butwater. 8. Rather less. But here, again, I fear I am in danger of attributing toone cause what is the effect of another. My neglect of exercise may bemore in fault than the rice and bread and milk which I use. Still I mustthink that vegetable food is, in my own case, less aperient than animal. 9. In regard to students, my reply is, Yes, most certainly. So I thinkin regard to laborers, were they trained to it. But how far _earlyhabits_ may create a demand for the continuance of animal food throughlife, I am quite at a loss for an opinion. Were I a hard laborer, Ishould use no animal food. When I travel on foot forty or fifty miles aday, I use vegetable food, and in less than the usual quantity. This Iused to do before I commenced my experiment. 10. I use bread made of unbolted wheat meal, in moderate quantity, whenI can get it; plain Indian cakes once a day; milk once a day; rice oncea day. My plan is to use as few things as possible at the same meal, butto have considerable variety at different meals. I use no new bread orpastry, no cheese, and but little butter; and very little fruit, exceptapples in moderate quantity. 11. The answer to this question, though I think it would be importantand interesting, with many other particulars, I must defer for thepresent. The experiments of Dr. F. , a young man in this neighborhood, and of several other individuals, would, I know be in point; but I havenot at my command the time necessary to present them. LETTER III. --FROM DR. D. S. WRIGHT. WHITEHALL, Washington Co. , N. Y. , March 17, 1835. DEAR SIR, --I noticed a communication from you in the Boston Medical andSurgical Journal of the 5th instant, in which you signify a wish tocollect facts in relation to the effects of a vegetable diet upon thehuman system, etc. I submit for your consideration my own experience;premising, however, that I am a practicing physician in this place--amthirty-three years old--of a sanguine, bilious temperament--have fromyouth up usually enjoyed good health--am not generally subject tofevers, etc. I made a radical change in my diet three years ago this present month, from a mixed course of animal and vegetable food, to a strictlyvegetable diet, on which I subsisted pretty uniformly for the most partof one year. I renewed it again about ten moths ago. My reasons for adopting it were: 1st. I had experienced the beneficialeffects of it for several years before, during the warm weather, inobviating a dull cephalalgic pain, and oppression in the epigastrium. 2dly. I had recently left the salubrious atmosphere of the mountains inEssex county, in this state, for this place of _musquitoes_ and_miasmata_. 3dly, and prominently. I had frequent exposures to thevariolous infection, and I had a _dreadful_ apprehension that I mighthave an attack of the varioloid, as at that time I had neverexperimentally tried the protective powers of the vaccine virus, andhad _too_ little confidence in those who recommended its prophylacticpowers. The results I submit you, in reply to your interrogatories. 1. I think each time I tried living on vegetable food exclusively, thatfor the first month I could not endure fatigue _as well_. Afterward Icould. 2. The digestive organs were always more agreeably excited. 3. The mind uniformly clearer, and could endure laborious investigationslonger, and with less effort. 4. I am constitutionally healthy and robust. 5. I believe I have more colds, principally seated on the mucousmembranes of the lungs, fauces, and cavities of the head. (I do not, however, attribute it to diet. ) 6. The first trial was one year. I am now ten months on the same plan, and shall continue it. 7. I never used a large quantity of animal food or stimulants, of anydescription. 8. I have for several years used tea and coffee, usually once aday--believe them healthy. 9. Vegetable diet is less aperient than a mixed diet, if we except_Indian corn_. 10. I do not think that common laborers, in health, could do as wellwithout animal food; but I think students might. 11. I have selected _potatoes_, when _baked_ or _roasted_, and allarticles of food usually prepared from _Indian meal_, as the mosthealthy articles on which I subsist; particularly the latter, whoseaperient and nutritive qualities render it, in my estimation, aninvaluable article for common use. Yours, etc. , D. S. WRIGHT. LETTER IV. --FROM DR. H. N. PRESTON. [1] PLYMOUTH, Mass. , March 26, 1835. DEAR SIR, --When I observed your questions in the Boston Medical andSurgical Journal, of the 11th of March, I determined to give youpersonal experience, in reply to your valuable queries. In the spring of 1832, while engaged in more than usual professionallabor, I began to suffer from indigestion, which gradually increased, unabated by any medicinal or dietetic course, until I was reduced to thevery confines of the grave. The disease became complicated, for a time, with chronic bronchitis. I would remark, that, at the time of mycommencing a severe course of diet, I was able to attend to my practicedaily. In answer to your inquiries, I would say to the 1st--very muchdiminished, and rapidly. 2. Rather less; distinct local uneasiness--less disposition todrowsiness; but decidedly more troubled with cardialgia, andeructations. 3. I think not. 4. My disease was decidedly increased; as cough, headache, andemaciation; and being of a scrofulous diathesis, was lessening myprospect of eventual recovery. 5. My febrile attacks increased with my increased debility. 6. Almost four months; when I became convinced death would be theresult, unless I altered my course. 7. I had taken animal food moderately, morning and noon--very littlehigh seasoning--no stimulants, except tea and coffee. The latter was myfavorite beverage; and I usually drank two cups with my breakfast anddinner, and black tea with my supper. 8. I drank but one cup of weak coffee with my breakfast, none withdinner, and generally a cup of milk and water with supper. 9. With me _much less aperient_; indeed, costiveness became a veryserious and distressing accompaniment. 10. From somewhat extensive observation, for the last seven years, Ishould say, of laborers never; students seldom. 11. Among dyspeptics, potatoes nearly boiled, then mashed together, rolled into balls, and laid over hot coals, until a second time cooked, as easy as any vegetable. If any of the luxuries of the table have beennoticed as particularly injurious, it has been cranberries, prepared inany form, as stewed in sauce, tarts, pies, etc. Crude as these answers are, they are at your service; and I am promptedto give them from the fact, that very few persons, I presume, have beenso far reduced as myself, with dyspepsia and its concomitants. In fact, I was pronounced, by some of the most scientific physicians of Boston, as past all prospect of cure, or even much relief, from medicine, diet, or regimen. My attention has naturally been turned with anxioussolicitude to the subject of diet, in all its forms. Since my unexpectedrestoration to health, my opportunities for observation among dyspepticshave been much enlarged; and I most unhesitatingly say, that my successis much more encouraging, in the management of such cases, sincepursuing a more liberal diet, than before. Plain animal diet, avoidingcondiments and tea, using mucilaginous drink, as the Irish Moss, ispreferable to "absolute diet, "--cases of decided chronic gastritisexcepted. Yours, etc. , H. N. PRESTON. LETTER V. --FROM DR. H. A. BARROWS. PHILLIPS, Somerset Co. , Me. , April 28, 1835. DEAR SIR, --I have a brother-in-law, who owes his life to abstinence fromanimal food, and strict adherence to the simplest vegetable diet. My ownexistence is prolonged, only (according to human probabilities) byentire abstinence from flesh-meat of every description, and feedingprincipally upon the coarsest farinacea. Numberless other instances have come under my observation within thelast three years, in which a strict adherence to a simple vegetable diethas done for the wretched invalid what the best medical treatment hadutterly failed to do; and in no one instance have I known permanentlyinjurious results to follow from this course, but in many instances havehad to lament the want of firmness and decision, and a gradual return tothe "_flesh-pots of Egypt_. " With these views, I very cheerfully comply with your general invitation, on page 77, volume 12, of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. Theanswers to your interrogatories will apply to the case first referredto, to my own case, and to nearly every one which has occurred within mynotice. 1. Increased, uniformly; and in nearly every instance, without even theusual debility consequent upon withdrawing the stimulus of animal food. 2. More agreeable in every instance. 3. Affirmative, _in toto_. 4. None aggravated, except flatulence in one or two instances. All thehorrid train of dyspeptic symptoms uniformly mitigated, and obstinateconstipation removed. 5. Fewer colds and febrile attacks. 6. Three years, with my brother; with myself, eighteen months partially, and three months wholly; the others, from one to six months. 7. Negative. 8. Cold water--my brother and myself; others, hot and cold wateralternately. 9. More aperient, --no exceptions. 10. I believe the health of _students_ would uniformly be promoted--andthe days of the laborer, to say the least, would be lengthened. 11. I have; and that is, simple bread made of wheat meal, ground incorn-stones, and mixed up precisely as it comes from the mill--with thesubstitution of fine flour when the bowels become too active. Yours, etc. , HORACE A. BARROWS. LETTER VI. --FROM DR. CALEB BANNISTER. PHELPS, N. Y. , May 4, 1835. SIR, --My age is fifty-three. My ancestors had all melted away withhereditary consumption. At the age of twenty, I began to be afflictedwith pain in different parts of the thorax, and other premonitorysymptoms of phthisis pulmonalis. Soon after this, my mother and eldestsister died with the disease. For myself, having a severe attack of agueand fever, all my consumptive symptoms became greatly aggravated; thepain was shifting--sometimes between the shoulders, sometimes in theside, or breast, etc. System extremely irritable, pulse hard and easilyexcited, from about ninety to one hundred and fifty, by the stimulus ofa very small quantity of food; and, to be short, I was given up, on allhands, as lost. From reading "Rush" I was induced to try a milk diet, and succeeded inregaining my health, so that for twenty-four years I have been entirelyfree from any symptom of phthisis; and although subject, during thattime, to many attacks of fever and other epidemics, have steadilyfollowed the business of a country physician. I would further remark, before proceeding to the direct answer to yourquestions, that soon perceiving the benefit resulting from the course Ihad commenced, and finding the irritation to diminish in proportion as Idiminished not only the quality, but quantity of my food, I took lessthan half a pint at a meal, with a small piece of bread, amounting toabout the quantity of a Boston cracker; and at times, in order to lessenarterial action, added some water to the milk, taking only my usualquantity in _bulk_. A seton was worn in the side, and a little exercise on horseback takenthree times every day, as strength would allow, during the wholeprogress. The appetite was, at all times, not only _craving_, it was_voracious_; insomuch that all my sufferings from all other sources, dwindled to a point when compared with it. The quantity that I ate at a time so far from satisfying my appetite, only served to increase it; and this inconvenience continued during thewhole term, without the least abatement;--and the only means by which Icould resist its cravings, was to live entirely by myself, and keep outof sight of all kinds of food except the scanty pittance on which Isubsisted. And now to the proposed questions. 1. Increased. 2. More agreeable, hunger excepted. 3. To the first part of this question, I should say evidently clearer;to the latter part, such was the state of debility when I commenced, andsuch was it through the whole course, I am not able to give a decisiveanswer. 4. This question, you will perceive, is already answered in mypreliminary remarks. 5. Fewer, insomuch that I had none. 6. Two full years. 7. My living, from early life, had been conformable to the habits of thefarmers of New England, from which place I emigrated, and my habits inregard to stimulating drinks were always moderate; but I occasionallytook them, in conformity to the customs of those "_times of ignorance_. " 8. I literally drank _nothing_; the milk wholly supplying the place ofall liquids. 9. State of the bowels good before adopting the course, and after. 10. I do not. 11. I have not. CALEB BANNISTER. LETTER VII. --FROM DR. LYMAN TENNY. FRANKLIN, Vermont, June 22, 1835. SIR, --In answer to your inquiries, in the Boston Medical and SurgicalJournal, vol. Xii. , page 78, I can say that I have lived entirely upon abread and milk diet, without using any animal food other than the milk. 1. At first, my bodily strength was diminished to a certain degree, andrequired a greater quantity of food, and rather oftener, than when upona mixed diet of animal food (strictly so called) and vegetables. 2. The animal sensations, attending upon the process of digestion, wererather more agreeable than when upon a mixed diet. 3. My mind was more clear, but I could not continue a laboriousinvestigation as long as when I used animal food more plentifully. 4. At this time there were no constitutional infirmities which I waslaboring under, except those which more or less accompany the rapidgrowth of the body; such as a general lassitude, impaired digestion, etc. , which were neither removed nor aggravated, but kept about so, until I ate just what I pleased, without any regard to my indigestion, etc. , when I began to improve in the strength of my whole system. 5. I do not recollect whether I was subject to more or fewer colds; butI can say I was perfectly free from all febrile attacks, althoughfebrile diseases often prevailed in my vicinity. But since that time, aperiod of six years, I have had three attacks of fever. 6. The length of time I was upon this diet was about two years. 7. Before entering upon this diet, I was in the habit of taking amoderate quantity of animal food, but without very high seasoning orstimulants. 8. While using this diet, I confined myself entirely and exclusively tocold water as a drink--using neither tea, coffee, nor spirits of anykind whatever. 9. I am inclined to think that a vegetable diet is more aperient than ananimal one; indeed, I may say I know it to be a fact. 10. From what I have experienced, I do not think that laborers would beany more healthy by excluding animal food from their diet entirely; butI believe it would be much getter if they would use less. As tostudents, I believe their health would be promoted if they were toexclude it almost, if not entirely. 11. I never have selected any vegetables which I thought to be morehealthy than others: nor indeed do I believe there is any one that ismore healthy than another; but believe that all those vegetables whichwe use in the season of them, are adapted to supply and satisfy thewants of the system. We are carnivorous, as well as granivorous animals, having systemsrequiring animal, as well as vegetable food, to keep all the organs ofthe body in tune; and perhaps we need a greater variety than otheranimals. Yours, etc. , LYMAN TENNY. LETTER VIII. --FROM DR. J. M. B. HARDEN. LIBERTY COUNTY, Georgia, July 15, 1835. SIR, --Having observed, in the May number of the "American Journal of theMedical Sciences, " certain inquiries in relation to diet, proposed byyou to the physicians of the United States, I herewith transmit to youan account of a case exactly in point, which I hope may proveinteresting to yourself, and in some degree "assist in the settlement ofa question of _great interest_ to the _country_. " The case, to which allusion is made, occurred in the person of a veryintelligent and truly scientific gentleman of this county, whose regularhabits, both of mind and body, added to his sound and discriminatingjudgment, will tend to heighten the value and importance of theexperiment involved in the case I am about to detail. Before proceeding to give his answers to your interrogatories, it may bewell to premise, that at the time of commencing the experiment, he wasforty-five years of age; and being an extensive cotton planter, hisbusiness was such as to make it necessary for him to undergo a greatdeal of exercise, particularly on foot, having, as he himself declares, to walk seldom less than ten miles a day, and frequently more; and thisexercise was continued during the whole period of the experiment. Hishealth for two years previously had been very feeble, arising, as hesupposed, from a diseased _spleen_; which organ is at this timeenlarged, and somewhat indurated. His digestive powers have _always_been _good_, and he had been in the habit of making his meals at timesentirely of _animal food_. His bowels have always been regular, andrather inclined to looseness, but never disordered. He is five feeteight inches high, of a very thin and spare habit of body, with thindark hair, inclining to baldness; complexion rather dark than fair; eyesdark hazel; of _very studious_ habits when free from active engagements;with great powers of mental abstraction and attention, and of a temper_remarkably even_. In answer to your interrogatories, he replies, -- 1. That his bodily strength was increased, and general health becamebetter. 2. He perceived no difference. 3. He is assured of the affirmative. 4. His spleen was diminished in size, and frequent and long-continuedattacks of _lumbago_ were rendered _much milder_, and have so continued. 5. Had fewer colds and febrile attacks. 6. Three years. 7. No; with the slight exception mentioned above. 8. No. 9. In his case rather less. 10. Undoubtedly. 11. No; has made his meals of cabbages entirely, and found them aseasily digested as any other article of diet. I may remark, that _honey_to him is a poison, producing, _invariably_, symptoms of cholera. After three years' trial of this diet, without having any previousapparent disease, but on the contrary as strong as usual, he was taken, somewhat suddenly, in the winter of 1832 and 3, with symptoms of extremedebility, attended with oedematous swellings of the lower extremities, and painful cramps, at night confined to the gastrocnemii of both legs, and some feverishness, indicated more by the beatings of the _carotids_than by any other symptom. His countenance became very pallid, andindeed he had every appearance of a man in a very low state of health. Yet, during the whole period of this apparent state of disease, therewere no symptoms indicative of disorder in any function, save thegeneral function of innervation, and perhaps that of the lymphatics orabsorbents of the lower extremities. Nor was there any manifest diseaseof any organ, unless it was the spleen, which was not then remarkablyenlarged. I was myself disposed to attribute his symptoms to the spleen, and possibly to the want of animal food; but he himself attributes itscommencement, if not its continuance, to the inhalation of the vapor ofarseniuretted and sulphuretted hydrogen gases, to which he wassubjected during some chemical experiments on the ores of cobalt, towhich he has been for a long time turning his attention; a circumstancewhich I had not known until lately. However it may be, he again returned to a mixed diet (to which howeverhe ascribes no agency in his recovery), and, after six months'continuance in this state, he rapidly recovered his usual health andstrength, which, up to this day--two full years after the expiration ofsix months--have continued good. In the treatment of his case nomedicine of any kind was given, to which any good effect can beattributed; and indeed he may be said to have undergone no medicaltreatment at all. Yours, etc. , J. M. B. HARDEN. LETTER IX. --FROM JOSEPH RICKETSON, ESQ. NEW BEDFORD, 8th month, 26th, 1835. RESPECTED FRIEND, --Perhaps before giving answers to thy queries in theAmerican Journal of Medical Science, it may not be amiss to give theesome account of my family and manner of living, to enable thee to judgeof the effect of a vegetable diet on the constitution. I have a wife, a mother aged eighty-eight, and two female domestics. Itis now near three years since we adopted what is called the Graham orvegetable diet, though not in its fullest extent. We exclude animal foodfrom our diet, but sometimes we indulge in shell and other fish. We useno kind of stimulating liquors, either as drink or in cookery, nor anyother stimulants except occasionally a little spice. We do not, asProfessor Hitchcock would recommend, nor as I believe would be mostconducive to good health, live entirely simple; sometimes, however, foran experiment, I have eaten only rice and milk; at other times onlypotatoes and milk for my dinner; and have uniformly found I could endureas much fatigue, and walk as far without inconvenience, as when I haveeaten a greater variety. We, however, endeavor to make our varietiesmostly at different meals. For breakfast and tea we have some hot water poured upon milk, to whichwe add a little sugar, and cold bread and butter; but in cold weather wetoast the bread, and prefer having it so cool as not to melt the butter. We seldom eat a meal without some kind of dried or preserved fruit, suchas peaches, plums, quinces, or apples; and in the season, when easily tobe procured, we use, freely, baked apples, also berries, particularlyblackberries stewed, which, while cooking, are sweetened and thickened alittle. Our dinners are nearly the same as our other meals, except thatwe use cold milk, without any water. We have puddings sometimes made ofstale bread, at others of Graham or other flour, or rice, or groundrice, usually baked; we have also hasty puddings, made of Indian meal, or Graham flour, which we eat with milk or melted sugar and cream;occasionally we have other simple puddings, such as tapioca, etc. Custards, with or without a crust, pies made of apple, and other fruitseither green or preserved; but we have no more shortening in the crustthan just to make it a little tender. I have two sons; one lived with us about fifteen months after we adaptedthis mode of living; it agreed remarkably well with him; he grew strongand fleshy. He married since that time, and, in some measure, returnedto the usual manner of living; but he is satisfied it does not agree sowell with him as the Graham diet. The coarse bread he cannot well dowithout. My other son was absent when we commenced this way of living;he has been at home about six weeks, and has not eaten any animal foodexcept when he dined out. He has evidently _lost_ flesh, and is not verywell; _he_ thinks he shall not be able to live without animal food, butI think his indisposition is more owing to the season of the year thandiet. He never drank any tea or coffee until about four years since, when he took some coffee for a while, but no tea. For the last two yearshe has not drank either, when he could get milk. He is generallyhealthy, and so is his brother: both were literally brought up ongingerbread and milk, never taking animal food of choice, until theywere fifteen or sixteen years of age. Dr. Keep, of Fairhaven, Connecticut, was here about a year since, invery bad health, since which I learn he has recovered by abstaining fromanimal food and other injurious diet. As he is a scientific man, I thinkhe can give thee some useful information. 1. The strength of both myself and wife has very materially increased, so that we can now walk ten miles as easily as we could five before;possibly it may in part be attributed to practice. Our health is, inevery respect, much improved. One of our women enjoys perfect health;the other was feeble when we commenced this way of living, and she hasnot gained much if any in the time; but this may be owing to herattendance on my mother, both day and night, who, being blind andfeeble, takes no exercise except to walk across the room; but we arevery sure she would not have lived to this time had she not adopted thisway of living. 2. The process of digestion is much more agreeable, if we do not indulgein eating too much. We seldom have occasion to think of it after risingfrom the table. 3. I do not perceive much effect on the mind, other than what wouldnaturally be produced by the restoration of health; but have no doubt alaborious investigation might be continued as long, if not longer, onthis than any other diet. 4. I was formerly very much afflicted with the headache, and sometimeswas troubled with rheumatism. I have very seldom, for the last two yearsespecially, been troubled with either; and when I have had a turn ofheadache, it is light indeed compared with what it was before we adoptedthis system of living. My wife was very dyspeptic, and often had severeturns of palpitation of the heart; the latter is entirely removed, andshe seldom experiences any inconvenience from the former. Our nurse wasformerly, and still is, troubled with severe turns of headache, thoughnot so bad as formerly; and I think she would have much less of it ifshe were placed in a different situation. 5. We scarcely know what it is to have a cold; my wife in particular. Previously to our change of diet, I was very subject to severe colds, attended with a hard cough, which lasted, sometimes, for several weeks. 6. As before stated, we exclude animal food from our diet, as well astea and coffee. 7. Before we adopted a vegetable diet, we always had meat for dinner, and generally with breakfast; and not unfrequently with tea. Tea andcoffee we drank very strong. 8. We have substituted milk and water sweetened, for tea and coffee. 9. Most vegetables I find have a tendency (especially when Graham orunbolted wheaten flour is used) to keep the bowels open; to counteractwhich, we use rice once or twice a week. Potatoes, when eaten freely, are flatulent, but not inconvenient when eaten moderately. 10. I think the health of students, by the exclusion of animal food fromtheir diet, would be promoted, especially if they excluded tea andcoffee also; and I can see no good reason why it should not bebeneficial to laboring people. I have conversed with two or threemechanics, who confirm me in this belief. 11. Graham bread, as we call it, eaten with milk, or baked potatoes andmilk, for most people, I think would be healthy; to which should beadded such a proportion of rice as may be found necessary. Thy friend, JOSEPH RICKETSON. LETTER X. --FROM JOSEPH CONGDON, ESQ. NEW BEDFORD, Sept. , 1835. ANSWERS to Dr. North's inquiries on diet. 1. Increase of strength and activity, connected with, and perhaps insome good degree a consequence of, an increase of daily exercise. 2. Process of digestion more regular and agreeable. 3. Mental activity greater; no decisive experiments on the ability to_continue_ a laborious investigation. 4. Dyspepsia of long continuance, and also difficult breathing;inflammation of the eyes. 5. Fewer colds; febrile attacks very slight; great elasticity inrecovering from disease. Some part of the effect should undoubtedly beascribed to greater attention to the skin by bathing and friction. 6. Twenty-six months of _entire abstinence_ from all animal substances, excepting butter and milk. Salt is used regularly. 7. Through life inclined to a vegetable diet, with few stimulants. 8. Drinks have been milk, milk and water, or cold water. 9. A _well-selected_ vegetable diet appears to produce a very regularaction of the stomach and bowels. 10. I think the health of laborers and students would be promoted by a_great_ reduction of the usual quantity of animal food, and perhaps bydiscontinuing its use entirely. I feel no want. 11. From my experience, I can very highly recommend bread made of coarsewheat flour. Among fruits, the blackberry, as peculiarly adapted to thestate of the body, at the time of the year when it is in season. Myrange of food has been confined. I avoid green vegetables. Age 35. JOSEPH CONGDON. LETTER XI. --FROM GEORGE W. BAKER, ESQ. NEW BEDFORD, 9th month, 10, 1835. DR. M. L. NORTH, --Agreeably to request, the following answers areforwarded, which I believe to be correct as far as my experience hastested. 1. At first it was diminished; but after a few months it was restored, and I think increased. 2. More. 3. It could. 4. Pretty free from constitutional infirmities before the change, and noincrease since. 5. I have had no cold, of any consequence, for the last three years; atwhich time I substituted cold water for tea and coffee, and commencedusing cold water for washing about my head and neck and for shaving, which I continued through the year. 6. I have not eaten animal food for about eighteen months. 7. Two years previous to the entire change the quantity was great, butthere had been a gradual diminution. 8. It was. (See fifth answer. ) 9. More so, in my case. 10. I believe the health of both laborers and students would beimproved. 11. I have generally avoided eating cucumbers; otherwise I have not. Thy assured friend, GEO. W. BAKER. LETTER XII--FROM JOHN HOWLAND, JR. , ESQ. NEW BEFORD, 9th month, 10th day, 1835. FRIEND, --As I have lived nearly three years upon a vegetable diet, Icheerfully comply with thy request. 1. My bodily strength has been increased; and I can now endure much moreexercise than formerly, without fatigue. 2. They are more agreeable; and I am now free from that dull, heavyfeeling, which I used to experience after my meals. 3. My mind is much clearer; and I am free from that depression ofspirits, to which I was formerly subject. 4. I was of a costive, dyspeptic habit, which has been entirely removed. I had frequent and severe attacks of headache, which I now rarely have;and when they do occur they are very light, compared with what theyformerly were. 5. I have had fewer colds, and those much lighter than formerly. 6. About three years. 7. I used to eat animal food for breakfast and dinner, with coffee fordrink, at those meals; and tea for my third meal, with bread and butter. 8. Milk for breakfast, and cold water for the other two meals. 9. I have found it more so; inasmuch as the use of it, with thesubstitution of bread, made from _coarse, unbolted wheat flour_, insteadof superfine, has removed my costiveness entirely. 10. I do. 11. I consider potatoes and rice as the most healthy, and confine myselfprincipally to the former. I would remark that during the season of fruits, I eat freely of them, with milk; and consider them to be healthy. JOHN HOWLAND, JR. LETTER XIII. --FROM DR. W. H. WEBSTER. BATAVIA, N. Y. , Oct. 21, 1835. SIR, --Some months since, I read your inquiries on diet in the BostonMedical and Surgical Journal; and subsequently in the Journal of MedicalSciences, Philadelphia. I will answer your questions, numerically, from my knowledge of a casesomewhat in point, and with which I am but too familiar, as it is myown. But, first, let me premise a few points in the history of myhealth, as a kind of key to my answers. It is about fifteen years since I was called a _dyspeptic_; this waswhile engaged in my academical studies. Not being instructed by mymedical friend to make any alteration in diet and regimen, I merelyswallowed his cathartics for one month, and his anodynes for the nextmonth, as the bowels were constipated or relaxed. In short, I leftcollege more dead than alive--a confirmed dyspeptic. In 1826, I commenced the practice of physic. From this time, to thewinter of 1831-2, I found it necessary gradually to diminish myindulgence in the luxuries of the table--especially in animal food, anddistilled and fermented liquors. On one of the most inclement nights ofthe winter of 1831-2, a fire broke out in our village, at which I becamevery wet by perspiration, and the ill-directed efforts of some toextinguish it. This was followed by a severe inflammatory attack uponthe digestive organs generally, and especially upon the renal region, which confined me to the house for more than eight months; and, for thegreatest share of that time, with the most excruciating torture. Ongetting out again, I found myself in a wretched conditionindeed--reduced to a skeleton--a voracious appetite, which could not beindulged, and which had scarcely deserted me through the whole eightmonths. I could not regain my flesh or strength but by almostimperceptible degrees; indeed, loaf-sugar and crackers were almost theonly food I could use with impunity for the first year. It is now nearly four years since I have eaten animal food, unless it behere and there a little, as an experiment, with the sole exception ofoysters, in which I can indulge, but with all due deference to thestricter rules of temperance. Still my appetite for animal food seemsunabated. I have ever been a man unusually temperate in the use ofintoxicating drinks; and by no means intemperate in the luxuries of thetable. I take no meat, no alcoholic or fermented drinks, not even cider;and, for a year past, my health has been better than for three yearsprevious; and I think that about one third the amount of nourishmentusually taken by men of my age, might subserve the purposes of food for_me_ better than a larger quantity. The more I eat, the more I desire toeat; and abstinence is my best medicine. But I have already surpassed my limits, and here are my answers. 1. My strength is invariably diminished by animal food, and in almostdirect proportion to the quantity, with the exception named above. 2. Pain has been the uniform attendant upon the digestion of an animaldiet, with feverish restlessness and constipation. 3. Decidedly more fit for energetic action. 4. An irritation, or subacute inflammation of the digestive apparatus, which is aggravated by animal food. 5. Can endure hardship, exposure, and fatigue, much better without meat. 6. About four years, with the exception stated above. 7. It was not. 8. Partially at the commencement; but not of late, if not taken hot. 9. Much more aperient. 10. Both classes take too much; and students and sedentaries should takelittle or none. 11. For myself farinaceous articles first, then the succulent sub-acidripe fruits, then the less oily nuts are most healthful--and animalfood, strong coffee and tea, and unripe or hard fruits, in anyconsiderable quantities, are most pernicious. Yours, etc. , W. H. WEBSTER. LETTER XIV. --FROM JOSIAH BENNET, ESQ. MOUNT-JOY, Pa. , Oct. 27, 1835. SIR, --I hereby transmit to you, answers to a series of dietetic querieswhich you have recently submitted. 1. My physical strength was at least equal (I am rather inclined tothink greater) after abstaining from animal food. I was, I am certain, not subject to such general debility and lassitude of the system, afterconsiderable bodily exercise. 2. More agreeable--not being subject to a sense of vertigo, whichfrequently (with me) followed the use of animal food. There is, generally, more cheerfulness and vivacity. 3. The mind is more clear, and is not so liable to be confused whenintent upon any intricate subject; and, of course, "can continue alaborious investigation longer. " There is at no time such a propensityto incogitancy. 4. I am not aware of being the subject of any "constitutionalinfirmities;" yet, that the change of diet had a very great effect uponthe system, is obvious, from the fact of my having been, formerly, subject to an eruptive disease of the skin, principally on the shouldersand upper part of the back, for a number of years, which is not the caseat present, nor do I think will be, as long as I continue my presentmode of living. 5. I think I have not had as many colds and febrile attacks as before, nor have they been so severe; yet I cannot be very decisive on thispoint, on account of the length of time in the trial not being fullysufficient. 6. Between seven and eight months. I must here state that animal foodwas not _entirely_ excluded. I probably partook, in very moderatequantities, once or twice a week. 7. The quantity of animal food which would be considered "an uncommonproportion, " I am unable to determine; but I was accustomed to make useof it, not _less_ than twice, and sometimes three times a day, moderately seasoned. No other stimulants, of any account. 8. Cold water has been the only substitute for tea and coffee, with theexception of an occasional cup; probably as often as once or twice aweek. I was, on several occasions, by personal experience, induced tobelieve that the use of strong coffee retarded the process ofdigestion. 9. More aperient. Previous to the general exclusion of animal food frommy diet, I was subject to inveterate costiveness; cases of which are nowneither frequent nor severe. 10. I do firmly believe it would. 11. My diet, principally, during the trial, consisted of wheat bread, ofthe proper age, with a moderate quantity of fresh butter. Potatoes, beans, and some other esculent roots, etc. , I found to be nutritious andhealthy. The following substances I found to produce a contrary effect, or to possess different qualities: cabbage, when not well boiled;cucumbers, raw or pickled; radishes, beets, and the whole catalogue ofpreserves. Fresh bread was particularly hurtful to me. Yours, etc. , JOSIAH BENNETT. LETTER XV. --FROM WILLIAM VINCENT, ESQ. [2] HOPKINTON, R. I. , Dec. 23, 1835. SIR, --The following answer to the interrogations in the Boston Medicaland Surgical Journal of March 1835, on diet, etc. , as proposed byyourself, has been through the press of business, neglected until thislate period. Trusting they may be of some use, I now forward them. 1. Rather increased, if any change. 2. ---- 3. I think I have retained the vigor of my mind more, in consequence ofan abstemious diet. 4. I thought I had the appearance of scurvy, which graduallydisappeared. 5. ---- 6. From May 20, 1811, (more than twenty-four years. ) 7. Small in quantity, and dressed and cooked simply. 8. I have drank nothing but warm tea, for seven years. 9. Bowels uniformly open. 10. I should not think it would. 11. I have lived principally on bread, butter, and cheese, and a fewdried vegetables. I was born March 31, 1764. In 1833, when mowing, to quench thirst, Idrank about a gill of cold water, _after_ about as much milk and water;and the same year, some molasses and water; but they did not answer thepurpose. But when I rinsed my mouth with cold water, it allayed mythirst. (Signed) WM. VINCENT. LETTER XVI. --FROM L. R. BRADLEY, BY DR. GEO. H. PERRY. HOPKINTON, R. I. , Dec. 23, 1835. SIR, --I deem it necessary, first, to mention the situation of my health, at the time of commencing abstinence from animal food. I was recoveringfrom an illness of a _nervous fever_. A sudden change respecting my foodnot sitting well, rendered it necessary for me to abstain from allkinds, excepting dry wheat bread and gruel, for several weeks. Bydegrees I returned to my former course of diet, but as yet not to itsfull extent, as I cannot partake of animal food of any kind whatever, nor of vegetables cooked therewith. 1. Diminished. 2. ---- 3. I do not perceive the mind to be clearer, and the power ofinvestigation less. 4. Distress in the stomach and pain in the head removed. 5. ---- 6. Six years and ten months. 7. Unusual proportion of animal food. 8. The first year, I drank only warm water, sweetened; since that, tea. 9. ---- 10. I do not. 11. I find _beets_ particularly hard to digest. L. R. B. The foregoing statements and answers are in her own way and manner. Yours, etc. , GEO. H. PERRY. LETTER XVII. --FROM DR. L. W. SHERMAN. FALMOUTH, Mass. , March 28, 1835. SIR, --In compliance with the request you recently made in the MedicalJournal, I inclose the following answers to the queries relative toregimen you have propounded. They are given by a lady, whose experience, intelligence, and discernment, have eminently qualified her to answerthem. She, with myself, is equally interested with you in having thisimportant question settled, and is extremely happy that you haveundertaken to do it. This lady is now fifty years of age; herconstitution naturally is good; her early habits were active, and herdiet simple, until twenty years of age. After that, until within a fewyears, her living consisted of all kinds of meats and delicacies, withwine after dinners, etc. , etc. 1. Her bodily strength was greatly increased by excluding animal foodfrom her diet. 2. The animal sensations connected with the process of digestion havebeen decidedly more agreeable. 3. The mind is much clearer, the spirits much better, the temper moreeven, and "less irritability pervades the system. " The mind can continuea laborious investigation longer than when she subsisted on a mixeddiet. 4. Her health, which was before feeble, has, by the change, beendecidedly improved. 5. She has certainly had fewer colds, and no febrile attacks of anyconsequence, since she has practiced rigid abstinence from meats. 6. She has abstained entirely for three years, and has taken but littlefor seven or eight years; and whenever she has, from necessity (in beingfrom home, where she could procure nothing else), indulged in eatingmeat, she has universally suffered severely in consequence. 7. The change to a vegetable diet was preceded, in her case, by the useof an uncommon proportion of animal food, highly seasoned withstimulants. 8. Tea and coffee she has not used for thirteen years. She has used, forsubstitutes, water, milk and water, barley water, and gruel. She foundtea and coffee to have an exceedingly pernicious effect upon her nervousand digestive system. 9. A vegetable diet is more aperient than a mixed. Habitual constipationhas been entirely removed by the change. 10. She sincerely believes, from her experience, that the health oflaborers and students would be generally promoted by the exclusion ofanimal food from their diet. 11. She considers _hominy_, as prepared at the South, particularlyhealthy; and subsists upon this, with bread made from coarse flour, withbroccoli, cauliflower, and all kinds of vegetables in their season. Be assured, dear sir, that these answers have come from a high source, to which private reference may at any time be made, and consequently areentitled to the highest consideration. Yours, etc. , L. W. SHERMAN. NOTE. --If I have not been minute enough in the relation of this case, Ishall hereafter be happy to answer any questions you may think proper topropose. It is a very interesting and important case, in my opinion. Thelady has been under my care a number of times, while laboring underslight indisposition. She has always been very regular and systematic inall her habits. She is healthy and robust in appearance, and looks asthough she might not be more than forty. This is the only case of thekind within my knowledge. I have practiced on her plan for a few weeksat a time, and, so far as my experience goes, it precisely comports withhers. But I love the "good things" of this world too well to abstainfrom their use, until some formidable disease demands their prohibition. Yours, etc. , L. W. S. FOOTNOTES: [1] Dr. Preston has since deceased. [2] Mr. Vincent is of Stonington, Ct. CHAPTER III. REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING LETTERS. Correspondence. --The "prescribed course of Regimen. "--How many victims to it?--Not one. --Case of Dr. Harden considered. --Case of Dr. Preston. --Views of Drs. Clark, Cheyne, and Lambe, on the treatment of Scrofula. --No reports of Injury from the prescribed System. --Case of Dr. Bannister. --Singular testimony of Dr. Wright. --Vegetable food for Laborers. --Testimony, on the whole, much more favorable to the Vegetable System than could reasonably have been expected, in the circumstances. "Reports not unfrequently reach us, " says Dr. North, "of certainindividuals who have fallen victims to a prescribed course of regimen. These persons are said, by gentlemen who are entitled to the fullestconfidence, to have pertinaciously followed the course, till theyreached a point of reduction from which there was no recovery. " "Ifthese are facts, " he adds, "they ought to be known and published. " It was in this view, that Dr. North, himself a medical practitioner ofhigh respectability, sent forth to every corner of the land, throughstandard and orthodox medical journals, to regular and experiencedphysicians--his "medical brethren"--his list of inquiries. Theseinquiries, designed to elicit truth, were couched in just such languageas was calculated to give free scope and an acceptable channel for thecommunication of every fact which seemed to be opposed to the VEGETABLESYSTEM; for this, we believe, was distinctly understood, by everymedical man, to be the "prescribed course of regimen" alluded to. The results of Dr. North's inquiries, and of an opportunity so favorablefor "putting down, " by the exhibition of sober facts, the vegetablesystem, are fully presented in the foregoing chapter. Let it not be saidby any, that the attempt was a partial or unfair one. Let it beremembered that every effort was made to obtain _truth in facts_, without partiality, favor, or affection. Let it be remembered, too, thatnearly two years elapsed before Dr. North gave up his papers to theauthor; during which time, and indeed up to the present hour--a period, in the whole, of more than fourteen years--a door has been opened toevery individual who had any thing to say, bearing upon the subject. Let us now review the contents of the foregoing chapter. Let us see, inthe first place, what number of persons have here been reported, bymedical men, as having fallen victims to the said "prescribed course ofregimen. " The matter is soon disposed of. Not a case of the description is foundin the whole catalogue of returns to Dr. N. This is a triumph which thefriends of the vegetable system did not expect. From the medicalprofession of this country, hostile as many of them are known to be tothe "prescribed course of regimen, " they must naturally have expected tohear of at least a few persons who were supposed to have fallen victimsto it. But, I say again, not one appears. It is true that Dr. Preston, of Plymouth, Mass. , thinks he should havefallen a victim to his abstinence from flesh meat, had he not alteredhis course; and Dr. Harden, of Georgia, relates a case of sudden loss ofstrength, and great debility, which he thought, _at the time_, might"possibly" be ascribed to the want of animal food: though theindividual himself attributed it to quite another cause. These are theonly two, of a list of thirty or forty, which were detailed, that bearthe slightest resemblance to those which report had brought to the earof Dr. N. , and about which he so anxiously and earnestly solicitedinquiry of his medical brethren. As to the case mentioned by Dr. Harden, no one who examined it withcare, will believe for a moment, that it affords the slightest evidenceagainst a diet exclusively vegetable. The gentleman who made theexperiment had pursued it faithfully three years, without the slightestloss of strength, but with many advantages, when, of a sudden, extremedebility came on. Is it likely that a diet on which he had so long beendoing well, should produce such a sudden falling off? The gentlemanhimself appears not to have had the slightest suspicion that thedebility had any connection with the diet. He attributes itscommencement, if not its continuance, to the inhalation of poisonousgases, to which he was subjected in the process of some chemicalexperiments. But why, then, it may be asked, did he return to a mixed diet, if he hadimbibed no doubts in regard to a diet exclusively vegetable; and, aboveall, how happened he to recover on it? To this it may be replied, thatthere is every reason to believe, from the tenor of the letter, that heacted against his own inclination, and contrary to his own views, at therequest of his friends, and of Dr. Harden, his physician; though Dr. Harden does not expressly say so. Besides, it does not appear that underhis mixed diet there was any favorable change, till something like sixmonths had elapsed. This was a period, in all probability, justsufficient to allow the poison of the gases to disappear; after whichhe might have been expected to recover on any diet not positively bad. If this is not a true solution of the case, how happens it that therewas no disease of any organ or function, except the nervous function?There is every reason for believing that Dr. Harden, at the date of hisletter, had undergone a change of opinion, and was himself beginning todoubt whether the regimen had any agency in producing the debility. [3] The case of Dr. Preston is somewhat more difficult. At first view, itseems to sustain the old notion of medical men, that, with a scrofuloushabit, a diet exclusively vegetable cannot be made to agree. This, Isay, seems to be a natural conclusion, _at first view_. But, on lookinga little farther, we may find some facts that justify a differentopinion. Dr. Preston was evidently timid and fearful--foreboding ill--during thewhole progress of his experiment. We think his story fully justifiesthis conclusion. In such circumstances, what could have been expected?There is no course of regimen in the world which will succeed happily ina state of mind like this. It should be carefully observed by the reader, that Dr. Preston speaksof entering upon a "severe course of diet;" and also, that, inattempting to give an opinion as to the best kind of vegetable food, hespeaks of potatoes, prepared in a certain specified manner, as beingpreferable to any other. Now, I think it obvious, that Dr. Preston's"severe course" partook largely of _crude_ vegetables, instead of thericher and better farinaceous articles--as the various sorts of bread, rice, pulse, etc. --and, if so, it is not to be wondered at that it wasso unsuccessful. In short, I do not think he made any thing like a fairexperiment in vegetable diet. His testimony, therefore, thoughinteresting, seems to be entitled to very little weight. This conclusion is stated with the more confidence, from the fact thatsome of the best medical writers, not only of ancient times, but of thepresent day, appear to entertain serious doubts in regard to thesoundness of the popular opinion in favor of the "beef-steak-and-porter"system of curing scrofulous patients. Dr. Clark, in the progress of his"Treatise on Consumption, " almost expresses a belief that a judiciousvegetable diet is preferable even for the scrofulous. He would not, ofcourse, recommend a diet of _crude_ vegetables, but one, rather, whichwould partake largely of farinaceous grains and fruits. Nor do I supposehe would, in every case, entirely exclude milk. Dr. Cheyne, in his writings, not only gives it as his opinion that amilk diet, long continued, or a milk and vegetable diet and mildmercurials, are the best means of curing scrofula; but he also says, expressly, that "in all countries where animal food and strong fermentedliquors are too freely used, there is scarcely an individual that hathnot scrofulous glands. " A sad story to relate, or to read! But, Dr. Lambe, of London, and other British physicians, entertain similarsentiments; and Dr. Lambe practices medicine largely, while entertainingthese sentiments. I could mention more than one distinguished physician, in Boston and elsewhere, who prescribes a vegetable and milk diet inscrofula. But, granting even the most that the friends of animal food can claim, what would the case of Dr. Preston prove? That the healthy are everinjured by the vegetable system? By no means. That the sickly wouldgenerally be? Certainly not. Dr. Preston himself even specifies onedisease, in which he thinks a vegetable diet would be useful. What, then, is the bearing of _this single and singular case_? Why, at themost, it only shows that there are some forms of dyspepsia which requireanimal food. Dr. Preston does not produce a single fact unfavorable to adiet exclusively vegetable for the healthy. [4] It is also worthy of particular notice, that not a fact is brought, oran experiment related, in a list of from thirty to forty cases, reportedtoo by medical men, which goes to prove that any injury has arisen tothe healthy, from laying aside the use of animal food. This kind ofinformation, though not the principal thing, was at least a secondaryobject with Dr. North; as we see by his questions, which were intendedto be put to those who had excluded animal food from their diet for ayear or more. But, let us take a general view of the replies to the inquiries of Dr. North. The sum of his first three questions, was, --What were the effectsof excluding animal food from your diet on your bodily strength, yourmental faculties, and your appetite and animal spirits? The answers to the three questions, of which this is the same, are, aswill be seen, remarkable. In almost every instance the reply indicatesthat bodily and mental labor was endured with less fatigue than before, and that an increased activity of mind and body was accompanied withincreased cheerfulness and animal enjoyment. In nearly every instance, strength of body was actually increased; especially after the firstmonth. A result so uniformly in favor of the vegetable system iscertainly more than could have been expected. One physician who made the experiment, indeed, says, that though hismind was clearer than before, he could not endure, so long, a laboriousinvestigation. Another individual says, he perceived no difference inthis respect. A third says, she found her bodily strength and powers ofinvestigation somewhat diminished, though her disease was removed. Withthese exceptions, the testimony on this point is, as I have alreadysaid, most decidedly--I might say most overwhelmingly--in favor of thedisuse of animal food. To the question, whether any constitutional infirmities were aggravatedor removed by the new course of regimen, the replies are almost equallyfavorable to the vegetable system. It is true that one of thephysicians, Dr. Parmly, thinks the beneficial effects which appeared inthe circle of his observation were the results of a simultaneousdiscontinuance of fermented drinks, tea and coffee, and condiments. ButI believe every one who reads his letter will be surprised at hisconclusions. No matter, however; we have his facts, and we are quitewilling they should be carefully considered. The singular case of Dr. Preston, I now leave wholly out of the account. It was, as I have sincelearned, the story of a _very singular man_. Among the diseases and difficulties which were removed, or supposed tobe removed, by the new diet, were dyspepsia, with the constipation whichusually attends it, general lassitude, rheumatism, periodical headache, palpitations, irritation of the first passages, eruptive diseases of theskin, scurvy, and consumption. The case of Dr. Bannister, who was, in early life, decidedlyconsumptive, is one of the most remarkable on record. Though evidentlyconsumptive, and near the borders of the grave, between the ages oftwenty and twenty-nine, he so far recovered as to be, at the age offifty-three, entirely free from every symptom of phthisis fortwenty-four years; during which whole period, he was sufficientlyvigorous to follow the laborious business of a country physician. The confidence of Dr. Wright in the prophylactic powers of a dietexclusively vegetable, so far as the mere opinion of one medical man isto be received as testimony in the case, is also remarkable. He not onlyregards the vegetable system as a defence against the diseases ofmiasmatic regions, but also against the varioloid disease. On the latterpoint, he goes, it seems, almost as far as Mr. Graham, who appears toregard it not only as, in some measure, a preventive of epidemicdiseases generally, in which he is most undoubtedly correct, but also ofthe small-pox. The testimony on another point which is presented in the replies to Dr. North's questions, is almost equally uniform. In nearly every instance, the individuals who have abandoned animal food have found themselvesless subject to colds than before; and some appear to have fallen intothe habit of escaping them altogether. When it is considered how seriousare the consequences of taking cold--when it is remembered thatsomething like one half of the diseases of our climate have their originin this source--it is certainly no trifling evidence in favor of acourse of regimen, that, besides being highly favorable in every otherrespect, it should prove the means of freeing mankind from exposure to amalady at once troublesome in itself and disastrous in itsconsequences. In reply to the question, --Is a vegetable diet more or less aperientthan a mixed one, --the answers have been the same, in nearly everyinstance, that it is more so. The answers to the question whether it was believed the health of eitherlaborers or students would be promoted by the exclusion of animal foodfrom their diet, are rather various. It will be observed, however, thatmany of the replies, in this case, are medical _opinions_, and come frommen who, though they felt themselves bound to state facts, weredoubtless, with very few exceptions, prejudiced against an exclusivelyvegetable regimen for the healthy. It is, therefore, to me, a matter ofsurprise, to find some of them in favor of the said prescribed course ofregimen, both for students and laborers, and many of them in favor ofthe discontinuance of animal food by students. Those who have themselvesmade the experiment, with hardly an exception, are decidedly in favor ofa vegetable regimen for all classes of mankind, particularly thesedentary. And in regard to the necessity of diminishing the proportionof animal food consumed by all classes, there seems to be but one voice. On one more important point there is a very general concurrence ofopinion. I allude to the choice of articles from the vegetable kingdom. The farinacea are considered as the best; especially wheat, groundwithout bolting. The preference of Dr. Preston is an exception; andthere are one or two others. On the whole--I repeat it--the testimony is far more favorable to the"prescribed course of regimen, " both for the healthy and diseased thanunder the circumstances connected with the inquiry the mostthorough-going vegetable eater could possibly have anticipated. If thisis a fair specimen--and I know no reason why it may not be regarded assuch--of the results of similar experiments and similar observationsamong medical men throughout our country, could their observations andexperiments be collected, it certainly confirms the views which someamong us have long entertained on this subject, and which will be stillmore strongly confirmed by evidence which will be produced in thefollowing chapters. Had similar efforts been made forty or fifty yearsago, to ascertain the views of physicians and others respecting thebenefits or safety of excluding wine and other fermented drinks in thetreatment of several diseases, in which not one in ten of our modernpractitioners would now venture to use them, as well as among thehealthy, I believe the results would have been of a very differentcharacter. The opinions, at least, of the physicians themselves, wouldmost certainly have been, nearly without a dissenting voice, that theentire rejection of wine and fermented liquors was dangerous to thesick, and unsafe to many of the healthy, especially the hard laborer. And there is quite as much reason to believe that animal food will bediscarded from our tables in the progress of a century to come, as therewas, in 1800, for believing that all drinks but water would be laidaside in the progress of the century which is now passing. FOOTNOTES: [3] See a more recent letter from Dr. Harden, in the next chapter. [4] Besides, it is worthy of notice, that Dr. Preston did not longsurvive on his own plan. He died about the year 1840. CHAPTER IV. ADDITIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Letter from Dr. H. A. Barrows. --Dr. J. M. B. Harden. --Dr. J. Porter. --Dr. N. J. Knight. --Dr. Lester Keep. --Second letter from Dr. Keep. --Dr. Henry H. Brown. --Dr. Franklin Knox. --From a Physician. --Additional statements by the Author. During the years 1837 and 1838 I wrote to several of the physicianswhose names, experiments, and facts appear in Chapter II. Their answers, so far as received, are now to be presented. I have also received interesting letters from several other physiciansin New England and elsewhere--but particularly in New England--on thesame general subject, which, with an additional statement of my owncase, I have added to the foregoing. I might have added a hundredauthentic cases, of similar import. I might also have obtained anadditional amount of the same sort of intelligence, had it not been forthe want of time, amid numerous other pressing avocations, forcorrespondence of this kind. Besides, if what I have obtained is notsatisfactory, I have many doubts whether more would be so. The first letter I shall insert is from Dr. H. A. Barrows, of Phillips, in Maine. It is dated October 10, 1837, and may be considered as asequel to that written by him to Dr. North, though it is addressed tothe author of this volume. LETTER I. --FROM DR. H. A. BARROWS. DEAR SIR, --As to food, my course of living has been quite uniform forthe last two or three years--principally as follows. Wheat meal bread, potatoes, butter, and baked sweet apples for breakfast and dinners; forsuppers, old dry flour bread, which, eaten very leisurely withoutbutter, sauce, or drink, sits the lightest and best of any thing I eat. But I cannot make this my principal diet, because the bowels will notact (_without physic_) unless they have the spur of wheat bran twothirds of the time. I have at times practiced going to bed without anythird meal; and have found myself amply rewarded for this kind offasting, and the consequent respite thereby afforded the stomach, inquiet sleep and improved condition the next day. And as to drink, Istill use cold water, which I take with as great a zest, and as keen arelish, as the inebriate does his stimulus. I seldom drink any thingwith my meals; and if I could live without drinking any thing betweenmeals, I think I should be rid of the principal "thorn in my side, " theacetous fermentation so constantly going on in my epigastric storehouse. As to exercise, I take abundance; perform all my practice (except in thewinter) on horseback, and find this the very best kind of exercise forme. I seldom eat oftener than at intervals of six hours, and am apt toeat too much--have at various times attempted Don Cornaro's method ofweighing food, but have found it rather dry business, probably onaccount of its conflicting with my appetite; but I actually find that mystomach does not bear watching at all well. My brother continues to practice nearly total abstinence from animalfood. I have seen him but once in two and a half years, but learn hishealth has greatly improved, so that he was able to take charge of ahigh school in the fall of 1836, of an academy in the spring of thepresent year, and also again this fall. During his vacation last July, he took a tour into the interior of Worcester county, Mass. , and camehome entirely on foot by way of the Notch of the White Hills, travelingnearly three hundred miles. This speaks something in favor of rigidabstinence--as when he commenced this regimen he was extremely low. Yours sincerely, H. A. BARROWS. LETTER II. --FROM DR. JOHN M. B. HARDEN. GEORGIA, Liberty Co. , Oct. 19, 1837. DEAR SIR, --I stated in my letter to Dr. North, if I recollect correctly, that the use of animal food was resumed in consequence of a protractedindisposition brought on, _as was supposed_, by the inhalation ofarseniuretted hydrogen gas. The gentleman had begun to recover some timepreviously; and in a short time after he commenced the use of the animalfood, he was restored to his usual health. He has continued the use ofit ever since to the same extent as in the former part of his life. Hehas lately passed his fifty-fifth year, and is now in the enjoyment ofas good health as he has ever known. I know of a gentleman in an adjoining county, who with his lady has beenliving for some time past on a purely vegetable diet. They have notcontinued it long enough, however, to make the experiment a fair one. No case of injury from the inhalation of arseniuretted hydrogen has comeunder my own personal observation, if we except the one above alludedto. I find, however, that Gehlen, a celebrated French chemist, fell avictim to it in the year 1815. His death is thus announced in the"Philosophical Magazine" for that year. "We lament to have to announcethe death of Gehlen, many years the editor of an excellent Journal onChemistry and other sciences, and a profound chemist. He fell a victimto his ardent desire to promote the advancement of chemical knowledge. He was preparing, in company with Mr. Rehland, his colleague, somearsenated hydrogen gas, and while watching for the full development ofthis air from its acid solution, trying every moment to judge from itsparticular smell when that operation would be completed, he inhaled thefatal poison which has robbed science of his valuable services. " VideTillock's Phil. Mag. , vol. 46, p. 316. Some further notice is taken ofhis death in a paper extracted from the "Annales de Chimie et dePhysique, " and published in a subsequent volume of the same Magazine. Vide vol. 49, p. 280, in which are given his last experiments on thatsubject, by M. Gay Lussac. I regret that no account is given in the samework of the symptoms arising from the poison in his case. I presume, however, they are on record. In the subject of the case I mention, the general and prominent symptomswere an immediate and great diminution of muscular strength, with pallorof countenance and constant febricula, the arteries of the head beatingwith violence, particularly when lying down at night, the pulse alwaysmoderately increased in frequency, and full, but not tense; anddigestion for the most part good. This state continued for about threemonths, during which time he was attending to his usual business, although not able to take as much exercise as before. At the end of thistime he began to recover slowly, but it was six months before he wasrestored entirely. Yours, etc. , JOHN M. B. HARDEN. LETTER III. --FROM DR. JOSHUA PORTER. NORTH BROOKFIELD, Oct. 26, 1827. Though I would by no means favor the propensity for book-making, soprevalent in our day, yet I have been long of the opinion that a work onvegetable diet for general readers was greatly needed. I need it in myfamily; and there are many others in this vicinity who would bematerially benefited by such a work. I have had no means of ascertaining the good or bad effects of a "dietexclusively vegetable in cases of phthisis, scrofula, and dyspepsia, "for I have had none of the above diseases to contend with. But, sinceyour letter was received, I have been called to prescribe for a man whohas been a flesh eater for more than half a century. He was confined tohis house, had been losing strength for several months, still keeping uphis old habits. The disease which was preying upon him was chronicinflammation of the right leg; the flesh had been so long swollen andinflamed that it had become hard to the touch. There were ulcers on histhigh, and some had made their appearance on the hip. This disease hadbeen of _seven months'_ standing, though not in so aggravated a form asit now appeared. During this time, all the local applications had beenmade that could be thought of by the good ladies in the neighborhood;and after every thing of the kind had failed, they concluded to send for"the doctor. " After examining the patient attentively, I became convinced that thedisease, which developed itself locally, was of a constitutional origin, and of course could not be cured by local remedies. All localapplications were discontinued; the patient was put on a vegetable dietafter the alimentary canal was freely evacuated. I saw this man threedays afterward. The dark purple appearance of the leg had somewhatsubsided; the red and angry appearance about the base of the ulcers wasgone, his strength improved, etc. Three days after I called, I found himin his garden at work. He is now--two weeks since my first prescription--almost well. All theulcers have healed, with the exception of one or two. This man, whothinks it wicked not to use the good things God has given us--such asmeat, cider, tobacco, etc. --is very willing to subsist, for the present, on vegetable food, because he finds it the only remedy for his disease. Early in the spring of 1830, while a student at Amherst College, I wasattacked with dyspepsia, which rendered my life wretched for more than ayear, and finally drove me from college; but it had now so completelygained the mastery, that no means I resorted to for relief afforded evena palliation of my sufferings. After I had suffered nearly two years inthis way, I was made more wretched, if possible, by frequent attacks ofcolic, with pains and cramps extending to my back; and so severe hadthese pains become, that the prescriptions of the most eminentphysicians afforded only partial relief. On the 13th of February, 1833, after suffering from the most violentparoxysm I had ever endured, I left my home for Brunswick, Maine, toattend a course of medical lectures. For several days I boarded at apublic house, and ate freely of several substantial dishes that werebefore me. The consequence was a fresh attack of colic. From somecircumstances that came up at this time, I was convinced that fleshmeats had much to do with my sufferings, and the resolution was formedat once to change my diet and "starve" out dyspepsia. I took a room by myself, and made arrangements for receiving a pint ofmilk per day; this, with coarse rye and Indian bread, constituted myonly food. After living in this way a week or two, I had a free andnatural evacuation. Thus nature began to effect what medicine alone haddone for nearly three years. The skin became moist, and my voraciousappetite began to subside. I returned home to my friends at the close ofthe term well, and have been well ever since--have never had a colicpain or any costiveness since that time. My powers of digestion aregood, and though I do not live so rigidly now as when at Brunswick, Ialways feel best when my food is vegetables and milk. I can endurefatigue and exposure as well as any man. On this mild diet, too, mymuscular strength has considerably increased; and every day is addingnew vigor to my constitution. Having experienced so much benefit from a mild diet, and beingrationally convinced that man was a fruit-eating animal naturally, Imade my views public by a course of lectures on physiology, which Idelivered in the Lyceum soon after I came to this place (three yearsago). The consequence was, that quite a number of those who heard mylectures commenced training their families as well as themselves to theuse of vegetables, etc. , and I am happy to inform you that, at this day, many of our most active influential business-doing men are living in theplainest and most simple manner. One of my neighbors has taken no flesh for more than three years. He isof the ordinary height, and sanguine temperament, and usually weighed, when he ate flesh, one hundred and eighty pounds. After he changed hisdiet, his countenance began to change, and his cheeks fell in; and hismeat-eating friends had serious apprehensions that he would survive buta short time, unless he returned to his former habits. But hepersevered, and is now more vigorous and more athletic than any man inthe region, or than he himself has ever been before. His muscular strength is very great. A few days since, a number of themost athletic young men in our village were trying their strength atlifting a cask of lime, weighing five hundred pounds. All failed to doit, with the exception of one, who partly raised it from the ground. After they were gone, this vegetable eater without any difficulty raisedthe cask four or five times. More than three years ago this man lost hisdaughter, who fell a prey to cholera infantum; he has now a daughterrather more than a year old, whom he has trained on strictlyphysiological principles; and though very feeble at birth, and for threemonths subsequently, she is now the most healthy child in the town. Thischild had some of the first symptoms of consumption last August, owingto the too free indulgence of the mother in improper articles of food;but being treated with demulcents, at the same time correcting themother's system, she recovered, and is now the "picture of health. " I was conversing with this gentleman the other day respecting hishealth--says he is perfectly well, weighs one hundred and sixty-fivepounds; and though he was called well when eating flesh, he was not soin reality; for every few weeks he was troubled with headache and asense of fullness in the region of the stomach, for which he was obligedto take an active cathartic. For a few months before he adopted thevegetable system, he had decided symptoms of congestion in the head, such as precede apoplexy. I questioned him as to his appetite. Heinformed me, that when he ate meat he had such an unconquerable desirefor food about eleven o'clock, that he could not wait till noon. This hecalls "meat hunger, " for it disappeared soon after he came to thepresent style of living. He has no craving now; but when he begins toeat, the zest is exquisite. Yours, JOSHUA PORTER. LETTER IV. --FROM DR. N. J. KNIGHT, OF TRURO. Dated at TRURO, October, 1837. DR. ALCOTT: SIR, --I hasten to comply so far with your request as to showmy decided approbation of a fruit and farinaceous diet, both in healthand sickness. The manner in which nutritious vegetables are presented tous for our consumption and support, evince to a demonstration thesimplicity of our corporeal systems. Through every medium of correctinformation, we learn that the most distinguished men, both in ancientand modern times, were pre-eminently distinguished for theirabstemiousness, and the simplicity of their diet. It was not, however, a consideration of this kind that first induced meto relinquish flesh meat and fish. Some three years previous to myforming a determination to subsist upon farinacea, I had been laboringunder an aggravated case of dyspepsia; and about six months previous, also, an attack of acute rheumatism. I was harassed with constant constipation of the bowels, and ejection offood after eating, together with occasional pain in the head. Under all these circumstances, I came to this determination, which Icommitted to paper: "November 9, 1831. This day ceased fromstrengthening this mortal body by any part of that which ever drewbreath. " To the above I rigidly adhered until last November, when myhealth had become so perfect that I thought myself invincible, so far asdisease was concerned. All pains and aches had left me, and all thefunctions of the body seemed to be performed in a healthy manner. My diet had consisted of rye and Indian bread, stale flour bread, sweetbread without shortening, milk, some ripe fruit, and occasionally alittle butter. During this time, while I devoted myself to considerable laboriouspractice and hard study, there was no deficiency of muscular strength ormental energy. I am fully satisfied my mind was never so active andstrong. Since last November I have, at times, taken animal food, in order that Imight be absolutely satisfied that my mode of living acted decidedly infavor of my perfect health, and that a different course would produceorganic derangement. I had only taken animal food about two months after the usual custom, before I had a severe attack, and only escaped an inflammatory fever bythe most rigid antiphlogistic treatment. I again lived as I ought, and felt well; and having continued so sometime, I resorted the second time to an animal diet. In two months' time, I was taken with the urticaria febrilis, ofBateman, which lasted me more than two weeks, and my suffering wassufficient to forever exclude from my stomach every kind of animal food. I am now satisfied, to all intents and purposes, that mankind would livelonger, and enjoy more perfectly the "sane mind in a sound body, " shouldthey never taste flesh meat or fish. A simple farinaceous diet I have ever found more efficient in the cureof chronic complaints, where there was not much organic lesion, thanevery other medical agent. Mrs. A. , infected with scrofula of the left breast, and in a state ofulceration, applied to me two years since. The ulcer was then the sizeof a half-dollar, and discharged a considerable quantity of imperfectpus. The axillary glands were much enlarged, and, doubting thepracticability of operating with the knife in such cases, I told her thedanger of her disease, and ordered her to subsist upon bread and milkand some fruit, drink water, and keep the body of as uniform temperatureas possible. I ordered the sore to be kept clean by ablutions of tepidwater. In less than three months, the ulcer was all healed, and hergeneral health much improved. The axillary glands are still enlarged, though less so than formerly. She still lives simply, and enjoys good health; but she tells me if shetastes flesh meat, it produces a twinging in the breast. Many cases, like the above, have come under my observation and immediateattention, and suffice it to say, I have never failed to ameliorate thecondition of every individual that has applied to me, who was sufferingunder chronic affections, if they would follow my prescriptions--unlessthe system was incapable of reaction. Yours, truly, N. J. KNIGHT. LETTER V. --FROM DR. LESTER KEEP. FAIR HAVEN, Jan. 22, 1838. DEAR SIR, --Agreeably to your request, I will inform you that fromSeptember, 1834, to June, 1836, I used no meat at all, exceptoccasionally in my intercourse with society, I used a little to avoidattracting notice. When I commenced my studies, life was burdensome. I knew not, formonths, and I may say years, what enjoyment comfortable health affords. In a great many ways I can now see that I very greatly erred in mycourse of living. I am surprised that the system will hold out in itspowers during so long a process in the use of what I should now considerthe means best calculated to break it down. I cannot now particularize. But in college, and during my professionalstudies, and since, during six or eight years of practice in an arduousprofession, I have been greatly guilty, and neglected those means bestcalculated to promote and preserve health; and used those means bestfitted to destroy it. The summers of 1832, 1833, and 1834, were prettymuch lost, from wretched health. I was growing worse every year, and nomedicines that I could prepare for myself, or that were prescribed byvarious brother physicians, had any thing more than a temporary effectto relieve me. All of the year 1834, until September, I used opium forrelief; and I used three and four grains of sulphate of morphine perday, equal to about sixteen grains of opium. Spirit, wine, and ale I hadtried, and journeys through many portions of the State of Maine, withthe hope that a more northern climate would invigorate and restore asystem that I feared was broken down forever, and that at the age ofthirty-seven. But, without further preamble, I will say, I omitted atonce and entirely the use of tea, coffee, meat, butter, grease of allsorts, cakes, pies, etc. , wine, cider, spirits, opium (which I feared Imust use as long as I lived), and tobacco, the use of which I learned incollege. Of course, from so sudden and so great a change, a most horridcondition must ensue for many days, for the relief of which I used thewarm bath at first several times a day. I had set no time to omit thesearticles, and made no resolutions, except to give this course a trial, to find out whether I had many native powers of system left, and whatwas their character and condition when unaffected by the list of agentsmentioned. I pursued this plan of living faithfully for one year and a half, andwith unspeakable joy I found a gradual return of original vigor andhealth. Now, I cannot say that the omission of meat of all kinds, for ayear and a half, caused this improvement in health; it is possible thatit had but little to do with it. I know I was guilty of many bad habits;and probably all combined caused my bad condition. At the close of the year and a half, I married my present second wife, and then commenced living as do others, in most respects, and continuedthis course most of the time until I received your letter. I then againomitted the use of all animal food, tea, coffee, and tobacco; and forthe last month, it is a clear case, my health is better; that is, morevigorous to bear cold. I also bear labor and care better. I have not investigated the subject of dietetics very much, but I haveno doubt that the inhabitants of our whole land make too much use ofanimal food. No doubt it obstructs the vital powers, and tends tounbalance the healthful play and harmony of the various organs and theirfunctions. There is too much nutriment in a small space. An unexpectedquantity is taken; for with most people a sense of fullness is the testof a sufficient quantity. I am satisfied that I am better without animal food than with thequantity I ordinarily use. If I should use but a small quantity once ortwice a day, it is possible it would not be injurious. This I have nottried; for I am so excessively fond of meat, that I always eat _more_than a small quantity, when I eat it at all. Healthy, vigorous men, daylaborers in the field, or forest, may perhaps require some meat tosustain the system, during hard and exhausting labor. Of this I cannotsay. I am now pretty well convinced, from two or three years' observation, that a large portion of my business, as a physician, arises fromintemperance in the use of food. Too much and too rich nutriment isused, and my constant business is, to counteract its bad effects. Two cases are now in mind of the great benefit of dieting for therecovery of health, the particulars of which I cannot now give you. Oneof them I think would be willing to speak for himself on the subject. I am, sir, yours, etc. , LESTER KEEP. LETTER VI. --SECOND LETTER FROM DR. KEEP. FAIR HAVEN, Ct. , Jan. 26, 1838. SIR, --Since I wrote you, a few days ago, I have learned of severalindividuals who have, for some length of time, used no flesh meat atall. Amos Townsend, Cashier of the New Haven Bank, has, as I am told, livedalmost entirely upon bread, crackers, or something of that kind, and butlittle of that. He can dictate a letter, count money, and holdconversation with an individual, all at the same time, with noembarrassment; and I know him to have firm health. Our minister, Rev. B. L. Swan, during the whole of two years of histheological studies at Princeton, made crackers and water his only food, and was in good health. Mr. Hanover Bradley, of this village, who has been several years amissionary among the Indians, has, for I think, eight or ten years, lived entirely on vegetable food. He had been long a dyspeptic. There are some other cases of less importance, and probably very many inNew Haven; but I am situated a mile from the city, and have neverinquired for vegetable livers. Yours, etc. , LESTER KEEP. LETTER VII. --FROM DR. HENRY H. BROWN WEST RANDOLPH, Vt. , Feb. 3, 1838. DEAR SIR, --It has been about two years and a half since I adopted anexclusively vegetable diet, with no drink but water; and my food hasbeen chiefly prepared by the most simple forms of cookery. Previously tothis, I used a large proportion of flesh meat, and drank tea and coffee. I had much impaired my health by such indulgences. I hardly need to saythat my health has greatly improved, and is now quite good and uniform. I think that physicians, in prescribing for the removal of disease, should pay much more regard to the diet of their patients, andadminister less of powerful medicine, than is customary with gentlemenof this profession at large. Yours, etc. , HENRY H. BROWN. LETTER VIII. --FROM DR. FRANKLIN KNOX. KINSTON, [5] N. C. , June 23, 1837. DEAR SIR, --Your letter of the 22d July has been hitherto unanswered, through press of business. I consider an exclusive vegetable diet as of the utmost consequence inmost diseases, especially in those chronic affections or morbid statesof the system which are not commonly considered as diseases; and I thinkthat, in these cases, such a diet is too often overlooked, even byphysicians. Yours, truly, F. KNOX. LETTER IX. --FROM A HIGHLY RESPECTABLE PHYSICIAN. [The following letter, received last autumn, is from a medicalgentleman, in a distant part of the country, whose name, for particularreasons, we stand pledged not to give to the world. The facts, however, may be relied on; and they are exceedingly important and interesting. ] DEAR SIR, --Your letter was duly received. I proceed to say that, since Isettled in this town, my attacks of epilepsy[6] have occurred in thefollowing order: 1833. Nov. 18. One at 11 P. M. Severe. " 19. " " " " 24. Nineteen, from 4 A. M. To 3 P. M. Frightful. 1835. Jan. 13. One at 4 A. M. } " 15. " " } Milder. " 16. Two at 2 and 4 A. M. } Thus it appears that I have enjoyed a longer immunity since the last, than for some years prior. I have maintained total abstinence fromflesh, fish, or fowl, for two and a half years, namely, from March 1835to the present time. That this happy immunity from a most obstinatedisease is to be attributed solely to my abstinence from animal food, Ido not feel prepared to assert; but that my general health has beenbetter, my attacks of disease far milder, my vigor of mind and bodygreater, my mental perceptions clearer and more acute, and my enjoymentof life, on the whole, very essentially increased, I am fully preparedto prove. I have, however, found it nearly as essential for me to abstain frommany kinds of vegetable food as from animal, namely, from all kinds offlatulent vegetables; from all kinds of fruits and berries, except thevery mildest--as, perfectly ripe and well baked sweet apples--and fromall kinds of pies, sauces, and preserves. Of these, however, I am notable to say, as I do of the animal varieties, that I have practicedtotal abstinence; by no means. I have often ventured to indulge, andgenerally suffer more or less for my temerity. My severest sufferingsfor the last two years have been in the form of colic, of which I havehad frequent slight attacks; but none to confine me over twenty-fourhours. * * * * * ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS. --BY THE AUTHOR. [7] From the age of five or six months to that of two years, I was literallycrammed with flesh meat; usually of the most gross kind. Such a coursewas believed, by the fond parents and others, as likely to be productiveof the most healthful and happy consequences. The result was anaccumulation of adipose substance, that rendered me one of the mostunsightly, not to say monstrous productions of nature. I ought not tosay _nature_, perhaps; for, if not perverted, she produces no suchmonsters. At the age of six months, my weight was twenty-five pounds;and it rose soon after to thirty or more. When I was about two years of age, I had the whooping-cough, and, havingbeen brought up to the height, and more than the height of my condition, by over-feeding with fat meat, I suffered exceedingly. I? recovered, atlength, but I had lost my relish, as I am informed, for flesh meat; andfrom this time till the age of fourteen, I seldom ate any but theleanest muscle. I was tolerably healthy, but, from the age of two years, was slender; so much so that, at five or six, I only weighed fiftypounds; and was constantly either found fault with, or pitied, because Idid not eat meat in quality and quantity like other people. Nor was itwithout much effort, even at the age of fourteen, that I could bringmyself to be reconciled to it. I was also trained to the early use ofmuch cider, and to the moderate use of tea and spirits. I have spoken ofmy slender constitution;--I believe this was in part the result ofexcessive early labor, and that it was not wholly owing to a prematureuse of flesh meat. I had suffered so much, however, from the belief that I was feeble fromthe latter cause, that I had no sooner become reconciled to the use offlesh and fish--which was at the age of fourteen--than I indulged in itquite freely. About this time I had a severe attack of measles, whichcame very near carrying me off. I was left with anasarca, or generaldropsy, and with weak eyes. To cure the former the physicians plied me, for a long time, with blue pill, and with mercurial medicine in otherforms, and also with digitalis; and finally filled my stomach tooverflowing with diuretic drinks. However, in spite of them all, Irecovered during the next year; except that a foundation was laid forpremature decay of the teeth, and for a severe eruptive disease. Thislast, and the weakness of the eyes, were, for some time, verytroublesome. The eruptive complaint was soon discovered to be less severe, even inhot weather, and while I was using a great deal of exercise, inproportion as I abstained from all drinks but water, and ate none butmild food. Owing to the discovery of this fact and to other causes, Ichiefly discontinued the use of stimulating food and drink, during thehottest part of the season; though I committed much error in regard tothe quantity of my food, and drank quite too freely of cold water. StillI always found my health best, and my body and mind most vigorous at theend of summer, or the beginning of autumn, notwithstanding the very hardlabor to which I was subjected on the farm. This increase of vigor was, at that time, attributed chiefly to a free use of summer fruits; for, sodeeply had the belief been infixed by early education, that highlystimulating food and drink were indispensable to the full health andstrength of mankind, and especially to people who were laboring hard, that, though I sometimes suspected they were not true friends to thehuman system, my conscience always condemned the suspicion, andpronounced me guilty of a species of high treason for harboring it. This brings up my dietetic history, to the period at which it commences, in the letter to Dr. North. The study of medicine, however, from the ageof twenty-four to twenty-seven, and the subsequent study and practice ofit for a few years, joined to the changes I made at the same time in myphysical habits, and my observations on their effects, led me to reject, one after another, and one group after another, the whole tribe of extrastimulants--solid and fluid. The sequel of my story remains to be told. It is now nearly fifteenyears since I wrote the letter, which is found at page 23d, to Dr. North. During this long period, and for several years before, amounting, in all, to about nineteen years, I have not only abstained entirely fromflesh, fish, and fowl--not having eaten a pound of any one of theseduring the whole time, except the very few pounds I used in the time ofthe first visitation of our country with cholera, as beforementioned--but I have almost entirely abstained from butter, cheese, eggs, and milk. Butter, especially, I _never_ taste at all. Theoccasional use of milk, in very small quantities, once a day, has, however, been resorted to; not from necessity, indeed, or to gratify anystrong desire or inclination for it, but from a conviction of its happymedicinal effects on my much-injured frame. Hot food of every kind, andliquids, with the exception just made, I rarely touch. Nearly everything is taken in as solid a form and in as simple a state as possible;with no condiments, except a very little salt, and with no sweets, sauces, gravies, jellies, preserves, etc. I seldom use more than onesort of food at a time, unless it be to add fruit as a second article;and this is rarely done, except in the morning. I have for ten or twelveyears used no drinks with my meals; and sometimes for months togetherhave had very little thirst at all. [8] And as to the effects, they are such, and have all along been such, asto make me wonder at myself, whenever I think of it. Instead of beingconstantly subject to cold, and nearly dying with consumption in thespring, I am almost free from any tendency to take cold at all. Duringthe winter of 1837-8, by neglecting to keep the temperature of my roomlow enough, and by neglecting also to take sufficient exercise in theopen air, I became unusually tender, and suffered to some extent fromcolds. But I was well again during the spring, and felt as if I hadrecovered or nearly recovered my former hardihood. In regard to other complaints, I may say still more. Of rheumatism, Ihave scarcely had a twinge in twelve or fourteen years. My eruptivecomplaint is, I believe, _entirely_ gone. The weakness of my eyes hasbeen wholly gone for many years. Indeed, the strength and perfection ofmy sight and of all my senses, till nearly fifty years of age--hearingperhaps excepted, in which I perceive no alteration--appeared to beconstantly improving. My stomach and intestines perform their respectiveduties in the most appropriate, correct, and healthful manner. Myappetite is constantly good, and as constantly improving;--that is, going on toward perfection. I can detect, especially by taste, almostany thing which is in the least offensive or deleterious in food ordrink; and yet I can receive, without immediate apparent disturbance, and readily digest, almost any thing which ever entered a humanstomach--knives, pencils, clay, chalk, etc. , perhaps excepted. I can eata full meal of cabbage, or any other very objectionable crude aliment, or even cheese or pastry--a single meal, I mean--with apparent impunity;not when fatigued, of course, or in any way debilitated, but in themorning and when in full strength. It is true, I make no experiments ofthis sort, except occasionally _as_ experiments. In my former statements I gave it as my opinion that vegetable food wasless aperient than animal. My opinion now is, that if we were trained onvegetable food, and had never received substances into the stomach whichwere unduly stimulating, we should find the intestinal or peristalticaction quite sufficient. The apparent sluggishness of the bowels, whenwe first exchange an animal diet for a vegetable one, is probably owingto our former abuses. At present, I find my plain vegetable food, inmoderate and reasonable quantity, quite as aperient as it ought to be, and, if I exceed a proper quantity, too much so. I have now no remaining doubts of the vast importance that would resultto mankind, from an universal training from childhood, to the exclusiveuse of vegetable food. I believe such a course of training, along with adue attention to air, exercise, cleanliness, etc. , would be the means ofimproving our race, physically, intellectually, and morally, beyond anything of which the world has yet conceived. But my reasons for thisbelief will be seen more fully in another place. They are founded inscience and the observation of facts around me, much more than on anarrow individual experience. There is one circumstance which I must not omit, because it is full ofadmonition and instruction. I have elsewhere stated that, twenty-threeyears ago, I had incipient phthisis. Of this fact, and of the fact thatthere were considerable inroads made by disease on the upper lobe ofthe right lung, I have not the slightest doubt. The symptoms were suchat the time, and subsequently, as could not have been mistaken. Besides, what was, as I conceive, pretty fully established by the symptoms whichexisted, is rendered still more certain by auscultation. The soundswhich are heard during respiration, in the region to which I havealluded, leave no doubt on the minds of skillful medical men, of theirorigin. Still I doubt whether the disease has made any considerableprogress for many years. But, during the winter of 1837-8, my employments became excessivelylaborious; and, for the whole winter and spring, were sufficient for atleast two healthy and strong men. They were also almost whollysedentary. At the end of May, I took a long and rather fatiguing journeythrough a country by no means the most healthy, and came home somewhatdepressed in mind and body, especially the former. I was also unusuallyemaciated, and I began to have fears of a decline. Still, however, myappetite was good, and I had a good share of bodily strength. The more Idirected my attention to myself, the worse I became; and I actually soonbegan to experience darting pains in the chest, together with othersymptoms of a renewal of pulmonary disease. Perceiving my danger, however, from the state of my mind, I at length made a powerful effortto shake off the mental disturbance--which succeeded. This, togetherwith moderate labor and rather more exercise than before, seemedgradually to set me right. Again, in the spring of 1848, after lecturing for weeks andmonths--often in bad and unventilated rooms and subjecting myself, unavoidably, to many of those abuses which exist every where insociety, I was attacked with a cough, followed by great debility, fromwhich it cost me some three months or more of labor with the spade andhoe, to recover. With this and the exceptions before named, I have now, for about twenty years, been as healthy as ever I was in my life, exceptthe slight tendency to cold during the winter of which I have alreadytaken notice. I never was more cheerful or more happy; never saw theworld in a brighter aspect; never before was it more truly "morning allday" with me. I have paid, in part, the penalty of my transgressions;and may, perhaps, go on, in life, many years longer. I now fear nothing in the future, so far as health and disease areconcerned, so much as excessive alimentation. To this evil--and it is amost serious and common one in this land of abundance and busyactivity--I am much exposed, both from the keenness of my appetite, andthe exceeding richness of the simple vegetables and fruits of which Ipartake. But, within a few years past, I seem to have gotten thevictory, in a good measure, even in this respect. By eating only a fewsimple dishes at a time, and by measuring or weighing them with theeye--for I weigh them in no other way--I am usually able to confinemyself to nearly the proper limits. This caution, and these efforts at self-government, are not neededbecause their neglect involves any immediate suffering; for, as I havealready stated, there was never a period in my life before, when I wasso completely independent--apparently so, I mean--of externalcircumstances. I can eat what I please, and as much or as little as Iplease. I can observe set hours, or be very irregular. I can use apretty extensive variety at the same meal, and a still greater varietyat different meals, or I can live perpetually on a single article--nay, on almost any thing which could be named in the animal or vegetablekingdom--and be perfectly contented and happy in the use of it. I couldin short, eat, work, think, sleep, converse, or play almost all thewhile; or I could abstain from any or all of these, almost all thewhile. Let me be understood, however. I do not mean to say that eitherof these courses would be best for me, in the end; but only that I haveso far attained to independence of external circumstances that, for atime, I believe I should be able to do or bear all I have mentioned. One thing more, in this connection, and I shall have finished myremarks. I sleep too little; but it is because I allow my mind to runover the world so much, and lay so many schemes for human improvement orfor human happiness; and because I allow my sympathies to become sodeeply enlisted in human suffering and human woe. I should be mosthealthy, in the end, by spending six hours or more in sleep; whereas Ido not probably exceed four or five. I have indeed obtained a respitefrom the grave of twenty-three years, through a partial repentance andamendment of life, and the mercy of God; but did I obey all his laws aswell as I do a part of them, I know of no reason why my life might notbe lengthened, not merely fifteen years, as was Hezekiah's, ortwenty-three merely, but forty or fifty. FOOTNOTES: [5] Dr. Knox has since removed to St. Louis, Missouri. [6] The reader will find another remarkable cure of epilepsy in asubsequent chapter of this volume. The case was that of Dr. Taylor, ofEngland. [7] See pages 13 and 23. [8] This fact, and certain discussions on the subject of temperance, ledme to abstain, about the years 1841 and 1842, entirely from all drinkfor a long time. Indeed, I made two of these experiments; in one ofwhich I abstained nine months and nineteen days, and in the otherfourteen months and one or two days; except that in the latter case Iate, literally, for one or two successive days, while working hard athaying, one or two bowls a day of bread and water. But these wereexperiments _merely_--the experiments made by a medical man whopreferred making experiments on himself to making them on others; andthey never deserved the misconstruction which was put upon them byseveral persons, who, in other respects, were very sensible men. "Theauthor" never believed with Dr. Lambe, of London, that man is not adrinking animal. CHAPTER V. TESTIMONY OF OTHER MEDICAL MEN, BOTH OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. General Remarks. --Testimony of Dr. Cheyne. --Dr. Geoffroy. --Vanquelin and Percy. --Dr. Pemberton. --Sir John Sinclair. --Dr. James. --Dr. Cranstoun. --Dr. Taylor. --Drs. Hufeland and Abernethy. --Sir Gilbert Blane. --Dr. Gregory. --Dr. Cullen. --Dr. Rush. --Dr. Lambe. --Prof. Lawrence. --Dr. Salgues. --Author of "Sure Methods. "--Baron Cuvier. --Dr. Luther V. Bell. --Dr. Buchan. --Dr. Whitlaw. --Dr. Clark. --Prof. Mussey. --Drs. Bell and Condie. --Dr. J. V. C. Smith. --Mr. Graham. --Dr. J. M. Andrews, Jr. --Dr. Sweetser. --Dr. Pierson. --Physician in New York. --Females' Encyclopedia. --Dr. Van Cooth. --Dr. Beaumont. --Sir Everard Home. --Dr. Jennings. --Dr. Jarvis. --Dr. Ticknor. --Dr. Coles. --Dr. Shew. --Dr. Morrill. --Dr. Bell. --Dr. Jackson. --Dr. Stephenson. --Dr. J. Burdell. --Dr. Smethurst. --Dr. Schlemmer. --Dr. Curtis. --Dr. Porter. GENERAL REMARKS. The number of physicians, and surgeons, and medical men, whose testimonyis brought to bear on the subject of diet, in the chapter which follows, is by no means as great as it might have been. There are few writers onanatomy, physiology, materia medica, or disease, who have not, eitherdirectly or indirectly, given their testimony in favor of a mild andvegetable diet for persons affected with certain chronic diseases. Andthere is scarcely a writer on hygiene, or even on diet, who has not donemuch more than this, and at times hinted at the safety of such a dietfor those who are in health; particularly the studious and sedentary. But my object has been, not so much to collect all the evidence I could, as to make a judicious selection--a selection which should present thesubject upon which it bears, in as many aspects as possible. I haveaimed in general, also, to procure the testimony of intelligent andphilanthropic men; or, at least of men whose names have by some means orother been already brought before the public. If there are a fewexceptions to this rule, if a few are men whose names have been hithertounknown, it is on account of the _aspect_, as I have already said, oftheir testimony, or on account of their peculiar position, as regardscountry, age of the world, etc. , or to secure their authority forcertain anecdotes or facts. In the arrangement of the testimony, I have been guided by no particularrule, unless it has been to present first that of some of the older andmost accredited writers, such as Cheyne, Cullen, and Rush. The testimonyof certain living men and authors, particularly of our own country, hasbeen presented toward the close of the chapter, and in a very brief andcondensed form, from design. The propriety of inserting their names atall was for a time considered doubtful. It is believed, however, thatthey could not, in strict justice, have been entirely omitted. But letnot the meagre sketch of their views I have given, satisfy us. We want afull development of their principles from their own pens--such adevelopment as, I hope, will not long be withheld from a world which isfamishing for the want of it. But now to the testimony. DR. GEORGE CHEYNE. This distinguished physician, and somewhat voluminous writer, flourishedmore than a hundred years ago. He may justly be esteemed the father ofwhat is now called the "vegetable system" of living; although it isevident he did not see every thing clearly. "In the early part of hislife, " says Prof. Hitchcock, in his work on Dyspepsia, "he was avoluptuary; and before he attained to middle age, was so corpulent thatit was necessary to open the whole side of his carriage that he mightenter; and he saw death inevitable, without a change of his course. Heimmediately abandoned all ardent spirits, wine, and fermented liquors, and confined himself wholly to milk, vegetables, and water. This course, with active exercise, reduced him from the enormous weight of fourhundred and forty-eight pounds, to one hundred and forty; and restoredhis health and the vigor of his mind. After a few years, he ventured tochange his abstemious diet for one more rich and stimulating. But theeffect was a recurrence of his former corpulence and ill health. Areturn to milk, water, and vegetables restored him again; and hecontinued in uninterrupted health to the age of seventy-two. " The following is his account of himself, at the age of about seventy: "It is now about sixteen years since, for the last time, I entered upona milk and vegetable diet. At the beginning of this period, I took thislight food as my appetite directed, without any measure, and foundmyself easy under it. After some time, I found it became necessary tolessen the quantity; and I have latterly reduced it to one half, atmost, of what I at first seemed to bear. And if it shall please God tospare me a few years longer, in order, in that case, to preserve thatfreedom and clearness which, by his, blessing, I now enjoy, I shallprobably find myself obliged to deny myself one half of my present dailysubstance--which is precisely three Winchester pints of new cows' milk, and six ounces of biscuit made of fine flour, without salt or yeast, andbaked in a quick oven. " It is exceedingly interesting to find an aged physician, especially onewho had formerly been in the habit of using six pints of milk, andtwelve ounces of unfermented biscuit, and of regarding that as a lowdiet, reducing himself to one half this quantity in his old age, withevident advantages; and cheerfully looking forward to a period, as notmany years distant, when he should be obliged to restrict himself tohalf even of that quantity. How far he finally carried his temperance, we do not exactly know. We only know that, after thirty years of healthand successful medical practice, he strenuously contended for thesuperiority of a vegetable and milk diet over any other, whether for thefeeble or the healthy. But his numerous works abound with the mostearnest exhortations to temperance in all things, and with the mostinteresting facts and cogent reasonings; and--I repeat it--if there beany individual, since the days of Pythagoras, whose name ought to behanded down to posterity as the father of the vegetable system ofliving, it is that of Dr. Cheyne. Among his works are, a work on Fevers; an Essay on the true Nature andproper Method of treating the Gout; a work on the PhilosophicalPrinciples of Religion; an Essay of Health and Long Life; a work calledthe English Malady; and another entitled the Natural Method of Cure inthe Diseases of the Body, and the Distempers of the Mind dependingthereon. The latter, and his Essay of Long Life are, in my view, hisgreatest works; though the history of his own experience is chieflycontained in his English Malady. I shall now proceed to make such extracts from his works, as seem to memost striking and important to the general reader. They are somewhatnumerous, and there may be a few repetitions; but I was more anxious topreserve his exact language--which is rather prolix--than to abridge toomuch, at the risk of misrepresenting his sentiments. "When I see milk, oil, emulsion, mild watery fluids, and such like softliquors run through leathern tubes or pipes (for such animal veins andarteries indeed are) for years, without destroying them, and observe onthe other hand that brine, inflammable or urinous spirits, and the likeacrimonious and burning fluids corrode, destroy, and consume them in avery short time; when I consider the rending, burning, and tearing painsand tortures of the gout, stone, colic, cancer, rheumatism, convulsions, and such like insufferably painful distempers; when I see the crises ofalmost all acute distempers happen either by rank and fetid sweats, thick lateritious and lixivious sediments in the urine, black, putrid, and fetid dejections, attended with livid and purple spots, corrosiveulcers, impostumes in the joints or muscles, or a gangrene andmortification in this or that part of the body; when I see the sharp, the corroding and burning ichor of scorbutic and scrofulous sores, fretting, galling, and blistering the adjacent parts, with theinflammation, swelling, hardness, scabs, scurf, scales, and otherloathsome cutaneous foulnesses that attend, the white gritty and chalkymatter, and hard stony or flinty concretions which happen to all thoselong troubled with severe gouts, gravel, jaundice, or colic--theobstructions and hardnesses, the putrefaction and mortification thathappen in the bowels, joints, and members in some of these diseases, andthe rottenness in the bones, ligaments, and membranes that happen inothers; all the various train of pains, miseries, and torments that canafflict any part of the compound, and for which there is scarce anyreprieve to be obtained, but by swallowing a kind of poison (opiates, etc. ); when I behold with compassion and sorrow, such scenes of miseryand woe, and see them happen only to the rich, the lazy, the luxurious, and the inactive, those who fare daintily and live voluptuously, thosewho are furnished with the rarest delicacies, the richest foods, and themost generous wines, such as can provoke the appetites, senses, andpassions, in the most exquisite and voluptuous manner; to those wholeave no desire or degree of appetite unsatisfied, and not to the poor, the low, the meaner sort, those destitute of the necessaries, conveniences, and pleasures of life; to the frugal, industrious, temperate, laborious, and active, inhabiting barren and uncultivatedcountries, deserts, and forests under the poles or under the line;--Imust, if I am not resolved to resist the strongest conviction, concludethat it must be something received into the body that can produce suchterrible appearances in it--some flagrant and notable difference in thefood that so sensibly distinguishes them from the latter; and that it isthe miserable man himself that creates his miseries and begets historture, or at least those from whom he has derived his bodily organs. "Nothing is so light and easy to the stomach, most certainly, as thefarinaceous or mealy vegetables; such as peas, beans, millet, oats, barley, rye, wheat, sago, rice, potatoes, and the like. " Milk is not included in the foregoing list of light articles; althoughDr. C. Was evidently extremely fond of prescribing it in chronicdiseases. It does not fully appear, so far as I can learn from hiswritings, that he regarded it as by any means indispensable to thosewho were perfectly healthy, except during infancy and childhood. Thefollowing extract will give us--more than any other, perhaps--his realsentiments, though modestly expressed in the form of a conjecture, rather than a settled belief. "I have sometimes indulged the conjecture that animal food, and _made_or artificial liquors, in the original frame of our nature and design ofour creation, were not intended for human creatures. They seem to meneither to have those strong and fit organs for digesting them (atleast, such as birds and beasts of prey have that live on flesh); nor, naturally, to have those voracious and brutish appetites, that requireanimal food and strong liquors to satisfy them; nor those cruel and hardhearts, or those diabolical passions, which could easily suffer them totear and destroy their fellow-creatures; at least, not in the first andearly ages, before every man had corrupted his way, and God was forcedto exterminate the whole race by an universal deluge, and was alsoobliged to shorten their lives from nine hundred or one thousand yearsto seventy. He wisely foresaw that animal food and artificial liquorswould naturally contribute toward this end, and indulged or permittedthe generation that was to plant the earth again after the flood the useof them for food; knowing that, though it would shorten their lives andplait a scourge of thorns for the backs of the lazy and voluptuous, itwould be cautiously avoided by those who knew it was their duty andhappiness to keep their passions low, and their appetites in subjection. And this very era of the flood is that mentioned in holy writ for theindulgence of animal food and artificial liquors, after the trial hadbeen made how insufficient alone a vegetable diet--which was the firstfood appointed for human kind after their creation--was, in the longlives of men, to restrain their wickedness and malice, and after findingthat nothing but shortening their duration could possibly prevent theevil. "It is true, there is scarce a possibility of preventing the destroyingof animal life, as things are now constituted, since insects breed andnestle in the very vegetables themselves; and we scarcely ever devour aplant or root, wherein we do not destroy innumerable animalculæ. But, besides what I have said of nature's being quite altered and changedfrom what was originally intended, there is a great difference betweendestroying and extinguishing animal life by choice and election, togratify our appetites, and indulge concupiscence, and the casual andunavoidable crushing of those who, perhaps, otherwise would die withinthe day, or at most the year, and who obtain but an inferior kind ofexistence and life, at the best. "Whatever there may be, in this conjecture, it is evident to those whounderstand the animal economy of the frame of human bodies, togetherwith the history, both of those who have lived abstemiously, and ofthose who have lived freely, that indulging in flesh meat and strongliquors, inflames the passions and shortens life, begets chronicaldistempers and a decrepit age. "For remedying the distempers of the body, to make a man live as long ashis original frame was designed to last, with the least pain and fewestdiseases, and without the loss of his senses, I think Pythagoras andCornaro by far the two greatest men that ever were:--the first, byvegetable food and unfermented liquors; the latter, by the lightest andleast of animal food, and naturally fermented liquors. Both lived to agreat age. But, what is chiefly to be regarded in their conduct andexample, both preserved their senses, cheerfulness, and serenity to thelast; and, which is still more to be regarded, both, at least the last, dissolved without pain or struggle; the first having lost his life in atumult, as it is said by some, after a great age of perfect health. "A plain, natural, and philosophical reason why vegetable food ispreferable to all other food is, that abounding with few or no salts, being soft and cool, and consisting of parts that are easily divided andformed into chyle without giving any labor to the digestive powers, ithas not that force to open the lacteals, to distend their orifices andexcite them to an unnatural activity, to let them pass too great aquantity of hot and rank chyle into the blood, and so overcharge andinflame the lymphatics and capillaries, which is the natural andordinary effect of animal food; and therefore cannot so readily producediseases. There is not a sufficient stimulus in the salts and spirits ofvegetable food to create an unnatural appetite, or violent cramming; atleast, not sufficient to force open and extend the mouths of thelacteals, more than naturally they are or ought to be. Such foodrequires little or no force of digestion, a little gentle heat andmotion being sufficient to dissolve it into its integral particles: sothat, in a vegetable diet, though the sharp humors, in the firstpassages, are extended, relaxed stomach, and sometimes a delightfulpiquancy in the food, may tempt one to exceed in quantity; yet rarely, if spices and sauces--as too much butter, oil, and sugar--are not joinedto seeds[9] and vegetables, can the mischief go farther than the stomachand bowels, to create a pressed load, sickness, vomiting, or purging, by its acquiring an acrimony from its not being received into thelacteals;--so that on more being admitted into the blood than theexpenses of living require, life and health can never be endangered by avegetable diet. But all the contrary happens under a high animal diet. " Now I will not undertake to vouch--as indeed I cannot, conscientiously, do it--for the correctness of all Dr. C. 's notions in physiology orpathology. The great object I have in view, by the introduction of thesequotations, may be accomplished without it. His preference for vegetablefood, or for what he calls a milk and seed diet, is the point which Iwish to make most prominent. In the following paragraphs, he takes up and considers some of thepopular objections of the day, to his doctrines and practice. "One of the most terrible objections some weak persons make against thisregimen and method, is, that upon accidental trials, they have alwaysfound milk, fruit, and vegetables so inflate, blow them up, and raisesuch tumults and tempests in their stomach and bowels, that they havebeen terrified and affrighted from going on. I own the truth and fact tobe such, in some as is represented; and that in stomachs and entrailsinured only to hot and high meats and drinks, and consequently in aninflammatory state and full of choler and phlegm, this sensation willsometimes happen--just as a bottle of cider or fretting wine, when thecork is pulled out, will fly up, and fume, and rage; and if you throw ina little ferment or acid (such as milk, seeds, fruit, and vegetables _tothem_), the effervescence and tempest will exasperate to a hurricane. "But what are wind, flatulence, phlegm, and choler? What, indeed, butstopped perspiration, superfluous nourishment, inconcocted chyle, ofhigh food and strong liquors, fermented and putrifying? And when theseare shut up and corked, with still more and more solid, strong, hot, andstyptic meats and drinks, is the corruption and putrefaction therebylessened? Will it not then, at last, either burst the vessel, or throwout the cork or stopples, and raise still more lasting and crueltempests and tumults? Are milk and vegetables, seeds and fruits, harderof digestion, more corrosive, or more capable of producing chyle, blood, and juices, less fit to circulate, to perspire, and be secreted? "But what is to be done? The cure is obvious. Begin by degrees; eat lessanimal food--the most tender and young--and drink less strong fermentedliquors, for a month or two. Then proceed to a _trimming_ diet, of oneday, seed and vegetables, and another day, tender, young animalfood;--and, by degrees, slide into a total milk, seed, and vegetablediet; cooling the stomach and entrails gradually, to fit them for thissoft, mild, sweetening regimen; and in time your diet will give you allthe gratification you ever had from strong, high, and rank food, andspirituous liquors. And you will, at last, enjoy ease, free spirits, perfect health, and long life into the bargain. "Seeds of all kinds are fittest to begin with, in these cases, whendried, finely ground, and dressed; and, consequently, the leastflatulent. Lessen the quantity, even of these, below what your appetitewould require, at least for a time. Bear a little, and forbear. "Virtue and good health are not to be obtained, without some labor andpains, against contrary habits. It was a wild bounce of a Pythagorean, who defied any one to produce an instance of a person, who had longlived on milk and vegetables, who ever cut his own throat, hanged, ormade way with himself; who had ever suffered at Tyburn, gone to Newgate, or to Moorfields; (and, he added rather profanely, ) or, would go toeternal misery hereafter. "Another weighty objection against a vegetable diet, I have heard, hasbeen made by learned men; and is, that vegetables require great labor, strong exercise, and much action, to digest and turn them into propernutriment; as (say they) is evident from their being the common diet ofday-laborers, handicraftsmen, and farmers. This objection I should havebeen ashamed to mention, but that I have heard it come from men oflearning; and they might have as justly said, that freestone is harderthan marble, and that the juice of vegetables makes stronger glue thanthat of fish and beef! "Do not children and young persons, that is, tender persons, live onmilk and seeds, even before they are capable of much labor and exercise?Do not all the eastern and southern people live almost entirely on them?The Asiatics, Moors, and Indians, whose climates incapacitate them formuch labor, and whose indolence is so justly a reproach to them, --arethese lazier and less laborious men than the Highlanders and nativeIrish? "The truth is, hardness of digestion principally depends on theminuteness of the component particles, as is evident in marble andprecious stones. And animal substances being made of particles that passthrough innumerable very little, or infinitely small excretory ducts, must be of a much finer texture, and consequently harder, or tougher, intheir composition, than any vegetable substance can be. And the flesh ofanimals that live on animals, is like double distilled spirits, and sorequires much labor to break, grind, and digest it. And, indeed, ifday-laborers, and handicraftsmen were allowed the high, strong food ofmen of condition, and the quiet and much-thinking persons were confinedto the farmer and ploughman's food, it would be much happier for both. "Another objection, still, against a milk and vegetable diet is, that itbreeds phlegm, and so is unfit for tender persons, of coldconstitutions; especially those whose predominant failing is too muchphlegm. But this objection has as little foundation as either of thepreceding. Phlegm is nothing but superfluous chyle and nourishment, asthe taking down more food than the expenses of living and the waste ofthe solids and fluids require. The people that live most on suchfoods--the eastern and southern people and those of the northern I havementioned--are less troubled with phlegm than any others. Superfluitywill always produce redundancy, whether it be of phlegm or choler; andthat which will digest the most readily, will produce the leastphlegm--such as milk, seeds, and vegetables. By cooling and relaxing thesolids, the phlegm will be more readily thrown up and discharged--more, I say, by such a diet than by a hot, high, caustic, and restringent one;but that discharge is a benefit to the constitution, and will help itthe sooner and faster to become purified, and so to get into perfectgood health. Whereas, by shutting them up, the can or cask must fly andburst so much the sooner. "The only material and solid objections against a milk, seed, andvegetable diet, are the following: "_First_, That it is particular and unsocial, in a country where thecommon diet is of another nature. But I am sure sickness, lowness, andoppression, are much more so. These difficulties, after all, happen onlyat first, while the cure is about; for, when good health comes, allthese oddnesses and specialities will vanish, and then all the contraryto these will be the case. "_Secondly_, That it is weakening, and gives a man less strength andforce, than common diet. It is true that this may be the result, atfirst, while the cure is imperfect. But then the greater activity andgayety which will ensue on the return of health, under a milk andvegetable diet, will liberally supply that defect. "_Thirdly_, The most material objection against such a diet is, that itcools, relaxes, softens, and unbends the solids, at first, faster thanit corrects and sweetens the juices, and brings on greater degrees oflowness than it is designed to cure; and so sinks, instead of raising. But this objection is not universally true; for there are many I havetreated, who, without any such inconvenience, or consequent lowness, have gone into this regimen, and have been free from any oppression, sinking, or any degree of weakness, ever after; and they were not onlythose who have been generally temperate and clean, free from humors andsharpnesses, but who, on the decline of life, or from a naturally weakconstitution or frame, have been oppressed and sunk from their weaknessand their incapacity to digest common animal food and fermented liquors. "I very much question if any diet, either hot or cool, has any greatinfluence on the solids, after the fluids have been entirely sweetenedand balmified. Sweeten and thin the juices, and the rest will follow, asa matter of course. " At page 90 of Dr. Cheyne's Natural Method of Curing Diseases, he thussays: "People think they cannot possibly subsist on a little meat, milk, andvegetables, or on any low diet, and that they must infallibly perish ifthey should be confined to water only; not considering that nine tenthsof the whole mass of mankind are necessarily confined to this diet, orpretty nearly to it, and yet live with the use of their senses, limbs, and faculties, without diseases, or but few, and those from accidents orepidemical causes; and that there have been nations, and now are numbersof tribes, who voluntarily confine themselves to vegetables only; as theEssenes among the Jews, some Hermits and Solitaries among the Christiansof the first ages, a great number of monks in the Chartreux now inEurope, Banians among the Indians and Chinese, the Guebres among thePersians, and of old, the Druids among ourselves. " To illustrate the foregoing, I may here introduce the following extractsfrom the sixth London edition of Dr. Cheyne's Essay on Health and LongLife. "It is surprising to what a great age the Eastern Christians, whoretired from the persecutions into the deserts of Egypt and Arabia, lived healthful on a very little food. We are informed, by Cassian, thatthe common measure for twenty-four hours was about twelve ounces, withonly pure water for drink. St. Anthony lived to one hundred and fiveyears on mere bread and water, adding only a few herbs at last. On asimilar diet, James the Hermit lived to one hundred and four years. Arsenius, the tutor of the emperor Arcadius, to one hundred andtwenty--sixty-five years in society, and fifty-five in the desert. St. Epiphanius, to one hundred and fifteen; St. Jerome, about one hundred;Simon Stylites, to one hundred and nine; and Romualdus, to one hundredand twenty. "It is wonderful in what sprightliness, strength, activity, and freedomof spirits, a low diet, even here in England, will preserve those whohave habituated themselves to it. Buchanan informs us of one Laurence, who preserved himself to one hundred and forty, by the mere force oftemperance and labor. Spotswood mentions one Kentigern (afterward calledSt. Mongah, or Mungo, from whom the famous well in Wales is named), wholived to one hundred and eighty-five years; and who, after he came toyears of understanding, never tasted wine or strong drink, and slept onthe cold ground. "My worthy friend, Mr. Webb, is still alive. He, by the quickness of thefaculties of the mind, and the activity of the organs of his body, showsthe great benefit of a low diet--living altogether on vegetable food andpure water. Henry Jenkins lived to one hundred and sixty-nine years on alow, coarse, and simple diet. Thomas Parr died at the age of one hundredand fifty-two years and nine months. His diet was coarse bread, milk, cheese, whey, and small beer; and his historian tells us, that he mighthave lived a good while longer if he had not changed his diet and air;coming out of a clear, thin air, into the thick air of London, and beingtaken into a splendid family, where he fed high, and drank plentifullyof the best wines, and, as a necessary consequence, died in a shorttime. Dr. Lister mentions eight persons in the north of England, theyoungest of whom was above one hundred years old, and the oldest was onehundred and forty. He says, it is to be observed that the food of allthis mountainous country is exceeding coarse. " Dr. C. , in his Natural Method, at page 91, thus continues his remarks: "And there are whole villages in this kingdom, even of those who live onthe plains, who scarce eat animal food, or drink fermented liquors adozen times a year. It is true, most of these cannot be said to live atease and commodiously, and many may be said to live in barbarity andignorance. All I would infer from this is, that they do live, and enjoylife, health, and outward serenity, with few or no bodily diseases butfrom accidents and epidemical causes; and that, being reduced byvoluntary and necessary poverty, they are not able to manage with careand caution the rest of the non-naturals, which, for perfect health andcheerfulness, must all be equally attended to, and prudently conducted;and their ignorance and brutality is owing to the want of theconvenience of due and sufficient culture and education in their youth. "But the only conclusion I would draw from these historical facts is, that a low diet, or living on vegetables, will not destroy life orhealth, or cause nervous and cephalic distempers; but, on the contrary, cure them, as far as they are curable. I pretend to demonstrate fromthese facts, that abstinence and a low diet is the great antidote anduniversal remedy of distempers acquired by excess, intemperance, and amistaken regimen of high meats and drinks; and that it will greatlyalleviate and render tolerable the original distempers derived fromdiseased parents; and that it is absolutely necessary for the deepthinking part of mankind, who would preserve their faculties sound andentire, ripe and pregnant to a green old age and to the last dregs oflife; and that it is, lastly, the true and real antidote andpreservative from heavy-headedness, irregular and disorderlyintellectual functions, from loss of the rational faculties, memory, andsenses, and from all nervous distempers, as far as the ends ofProvidence and the condition of mortality will allow. "Let two people be taken as nearly alike as the diversity and theindividuality of nature will admit, of the same age, stature, complexion, and strength of body, and under the same chronicaldistemper, and I am willing to take the seeming worse of the two; letall the most promising nostrums, drops, drugs, and medicines known amongthe learned and experienced physicians, ancient or modern, regularphysicians or quacks, be administered to the best of the two, by anyprofessor at home or abroad; I will manage my patient with only a fewnaturally indicated and proper evacuations and sweetening innocentalternatives, which shall neither be loathsome, various, norcomplicated, require no confinement, under an appropriate diet, or, in aword, under the 'lightest and the least, ' or at worst under a milk andseed diet; and I will venture reputation and life, that my method curessooner, more perfectly and durably, is much more easily and pleasantlypassed through, in a shorter time, and with less danger of a relapsethan the other, with all the assistance of the best skill andexperience, under a full and free, though even a commonly reputedmoderate diet, but of rich foods and generous liquors; much more, undera voluptuous diet. " But I am unwilling to dismiss this subject without inserting a few moreextracts from Dr. Cheyne, to show his views of the treatment ofdiseases. And first, of the scurvy, and other diseases which he supposesto arise from it. "There is no chronical distemper, whatsoever, more universal, moreobstinate, and more fatal in Britain than the scurvy, taken in itsgeneral extent. Scarce any one chronical distemper but owes its originto a scorbutic tendency, or is so complicated with it, that it furnishesthe most cruel and most obstinate symptoms. To it we owe all thedropsies that happen after the meridian of life; all diabetes, asthmas, consumptions of several kinds; many sorts of colics and diarrhoeas;some kinds of gouts and rheumatisms, all palsies, various kinds ofulcers, and possibly the cancer itself; and most cutaneous foulnesses, weakly constitutions, and bad digestions; vapors, melancholy, and almostall nervous distempers whatsoever. And what a plentiful source ofmiseries the last are, the afflicted best can tell. And scarce any onechronical distemper whatever, but has some degree of this evilfaithfully attending it. The reason why the scurvy is peculiar to thiscountry and so fruitful of miseries, is, that it is produced by causesmostly special and particular to this island, to wit: the indulging somuch in animal food and strong fermented liquors, sedentary and confinedemployments, etc. "Though the inhabitants of Britain live, for the most part, as long asthose of a warmer climate, and probably rather longer, yet scarce anyone, especially those of the better sort, but becomes crazy and suffersunder some chronical distemper or other, before he arrives at old age. "Nothing less than a very moderate use of animal food, and that of theleast exciting kind, and a more moderate use of spirituous liquors, dueexercise, etc. , can keep this hydra under. And nothing else than a totalabstinence from animal food and alcoholic liquors can totally extirpateit. " The following are extracted from his "Natural Methods. " I do not laythem down as recipes, to be followed in the treatment of diseases; butto show the views of Dr. Cheyne in regard to vegetable regimen. "1. _Cancer. _--Any cancer that can be cut out, contracted, and healed upwith common, that is, soft, cool, and gently astringent dressings, andat last left as an issue on the part, may, by a cow's milk and seed dietcontinued ever afterward, be made as easy to the patient, and his lifeand health as long preserved, almost, as if he had never been afflictedwith it; especially if under fifty years of age. "2. _Cancer. _--A total ass's milk diet--about two quarts a day, withoutany other meat or drink--will in time cure a cancer in any part of thebody, with mere common dressings, provided the patient is not quite wornout with it before it is begun, or too far gone in the common durationof life and even in that case, it will lessen the pain, lengthen life, and make death easier, especially if joined with small interspersedbleedings, millepedes, crabs' eyes prepared, nitre and rhubarb, properlymanaged. But the diet, even after the cure, must be continued, and neverafter greatly altered, unless it be into cow's milk with seeds. "3. _Consumption. _--A total milk and seed diet, gentle and frequentbleedings, as symptoms exasperate, a little ipecacuanha or thumb vomitrepeated once or twice a week, chewing quill bark in the morning, and afew grains of rhubarb at night, will totally cure consumptions, evenwhen attended with tubercles, and hemoptoe, and hectic, in the firststage; will greatly relieve, if not cure, in the second stage, especially if riding and a warm clear air be joined; and make deatheasier in the third and last stage. "4. _Fits. _--A total cow's milk diet--about two quarts a day--withoutany other food, will at last totally cure all kinds of fits, epileptical, hysterical, or apoplectic, if entered upon before fifty. But the patient, if near fifty, must ever after continue in the samediet, with the addition only of seeds; otherwise his fits will returnoftener and more severely, and at last cut him off. "5. _Palsy. _--A total cow's milk diet, without any other food, will bidfairest to cure a hemiplegia or even a dead palsy, and consequently allthe lesser degrees of a partial one, if entered upon before fifty. Andthis distemper I take to be the most obstinate, intractable, anddisheartening one that can afflict the human machine; and is chieflyproduced by intemperate cookery, with its necessary attendant, habitualluxury. "6. _Gout. _--A total milk and seed diet, with gentle vomits before andafter the fits, chewing bark in the morning and rhubarb at night, withbleeding about the equinoxes, will perfectly cure the gout in personsunder fifty, and greatly relieve those farther advanced in life; butmust be continued ever after, if such desire to get well. "7. _Gravel. _--Soap lees, softened with a little oil of sweet almonds, drunk about a quarter of an ounce twice a day on a fasting stomach; orsoap and egg-shell pills, with a total milk and seed diet, and Bristolwater beverage, will either totally dissolve the stone in kidneys orbladder, or render it almost as easy as the nail on one's finger, if thepatient is under fifty, and much relieve him, even after that age. "In about thirty years' practice, in which I have, in some degree orother, advised this method in proper cases, I have had but two patientsin whose total recovery I have been mistaken, and these were bothscrofulous cases, where the glands and tubercles were so many, so hard, and so impervious that even the ponderous remedies and diet joined couldnot discuss them; and they were both also too far gone before theyentered upon them;--and I have found deep scrofulous vapors the mostobstinate of any of this tribe of these distempers. And indeed nothingcan possibly reach such, but the ponderous medicines, joined with aliquid, cool, soft, milk and seed regimen; and if these two do not, indue time, I can boldly affirm it, nothing ever will. " Dr. Cheyne goes on to speak of the cure, on similar principles, of agreat many other difficult or dangerous diseases, as asthma, pleurisy, hemorrhage, mania, jaundice, bilious colic, rheumatism, scurvy, andvenereal disease; but he modestly owns that, in his opinion on these, hedoes not feel such entire confidence as in the former cases, for want ofsufficient experiments. He, however, closes one of his chapters with thefollowing pretty strong statement: "I am morally certain, and am myself entirely convinced, that a milk andseed, or milk and turnip diet, duly persisted in, with the occasionalhelps mentioned (elsewhere) on exacerbations, will either totally cureor greatly relieve every chronical distemper I ever saw or read of. " Another chapter is thus concluded, and with it I shall conclude myextracts from his writings. "Some, perhaps, may controvert, nay, ridicule the doctrine laid down inthese propositions. I shall neither reply to, nor be moved with anything that shall be said against them. If they are of nature and truth, they will stand; if not, I consent they should come to nought. I havesatisfied my own conscience--the rest belongs to Providence. Possiblytime and bodily sufferings may justify them;--if not to this generation, perhaps to some succeeding one. I myself am convinced, by long and manyrepeated experience, of their justness and solidity. If what has beenadvocated through this whole treatise does not convince others, nothingI can add will be sufficient. I will leave only this reflection with myreaders. "All physicians, ancient and modern, allow that a milk and seed dietwill totally cure before fifty, and infinitely alleviate after it, theconsumption, the rheumatism, the scurvy, the gout--these highest, mostmortal, most painful, and most obstinate distempers; and nothing is morecertain in mathematics, than that which will cure the greater willcertainly cure the lesser distempers. " DR. GEOFFROY. Dr. Geoffroy, a distinguished French physician and professor ofchemistry and medicine in some of the institutions of France, flourishedmore than a hundred years ago. The bearing of the following extract willbe readily seen. It is from the Memoirs of the Royal Academy for theyear 1730; and I am indebted for it to the labors of Dr. Cheyne. "M. Geoffroy has given a method for determining the proportion ofnourishment or true matter of the flesh and blood, contained in any sortof food. He took a pound of meat that had been freed from the fat, bones, and cartilages, and boiled it for a determined time in a closevessel, with three pints of water; then, pouring off the liquor, headded the same quantity of water, boiling it again for the same time;and this operation he repeated several times, so that the last liquorappeared, both in smell and taste, to be little different from commonwater. Then, putting all the liquor together, and filtrating, toseparate the too gross particles, he evaporated it over a slow fire, till it was brought to an extract of a pretty moderate consistence. "This experiment was made upon several sorts of food, the result ofwhich may be seen in the following table. The weights are in ounces, drachms, and grains; sixty grains to a drachm, and eight drachms to anounce. Kind of Food. Amount of Extract. Oz. Dr. Gr. One lb. Beef 0. 7. 8. " Veal 1. 1. 48. " Mutton 1. 3. 16. " Lamb 1. 1. 39. " Chicken 1. 4. 34. " Pigeon 1. 0. 12. " Pheasant 1. 2. 8. " Partridge 1. 4. 34. " Calves' Feet 1. 2. 26. " Carp 1. 0. 8. " Whey 1. 1. 3. " Bread 4. 1. 0. "The relative proportion of the nourishment will be as follows: Beef 7 Veal 9 Mutton 11 Lamb 9 Chicken 12 Pigeon 8 Pheasant 10 Partridge 12 Calves' Feet 10 Carp 8 Whey 9 Bread 33 "From the foregoing decisive experiments it is evident that white, young, tender animal food, bread, milk, and vegetables are the best andmost effectual substances for nutrition, accretion, and sweetening badjuices. They may not give so strong and durable mechanical force, because being easily and readily digestible, and quickly passing all theanimal functions, so as to turn into good blood and muscular flesh, theyare more transitory, fugitive, and of prompt secretion; yet they willperform all the animal functions more readily and pleasantly, with fewerresistances and less labor, and leave the party to exercise the rationaland intellectual operations with pleasure and facility. They will leaveNature to its own original powers, prevent and cure diseases, andlengthen out life. " Now if this experiment proves what Dr. C. Supposes in favor of thelighter meats and vegetables taken together, how much more does it provefor bread alone? For it cannot escape the eye of the least observingthat this article, though placed last in the list of Dr. Geoffroy, is byfar the highest in point of nutriment; nay, that it is about three timesas high as any of the rest. I am not disposed to lay so much stress onthese experiments as Dr. C. Does; nevertheless, they prove somethingConnected with the more recent experiments of Messrs. Percy andVauquelin and others, how strikingly do they establish one fact, atleast, viz. , that bread and the other farinaceous vegetables cannotpossibly be wanting in nutriment; and how completely do they annihilatethe old-fashioned doctrine--one which is still abroad and veryextensively believed--that animal food is a great deal more nourishingthan vegetable! No careful inquirer can doubt that bread, peas, beans, rice, etc. , are twice as nutritious--to say the least--as flesh or fish. MESSRS. PERCY AND VAUQUELIN. As I have alluded, in the preceding article, to the experiments ofMessrs. Percy and Vauquelin, two distinguished French chemists, theirtestimony in this place seems almost indispensable, even though weshould not regard it, in the most strict import of the term, as medicaltestimony. The result of their experiments, as communicated by them tothe French minister of the interior, is as follows: In bread, every one hundred pounds is found to contain eighty pounds ofnutritious matter; butcher's meat, averaging the different sorts, contains only thirty-five pounds in one hundred; French beans (in thegrain), ninety-two pounds in one hundred; broad beans, eighty-ninepounds; peas, ninety-three pounds; lentils (a species of half pea littleknown with us), fifty-four pounds in one hundred; greens and turnipsonly eight pounds of solid nutritious substance in one hundred; carrots, fourteen pounds; and one hundred pounds of potatoes yield onlytwenty-five pounds of nutriment. I will just affix to the foregoing one more table. It is inserted inseveral other works which I have published; but for the benefit ofthose who may never yet have seen it, and to show how strikingly itcorresponds with the results of the experiments of Geoffroy, Percy, andVauquelin, I deem it proper to insert it. Of the best wheat, one hundred pounds contain about eighty-five poundsof nutritious matter; of rice, ninety pounds; of rye, eighty; of barley, eighty-three; of beans, eighty-nine to ninety-two; peas, ninety-three;lentils, ninety-four; meat (average), thirty-five; potatoes, twenty-five; beets, fourteen; carrots, ten; cabbage, seven; greens, six;and turnips, four. DR. PEMBERTON. Dr. Pemberton, after speaking of the general tendency, in our highly fedcommunities, to scrofula and consumption, makes the following remarks, which need no comment: "If a child is born of scrofulous parents, I would strongly recommendthat it be entirely nourished from the breast of a healthy nurse, for atleast a year. After this, the food should consist of milk andfarinaceous vegetables. By a perseverance in this diet for three years, I have imagined that the threatened scrofulous appearances havecertainly been postponed, if not altogether prevented. " SIR JOHN SINCLAIR. Sir John Sinclair, an eminent British surgeon, says, "I have wandered agood deal about the world, my health has been tried in all ways, and, bythe aid of temperance and hard work, I have worn out two armies in twowars, and probably could wear out another before my period of old agearrives. I eat no animal food, drink no wine or malt liquor, or spiritsof any kind; I wear no flannel; and neither regard wind nor rain, heatnor cold, when business is in the way. " DR. JAMES, OF WISCONSIN. Dr. James, of Wisconsin, but formerly of Albany, and editor of atemperance paper in that city, one of the most sensible, intelligent, and refined of men, and one of the first in his profession, is avegetable eater, and a man of great simplicity in all his physical, intellectual, and moral habits. I do not know that his views have everbeen presented to the public, but I state them with much confidence, from a source in which I place the most implicit reliance. DR. CRANSTOUN. Dr. Cranstoun, a worthy medical gentleman in England, became subject, bysome means or other, to a chronic dysentery, on which he exhausted, asit were, the whole materia medica, in vain. At length, after sufferinggreatly for four or five years, he was completely cured by a milk andvegetable diet. The following is his own brief account of his cure, in aletter to Dr. Cheyne: "I resolutely, as soon as capable of a diet, held myself close to yourrules of bland vegetable food and elementary drink, and, without anyother medicine, save frequent chewing of rhubarb and a little bark, Ipassed last winter and this summer without a relapse of the dysentery;and, though by a very slow advance, I find now more restitution of thebody and regularity in the economy, on this primitive aliment, than everI knew from the beginning of this trouble. This encourages much myperseverance in the same method, and that so religiously, as, to myknowledge, now for more than a year and a half I have not tasted of anything that had animal life. There is plenty in the vegetable kingdom. " DR. TAYLOR, OF ENGLAND. This gentleman, who had studied the works of Dr. Sydenham, and wastherefore rather favorably inclined toward a milk and vegetable diet, became at last subject to epileptic fits. Not being willing, however, togive up his high living and his strong drinks, he tried the effects ofmedicine, and even consulted all the most eminent of his brethren of themedical profession in and about London; but all to no purpose, and thefits continued to recur. He used frequently to be attacked with themwhile riding along the road, in pursuance of the business of hisprofession. In these cases he would fall from his horse, and oftenremain senseless till some passenger or wagon came along and carried himto the nearest house. At length his danger, not only from accidents, butfrom the frequency and violence of the attacks, became so imminent thathe was obliged to follow the advice of his master, Sydenham. He firstlaid aside the use of all fermented and distilled liquors; then, findinghis fits became less frequent and violent, he gave up all flesh meat, and confined himself entirely to cows' milk. In pursuance of this plan, in a year or two the epilepsy entirely lefthim. "And now, " says Dr. Cheyne, from whom I take the account, "forseventeen years he has enjoyed as good health as human nature is capableof, except that once, in a damp air and foggy weather in riding throughEssex, he was seized with an ague, which he got over by chewing thebark. " He assured Dr. C. That at this time--and he was considerablyadvanced in life--he could play six hours at cricket without fatigue ordistress, and was more active and clear in his faculties than ever hehad been before in his whole life. He also said he had cured a greatmany persons, by means of the same diet, of inveterate distempers. DRS. HUFELAND AND ABERNETHY. The celebrated Dr. Hufeland taught that a simple vegetable diet was mostconducive to health and long life. The distinguished Dr. Abernethy hasexpressed an opinion not very unlike it, in the following eccentricmanner: "If you put improper food into the stomach it becomes disordered, andthe whole system is affected. Vegetable matter ferments and becomesgaseous, while _animal_ substances are changed into a putrid, abominable, and acrid stimulus. Now, some people acquire preposterousnoses; others, blotches on the face and different parts of the body;others, inflammation of the eyes; all arising from the irritations ofthe stomach. I am often asked why I don't practice what I preach. Ireply by reminding the inquirer of the parson and sign-post--both pointthe way, but neither follows its course. " DR. GREGORY. Dr. Gregory, a distinguished professor and practitioner of medicine inScotland, in a work published more than seventy years ago, stronglyrecommends plain and simple food for children. Till they are three yearsold, he says, their diet should consist of plain milk, panada, goodbread, barley meal porridge, and rice. He also complains of pamperingthem with animal food. The same arguments which are good for formingthem to the habits of vegetable food exclusively for the first threeyears of life, would be equally good for its continuance. DR. CULLEN, OF EDINBURGH. The name of Dr. Cullen is well known, and he has long been regarded ashigh authority. Yet this distinguished writer and teacher expresslysays, that a very temperate and _sparing_ use of animal food is thesurest means of preserving health and obtaining long life. But I willquote his own language, in various parts of his writings. And first, from his Materia Medica: "Vegetable aliment, as never over-distending the vessels or loading thesystem, never interrupts the stronger emotions of the mind, while theheat, fullness, and weight of animal food, is an enemy to its vigorousefforts. Temperance, then, does not consist so much in the quantity, forthat will always be regulated by our appetite, as in the _quality_, viz. , a large proportion of vegetable aliment. " I will not stop here to oppose Dr. C. 's views in regard to the quantityof our food; for this is not the place. It is sufficient to show that headmits the importance of _quality_, and gives the preference to a dietof vegetables. He seems in favor, in another place in his works, of sleeping aftereating--perhaps a heresy, too--and inclines to the opinion that thepractice would be hardly hurtful if we ate less animal food. But his "First Lines of the Practice of Physic, " abounds in testimoniesin favor of vegetable food. In speaking, for example, of the cure ofrheumatic affections, he has the following language: "The cure, therefore, requires, in the first place, an antiphlogisticregimen, and particularly, a total abstinence from animal food, and fromall fermented or spirituous liquors. " "Antiphlogistic regimen, " in medical language, means that food and drinkwhich is most cooling and quieting to the stomach and to the generalsystem. In the treatment of gout, Dr. Cullen recommends a course like that whichhas been stated, except that instead of proposing vegetable food as ameans of cure, he recommends it as _preventive_. He says-- "The gout may be entirely prevented by constant bodily exercise, and bya low diet; and I am of opinion that this prevention may take place evenin persons who have a hereditary disposition to the disease. I must add, here, that even when the disposition has discovered itself by severeparoxysms of inflammatory gout, I am persuaded that labor and abstinencewill absolutely prevent any returns of it for the rest of life. " Again, in reference to the same subject, he thus observes: "I am firmly persuaded that any man who, early in life, will enter uponthe constant practice of bodily labor and of abstinence from animalfood, will be preserved entirely from the disease. " And yet once more. "If an abstinence from animal food be entered upon early in life, whilethe vigor of the system is yet entire, I have no doubt of its being bothsafe and effectual. " To guard against the common opinion that by vegetable food, he meantraw, or crude, or bad vegetables, Dr. C. Explains his meaning byassuring the reader that by a vegetable diet he means the "farinaceousseeds, " and "milk;" and admits that green, crude, and bad vegetables arenot only less useful, but actually liable to produce the very diseases, which good, mealy vegetable food will prevent or cure. This is an important distinction. Many a person, who wishes to beabstemious, seems to think that if he only abstains from flesh and fish, that is enough. No matter, he supposes, what vegetables he uses, so theyare vegetables; nor how much he abuses himself by excess in quantity. Nay, he will even load his stomach with milk, or butter, or eggs;sometimes with fish (we have often been asked if we considered fish asanimal food); and sometimes, worse still, with hot bread, hot buckwheatcakes, hot short-cakes, swimming, almost, in butter;--yes, and sometimeshe will even cover his potatoes with gravy, mustard, salt, etc. It is in vain for mankind to abstain from animal food, as they call it, and yet run into these worse errors. The lean parts of animals not muchfattened, and only rarely cooked, eaten once a day in small quantity, are far less unwholesome than many of the foregoing. But to return to Dr. C. In speaking of the proper drink for personsinclined to gout, he thus remarks: "With respect to drink, fermented liquors are useful only when they arejoined with animal food, and that by their acescency; and their stimulusis only necessary from custom. When, therefore, animal food is to beavoided, fermented liquors are unnecessary, and by increasing theacescency of vegetables, these liquors may be hurtful. The stimulus offermented or spirituous liquors is not necessary to the young andvigorous: and, when much employed, impairs the tone of the system. " Dr. C. Might have added--what indeed we should infer by parity ofreasoning--that when fermented liquors are avoided, animal food is nolonger necessary, and by increasing the alkaline state of the stomachand fluids, may be hurtful. The truth is, they go best together. If weuse flesh and fish, which are alkaline, a small quantity of gently aciddrink, as weak cider or wine, taken either _with_ our meals, or_between_ them, may be useful. It is better, however, to abstain fromboth. For if a purely vegetable aliment, with water alone for drink, is safeto all young persons inclining at all to gout, to whom is it unsafe? Ifit tends to render a young person at all weaker, that very weaknesswould predispose to the gout, in some of its forms, if a person wereconstitutionally inclined to that disease--if not to some othercomplaint, to which he was more inclined. It cannot, therefore, beunsafe to any, if Dr. C. Is right. But if those who are trained to it, _lose_ nothing, even in the highlatitude of Scotland--where Dr. C. Wrote--by confining themselves togood vegetables and water, then they must necessarily _gain_, on his ownprinciples, by this way of living, because they get rid of any sort ofnecessity (he might have added, lose their appetite) for fermentedliquors. More than this, as the doctor himself concludes, in another place, theyprevent many acute diseases. His words are these:--"It is animal foodwhich especially predisposes to the plethoric and inflammatory state;and that food is therefore to be especially avoided. " It is true, he ishere speaking of gouty persons: but his principles are also fairlysusceptible, as I have shown, of a general application. In short, it is an undeniable fact, that even a thorough-going vegetableeater might prove every thing he wished, from old established writers onmedicine and health, though themselves were feeders on animal food; justas a teetotaler may prove the doctrine of abstinence from all drinks butwater, from the writings of medical men, though themselves are still, inmany cases, pouring down their cider, their beer, or their wine--or atleast, their tea and coffee. DR. BENJAMIN RUSH. I find nothing in the writings of this great man which shows, withcertainty, what his views were, in regard to animal food. Thepresumption is, that he was sparing in its use, and that he encouraged avery limited use of it in others. This is presumed, 1, from the generaltenor of his writings--deeply imbued as they are with the great doctrineof temperance in all things; and, 2, from the fondness he seems to havemanifested in mentioning the temperance and even abstinence ofindividuals of whom he was speaking. Of Ann Woods, for example, who died at the age of ninety-six years, hesays, "Her diet was simple, consisting chiefly of weak tea, milk, cheese, butter, and vegetables. Meat of all kinds, except veal, disagreed with her stomach. She found great benefit from frequentlychanging her aliment. Her drinks were water, cider and water, andmolasses and vinegar in water. She never used spirits. Her memory (ather death) was but little impaired. She was cheerful, and thankful thather condition in life was happier than that of hundreds of otherpeople. " In his account of Benjamin Lay, a philosopher of the sect of theFriends, in Pennsylvania, Dr. R. Relates, that "he was extremelytemperate in his diet, living chiefly upon vegetables. Turnips boiledand afterward roasted, were his favorite dinner. His drink was purewater. He lived above eighty years. " It appears, also, that he wasexceedingly healthy. He relates of Anthony Benezet, a distinguished teacher of Philadelphia, who lived to an advanced age, that his sympathy was so great with everything that was capable of feeling pain, that he resolved, toward theclose of his life, to eat no animal food. He also relates the followingsingular anecdote of him. Upon coming into his brother's house, one day, when the family were dining upon poultry, he was asked by his brother'swife to sit down and dine with them. What! said he, would you have meeat my neighbors? Dr. Caleb Bannister, in another part of this work, tells us that he wasled to adopt a milk and vegetable diet, in incipient consumption, fromreading the writings of Dr. Rush; and I have little doubt that Dr. R. Himself lived quite abstemiously, if not altogether on vegetables. Nor is this _incidental_ testimony from Dr. Rush quite all. In his work"On the Diseases of the Mind, " he speaks often of the evils of eatinghigh-seasoned food, and especially animal food. And in stating what werethe proper remedies for debility in young men, when induced by certainforms of licentiousness, he expressly insists on a diet consistingsimply of vegetables, and prepared without condiments; and he evenencourages the disuse of salt. Had Dr. Rush lived to this day, hewould, ere now, in all probability, have fully adopted and defended thevegetable system. With views like his on the subject of intemperance, and a mind ever open to conviction, the result could hardly have beenotherwise. DR. WILLIAM LAMBE, OF LONDON. Dr. William Lambe, of London, is distinguished both as a physician and ageneral scholar, and is a prominent member of the "College ofPhysicians. " He was a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, and afellow-student with the immortal Clarkson. Dr. Lambe is the author of several valuable works, among which are his"Reports on Cancer, " and a more recent work entitled, "AdditionalReports on the Effects of a Peculiar Regimen, in Cases of Cancer, Scrofula, Consumption, Asthma, and other chronic diseases. " He has alsomade and published numerous experiments, especially in chemistry, whichis, with him, a favorite science; and it is said that he has spentfortunes in this way. Dr. L. Is now eighty-four years of age, and has lived on vegetable dietforty-two years. He commenced this course to cure himself of internalgout, and continued it because he found it better for his health. He isnow only troubled with it slightly, at his extremities, which he thinkshighly creditable to a vegetable course--having thrown it off from hisvital organs. He is cheerful and active, and able to discharge theduties of an extensive medical practice. He walks into town, a distanceof three miles from his residence, every morning, and back at night; andthinks himself as likely to live twenty years longer as he was, twentyyears ago, to live to his present age. The following is a condensed account of Dr. L. 's views, as obtained fromhis "Additional Reports, " above mentioned. Some of the first paragraphsrelate to the effects of vegetable food on those who are predisposed toscrofula, consumption, etc. "We see daily examples of young persons becoming consumptive who neverwent without animal food a single day of their lives. If the use ofanimal food were necessary to prevent consumption, we should expect, where people lived almost entirely upon such a diet, the disease wouldbe unknown. "Now, the Indian tribes visited by Mr. Hearne live in this manner. Theydo not cultivate the earth. They subsist by hunting, and the scantyproduce of spontaneous vegetation. But, among these tribes consumptionis common. Their diseases, as Mr. Hearne informs us, are principallyfluxes, scurvy, and consumption. "In the last four years, several cases of glandular swellings haveoccurred to me at the general dispensary, and I have made particularinquiries into the mode of living of such children. In the majority, they had animal food. In opposition to the accusation of vegetable foodcausing tumefaction of the abdomen, I must testify, that twice in my ownfamily I have seen such swellings disappear under a vegetable regimen, which had been formed under a diet of animal food. "Increasing the strength, for a time, is no proof of the salubrity ofdiet. The increased strength may not continue, though the diet should becontinued. On the contrary, there is a sort of oscillation; the strengthjust rising, then sinking again. This is what is experienced by thetrainers of boxers. A certain time is necessary to get these men intocondition; but this condition cannot be maintained for many weekstogether, though the process by which it was formed is continued. Thesame is found to hold in the training of race-horses, andfighting-cocks. "It seems certain that animal food predisposes to disease. Timoric, inhis account of the plague at Constantinople, asserts that the Armenians, who live chiefly on vegetable food, were far less disposed to thedisease than other people. The typhus fever is greatly exasperated byfull living. "It seems, moreover, highly probable that the power inherent in thehuman living body, of restoring itself under accidents or wounds, isstrongest in those who use most a vegetable regimen. "Contagions act with greater virulence upon bodies prepared by a fulldiet of animal food. "Since fishing has declined in the isles of Ferro, and the inhabitantshave lived chiefly on vegetables, the elephantiasis has ceased amongthem. "Those monks who, by the rules of their institution, abstain from theflesh of animals, enjoy a longer mean term of life, as the consequence. Of this there can be no doubt. Of one hundred and fifty-two monks, takenpromiscuously in all times and all sorts of climates, there livesproduced a total, according to Baillot (a writer of eminence), of 11, 589years, or an average of seventy-six years and a little more than threemonths. "Those Bramins who abstain most scrupulously from the flesh of animalsattain to the greatest longevity. "Life is prolonged, under incurable diseases, about one tenth byvegetable diet; so that a person who would otherwise die at seventy, will reach seventy-seven. In general, however, the proportion is aboutone sixth. "Abstaining from animal food palliates, when it does not cure, allconstitutional diseases. "The use of animal food hurries on life with an unnatural and unhealthyrapidity. We arrive at puberty too soon; the passions are developed tooearly; in the male, they acquire an impetuosity approaching to madness;females become mothers too early, and too frequently; and, finally, thesystem becomes prematurely exhausted and destroyed, and we becomediseased and old, when we ought to be in middle life. "It affords no trifling ground of suspicion against the use of animalfood that it so obviously inclines us to corpulency. Corpulency itselfis a species of disease, and a still surer harbinger of other diseases. It is so even in animals. When a sheep has become fat, the butcher knowsit must be killed or it will rot and decline. It is rare indeed for thecorpulent to be long-lived. They are at the same time sleepy, lethargic, and short-breathed. Even Hippocrates says, 'Those who are uncommonly fatdie more quickly than the lean. ' "As a general, rule, the florid are less healthy than those who havelittle color; an increase of color having ever been judged, by commonsense, to be a sign of impending illness. Some, however, who are leanupon animal food, thrive upon vegetables, and improve in color. "All the notions of vegetable diet affording only a deficientnutriment--notions which are countenanced by the language of Cullen andother great physicians--are wholly groundless. "Man is herbivorous in his structure. "I have observed no ill consequences from the relinquishment of animalfood. The apprehended danger of the change, with which men scarethemselves and their neighbors, is a mere phantom of the imagination. The danger, in truth, lies wholly on the other side. "There is no organ of the body which, under the use of vegetable food, does not receive an increase of sensibility, or of that power which isthought to be imparted to it by the nervous system. "Socrates, Plato, Zeno, Epicurus, and others of the masters of ancientwisdom, adhered to the Pythagorean diet (vegetable diet), and are knownto have arrived at old age with the enjoyment of uninterrupted health. Celsus affirms that the bodies which are filled with much animal foodbecome the most quickly old and diseased. It was proverbial that theancient athletæ were the most stupid of men. The cynic Diogenes, beingasked what was the cause of this stupidity, is reported to haveanswered, 'Because they are wholly formed of the flesh of swine andoxen. ' Theophrastus says that feeding upon flesh destroys the reason, and makes the mind more dull. "Animal food is unfavorable to the intellectual powers. The effect is, in some measure, instantaneous; it being hardly possible to apply to anything requiring thought after a full meal of meat; so that it has beennot improperly said of vegetable feeders, that _with them it is morningall day long_. But the senses, the memory, the understanding, and theimagination have also been observed to improve by a vegetable diet. "It will not be disputed that, for consumptive symptoms, a vegetablediet, or at least a vegetable and milk diet, is the most proper. "It has been said, that the great fondness men have for animal food, isproof enough that nature intended them to eat it. As if men were notfond of wine, ardent spirits, and other things which we know cut shorttheir days! "In every period of history it has been known that vegetables alone aresufficient for the support of life; and the bulk of mankind live uponthem at this hour. The adherence to the use of animal food is no morethan a gross persistence in the customs of savage life, and aninsensibility to the progress of reason and the operation ofintellectual improvement. This habit must be considered as one of thenumerous relics of that ancient barbarism which has overspread the faceof the globe, and which still taints the manners of civilized nations. "The use of fermented liquors is, in some measure, a necessaryconcomitant and appendage to the use of animal food. Animal food, in agreat number of persons, loads the stomach, causes some degree ofoppression, fullness, and uneasiness; and, if the measure of it be inexcess, some nausea and tendency to sickness. Such persons say meat istoo heavy for the stomach. Fish is still more apt to nauseate. The useof fermented liquors takes off these uneasy feelings, and is thought toassist digestion. In short, in the use of animal food, man havingdeviated from the simple aliment offered him by the hand of nature, andwhich is the best suited to his organs of digestion, he has brought uponhimself a premature decay, and much intermediate suffering connectedwith it. To this use of animal food almost all nations that have emergedfrom a state of barbarism, have united the use of spirituous andfermented liquors. " It is but justice to Dr. L. , however, as the above was written by himover thirty years ago, to say, that though he still adheres to the sameviews, he thinks pure distilled water a very important addition to thevegetable diet, in the cure of chronic diseases. The following are hisremarks in a letter to Mr. Graham, dated ten or twelve years ago. "My doctrine is, that for the preservation of health, and moreparticularly for the successful treatment of chronic diseases, it isnecessary to attend to the _whole_ ingesta--to the _fluid_ with as muchcare as the solid. And I am persuaded that the errors into which menhave fallen with regard to supposed mischiefs or inconveniences (asweakness, for example), as resulting from a restriction to a vegetablediet, have, to a very considerable extent arisen from a want of a properattention to the quality of the water they drank. So far back as theyear 1803, I found that the use of pure distilled, instead of commonwater, relieved a state of habitual suffering of the stomach and bowels. On this account, I always require that _distilled_ water shall be joinedto the use of a vegetable diet; and consider this to be essential to thetreatment. " PROFESSOR LAWRENCE. Professor Lawrence is the author of a work entitled Lectures onPhysiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man. He is a member ofthe Royal College of Surgeons, London, Professor of Anatomy and Surgeryto the College, and Surgeon to several Hospitals. In his work abovementioned, after much discussion in regard to the natural dieteticcharacter of man, he thus remarks: "That animal food renders man strong and courageous, is fully disprovedby the inhabitants of northern Europe and Asia, the Laplanders, Samoiedes, Ostiacs, Tungooses, Burats, and Kamtschadales, as well as bythe Esquimaux in the northern, and the natives of Terra del Fuego in thesouthern extremity of America, which are the smallest, weakest, andleast brave people of the globe, although they live almost entirely uponflesh, and that often raw. "Vegetable diet is as little connected with weakness and cowardice, asthat of animal matter is with physical force and courage. _That men canbe perfectly nourished, and their bodily and mental capabilities fullydeveloped in any climate, by a diet purely vegetable, admits of abundantproof from experience. _ In the periods of their greatest simplicity, manliness, and bravery, the Greeks and Romans appear to have livedalmost entirely on plain vegetable preparations. Indifferent bread, fruits, and other produce of the earth, are the chief nourishment of themodern Italians, and of the mass of the population in most countries inEurope. Of those more immediately known to ourselves, the Irish andScotch may be mentioned, who are certainly not rendered weaker thantheir English fellow-subjects by their free use of vegetable aliment. The Negroes, whose great bodily powers are well known, feed chiefly onvegetable substances; and the same is the case with the South SeaIslanders, whose agility and strength were so great that the stoutestand most expert English sailors had no chance with them in wrestling andboxing. " The concession of Prof. L. , which I have placed in italic, is sufficientfor our purpose; we ask no more. Nevertheless, I am willing to hear hisviews of the indications afforded by our anatomical character, whichare, as will be seen, equally decisive in favor of vegetable eating. "Physiologists have usually represented that our species holds a middlerank, in the masticatory and digestive apparatus, between theflesh-eating and herbivorous animals--a statement which seems rather tohave been deduced from what we have learned by experience on thesubject, than to result from an actual comparison of men and animals. "The teeth and jaws of men are, in all respects, much more similar tothose of monkeys than of any other animal. The number is the same as inman, and the form so closely similar, that they might easily be mistakenfor human. In most of them, except the ourang-outang, the canine teethare much larger and stronger than in us; and so far, these animals havea more carnivorous character than man. "Thus we find, that whether we consider the teeth and jaws, or theimmediate instruments of digestion, the human structure closelyresembles that of the simiæ (monkey race), all of which, in theirnatural state, are completely herbivorous. Man possesses a tolerablylarge coecum, and a cellular colon; which I believe are not found inany herbivorous animal. " The ourang-outang naturally prefers fruits and nuts, as the professorhimself shows by extracts from the statements of travelers andnaturalists. He is also fond of bread. On board a ship or elsewhere, _inconfinement_, he may, however, be taught, like men, to eat almost anything;--not only to eat milk and suck eggs, but even to eat raw flesh. It is true, indeed, after all these foregoing statements and concessionsin regard to man's native character and the wholesomeness of a dietexclusively vegetable--and after admitting that the human body and mindcan be fully and perfectly nourished and _developed_ on it, thisdistinguished writer goes on to say that it is still doubtful whichdiet--animal, vegetable, or mixed--is on the whole _most_ conducive tohealth, and strength--which is best calculated to avert or removedisease--whether errors in quantity or quality are most pernicious, etc. He says the solution of these and other analogous questions, can only beexpected from experimental investigation. He proceeds to say-- "_Mankind are so averse to relinquish their favorite indulgences, and todesert established habits_, that we cannot entertain very sanguineexpectations of any important discovery in this department. We must addto this, that there are many other causes affecting human health, besides diet. Before venturing to draw any inferences on a subject besetwith so many obstacles, it would be necessary to observe the effects ofa purely animal and a purely vegetable diet on several individuals ofdifferent habits, pursuits, and modes of life; to note their state, bothbodily and mental; and to learn the condition of two or threegenerations fed in the same manner. " Now, the only difference between this opinion and what I conceive to bethe truth in the case is, that just such experimental investigations asthose to which he refers have, to all intents and purposes, been alreadymade; as, I trust, will be distinctly shown in the sequel of this work. DR. SALGUES. Dr. Salgues, Physician, and Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, etc. , etc. , to the Institute of France, some years ago wrote a book, entitled"Rules for Preserving the Health of the Aged, " which contained many veryjudicious remarks on diet. There is nothing in the volume, however, which is decidedly in favor of a diet exclusively vegetable, unless itis a few anecdotes; and I have introduced his name chiefly as a sort ofauthority for those anecdotes. They are the following: "Josephus informs us that the Essenes were very long lived; many livedupward of one hundred years, solely from their simple habits andsobriety. Aristotle and Plato speak of Herodicus the philosopher, who, although of a feeble and consumptive habit, lived, in consequence of hissobriety, upward of one hundred years. Phabrinus, mentioned by Athenius, lived more than one hundred years, drinking milk only. Zoroaster, according to Pliny, remained twenty years in a desert, living on a smallquantity of cheese only. " THE AUTHOR OF "SURE METHODS, " ETC. The British author of "Sure Methods of Improving Health and ProlongingLife, " supposed by many to be the distinguished Dr. Johnson, speaksthus: "It must be confessed that, in temperate climates, at least, an animaldiet is, in one respect, more wasting than a vegetable, because itexcites, by its stimulating qualities, a temporary fever after everymeal, by which the springs of life are urged into constant, preternatural, and weakening exertions. Again; persons who live chieflyon animal food are subject to various acute and fatal disorders, as thescurvy, malignant ulcers, inflammatory fevers, etc. , and are likewiseliable to corpulency, more especially when united to inordinatequantities of liquid aliment. There appears to be also a tendency in ananimal diet to promote the formation of many chronic diseases; and weseldom find those who indulge much in this diet to be remarkable forlongevity. "In favor of vegetables, it may be justly said, that man could hardlylive entirely on animal food, but we know he may on vegetable. Vegetablealiment has likewise no tendency to produce those constitutionaldisorders which animal food so frequently occasions. And this is a greatadvantage, more especially in our country (he means in Great Britain), where the general sedentary mode of living so powerfully contributes tothe formation and establishment of numerous severe chronic maladies. Anyunfavorable effects vegetable food may have on the body, are almostwholly confined to the stomach and bowels, and rarely injure the systemat large. This food has also a beneficial influence on the powers of themind, and tends to preserve a delicacy of feeling, and liveliness ofimagination, and acuteness of judgment, seldom enjoyed by those who liveprincipally on meat. It should also be added, that a vegetable diet, when it consists of articles easily digested, as potatoes, turnips, bread, biscuit, oatmeal, etc. , is certainly favorable to long life. " BARON CUVIER. [10] Perhaps it is not generally known that Baron Cuvier, the prince ofnaturalists, in the progress of his researches came to the most decisiveconclusion, that, so far as any thing can be ascertained or proved bythe investigation of science in regard to the natural dietetic characterof man, he is a fruit and vegetable eater. I have not seen his ownviews; but the following are said, by an intelligent writer, to be atolerably faithful transcript of them, and to be derived from hisComparative Anatomy. "Man resembles no carnivorous animal. There is no exception, unless manbe one, to the rule of herbivorous animals having cellulated colons. "The ourang-outang perfectly resembles man, both in the order and numberof his teeth. The ourang-outang is the most anthropomorphous of the apetribe, all of which are strictly frugivorous. There is no other speciesof animals, which live on different food, in which this analogy exists. In many frugivorous animals, the canine teeth are more pointed anddistinct than those of man. The resemblance also of the human stomach tothat of the ourang-outang, is greater than to that of any other animal. "The intestines are also identical with those of herbivorous animals, which present a large surface for absorption, and have ample andcellulated colons. The coecum also, though short, is larger than thatof carnivorous animals; and even here the ourang-outang retains itsaccustomed similarity. "The structure of the human frame, then, is that of one fitted to a purevegetable diet, in every essential particular. It is true, that thereluctance to abstain from animal food, in those who have been longaccustomed to its stimulus, is so great in some persons of weak minds, as to be scarcely overcome; but this is far from being any argument inits favor. A lamb, which was fed for some time on flesh by a ship'screw, refused its natural diet at the end of the voyage. There arenumerous instances of horses, sheep, oxen, and even wood-pigeons, havingbeen taught to live upon flesh, until they have loathed their naturalaliment. " No one will deny that Baron Cuvier was in favor of flesh eating; but itwas not because he ever believed, for one moment, that man was_naturally_ a flesh-eating animal. Man is a reasoning animal (heargues), and intended to be so. If left to the guidance of hisinstincts, the same yielding to the law of his structure which wouldexclude flesh meats, should also exclude cookery. Or, in other words, ifhe is not permitted to depart from the line of life which his structureindicates, he must no more cook his vegetables than eat animal food. Besides, he is made, as Cuvier supposes, for artificial society, and theCreator designed him to _improve_ his food; and, if I understand hisreasoning, he is better able, with his present structure of teeth, jaws, stomach, intestines, etc. , to make this improvement, and rise above hisnature, and yield to the force and indications of reason and experience, than if he possessed any other known living structure. To this structure, however, as well as to the same power of adaptation, the monkey race, and especially the ourang-outang, closely typoapproximates. Cuvier's reasoning, in my view, applies only to theadaptability (if I may be allowed the expression) of the human animal, without deciding how far he should avail himself of his power to makechanges. DR. LUTHER V. BELL. I have alluded, in another part of this work, to the prize essay of Dr. Bell, awarded to him by the Boylston Medical Committee on the subject ofthe diet of laborers in New England. Dr. Bell is a physician ofrespectable talents, and is at present the Physician to an InsaneHospital in Charlestown, near this city. Dr. Bell admits, with the most distinguished naturalists andphysiologists of Europe, --Cuvier, Lawrence, Blumenbach, Bell of London, Richerand, Marc, etc. , --that the structure of man resembles closely thatof the monkey race; and hence objects to the conclusion to which some ofthese men have arrived (by jumping over, as it were), that man is anomnivorous animal. He freely allows--I use his own words--"that man doesapproximate more closely to the frugivorous animals than to any others, in physical organization. " But then he insists that the conclusion whichought to be drawn from this similarity "is, that he is designed to havehis food in about the same state of mechanical cohesion, requiring aboutthe same energy of masticatory organs, as if it consisted of fruits, etc. , alone. " But, wherefore should we draw even this conclusion, if structure andinstinct prove nothing, and if we are to be governed solely by reason, without regard to structure and instinct? For my own part, I believereason is never true reason, when it turns wholly out of doors eitherinstinct or the indications of organization. In other words, anenlightened reason would look both to the structure and organization ofman, and to a large and broad experience, for the solution of a questionso important as what diet is, on the whole, best for man. And theexperience of the world, both in the present and all former ages, leadsme to a conclusion entirely different from that to which Dr. Bell, andthose who entertain the same views with him, seem to have arrived--aconclusion which is indicated by structure, and confirmed by facts anduniversal experience. But this subject will be further discussed anddeveloped in another place. It is sufficient for my present purpose, tobring testimony in favor of the safety of vegetable eating, and of thedoctrine that man is naturally a vegetable and fruit-eating animal; andespecially if I produce, to this end, the testimony of flesh-eatersthemselves. DR. WILLIAM BUCHAN, AUTHOR OF "DOMESTIC MEDICINE. " "Indulgence in animal food, renders men dull and unfit for the pursuitsof science, especially when it is accompanied with the free use ofstrong liquors. I am inclined to think that _consumptions_, so common inEngland, are, in part, owing to the great use of animal food. But thedisease most common to this country is the scurvy. One finds a dash ofit in almost every family, and in some the taint is very deep. A diseaseso general must have a general cause, and there is none so obvious asthe great quantity of animal food which is devoured. As a proof thatscurvy arises from this cause, we are in possession of no remedy forthat disease equal to the free use of fresh vegetables. By theuninterrupted use of animal food, a putrid diathesis is induced in thesystem, which predisposes to a variety of disorders. I am fullyconvinced that many of those obstinate complaints for which we are at aloss to account, and which we find it still more difficult to cure, arethe effects of a scorbutic taint, lurking in the habit. "The choleric disposition of the English is almost proverbial. Were I toassign a cause, it would be, their living so much on animal food. Thereis no doubt but this induces a ferocity of temper unknown to men whosefood is taken chiefly from the vegetable kingdom. [11] "Experience proves that not a few of the diseases incident to theinhabitants of this country, are owing to their mode of living. Thevegetable productions they consume, fall considerably short of theproportion they ought to bear to the animal part of their food. Themajor part of the aliment ought to consist of vegetable substances. There is a continual tendency in animal food, as well as in the humanbody itself, to putrefaction; which can only be counteracted by the freeuse of vegetables. All who value health, ought to be contented withmaking one meal of animal food in twenty-four hours; and this ought toconsist of one kind only. "The most obstinate scurvy has often been cured by a vegetable diet;nay, milk alone, will frequently do more in that disease than anymedicine. Hence it is evident that if vegetables and milk were more usedin diet, we should have less scurvy, and likewise fewer putrid andinflammatory fevers. "Such as abound with blood (and such are almost all of us), should besparing in the use of every thing which is highly nourishing--as fatmeat, rich wines, strong ales, and the like. Their food should consistchiefly of bread and other vegetable substances; and their drink oughtto be water, whey, or small beer. " Dr. B. Also insists on a vegetable diet, as a preventive of manydiseases; particularly of consumption. When there is a tendency to thisdisease, in the young, he says "it should be counteracted by strictlyadhering to a diet of the farinacea, and ripe fruits. Animal food andfermented liquors ought to be rigidly prohibited. Even milk often provestoo nutritious. " DR. CHARLES WHITLAW. Dr. Whitlaw is the author of a work entitled "New Medical Discoveries, "in two volumes, and of a "Treatise on Fever. " He has also establishedmedical vapor baths in London, New York, and elsewhere; and is agentleman of much skill and eminence in his profession. Dr. Whitlawsays-- "All philosophers have given their testimony in favor of vegetable food, from Pythagoras to Franklin. Its beneficial influence on the powers ofthe mind has been experienced by all sedentary and literary men. "But, that which ought to convince every one of the salubrity of a dietconsisting of vegetables, is the consideration of the dreadful effectsof totally abstaining from it, unless it be for a very short time;accounts of which we meet with, fully and faithfully recorded, in themost interesting and most authentic narratives of human affairs--wars, sieges of places, long encampments, distant voyages, the peopling ofuncultivated and maritime countries, remarkable pestilences, and thelives of illustrious men. To this cause the memorable plague at Athenswas attributed; and indeed all the other plagues and epidemicaldistempers, of which we have any faithful accounts, will be found tohave originated in a deprivation of vegetable food. "The only objections I have ever heard urged (the only plausible ones, he must mean, I think), is the notion of its inadequacy to thesustenance of the body. But this is merely a strong prejudice into whichthe generality of mankind have fallen, owing to their ignorance of thelaws of life and health. Agility and constant vigor of body are theeffect of health, which is much better preserved by a herbaceous, aqueous, and sparing tender diet, than by one which is fleshy, vinous, unctuous, and hard of digestion. "So fully were the Romans, at one time, persuaded of the superiorgoodness of vegetable diet, that, besides the private example of many oftheir great men, they established laws respecting food, among which werethe _lex fannia_, and the _lex licinia_, which allowed but very littleanimal food; and, for a period of five hundred years, diseases werebanished along with the physician from the Roman empire. Nor has our ownage been destitute of examples of men, brave from the vigor both oftheir bodies and their minds, who at the same time have been drinkers ofwater and eaters of vegetables. [12] "Nothing is more certain than that animal food is inimical to health. This is evident from its stimulating qualities producing, as it were, atemporary fever after every meal; and not only so, but from itscorruptible qualities it gives rise to many fatal diseases; and thosewho indulge in its use seldom arrive at an advanced age. "We have the authority of the Scripture for asserting that the properaliment of man is vegetables. See Genesis. And as disease is notmentioned as a part of the cause, we have reason to believe that theantediluvians were strangers to this evil. Such a phenomenon as diseasecould hardly exist among a people who lived entirely on a vegetablefood; consequently all the individuals made mention of in that period ofthe world, are said to have died of old age; whereas, since the day ofNoah, when mankind were permitted to eat animal food, such an occurrenceas a man dying of old age, or a natural decay of the bodily functions, does not occur probably once in half a century. "Its injurious effects on the mind are equally certain. The Tartars, wholive principally on animal food, are cruel and ferocious in theirdisposition, gloomy and sullen minded, delighting in exterminating warsand plunder; while the Bramins and Hindoos, who live entirely onvegetable aliment, possess a mildness and gentleness of character anddisposition directly the reverse of the Tartar; and I have no doubt, hadIndia possessed a more popular form of government, and a moreenlightened priesthood, her people, with minds so fitted forcontemplation, would have far outstripped the other nations of the worldin manufactures, and in the arts and sciences. "But we need only look at the peasantry of Ireland, who, living as theydo, chiefly on a vegetable--and to say the least of it, a verysuspicious kind of aliment, I mean the potatoe--are yet as robust andvigorous a race of men as inherit any portion of the globe. "The greater part of our bodily disease is brought on by improper food. This opinion has been strongly confirmed by my daily experience in thetreatment of those diseases to which the people of England arepeculiarly subject, such as scrofula, consumption, leprosy, etc. Thesedisorders are making fearful and rapid strides; so much so, that not asingle family may now be considered exempt from their melancholyravages. " This is fearful testimony, but it is the result of much observation andof twenty years' experience. But the same causes are producing the sameeffects--at least, so far as scrofula and consumption are concerned--inthis country, at the present time, of which Dr. W. Complains so loudlyin England. I could add much more from his writings, but what I havesaid is sufficient. DR. JAMES CLARK. Dr. Clark, physician to the king and queen of Belgium, in a Treatise onPulmonary Consumption, has the following remarks: "There is no greater evil in the management of children than that ofgiving them animal diet very early. By persevering in the use of anover-stimulating diet, the digestive organs become irritated, and thevarious secretions immediately connected with and necessary to digestionare diminished, especially the biliary secretion; and constipation ofthe bowels and congestion of the abdominal viscera succeed. Children sofed, moreover, become very liable to attacks of fever and ofinflammation, affecting particularly the mucous membranes; and measlesand the other diseases incident to childhood are generally severe intheir attack. " The suggestion that a mild or vegetable diet will render certaindiseases incident to childhood more mild than otherwise they would be, is undoubtedly an important one; and as just as it is important. Butthe remark might be extended, in its application. Both children andadults would escape all sorts of diseases, especially colds andepidemics, with much more certainty, or, if attacked, the attacks wouldbe much more mild, on an exclusively vegetable diet than on a mixed one. Dr. Clark does not, indeed, say so; but I may say it, and withconfidence. And Dr. C. Could not probably show any reason why, on hisown principles, it should not be so. PROF. MUSSEY, OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Prof. R. D. Mussey, of Hanover, New Hampshire, whose science and skillas a surgeon and physician are well known and attested all over NewEngland, has for many years taught, both directly and indirectly, in hispublic lectures, that man is naturally a fruit and vegetable eater. Thishe proves, first, from the structure of his teeth and intestines--nextfrom his physiological character, and finally, from various facts andconsiderations too numerous to detail here. He thinks the Bible doctrines are in favor of the disuse of flesh andfish; that the Jews were required to abstain from pork, and from all fatand blood, for physiological no less than other reasons. An infant, hesays, naturally has a disrelish for animal food. He says that, in allprobability, animal food was not permitted, though used, before theflood; and that its use, contrary to the wish of the Creator, wasprobably one cause of human degeneracy. Animal food, he says, is apt toproduce diseases of the skin--makes people passionate andviolent--excites the nervous system too much--renders the senses andfaculties more dull--and favors the accumulation of what is miredtartar on the teeth, and thus causes their early and certain decay. Theblood and breath of carnivorous animals emit an unpleasant odor, whilethose of vegetable eaters do not. The fact that man _does eat_ flesh nomore proves its necessity, than the fact that cows, and sheep, andhorses can be taught it, proves its necessity to them. The Africans bearthe cold better the first winter after their arrival in a northernclimate than afterward. May not this be owing to their simple vegetableliving? DR. CONDIE, OF PHILADELPHIA. The Journal of Health, edited by some of the ablest physicians ofPhiladelphia, has the following remarkable language on the subject ofvegetable food. See vol. 1, page 277. "It is well known that vegetable substances, particularly thefarinaceous, are fully sufficient, of themselves, for maintaining ahealthy existence. We have every reason for believing that the fruits ofthe earth constituted, originally, the only food of man. Animal food isdigested in a much shorter period than vegetables; from whichcircumstance, as well as its approaching much nearer in its compositionto the substance of the body into which it is to be converted, it mightat first be supposed the most appropriate article of nourishment. Ithas, however, been found that vegetable matter can be as readily andperfectly _assimilated_ by the stomach into appropriate _nutriment_ asthe most tender animal substances; and confessedly with a less heatingeffect upon the system generally. "As a general rule, it will be found that those who make use of a dietconsisting chiefly of vegetable matter have a vast advantage in looks, in strength, and spirits, over those who partake largely of animal food. They are remarkable for the firm, healthy plumpness of their muscles, and the transparency of their skins. This assertion, though at variancewith popular opinion, is amply supported by experience. " At page 7 of the same volume of the Journal of Health we find thefollowing remarks. The editors were alluding to those persons who thinkthey cannot preserve their health and strength without flesh or fish, and who believe their children would also suffer without it: "For the information of all such misguided persons, we beg leave tostate, that the large majority of mankind do not eat any animal food;or, if any, they use it so sparingly, and at such long intervals, thatit cannot be said to form their nourishment. Millions in Asia aresustained by rice alone, with perhaps a little vegetable oil forseasoning. "In Italy and southern Europe, generally, bread, made of the flour ofwheat or Indian corn, with lettuce and the like mixed with oil, constitutes the food of the most robust part of its population. "The Lazzaroni of Naples, with forms so actively and finelyproportioned, cannot even calculate on this much. Coarse bread andpotatoes is their chief reliance. Their drink of luxury is a glass oficed water, slightly acidulated. "Hundreds of thousands--we might say millions--of Irish do not seeflesh-meat or fish from one week's end to another. Potatoes and oatmealare their articles of food: if milk can be added it is thought a luxury. Yet where shall we find a more healthy and robust population, or onemore enduring of bodily fatigue, and exhibiting more mental vivacity?What a contrast between these people and the inhabitants of the extremenorth--the timid Laplanders, Esquimaux, and Samoideans, whose food isalmost entirely animal?" Again, at page 187 we are told that "the more simple the aliment, andthe less _altered_ by culinary processes, the slower is the change indigestion; but, at the same time, the less is the stimulation and wearof the powers of life. The Bramins of Hindostan, who live on exceedinglysimple food, are long livers, even in a hot and exhausting climate. Thepeasants of Switzerland and of Scotland, nourished on bread, milk, andcheese, attain a very old age, and enjoy great bodily strength. "Where there is too much excitement of the body, generally, fromfullness of the blood-vessels, or of any one of the organs, owing to awrong direction of the blood to it (and in one or the other of theseconditions we find almost every body now-a-days), animal food, by beinglong retained in the stomach, and calling into greater action otherparts during digestion, as well as furnishing them with more bloodafterward, must be obviously improper. The more of this kind of food istaken under such circumstances, the greater will be the oppression; andthe weakness, different from that of a healthy person long hungered, will only be increased by the increased amount of blood carried to thediseased part. " It is true that the editors of the Journal of Health connect with theforegoing paragraphs the statement that, "if it be desirable to givenutriment in a small bulk, to obtund completely the sensation of hungerand restore strength to the body, a small quantity of animal will bepreferable to much vegetable food. " But then it is only in a fewdiseased cases that any such thing is desirable. And even then, if welook carefully at the language used, the comparison is not made betweenanimal and vegetable food in moderate or reasonable quantities, butbetween a _small quantity_ of the former and _much_ of the latter. DR. J. V. C. SMITH, OF BOSTON. The following remarks are extracted from the Boston MedicalIntelligencer, at a period when Dr. J. V. C. Smith was the editor. Theyhave the appearance of being from Dr. Smith's own pen. Dr. S. Is atpresent the editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal: "It is true[13] that animal food contains a greater portion ofnutriment, in a given quantity, than vegetables; but the digestivefunctions of the human system become prematurely exhausted by constantaction, and the whole system eventually sinks under great oruninterrupted excitement. If, for the various ragouts with which moderntables are so abundantly furnished, men would substitute _wholesomevegetables and pure water_, we should see health walking in paths thatare now crowded with the bloated victims of voluptuous appetite. Millions of Gentoos have lived to an advanced age without having tastedany thing that ever possessed life, and been wholly free from a chain ofmaladies which have scourged every civilized nation on the globe. Thewandering Arabs, who have traversed the barren desert of Sahara, subsisting on the scanty pittance of milk from the half-famished camelthat carried them, have seen two hundred years roll round without a dayof sickness. " SYLVESTER GRAHAM. Although Mr. Graham does not, so far as I know, lay claim to the"honors" of any medical institution, it cannot be doubted that hisknowledge of physiology, to say nothing of anatomy, pathology, andmedicine, is such as to entitle him to a high rank among medical men;and I have, therefore, without hesitation, concluded to insert histestimony in this place. Of his views, however, on the subject before us, it seems almostsuperfluous to speak, as they are set forth, and have been set forth formany years, so conspicuously, not only in his public lectures, but inhis writings, that the bare mention of his name, in almost any part ofthe country, is to awaken the prejudices, if not the hostilities, ofevery foe, and of some friends (supposed friends, I mean), of"temperance in all things. " It is sufficient, perhaps, for my presentpurpose, to say of him, that, after the most rigid and profoundexamination of the subject which he is capable of making--and hiscapabilities are by no means very limited--it is his unhesitatingbelief, that in every climate, and in all circumstances in which it isproper for man to be placed, an exclusively farinaceous and fruit dietis the best adapted to the development and improvement of all his powersof body, mind, and soul; provided, however, he were trained to it fromthe first. And even at any period of life, unless in the case of certainforms of diseases, he believes it would be preferable to exchange, in aproper manner, every form of mixed diet for one purely vegetable. Suchopinions as these, as a part of his views in relation to the physicalduties of man, he publicly, and strenuously, and eloquently, announcesand defends. DR. JOHN M. ANDREW. Dr. Andrew is a practitioner of medicine in Remsen, Oneida county, Stateof New York. His letter was intended for chapter iv. , but came too late. This fact is the only apology for inserting it in this place. Severalinteresting cases of dietetic reform accompanied the letter, but I mustomit them, for want of room, in this work. REMSEN, April 28, 1838. DEAR SIR--It is now about sixteen months since I adopted an exclusivelyvegetable diet. I have, however, never been very much inclined to animalfood; and, indeed, before I ever heard of the Graham system I laid itaside, during summer, when farming--which, by the by, had always been myoccupation till I commenced my professional course, about four yearsago. I have, to the best of my knowledge, enjoyed what is commonlycalled good health, and possessed a degree of strength surpassed only byfew; and in connection with the assiduous cultivation of my mentalfaculties, I have carefully sought to improve my physical powers, whichI deem of incalculable worth to the student, as well as to the laborer. My attention was first called to the subject of vegetable eating byProfessor Mussey, in a lecture before the medical class of the WesternMedical College of New York, while fulfilling the duties of theprofessorship, to which he was called in 1836. In that lecture ouradaptations, and the design of the Creator in regard to our mode ofsubsistence, were clearly held forth, and such was the impression madeon my mind, that I was induced at once to adopt the vegetable system, both in practice and theory. In my change of diet I did not suffer anyinconvenience. The fact that I had, for some length of time, been livingmostly on vegetables, will account for that circumstance, however. But the great advantages derived from the change were soon perceptible, though not appreciated by others. I met with much opposition from myfriends, frequently being told that I was fast losing my flesh and allmy youthful vigor and vivacity. And yet, for one year and more, I havenot lost a pound of flesh. I was gazed upon as an anomaly in society; some anxiously looking, andothers fearfully expecting my downfall and destruction; but both arealike disappointed. The system, though I have not been able to follow itso strictly as I could wish, from the circumstances in which I have beenplaced, has far exceeded my expectations. One year and more has rolledaway, and I thank God I can look back, with some degree of satisfaction, on the time spent in the enjoyment of that alone which sweetens the cupof life. My most able advocacy has been my manual exertions and I havedemonstrated the utility of the _system_ alike to the professional andlaboring classes of community. I do not go beyond the truth when I say, that I cannot find a man to viewith me in the field, with the scythe, the fork, or the axe. I do notwant any thing but potatoes and salt; and I can cut and put up fourcords of wood in a day, with no very great exertion. I have frequentlybeen told, by friends, that my _potato and salt system_ would not standthe test of the field; but I have silenced their clamor by actualdemonstration with all the implements above named. At present, no consideration would induce me to return to my former modeof living. JOHN M. ANDREW. DR. WILLIAM SWEETSER, OF BOSTON. Dr. Sweetser is the author of a "Treatise on Consumption, " and of a"Treatise on Digestion. " He has also been a medical professor in theUniversity of Vermont, and a public lecturer on health, in Boston. In his work on consumption, while speaking of the prevailing belief of anecessity for the use of animal food to those children who possess thescrofulous or consumptive tendency, he thus remarks: "A diet of milk and mild farinaceous articles, with perhaps light animaldecoctions, appears best suited to the early years of life. Wheneverthere exists an evident inflammatory tendency, as is the case in somescrofulous systems, solid animal food, if used at all, should be takenwith the greatest precaution. "And again--how often is it that fat, plethoric, meat-eating children, their faces looking as though the blood was just ready to ooze out, arewith the greatest complacency exhibited by their parents as patterns ofhealth! But let it ever be remembered, that the condition of the systempopularly called rude or full health, and which is the result of highfeeding, is too often closely bordering on a state of disease. " In his work on digestion he seems to regard man as naturally anomnivorous animal; and, taking this for granted, he speaks as followsrespecting his diet: "One would hardly assert that even in temperate climates his (man's)system requires animal food. I doubt whether any instance can beadduced--unless man be regarded as such--of an omnivorous animalincapable of being adequately nourished by a sufficient and propervegetable diet. "Man, dwelling in a temperate climate, and with the power to choose, almost uniformly employs a mixture of animal and vegetable food; but howmuch early education may have to do in forming his taste for a mixeddiet it is difficult to estimate. Habit has certainly great influence inattaching us to particular kinds of aliment. One who has long beenaccustomed to animal food cannot at once abstain from it withoutexperiencing some feebleness for the want of its stimulation, andperhaps even temporary emaciation. And, on the other hand, he who haslong been confined to a vegetable diet is apt to lose his relish forflesh, and, on recurring suddenly to its use, to find it too exciting. "The liberal use of animal food has been generally thought requisite inarctic climes, to stimulate the functions, and thus furnish a moreabundant supply of animal heat, to preserve against the extremity ofexternal temperature. Northern voyagers mostly believe that fat animalfood and oils are essential to the maintenance of health and life in theinhabitants of those frozen regions. But to me it would seem that theirhabits, in respect to diet, prove the _capabilities_, rather than thenecessities, of their systems. They learn to eat their coarse farebecause they can get no other. Their food, moreover, as is generally thecase in savage life, is precarious; and thus, being at times exposed toextreme want, they are stimulated to greater excesses when theirsupplies are ample. "The fact of man's dwelling in them (the arctic regions), and eatingwhat he can get there, no more proves him to be naturally aflesh-eating animal than the circumstance of some cattle learning to eatfish, when they are in situations where they can obtain no other food, proves them to be piscivorous. "Haller conceived it necessary that human life should be sustained byanimal and vegetable food, so apportioned that neither should be inexcess; and he asserts that abstinence from animal food causes greatweakness in the body, and usually a troublesome diarrhoea. But such anopinion is certainly incorrect, since not only particular individuals, but even numbers of people, dwelling in temperate climates, from variouscauses, subsist almost wholly on vegetable substances, and yet preservetheir health and vigor. "Were we educated to its exclusive use, I am persuaded that a vegetablediet would afford us ample support; but whether, if restrained fromanimal food, we should, _as a consequence_, in the course of time, andunder equally favoring circumstances in other respects, rise stillhigher in our moral and physical nature, remains, as I conceive, to beproved. " These views of Dr. S. Were repeated, in substance, in a course oflectures given by him at the Masonic Temple, in Boston, in 1838. It willbe seen that he concedes what the friends of the vegetable system deem avery important point, viz. , that man's whole powers, physical, intellectual, and moral, can be well developed on a diet exclusivelyvegetable. We do not ask him to grant more. If man is as well off onvegetable food as without it, we have moral reasons of so much weight toplace against animal food, as, when duly considered, will be, by allcandid persons, sufficient to lead to its rejection. True, we do not believe, with Dr. S. --at least I do not--that "whether adiet purely vegetable, or one comprehending both animal and vegetablefood, would be most conducive to health, longevity, and intellectual, moral, and physical development, is a question only to be determined bya long course of experiments, made by various individuals in equalhealth, and placed, in all other respects, under as nearly similarcircumstances as practicable. " I believe this course of experiment doesnot remain _to be_ made, but that it has been made, most fully, duringthe last four or five thousand years, and that the question is settledin favor--wholly so--of vegetable food. Still I do not ask physiciansand other medical men to grant more than Dr. S. Has; it is quite as muchas we ought to expect of them. DR. A. L. PIERSON. Dr. Pierson, of Salem, in Massachusetts, a physician and surgeon ofconsiderable eminence, in a lecture some time ago, before the AmericanInstitute of Instruction, observed that "young men who were anxious toavail themselves of the advantages of a liberal education, and weretherefore compelled to consult economy, had found out that it was notnecessary to pay three or four dollars a week for mere board, when themost vigorous and uniform health may be secured by a diet of merevegetable food and water. " I know not that Dr. P. Avows himself an advocate for the exclusive useof vegetable food, but if what I have quoted is not enough to satisfy usin regard to his opinion of its safety, and its full power to developbody and mind, I know not what would be. If the most vigorous anduniform health can be secured on vegetable food, what individual in theworld--in view of the moral considerations at least--would ever resortto the carcasses of animals? STATEMENT OF DR. C. BYINGTON, OF PHILADELPHIA. A physician of some eminence, residing in Philadelphia, has been heardto say that it was his decided opinion that mankind would live longest, and be healthiest and happiest, on mere bread and water. I may add here, that there was every evidence but one that he was sincere in thisstatement, although I do not fully accord with him, believing that thebest health requires variety of food--not, indeed, at the same meal, butat different ones. The exception I make in regard to his sincerity, isin reference to the fact, that while he professed to believe a bread andvegetable diet to be best for mankind, he did not adopt it. TESTIMONY OF A PHYSICIAN IN NEW YORK. In the work entitled "Hints to a Fashionable Lady, " by a physician--hisname not given--we find the following testimony: "Young persons invariably do best on simple but moderately nutritiousfare. Too large a proportion of animal food and fatty substances arepernicious to the complexion. On the contrary, a diet which isprincipally vegetable, with the luxuries of the dairy (not butter, surely, for that is elsewhere prohibited), is most advantageous. Nowhereare finer complexions to be found than in those parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, where the living is almost exclusively vegetable. "Those who subsist entirely on vegetable food have seldom, if ever, aconstantly bad breath, or an offensive perspiration. It has beenascertained that the teeth are uniformly best in those countries whereleast animal food is used. " THE FEMALE'S CYCLOPEDIA. From a fugitive volume, entitled "The Female's Cyclopedia, " I haveconcluded to make the following extract, because I have reason tobelieve the writer to have been a physician: "Animal food certainly gives most strength; but its stimulancy excitesfever, and produces plethora and its consequences. The system is soonerworn out by a repetition of its stimuli, and those who indulge greatlyin such diet are more likely to be carried off early by inflammatorydiseases; or if, by judicious exercise, they qualify its effects, theyyet acquire such an accumulation of putrescent fluids as becomes thefoundation for the most inveterate chronic diseases in after age. "The most valuable state of the mind, however, appears to be connectedwith somewhat less of firmness and vigor of body. Vegetable aliment, asnever over-distending the vessels or loading the system, does notinterrupt the stronger emotions of the mind; while the heat, fullness, and weight of animal food, are inimical to its vigorous exertion. Temperance, therefore, does not so much consist in the quantity--sincethe appetite will regulate that--as in the quality; namely, in a largeproportion of vegetable aliment. " DR. VAN COOTH. Dr. Van Cooth, a learned European writer--I believe a Hollander--hasrecently maintained, incidentally, in a learned medical dissertation, that the great body of the ancient Egyptians and Persians "confinedthemselves to a vegetable diet. " To be sure, Dr. V. Does not seem to bea vegetable eater himself, but the friends of the latter system are notthe less indebted to him for the concession. The physical and moralsuperiority of those vegetable eating nations, in the days of theirglory, are well known; and every intelligent reader of history, andhonest inquirer after truth, will make his own inferences from the factswhich I have mentioned. DR. WILLIAM BEAUMONT. The work of this gentleman, entitled "Experiments and Observations onthe Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion, " is well known--atleast to the medical community. The following are some of theconclusions to which his experiments conducted him: "Solid aliment, thoroughly masticated, is far more salutary than soups, broths, etc. "Fat meats, butter, and oily substances of every kind, are difficult ofdigestion, offensive to the stomach, and tend to derange that organ andinduce disease. "Spices, pepper, stimulating and heating condiments of every kind, retard digestion and injure the stomach. "Coffee and tea debilitate the stomach and impair digestion. "Simple water is the only fluid called for by the wants of the economy;the artificial drinks are all more or less injurious--some more so thanothers; but none can claim exemption from the general charge. " If it should be said that this testimony of Dr. Beaumont is by no meansdirectly in favor of a diet exclusively vegetable. I admit it. But hecertainly goes very far toward conceding every thing which I claim, when he says that "fat meats, butter, and oily substances of everykind, are difficult of digestion, offensive to the stomach, and tend toderange that organ and induce disease;" and especially when he speaks sohighly of farinaceous substances and good fruits. Pray, what animal foodcan be eaten which does not contain, at least, a small quantity of oil?And if this oil tends to induce disease, and farinaceous food does not, why should not animal food be excluded? SIR EVERARD HOME. This distinguished philosopher and medical gentleman, though, like manyothers, he insisted that vegetable food did not produce full musculardevelopment, yet admitted the natural character of man to be that of avegetable eater, in the following, or nearly the following, terms: "In the history of man--in the Bible--we are told that dominion over theanimal world was bestowed upon him at his creation; but the divinepermission to indulge in animal food was not given till after the flood. The observations I have to make accord strongly with this tradition;for, while mankind remained in a state of innocence, there is everyground to believe that their only food was the produce of the vegetablekingdom. " DR. JENNINGS. Dr. Jennings is the author of a work published at Oberlin, Ohio, in1847, entitled "Medical Reform. " In this volume, at page 198, we findthe following facts and statements. The author is comparing the effectsof animal food on the human system with those of alcohol, from which welearn his views concerning the former: "Position I. --Animal food, in common with alcohol, creates a feverishdiathesis, evidences of which are--1. An impaired state of therespiratory function. 2. The pulse is rendered more frequent andirregular, both by alcohol and meat. 3. A feverish heat is generated inthe system, and persons are made more thirsty, by the use of both thesesubstances. 4. Both substances equally induce what is called thedigestive fever. "Position II. --Alcoholic drinks lay the foundation for occasionaldisturbances in the system, of different kinds and grades, as biliousbowel affections, etc. , and so do flesh meats. In the production ofcolds, animal food is far the most efficient. "Position III. --Animal food tends, quite as strongly as the moderate useof alcoholic liquors, to weaken and disturb the balance of actionbetween the secerning and excerning systems of vessels, by which somepersons become leaner and others fleshier than they should be. "Position IV. --With about equal potency alcohol and flesh meats weakenthe force of the capillaries of the system, on which healthy action somuch depends. "Position V. --A flesh diet, in common with the use of strong drink, impairs the tone of the nutritive apparatus, by which its ability towork up raw material and manufacture it into sound, well finished vitalfabric, is diminished, and of course the appetite or call for food issatisfied with a less quantity of the raw material. This fact has givenrise to the opinion that animal food contains more nutriment thanvegetable. "Position VI. --The total abandonment of an habitual use of animal foodis attended with all the perplexing, uncomfortable, and distressingdifficulties that follow the giving up of an habitual use of strongdrink. A change from one kind of simple nutriment to another has nosuch effect. It is only when the constant use of some stimulatingsubstance is abandoned that such difficulties are experienced. " DR. JARVIS. This gentleman, in his "Practical Physiology, " at page 86, has thefollowing thoughts: "Some have contended that man was designed to eat only of the fruits andvegetables of the earth; while others maintain, with equal confidence, that he should add to these the flesh of beasts. There are manyindividuals, both in this and other countries, who confine themselves tovegetable diet. They believe they enjoy better health, and maintaingreater strength of body and mind, than those who live on a mixed diet. The experiment has not been tried on a sufficiently extensive range todetermine its value. It has not proved a failure, nor has itdemonstrated, to the satisfaction of all, that flesh is injurious. "[14] DR. TICKNOR. "From the fact, " says this author, "that animal food is proper andnecessary for health in polar regions, and that a vegetable diet isequally proper and necessary in the torrid zone, we may conclude that inwinter, in our own climate, an animal diet is the best; while vegetablesare more conducive to health in the summer season. " It would not be difficult to prove, from the very concessions of Dr. T. , that vegetable food is better adapted to health, in _general_, thananimal; but I forbear to do so, in this place. The subject will be fullydiscussed in the concluding chapter. DR. COLES. The author of a small volume recently published at Boston, entitled the"Philosophy of Health; or, Health without Medicine, " is more decided inhis views on diet than any late writer I have seen, except Dr. Jenningsand O. S. Fowler. He says, at page 35: "Man, in his original, holy state, was provided for from the vegetablesof that happy garden which was given him to prune. This was theCreator's original plan; * * * * the eating of flesh was one of theconsequences of the fall. Living on vegetable food is undoubtedly themost natural and healthy method of subsistence. " Again, at page 45--"The objections, then, against meat-eating arethreefold--intellectual, moral, and physical. Its tendency is to checkintellectual activity, to depreciate moral sentiment, and to derange thefluids of the body. " DR. SHEW. This active physician is zealously devoted to the propagation ofhydropathy. He uses no medicine in the management of disease--nothing atall but water. To this, however, he adds great attention to diet. In hisJournal, [15] and elsewhere, he is a zealous and able advocate of thevegetable system, preferring it himself, and recommending it to hispatients and followers. Dr. Shew's opinion, in this particular, is entitled to the more weightfrom the fact of his having been very familiar with disease and diet, both in the old world and the new. He has been twice to Germany; and hasspent much time at Graefenberg, with Priessnitz, the founder of thesystem which he so zealously defends and practices, and so stronglyadvocates. DR. MORRILL. Dr. C. Morrill, in a recent work entitled, "Physiology of Woman, and herDiseases, " says much in favor of an exclusively vegetable diet in someof the diseases of woman; and among other things, makes the followinggeneral remarks: "Even by those who labor (referring here to the healthy), meat should betaken moderately, and but once a day. The sedentary, generally, do notneed it. " DR. BELL. This gentleman's testimony has been given elsewhere. I only subjoin thefollowing: "By far the greater number of the inhabitants of the earthhave used, in all ages, and continue to use, at this time, vegetablealiment alone. " DR. BRADLEY. Dr. D. B. Bradley, the distinguished missionary at Bangkok, in Siam, though not exactly a vegetable eater, is favorably disposed to thevegetable system. He has read Graham and myself with great care, and isan anxious inquirer after all truth. DR. STEPHENSON. Dr. Chauncy Stephenson, of Chesterfield, Massachusetts, in what he callshis "New System of Medicine, " commends to all his readers, for theirsustenance, "pure air, a proper temperature, good vegetable food, andpure cold water. " And lest he should be misunderstood, he immediatelyadds--"The best articles of food for general use are good, well-bakedcold bread, made of rye and Indian corn, wheat or barley meal; rice, good ripe fruits of all kinds, both fresh and dried, and a properproportion of good roots, such as potatoes, parsneps, turnips, onions, etc. " Even milk he regards as a questionable food for adults or middleaged persons. Again, he says: "Animal food, in general, digests sooner than most kindsof vegetables; and not being so much in accordance with man's nature, constitution, and moral character, it is very liable, finally, togenerate disease, inflammation, or fever, even when it is not taken toexcess. " He closes by advising all persons to content themselves with"pure vegetable food;" and that in the least quantity compatible withgood health. DR. J. BURDELL, A distinguished dentist of New York, has long been a vegetable eater, and a zealous defender of the faith (in this particular) which heprofesses. DR. THOMAS SMETHURST, In a work entitled Hydrotherapia, says, "Children thrive best upon asimple, moderately nourishing vegetable diet. " And if children thusthrive the best, why not adults? DR. SCHLEMMER. Dr. C. V. Schlemmer, a German by birth, but now an adopted son of oldEngland, in giving an account of the diet of himself, his three sons ofeleven, ten, and four years of age, with their tutor, observes: "Rawpeas, beans, and fruit are our food: our teeth are our mills; thestomach is the kitchen. " And all of them, as he affirms, enjoy the bestof health. For himself, as he says, he has practiced in this way sixyears. DR. CURTIS, AND OTHERS. Dr. Curtis, a distinguished botanic physician of Ohio, with severalother physicians, both of the old and the new school, whom I have notnamed, do not hesitate to regard a pure vegetable diet, in the abstract, as by far the best for all mankind, both in health and disease. Dr. Porter, of Waltham, for example, when I meet him, always concedesthat a well-selected vegetable diet is superior to every other. He hasrepeatedly told me of an experiment he made, of three months, on merebread and water. Never, says he, was I more vigorous in body and mind, than at the end of this experiment. But the reader well knows that I amnot an advocate of a diet of mere bread and water. I regard fruits, orfruit juices--unfermented--almost as necessary, to adults, as bread. PROF. C. U. SHEPARD. The reputation of this gentleman, in the scientific world, is so wellknown, that no apology can be necessary for inserting his testimony. Asa chemist, he is second to very few, if any, men in this country. Thefollowing are his remarks: "Start not back at the idea of subsisting upon the potato alone, ye whothink it necessary to load your tables with all the dainty viands of themarket--with fish, flesh, and fowl, seasoned with oil and spices, andeaten, perhaps, with wines;--start not back, I say, with disgust, untilyou are able to display in your own pampered persons a firmer muscle, amore beau-ideal outline, and a healthier red than the potato-fedpeasantry of Ireland and Scotland once showed you, as you passed bytheir cabin doors! "No; the chemical physiologist will tell you that the well ripenedpotato, when properly cooked, contains every element that man requiresfor nutrition; and in the best proportion in which they are found in anyplant whatever. There is the abounding supply of starch for enabling himto maintain the process of breathing, and for generating the necessarywarmth of body; there is the nitrogen for contributing to the growth andrenovation of organs; the lime and phosphorus for the bones; and all thesalts which a healthy circulation demands. In fine, the potato may wellbe called the universal plant. " BLACKWOOD, IN HIS MAGAZINE. "Chemistry, " says Blackwood's Magazine, "has already told us manyremarkable things in regard to the vegetable food we eat--that itcontains, for example, a certain per centage of the actual fat and leanwe consume in our beef, or mutton, or pork--and, therefore, that he wholives on vegetable food may be as strong as the man who lives on animalfood, because both in reality feed on the same things, in a somewhatdifferent form. " There is this difference, however, that in the one case--that is, in theuse of the vegetables which contain the elements referred to--we savethe trouble of running it through the body of the living animal, andlosing seven eighths of it, as we do, practically in the process;whereas in the other we do not. We also save ourselves the necessity oftraining the young and the old to scenes of butchery and blood. PROF. JOHNSTON. This gentleman, in a recent edition of his "Elements of AgriculturalChemistry and Geology, " tells us that from experiments made in thelaboratory of the Agricultural Association of Scotland, wheat and oats, when analyzed, contain of nutritious properties the followingproportion: Musc. Matter. Fat. Starch. Wheat, 10 pounds, 3 pounds, 50 pounds. Oats, 18 " 6 " 65 " Thus oats, and even wheat, are quite rich in that which forms muscularmatter in the human body. SIMEON COLLINS, OF WESTFIELD, MASS. This gentleman, in his fifty-first year, states that having been forseveral years afflicted with a severe cough, which he supposed borderedupon consumption, he "discontinued the use of flesh meat, fish, fowl, butter, gravy, tea, and coffee, and made use of a plain vegetable diet. ""My bread, " says he, "is made of unbolted wheat meal; my drink is purecold water; my bed, for winter and summer, is made of the everlastingflower; and my health is, and ever has been, perfect, since I got fairlycleansed from the filthiness of flesh meat, and other perniciousarticles of diet in common use. "My business requires a great degree of activity, and I can truly saythat I am a stranger to weariness or languor. At the time of enteringupon this system, I had a wife and five children, the youngest eightyears of age;--they all soon entered upon the same course of living withmyself, and soon were all benefited in health. I have now sixchildren--the youngest fifteen months old, and as happy as a lark. Previous to the time of our adopting the present system of living, myexpenses for medicine and physicians would range from $20 to $30 ayear--for the last four years it has been nothing worth naming. " REV. JOSEPH EMERSON. Mr. Emerson was a teacher of eminence, known throughout the UnitedStates, but particularly so in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He died inthe latter state, in 1833, aged about fifty-five. He had long been amiserable dyspeptic, but was probably kept alive amid certain strangeviolations of physical law, such as studying hard till midnight, forexample, for many years, by his great care in regard to his diet. Mrs. Banister, late Miss Z. P. Grant (the associate, at Ipswich, of MissLyon, who died recently at South Hadley, who was his pupil), thus speaksof his rigid habits: "He not only uniformly rejected whatever food he had decided to beinjurious to him, but whatever he deemed necessary for his food ordrink, was always taken, whether at home or abroad. As his diet, forseveral years, consisted generally, either of bread and milk, or ofbread and butter, what solid food he wanted could be supplied at anytable. "[16] It is also testified of him, by his brother, Prof. Emerson, of Andover, that "for more than thirty years he adopted the practice of eating butone kind at a meal. " If I do not misremember, for I knew him well, hewas in favor of banishing flesh and fish, and substituting milk andfruits in their stead, on Bible ground. --I refer here to the Divinearrangement in the first chapter of Genesis; and which has never, that Iam aware, been altered. TAK SISSON. Tak Sisson, as he was called, was a slave in the family of a man inRhode Island, before and during the Revolution. From early childhood he could never be prevailed on to eat any flesh orfish, but he subsisted on vegetable food and milk; neither could he bepersuaded to eat high seasoned food of any kind. When he was a child, his parents used to scold him severely, and threaten to whip him becausehe refused to eat flesh. They said to him (as I have been told athousand times), that if he did not eat meat he would never be good forany thing, but would always be a poor, puny creature. But Tak persevered in his vegetable and unstimulating diet, and, to thesurprise of all, grew fast, and his body was finely developed andathletic. He was very stout and robust, and altogether the mostvigorous and dexterous of any of the family. He finally became more thansix feet high, and every way well proportioned, and remarkable for hisagility and strength. He was so uncommonly shrewd, bright, strong, andactive, that he became notorious for his shrewdness, and for his featsof strength and agility. Indeed, he was so full of his playful mischiefas greatly to annoy his overseer. During the Revolutionary War it became an object to take Gen. Prescott. A door was to be forced where he was quartered and sleeping, and Tak wasselected for the work. Having taken his lesson from the Americanofficer, he proceeded to the door, plunged his thick head against it, burst it open, roused Gen. P. , like a tiger sprung upon him, seized himin his brawny arms, and in a low, stern voice, said, "One word, and youare a dead man. " Then hastily snatching the general's cloak and wrappingit round him, at the same time telling a companion to take care of therest of his clothes, he took him in his arms, as if a child, and ranwith him to a boat which was waiting, and escaped with his prisonerwithout rousing even the British sentinels. Tak lived on his vegetable fare to a very advanced age, and wasremarkable, through life, for his activity, strength, and shrewdness. FOOTNOTES: [9] By seed, Dr. C. Means the farinaceous grains; wheat, corn, rye, etc. [10] Cuvier was not a medical man, but I have classed him with medicalmen, on account of his profound knowledge of Comparative Anatomy andPhysiology. [11] "Unless, " as a writer in the Graham Journal very justly observes, "these latter indulge, habitually and freely, in the use of intoxicatingsubstances. " [12] Such was Gen. Elliot, so distinguished at the famous siege ofGibraltar. Such, too, was Mr. Shillitoe, of whom honorable mention willbe made in another place;--besides many more. [13] So he thinks, but I think otherwise. Animal food, as I have shownelsewhere, is not so nutritious as some of the farinaceous vegetables. [14] Dr. J. Here overlooks one important fact, viz. , that the testimonyof all those who have tried the exclusive use of vegetable food is_positive_ in its nature; while that of others, who have not tried it, is, and necessarily must be, negative. [15] The Water-Cure Journal. [16] An aged lady, of Dedham--a pillar in every good cause--has, fortwelve or fifteen years, carried abroad with her, when traveling, someplain bread and apples; and no entreaties will prevail with her, at homeor abroad, to eat luxuries. CHAPTER VI. TESTIMONY OF PHILOSOPHERS AND OTHER EMINENT MEN. General Remarks. --Testimony of Plautus. --Plutarch. --Porphyry. --Lord Bacon. --Sir William Temple. --Cicero. --Cyrus the Great. --Gassendi. --Prof. Hitchcock. --Lord Kaims. --Dr. Thomas Dick. --Prof. Bush. --Thomas Shillitoe. --Alexander Pope. --Sir Richard Phillips. --Sir Isaac Newton. --The Abbé Gallani. --Homer. --Dr. Franklin. --Mr. Newton. --O. S. Fowler. --Rev. Mr. Johnston. --John H. Chandler. --Rev. J. Caswell. --Mr. Chinn. --Father Sewall. --Magliabecchi. --Oberlin and Swartz. --James Haughton. --John Bailies. --Francis Hupazoli. --Prof. Ferguson. --Howard, the Philanthropist. --Gen. Elliot. --Encyclopedia Americana. --Thomas Bell, of London. --Linnæus, the Naturalist. --Shelley, the Poet. --Rev. Mr. Rich. --Rev. John Wesley. --Lamartine. GENERAL REMARKS. This chapter might have been much more extended than it is. I might havementioned, for example, the cases of Daniel and his three brethren, atthe court of the Babylonian monarch, who certainly maintained theirhealth--if they did not even improve it--by vegetable food, and by aform of it, too, which has by many been considered rather doubtful. Imight have mentioned the case of Paul, [17] who, though he occasionallyappears to have eaten flesh, said, expressly, that he would abstain fromit while the world stood, where a great moral end was to be gained; andno one can suppose he would have done so, had he feared any injury wouldthereby result to his constitution of body or mind. The case of William Penn, if I remember rightly what he says in his "NoCross no Crown, " would have been in point. Jefferson, the thirdPresident of the United States, was, according to his own story, almosta vegetable eater, during the whole of his long life. He says heabstained principally from animal food; using it, if he used it at all, only as a condiment for his vegetables. And does any one, who has readhis remarks, doubt that his "convictions" were in favor of the exclusiveuse of vegetable food? However, to prevent the volume from much exceeding the limits originallyassigned it, I will be satisfied--and I hope the public will--with thefollowing selections of testimonies, ancient and modern; some of more, some of less importance; but all of them, as it appears to me, worthy ofbeing collected and incorporated into a volume like this, and faithfullyand carefully examined. PLAUTUS. Plautus, a distinguished dramatic Roman writer, who flourished about twothousand years ago, gives the following remarkable testimony against theuse of animal food, and of course in favor of the salubrity ofvegetables; addressed, indeed, to his own countrymen and times, butscarcely less applicable to our own: "You apply the term wild to lions, panthers, and serpents; yet, in yourown savage slaughters, you surpass them in ferocity; for the blood shedby them is a matter of necessity, and requisite for their subsistence. "But, that man is not, by nature, destined to devour animal food, isevident from the construction of the human frame, which bears noresemblance to wild beasts or birds of prey. Man is not provided withclaws or talons, with sharpness of fang or tusk, so well adapted to tearand lacerate; nor is his stomach so well braced and muscular, nor hisanimal spirits so warm, as to enable him to digest this solid mass ofanimal flesh. On the contrary, nature has made his teeth smooth, hismouth narrow, and his tongue soft; and has contrived, by the slowness ofhis digestion, to divert him from devouring a species of food so illadapted to his frame and constitution. But, if you still maintain thatsuch is your natural mode of subsistence, then follow nature in yourmode of killing your prey, and employ neither knife, hammer, norhatchet--but, like wolves, bears, and lions, seize an ox with yourteeth, grasp a boar round the body, or tear asunder a lamb or a hare, and, like the savage tribe, devour them still panting in the agonies ofdeath. "We carry our luxury still farther, by the variety of sauces andseasonings which we add to our beastly banquets--mixing together oil, wine, honey, pickles, vinegar, and Syrian and Arabian ointments andperfumes, as if we intended to bury and embalm the carcasses on which wefeed. The difficulty of digesting such a mass of matter, reduced in ourstomachs to a state of liquefaction and putrefaction, is the source ofendless disorders in the human frame. "First of all, the wild, mischievous animals were selected for food; andthen the birds and fishes were dragged to slaughter; next, the humanappetite directed itself against the laborious ox, the useful andfleece-bearing sheep, and the cock, the guardian of the house. At last, by this preparatory discipline, man became matured for human massacres, slaughters, and wars. " PLUTARCH. "It is best to accustom ourselves to eat no flesh at all, for the earthaffords plenty enough of things not only fit for nourishment, but forenjoyment and delight; some of which may be eaten without muchpreparation, and others may be made pleasant by adding divers otherthings to them. "You ask me, " continues Plutarch, "'for what reason Pythagoras abstainedfrom eating the flesh of brutes?' For my part, I am astonished to think, on the contrary, what appetite first induced man to taste of a deadcarcass; or what motive could suggest the notion of nourishing himselfwith the flesh of animals which he saw, the moment before, bleating, bellowing, walking, and looking around them. How could he bear to see animpotent and defenceless creature slaughtered, skinned, and cut up forfood? How could he endure the sight of the convulsed limbs and muscles?How bear the smell arising from the dissection? Whence happened it thathe was not disgusted and struck with horror when he came to handle thebleeding flesh, and clear away the clotted blood and humors from thewounds? "We should therefore rather wonder at the conduct of those who firstindulged themselves in this horrible repast, than at such as havehumanely abstained from it. " PORPHYRY, OF TYRE. Porphyry, of Tyre, lived about the middle of the third century, andwrote a book on abstinence from animal food. This book was addressed toan individual who had once followed the vegetable system, but hadafterward relinquished it. The following is an extract from it: "You owned, when you lived among us, that a vegetable diet waspreferable to animal food, both for preserving the health and forfacilitating the study of philosophy; and now, since you have eat flesh, your own experience must convince you that what you then confessed wastrue. It was not from those who lived on vegetables that robbers ormurderers, sycophants or tyrants, have proceeded; but from_flesh-eaters_. The necessaries of life are few and easily acquired, without violating justice, liberty, health, or peace of mind; whereasluxury obliges those vulgar souls who take delight in it to covetriches, to give up their liberty, to sell justice, to misspend theirtime, to ruin their health and to renounce the joy of an uprightconscience. " He takes pains to persuade men of the truth of the two followingpropositions: 1st. "That a conquest over the appetites and passions will greatlycontribute to preserve health and to remove distempers. 2d. "That a simple vegetable food, being easily procured and easilydigested, is a mighty help toward obtaining this conquest overourselves. " To prove the first proposition, he appeals to experience, and provesthat many of his acquaintance who had disengaged themselves from thecare of amassing riches, and turning their thoughts to spiritualsubjects, had got rid entirely of their bodily distempers. In confirmation of the second proposition, he argues in the followingmanner: "Give me a man who considers, seriously, what he is, whence hecame, and whither he must go, and from these considerations resolves notto be led astray nor governed by his passions; and let such a man tellme whether a rich animal diet is more easily procured or incites less toirregular passions and appetites than a light vegetable diet! But ifneither he, nor a physician, nor indeed any reasonable man whatsoever, dares to affirm this, why do we oppress ourselves with animal food, andwhy do we not, together with luxury and flesh meat, throw off theincumbrances and snares which attend them?" LORD BACON. Lord Bacon, in his treatise on Life and Death, says, "It seems to beapproved by experience, that a spare and almost a Pythagorean diet, suchas is prescribed by the strictest monastic life, or practiced byhermits, is most favorable to long life. " SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE. "The patriarchs' abodes were not in cities, but in open countries andfields. Their lives were pastoral, and employed in some sorts ofagriculture. They were of the same race, to which their marriages weregenerally confined. Their diet was simple, as that of the ancients isgenerally represented. Among them flesh and wine were seldom used, except at sacrifices at solemn feasts. "The Brachmans, among the old Indians, were all of the same races, livedin fields and in woods, after the course of their studies was ended, andfed only upon rice, milk, and herbs. "The Brazilians, when first discovered, lived the most natural, originallives of mankind, so frequently described in ancient countries, beforelaws, or property, or arts made entrance among them; and so theircustoms may be concluded to have been yet more simple than either of theother two. They lived without business or labor, further than for theirnecessary food, by gathering fruits, herbs, and plants. They knew noother drink but water; were not tempted to eat or drink beyond commonappetite and thirst; were not troubled with either public or domesticcares, and knew no pleasures but the most simple and natural. "From all these examples and customs, it may probably be concluded thatthe common ingredients of health and long life are, great temperance, open air, easy labor, little care, simplicity of diet--rather fruits andplants than flesh, which easier corrupts--and water, which preserves theradical moisture without too much increasing the radical heat. Whereassickness, decay, and death proceed commonly from the one preying toofast upon the other, and at length wholly extinguishing it. " CICERO. This eminent man sometimes, if not usually, confined himself tovegetable food. Of this we have evidence, in his complaints about therefinements of cookery--that they were continually tempting him toexcess, etc. He says, that after having withstood all the temptationsthat the noblest lampreys and oysters could throw in his way, he was atlast overpowered by paltry beets and mallows. A victory, by the way, which, in the case of the eater of plain food, is very often achieved. CYRUS THE GREAT. This distinguished warrior was brought up, like the inferior Persians, on bread, cresses, and water; and, notwithstanding the temptations of aluxurious and voluptuous court, he rigorously adhered to his simplediet. Nay, he even carried his simple habits nearly through life withhim; and it was not till he had completely established one of thelargest and most powerful empires of antiquity that he began to yieldto the luxuries of the times. Had he pursued his steady course oftemperance through life, the historian, instead of recording his deathat only seventy, might have told us that he died at a hundred or ahundred and fifty. PETER GASSENDI. Two hundred and twenty years ago, Peter Gassendi, a famous Frenchphilosopher--and by the way, one of the most learned men of histime--wrote a long epistle to Van Helmont, a Dutch chemist, on thequestion whether the teeth of mankind indicate that they are naturallyflesh-eaters. In this epistle, too long for insertion here, [18] Gassendi maintains, with great ingenuity, that the human teeth were not made for flesh. Hedoes not evade any of the facts in the case, but meets them all fairlyand discusses them freely. And after having gone through with all partsof the argument, and answered every other conceivable objection, he thusconcludes: "And here I feel that it may be objected to me: Why, then, do you not, yourself, abstain from flesh and feed only on fruits and vegetables? Imust plead the force of habit, for my excuse. In persons of mature agenature appears to be so wholly changed, that this artificial habitcannot be renounced without some detriment. But I confess that if I werewise, and relinquishing the use of flesh, should gradually accustommyself to the gifts of the kind earth, I have little doubt that I shouldenjoy more regular health, and acquire greater activity of mind. Fortruly our numerous diseases, and the dullness of our faculties, seemprincipally produced in this way, that flesh, or heavy, and, as I maysay, too substantial food, overloads the stomach, is oppressive to thewhole body, and generates a substance too dense, and spirits too obtuse. In a word, it is a yarn too coarse to be interwoven with the threads ofman's nature. " I know how it strikes many when they find such men as Gassendi, admitting the doctrines for which I contend, in theory, and evenstrenuously defending them, and yet setting them at naught in practice. Surely, say they, such persons cannot be sincere. For myself, however, Idraw a very different conclusion. Their conduct is perfectly in harmonywith that of the theoretic friends of cold water, plain dress, andabstemiousness in general. They are compelled to admit the truth; but itis so much against their habits, as in the case of Gassendi, besidesbeing still more strongly opposed to their lusts and appetites, thatthey cannot, or rather, will not conform to what they believe, in theirdaily practice. Their testimony, to me, is the strongest that can beobtained, because they testify against themselves, and in spite ofthemselves. PROF. HITCHCOCK. This gentleman, a distinguished professor in Amherst College, is theauthor of a work, entitled "Dyspepsia Forestalled and Resisted, " whichhas been read by many, and execrated by not a few of those who are sowedded to their lusts as to be unwilling to be told of their errors. I am not aware that Professor H. Has any where, in his writings, urged adiet exclusively vegetable, for all classes of the community, althoughI believe he does not hesitate to urge it on all students; and one mightalmost infer, from his works of various kinds, that if he is not alreadya believer in the doctrines of its universal superiority to a mixeddiet, he is not very far from it. In a sermon of his, in the NationalPreacher, for November, 1834, he calls a diet exclusively vegetable, a"proper course of living. " I propose to add here a few anecdotes of his, which I know not how tofind elsewhere. "Pythagoras restricted himself to vegetable food altogether, his dinnerbeing bread, honey, and water; and he lived upward of eighty years. Matthew (St. Matthew, I suppose he means), according to Clement, livedupon vegetable diet. Galen, one of the most distinguished of the ancientphysicians, lived one hundred and forty years, and composed betweenseven and eight hundred essays on medical and philosophical subjects;and he was always, after the age of twenty-eight, extremely sparing inthe quantity of his food. The Cardinal de Salis, Archbishop of Seville, who lived one hundred and ten years, was invariably sparing in his diet. One Lawrence, an Englishman, by temperance and labor lived one hundredand forty years; and one Kentigern, who never tasted spirits or wine, and slept on the ground and labored hard, died at the age of one hundredand eighty-five. Henry Jenkins, of Yorkshire, who died at the age of onehundred and sixty-nine, was a poor fisherman, as long as he could followthis pursuit; and ultimately he became a beggar, living on the coarsestand most sparing diet. Old Parr, who died at the age of one hundred andfifty-three, was a farmer, of extremely abstemious habits, his dietbeing solely milk, cheese, coarse bread, small beer, and whey. At theage of one hundred and twenty he married a second wife by whom he had achild. But being taken to court, as a great curiosity, in his onehundred and fifty-second year, he very soon died--as the physiciansdecidedly testified, after dissection, in consequence of a change from aparsimonious to a plentiful diet. Henry Francisco, of this country, wholived to about one hundred and forty, was, except for a certain period, remarkably abstemious, eating but little, and particularly abstainingalmost entirely from animal food; his favorite articles being tea, breadand butter, and baked apples. Mr. Ephraim Pratt, of Shutesbury, Mass. , who died at the age of one hundred and seventeen years, lived very muchupon milk, and that in small quantity; and his son, Michael Pratt, attained to the age of one hundred and three, by similar means. " Speaking, in another place, of a milk diet, Professor H. Observes, that"a diet chiefly of milk produces a most happy serenity, vigor, andcheerfulness of mind--very different from the gloomy, crabbed, andirritable temper, and foggy intellect, of the man who devours flesh, fish, and fowl, with ravenous appetite, and adds puddings, pies, andcakes to the load. " LORD KAIMS. Henry Home, otherwise called Lord Kaims, the author of the "Elements ofCriticism, " and of "Six Sketches on the History of Man, " has, in thelatter work, written eighty years ago, the following statementsrespecting the inhabitants of the torrid zone: "We have no evidence that either the hunter or shepherd state were everknown there. The inhabitants at present subsist upon vegetable food, and probably did so from the beginning. " In speaking of particular nations or tribes of this zone, he tells usthat "the inhabitants of Biledulgerid and the desert of Sahara, have buttwo meals a day--one in the morning and one in the evening;" and "beingtemperate, " he adds, "and strangers to the diseases of luxury andidleness, they generally live to a great age. "[19] Sixty, with them, isthe prime of life, as thirty is in Europe. "Some of the inland tribes ofAfrica, " he says, "make but one meal a day, which is in the evening. "And yet "their diet is plain, consisting mostly of rice, fruits, androots. An inhabitant of Madagascar will travel two or three days withoutany other food than a sugar-cane. " So also, he might have added, willthe Arab travel many days, and at almost incredible speed, with nothingbut a little gum-arabic; and the Peruvians and other inhabitants ofSouth America, with a little parched corn. But I have one more extractfrom Lord Kaims: "The island of Otaheite is healthy, the people tall and well made; andby temperance--vegetables and fish being their chief nourishment--theylive to a good old age, with scarcely an ailment. There is no such thingknown among them as rotten teeth; the very smell of wine or spirits isdisagreeable; and they never deal in tobacco or spiceries. In manyplaces Indian corn is the chief nourishment, which every man plants forhimself. " DR. THOMAS DICK. Dr. Dick, author of the "Philosophy of Religion, " and several otherworks deservedly popular, gives this remarkable testimony: "To take the life of any sensitive being, and to feed on its flesh, appears incompatible with a state of innocence, and therefore no suchgrant was given to Adam in paradise, nor to the antediluvians. Itappears to have been a grant suited only to the degraded state of man, after the deluge; and it is probable that, as he advances in the scaleof moral perfection in the future ages of the world, the use of animalfood will be gradually laid aside, and he will return again to theproductions of the vegetable kingdom, as the original food of man--asthat which is best suited to the rank of rational and moralintelligence. And perhaps it may have an influence, in combination withother favorable circumstances, in promoting health and longevity. " PROFESSOR GEORGE BUSH. Professor Bush, a writer of some eminence, in his "Notes on Genesis, "while speaking of the permission to man in regard to food, in Genesis i. 29, has the following language: "It is not perhaps to be understood, from the use of the word _give_, that a _permission_ was now granted to man of using that for food whichit would have been unlawful for him to use without that permission; for, by the very constitution of his being, he was made to be sustained bythat food which was most congenial to his animal economy; and this itmust have been lawful for him to employ, unless self-destruction hadbeen his duty. The true import of the phrase, therefore, doubtless is, that God had _appointed_, _constituted_, _ordained_ this, as the staplearticle of man's diet. He had formed him with a nature to which avegetable aliment was better suited than any other. It cannot perhaps beinferred from this language that the use of flesh-meat was absolutelyforbidden; but it clearly implies that the fruits of the field were thediet most adapted to the constitution which the Creator had given. " THOMAS SHILLITOE. Mr. Shillitoe was a distinguished member of the Society of Friends, atTottenham, near London. The first twenty-five years of his life werespent in feeble health, made worse by high living. This high living wascontinued about twenty years longer, when, finding himself fast failing, he yielded to the advice of a medical friend, and abandoned all drinksbut water, and all food but the plainest kinds, by which means he sorestored his constitution that he lived to be nearly ninety years ofage; and at eighty could walk with ease from Tottenham to London, sixmiles, and back again. The following is a brief account of thisdistinguished man, when at the age of eighty, and nearly in his ownwords: It is now nearly thirty years since I ate fish, flesh, or fowl, or tookfermented liquor of any kind whatsoever. I find, from continuedexperience, that abstinence is the best medicine. I don't meddle withfermented liquors of any kind, even as medicine. I find I am capable ofdoing better without them than when I was in the daily use of them. "One way in which I was favored to experience help in my willingness toabandon all these things, arose from the effect my abstinence had on mynatural temper. My natural disposition is very irritable. I am persuadedthat ardent spirits and high living have more or less effect in tendingto raise into action those evil propensities which, if given way to, waragainst the soul, and render us displeasing to Almighty God. " ALEXANDER POPE. Pope, the poet, ascribes all the bad passions and diseases of the humanrace to their subsisting on the flesh, blood, and miseries of animals. "Nothing, " he says, "can be more shocking and horrid than one of ourkitchens, sprinkled with blood, and abounding with the cries ofcreatures expiring, or with the limbs of dead animals scattered or hungup here and there. It gives one an image of a giant's den in romance, bestrewed with the scattered heads and mangled limbs of those who wereslain by his cruelty. " SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS. Sir Richard Phillips, in his "Million of Facts, " says that "the mixedand fanciful diet of man is considered as the cause of numerousdiseases, from which animals are exempt. Many diseases have abated withchanges of natural diet, and others are virulent in particularcountries, arising from peculiarities. The Hindoos are considered thefreest from disease of any part of the human race. The laborers on theAfrican coast, who go from tribe to tribe to perform the manual labor, and whose strength is wonderful, live entirely on plain rice. The Irish, Swiss, and Gascons, the slaves of Europe, feed also on the simplestdiet; the former chiefly on potatoes. " He states, also, that the diseases of cattle often afflict those whosubsist on them. "In 1599, " he observes, "the Venetian government, tostop a fatal disease among the people, prohibited the sale of meat, butter, or cheese, on Pain of death. " SIR ISAAC NEWTON. This distinguished philosopher and mathematician is said to haveabstained rigorously, at times, from all but purely vegetable food, andfrom all drinks but water; and it is also stated that some of hisimportant labors were performed at these seasons of strict temperance. While writing his treatise on Optics, it is said he confined himselfentirely to bread, with a little sack and water; and I have no doubtthat his remarkable equanimity of temper, and that government of hisanimal appetites, throughout, for which he was so distinguished to thelast hour of his life, were owing, in no small degree, to his habits ofrigid temperance. THE ABBE GALLANI. The Abbé Gallani ascribes all social crimes to animal destruction--thus, treachery to angling and ensnaring, and murder to hunting and shooting. And he asserts that the man who would kill a sheep, an ox, or anyunsuspecting animal, would, but for the law, kill his neighbor. HOMER. Even Homer, three thousand years ago, says Dr. Cheyne, could observethat the Homolgians--those Pythagoreans, those milk and vegetableeaters--were the longest lived and the honestest of men. DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Dr. Franklin, in his younger days, often, for some time together, livedexclusively on a vegetable diet, and that, too, in small quantity. During his after life he also observed seasons of abstinence from animalfood, or _lents_, as he called them, of considerable length. His foodand drink were, moreover, especially in early life, exceedingly simple;his meal often consisting of nothing but a biscuit and a slice of bread, with a bunch of raisins, and perhaps a basin of gruel. Now, Dr. F. Testifies of himself; that he found his progress in science to be inproportion to that clearness of mind and aptitude of conception whichcan only be produced by total abstinence from animal food. He alsoderived many other advantages from his abstinence, both physical andmoral. MR. NEWTON. This author wrote a work entitled "Defence of Vegetable Regimen. " It isoften quoted by Shelley, the poet, and others. I know nothing of theauthor or of his works, except through Shelley, who gives us some of hisviews, and informs us that seventeen persons, of all ages, consisting ofMr. Newton's family and the family of Dr. Lambe, who is elsewherementioned in this work, had, at the time he wrote, lived seven years ona pure vegetable diet, and without the slightest illness. Of theseventeen, some of them were infants, and one of them was almost deadwith asthma when the experiment was commenced, but was already nearlycured by it; and of the family of Mr. N. , Shelley testifies that theywere "the most beautiful and healthy creatures it is possible toconceive"--the girls "perfect models for a sculptor"--and theirdispositions "the most gentle and conciliating. " The following paragraph is extracted from Mr. Newton's "Defence, " andwill give us an idea of his sentiments. He was speaking of the fable ofPrometheus: "Making allowance for such transposition of the events of the allegoryas time might produce after the important truths were forgotten, thedrift of the fable seems to be this: Man, at his creation, was endowedwith the gift of perpetual youth, that is, he was not formed to be asickly, suffering creature, as we now see him, but to enjoy health, andto sink by slow degrees into the bosom of his parent earth, withoutdisease or pain. Prometheus first taught the use of animal food, and offire, with which to render it more digestible and pleasing to the taste. Jupiter and the rest of the gods, foreseeing the consequences of theseinventions, were amused or irritated at the short-sighted devices of thenewly-formed creature, and left him to experience the sad effects ofthem. Thirst, the necessary concomitant of a flesh diet, ensued; otherdrink than water was resorted to, and man forfeited the inestimable giftof health, which he had received from heaven; he became diseased, thepartaker of a precarious existence, and no longer descended into hisgrave slowly. " O. S. FOWLER. O. S. Fowler, the distinguished phrenologist, in his work on Physiology, devotes nearly one hundred pages to the discussion of the great dietquestion. He endeavors to show that, in every point of view, a fleshdiet--or a diet partaking of flesh, fish, or fowl, in any degree--isinferior to a well-selected vegetable diet; and, as I think, successfully. He finally says: "I wish my own children had never tasted, and would never taste, amouthful of meat. Increased health, efficiency, talents, virtue, andhappiness, would undoubtedly be the result. But for the fact that mytable is set for others than my own wife and children, it would neverbe furnished with meat, so strong are my convictions against itsutility. " I believe that L. N. Fowler, the brother and associate of the former, isof the same opinion; but my acquaintance with him is very limited. Boththe Fowlers, with Mr. Wells, their associate in book-selling, seemanxiously engaged in circulating books which involve the discussion ofthis great question. REV. MR. JOHNSTON. Mr. Johnston, who for some fifteen or twenty years has been an Americanmissionary in different foreign places--Trebizond, Smyrna, etc. --is, from conviction, a vegetable eater. The author holds in his possessionseveral letters from this gentleman, on the subject of health, fromwhich, but for want of room, he would be glad to make numerous extracts. He once sent, or caused to be sent, to him, at Trebizond, a barrel ofchoice American apples, for which the missionary, amid numerous Easternluxuries, was almost starving. Happy would it be for many other Americanand British missionaries, if they had the same simple taste and naturalappetite. JOHN H. CHANDLER. This young man has been for eight or ten years in the employ of theBaptist Foreign Missionary Board, and is located at Bangkok, in Siam. For several years before he left this country he was a vegetable eater, sometimes subsisting on mere fruit for one or two of his daily meals. And yet, as a mechanic, his labor was hard--sometimes severe. Since he has been in Siam he has continued his reformed habits, asappears from his letters and from reports. The last letter I had fromhim was dated June 10, 1847. The following are extracts from it: "I experienced the same trials (that is, from others) on my arrival inBurmah, in regard to vegetable diet, that I did in the United States. This I did not expect, and was not prepared for it. Through the blessingof God we were enabled to endure, and have persevered until now. "Myself and wife are more deeply convinced than ever that vegetable dietis the best adapted to sustain health. I cannot say that we have beenmuch more free from sickness than our associates; but one thing we cansay--we have been equally well off, and our expenses have been muchless. " After going on to say how much his family--himself and wife--saved bytheir plain living, viz. , an average of about one dollar a week, hemakes additional remarks, of which I will only quote the following: "My labors, being mostly mechanical, are far more fatiguing than thoseof my brethren; and I do not think any of them could endure a greateramount of labor than I do. " It deserves to be noticed, in this connection, that Mr. Chandler hasslender muscles, and would by no means be expected to accomplish as muchas many men of greater vigor; and yet we have reason to believe that heperforms as much labor as any man in the service of the board. REV. JESSE CASWELL. Mr. Caswell went out to India about thirteen years ago, a dyspeptic, and yet perhaps somewhat better than while engaged in his studies atAndover. For several years after his arrival he suffered much fromsickness, like his fellow-laborers. His station was Bangkok. He was anAmerican missionary, sent out by the American Board, as it is called, ofBoston. About six years ago he wrote me for information on the subject ofhealth. He had read my works, and those of Mr. Graham, and seemed notonly convinced of the general importance of studying the science ofhuman life, but of the superiority of a well selected vegetable diet, especially at the East. He was also greatly anxious that missionariesshould be early taught what he had himself learned. The following is oneof his first paragraphs: "I feel fully convinced that you are engaged in a work second to few ifany of the great enterprises of the day. If there be any class of menstanding in special need of correct physiological knowledge, that classconsists of missionaries of the cross. What havoc has disease made withthis class, and for the most part, as I feel convinced, because, beforeand after leaving their native land, they live so utterly at variancewith the laws of their nature. " He then proceeds to say, that the American missionaries copy the exampleof the English, and that they all eat too much high-seasoned food, andtoo much flesh and fish; and argues against the practice by adducingfacts. The following is one of them: "My Siamese teacher, a man about forty years old, says that those wholive simply on rice, with a little salt, enjoy better health, and canendure a greater amount of labor, than those who live in any other way. * * * The great body of the Siamese use no flesh, except fish. Of thisthey generally eat _a very little_, with their rice. " The next year I had another letter from him. He had been sick, but wasbetter, and thought he had learned a great deal, during his sickness, about the best means of preserving health. He had now fully adopted whathe chose to call the Graham system, and was rejoicing--he and his wifeand children--in its benefits. He says, "If a voice from an obscurecorner of the earth can do any thing toward encouraging your heart andstaying your hands, that voice you shall have. " He suggests thepropriety of my sending him a copy of "Vegetable Diet. " "I think, " sayshe, "it might do great good. " He wished to lend it among his friends. It must suffice to say, that he continued to write me, once or twice ayear, as long as he lived. He also insisted strongly on the importanceof physiological information among students preparing for the ministry, and especially for missions. He even wrote once or twice to Rev. Dr. Anderson, and solicited attention to the subject. But the board wouldneither hear to him nor to me, except to speak kind words, for nothingeffective was ever done. They even refused a well-written communicationon the subject, intended for the Missionary Herald. Let me also say, that as early as March, 1845, he told me that Dr. Bradley, his associate(now in this country), with his family, were beginning to live on thevegetable system; and added, that one of the sisters of the mission, whowas no "Grahamite, " had told him she thought there was not one third asmuch flesh used in all the mission families that there was a yearbefore. Mr. Caswell became exceedingly efficient, over-exerted himself incompleting a vocabulary of the Siamese language, and in other labors, and died in September last. He was, according to the testimony of Dr. Bradley, a "_noble man_;" and probably his life and health, and that ofhis family, were prolonged many years by his improved habits. But hisearly transgressions--like those of thousands--at length found him out. I allude to his errors in regard to exercise, eating, drinking, sleeping, taking medicine, etc. MR. SAMUEL CHINN. This individual has represented the town of Marblehead, Mass. , in thestate legislature, and is a man of respectability. He is now, says the"Lynn Washingtonian, " above forty years of age, a strong, healthy man, and, to use his own language, "has neither ache nor pain. " For the tenyears next preceding our last account from him he had lived on a simplevegetable diet, condemning to slaughter no flocks or herds that "rangethe valley free, " but leaving them to their native, joyous hill-sidesand mountains. But Mr. Chinn, not contented with abstinence from animalfood, goes nearly the full length of Dr. Schlemmer and his sect, andabjures cookery. For four years he subsisted--we believe he does sonow--on nothing but unground wheat and fruit. His breakfast, it is said, he uniformly makes of fruit; his other two meals of unground wheat;patronizing neither millers nor cooks. A few years since, beingappointed a delegate to a convention in Worcester, fifty-eight milesdistant, he filled his pocket with wheat, walked there during the day, attended the convention, and the next day walked home again, withcomparative ease. FATHER SEWALL. This venerable man--Jotham Sewall, of Maine, as he styles himself, oneof the fathers of that state--is now about ninety years of age, and yetis, what he has long been, an active home missionary. He is a man ofgiant size and venerable appearance, of a green old age, and remarkablyhealthy. He is an early riser, a man of great cheerfulness, and of themost simple habits. He has abstained from tea and coffee--poisonousthings, as he calls them--forty-seven years. His only drinks are waterand sage tea. These, with bread, milk, and fruits, and perhaps a littlesalt, are the only things that enter his stomach. How long he hasabstained from flesh and fish I have not learned, but I believe somethirty or forty years. Such is the appearance of this venerable man, that no one is surprisedto find in him those gigantic powers of mind, and that readiness to givewise counsel on every important occasion, for which he has so long beendistinguished. It has sometimes seemed to me that no one would doubt theefficacy of a well-selected vegetable diet to give strength, mental orbodily, who had known Father Sewall. MAGLIABECCHI, An Italian, who died in the beginning of the eighteenth century, abjuredcookery at the age of forty years, and confined himself chiefly tofruits, grains, and water. He never allowed himself a bed, but slept ona kind of settee, wrapped in a long morning gown, which served him forblanket and clothing the year round. I would not be understood as encouraging the anti-cookery system of Dr. Schlemmer and Magliabecchi; but it is interesting to know _what can bedone_. Magliabecchi lived to the age of from eighty to one hundredyears. OBERLIN AND SWARTZ. These two distinguished men were essentially vegetable eaters. Of thehabits of Oberlin, the venerable pastor and father of Waldbach, I am notable to speak, however, with so much certainty as of those of Swartz. His income, during the early part of his residence in India, was onlyforty-eight pounds a year, which, being estimated by its ability toprocure supplies for his necessities, was only equal to about onehundred dollars. He not only accepted of very narrow quarters, but ate, drank, and dressed, in the plainest manner. "A dish of rice andvegetables, " says his biographer, "satisfied his appetite for food. " THE IRISH. Much has been said of the dietetic habits of the Irish, of late years, especially of their potato. Now, we have abundant facts which go toprove that good potatoes form a wholesome aliment, equal, if notsuperior, to many forms of European and American diet. Yet it cannot bethat a diet consisting wholly of potatoes is as well for the race as onepartaking of greater variety. Mr. Gamble, a traveler in Ireland, in his work on Irish "Society andManners, " gives the following statement of an old friend of his, whom hevisited: "He was upward of eighty years when I had last seen him, and he was nowin his ninety-fourth year. He found the old gentleman seated on a kindof rustic seat, in the garden, by the side of some bee-hives. He wasasleep. On his waking I was astonished to see the little change time hadwrought on him; a little more stoop in his shoulders, a wrinkle more, perhaps, in his forehead, a more perfect whiteness of his hair, was allthe difference since I had seen him last. Flesh meat in my venerablefriend's house was an article never to be met with. _For sixty yearspast he had not tasted it_, nor did he by any means like to see it takenby others. His food was vegetables, bread, milk, butter, and honey. Hiswhole life was a series of benevolent actions, and Providence rewardedhim, even here, by a peace of mind which passeth all understanding, by ajudgment vigorous and unclouded, and by a length of days beyond thecommon course of men. " James Haughton, I believe of Dublin--a correspondent of Henry C. Wright, of Philadelphia, who is himself in theory a vegetable eater--has, forsome time past, rejected flesh, and pursued a simple course of living, as he says, with great advantage. I have been both amused and instructedby his letters. I have met with several Irish people of intelligence who were vegetableeaters, but their names are not now recollected. They have not, however, in any instance, confined themselves to potatoes. One of the mostdistinguished of these was a female laborer in the family of a merchantat Barnstable. She was, from choice, a very rigid vegetable eater; andyet no person in the whole neighborhood was more efficient as a laborer. Those who know her, and are in the habit of thinking no person can workhard without flesh and fish, often express their astonishment that sheshould be able to live so simply and yet perform so much labor. JOHN BAILIES. John Bailies, of England, who reached the great age of one hundred andtwenty-eight, is said to have been a strict vegetarian. His food, forthe most part, consisted of brown bread and cheese; and his drink ofwater and milk. He had survived the whole town of Northampton (as he waswont to say), where he resided, three or four times over; and it was hiscustom to say that they were all killed by tea and coffee. Flesh meat atthat time had not come into suspicion, otherwise he would doubtless haveattributed part of the evil to this agency. FRANCIS HUPAZOLI. This gentleman was a Sardinian ecclesiastic, at the first; afterward amerchant at Scio; and finally Venetian consul at Smyrna. Much has beensaid of Lewis Cornaro, who, having broken down his constitution at theage of forty, renewed it by his temperance, and lasted unto nearly theage of a century. His story is interesting and instructive; but littlemore so than that of Hupazoli. His habits were all remarkable for simplicity and truth, except one. Hewas greatly licentious; and his licentiousness, at the age ofeighty-five, had nearly carried him off. Yet such was the mildness ofhis temper, and so correct was he in regard to exercise, rest, rising, eating, drinking, etc. , that he lived on, to the great age of onehundred and fifteen years, and then died, not of old age, but ofdisease. Hupazoli did not entirely abstain from flesh; and yet he used verylittle, and that was wild game. His living was chiefly on fruits. Indeed, he ate but little at any time; and his supper was particularlylight. His drink was water. He never took any medicine in his wholelife, not even tobacco; nor was he so much as ever bled. In fact, tilllate in life, he was never sick. MARY CAROLINE HINCKLEY. This young woman, a resident of Hallowell, in Maine, and somewhatdistinguished as a poet, is, from her own conviction and choice both, avegetable eater. Her story, which I had from her friends, issubstantially as follows: When about eleven years of age she suddenly changed her habits ofeating, and steadfastly refused, at the table, all kinds of food whichpartook of flesh and fish. The family were alarmed, and afraid she wasill. When they made inquiry concerning it, she hesitated to assign thereasons for her conduct; but, on being pressed closely, she confessedthat she abstained for conscience' sake; that she had become fullyconvinced, from reading and reflection, that she ought not to eat animalfood. It was in vain that the family and neighbors remonstrated with her, andendeavored, in various ways, to induce her to vary from her purpose. Shecontinued to use no fowl, flesh, or fish; and in this habit shecontinues, as I believe, to this day, a period of some twelve or fifteenyears. JOHN WHITCOMB. John Whitcomb, of Swansey, N. H. , at the age of one hundred and four wasin possession of sound mind and memory, and had a fresh countenance; andso good was his health, that he rose and bathed himself in cold watereven in mid-winter. His wounds, moreover, would heal like those of achild. And yet this man, for eighty years, refused to drink any thingbut water; and for thirty years, at the close of life, confined himselfchiefly to bread and milk as his diet. CAPT. ROSS, OF THE BRITISH NAVY. It is sometimes said that animal food is indispensably necessary in thepolar regions. We have seen, however, in the testimony of ProfessorSweetser, that this view of the case is hardly correct. But we havepositive testimony on this subject from Capt. Ross himself. This navigator, with his company, spent the winter of 1830-31 above 70°of north latitude, without beds, clothing (that is, extra clothing), oranimal food, and with no evidence of any suffering from the mere disuseof flesh and fish. HENRY FRANCISCO. This individual, who died at Whitehall, N. Y. , in the year 1820, at theage of one hundred and twenty-five years, was, during the latter part ofhis life, quite a Grahamite, as the moderns would call him. His favoritearticles of food were tea, bread and butter, and baked apples; and hewas even abstemious in the use of these. PROFESSOR FERGUSON. Professor Adam Ferguson, an individual not unknown in the literaryworld, was, till he was fifty years of age, regarded as quite healthy. Brought up in fashionable society, he was very often invited tofashionable dinners and parties, at which he ate heartily and drankwine--sometimes several bottles. Indeed, he habitually ate and drankfreely; and, as he had by nature a very strong constitution, he thoughtnothing which he ate or drank injured him. Things went on in this manner, as I have already intimated, till he wasfifty years of age. One day, about this time, having made a longjourney in the cold, he returned very much fatigued, and in thiscondition went to dine with a party, where he ate and drank in his usualmanner. Soon after dinner, he was seized with a fit of apoplexy, followed by palsy; but by bleeding, and other energetic measures, he waspartially restored. He was now, by the direction of his physician, put upon what was calleda low diet. It consisted of vegetable food and milk. For nearly fortyyears he tasted no meat, drank nothing but water and a little weak tea, and took no suppers. If he ventured, at any time, upon more stimulatingfood or drink, he soon had a full pulse, and hot, restless nights. Hisbowels, however, seemed to be much affected by the fit of palsy; and notbeing inclined, so far as I can learn, to the use of fruit and coarsebread, he was sometimes compelled to use laxatives. When he was about seventy years of age, however, all his paralyticsymptoms had disappeared; and his health was so excellent, for a personof his years, as to excite universal admiration. This continued till hewas nearly ninety. His mind, up to this time, was almost as entire as inhis younger days; none of his bodily functions, except his sight, weremuch impaired. So perfect, indeed, was the condition of his physicalframe, that nobody, who had not known his history, would have suspectedhe had ever been apoplectic or paralytic. When about ninety years of age, his health began slightly to decline. Alittle before his death, he began to take a little meat. This, however, did not save him--nature being fairly worn out. On the contrary, itprobably hastened his dissolution. His bowels became irregular, hispulse increased, and he fell into a bilious fever, of which he died atthe great age of ninety-three. Probably there are, on record, few cases of longevity more instructivethan this. Besides showing the evil tendency of living at the expense oflife, it also shows, in a most striking manner, the effects of simpleand unstimulating food and drink, even in old age; and the danger ofrecurring to the use of that which is more stimulating in very advancedlife. In this last respect, it confirms the experience of Cornaro, whowas made sick by attempting, in his old age, and at the solicitation ofkind friends, to return to the use of a more stimulating diet; and ofParr, who was destroyed in the same way, after having attained to morethan a hundred and fifty years. But the fact that living at the expense of life, cuts down, here andthere, in the prime of life, or even at the age of fifty, a fewindividuals, though this of itself is no trivial evil, is not all. Halfof what we call the infirmities of old age--and thus charge them uponHim who made the human frame _subject_ to age--have their origin in thesame source; I mean in this living too fast, and exhausting prematurelythe vital powers. When will the sons of men learn wisdom in this matter?Never, I fear, till they are taught, as commonly as they now are readingand writing, the principles of physiology. HOWARD, THE PHILANTHROPIST. Although individual cases of abstinence from animal food prove butlittle, yet they prove something in the case of a man so remarkable asJohn Howard. If he, with a constitution not very strong, and in themidst of the greatest fatigues of body and mind, could best sustainhimself on a bread and water, or bread and tea diet, who is there thatwould not be well sustained on vegetable food? And yet it is certainthat Howard was a vegetable eater for many years of the latter part ofhis life; and that had he not exposed himself in a remarkable manner, there is no known reason why he might not have lasted with aconstitution no better than his was, to a hundred years of age. GEN. ELLIOTT. The following extract exhibits in few words, the dietetic history ofthat brave and wise commander, General George Augustus Elliott, of theBritish army: "During the whole of his active life, Gen. Elliott had inured himself tothe most rigid habits of order and watchfulness; seldom sleeping morethan four hours a day, and never eating any thing but vegetable food, ordrinking any thing but water. During eight of the most anxious days ofthe memorable siege of Gibraltar, he confined himself to four ounces ofrice a day. He was universally regarded as one of the most abstemiousmen of his age. "And yet his abstemiousness did not diminish his vigor; for, at theabove-mentioned siege of Gibraltar, when he was sixty-six years of age, he had nearly all the activity and fire of his youth. Nor did he die ofany wasting disease, such as full feeders are wont to say men bring uponthem by their abstinence. On the contrary, owing to a hereditarytendency, perhaps, of his family, he died at the age of seventy-three, of apoplexy. " ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA. The following testimony is from the Encyclopedia. I do not suppose thewriter was the friend of a diet exclusively vegetable; but his testimonyis therefore the more interesting. His only serious mistake is in regardto the tendency of vegetable food to form weak fibres. "Sometimes a particular kind of food is called wholesome, because itproduces a beneficial effect of a particular character on the system ofan individual. In this case, however, it is to be considered as amedicine; and can be called wholesome only for those whose systems arein the same condition. "Aliments abounding in fat are unwholesome, because fat resists theoperation of the gastric juice. "The addition of too much spice makes many an innocent alimentinjurious, because spices resist the action of the digestive organs, andproduce an irritation of particular parts of the system. "The kind of aliment influences the health, and even the character ofman. He is fitted to derive nourishment both from animal and vegetablealiment; but can live exclusively on either. "Experience proves that animal food most readily augments the solidparts of the blood, the fibrine, and therefore the strength of themuscular system; but disposes the body, at the same time, toinflammatory, putrid, and scorbutic diseases; and the character toviolence and coarseness. On the contrary, vegetable food renders theblood lighter and more liquid, but forms weak fibres, disposes thesystem to the diseases which spring from feebleness, and tends toproduce a gentle character. "Something of the same difference of moral effect results from the useof strong or light wines. But the reader must not infer that meat isindispensable for the support of the bodily strength. The peasants ofsome parts of Switzerland, who hardly ever taste any thing but bread, cheese, and butter, are vigorous people. "The nations of the north are inclined, generally, more to animalaliment; those of the south and the Orientals, more to vegetable. Thelatter are generally more simple in their diet than the former, whentheir taste has not been corrupted by luxurious indulgence. Some tribesin the East, and the caste of Bramins in India, live entirely onvegetable food. " MR. THOMAS BELL, OF LONDON. Mr. Thomas Bell, Fellow of the Royal Society, Member of the RoyalCollege of Surgeons in London, Lecturer on the Anatomy and Diseases ofthe Teeth, at Guy's Hospital, and Surgeon Dentist to that institution, in his physiological observations on the natural food of man, deducedfrom the character of the teeth, says, "The opinion which I venture togive, has not been hastily formed, nor without what appeared to mesufficient grounds. It is not, I think, going too far to say, that everyfact connected with human organization goes to prove that man wasoriginally formed a frugiverous (fruit-eating) animal, and therefore, probably, tropical or nearly so, with regard to his geographicalsituation. This opinion is principally derived from the formation of histeeth and digestive organs, as well as from the character of his skinand general structure of his limbs. " LINNÆUS, THE NATURALIST. Linnæus, in speaking of fruits and esculent vegetables, says--"Thisspecies of food is that which is most suitable to man, as is evinced bythe structure of the mouth, of the stomach, and of the hands. " SHELLEY, THE POET. The following are the views of that eccentric, though in many respectssensible writer, Shelley, as presented in a note to his work, calledQueen Mab. I have somewhat abridged them, not solely to escape part ofhis monstrous religious sentiments, but for other reasons. I haveendeavored, however, to preserve, undisturbed, his opinions andreasonings, which I hope will make a deep and abiding impression: "The depravity of the physical and moral nature of man, originated inhis unnatural habits of life. The language spoken by the mythology ofnearly all religions seems to prove that, at some distant period, manforsook the path of nature, and sacrificed the purity and happiness ofhis being to unnatural appetites. Milton makes Raphael thus exhibit toAdam the consequence of his disobedience: '----Immediately, a place Before his eyes appeared; and, noisome, dark, A lazar-house it seemed; wherein were laid Numbers of all diseased; all maladies Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs, Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, Dropsies and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums. ' "The fable of Prometheus, too, is explained in a manner somewhatsimilar. Before the time of Prometheus, according to Hesiod, mankindwere exempt from suffering; they enjoyed a vigorous youth; and death, when at length it came, approached like sleep, and gently closed theeyes. Prometheus (who represents the human race) effected some greatchange in the condition of his nature, and applied fire to culinarypurposes. From this moment his vitals were devoured by the vulture ofdisease. It consumed his being in every shape of its loathsome andinfinite variety, inducing the soul-quelling sinkings of premature andviolent death. All vice arose from the ruin of healthful innocence. "Man, and the animals which he has infected with his society, ordepraved by his dominion, are alone diseased. The wild hog, the bison, and the wolf are perfectly exempt from malady, and invariably die, either from external violence or natural old age. But the domestic hog, the sheep, the cow, and the dog are subject to an incredible number ofdistempers, and, like the corrupters of their nature, have physicians, who thrive upon their miseries. "The supereminence of man is like Satan's supereminence of pain, --andthe majority of his species, doomed to penury, disease, and crime, havereason to curse the untoward event, that, by enabling him to communicatehis sensations, raised him above the level of his fellow animals. Butthe steps that have been taken are irrevocable. "The whole of human science is comprised in one question: How can theadvantages of intellect and civilization be reconciled with the libertyand pure pleasures of natural life? How can we take the benefits andreject the evils of the system, which is now interwoven with our being?I believe that _abstinence from animal food and spirituous liquorswould, in a great measure, capacitate us for the solution of thisimportant question_. "It is true, that mental and bodily derangement is attributable in partto other deviations from rectitude and nature than those which concerndiet. The mistakes cherished by society respecting the connection of thesexes, whence the misery and diseases of celibacy, unenjoyingprostitution, and the premature arrival of puberty, necessarily spring;the putrid atmosphere of crowded cities; the exhalations of chemicalprocesses: the muffling of our bodies in superfluous apparel; the absurdtreatment of infants; all these, and innumerable other causes, contribute their mite to the mass of human evil. "Comparative anatomy teaches us that man resembles frugiverous animalsin every thing, and carnivorous in nothing; he has neither clawswherewith to seize his prey, nor distinct and pointed teeth to tear theliving fibre. A mandarin of the first class, with nails two inches long, would probably find them, alone, inefficient to hold even a hare. It isonly by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparationsthat it is rendered susceptible of mastication and digestion, and thatthe sight of its bloody juices does not excite intolerable loathing, horror, and disgust. Let the advocate of animal food force himself to adecisive experiment on its fitness, and, as Plutarch recommends, tear aliving lamb with his teeth, and, plunging his head into its vitals, slake his thirst with the steaming blood; when fresh from the deed ofhorror, let him revert to the irresistible instincts of nature thatwould rise in judgment against it, and say, Nature formed me for suchwork as this. Then, and then only, would he be consistent. "Young children evidently prefer pastry, oranges, apples, and otherfruit, to the flesh of animals, until, by the gradual depravation of thedigestive organs, the free use of vegetables has, for a time, producedserious inconveniences. _For a time_, I say, since there never was aninstance wherein a change from spirituous liquors and animal food tovegetables and pure water has failed ultimately to invigorate the body, by rendering its juices bland and consentaneous, and to restore to themind that cheerfulness and elasticity which not one in fifty possesseson the present system. A love of strong liquor is also with difficultytaught to infants. Almost every one remembers the wry faces which thefirst glass of port produced. Unsophisticated instinct is invariablyunerring; but to decide on the fitness of animal food from the pervertedappetites which its constrained adoption produces, is to make thecriminal a judge in his own cause; it is even worse--it is appealing tothe infatuated drunkard in a question of the salubrity of brandy. "Except in children, however, there remain no traces of that instinctwhich determines, in all other animals, what aliment is natural orotherwise; and so perfectly obliterated are they in the reasoning adultsof our species, that it has become necessary to urge considerationsdrawn from comparative anatomy to prove that we are naturallyfrugiverous. "Crime is madness. Madness is disease. Whenever the cause of diseaseshall be discovered, the root, from which all vice and misery have solong overshadowed the globe, will be bare to the axe. All the exertionsof man, from that moment, may be considered as tending to the clearprofit of his species. No sane mind, in a sane body, resolves upon acrime. It is a man of violent passions, blood-shot eyes, and swollenveins, that alone can grasp the knife of murder. The system of a simplediet is not a reform of legislation, while the furious passions and evilpropensities of the human heart, in which it had its origin, areunassuaged. It strikes at the root of all evil, and is an experimentwhich may be tried with success, not alone by nations, but by smallsocieties, families, and even individuals. In no case has a return to avegetable diet produced the slightest injury; in most it has beenattended with changes undeniably beneficial. "Should ever a physician be born with the genius of Locke, he mighttrace all bodily and mental derangements to our unnatural habits, asclearly as that philosopher has traced all knowledge to sensation. Whatprolific sources of disease are not those mineral and vegetable poisons, that have been introduced for its extirpation! How many thousands havebecome murderers and robbers, bigots and domestic tyrants, dissolute andabandoned adventurers, from the use of fermented liquors, who, had theyslaked their thirst only with pure water, would have lived but todiffuse the happiness of their own unperverted feelings! How manygroundless opinions and absurd institutions have not received a generalsanction from the sottishness and intemperance of individuals! "Who will assert that, had the populace of Paris satisfied their hungerat the ever-furnished table of vegetable nature, they would have lenttheir brutal suffrage to the proscription-list of Robespierre? Could aset of men, whose passions were not perverted by unnatural stimuli, look with coolness on an _auto da fe_? Is it to be believed that a beingof gentle feelings, rising from his meal of roots, would take delight insports of blood? "Was Nero a man of temperate life? Could you read calm health in hischeek, flushed with ungovernable propensities of hatred for the humanrace? Did Muley Ismail's pulse beat evenly? was his skin transparent?did his eyes beam with healthfulness, and its invariable concomitants, cheerfulness and benignity? "Though history has decided none of these questions, a child could nothesitate to answer in the negative. Surely the bile-suffused cheek ofBonaparte, his wrinkled brow, and yellow eye, the ceaseless inquietudeof his nervous system, speak no less plainly the character of hisunresting ambition than his murders and his victories. It is impossible, had Bonaparte descended from a race of vegetable feeders, that he couldhave had either the inclination or the power to ascend the throne of theBourbons. "The desire of tyranny could scarcely be excited in the individual; thepower to tyrannize would certainly not be delegated by a society neitherfrenzied by inebriation nor rendered impotent and irrational by disease. Pregnant, indeed, with inexhaustible calamity is the renunciation ofinstinct, as it concerns our physical nature. Arithmetic cannotenumerate, nor reason perhaps suspect, the multitudinous sources ofdisease in civilized life. Even common water, that apparently innoxious_pabulum_, when corrupted by the filth of populous cities, is a deadlyand insidious destroyer. "There is no disease, bodily or mental, which adoption of vegetable dietand pure water has not infallibly mitigated, wherever the experimenthas been fairly tried. Debility is gradually converted into strength, disease into healthfulness; madness, in all its hideous variety, fromthe ravings of the fettered maniac, to the unaccountable irrationalitiesof ill-temper, that make a hell of domestic life, into a calm andconsiderate evenness of temper, that alone might offer a certain pledgeof the future moral reformation of society. "On a natural system of diet, old age would be our last and our onlymalady; the term of our existence would be protracted; we should enjoylife, and no longer preclude others from the enjoyment of it; allsensational delights would be infinitely more exquisite and perfect; thevery sense of being would then be a continued pleasure, such as we nowfeel it in some few and favored moments of our youth. "By all that is sacred in our hopes for the human race, I conjure thosewho love happiness and truth, to give a fair trial to the vegetablesystem. Reasoning is surely superfluous on a subject whose merits anexperience of six months should set forever at rest. "But it is only among the enlightened and benevolent that so great asacrifice of appetite and prejudice can be expected, even though itsultimate excellence should not admit of dispute. It is found easier bythe short-sighted victims of disease, to palliate their torments, bymedicine, than to prevent them by regimen. The vulgar of all ranks areinvariably sensual and indocile; yet I cannot but feel myself persuaded, that when the benefits of vegetable diet are mathematically proved--whenit is as clear, that those who live naturally are exempt from prematuredeath, as that nine is not one, the most sottish of mankind will feel apreference toward a long and tranquil, contrasted with a short andpainful life. "On the average, out of sixty persons, four die in three years. Hopesare entertained, that in April, 1814, [20] a statement will be given thatsixty persons, all having lived more than three years on vegetables andpure water, are then in _perfect health_. More than two years have nowelapsed; _not one of them has died_; no such example will be found inany sixty persons taken at random. "When these proofs come fairly before the world, and are clearly seen byall who understand arithmetic, it is scarcely possible that abstinencefrom aliments demonstrably pernicious should not become universal. "In proportion to the number of proselytes, so will be the weight ofevidence; and when a thousand persons can be produced, living onvegetables and distilled water, who have to dread no disease but oldage, the world will be compelled to regard animal flesh and fermentedliquors as slow but certain poisons. "The change which would be produced by simple habits on politicaleconomy, is sufficiently remarkable. The monopolizing eater of animalflesh would no longer destroy his constitution by devouring an acre at ameal, and many loaves of bread would cease to contribute to gout, madness, and apoplexy, in the shape of a pint of porter, or a dram ofgin, when appeasing the long-protracted famine of the hard-workingpeasant's hungry babes. "The quantity of nutritious vegetable matter, consumed in fattening thecarcass of an ox, would afford ten times the sustenance, undepravingindeed, and incapable of generating disease, if gathered immediatelyfrom the bosom of the earth. The most fertile districts of the habitableglobe are now actually cultivated by men for animals, at a delay andwaste of aliment absolutely incapable of calculation. It is only thewealthy that can, to any great degree, even now, indulge the unnaturalcraving for dead flesh, and they pay for the greater license of theprivilege, by subjection to supernumerary diseases. "Again--the spirit of the nation that should take the lead in this greatreform would insensibly become agricultural; commerce, with its vices, selfishness, and corruption, would gradually decline; more naturalhabits would produce gentler manners, and the excessive complication ofpolitical relations would be so far simplified that every individualmight feel and understand why he loved his country, and took a personalinterest in its welfare. "On a natural system of diet, we should require no spices from India; nowines from Portugal, Spain, France, or Madeira; none of thosemultitudinous articles of luxury, for which every corner of the globe isrifled, and which are the cause of so much individual rivalship, andsuch calamitous and sanguinary national disputes. "Let it ever be remembered, that it is the direct influence of excess ofcommerce to make the interval between the rich and the poor wider andmore unconquerable. Let it be remembered, that it is a foe to everything of real worth and excellence in the human character. The odiousand disgusting aristocracy of wealth, is built upon the ruins of allthat is good in chivalry or republicanism; and luxury is the forerunnerof a barbarism scarce capable of cure. Is it impossible to realize astate of society, where all the energies of man shall be directed to theproduction of his solid happiness? "None must be intrusted with power (and money is the completest speciesof power), who do not stand pledged to use it exclusively for thegeneral benefit. But the use of animal flesh and fermented liquors, directly militates with this equality of the rights of man. The peasantcannot gratify these fashionable cravings without leaving his family tostarve. Without disease and war, those sweeping curtailers ofpopulation, pasturage would include a waste too great to be afforded. The labor requisite to support a family is far lighter than is usuallysupposed. The peasantry work, not only for themselves, but for thearistocracy, the army, and the manufacturers. "The advantage of a reform in diet is obviously greater than that of anyother. It strikes at the root of the evil. To remedy the abuses oflegislation, before we annihilate the propensities by which they areproduced, is to suppose that by taking away the effect, the cause willcease to operate. "But the efficacy of this system depends entirely on the proselytism ofindividuals, and grounds its merits, as a benefit to the community, uponthe total change of the dietetic habits in its members. It proceedssecurely from a number of particular cases to one that is universal, andhas this advantage over the contrary mode, that one error does notinvalidate all that has gone before. "Let not too much, however, be expected from this system. Thehealthiest among us is not exempt from hereditary disease. The mostsymmetrical, athletic, and long-lived is a being inexpressibly inferiorto what he would have been had not the unnatural habits of his ancestorsaccumulated for him a certain portion of malady and deformity. In themost perfect specimen of civilized man, something is still found wantingby the physiological critic. Can a return to nature, then, instantaneously eradicate predispositions that have been slowly takingroot in the silence of innumerable ages? Indubitably not. All that Icontend for is, that from the moment of relinquishing all unnaturalhabits, no new disease is generated; and that the predisposition tohereditary maladies gradually perishes for want of its accustomedsupply. In cases of consumption, cancer, gout, asthma, and scrofula, such is the invariable tendency of a diet of vegetables and pure water. "Those who may be induced by these remarks to give the vegetable systema fair trial, should, in the first place, date the commencement of theirpractice from the moment of their conviction. All depends upon breakingthrough a pernicious habit resolutely and at once. Dr. Trotter asserts, that no drunkard was ever reformed by gradually relinquishing his dram. Animal flesh, in its effects on the human stomach, is analogous to adram; it is similar to the kind, though differing in the degree of itsoperation. The proselyte to a pure diet must be warned to expect atemporary diminution of muscular strength. The subtraction of a powerfulstimulus will suffice to account for this event. But it is onlytemporary, and is succeeded by an equable capability for exertion, farsurpassing his former various and fluctuating strength. "Above all, he will acquire an easiness of breathing, by which suchexertion is performed, with a remarkable exemption from that painful anddifficult panting now felt by almost every one, after hastily climbingan ordinary mountain. He will be equally capable of bodily exertion ormental application, after, as before his simple meal. He will feel noneof the narcotic effects of ordinary diet. Irritability, the directconsequence of exhausting stimuli, would yield to the power of naturaland tranquil impulses. He will no longer pine under the lethargy of_ennui_, that unconquerable weariness of life, more to be dreaded thandeath itself. "He will no longer be incessantly occupied in blunting and destroyingthose organs from which he expects his gratification. The pleasures oftaste to be derived from a dinner of potatoes, beans, peas, turnips, lettuce, with a dessert of apples, gooseberries, strawberries, currants, raspberries, and in winter, oranges, apples, and pears, is far greaterthan is supposed. Those who wait until they can eat this plain fare withthe sauce of appetite, will scarcely join with the hypocriticalsensualist at a lord mayor's feast, who declaims against the pleasuresof the table. " REV. EZEKIEL RICH. This gentleman, once a teacher in Troy, N. H. , now nearly seventy yearsof age, is a giant, both intellectually and physically, like FatherSewall, of Maine. The following is his testimony--speaking of what hecalls his system: "Such a system of living was formed by myself, irrespective of Graham orAlcott, or any other modern dietetic philosophers and reformers, although I agree with them in many things. It allows but little use offlesh, condiments, concentrated articles, complex cooking, or hot andstimulating drinks. On the other hand, it requires great use of milk, the different bread stuffs, fruits, esculent roots and pulse, all well, simply, and neatly cooked. " REV. JOHN WESLEY. The habits of this distinguished individual, though often adverted to, are yet not sufficiently known. For the last half of his long life(eighty-eight years) he was a thorough going vegetarian. He alsotestifies that for three or four successive years he lived entirely onpotatoes; and during that whole time he never relaxed his arduousministerial labors, nor ever enjoyed better health. LAMARTINE. Lamartine was educated a vegetarian of the strictest sort--an educationwhich certainly did not prevent his possessing as fine a physical frameas can be found in the French republic. Of his mental and moralcharacteristics it is needless that I should speak. True it is thatLamartine ate flesh and fish at one period of his life; but we have theauthority of Douglas Jerrold's London Journal for assuring our readersthat he is again a vegetarian. FOOTNOTES: [17] Some, however, represent the great apostle to have been a rigidvegetable eater. On this point I have no settled opinion. [18] It may be found at full length at page 233 of the 6th volume of theLibrary of Health. [19] Instances, he says, are not rare (but this I doubt), of two hundredchildren born to a man by his different wives, in some parts of theinterior of Africa. [20] A date but little later than that of the work whence this articleis extracted. CHAPTER VII. SOCIETIES AND COMMUNITIES ON THE VEGETABLE SYSTEM. The Pythagoreans. --The Essenes. --The Bramins. --Society of Bible Christians. --Orphan Asylum of Albany. --The Mexican Indians. --School in Germany. --American Physiological Society. GENERAL REMARKS. The following chapter did not come within the scope of my plan, as itwas originally formed. But in prosecuting the labors of preparing avolume on vegetable diet, it has more and more seemed to me desirable toadd a short account of some of the communities and associations of men, both of ancient and modern times, who, amid a surrounding horde offlesh-eaters, have withstood the power of temptation, and proved, insome measure, true to their own nature, and the first impulses of mercy, humanity, and charity. I shall not, of course, attempt to describe allthe sects and societies of the kind to which I refer, but only a few ofthose which seem to me most important. One word may be necessary in explanation of the term communities. I meanby it, smaller communities, or associations. There have been, and stillare, many whole nations which might be called vegetable-eatingcommunities; but of such it is not my purpose to speak at present. THE PYTHAGOREANS. Pythagoras appears to have flourished about 550 years before Christ. Hewas, probably, a native of the island of Samos; but a part of hiseducation, which was extensive and thorough, was received in Egypt. Hetaught a new philosophy; and, according to some, endeavored to enforceit by laying claim to supernatural powers. But, be this as it may havebeen, he was certainly a man of extraordinary qualities and powers, aswell as of great and commanding influence. In an age of great luxury andlicentiousness, he taught, both by example and precept, the most rigiddoctrines of sobriety, temperance, and purity. He abstained from allanimal food, and limited himself entirely to vegetables; of which heusually preferred bread and honey. Nor did he allow the free use ofevery kind of vegetable; for beans, and I believe every species ofpulse, were omitted. Water was his only drink. He lived, it is said, tothe age of eighty; and even then did not perish from disease or old age, but from starvation in a place where he had sought a retreat from thefury of his enemies. His disciples are said to have been exceedingly numerous, in almost allquarters of the then known world, especially in Greece and Italy. It isimpossible, however, to form any conjecture of their numbers. Thelargest school or association of his rigid followers is supposed to havebeen at the city of Crotona, in South Italy. Their number was sixhundred. They followed all his dietetic and philosophical rules with theutmost strictness. The association appears to have been, for a time, exceedingly flourishing. It was a society of philosophers, rather thanof common citizens. They held their property in one common stock, forthe benefit of the whole. The object of the association was chiefly toaid each other in promoting intellectual cultivation. Pythagoras didnot teach abstinence from all hurtful food and drink, and an exclusiveuse of that which was the _best_, for the sole purpose of making menbetter, or more healthy, or longer-lived _animals_; he had a higher andnobler purpose. It was to make them better rationals, more truly nobleand god-like--worthy the name of rational men, and of the relation inwhich they stood to their common Father. And yet, after all, hisdoctrines appear to have been mingled with much bigotry andsuperstition. THE ESSENES. The following account of this singular sect of the ancient Jews isabridged from an article in the Annals of Education, for July, 1836. Thenumber of this vegetable-eating sect is not known, though, according toPhilo, there were four thousand of them in the single province of Judea. "Pliny, says that the Essenes of Judea fed on the fruit of thepalm-tree. But, however this may have been, it is agreed, on all hands, that, like the ancient Pythagoreans, they lived exclusively on vegetablefood, and that they were abstinent in regard to the quantity even ofthis. They would not kill a living creature, even for sacrifices. It isalso understood that they treated diseases of every kind--though it doesnot appear that they were subject to many--with roots and herbs. Josephus says they were long-lived, and that many of them lived over ahundred years. This he attributes to their 'regular course of life, ' andespecially to 'the simplicity of their diet. '" THE BRAMINS. The Bramins, or Brahmins, are, as is probably well known, the first ofthe four _castes_ among the Hindoos. They are the priests of the people, and are remarkable, in their way, for their sanctity. Of their number Iam not at present apprised, but it must be very great. But, howevergreat it may be, they are vegetable eaters of the strictest sect. Theyare not even allowed to eat eggs; and I believe milk and its productsare also forbidden them; but of this I am not quite certain. Besidesadhering to the strictest rules of temperance, they are also required toobserve frequent fasts of the most severe kind, and to practice regularand daily, and sometimes thrice daily ablutions. They subsist much ongreen herbs, roots, and fruits; and at some periods of their ministry, they live much in the open air. And yet those of them who are trueBramins--who live up to the dignity of their profession--are among themost healthy, vigorous, and long-lived of their race. The accounts oftheir longevity may, in some instances, be exaggerated; but it iscertain that, other things being equal, they do not in this respect fallbehind any other caste of their countrymen. SOCIETY OF BIBLE CHRISTIANS. This society has existed in Great Britain nearly half a century. Theyabstain from flesh, fish, and fowl--in short, from every thing that hasanimal life--and from all alcoholic liquors. Of their number in thekingdom I am not well informed. In Manchester they have three churchesthat have regular preachers; and frequent meetings have been held fordiscussing the diet question within a few years, some of which havebeen well attended, and all of which have been interesting. Among thosewho have adopted "the pledge" at their meetings, are some of the mostdistinguished men in the kingdom, and a few of the members ofparliament. Through these and other instrumentalities, the question isfairly up in England, and will not cease to be discussed till fairlysettled. A branch or colony from the parent society, under the pastoral care ofRev. Wm. Metcalfe, consisting of only eight members, came in 1817 andestablished itself in Philadelphia. They were incorporated as a societyin 1830. In 1846 the number of their church members was about seventy, besides thirty who adhered to their abstemious habits, but were not infull communion. During the thirty years ending in 1846, twelve of theirnumber died--four children and eight adults. The average age of thelatter was fifty-seven years. Of the seventy now belonging to thesociety, nineteen are between forty and eighty years of age; and forty, in all, over twenty-five. Of the whole number, twelve have abstainedfrom animal food thirty-seven years, seven from twenty to thirty years, and fifty-one never tasted animal food or drank intoxicating drinks. And yet they are all--if we except Mr. Metcalfe, their minister--of thelaboring class, and hard laborers, too. Their strength and power ofendurance is fully equal to their neighbors in similar circumstances, and in several instances considerably superior. Mr. Fowler, thephrenologist, testifies, concerning one of them, that he is regarded asthe strongest man in Philadelphia. I have long had acquaintance withthis sect, through Mr. M. , of Philadelphia, and Mr. Simpson, one oftheir leading men in England, and have not a doubt of the truth of whathas been publicly stated concerning them. They are a modest people, andmake few pretensions; and yet they are a very meritorious people. One thing very much to their advantage, as it shows the health-giving, health-preserving tendency of their practice and principles, remains tobe related. When the yellow fever prevailed in Philadelphia, in 1818 and1819, the infection seemed specially rife in the immediate vicinity ofthe Bible Christians. So, also, in 1832, with the cholera. And yet noneof them fled. There they remained during the whole period of suffering, and afforded their sick neighbors all the relief in their power. Theirminister, in particular, was unwearied in his efforts to do good. Yetnot one of their little number ever sickened or died of either yellowfever or cholera. Till within a few years, they have been governed solely by regard toreligious principle, having known little of Physiology or any otherscience bearing on health. Of late, however, they have turned theirattention to the subject, and have among them a respectablePhysiological society, which holds its regular meetings, and is said tobe flourishing. From one of their publications, entitled "Vegetable Cookery, " I haveextracted the following very brief summary of their views concerning theuse of animals for sustenance. "The Society of Bible Christians abstain from animal food, not only inobedience to the Divine command, but because it is an observance, which, if more generally adopted, would prevent much cruelty, luxury, anddisease, besides many other evils which cause misery in society. Itwould be productive of much good, by promoting health, long life, andhappiness, and thus be a most effectual means of reforming mankind. Itwould entirely abolish that greatest of curses, _war_; for those who areso conscientious as not to kill animals, will never murder human beings. On all these accounts the system cannot be too much recommended. Thepractice of abstaining cannot be wrong; it must therefore be someconsolation to be on the side of duty. If we err, we err on the sureside; it is innocent; it is infinitely better authorized and more nearlyassociated with religion, virtue, and humanity, than the contrarypractice--and we have the sanction of the wisest and the best of men--ofthe whole Christian world, for several hundred years after thecommencement of the Christian era. " ORPHAN ASYLUM OF ALBANY. I class this as a community, because it is properly so, and because Icannot conveniently class it otherwise. The facts which are to berelated are too valuable to be lost. They were first published, Ibelieve, in the Northampton Courier; and subsequently in the BostonMedical and Surgical Journal, and in the Moral Reformer. In the presentcase, the account is greatly abridged. The Orphan Asylum of Albany was established about the close of the year1829, or the beginning of the year 1830. Shortly after itsestablishment, it contained seventy children, and subsequently manymore. The average number, from its commencement to August 1836, waseighty. For the first three years, the diet of the inmates consisted of finebread, rice, Indian puddings, potatoes, and other vegetables and fruits, with milk; to which was added flesh or flesh-soup once a day. Considerable attention was also paid to bathing and cleanliness, and toclothing, air, and exercise. Bathing, however, was performed in aperfect manner, only once in three weeks. As many of them were receivedin poor health, not a few continued sickly. In the fall of 1833, the diet and regimen of the inmates were materiallychanged. Daily ablution of the whole body, in the use of the cold showeror sponge bath--or, in cases of special disease, the tepid bath was oneof the first steps taken; then the fine bread was laid aside for thatmade of unbolted wheat meal; and soon after flesh and flesh-soups werewholly banished; and thus they continued to advance, till, in aboutthree months more, they had come fully upon the vegetable system, andhad adopted reformed habits in regard to sleeping, air, clothing, exercise, etc. On this course, then, they continued to August, 1836, and, for aught I know, to the present time. The results were as follows: During the first three years, or while the old system was followed, fromfour to six children were continually on the sick list, and sometimesmore; and one or two assistant nurses were necessary. A physician wasneeded once, twice, or three times a week, uniformly; and deaths werefrequent. During this whole period there were between thirty and fortydeaths. After the new system was fairly adopted, the nursery was soon entirelyvacated, and the services of the nurse and physician no longer needed;and for more than two years no case of sickness or death took place. Inthe succeeding twelve months there were three deaths, but they were newinmates, and were diseased when they were received; and two of them wereidiots. The Report of the Managers says, "Under this system ofdietetics (though the change ought not to be wholly attributed to thediet) the health of the children has not only been preserved, but thosewho came to the asylum weakly, have become healthy and strong, andgreatly increased in activity, cheerfulness, and happiness. " Thesuperintendents also state, that "since the new regimen has been fullyadopted, there has been a remarkable increase of health, strength, activity, vivacity, cheerfulness, and contentment among the children. Indeed, they appear to be, uniformly, perfectly healthy and happy; andthe strength and activity they exhibit are truly surprising. The changeof temper is very great. They have become less turbulent, irritable, peevish, and discontented; and far more manageable, gentle, peaceable, and kind to each other. " One of them further observes, "There has been agreat increase in their mental activity and power; the quickness andacumen of their perception, the vigor of their apprehension, and thepower of their retention daily astonish me. " Such an account hardly needs comment; and I leave it to make its ownimpression on the candid and unbiassed mind and heart of the reader. THE MEXICAN INDIANS. The Indian tribes of Mexico, according to the traveler Humboldt, live onvegetable food. A spot of ground, which, if cultivated with wheat, as inEurope, would sustain only ten persons, and which by its produce, ifconverted into pork or beef, would little more than support one, will inMexico, when used for banana, sustain equally well two hundred andfifty. The reader will do well to take the above fact, and the estimatesappended to it, along with him when he comes to examine what I havecalled the economical argument of the great diet question, in our lastchapter, under the head, "The Moral Argument. " We shall do well toremember another suggestion of Humboldt, that the habit of eatinganimals diminishes our natural horror of cannibalism. SCHOOL IN GERMANY. There is, in the Annals of Education for August, 1836, an account of aschool in which the same simple system which was pursued in the OrphanAsylum at Albany was adopted, and with the same happy results. I say the_same_ system; I believe plain meat was allowed occasionally, but it wasseldom. Their food was exceedingly simple, consisting chiefly of breadand other vegetables, fruits and milk. Great attention was also paid todaily cold bathing. The following is the teacher's statement in regardto the results: "I am at present the foster father of nearly seventy young people, whowere born in all the varieties of climate from Lisbon to Moscow, andwhose early education was necessarily very different. These young menare all healthy; not a single eruption is visible on their faces; andthree years often pass, during which not a single one of them isconfined to his bed; and in the twenty-one years that I have beenengaged in this institution, not one pupil has died. Yet, I am nophysician. During the first ten years of my residence here, no physicianentered my house; and, not till the number of my pupils was very muchincreased, and I grew anxious not to overlook any thing in regard tothem, did I begin to seek at all for medical advice. "It is the mode of treating the young men here, which is the cause oftheir superior health; and this is the reason why death has not yetentered our doors. Should we ever deviate from our presentprinciples--should we approach nearer the mode of living common inwealthy families--we should soon be obliged to establish, in ourinstitution, as it is in others, medicine closets and nurseries. Insteadof the freshness which now adorns the cheeks of our youth, palenesswould appear, and our church-yards would contain the tombs of promisingyoung men, who, in the bloom of their years, had fallen victims todisease. " THE AMERICAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. This association was formed in 1837. When first formed, it consisted ofone hundred and twenty-four males, and forty-one females; in all, onehundred and sixty-five. Their number soon increased to more than twohundred. Most of these individuals were more or less feeble, and a very largeproportion of them were actually suffering from chronic disease whenthey became members of the society. Not a few joined it, indeed, as alast resort, after having tried every thing else, as drowning men aresaid to catch at straws. Nearly if not quite all the members of this society, as well as most oftheir families, abstained for a time from animal food. Some of them evenadopted the vegetable system a year or so earlier. And there were a fewwho adopted it much sooner--one or two of them eight years earlier. Of the individuals belonging to the Physiological Society or to theirfamilies, and adhering to the same principles, two adults only died, and one child, during the first two years. I will not be quite positive, but there were four in all, two adults, and two children; but this wasthe extent of mortality among them for about fifteen months. The whole number of those who belonged to the society, with thosemembers of their families who adhered to their principles (estimatingfamilies, as is usually done, at five members to each), is believed tohave been from three hundred and twenty to three hundred and fifty. Theaverage mortality for the same number of healthy persons, during thesame period, in Boston and the adjacent places, was about six or seven;though in some places it was much greater. In a single parish inRoxbury--and without any remarkable sickness--the mortality, for thesame number of persons, was equal to ten or twelve. Now, we must not forget, what I have already stated, that this societyof vegetable-eaters--the two hundred adults, I mean--were generallyinvalids, and some of them given over by physicians. Instead, therefore, of only half the usual proportion of deaths among them, we mightnaturally enough have expected twice or three times the usual number. And this expectation would have appeared still better founded when itwas considered that many made the change in their habits, and especiallyin their diet, very suddenly. But the whole story is not yet told. Not only was the number of deathsvery small, as above stated, but there were a great number of remarkablerecoveries. Some, who had very obstinate complaints, appeared, for atime, to be entirely well. Others were getting well as fast as could beexpected. Some, who were broken down and prematurely old, seemed torenew their youth. Many became free from colds and eruptive complaints, to which they were formerly subject. And those who had acute diseases, of whom, however, the number was very small, did not suffer so much asis usually the case with flesh-eaters in circumstances otherwiseapparently similar. But a reverse at length came. They were led into their abstemious courseby mere impulse in very many cases, and though a library was formed andmeetings held, nobody, hardly, would read, and the meetings grew thin. They had no Joe Smith or Gen. Taylor to lead them--and mankind withoutleaders and without deep-toned principle, soon grow tired of war. Fewwill fight in such circumstances. CHAPTER VIII. VEGETABLE DIET DEFENDED. General Remarks on the Nature of the Argument--1. The Anatomical Argument. --2. The Physiological Argument. --3. The Medical Argument. --4. The Political Argument. --5. The Economical Argument. --6. The Argument from Experience. --7. The Moral Argument. --Conclusion. In the progress of a work like this, it may not be amiss to present, ina very brief manner, the general arguments in defence of a dietexclusively vegetable. Some of them have, indeed, already been advertedto in the testimony of the preceding chapters; but not all. Besides, itseemed to me desirable to collect the whole in a general view. There are various ways of doing this, according to the different aspectsin which the subject is viewed. Every one has his own point ofobservation. I have mine. Conformably to the view I have taken, therefore, I shall endeavor to arrange my remarks under the ninefollowing heads, viz. , the ANATOMICAL, the PHYSIOLOGICAL, the MEDICAL, the POLITICAL, the ECONOMICAL, the EXPERIMENTAL, the MORAL, theMILLENNIAL, and the BIBLE ARGUMENTS. Dr. Cheyne relied principally on what I have called the medicalargument--though what I mean by this may not be quite obvious, till Ishall have presented it in its proper place. Not that he whollyoverlooked any thing else; but this, as it seems to me, was with him thegrand point. Nearly the same might be said of Dr. Lambe, and of severalothers. Dr. Mussey seems to place the anatomical and physiological arguments inthe foreground. It is true he makes much use of the medical and themoral arguments; but the former appear to be his favorites. Dr. Whitlaw, and some others, incline to make the moral and political arguments moreprominent. Mr. Graham, who has probably done more to reduce the subjectof vegetable dietetics to a _system_ than any other individual, --thoughhe makes much use of _all_ the rest, especially the moral andmedical, --appears to dwell with most interest on the physiologicalargument. This seems to be, with him, the strong-hold--the grandcitadel. And it must be confessed that the point of defence is verystrong indeed, as we shall see in the sequel. If I have a favorite, with the rest, it is the moral argument, orperhaps a combination of this with the economical. But then I dwell onthe latter with so much interest, chiefly on account of the former. Iwould give very little to be able to bring the world of mankind back tonature's true simplicity, if it were only to make them better and moreperfect animals; though I know not but an attempt of this sort would beas truly laudable as the attempt so often made to improve the breed ofour domestic animals. I suppose man, considered as a mere animal, issuperior, in point of importance to all the others. But, after all, Iwould reform his dietetic habits principally to make him better, morally; to make him better, in the discharge of his varied duties tohis fellow-beings and to God. I would elevate him, that he may become astruly god-like, or godly as he now too often is, by his unnaturalhabits, earthly or beastly. I would render him a rational being, fittedto fill the space which he appears to have been originally designed tofill--the gap in the great chain of being between the higher quadrupedsand the beings we are accustomed to regard as angelic. I would restorehim to his true dignity. I would make him a child of God, and an _heir_of a glorious immortality. But I now proceed to the discussion of the subject which I have assignedto this chapter. I. THE ANATOMICAL ARGUMENT. There has been a time when the teeth and intestines of man were supposedto indicate the necessity of a mixed diet--a diet partly animal andpartly vegetable. Four out of thirty-two teeth were found to resembleslightly, the teeth of carnivorous animals. In like manner, the lengthof the intestinal tube was thought to be midway between that of theflesh-eating, and that of the herb-eating quadrupeds. But, unfortunatelyfor this mode of defending an animal diet, it has been found out thatthe fruit and vegetable-eating monkey race, and the herb-eating camel, have the said four-pointed teeth much more pointed than those of man andthat the intestines, compared with the real length of the body, insteadof assigning to man a middle position, would place him among theherbivorous animals. In short--for I certainly need not dwell on thispart of my subject, after having adduced so fully the views of Prof. Lawrence and Baron Cuvier--there is no intelligent naturalist orcomparative anatomist, at present, who attempts to resort for one momentto man's structure, in support of the hypothesis that he is aflesh-eater. None, so far as I know, will affirm, or at least with anyshow of reason maintain, that anatomy, so far as that goes, is in favorof flesh eating. We come, then, to another and more important divisionof our subject. II. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. One of the advantages of vegetable-eaters over others, is in thesuperior appetite which they enjoy. There are many flesh-eaters who havewhat they call a good appetite. But I never knew a person of thisdescription, who made the change from a mixed diet to one purelyvegetable, who did not afterward acknowledge that he never once knew, while he was an eater of animal food, a truly perfect appetite. Thistestimony in favor of vegetable diet is positive; whereas that of themultitude, who have never made the change I speak of, but who aretherefore the more ready to laugh at the conclusions, is merelynegative. A person of perfect appetite can eat at all times, and under allcircumstances. He can eat of one thing or another, and in greater orless quantity. Were there no objections to it, he could make an entiremeal of the coarsest and most indigestible substances; or, he could eatten or fifteen times a day; or, he could eat a quantity at once whichwould astonish even a Siberian; or, on the contrary, he could abstainfrom food entirely, for a short time; and any of these without seriousinconvenience. He would, indeed, feel a slight want of something (in thecase of total abstinence), when the usual hour arrived for taking ameal; but the sensation is not an abiding one; when the hour has passedby, it entirely disappears. Nor is there ever, at least for a day or twoof abstinence, that gnawing at the stomach, as some express it, which isso often felt by the flesh-eater and the devourer of other mixed andinjurious dishes and which is so generally mistaken for true andgenuine hunger. I have said that the vegetable-eater finds no serious inconvenience fromthe quality or quantity of his food; but I mean to speak here of the_immediate_ effects solely. No doubt every error of this sort producesmischief, sooner or later. The more perfect the appetite is, the greatershould be our moral power of commanding it, and of controlling thequality and quantity of our food and drink, as well as the times andseasons of receiving it. These statements, I am aware, are contrary to the received and currentopinion; but that they are true, can be proved, not by one personmerely, --though if that person were to be entirely relied on, hispositive affirmation would outweigh a thousand _negative_testimonies, --but by many hundreds. It is more generally supposed thathe who confines himself to a simple diet, soon brings his stomach intosuch a state that the slightest departure from his usual habits for onceonly, produces serious inconveniences; and this indeed is urged as anargument against simplicity itself. Yet, how strange! How much morenatural to suppose that the more perfect the health of the stomach, thebetter it will bear, for a time, with slight or even serious departuresfrom truth and nature! How much more natural to suppose that perfecthealth is the very best defence against all the causes which tend toinvite or to provoke disease! And what it would be natural to infer, isproved by experience to be strictly true. The thorough-goingvegetable-eater can make a meal for once, or perhaps feed for a day orso, on substances which would almost kill many others; and can do sowith comparative impunity. He can make a whole meal of cheese, cabbage, fried pudding, fried dough-nuts, etc. , etc. ; and if it be not inremarkable excess, he will feel no immediate inconvenience, unless fromthe mental conviction that he must pay the full penalty at some distantday. I repeat it, the appetite of the vegetable-eater, if true to hisprinciples, and temperate in regard to quantity, is always, at allmoments of his life, perfect. To be sure, he is not always _hungry_. Hunger, indeed, as I have already intimated--what most people callhunger, a morbid sensation, or gnawing--is unknown to him. But there isscarce a moment of his life, at least, when he is awake, in which hecould not enjoy the pleasures of eating, even the coarsest viands, witha high relish; provided, however, he knew it was _proper_ for him toeat. Nor is his appetite fickle, demanding this or that particulararticle, and disconcerted if it cannot be obtained. It is satisfied withany thing to which the judgment directs; and though gratified, in a highdegree, with dainties, when nothing better and more wholesome cannot beobtained, never demanding them in a peremptory manner. The vegetable-eater has a more quiet, happy, and perfect digestion thanthe flesh-eater. On this point there has been much mistake, even amongphysiologists. Richerand and many others suppose that a degree ofconstitutional disturbance is indispensable during the process ofdigestion; and some have even said that the system was subjected atevery meal--nay, at every healthy meal--to a species of miniature fever. The remarks of Richerand are as follows. I have slightly abridged them, but have not altered the sense: "While the alimentary solution is going on, a slight shivering is felt;the pulse becomes quicker and more contracted; the vital power seems toforsake the other organs, to concentrate itself on that which is theseat of the digestive process. As the stomach empties itself, theshivering is followed by a gentle warmth; the pulse increases infullness and frequency; and the insensible perspiration is augmented. Digestion brings on, therefore, a general action, analogous to a febrileparoxysm. " And what is it, indeed, _but_ a febrile paroxysm? Nay, Richerand himselfconfirms this by adding, "this fever of digestion, noticed already bythe ancients, is particularly observable in women of great sensibility. "That is, the fever is more violent in proportion to the want of power inthe person it attacks to resist its influence; just as it is with feverin all other circumstances, or when induced by any other causes. But, can any one believe the Author of Nature has so made us, that in asteady and rational obedience to his laws, it is indispensable that weshould be thrown into a fever three times a day, one thousand andninety-five times in a year, and seventy-six thousand six hundred andfifty in seventy years? No wonder, if this were true, that the vitalityof our organs was ordained to wear out soon; for we see by what meansthe result would be accomplished. The fever, however, of which Richerand speaks, does very generallyexist, because mankind very generally depart from nature and her laws. But it is not necessary. The simple vegetable-eater--if he lives rightin all other respects--if he errs not as to quantity, knows nothing ofit; nor should it be known by any body. We should leave it to theanimals below man to err, in quantity and quality, to an excess whichconstitutes a surfeit or a fever, and causes fullness and drowsiness, and a recumbent posture. The self-styled lord of the animal world shouldrise superior to habits which have marked, in every age, certain ordersof the lower animals. But the chyle which is produced from vegetable aliment is better--allother things being equal--than that which is produced from any otherfood. For proof of this, we need but the testimony of Oliver and otherphysiologists. They tell us, unhesitatingly, that under the samecircumstances, chyle which is formed from vegetables will be preservedfrom putrefaction many days longer--the consequence of greater purityand a more perfect vitality--than that which is formed from anyadmixture of animal food. Is it not, then, better for the purposes ofhealth and longevity? Can it, indeed, be otherwise? I will say nothingat present, for want of space to devote to it, of the indications whichare afforded by the other sensible properties of the chyle which isproduced from vegetables. The single fact I have presented is enough onthat point. The best solids and fluids are produced by vegetable eating. On thissingle topic a volume might be written, without exhausting it, while Imust confine myself to a page or two. In the first place, it forms better bones and more solid muscles, andconsequently gives to the frame greater solidity and strength. Compare, in evidence of the truth of this statement, the vegetable-eatingmillions of middle and southern Europe, with the other millions, who, supposed to be more fortunate, can get a little flesh or fish once aday. Especially, make this comparison in Ireland, where the vegetablefood selected is far from being of the first or best order; and whosesight is so obtuse as not to perceive the difference? I do not say, compare the enervated inhabitant of a hot climate, as Spain or Italy, with the inhabitant of England, or Scotland, or Russia, for that wouldbe an unfair comparison, wholly so; but compare Italian with Italian, Frenchman with Frenchman, German with German, Scotchman with Scotchman, and Hibernian with Hibernian. In like manner, compare the millions of Japanese of the interior, whosubsist through life chiefly on rice, with the few millions of thecoasts who eat a little fish with their rice. Make a similar comparisonin China and in Hindostan. Notice, in particular, the puny Chinese, wholive in southern China, on quite a large proportion of shell-fish, compared with the Chinese of the interior. Extend your observations toHindostan. Do not talk of the effeminate habits and weak constitutionsof the rice and curry eaters there--bad as the admixture of rice andcurry may be--for that is to compare the Hindoo with other nations; butcompare Hindoo with Hindoo, which is the only fair way. Compare theporters of the Mediterranean, both of Asia and Europe, who feed on breadand figs, and carry weights to the extent of eight hundred or onethousand pounds, with the porters who eat flesh, fish, and oil. CompareAfrican with African, American Indian with American Indian; nay, evenNew Englander with New Englander; for we have a few here who are trainedto vegetable eating. In short, go where you will, and institute a faircomparison, and the results will be, without a single exception, infavor of a diet exclusively vegetable. It is necessary, however, inmaking the comparison, to place _good_ vegetable food in opposition togood animal food; for no one will pretend that a diet of crude, miserable, or imperfect, or sickly vegetables will be as wholesome asone consisting of rich farinaceous articles and fruits; nor even as manykinds of plain meat. The only instance which, on a proper comparison, will probably beadduced to prove the incorrectness of these views, will be that of a fewtribes of American Indians, who, though they have extremely robustbodies, are eaters of much flesh. But they live also in the open air, and have many other good habits, and are healthy in spite of theinferiority of their diet. But perfect, physically, as they seem to be, and probably are, examine the vegetable-eaters among them, of the sametribe, and they will be found still more so. In the next place, the fluids are all in a better and more healthystate. In proof of this, I might mention in the first place thatsuperior agility, ease of motion, speed, and power of endurance which sodistinguish vegetable-eaters, wherever a fair comparison is instituted. They possess a suppleness like that of youth, even long after what iscalled the juvenile period of life is passed over. They are often seenrunning and jumping, unless restrained by the arbitrary customs ofsociety, in very advanced age. Their wounds heal with astonishingrapidity in as many days as weeks, or even months, in the latter case. All this could not happen, were there not a good state of the fluids ofthe system conjoined, to a happy state of the solids. The vegetable-eater, if temperate in the use of his vegetables, and ifall his other habits are good, will endure, better than the flesh-eater, the extremes of heat and cold. This power of endurance has ever beenallowed to be a sure sign of a good state of health. The most vigorousman, as it is well known, will endure best both extremes of temperature. But it is a proof also of the greater purity of his solids and fluids. The secretions and excretions of his body are in a better state; andthis, again, proves that his blood and other fluids are healthy. He doesnot so readily perspire excessively as other men, neither is there anywant of free and easy perspiration. Profuse sweating on every triflingexertion of the body or mind, is as much a disease as an habitually dryskin. But the vegetable-eater escapes both of these extremes. Thesaliva, the tears, the milk, the gastric juice, the bile, and the othersecretions and excretions--particularly the dejections--are as theyshould be. Nay, the very exhalations of the lungs are purer, as isobvious from the breath. That of a vegetable-eater is perfectly sweet, while that of a flesh-eater is often as offensive as the smell of acharnel-house. This distinction is discernible even among the bruteanimals. Those which feed on grass, grain, etc. , have a breathincomparably sweeter than those which prey on animals. Compare thecamel, and horse, and cow, and sheep, and rabbit, with the tiger (if youchoose to approach him), the wolf, the dog, the cat, and the hawk. Onecomparison will be sufficient; you will never forget it. But there is asmuch difference between the odor of the breath of a flesh-eating humanbeing and a vegetable-eater, as between those of the dog and the lamb. This, however, is a secret to all but vegetable-eaters themselves, sincenone but they are so situated as to be able to make the comparison. But, betake yourself to mealy vegetables and fruits a few years, and livetemperately on them, and then you will perceive the difference, especially in riding in a stage-coach. This, I confess, is rather adraw-back upon the felicity of vegetable-eaters; but it is someconsolation to know what a mass of corruption we ourselves have escaped. There is one more secretion to which I wish to direct your attention, which is, the fat or oil. The man who lives rightly, and rejects animalfood among the rest, will never be overburdened with fat. He willneither be too corpulent nor too lean. Both these conditions areconditions of disease, though, as a general rule, corpulence is most tobe dreaded; it is, at least, the most disgusting. Fat, I repeat it, is asecretion. The cells in which it is deposited serve for relieving thesystem of many of the crudities and abuses, not to say poisons, whichare poured into it--cheated; as it were, in some degree into the blood, secreted into the fat cells, and buried in the fat to be out of the way, and where they can do but little mischief. Yet, even here they are notwholly harmless. The fat man is almost always more exposed to disease, and to _severe_ epidemic disease in particular, than the lean man. Letus leave it to the swine and other kindred quadrupeds, to dispose ofgross half poisonous matter, by converting it into, or burying it infat; let us employ our vital forces and energies in something better. Above all, let us not descend to swallow, as many have been inclined todo, besides the ancient Israelites, this gross secretion, and reduceourselves to the painful necessity of carrying about, from day to day, ahuge mass of double-refined disease, pillaged from the foulest andfilthiest of animals. Vegetable-eaters--especially if they avoid condiments, as well as fleshand fish--are not apt to be thirsty. It is a common opinion among thelaboring portion of the community, that they who perspire freely, mustdrink freely. And yet I have known one or two hard laborers who wereaccustomed to sweat profusely and freely, who hardly ever drank anything, except a little tea or milk at their meals, and yet wereremarkably strong and healthy, and attained to a great age. One of thisdescription (Frederick Lord, of Hartford, Conn. ), lived to about the ageof eighty-five. How the system is supplied, in such cases, with fluid, Ido not know; but I know it is not necessary to drink perpetually for thepurpose; for if but one healthy man can dispense with drinking, othersmay. The truth is, we seldom drink from real thirst. We drink chieflyeither from habit, or because we have created a morbid or diseasedthirst by improper food or drink, among which animal food is prettyconspicuous. I have intimated that, in order to escape thirst, the vegetable-eatermust abstain also from condiments. This he will be apt to do. It is hewho eats flesh and fish, and drinks something besides water, who feelssuch an imperious necessity for condiments. The vegetable and milkeater, and water-drinker, do not need them. It is in this view, that the vegetable system lies at the foundation ofall reform in the matter of temperance. So long as the use of animalfood is undisturbed and its lawfulness unquestioned, all our efforts toheal the maladies of society are superficial. The wound is not yetprobed to the bottom. But, renounce animal food, restore us to ourproper condition, and feed us on milk and farinaceous articles, and ourfondness for excitement and our hankering for exciting drinks andcondiments will, in a few generations, die away. Animal food is a rootof all evil, so far as temperance is concerned, in its most popular andrestricted sense. The pure vegetable-eaters, especially those who are trained as such, seldom drink at all. Some use a little water with their meals, and a fewdrink occasionally between them, especially if they labor much in theopen air, and perspire freely. Some taste nothing in the form of drinkfor months, unless we call the abundant juices of apples and otherfruits, and milk, etc. , by that name--of which, by the way, they areexceedingly fond. The reason is, they are seldom thirsty. Dr. Lambe, ofLondon, doubts whether man is naturally a drinking animal; but I do notcarry the matter so far. Still I believe that ninety-nine hundredths ofthe drink which is used, _as_ now used, does more harm than good. He who avoids flesh and fish, escapes much of that languor andfaintness, at particular hours, which others feel. He has usually aclear and quiet head in the morning. He is ready, and willing, and gladto rise in due season; and his morning feelings are apt to last all day. He has none of that faintness between his meals which many have, andwhich tempts thousands to luncheons, drams, tobacco, snuff, and opium, and ultimately destroys so much health and life. The truth is, thatvegetable food is not only more quiet and unstimulating than any other, but it holds out longer also. I know the contrary of this is the generalbelief; but it is not well founded. Animal food stimulates most, and asthe stimulus goes off soon, we are liable to feel dull after it, and tofancy we need the stimulus of drink or something else to keep us up tillthe arrival of another meal. And, having acquired a habit of relying onour food to stimulate us immediately, much more than to give us real, lasting, permanent strength, it is no wonder we feel, for a time, afaintness if we discontinue its use. This only shows the power of habit, and the over-stimulating character of our accustomed food. Nor does thesimple vegetable-eater suffer, during the spring, as other people saythey do. All is cheerful and happy with him, even then. Nor, lastly, ishe subject to hypochondria or depression of spirits. He is always livelyand cheerful; and all with him is bright and happy. As it has beenexpressed elsewhere, with the truly temperate man it is "morning allday. " The system of diet in question, greatly improves, exalts, and perfectsthe senses. The sight, smell, and taste are rendered greatly superior byit. The difference in favor of the hearing and the touch may not be soobvious; nevertheless, it is believed to be considerable. But the changein the other senses--the first three which I have named--even when wereform as late as at thirty-five or forty, is wonderful. I do not wishto encourage, by this, a delay of the work of reformation; we can neverbegin it too early. Vegetable diet favors beauty of form and feature. The forms of thenatives of some of the South Sea Islands, to say nothing of theirfeatures, are exceedingly fine. They are tall and well proportioned. Soit is with the Japanese and Chinese, especially of the interior, wherethey subsist almost wholly on rice and fruits. The Japanese are thefinest men, physically speaking, in Asia. The New Hollanders, on thecontrary, who live almost wholly on flesh and fish, are among the mostmeagre and ugly of the human race, if we except the flesh-eating savagesof the north, and the Greenlanders and Laplanders. In short, theprinciple I have here advanced will hold, as a _general rule_, Ibelieve, other things being equal, throughout the world. If it be askedwhether I would exalt beauty and symmetry into virtues, I will only saythat they are not without their use in a virtuous people; and I lookforward to a period in the world's history, when all will becomparatively well formed and beautiful. Beauty is exceedinglyinfluential, as every one must have observed who has been long in theworld; at least, if he has had his eyes open. And it is probably rightthat it should be so. Our beauty is almost as much within our control, as a race, as our conduct. A vegetable diet, moreover, promotes and preserves a clearness and agenerally healthful state of the mental faculties. I believe that muchof the moral as well as intellectual error in the world, arises from astate of mind which is produced by the introduction of improper liquidsand solids into the stomach, or, at least, by their application to thenervous system. Be this as it may, however, there is nothing better forthe brain than a temperate diet of well-selected vegetables, with waterfor drink. This Sir Isaac Newton and hundreds of others could abundantlyattest. It also favors an evenness and tranquillity of temper, which is ofalmost infinite value. The most fiery and vindictive have been enabled, by this means, when all other means had failed, to transform themselvesinto rational beings, and to become, in this very respect, patterns tothose around them. If this were its only advantage, in a physiologicalpoint of view, it would be of more value than worlds. It favors, too, simplicity of character. It makes us, in the language of the Bible, toremain, or to become, as little children, and it preserves our juvenilecharacter and habits through life, and gives us a green old age. Finally and lastly, it gives us an independence of external things andcircumstances, that can never be attained without it. In vain may weresort to early discipline and correct education--in vain to moral andreligious training--in vain, I had almost said, to the promises andthreatenings of heaven itself, so long as we continue the use of food sounnatural to man as the flesh of animals, with the condiments andsauces, and improper drinks which follow in its train. Our hope, underGod, is, in no small degree, on a radical change in man's dietetichabits--in a return to that simple path of truth and nature, from which, in most civilized countries, those who have the pecuniary means of doingit have unwisely departed. III. THE MEDICAL ARGUMENT. If perfect health is the best preventive and security against disease, and if a well-selected and properly administered vegetable diet is bestcalculated to promote and preserve that perfect health, then this partof the subject--what I have ventured to call the medical argument--is atonce disposed of. The superiority of the diet I recommend is establishedbeyond the possibility of debate. Now that this is the case--namely, that this diet is best calculated to promote perfect health--I have nodoubt. For the sake of others, however, it may be well to adduce a fewfacts, and present a few brief considerations. It is now pretty generally known, that Howard, the philanthropist, was, for about forty years a vegetable-eater, subsisting for much of thistime on bread and tea, and that he went through every form of exposureto disease, contagious and non-contagious, perfectly unharmed. And hadit not been for other physical errors than those which pertain to diet, I know of no reason why his life might not have been preserved manyyears longer--perhaps to this time. Rev. Josiah Brewer, late a missionary in Smyrna, was very much exposedto disease, and, like Mr. Howard, to the plague itself; and yet I am notaware that he ever had a single sick day as the consequence of hisexposure. I do not know with certainty that he abstains entirely fromflesh meat, but he is said to be rigidly temperate in other respects. Those who have read Rush's Inquiries and other writings, are aware thathe was very much exposed to the yellow fever in Philadelphia, during theyears in which it prevailed there. Now, there is great reason forbelieving that he owed his exemption from the disease, in part, atleast, to his great temperance. Mr. James, a teacher in Liberia, in Africa, had abstained for a fewyears from animal food, prior to his going out to Africa. Immediatelyafter his arrival there, and during the sickly season, one of hiscompanions who went out with him, died of the fever. Mr. James wasattacked slightly, but recovered. Another vegetable-eater--the Rev. Mr. Crocker--went out to a sickly partof Africa some years since, and remained at his station a long time inperfect health, while many of his friends sickened or died. At length, however, he fell. Gen. Thomas Sheldon, of this state, a vegetable-eater, spent severalyears in the most sickly parts of the Southern United States, with anentire immunity from disease; and he gives it as his opinion that it isno matter where we are, so that our dietetic and other habits arecorrect. Mr. G. McElroy, of Kentucky, spent several months of the most sicklyseason in the most unhealthy parts of Africa, in the year 1835, and yetenjoyed the best of health the whole time. While there and on hispassage home, he abstained wholly from animal food, living on rice andother farinaceous vegetables and fruits. In view of these facts and many others, Mr. Graham remarks: "Under aproper regimen our enterprising young men of New England may go to NewOrleans or Liberia, or any where else they choose, and stay as long asthey choose, and yet enjoy good health. " And there is no doubt he isright. But it is hardly worth while to cite single facts in proof of a point ofthis kind. There is abundant testimony to be had, going to show that avegetable diet is a security against disease, especially againstepidemics, whether in the form of a mere influenza or malignant fever. Nay, there is reason to believe that a person living according to _all_the Creator's laws, physical and moral, could hardly receive orcommunicate disease of any kind. How could a person in perfect health, and obeying to an iota all the laws of health--how could he contractdisease? What would there be in his system which could furnish a nidusfor its reception? I am well aware that not a few people suppose the most healthy are asmuch exposed to disease as others, and that there are some who evensuppose they are much more so. "Death delights in a shining mark, " orsomething to this effect, is a maxim which has probably had its originin the error to which I have adverted. To the same source may be tracedthe strange opinion that a fatal or malignant disease makes its firstand most desperate attacks upon the healthy and the robust. The factis--and this explains the whole riddle--those who are regarded, by thesuperficial and short-sighted in this matter, as the most healthy androbust, are usually persons whose unhealthy habits have already sown theseeds of disease; and nothing is wanting but the usual circumstances ofepidemics to rouse them into action. More than all this, thesestrong-looking but inwardly-diseased persons are almost sure to diewhenever disease does attack them, simply on account of the previousabuses of their constitutions. During the prevalence of the cholera in New York, about the year 1832, all the Grahamites, as they were called, who had for some time abstainedfrom animal food--and their number was quite respectable--and whopersevered in it, either wholly escaped the disease, or had it verylightly; and this, too, notwithstanding a large proportion of them werevery much exposed to its attacks, living in the parts of the city whereit most prevailed, or in families where others were dying almost daily. This could not be the result of mere accident; it is morally impossible. But flesh-eaters--admitting the flesh were wholesome--are not only muchmore liable to contract disease, but if they contract it, to suffer moreseverely than others. There is yet another important consideration whichbelongs to the medical argument. Animal food is much more liable thanvegetable food, to those changes or conditions which we call poisonous, and which are always, in a greater or less degree, the sources ofdisease; it is also more liable to poisonous mixtures or adulterations. It is true, that in the present state of the arts, and of agricultureand civic life generally, vegetables themselves are sometimes thesources of disease. I refer not to the spurred rye and other substances, which occasionally find their way into our fields and get mixed with ourgrains, etc. , and which are known to be very active poisons, --so much asto the acrid or otherwise improper juices which are formed by forcedvegetation, especially about cities, whether by means of hot-beds, green-houses, or new, strong, or highly-concentrated manures. I referalso to the crude, unripe, and imperfect fruits and other things withwhich our markets are filed now-a-days; and especially to _decaying_fruits and vegetables. But I cannot enlarge; a volume would be toolittle to do this part of the subject justice. Nothing is more wantedthan light on this subject, and a consequent reform in our fashionableagriculture and horticulture. And yet, although I admit, most cheerfully, the danger we are in ofcontracting disease by using diseased vegetables, the danger is neitherso frequent nor so imminent, in proportion to the quantity of itconsumed, as from animal food. Let us briefly take a view of the facts. Milk, in its nature, approaches nearest to the line of the vegetablekingdom, and is therefore, in my view, the least objectionable form ofanimal food. I am even ready to admit that for persons affected withcertain forms of chronic disease, and for all children, milk isexcellent. And yet, excellent as it is, it is very liable to beinjurious. We are told, by the most respectable medical men of France, that all the cows about Paris have tubercles (the seeds or beginning ofconsumption) in their lungs which is probably owing to the unnaturalstate in which they are kept, as regards the kind, and quantity, andhours of receiving their food; and especially as regards air, exercise, and water. Cows cannot be healthy, nor any other domestic animals, anymore than men, when long subjected to the unnatural and unhealthyinfluences of bad air, want of exercise, etc. Hence, then, most of ourcows about our towns and cities must be diseased, in a greater or lessdegree--if not with consumption, with something else. And of coursetheir milk must be diseased--not, perhaps, as much as their blood andflesh, but more or less so. But if milk is diseased, the butter andcheese made from it must be diseased also. But milk is sometimes diseased through the vegetables which are eaten bythe cow. Every one knows how readily the sensible properties of certainacrid plants are perceived in the milk. Hence as I have elsewhereintimated, we are doubly exposed to danger from eating animal food;first, from the diseases of the animal itself, and secondly, from thediseases which are liable to be induced upon us by the vegetables theyuse, some of which are not poisonous to them, but are so to us. So that, in avoiding animal food, we escape at least a part of the danger. Besides the general fact, that almost all medical and dietetic writersobject to fat, and to butter among the rest, as difficult of digestionand tending to cutaneous and other diseases, --and besides the generaladmission in society at large that it makes the skin "break out, "--itmust be obvious that it is liable to retain, in a greater or lessdegree, all the poisonous properties which existed in the milk fromwhich it was made. Next to fat pork, butter seems to me one of the worstthings that ever entered a human stomach; and if it will not, like pork, quite cause the leprosy, it will cause almost every other skin diseasewhich is known. Cheese is often poisoned now-a-days by design. I do not mean to say thatthe act of poisoning is accompanied by malice toward mankind; far fromit. It is added to color it, as in the form of anatto; or to give itfreshness and tenderness, as in the case of arsenic. [21] Eggs, when not fresh, are more or less liable to disease. I might evensay more. When not fresh, they _are_ diseased. On this point we have thetestimony of Drs. Willich and Dunglison. The truth is, that the yolk ofthe egg has a strong tendency to decomposition, and this decomposing orputrefying process _begins_ long before it is perceived, or evensuspected, by most people. There is much reason for believing that alarge proportion of the eggs eaten in civic life, --except when we keepthe poultry ourselves, --are, when used, more or less in a state ofdecomposition. And yet, into how many hundred forms of food do theyenter in fashionable life, or in truth, in almost every condition ofsociety! The French cooks are said to have six hundred and eighty-fivemethods of cooking the egg, including all the various sorts of pastry, etc. , of which it forms a component part. One of the grand objections against animal food, of almost all sorts, is, that it tends with such comparative rapidity to decomposition. Suchis at least the case with eggs, flesh, and fish of every kind. The usualway of preventing the decomposition is by processes scarcely lesshurtful--by the addition of salt, pyroligneous acid, saltpetre, lime, etc. These, to be sure, prevent putrefaction; but they render everything to which they are applied, unless it is the egg, the moreindigestible. It is a strange taste in mankind, by the way, which leads them to preferthings in a state of incipient decomposition. And yet such a tastecertainly prevails widely. Many like the flesh beaten; hence the originof the cruel practice of the East of whipping animals to death. [22] Andmost persons like fresh meat kept till it begins to be _tender_; thatis, begins to putrefy. So most persons like fermented beer better thanthat which is unfermented, although fermentation is a step towardputrefaction; and they like vinegar, too, which is also far advanced inthe same road. That diseased food causes diseases in the persons who use it, needs not, one would think, a single testimony; and yet, I will name a few. Dr. Paris, speaking of fish, says, --"It is not improbable that certaincutaneous diseases may be produced, or at least aggravated by suchdiet. " Dr. Dunglison says, bacon and cured meats are often poisonous. Hespeaks of the poisonous tendency of eggs, and says that all _made_dishes are more or less "rebellious. " In Aurillac, in France, not manyyears since, fifteen or sixteen persons were attacked with symptoms ofcholera after eating the milk of a certain goat. The goat died withcholera about twenty-four hours after, and two men, no less eminentthan Professors Orfila and Marc, gave it as their undoubted opinion thatthe cholera symptoms alluded to, were caused by the milk. I have myselfknown oysters at certain times and seasons to produce the same symptoms. During the progress of a mortal disease among the poultry on EdistoIsland, S. C. , in 1837, all the dogs and vultures that tasted of theflesh of the dead poultry sickened and died. Chrisiston mentions aninstance in which five persons were poisoned by eating beef; andDunglison one in which fourteen persons were made sick, and some died, from eating the meat of a calf. Between the years 1793 and 1827, it ison record that there were in the kingdom of Wurtemberg alone, no lessthan two hundred and thirty-four cases of poisoning, and one hundred andten deaths, from eating sausages. But I need not multiply this sort ofevidence, the world abounds with it; though for one person who ispoisoned so much as to be made sick immediately, hundreds perhaps areonly slightly affected; and the punishment may seem to be deferred formany years. The truth, in short, is, that every fashionable process of fattening andeven of domesticating animals, induces disease; and as most of theanimals we use for food are domesticated or fattened, or both, itfollows that most of our animal food, whether milk, butter, cheese, eggs, or flesh, is diseased food, and must inevitably, sooner or later, induce disease in those who receive it. Those which are most fattenedare the worst, of course; as the hog, the goose, the sheep, and the ox. The more the animal is removed from a natural state, in fattening, themore does the fat accumulate, and the more it is diseased. Hence thecomplaints against every form of animal oil or fat, in every age, bymen who, notwithstanding their complaints, for the most part, continueto set mankind an example of its use. Let me here introduce a single paragraph from Dr. Cheyne, which is verymuch to my present purpose. "About London, we can scarce have any but crammed poultry or stall-fedbutchers' meat. It were sufficient to disgust the stoutest stomach tosee the foul, gross, and nasty manner in which, and the fetid, putrid, and unwholesome materials _with_ which they are fed. Perpetual foulnessand cramming, gross food and nastiness, we know, will putrefy thejuices, and corrupt the muscular substance of human creatures--and surethey can do no less in brute animals--and thus make our food poison. Thesame may be said of hot-beds, and forcing plants and vegetables. Theonly way of having sound and healthful animals, is to leave them totheir own natural liberty in the free air, and their own proper element, with plenty of food and due cleanliness; and a shelter from the injuriesof the weather, whenever they have a mind to retire to it. " The argument then is, that, for healthy adults at least, a well-selectedvegetable diet, other things being equal, is a preventive of disease, and a security against its violence, should it attack us, in a fargreater degree than a diet which includes animal food in any of itsnumerous forms. It will either prevent the common diseases of childhood, including those which are deemed contagious, or render their attacksextremely mild: it will either prevent or mitigate the symptoms of thesevere diseases of adults, not excepting malignant fevers, small-pox, plague, etc. ; and it will either prevent such diseases as cancer, gout, epilepsy, scrofula, and consumption, or prolong life under them. Who that has ever thought of the condition of our domestic animals, especially about towns and cities--their want of good air, abundantexercise, good water, and natural food, to say nothing of the butter-cupand the other poisonous products of over-stimulating or fresh manureswhich they sometimes eat--has not been astonished to find so littledisease among us as there actually is? Animal food, in its best state, is a great deal more stimulating and heating to the system thanvegetable food;--but how much more injurious is it made, in thecircumstances in which most animals are placed? Do we believe that evena New Zealand cannibal would willingly eat flesh, if he knew it was froman animal that when killed was laboring under a load of liver complaint, gout, consumption, or fever? And yet, such is the condition of most ofthe animals we slay for food. They would often die of their diseases ifwe did not put the knife to their throats to prevent it. One more consideration. If the exclusive use of vegetable food willprevent a multitude of the worst and most incurable diseases to whichhuman nature, in other circumstances, seems liable; if it will modifythe diseases which a mixed diet, or absolute intemperance, or gluttonyhad induced, --by what rule can we limit its influence? How know we thatwhat is so efficacious in regard to the larger diseases, will not beequally so in the case of all smaller ones? And why, then, may not itsuniversal adoption, after a few generations, banish disease entirelyfrom the world? Every person of common observation, knows that, as ageneral rule, they who approach the nearest to a pure vegetable andwater diet, are most exempt from disease, and the longest-lived and mosthappy. How, then, can it otherwise happen than that a still closerapproximation will afford a greater exemption still, and so onindefinitely? At what point of an approach toward such diet and regimen, and toward perfect health at the same time, is it that we stop, and moretemperance still will injure us? In short, where do we cross the line? IV. THE POLITICAL ARGUMENT. I have dwelt at such length on the physiological and medical argumentsin defence of the vegetable system, that I must compress my remainingviews into the smallest space possible; especially those which relate toits political, national, or general advantages. Political economists tell us that the produce of an acre of land inwheat, corn, potatoes, and other vegetables, and in fruits, will sustainanimal life sixteen times as long as when the produce of the same acreis converted into flesh, by feeding and fattening animals upon it. But, if we admit that this estimate is too high, and if the realdifference is only eight to one, instead of sixteen to one, the resultsmay perhaps surprise us; and if we have not done it before, may lead usto reflection. Let us see what some of them are. The people of the United States are believed to eat, upon the average, an amount of animal food equal at least to one whole meal once a day, and those of Great Britain one in two days. But taking this estimate tobe correct, Great Britain, by substituting vegetable for animal food, might sustain forty-nine instead of twenty-one millions of inhabitants, and the United States sixty-six millions instead of twenty; and this, too, in their present comfort, and without clearing up any more newland. Here, then, we are consuming that unnecessarily--if animal food isunnecessary--which would sustain seventy-nine millions of human beingsin life, health, and happiness. Now, if life is a blessing at all--if it is a blessing to twenty-twomillions in Great Britain, and twenty millions in the UnitedStates--then to add to this population an increase of seventy-ninemillions, would be to increase, in the same proportion, the aggregate ofhuman happiness. And if, in addition to this, we admit the verygenerally received principle, that there is a tendency, from the natureof things, in the population of any country, to keep up with the meansof support, we, of Great Britain and America, keep down, at the presentmoment, by flesh-eating, sixty-three millions of inhabitants. We do not destroy them, in the full sense of the term, it is true, forthey never had an existence. But we prevent their coming into thepossession of a joyous and happy existence; and though we have no namefor it, is it not a crime? What! no crime for thirty-five millions ofpeople to prevent and preclude the existence of sixty-three millions? I see no way of avoiding the force of this argument, except by denyingthe premises on which I have founded my conclusions. But they are farmore easily denied than disproved. The probability, after all, is, thatmy estimates are too low, and that the advantages of an exclusivelyvegetable diet, in a national or political point of view, are evengreater than is here represented. I do not deny, that some deductionought to be made on account of the consumption of fish, which does notprevent the growth or use of vegetable products; but my belief is, that, including them, the animal food we use amounts to a great deal more thanone meal a day, or one third of our whole living. Suppose there was no _crime_ in shutting human beings out of existenceby flesh-eating, at the amazing rate I have mentioned--still, is it not, I repeat it, a great national or political loss? Or, will it be said, inits defence, as has been said in defence of war, if not of intemperanceand some of the forms of licentiousness, that as the world is, it is ablessing to keep down its population, otherwise it would soon beoverstocked? The argument would be as good in one case as in the other;that is, it is not valid in either. The world might be made to sustain, in comfort, even in the present comparatively infant state of the artsand sciences, at least forty or fifty times its present number ofinhabitants. It will be time enough a thousand or two thousand years tocome, to begin to talk about the danger of the world's beingover-peopled; and, above all, to talk about justifying what we know is, in the abstract, very wrong, to prevent a distant imagined evil; one, infact, which may not, and probably will not ever exist. V. THE ECONOMICAL ARGUMENT. The economy of the vegetable system is so intimately connected with itspolitical or national advantages; that is, so depends on, or grows outof them, that I hesitated for some time before I decided to consider itseparately. Whatever is shown clearly to be for the general good policyand well-being of society, cannot be prejudicial to the best interestsof the individuals who compose that society. Still, there are some minorconsiderations that I wish to present under this head, that could notso well have been introduced any where else. There is, indeed, one reason for omitting wholly the consideration ofthe pecuniary advantages of the system which I am attempting to defend. The public, to some extent, at once consider him who adverts to thistopic, as parsimonious or mean. But, conscious as I am of higher objectsin consulting economy than the saving of money, that it may be expendedon things of no more value than the mere indulgence or gratification ofthe appetites or the passions, in a world where there are minds toeducate and souls to save, I have ventured to treat on the subject. It must be obvious, at a single glance, that if the vegetable productsof an acre of land--such as wheat, rye, corn, barley, potatoes, beans, peas, turnips, beets, apples, strawberries, etc. --will sustain a familyin equal health eight times as long as the pork, or beef, or mutton, which the same vegetables would make by feeding them to domesticanimals, it must be just as mistaken a policy for the individual to makethe latter disposition of these products as for a nation to do so. Nations are made of individuals; and, as I have already said, whateveris best, in the end, for the one, must also be the best, as a generalrule, for the other. But who has not been familiar from his very infancy with the maxim, that"a good garden will half support a family?" And who that is at allinformed in regard to the manners and customs of the old world, does notknow that the maxim has been verified there, time immemorial? But again:who has not considered, that if a garden of a given size will halfsupport a family, one twice as large would support it wholly? The truth is, it needs but a very small spot indeed, of good soil, forraising all the necessaries of a family. I think I have shown, inanother work, [23] that five hundred and fifty pounds of Indian or cornmeal, or ten bushels of the corn, properly cooked, will support, or morethan support, an adult individual a year. Four times this amount is avery large allowance for a family of five persons; nay, even three timesis sufficient. But how small a spot of good soil is required for raisingthirty bushels of corn! It is true, no family would wish to be confined a whole year to this onekind of food; nor do I wish to have it so; not that I think any seriousmischiefs would arise as the consequence; but I should prefer, for myown part, a greater variety. But this does not materially alter thecase. Suppose an acre and a half of land were required for theproduction of thirty bushels of corn. Let the cultivator, if he chooses, raise only fifteen bushels of corn, and sow the remainder with barley, or rye, or wheat. Or, if he prefer it, let him plant the one half of thepiece with beans, peas, potatoes, beets, onions, etc. The one half ofthe space devoted to the production of some sort of grain would stillhalf support his family; and it would require more than ordinarygluttony in a family of five persons to consume the produce of the otherhalf, if the crops were but moderately abundant. A quarter of an acre ofit ought to produce, at least, sixty bushels of potatoes; but thisalone, would give such a family about ten pounds of potatoes, or onesixth of a bushel a day, for every day in the year, which is a tolerableallowance of food, without the grain and other vegetables. But suppose a whole family were to live wholly on grain, as corn, oreven wheat, for the year; the whole expenditure would hardly, exceedfifty dollars, in dear places and in the dearest times. Of course, I amspeaking now of expenses for food and drink merely, the latter of whichusually costs nothing, or need not. How small a sum is this to expend inNew York, or Boston, or Philadelphia, in the maintenance of a family!And yet, it is amply sufficient for the vegetable-eater, unless hisfamily live exclusively on wheat bread, or milk, when it might fall alittle short. Of corn, at a dollar a bushel, it would give him eightpounds a day--far more than a family ought to consume, if they atenothing else; and of potatoes, at forty cents a bushel, above twentypounds, or one third of a bushel--more than sufficient for the family ofan Hibernian. Now, let me ask how much beef, or lamb, or pork, or sausages, or eggs, or cheese, this would buy? At ten cents a pound for each, which iscomparatively low, it would buy five hundred pounds; about one pound andsix ounces for the whole family, or four or five ounces each a day. Thiswould be an average amount of nutriment equal to that of about twoounces of grain, or bread of grain, a day, to each individual. In so faras laid out in butter, or chicken, or turkey, at twenty cents a pound, it would give also about two or three ounces a day! Further remarks under this head can hardly be necessary. He whoconsiders the subject in its various aspects, will be likely to see theweight of the argument. There is a wide difference between a systemwhich will give to each member of a family, upon the average, only aboutfour or five ounces of food a day, and one which will give each of themmore than twenty-five ounces a day, each ounce of the latter containingtwice the nutriment of the former, and being much more savory andhealthy at the same time. There is a wide difference, in matters ofeconomy, at least, between ONE and TEN. I will only add, under this head, a few tables. The first is to show thecomparative amount of nutritious matter contained in some of the leadingarticles of human food, both animal and vegetable. It is derived fromthe researches of such men as MM. Percy and Vauquelin, of France, andSir Humphrey Davy, of England. 100 pounds of Wheat contain 85 pounds of nutritious matter. " " Rice " 90 " " " " " Rye " 80 " " " " " Barley " 83 " " " " " Peas " 93 " " " " " Lentils " 94 " " " " " Beans 89 to 92 " " " " " Bread (average) 80 " " " " " Meat (average) 35 " " " " " Potatoes contain 25 " " " " " Beets " 14 " " " " " Carrots 10 to 14 " " " " " Cabbage " 7 " " " " " Greens, turnips 4 to 8 " " Of course, it does not follow that every individual will be able toextract just this amount of nutriment from each article; for, in thisrespect, as well as in others, much will depend on circumstances. The second table is from Mr. James Simpson, of Manchester, England, in asmall work entitled, "The Products of the Vegetable Kingdom versusAnimal Food, " recently published in London. Its facts are derived fromDr. Playfair, Boussingault, and other high authorities. It will be seento refute, entirely, the popular notions concerning the Liebig theory. The truth is, Liebig's views are misunderstood. His views are not somuch opposed to mine as many suppose. Besides, neither he nor I areinfallible. Flesh Heat Ashes forming forming for Solid matter. Water. Principle. Principle. The bones. Potatoes, 28 per ct. 72 per ct. 2 per ct. 25 per ct. 1 per ct. Turnips, 11 " 89 " 1 " 9 " 1 " Barley Meal, 84-1/2 " 15-1/2 " 14 " 68-1/2 " 2 " Beans, 86 " 14 " 31 " 51-1/2 " 3 " Oats, 82 " 18 " 11 " 68 " 3 " Wheat, 85-1/2 " 14-1/2 " 21 " 62 " 2-1/2 " Peas, 84 " 16 " 29 " 51-1/2 " 3-1/2 " Carrots, 13 " 87 " 2 " 10 " 1 " Veal, 25 " 75 " { Beef, 25 " 75 " { 25 Mutton, 25 " 75 " { Lamb, 25 " 75 " { Blood, 20 " 80 " 20 VI. THE ARGUMENT FROM EXPERIENCE. A person trained in the United States or in England--but especially onewho was trained in New England--might very naturally suppose that allthe world were flesh-eaters; and that the person who abstains from anarticle which is at almost every one's table, was quite singular. Hewould, perhaps, suppose there must be something peculiar in hisstructure, to enable him to live without either flesh or fish;particularly, if he were a laborer. Little would he dream--little does aperson who has not had much opportunity for reading, and who has notbeen taught to reflect, and who has never traveled a day's journey fromthe place which gave him birth, even so much as dream--that almost allthe world, or at least almost all the hard-laboring part of it, arevegetable-eaters, and always have been; and that it is only in a fewcomparatively small portions of the civilized and half-civilized world, that the bone and sinew of our race ever eat flesh or fish for any thingmore than as a condiment or seasoning to the rest of their food, or eventaste it at all. And yet such is the fact. It is true, that in a vast majority of cases, as I have alreadyintimated, laborers are vegetable-eaters from necessity: they cannot getflesh. Almost all mankind, as they are usually trained, are fond ofextra stimulants, if they can get them; and whether they are calledsavages or civilized men, will indulge in them more or less, if they areto be had, unless their intellectual and moral natures have been so welldeveloped and cultivated, as to have acquired the ascendency. Spirits, wine, cider, beer, coffee, tea, condiments, tobacco, opium, snuff, fleshmeat, and a thousand other things, which excite, for a time, morepleasurable sensations than water and plain vegetables and fruits, willbe sought with more or less eagerness according to the education whichhas been received, and according to our power of self-government. I have said that most persons are vegetable-eaters from necessity, notfrom choice. There are some tribes in the equatorial regions who seem tobe exceptions to this rule; and yet I am not quite satisfied they areso. Some children, among us, who are trained to a very simple diet, willseem to shrink from tea or coffee, or alcohol, or camphor, and even fromany thing which is much heated, when first presented to them. But, trainthe same children to the ordinary, complex, high-seasoned diet of thiscountry, and it will not take long to find out that they are ready toacquire the habit of relishing the excitement of almost all sorts of_unnaturals_ which can be presented to them. And if there are tribes ofmen who at first refuse flesh meat, I apprehend they do so for the samereasons which lead a child among us, who is trained simply to refuse hotfood and drink, or at least, hot tea and coffee, when the latter arefirst presented to him. Gutzlaff, the Chinese traveler and missionary, has found that theChinese of the interior, who have scarcely ever tasted flesh or fish, soon acquire a wonderful relish for it, just as our children do forspirituous or exciting drinks and drugs, and as savages do for tobaccoand spirits. But he has also made another discovery, which is, thatflesh-eating almost ruins them for labor. Instead of being strong, robust, and active, they soon become lazy, self-indulgent, andeffeminate. This is a specimen--perhaps a tolerably fair one--of thenatural tendency of such food in all ages and countries. Man every wheredoes best, nationally and individually, other things being equal, on awell-chosen diet of vegetables, fruits, and water. In proportion asindividuals or families, or tribes or nations, depart from this--otherthings being equal--in the same proportion do they degeneratephysically, intellectually, and morally. Such a statement may startle some of my New England readers, perhaps, who have never had opportunity to become acquainted with facts as theyare. But can it be successfully controverted? Is it not true, that, witha few exceptions--and those more apparent than real--nations haveflourished, and continued to flourish, in proportion as they haveretained the more natural dietetic habits to which I have alluded; andthat they have been unhappy or short-lived, as nations, in proportion asexciting food and drink have been used? Is it not true, that thoseindividuals, families, tribes, and nations, which have used what I callexcitements, liquid or solid, have been subjected by them to the sameeffects which follow the use of spirits--first, invigoration, andsubsequently decline, and ultimately a loss of strength? Why is it thatthe more wealthy, all over Europe, who get flesh more or less, deteriorate in their families so rapidly? Why is it that every thing is, in this respect, so stationary among the middle classes and the poor? In short--for the case appears to me a plain one--it is the simplehabits of some, whether we speak of nations, families, or individuals, which have preserved the world from going to utter decay. In ancienttimes, the Egyptians, the most enlightened and one of the most enduringof nations, were what might properly be called a vegetable-eatingnation; so were the ancient Persians, in the days of their greatestglory; so the Essenes, among the Jews; so the Romans, as I have saidelsewhere, and the Greeks. If either Moses or Herodotus is to becredited, men lived, in ancient times, about a thousand years. Indeed, empire seems to have departed from among the ancient nations preciselywhen simplicity departed. So it is with nations still. A flesh-eatingnation may retain the supremacy of the world a short time, as severalEuropean and American nations have done; just as the laborer, whosebrain and nerves are stimulated by ardent spirits, may for a timeretain--through the medium of an artificial strength--the ascendencyamong his fellow-laborers; but the triumph of both the nation and theindividual must be short, and the debility which follows proportionable. And if the United States, as a nation, seem to form an exception to thetruth of this remark, it is only because the stage of debility has notyet arrived. Let us be patient, however, for it is not far off. But to come to the specification of facts. The Japanese of the interior, according to some of the British geographers, live principally on riceand fruits--a single handful of rice often forming the basis of theirfrugal meal. Flesh, it is said, they either cannot get, or do not like;and to milk, even, they have the same sort of aversion which most of ushave to blood. It is only a few of them, comparatively, and thoseprincipally who live about the coasts, who ever use either flesh orfish. And yet we have the concurring testimony of all geographers andtravelers, that in their physical and intellectual development, atleast, to say nothing of their moral peculiarities, they are the finestmen in all Asia. In what other country of Asia are schools and earlyeducation in such high reputation as in Japan? Where are the inhabitantsso well formed, so stout made, and so robust? Compare them with thenatives of New Holland, in the same, or nearly the same longitude, andabout as far south of the equator as the Japanese are north of it, andwhat a contrast! The New Hollanders, though eating flesh liberally, arenot only mere savages, but they are among the most meagre and wretchedof the human race. On the contrary, the Japanese, in mind and body, arescarcely behind the middle nations of Europe. Nearly the same remarks will apply to China, and with littlemodification, to Hindostan. In short, the hundreds of millions ofsouthern Asia are, for the most part, vegetable-eaters; and a largeproportion of them live chiefly, if not wholly on rice, though by nomeans the most favorable vegetable for exclusive use. What countrieslike these have maintained their ancient, moral, intellectual, andpolitical landmarks? Grant that they have made but little improvementfrom century to century; it is something not to have deteriorated. Letus proceed with our general view of the world, ancient and modern. The Jews of Palestine, two thousand years ago, lived chiefly onvegetable food. Flesh, of certain kinds, was indeed admissible, by theirlaw; but, except at their feasts and on special occasions, they atechiefly bread, milk, honey, and fruits. Lawrence says that "the Greeks and Romans, in the periods of theirgreatest simplicity, manliness, and bravery, appear to have lived almostentirely on plain vegetable preparations. " The Irish of modern days, as well as the Scotch, are confined almostwholly to vegetable food. So are the Italians, the Germans, and manyother nations of modern Europe. Yet, where shall we look for finerspecimens of bodily health, strength, and vigor, than in these verycountries? The females, especially, where shall we look for theirequals? The men, even--the Scotch and Irish, for example--are theyweaker than their brethren, the English, who use more animal food? It will be said, perhaps, the vegetable-eating Europeans are not alwaysdistinguished for vigorous minds. True; but this, it may be maintained, arises from their degraded physical condition, generally; and thatneglect of mental and moral cultivation which accompanies it. A few, even here, like comets in the material system, have occasionally brokenout, and emitted no faint light in the sphere in which they weredestined to move. But we are not confined to Europe. The South Sea Islanders, in manyinstances, feed almost wholly on vegetable substances; yet their agilityand strength are so great, that it is said "the stoutest and most expertEnglish sailors, had no chance with them in wrestling and boxing. " We come, lastly, to Africa, the greater part of whose millions feed onrice, dates, etc. ; yet their bodily powers are well known. In short, more than half of the 800, 000, 000 of human beings whichinhabit our globe live on vegetables; or, if they get meat at all, it isso rarely that it can hardly have any effect on their structure orcharacter. Out of Europe and the United States--I might even say, out ofthe latter--the use of animal food is either confined to a few meagre, weak, timid nations, like the Esquimaux, the Greenlanders, theLaplanders, the Samoiedes, the Kamtschadales, the Ostiacs, and thenatives of Siberia and Terra del Fuego; or those wealthier classes, orindividuals of every country, who are able to range lawlessly over theCreator's domains, and select, for their tables, whatever fancy orfashion, or a capricious appetite may dictate, or physical power affordthem. VII. THE MORAL ARGUMENT. In one point of view, nearly every argument which can be brought to showthe superiority of a vegetable diet over one that includes flesh orfish, is a moral argument. Thus, if man is so constituted by his structure, and by the laws of hisanimal economy, that all the functions of the body, and of course allthe faculties of the mind, and the affections of the soul, are in bettercondition--better subserve our own purposes, and the purposes of thegreat Creator--as well as hold out longer, on the vegetable system--thenis it desirable, in a moral point of view, to adopt it. If mankind lose, upon the average, about two years of their lives by sickness, as somehave estimated it, [24] saying nothing of the pain and sufferingundergone, or of the mental anguish and soul torment which grow out ofit, and often render life a burden; and if the simple primitive customof living on vegetables and fruits, along with other good physical andmental habits, which seem naturally connected with it, will, in time, nearly if not wholly remove or prevent this amazing loss, then is theargument deduced therefrom, in another part of this chapter, a moralargument. If, as I have endeavored to show, the adoption of the vegetable systemby nations and individuals, would greatly advance the happiness of all, in every known respect, and if, on this account, such a change in ourflesh-eating countries would be sound policy, and good economy, --then wehave another moral argument in its favor. But, again; if it be true that all nations have been the most virtuousand flourishing, other things being equal, in the days of theirsimplicity in regard to food, drink, etc. ; and if we can, in everyinstance, connect the decline of a nation with the period of theirdeparture, as a nation, into the maze of luxurious and enervatinghabits; and if this doctrine is, as a general rule, obviously applicableto smaller classes of men, down to single families, then is the argumentwe derive from it in its nature a moral one. Whatever really tends, without the possibility of mistake, to the promotion of human happiness, here and hereafter, is, without doubt, moral. But this, though much, is not all. The destruction of animals for food, in its details and tendencies, involves so much of cruelty as to causeevery reflecting individual--not destitute of the ordinary sensibilitiesof our nature--to shudder. I recall: daily observation shows that suchis not the fact; nor should it, upon second thought, be expected. Whereall are dark, the color is not perceived; and so universally are themoral sensibilities which really belong to human nature deadened by thecustoms which prevail among us, that few, if any, know how to estimate, rightly, the evil of which I speak. They have no more a correct idea ofa true sensibility--not a _morbid_ one--on this subject, than a blindman has of colors; and for nearly the same reasons. And on this accountit is, that I seem to shrink from presenting, at this time, thoseconsiderations which, I know, cannot, from the very nature of the case, be properly understood or appreciated, except by a very few. Still there are some things which, I trust, may be made plain. It mustbe obvious that the custom of rendering children familiar with thetaking away of life, even when it is done with a good degree oftenderness, cannot have a very happy effect. But, when this is done, notonly without tenderness or sympathy, but often with manifestations ofgreat pleasure, and when children, as in some cases, are almostconstant witnesses of such scenes, how dreadful must be the results! In this view, the world, I mean our own portion of it, sometimes seemsto me like one mighty slaughter-house--one grand school for thesuppression of every kind, and tender, and brotherly feeling--one grandprocess of education to the entire destitution of all moralprinciple--one vast scene of destruction to all moral sensibility, andall sympathy with the woes of those around us. Is it not so? I have seen many boys who shuddered, at first, at the thought of takingthe life, even of a snake, until compelled to it by what they conceivedto be duty; and who shuddered still more at taking the life of a lamb, acalf, a pig, or a fowl. And yet I have seen these same boys, insubsequent life, become so changed, that they could look on such scenesnot merely with indifference, but with gratification. Is this change offeeling desirable? How long is it after we begin to look withindifference on pain and suffering in brutes, before we begin to be lessaffected than before by human suffering? I am not ignorant that sentiments like these are either regarded asmorbid, and therefore pitiable, or as affected, and thereforeridiculous. Who that has read the story of Anthony Benezet, as relatedby Dr. Rush, has not smiled at what he must have regarded a feelingwholly misplaced, if nothing more? And yet it was a feeling which Ithink is very far from deserving ridicule, however homely the manner ofexpressing it. But I have related this interesting story in another partof the work. I am not prepared to maintain, strongly, the old-fashioned doctrine, that a butcher who commences his employment at adult age, is necessarilyrendered hardhearted or unfeeling; or, that they who eat flesh havetheir sensibilities deadened, and their passions inflamed by it--thoughI am not sure that there is not some truth in it. I only maintain, thatto render children familiar with the taking away of animallife, --especially the lives of our own domestic animals, often endearedto us by many interesting circumstances of their history, or of our own, in relation to them, --cannot be otherwise than unhappy in its tendency. How shocking it must be to the inhabitants of Jupiter, or some otherplanet, who had never before witnessed these sad effects of the ingressof sin among us, to see the carcasses of animals, either whole or bypiece-meal, hoisted upon our very tables before the faces of children ofall ages, from the infant at the breast, to the child of ten or twelve, or fourteen, and carved, and swallowed; and this not merely once, butfrom day to day, through life! What could they--what would they--expectfrom such an education of the young mind and heart? What, indeed, butmourning, desolation, and woe! On this subject the First Annual Report of the American PhysiologicalSociety thus remarks--and I wish the remark might have its due weight onthe mind of the reader: "How can it be right to be instrumental in so much unnecessaryslaughter? How can it be right, especially for a country of vegetableabundance like ours, to give daily employment to twenty thousand orthirty thousand butchers? How can it be right to train our children tobehold such slaughter? How can it be right to blunt the edge of theirmoral sensibilities, by placing before them, at almost every meal, themangled corpses of the slain; and not only placing them there, butrejoicing while we feast upon them?" One striking evidence of the tendency which an habitual shedding ofblood has on the mind and heart, is found in the fact that females aregenerally so reluctant to take away life, that notwithstanding they aretrained to a fondness for all sorts of animal food, very few are willingto gratify their desires for a stimulating diet, by becoming their ownbutchers. I have indeed seen females who would kill a fowl or a lambrather than go without it; but they are exceedingly rare. And who wouldnot regard female character as tarnished by a familiarity with suchscenes as those to which I have referred? But if the keen edge of femaledelicacy and sensibility would be blunted by scenes of bloodshed, arenot the moral sensibilities of our own sex affected in a similar way?And must it not, then, have a deteriorating tendency? It cannot be otherwise than that the circumstances of which I havespoken, which so universally surround infancy and childhood, should takeoff, gradually, the keen edge of moral sensibility, and lessen everyvirtuous or holy sympathy. I have watched--I believe impartially--theeffect on certain sensitive young persons in the circle of myacquaintance. I have watched myself. The result has confirmed theopinion I have just expressed. No child, I think, can walk through acommon market or slaughter-house without receiving moral injury; nor amI quite sure that any virtuous adult can. How have I been struck with the change produced in the young mind bythat merriment which often accompanies the slaughter of an innocentfowl, or lamb, or pig! How can the Christian, with the Bible in hand, and the merciful doctrines of its pages for his text, "Teach me to feel another's woe, " --the beast's not excepted--and yet, having laid down that Bible, go atonce from the domestic altar to make light of the convulsions and exitof a poor domestic animal? Is it said, that these remarks apply only to the _abuse_ of a thing, which, in its place, is proper? Is it said, that there is no necessityof levity on these occasions? Grant that there is none; still the resultis almost inevitable. But there is, in any event, one way of avoiding, or rather preventing both the abuse and the occasion for abuse, byceasing to kill animals for food; and I venture to predict that the evilnever will be prevented otherwise. The usual apology for hunting and fishing, in all their various andoften cruel forms, --whereby so many of our youth, from the setters ofsnares for birds, and the anglers for trout, to the whalemen, areeducated to cruelty, and steeled to every virtuous and holysympathy, --is, the necessity of the animals whom we pursue for food. Iknow, indeed, that this is not, in most cases, the true reason, but itis the reason given--it is the substance of the reason. It serves as anapology. They who make it may often be ignorant of the true reason, orthey or others may wish to conceal it; and, true to human nature, theyare ready to give every reason for their conduct, but the real and mostefficient one. It must not, indeed, be concealed that there is one more apology usuallymade for these cruel sports; and made too, in some instances, by goodmen; I mean, by men whose intentions are in the main pure and excellent. These sports are healthy, they tell us. They are a relief to mind andbody. Perhaps no good man, in our own country, has defended them withmore ingenuity, or with more show of reason and good sense, than Dr. Comstock, in his recent popular work on Human Physiology. And yet, thereis scarcely a single advantage which he has pointed out, as beingderived from the "pleasures of the chase, " that may not be gained in away which savors less of blood. The doctor himself is too much in lovewith botany, geology, mineralogy, and the various branches of naturalhistory, not to know what I mean when I say this. He knows full well theexcitement, and, on his own principles, the consequent relief of bodyand mind from their accustomed and often painful round, which grows outof clambering over mountains and hills, and fording streams, andclimbing trees and rocks, to need any very broad hints on the subject;to say nothing of the delights of agriculture and horticulture. Howcould he, then, give currency to practices which, to say the least, --andby his own concessions, too, --are doubtful in regard to their moraltendencies, by inserting his opinions in favor of sports, for which hehimself happens to be partial, in a school-book? Is this worthy of thosewho would educate the youth of our land on the principles of the Bible? VIII. THE MILLENNIAL ARGUMENT I believe it is conceded by most intelligent men, that all the argumentswe bring against the use of animal food, which are derived from anatomy, physiology, or the laws of health, or even of psychology, are wellfounded. But they still say, "Man is not what he once was; he isstrangely perverted; that custom, or habit, which soon becomes secondnature, and often proves stronger to us than first nature, has sochanged him that he is more a creature of art than of nature, or atleast of _first_ nature. And though animal food was not necessary to himat first--perhaps not in accordance with his best interests--yet it hasbecome so by long use; and as a creature of art rather than of nature, he now seems to require it. " This reasoning, at first view, appears very _specious_. But upon secondview, we see it is wanting--greatly so--in solidity. It takes forgranted, as I understand it, that what we call civilization, hasrendered animal food necessary to man. But is it not obvious that thecondition of things which is thus supposed to render this species offood necessary, is not likely to disappear--nay, that it is everycentury becoming more and more the law, so to speak, of the land? Who isto stop the labor-saving machine, the railroad car, or the lightningflash of intelligence? And do not these considerations, if they prove any thing, prove quitetoo much? For if, in the onward career of what is thus calledcivilization, we have gone from a diet which scarcely required the useof animal food in order to render it both palatable and healthful, toone in whose dishes it is generally blended in some one or more of itsforms, must we not expect that a still further progress in the samecourse will render the same kind of diet still more indispensable? Ifflesh, fish, fowl, butter, cheese, eggs, lard, etc. , are much morenecessary to us now, than they were a thousand years ago, will they notbe still more necessary a thousand years hence? I do not see how we can avoid such a conclusion. And yet such aconclusion will involve us in very serious difficulties. In Japan andChina--the former more especially--if the march of civilization shouldbe found to have rendered animal food more necessary, it has at the sametime rendered it less accessible to the mass of the population. Thegreat increase of the human species has crowded out the animals, eventhe domestic ones. Some of the old historians and geographers tell usthat there are not so many domestic animals in the whole kingdom ofJapan, as in a single township of Sweden. And must not all nations, associety progresses and the millennium dawns, crowd out the animals inthe same way? It cannot be otherwise. True, there may remain about thesame supply as at present from the rivers and seas, and perchance fromthe air; but what can these do for the increasing hundreds of millionsof such large countries? What do they for Japan? In short, if thereasoning above were good and valid, it would seem to show thatprecisely at the point of civilization where animal food becomes mostnecessary, at precisely that point it becomes most scarce. These things do not seem to me to go well together. We must reject theone or the other. If we believe in a millennium, we must, inevitably, give up our belief in animal food, at least the belief that itsnecessity grows out of the increasing wants of society. Or if, on theother hand, we believe in the increasing necessity of animal food, wemust banish from our minds all hope of what we call a millennium, atleast for the present. IX. THE BIBLE ARGUMENT. It is not at all uncommon for those who find themselves driven from alltheir strong-holds, in this matter, to fly to the Bible. Our Saviour ateflesh and fish, say they; and the God of the New Testament, as well asof the Old, in this and other ways, not only permitted but sanctionedits use. But, to say nothing of the folly of going, for proof of every thing wewish to prove, to a book which was never given for this purpose, or ofthe fact that in thus adducing Scripture to prove our favoritedoctrines, we often go too far, and prove too much; is it true that theSaviour ate flesh and fish? Or, if this could be proved, is it true thathis example binds us forever to that which other evidence as well asscience show to be of doubtful utility? Paul did not think so, mostcertainly. It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, he says, if it cause our brother to offend. Did not Paul understand, at least aswell as we, the precepts and example of our Saviour? And as to a permission to Noah and his descendants, the Jews, to useanimal food--was it not for the hardness of the human heart, as ourSaviour calls it? From the beginning, was it so? Is not man, in thefirst chapter of Genesis, constituted a vegetable-eater? Was hisconstitution ever altered? And if so, when and where? Will they who flyto the Bible for their support, in this particular, please to tell us? But it is idle to go to the Bible, on this subject. I mean, it is idleto pretend to do so, when we mean not so much. Men who _incline_ to wineand other alcoholic drinks, plead the example and authority of theBible. Yet you will hardly find a man who drinks wine simply because hebelieves the Bible justifies its use. He drinks it for other reasons, and then makes the foolish excuse that the Bible is on his side. So inregard to the use of flesh meat. Find a man who really uses flesh orfish _because_ the Bible requires him to do so, and I will then discussthe question with him on Bible ground. Till that time, further argumenton this direction is unnecessary. CONCLUSION. But I must conclude this long essay. There is one consideration, however, which I am unwilling to omit, although, in deciding on themerits of the question before us, it may not have as muchweight--regarded as a part of the moral argument--on every mind, as ithas on my own. Suppose the great Creator were to make a new world somewhere in theregions of infinite space, and to fit it out in most respects like ourown. It is to be the place and abode of such minerals, vegetables, andanimals as our own. Instead, however, of peopling it gradually, he fillsit at once with inhabitants; and instead of having the arts and thesciences in their infancy, he creates every thing in full maturity. In aword, he makes a world which shall be exactly a copy of our own, withthe single exception that the 800, 000, 000 of free agents in it shall besupposed to be wholly ignorant in regard to the nature of the foodassigned them. But the new world is created, we will suppose, atsunrise, in October. The human inhabitants thereof have stomachs, andsoon, that is, by mid-day or before night, feel the pangs of hunger. Now, what will they eat? The world being mature, every thing in it is, of course, mature. Around, on every hand, are cornfields with their rich treasures; above, that is, in the boughs of the orchards, hang the rich russets, pippins, and thevarious other excellent kinds of the apple, with which our own countryand other temperate climates abound. In tropical regions, of course, almost every vegetable production is flourishing at that season, as wellas the corn and the apple. Or, he has but to look on the surface of theearth on which he stands, and there are the potatoe, the turnip, thebeet, and many other esculent roots; to say nothing of the squash, thepumpkin, the melon, the chestnut, the walnut, the beechnut, thebutternut, the hazelnut, etc. , --most of which are nourishing, and moreor less wholesome, and are in full view. Around him, too, are theanimals. I am willing even to admit the domestic animal--the horse, theox, the sheep, the dog, the cat, the rabbit, the turkey, the goose, thehen, yes, and even the pig. And now, I ask again, what will he eat? Heis destitute of experience, and he has no example. But he has a stomach, and he is hungry: he has hands and he has teeth; the world is all beforehim, and he is the lord of it, at least so far as to use such food in itas he pleases. Does any one believe that, in these circumstances, man would prey uponthe animals around him? Does any person believe--can he for one momentbelieve--he would forthwith imbrue his hands in blood, whether that ofhis own species or of some other? Would he pass by the mellow apple, hanging in richest profusion every where, inviting him as it were by itsbeauties? Would he pass by the fields, with their golden ears? Would hedespise the rich products of field, and forest, and garden, and hastento seize the axe or the knife, and, ere the blood had ceased to flow, orthe muscles to quiver, give orders to his fair but affrighted companionwithin to prepare the fire, and make ready the gridiron or the spider?Or, without the knowledge even of this, or the patience to wait for thetedious process of cooking to be completed, would he eat raw theprecious morsel? Does any one believe this? Can any one--I repeat thequestion--can any one believe it? On the contrary, would not every living human being revolt, at first, from the idea, let it be suggested as it might, of plunging his hands inblood? Can there be a doubt that he would direct his attention atfirst--yes, and for a long time afterward--to the vegetable world forhis food? Would it not take months and years to reconcile hisfeelings--his moral nature--to the thought of flesh-mangling orflesh-eating? At least, would not this be the result, if he were adisciple of Christianity? Although professing Christians, as the worldis now constituted, do not hesitate to commit such depredations, wouldthey do so in the circumstances we have supposed? I am sure there can be but one opinion on this subject; although Iconfess it impossible for me to say how it may strike other mindsconstituted somewhat differently from my own. With me, thisconsideration of the subject has weight and importance. It is notnecessary, however. The argument--the moral argument, I mean--issufficient, as it seems to me, without it. What then shall we say of theanatomical, the physiological, the medical, the political, theeconomical, the experimental, the Bible, the millennial, and the moralarguments, when united? Have they not force? Are they not a nine-foldcord, not easily broken? Is it not too late in the day of humanimprovement to meet them with no argument but ignorance, and with noother weapon but ridicule? FOOTNOTES: [21] For proof that arsenic or ratsbane is sometimes added to cheese, see the Library of Health, volume ii. , page 69. In proof of thepoisonous tendency of milk and butter, see Whitlaw's Theory of Fever, and Clark's Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption. [22] See Dunglison's Hygiene, page 250. [23] The Young Housekeeper. [24] Or, more nearly, perhaps, a year and a half, in this country. InEngland, it is one year and five-sevenths. OUTLINES OF A NEW SYSTEM OF FOOD AND COOKERY. In the work of revising and preparing the foregoing volume forpublication, the writer was requested to add to it a system of vegetablecookery. At first he refused to do so, both on account of the difficultyof bringing so extensive a subject within the compass of twenty orthirty pages, and because it did not seem to him to be called for, inconnection with the present volume. But he has yielded his own judgmentto the importunity of the publishers and other friends of the work, andprepared a mere outline or skeleton of what he may hereafter fill up, should circumstances and the necessary leisure permit. But there is one difficulty to be met with at the very threshold of thesubject. Vegetable eaters are not so hard driven to find whereon tosubsist, as many appear to suppose. For the question is continuallyasked, "If you dispense wholly with flesh and fish, pray what can youfind to eat?" Now, while we are aware that one small sect of thevegetarians--the followers of Dr. Schlemmer--eat every thing in a rawstate, we are, for ourselves, full believers in plain and simplecookery. That a potato, for example, is better cooked than uncooked, both for man and beast, we have not the slightest doubt. We believe thata system of preparing food which renders the raw material morepalatable, more digestible, and more nutritious, or perhaps all this atonce, must be legitimate, and even preferable--if not for theindividual, at least for the race. But the difficulty alluded to is, how to select a few choice dishes fromthe wide range--short of flesh and fish--which God and nature permit. For if we believed in the use of eggs when commingled with food, weshould hardly deem it proper to go the whole length of our Frenchbrethren, who have nearly seven hundred vegetable dishes, of which eggsform a component part; nor the whole length even to which our ownpowers of invention might carry us; no, nor even the whole length towhich the writer of an English work now before us, and entitled"Vegetable Cookery, " has gone--the extent of about a thousand plainreceipts. We believe the whole nature of man, and even his appetite, when unperverted, is best served and most fully satisfied with a rangeof dishes which shall hardly exceed hundreds. It is held by Dr. Dunglison, Dr. Paris, and many of the old schoolwriters, that all made dishes--all mixtures of food--are "more or lessrebellious;" that is, more or less indigestible, and consequently moreor less hurtful. If they mean by this, that in spite of theaccommodating power of the stomach to the individual, they are hurtfulto the race, I go with them most fully. But I do _not_ believe that _allmade dishes, to all persons_, are so directly injurious as many suppose. God has made man, in a certain sense, omnivorous. His physical stomachcan receive and assimilate, like his mental stomach, a great variety ofsubstances; and both can go on, without apparent disease, for a greatmany years, and perhaps for a tolerably long life in this way. There is, however, a higher question for man to ask as a rational beingand as a Christian, than whether this or that dish will hurt himdirectly. It is, whether a dish or article is _best_ for him--best forbody, mind, and heart--best for the whole human nature--best for thewhole interests of the whole race--best for time, and best for eternity. Startle not, reader, at this assertion. If West could properly say, "Ipaint for eternity, " the true disciple of Christ and truth can say, "Ieat and drink for eternity. " And a higher authority than any that ismerely human has even required us to do so. This places the subject of preparing food on high ground. And were I tocarry out my plan fully, I should exclude from a Christian system offood and cookery all mixtures, properly so called, and all medicines orcondiments. Not that all mixtures are equally hurtful to the well-beingof the race, nor all medicines. Indeed, considering our training andhabits, some of both, to most persons, have become necessary. I know ofmany whose physical inheritance is such, that salt, if not a few othermedicinal substances, have become at least present necessaries to them. And to those mixtures of substances closely allied, as farina withfarina--meal of one kind with meal of another--I could scarcely have anyobjection, myself. Nature objects to incompatibles, and therefore I do;and medicine, and all those kinds of food which are opposed one toanother, are incompatible with each other. When one is in the stomach, the other should not be. I have spoken of carrying out my plan, but this I cannot now fully do. It would not be borne, till, as Lord Bacon used to say, "some time bepassed over. " But, on the other hand, I am unwilling to give directions, as I did ten or twelve years ago, in my Young Housekeeper, such as shallpander to a perverted--most abominably perverted--public taste. Man ismade for progress, and it is high time the public standard were raisedin regard to food and cookery. Although grains and fruits are the natural food of man, yet there are avariety of shapes in which the grains or farinacea may be presented tous; and there are a few substances fit for food which do not properlybelong to either of these classes. I shall treat first of the differentkinds of food prepared from grain or farinaceous substances; secondly, of fruits; thirdly, of roots; and fourthly, speak of a few articles thatdo not properly belong to any of the three. While, therefore, as will be seen by the remarks already made, I havemany things to say that the community cannot yet bear, it need notescape the observation of the most careless reader, that I aim atnothing less than an entire ultimate subversion of the present system ofcookery, believing it to be utterly at war with the laws of God, and ofman's whole nature. CLASS I. --FARINACEOUS, OR MEALY SUBSTANCES. The principal of these are wheat, oats, Indian corn, rice, rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, chestnuts, peas, beans, and lentils. They areprepared in various forms. DIVISION I. --BREAD. The true idea of bread is that coarse or cracked and unbolted meal, formed into a mass of dough by means of water, and immediately baked inloaves of greater or less thickness, according to the fancy. Some use bolted meal; most raise bread by fermentation; many use salt;some saleratus, or carbonate of potash; and, in the country, many usemilk instead of water to form the paste. I might also mention severalother additions, which, like saleratus, it is becoming fashionable tomake. All these things are a departure, greater or less, from the true ideaof a bread; and bread made with any of these changes, is so much theless perfectly adapted to the promotion of health, happiness, andlongevity. Bolting is objectionable, because bread made from bolted meal, especially when eaten hot, is more apt, when the digestive powers arenot very vigorous, to form a paste, which none but very strong stomachscan entirely overcome. Besides, it takes out a part of the sweetness, orlife, as it is termed, of the flour. They who say fine flour bread issweetest, are led into this mistake by the force of habit, and by thefact that the latter comes in contact, more readily than coarse bread, with the papillæ of the tongue, and seems to have more taste to itbecause it touches at more points. Raising bread by inducing fermentation, wastes a part of the saccharinematter; and the more it is raised, the greater is the waste. Bylessening the attraction of cohesion, it makes it more easy ofdigestion, it is true; but the loss of nutriment and of pleasure to thetrue appetite more than counterbalances this. Bakers, in striving to geta large loaf, rob the bread of most of its sweetness. Salt is objectionable, because it hardens the bread, and renders it moredifficult of digestion. Our ancestors, in this country, did not use itat all; and many are the families that will not use it now. Those who use salt in bread, tell us how _flat_ it would taste withoutit. This idea of flatness has two sources. 1. We have so long given ourbread the taste of salt, as we have most other things, that it seemstasteless without it. 2. The flatness spoken of in an article of food isoftentimes the true taste of the article, unaltered by any stimulus. Ifany two articles need to be stimulated with salt, however, it is riceand beans--bread never. If saleratus is used in bread where no acidity is present, it is amedicine; or, if you please, a poison both to the stomach andintestines. If it meets and neutralizes an acid either in the bread-trayor the stomach, the residuum is a new chemical compound diffused throughthe bread, which is more or less injurious, according to its nature andquantity. Milk is objectionable on the score of its tendency to render the breadmore indigestible than when it was wet with water, and perhaps byrendering it too nutritious. For good bread without the milk is alreadytoo nutritious for health, if eaten exclusively, for a long time. Thatman should not live on bread alone, is as true physically as it ismorally. No bread should be eaten while new and hot--though the finer it is, theworse for health when thus eaten. Old bread, heated again, is lesshurtful. But if eaten both new and hot, and with butter or milk, or anything which soaks and fills it, the effect is very bad. Mrs. Howland, inher Economical Housekeeper, says much about _ripe_ bread. And I shouldbe glad to say as much, had I room, about ripe bread, and about the truephilosophy of bread and bread-making, as she has. SECTION A. --_Bread of the first order. _ This is made of coarse meal--as coarse as it can well be ground, provided the kernels are all broken. The grain should be well washed, and it may be ground in the common way, or according to the orientalmode, in hand-mills. The latter mode is preferable, because you can thushave it fresh. Meal is somewhat injured by being kept long ground. If great pains is not taken to have the grain clean when ground, itneeds to be passed through a coarse sieve, that all foreign bodies maybe carefully separated. The hulls of corn, and especially the husks ofoats and buckwheat, should also be separated in some way. In no case, however, should meal be bolted. Good health requires that we eat theinnutritious and coarser parts as well as the finer. RECEIPT 1. --Take a sufficient quantity of good, recent wheat meal;[25]wet it well, but not too soft, with pure water; form it into thin cakes, and bake it as hard as the teeth will bear. Remember, however, that thesaliva aids the teeth greatly, especially when you masticate your foodslowly. The cakes should be very thin--the thinner the better. Many, however, prefer them an inch thick, or even more. RECEIPT 2. --Oat meal prepared in the same manner. Procure what is calledthe Scotch kiln dried oat meal, if you can. No matter if it ismanufactured in New England, if it is well done. RECEIPT 3. --Indian meal cakes, otherwise called hoe cakes, or Johnnycakes, are next in point of value to bread made of wheat and oats. Theyare most healthy, however, in cold weather. RECEIPT 4. --Rye cakes come next. Warm instead of cold water is oftenused to wet all the above. Some even choose to scald the meal. Fancy maybe indulged in this particular, only you must remember that warm waterin warm weather may soon give rise, if the mass stands long, to a degreeof fermentation, which, for the best bread, should be avoided. RECEIPT 5. --Barley meal bread comes next in order in the unleavenedseries. In regard to this species of bread, however, I do not speak fromexperience, but from report. RECEIPT 6. --Of millet bread I know still less. Cakes made of it, asabove, must certainly be wholesome. RECEIPT 7. --Buckwheat cakes are last in the series of the best breads. The meal is always too fine, and hence makes heavy bread, except whenhot. Few use it without fermentation. Unleavened bread may be made as above, of all the various kinds ofgrain, finely ground; but it is apt to be heavy, whereas, when madeproperly, of coarse meal, it is only firm, never heavy; that is, itnever has a lead-like appearance. They may make and use it who have ironstomachs. SECTION B. --_Bread of the second order. _ This consists essentially of mixtures of the various coarse meals. Trueit is, that made or mixed food is objectionable; but the union of onefarinaceous substance with another to form bread, can hardly beconsidered a mixture. It is, essentially, the addition of farina tofarina, with some change in the proportion of the gluten and otherproperties. RECEIPT 1. --Wheat meal and Indian, in about the proportion of two partsof wheat to one of Indian. RECEIPT 2. --Wheat meal and oat meal, about equal parts. RECEIPT 3. --Wheat meal and Indian, equal parts. RECEIPT 4. --Wheat meal and rye meal; two parts, quarts, or pounds of theformer to one of the latter. RECEIPT 5. --Rye and Indian, equal parts of each. RECEIPT 6. --Rye, two thirds; Indian, one third. RECEIPT 7. --Wheat meal and rice. Three quarts of wheat meal to one pintof good clean rice, boiled till it is soft. RECEIPT 8. --Three parts of wheat meal to one of Indian. RECEIPT 9. --Four parts of wheat to one of Indian. The proportion of the ingredients above may be varied to a great extent. I have inserted some of the best. The following are _irregulars_, butmay as well be mentioned here as any where. RECEIPT 10. --Two quarts of wheat meal to one pound of well boiled ripebeans, made soft by pounding or otherwise. RECEIPT 11. --Seven pounds of wheat meal and two and a half pounds ofgood, mealy, and well boiled and pounded potatoes. RECEIPT 12. --Equal parts of coarse meal from rye, barley, and buckwheat. This is chiefly used in Westphalia. RECEIPT 13. --Seven parts of wheat meal (as in Receipt 11), with twopounds of split peas boiled to a soup, and used to wet the flour. RECEIPT 14. --Wheat meal and apples, in the proportion of about three ofthe former (some use two) to one of the latter. The apples must be firstpared and cored, and stewed or baked. See my "Young Housekeeper, "seventh edition, page 396. RECEIPT 15. --Wheat meal and boiled chestnuts; three quarts of the formerto one of the latter. RECEIPT 16. --Wheat meal, four quarts, and one quart of well boiled andpounded marrow squash. RECEIPT 17. --Wheat, corn, or barley meal; three quarts to one quart ofpowdered comfrey root. This is inserted from the testimony of Rev. E. Rich, of Troy, N. H. RECEIPT 18. --Wheat meal, three pounds, to one pound of pounded corn, boiled and pounded green. This is the most doubtful form which has yetbeen mentioned. RECEIPT 19. --Receipt 7 describes rice bread. Bell, in his work on Dietand Regimen, says the best and most economical rice bread is made thus:Wheat meal, three pounds; rice, well boiled, one pound--wet with thewater in which the rice is boiled. I wish to say here, once for all, that any kind of bread may be salted, if you will _have_ salt, except the patented bread mentioned in thebeginning of the next section, which is salted in the process. Molassesin small quantity may also be added, if preferred. SECTION C. --_Bread of the third kind. _ Of this there are several kinds. Those which are made by a simpleeffervescence, provided the residuum is not injurious, are best, andshall accordingly be placed first in order. Next will follow variouskinds of bread made by the ordinary process of fermentation, salting, etc. RECEIPT 1. --Wheat meal, seven pounds; carbonate of soda or saleratus[26]three quarters of an ounce to one ounce; water, two and three quarterpints; muriatic acid, 420 to 560 drops. Mix the soda with the meal asintimately as possible, by means of a wooden spoon or stick. Then mixthe acid and water, and add it slowly to the mass, stirring itconstantly. Make three loaves of it, and bake it in a quick oven. RECEIPT 2. --Wheat meal, one pound; sesquicarbonate of soda, fortygrains; muriatic acid, fifty drops; cold water, half a pint, or asufficient quantity. Mix in the same way, and with the same caution, asin Receipt 1. Make one loaf of it, and bake in a quick oven. [27] RECEIPT 3. --Wheat meal, one quart; cream of tartar, two tea-spoonfuls;saleratus, one tea-spoonful; and two and a half teacups full of milk. Mix well, and bake thirty minutes. If the meal is fresh, as it ought tobe, the milk may be omitted. RECEIPT 4. --Coarse rye meal, Indian meal, and oat meal, may be formedinto bread in nearly a similar manner. So, in fact, may fine meal andall sorts of mixtures. RECEIPT 5. --Professor Silliman more than intimates, that carbonic acidgas _might_ be made to inflate bread, without either an effervescence ora fermentation. The plan is, to force carbonic acid, by some means orother, into the mass of dough, or, as bakers call it, the sponge. I donot know that the experiment has yet been made. RECEIPT 6. --Coarse Indian meal may be formed into small, rather thinloaves, and prepared and baked as in Receipt 3. Let us now proceed to common fermented bread: RECEIPT 7. --Wheat meal, six pounds; good yeast, a teacup full; and asufficient quantity of pure water. Knead thoroughly. Bake it in smallloaves, unless you have a very strong heat. RECEIPT 8. --Another way: Wheat meal, six quarts; molasses and yeast, each a teacup full. Mould into loaves half the thickness you mean theyshall be after they are baked. Place them in the pans, in a temperaturewhich will cause a moderate fermentation. When risen enough, place themin the oven. A strong heat is required. RECEIPT 9. --Rye bread may be made in a similar way. It must, however, bewell kneaded, to secure an intimate mixture with the yeast. Does notrequire quite so strong a heat as the former. RECEIPT 10. --Oat meal bread may be prepared by mixing good kiln driedoat meal, a little salt and warm water, and a spoonful of yeast. Beattill it is quite smooth, and rather a thick batter; cover and let itstand to rise; then bake it on a hot iron plate, or on a bake stove. Becareful not to burn it. RECEIPT 11. --Barley, or black bread, as it is called in Europe, makes awholesome article of food. It may be fermented or unfermented. RECEIPT 12. --Corn bread is sometimes made thus: Six pints meal, fourpints water, one spoonful of salt; mix well, and bake in oblong rollstwo inches thick. Bake in a hot oven. It should be added to this division of my subject, that in baking breadsweet oil may be used (a vegetable oil) as a substitute for animal oil, to prevent the bread from adhering too closely. Or you may sift aquantity of Indian meal into the pans. If you use sweet, or olive oil, be sure to get that which is not rancid. Much of the olive oil of theshops is unfit to be used. DIVISION II. --WHOLE GRAINS. Some have maintained that since man is made to live on grain, fruits, etc. , and since the most perfect mastication is secured by the use ofuncooked grains, it is useless, and worse than useless, to resort tocookery at all, especially the cookery of bread. I have mentioned Dr. Schlemmer and his followers already as holding this opinion. Many ofthese people confine themselves to the use of uncooked grains andfruits. They do not cook their beans and peas. Nor can it be denied thatthey enjoy thus far very good health. Now, while I admit that man, as an individual, can get along very wellin this way, I am most fully persuaded that many kinds of farinaceousfood are improved by cookery. Of the potato, I have already, incidentally, spoken. But are not wheat and corn, and many other grains, as well as the potato, improved by cookery? A barrel of flour (onehundred and ninety-six pounds) will make about two hundred and seventypounds of good dry bread. It does not appear that the bread containsmore water than the grain did from which it was made. Whence, then, theincrease of weight by seventy-four pounds? Is not the water--a part ofit, at least--which is used in making bread, rendered solid, as water isin slacking lime; or at least so incorporated with the flour or meal asto add both to its weight, and to its nutritious properties? Or if, in the present infancy of the science of domestic chemistry, weare not able to give a satisfactory answer to the question, is not anaffirmative highly probable? Such an answer would give no countenance, Ibelieve, to the custom of raising our bread, since the increase ofweight in making unfermented cakes or loaves, is about as great as inthe case of fermented ones. One of the strongest arguments ever yet brought against bread-making is, that it relieves us from the necessity of mastication. But to this wereply, that such cakes as may be made (and such loaves even) requiremore mastication than the uncooked grains. Pereira, in his excellentwork on Diet, endeavors to support the doctrine that cooking bursts thegrains of the farinacea, so as to bring them the better within the powerof the stomach. This is specious, if not sound. In any event, I think itpretty certain, that though man can do very well on raw grains, yetthere is a gain by cookery which more than repays the trouble. Butthough baking the flour or meal into cakes or bread, is the best methodof preparation, there are other methods, secondary to this, whichdeserve our notice. One of these I will now describe. SECTION A. --_Boiled Grains. _ These require less mastication than those which are submitted to otherprocesses; but they are more easy of digestion, and to some morepalatable, and even more digestible. RECEIPT 1. --Take good perfect wheat; wash clean, and boil till soft inpure soft water. Those who are accustomed to salt their food, use sugar, etc. , will naturally salt and sweeten this. RECEIPT 2. --Rye or barley may be prepared in the same way, but it is notquite so sweet. RECEIPT 3. --Indian corn may be boiled, but the process requires sixhours or more, even after it has soaked all night, and there has been afrequent change of the water. And with all this boiling, the skinssometimes adhere rather strongly, unless you boil with them some ashes, or other alkali. RECEIPT 4. --Rice, carefully cleaned, and well boiled, is good food. Imperfectly boiled, it is apt to disorder the bowels. And sounstimulating is it, and so purely nutritious, that they who eat itexclusively, without salt or curry, or any other condiment, are apt tobecome constipated. Potatoes go well with it. RECEIPT 5. --Chestnuts, well selected, and well boiled, are highlypalatable, greatly nutritious, and easy of digestion. They are best, however, soon after they are ripe. RECEIPT 6. --Boiled peas, when ripe, either whole or split, make ahealthy dish. They are best, however, when they have been cooked severaldays. When boiled enough, drain them through a sieve, but not very dry. Some housekeepers soak ripe peas over night, in water in which they havedissolved a little saleratus. If you boil new or unripe peas, be carefulnot to cook them too much. RECEIPT 7. --Beans, whether ripe or green (unless in bread or pudding), are not so wholesome as peas. They lead to flatulence, acidity, andother stomach disorders. And yet, eaten in moderate quantities, whenripe, they are to the hard, healthy laborer very tolerable food. Eatengreen, they are most palatable, but least healthy. RECEIPT 8. --Green corn boiled is bad food. Sweet corn, cooked in thisway, is the best. RECEIPT 9. --Lentils are nutritious, highly so; but I know little aboutthem practically. SECTION B. --_Grains, etc. , in other forms. They may be baked, parched, roasted, or torrefied. _ RECEIPT 1. --Dry slowly, with a pretty strong heat, till they become sodry and brittle as to fall readily into powder. Corn is most frequentlyprepared in this way for food; but this and several other grains areoften torrefied for coffee. Care should be taken to avoid burning. RECEIPT 2. --Roasted grains are more wholesome. It is not usual or easyto roast them properly, however, except the chestnut, as the expandedair bursts or parches them. By cutting through the skin or shell, thisresult may be avoided, as it often is in the case of the chestnut. Toroast well, they should be laid on the hearth or an iron plate, coveredwith ashes, and by building a fire slowly, all burning may be prevented. RECEIPT 3. --Corn and buckwheat are often parched, and they form, especially the former, a very good food. In South America, and in somesemi-barbarous nations, parched corn is a favorite dish. RECEIPT 4. --Green corn is often roasted in the ear. It is lesswholesome, however, than when boiled. Sweet corn is the best for eitherpurpose. RECEIPT 5. --Of baking grains I have little to say, because I _know_little on that subject. [28] DIVISION III. --CAKES This species of farinaceous food is much used, and is fast coming intovogue. The term, in its largest sense, would include the unleavenedbread or cakes, of which I have spoken so freely in Division 1. Theyare for the most part, however, made by the addition of butter, eggs, aromatics, milk, etc. , to the dough; and in proportion as they departfrom simple bread, are more and more unhealthy. I shall mention but afew, though hundreds might be named which would still be vegetable food, as good olive oil, in preparing them, may be substituted for butter. Ishall treat of them under one head or section. RECEIPT 1. --Take of dough, prepared according to the English patentedprocess, mentioned in Division I. , Section C, Receipt 1 and Receipt 2, and bake in a thin form and in the usual manner. RECEIPT 2. --Fruit cakes, if people will have them, may be made in thesame manner. No butter would be necessary, even to butter eaters, whenprepared in this patented way. If any have doubts, let them consultPereira on Food and Diet, page 153. RECEIPT 3. --Gingerbread may be made in the same way, and without alum orpotash. It is thus comparatively harmless. Coarse meal always makesbetter gingerbread than fine flour. RECEIPT 4. --Buckwheat cakes may be raised in the same general way. RECEIPT 5. --Cakes of millet, rice, etc. , are said to have been made bythis process; but on this point I cannot speak from experience. RECEIPT 6. --Biscuits, crackers, wafers, etc. , are a species of cake, andmight be made so as to be comparatively wholesome. RECEIPT 7. --Biscuits may be made of coarse corn meal, with the additionof an egg and a little water. Make it into a stiff paste, and roll verythin. DIVISION IV. --PUDDINGS. These are a species of bread, only made thinner. They are usuallyunfermented. I shall speak of two kinds--hominy and puddings proper. SECTION A. --_Hominy. _ This is usually eaten hot; but it improves on keeping a day or two. Itmay be warmed over, if necessary. RECEIPT 1. --Wheat hominy, or cracked wheat, may be made into a speciesof pudding thus: Stir the hominy into boiling water (a little salted, ifit must be so), very gradually. Boil from fifteen minutes to one hour. If boiled too long, it has a raw taste. RECEIPT 2. --Corn hominy, or, as it is sometimes called, samp. Two quartsof hominy; four quarts of water; stir well, that the hulls may rise;then pour off the water through a sieve, that the hulls may separate. Pour the same water again upon the hominy, stir well, and pour off againseveral times. Finally, pour back the water, add a little salt, if youuse salt at all, and if necessary, a little more water, and hang it overa slow fire to boil. During the first hour it should be stirred almostconstantly. Boil from three to six hours. RECEIPT 3. --Another way: Take white Indian corn broken coarsely, put itover the fire with plenty of water, adding more boiling water as itwastes. It requires long boiling. Some boil it for six hours the daybefore it is wanted, and from four to six the next day. Salt, if used atall, may be added on the plate. RECEIPT 4. --Another way still of making hominy is to soak it over night, and boil it slowly for four or five hours, in the same water, whichshould be soft. There are other ways of making hominy, but I have no room to treat ofthem. SECTION B. --_Puddings proper. _ These are of various kinds. Indeed, a single work I have before me onVegetable Cookery has not less than 127 receipts for dishes of thissort, to say nothing of its pancakes, fritters, etc. I shall select afew of the best, and leave the rest. The greatest objection to puddings is, that they are usually swallowedin large quantity, unmasticated, after we have eaten enough of somethingelse. They are also eaten new and hot, and with butter, or some othermixture almost as injurious. Some puddings, from half a day to a day anda half old, are almost as good for us as bread. One of the best puddings I know of, is a stale loaf of bread, steamed. Another is good sweet kiln dried oat meal, without any cooking at all. But there are some good cooked puddings, I say again, such as thefollowing: RECEIPT 1. --Boiled Indian pudding: Indian meal, a quart; water, a pint;molasses, a teacup full. Mix it well, and boil four hours. RECEIPT 2. --Another Indian pudding. Indian meal, three pints; scald it, make it thin, and boil it about six hours. RECEIPT 3. --Another of the same: To one quart of boiling milk, whileboiling, add a teacup full of Indian meal; mix well, and add a littlemolasses. Boil three hours in a strong heat. RECEIPT 4. --Hominy: Take a quart of milk and half a pint of Indianmeal; mix it well, and add a pint and a half of cooked hominy. Bake wellin a moderate oven. RECEIPT 5. --Baked Indian pudding may be made by putting together andbaking well a quart of milk, a pint of Indian meal, and a pint of water. Add salt or molasses, if you please. RECEIPT 6. --Oat meal pudding: Pour a quart of boiling milk over a pintof the best fine oat meal; let it soak all night; next day add twobeaten eggs; rub over, with pure sweet oil, a basin that will just holdit; cover it tight with a floured cloth, and boil it an hour and a half. When cold, slice and toast, or rather dry it, and eat it as you wouldoat cake itself. This may be the proper place to say, that all coarse meal puddings arehealthiest when twelve or twenty hours old; but are all improved--and sois brown bread--by drying, or almost toasting on the stove. RECEIPT 7. --Rice pudding: To one quart of new milk add a teacup full ofrice, sweetened a little. No dressings are necessary without you choosethem. Bake it well. RECEIPT 8. --Wheat meal pudding may be made by wetting the coarse mealwith milk, and sweetening it a little with molasses. Bake in a moderateheat. RECEIPT 9. --Boiled rice pudding may be made by boiling half a pound ofrice in a moderate quantity of water, and adding, when tender, acoffee-cup full of milk, sweetening a little, and baking, or rathersimmering half an hour. Add salt if you prefer it. RECEIPT 10. --_Polenta_--Corn meal, mixed with cheese--grated, as Isuppose, but we are not told in what proportion it is used--baked well, makes a pudding which the Italians call polenta. It is not verydigestible. RECEIPT 11. --Pudding may be made of any of the various kinds of meal Ihave mentioned, except those containing rye, by adding from one fourthto one third of the meal of the comfrey root. See Division I of thisclass, Section B, Receipt 17. RECEIPT 12. --Bread pudding: Take a loaf of rather stale bread, cut ahole in it, add as much new milk as it will soak up through the opening, tie it up in a cloth, and boil it an hour. RECEIPT 13. --Another of the same: Slice bread thinly, and put it inmilk, with a little sweetening; add a little flour, and bake it an hourand a half. RECEIPT 14. --Another still: Three pints of milk, one pound of baker'sbread, four spoonfuls of sugar, and three of molasses. Cut the bread inslices; interpose a few raisins, if you choose, between each twoslices, and then pour on the milk and sweetening. If baked, an hour anda half is sufficient. If boiled, two or three hours. Use a tin puddingboiler. RECEIPT 15. --Rice and apple pudding: Boil six ounces of rice in a pintof milk, till it is soft; then fill a dish about half full of applespared and cored; sweeten; put the rice over them as a crust, and bakeit. RECEIPT 16. --Stirabout is made in Scotland by stirring oat meal inboiling water till it becomes a thick pudding or porridge. This, withcakes of oat meal and potatoes, forms the principal food of many partsof Scotland. RECEIPT 17. --Hasty pudding is best made as follows: Mix five or sixspoonfuls of sifted meal in half a pint of cold water; stir it into aquart of water, while boiling; and from time to time sprinkle and stirin meal till it becomes thick enough. It should boil half or threequarters of an hour. It may be made of Indian or rye meal. RECEIPT 18. --Potato pudding: Take two pounds of well boiled and wellmashed potato, one pound of wheat meal; make a stiff paste, by mixingwell; and tie it in a wet cloth dusted with flour. Boil it two hours. RECEIPT 19. --Apple pudding may be made by alternating a layer ofprepared apples with a layer of dough made of wheat meal, till you havefilled a tin pudding boiler. Boil it three hours. RECEIPT 20. --Sago pudding: Take half a pint of sago and a quart of milk. Boil half the milk, and pour it on the sago; let it stand half an hour;then add the remainder of the milk. Sweeten to your taste. RECEIPT 21. --Tapioca pudding may be prepared in a similar manner. RECEIPT 22. --To make cracker pudding, to a quart of milk add four thicklarge coarse meal crackers broken in pieces, a little sugar, and alittle flour, and bake it one hour and thirty minutes. RECEIPT 23. --Sweet apple pudding is made by cutting in pieces six sweetapples, and putting them and half a pint of Indian meal, with a littlesalt, into a pint of milk, and baking it about three hours. RECEIPT 24. --Sunderland pudding is thus made: Take about two thirds of agood-sized teacup full of flour, three eggs, and a pint of milk. Bakeabout fifteen minutes in cups. Dress it as you please--sweet sauce ispreferred. RECEIPT 25. --Arrow root pudding may be made by adding two ounces ofarrow root, previously well mixed with a little cold milk, to a pint ofmilk boiling hot. Set it on the fire; let it boil fifteen or twentyminutes, stirring it constantly. When cool, add three eggs and a littlesugar, and bake it in a moderate oven. RECEIPT 26. --Boiled arrow root pudding: Mix as before, only do not letit quite boil. Stir it briskly for some time, after putting it on thefire the second time, at a heat of not over 180 degrees. When cooled, add three eggs and a little salt. RECEIPT 27. --Cottage pudding: Two pounds of potatoes, pared, boiled, andmashed, one pint of milk, three eggs, and two ounces of sugar, and ifyou choose, a little salt. Bake it three quarters of an hour. RECEIPT 28. --Snow balls: Pare and core as many large apples as there areto be balls; wash some rice--about a large spoonful to an apple will beenough; boil it in a little water with a pinch of salt, and drain it. Spread it on cloths, put on the apples, and boil them an hour. Beforethey are turned out of the cloths, dip them into cold water. Macaroni is made into puddings a great deal, and so is vermicelli; butthey are at best very indifferent dishes. Those who live solely to eatmay as well consult "Vegetable Cookery, " where they will findindulgences enough and too many, even though flesh and fish are whollyexcluded. They will find soups, pancakes, omelets, fritters, jellies, sauces, pies, puddings, dumplings, tarts, preserves, salads, cheese-cakes, custards, creams, buns, flummery, pickles, syrups, sherbets, and I know not what. You will find them by hundreds. And youwill find directions, too, for preparing almost every vegetableproduction of both hemispheres. And if you have brains of your own youmay invent a thousand new dishes every day for a long time withoutexhausting the vegetable kingdom. DIVISION V. --PIES. Pies, as commonly made, are vile compounds. The crust is usually theworst part. The famous Peter Parley (S. G. Goodrich, Esq. ), in hisFireside Education, represents pies, cakes, and sweetmeats as totallyunfit for the young. Within a few years attempts have been made to get rid of the crust ofpies--the abominations of the crust, I mean--by using Indian meal siftedinto the pans, etc. ; but the plan has not succeeded. It is the pastrythat gives pies their charm. Divest them of this, and people will almostas readily accept of plain ripe fruit, especially when baked, stewed, orin some other way cooked. As pies are thus objectionable, and are, withal, a mongrel race, partaking of the nature both of bread and fruit, and yet, as such, unfitfor the company of either, I will almost omit them. I will only mentiontwo or three. RECEIPT 1. --Squashes, boiled, mashed, strained, and mixed with milk ormilk and water, in small quantity, may be made into a tolerable pie. They may rest on a thick layer of Indian meal. RECEIPT 2. --Pumpkins may be made into pies in a similar manner; but ingeneral they are not so sweet as squashes. RECEIPT 3. --Potato pie: Cut potatoes into squares, with one or twoturnips sliced; add milk or cream, just to cover them; salt a little, and cover them with a bread crust. Sweet potatoes make far better piesthan any other kind. Almost any thing may be made into pies. Plain apple pies--so plain as tobecome mere apple sauce--are far from being very objectionable. See thenext Class of Foods. CLASS II. --FRUITS. So far as fruits, at least in an uncooked state, have been used as food, they have chiefly been regarded as a dessert, or at most as a condiment. Until within a few years, few regarded them as a principal article--asstanding next to bread in point of importance. In treating of thesesubstances as food, I shall simply divide them into Domestic andForeign. DIVISION I. --DOMESTIC FRUITS. SECTION A. --_The large fruits--Apple, Pear, Peach, Quince, etc. _ RECEIPT 1. --The apple. May be baked in tin pans, or in a common bakepan. The sweet apple requires a more intense heat than the sour. Theskin may be removed before baking, but it is better to have it remain. The best apple pie in the world is a baked apple. RECEIPT 2. --It may be roasted before the fire, by being buried in ashes, or by throwing it upon hot coals, and quickly turning it. The lastprocess is sometimes called _hunting_ it. RECEIPT 3. --It may be boiled, either in water alone, or in water andsugar, or in water and molasses. In this case the skin is often removed, that the saccharine matter may the better penetrate the body of theapple. RECEIPT 4. --It may also be pared and cored, and then stewed, eitheralone or with molasses, to form plain apple sauce--a comparativelyhealthy dish. RECEIPT 5. --Lastly, it may be pared and cored, placed in a deep vessel, covered with a plain crust, as wheat meal formed into dough, and bakedslowly. This forms a species of pie. RECEIPT 6. --The pear is not, in every instance, improved by cookery. Several species, however, are fit for nothing, till mid-winter, whenthey are either boiled, baked, or stewed. The peach can hardly be cooked to advantage. It is sometimes cut up, andsprinkled with sugar and other substances. RECEIPT 7. --A tolerably pleasant sauce can be made by stewing or bakingthe quince, and adding sugar or molasses, but it is not very wholesome. SECTION B. --_The smaller fruits. The Strawberry, Cherry, Raspberry, Currant, Whortleberry, Mulberry, Blackberry, Bilberry, etc. _ None of these, so far as I know, are improved by cookery. It is commonto stew green currants, to make jams, preserves, sauces, etc. , but thisis all wrong. The great Creator has, in this instance, at least, donehis own work, without leaving any thing for man to do. There is one general law in regard to fruits, and especially thesesmaller fruits. Those which melt and dissolve most easily in the mouth, and leave no residuum, are the most healthy; while those which do noteasily dissolve--which contain large seeds, tough or stringy portions, or hulls, or scales--are in the same degree indigestible. I have said that fruits were next to bread in point of importance. Theyare to be taken, always, as part of our regular meals, and never betweenmeals. Nor should they be eaten at the end of a meal, but either in themiddle or at the beginning. And finally, they should be taken either atbreakfast or dinner. According to the old adage, fruit is gold in themorning, silver at noon, and lead at night. DIVISION II. --FOREIGN FRUITS. The more important of these are the banana, pine-apple, and orange, andfig, raisin, prune, and date. The first three need no cooking, two ofthe last four may be cooked. The date is one of the best--the orange oneof the worst, because procured while green, and also because it isstringy. RECEIPT 1. --The prune. Few things sit easier on the feeble or delicatestomach than the stewed prune. It should be stewed slowly, in verylittle water. RECEIPT 2. --The good raisin is almost as much improved by stewing as theprune. I do not know that the fig has ever yet been subjected to the processesof modern cookery. It is, however, with bread, a good article of food. Fruits, in their juices, may be regarded as the milk of adults and oldpeople, but are less useful to young children and to the _very_ old. Butto be useful they must be perfectly ripe, and eaten in their season. Thus used, they prevent a world of summer diseases--used improperly, they invite disease, and do much other mischief. In general, fruits and milk do not go very well together. The bakedsweet apple and whortleberry seem to be least objectionable. CLASS III. --ROOTS. DIVISION I. --MEALY ROOTS. These are the potato, in its numerous varieties, the artichoke, theground-nut, and the comfrey. Of these the potato is by far the mostimportant. SECTION A. --_The Common Potato. _ This may be roasted, baked, boiled, steamed, or fried. It is also madeinto puddings and pies. Roasting in the ashes is the best method ofcooking it; frying by far the worst. I take this opportunity to enter myprotest against all frying of food. Com. Nicholson, of revolutionarymemory, would never, as his daughters inform me, have a frying-pan inhis house. The potato is best when well roasted in the ashes, but also excellentwhen baked, and very tolerable when boiled or steamed. There are many ways of preparing the potato and cooking it. Some alwayspare it. It may be well to pare it late in the winter and in the spring, but not at other times. For, in paring, we lose a portion of the richestpart of the potato, as in the case of paring the apple. There is muchtact required to pare a potato properly, that is, thinly. RECEIPT 1. --To boil a potato, see that the kettle is clean, the waterpure and soft, and the potatoes clean. Put them in as soon as the waterboils. [29] When they are soft, which can be determined by piercing themwith a fork, pour off the water, and let them steam about five minutes. RECEIPT 2. --To roast in the ashes, wash them clean, then dry them, thenremove the heated embers and ashes quite to the bottom of thefire-place, and place them as closely together as possible, but not ontop of each other. Cover as quickly as possible, and fill the creviceswith hot embers and small coals. Let them be as nearly of a size aspossible, and cover them to the depth of an inch. Then build a hot fireover them. They will be cooked in from half an hour to three quarters ofan hour, according to the size and heat of the fire. RECEIPT 3. --Baking potatoes in a stove or oven, is a process sogenerally known, that it hardly needs description. RECEIPT 4. --Steaming is better than boiling. Some fry them; others stewthem with vegetables for soup, etc. SECTION B. --_The Sweet Potato. _ This was once confined to the Southern States, but it is now raised intolerable perfection in New Jersey and on Long Island. It is richer thanthe common potato in saccharine matter, and probably more nutritious;but not, it is believed, quite so wholesome. Still it is a good articleof food. RECEIPT 1. --Roasting is the best process of cooking these. They may beprepared in the ashes or before a fire. The last process is most common. They cook in far less time than a common potato. RECEIPT 2. --Baking and roasting by the fire are nearly or quite the samething as respects the sweet potato. Steaming is a little different, andboiling greatly so. The boiled sweet potato is, however, a mostexcellent article. DIVISION II. --SWEET AND WATERY ROOTS. These are far less healthy than the mealy ones; and yet are valuable, because, like potatoes, they furnish the system with a good deal ofinnutritious matter, to be set off against the almost pure nutriment ofbread, rice, beans, peas, etc. RECEIPT 1. --The beet is best when boiled thoroughly, which requires somecare and a good deal of time. It may be roasted, baked, or stewed, however. It is rich in sugar, but is not very easily digested. RECEIPT 2. --The parsnep. The boiled parsnep is more easily _dissolved_in the stomach than the beet; but my readers must know that many thingswhich are dissolved in the stomach are nevertheless very imperfectlydigested. RECEIPT 3. --The turnip, well boiled, is watery, but easily digested andwholesome. It may also be roasted or baked, and some eat it raw. RECEIPT 4. --The carrot is richer than the turnip, but not therefore moredigestible. It may be boiled, stewed, fried, or made into pies, puddings, etc. It is a very tolerable article of food. RECEIPT 5. --The radish, fashionable as it is, is nearly useless. RECEIPT 6. --For the sick, and even for others, arrow root jellies, puddings, etc. , are much valued. This, with sago, tapioca, etc. , is mostuseful for that class of sick persons who have strong appetites. [30] CLASS IV. --MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES OF FOOD. Under this head I shall treat briefly of the proper use of a fewsubstances commonly and very properly used as food, but which cannotwell come under any of the foregoing classes. They are chiefly found inthe various chapters of my Young Housekeeper, as well as in Dr. Pereira's work on Food and Diet, under the heads of "Buds and YoungShoots, " "Leaves and Leaf Stalks, " "Cucurbitaceous Fruits, " and "OilySeeds. " RECEIPT 1. --Asparagus, well boiled, is nutritious and wholesome. Salt isoften added, and sometimes butter. The former, to many, is needless; thelatter, to all, injurious. RECEIPT 2. --Some of the varieties of the squash are nutritious andwholesome, especially when boiled. Its use in pies and puddings is alsowell known. RECEIPT 3. --A few varieties of the pumpkin, especially the sweetpumpkin, are proper for the table. Made into plain sauce, they arehighly valued by most, but they are best known as ingredients of piesand puddings. A few eat them when merely baked. RECEIPT 4. --The tomato is fashionable, but a sour apple, if equal painswere taken with it, and it were equally fashionable, might be equallyuseful. It adds, however, to nature's vast variety! RECEIPT 5. --Watermelons, coming as they do at the end of the hot season, when eaten with bread, are happily adapted (as most other ripe fruitsare, when eaten in the same way, and at their own proper season) toprevent disease, and promote health and happiness. RECEIPT 6. --Muskmelons are richer than watermelons, but not morewholesome. Of the canteloupe I know but little. RECEIPT 7. --The cucumber. Taken at the moment when ripe--neither greennor acid--the cucumber is almost, but not quite as valuable as themelon. It should be eaten in the same way, rejecting the rind. TheOrientals of modern days sometimes boil them, but in former times theyate them uncooked, though always ripe. Unripe cucumbers are a _modern_dish, and will erelong go out of fashion. RECEIPT 8. --Onions have medicinal properties, but this should be norecommendation to healthy people. Raw, they are unwholesome; boiled, they are better; fried, they are positively pernicious. RECEIPT 9. --Nuts are said to be adapted to man in a state of nature; butI write for those who are in an artificial state, not a natural state. Of the chestnut I have spoken elsewhere. The hazelnut is next best, thenperhaps the peanut and the beechnut. The butternut, and walnut orhickory-nut, are too oily. Nor do I see how they can be improved bycookery. RECEIPT 10. --Cabbage, properly boiled, and without condiments, istolerable, but rather stringy, and of course rather indigestible. RECEIPT 11. --Greens and salads are stringy and indigestible. Besides, they are much used, as condiments are, to excite or provoke anappetite--a thing usually wrong. A feeble appetite, say at the openingof the spring, however common, is a great blessing. If let alone, naturewill erelong set to rights those things, which have gone wrong perhapsall winter; and then appetite will return in a natural way. But the worst thing about greens, salads, and some other things, is, they are eaten with vinegar. Vinegar and all substances, I must againsay, which resist or retard putrefaction, retard also the work ofdigestion. It is a universal law, and ought to be known as such, thatwhatever tends to preserve our food--except perhaps ice and theair-pump--tends also to interfere with the great work of digestion. Hence, all pickling, salting, boiling down, sweetening, etc. , areobjectionable. Pereira says, "By drying, salting, smoking, and pickling, the digestibility of fish is greatly impaired;" and this, except asregards _drying_, is but the common doctrine. It should, however, beapplied generally as well as to fish. FOOTNOTES: [25] Formerly called Graham meal. [26] I shall use these terms indiscriminately, as they mean in practicethe same thing. [27] Both these processes are patented in Great Britain. The bread thusretains its sweetness--no waste of its saccharine matter, and noresiduum except muriate of soda or common salt. Sesquicarbonate of sodais made of three parts or atoms of the carbonic acid, and two of thesoda. [28] Keep butter and all greasy substances away from every preparationof food which belongs to this division--especially from green peas, beans, corn, etc. [29] Some prepare them, and soak them in water over the night. [30] In general, the appetites of the sick are taken away by design. Insuch cases there should be none of the usual forms of indulgence. Alittle bread--the crust is best--is the most proper indulgence. If, however, the appetite is raging, as in a convalescent state it sometimesis, puddings and even gruel may be proper, because they busy the stomachwithout giving it any considerable return for its labor. Fowler and Wells, Publishers of Scientific and Popular STANDARD WORKS, 308 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. In order to accommodate "The People" residing in all parts of the UnitedStates, the Publishers will forward, by return of the FIRST MAIL, anybook named in this List. The postage will be prepaid by them at the NewYork Post-office. By this arrangement of paying postage in advance, fifty per cent. Is saved to the purchaser. The price of each work, including postage, is given, so that the exact amount may be remitted. Fractional parts of a dollar may be sent in postage-stamps. All letterscontaining orders should be post-paid, and directed as follows: FOWLERAND WELLS, 308 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. _Works on Phrenology. _ PHRENOLOGY PROVED, ILLUSTRATED AND APPLIED; accompanied by a Chart, embracing an Analysis of the Primary Mental Powers in their VariousDegrees of Development, the Phenomena produced by their CombinedActivity, and the location of the Phrenological Organs in the Head. Together with a View of the Moral and Theological Bearing of theScience. By O. S. And L. N. Fowler. Price, $1 25. This is a PRACTICAL, STANDARD WORK, and may be described as a complete system of the principles and practice of Phrenology. Besides important remarks on the Temperaments, it contains a description of all the primary mental powers, in seven different degrees of development, together with the combinations of the faculties; in short, we regard this work as not only the most important of any which has before been written on the science, but as indispensably necessary to the student who wishes to acquire a thorough knowledge of Phrenological Science. * * * * * CONSTITUTION OF MAN, Considered in Relation to External Objects. ByGeorge Combe. The only authorized American Edition. With TwentyEngravings, and a Portrait of the Author. Paper, 62 cents; Muslin, 87cents. 300, 000 COPIES of this great Work have been sold, and the demand stillincreases. The "Constitution of Man" is a work with which every teacher and every pupil should be acquainted. It contains a perfect mine of sound wisdom and enlightened philosophy; and a faithful study of its invaluable lessons would save many a promising youth from a premature grave. --_Journal of Education, Albany, N. Y. _ * * * * * AMERICAN PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL. A Repository of Science, Literature, and General Intelligence; Devotedto Phrenology, Physiology, Education, Mechanism, Agriculture, and to allthose Progressive Measures which are calculated to Reform, Elevate, andImprove Mankind. Illustrated with Numerous Portraits and otherEngravings. Quarto form, suitable for binding. Published Monthly, at OneDollar a Year. It may be termed the standard authority in all matters pertaining to Phrenology, while the beautiful typography of the Journal, and the superior character of the numerous illustrations, are not exceeded in any work with which we are acquainted. --_Am. Cour. _ * * * * * COMBE'S LECTURES ON PHRENOLOGY; Including its application to the present and prospective condition ofthe United States. With Notes, an Essay on the Phrenological Mode ofInvestigation, and an Historical Sketch. By Andrew Boardman, M. D. Illustrated. Muslin, $1 25. * * * * * EDUCATION COMPLETE. Embracing Physiology Animal and Mental, applied tothe Preservation and Restoration of Health of Body and Power of Mind;Self Culture and Perfection of Character, including the Management ofYouth; Memory and Intellectual Improvement, applied to Self Educationand Juvenile Instruction. By Fowler. In 1 vol. , $2 50. Every one should read it who would preserve or restore his health, develop his mind and improve his character. * * * * * EDUCATION: Its Elementary Principles founded on the Nature of Man. By J. G. Spurzheim, M. D. With an Appendix, containing a Description of theTemperaments, and an Analysis of the Phrenological Faculties. Price, inPaper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. We regard this volume as one of the most important that has been offered to the public for many years. It is full of sound doctrines and practical wisdom. --_Boston Medical and Surgical journal. _ * * * * * MARRIAGE: Its History and Philosophy. With a Phrenological andPhysiological Exposition of the Functions and Qualifications necessaryfor Happy Marriages. By L. N. Fowler. Illustrated. Paper, 50 cents;Muslin, 75 cents. It contains a full account of the marriage forms and ceremonies of all nations and tribes, from the earliest history down to the present time. Those who have not yet entered into matrimonial relations, should read this book, and all may profit by a perusal. --_N. Y. Illustrated Magazine. _ * * * * * SELF-CULTURE, AND PERFECTION OF CHARACTER; including the Education andManagement of Youth, By O. S. Fowler. Price, paper, 62 cents; Muslin, 87cents. "SELF-MADE, OR NEVER MADE, " is the motto. No individual can read a page of it without being improved thereby. With this work, in connection with PHYSIOLOGY ANIMAL AND MENTAL, AND MEMORY AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT, we may become fully acquainted with ourselves, comprehending, as they do, the whole man. We advise all to read these works. --_Conn. School Advocate. _ * * * * * PHRENOLOGICAL BUST; designed especially for learners. Showing the ExactLocation of all the Organs of the Brain. Price, including box forpacking, $1 25. [By Express. Not mailable. ] This is one of the most ingenious inventions of the age. A cast made of plaster of Paris, the size of the human head, on which the exact location of each of the phrenological organs is represented, fully developed, with all the divisions and classifications. Those who cannot obtain the services of a professor, may learn in a very short time, from this model head, the science of Phrenology, so far as the location of the organs is concerned. --_N. Y. Sun. _ * * * * * MEMORY AND INTELLECTUAL IMPROVEMENT; applied to Self-Education andJuvenile Instruction. By O. S. Fowler. Enlarged and Improved. Illustrated. Paper, 62 cents; Muslin, 87 cents. The science of Phrenology, now so well established, affords us important aid in developing the human mind, according to the laws of our being. This, the work before us is pre-eminently calculated to promote, and we cordially recommend it to all. --_Dem. Rev. _ * * * * * SELF-INSTRUCTOR IN PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY. Illustrated with 100Engravings; including a Chart for recording the various Degrees ofDevelopment. By O. S. And L. N. Fowler. Price, paper, 25 cents; muslin, 50 cents. This treatise is emphatically a book for the million. It contains an explanation of each faculty, full enough to be clear, yet so short as not to weary; together with combinations of the faculties, and engravings to show the organs, large and small; thereby enabling all persons, with little study, to become acquainted with practical Phrenology. * * * * * FAMILIAR LESSONS ON PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY; for Children and Youth. Two volumes in one. $1 25. The natural language of each organ is illustrated, and the work is brought out in a style well adapted to the family circle, as well as the school-room. --_Teachers' Comp'n. _ * * * * * MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL SCIENCE; applied to the Elevation of Society. ByCombe, Cox, and others. $2 80. This work contains Essays on Phrenology, as a department of physiological science, exhibiting its varied and important applications to social and moral philosophy, to legislation, medicine, and the arts. With Portraits of Drs. Gall, Spurzheim, and Combe. * * * * * MENTAL SCIENCE. Lectures on the Philosophy of Phrenology. By Rev. G. S. Weaver. Illustrated. 87 cents. These Lectures were prepared for the intellectual, moral, and social benefit of society. The author has, in this respect, done a good work for the rising generation. * * * * * DEFENCE OF PHRENOLOGY; containing the Nature and value of PhrenologicalEvidence. A work for doubters. 87 cents. * * * * * LOVE AND PARENTAGE; applied to the Improvement of Offspring; By O. S. Fowler. Price 80 cents. LOVE AND PARENTAGE, AND AMATIVENESS; in one vol. Muslin, 75 cents. * * * * * DOMESTIC LIFE; or, Marriage Vindicated and Free Love Exposed. By NelsonSizer. Price 15 cents. * * * * * PHRENOLOGY AND THE SCRIPTURES; showing their Harmony; An able, thoughsmall, work. By Rev. J. Pierpont. 12 cts. * * * * * PHRENOLOGICAL GUIDE. Designed for Students of their own Characters. Withnumerous Engravings. Price 15 cents. * * * * * PHRENOLOGICAL ALMANAC. Published Annually. With Calendars for allLatitudes. Profusely Illustrated with Portraits of DistinguishedPersons. Price 6 cents. 25 copies, $1. * * * * * CHART, FOR RECORDING THE VARIOUS PHRENOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS. Illustratedwith Engravings. Designed for the Use of Phrenologists. Price 6 cents. 25 copies, $1. * * * * * SYMBOLICAL HEAD AND PHRENOLOGICAL CHART, IN MAP FORM, for Framing. Showing the Natural Language of the Phrenological Organs. Price 25cents. * * * * * THE WORKS OF GALL, COMBE, SPURZHEIM, and others, for sale, wholesale andretail. PHRENOLOGICAL SPECIMENS for Societies and Private Cabinets. 40 casts;net, $25. PORTRAITS FOR LECTURERS, 40 in the set, for $25. * * * * * BENEFITS OF A PHRENOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. A CORRECT Phrenological examination will teach, with SCIENTIFICCERTAINTY, that most useful of all knowledge--YOURSELF; your DEFECTS, and how to obviate them; your excellences, and how to make the most ofthem; your NATURAL TALENTS, and thereby in what spheres and pursuits youcan best succeed; show wherein you are liable to errors and excesses;direct you SPECIFICALLY, what faculties you require especially tocultivate and restrain; give all needed advice touchingself-improvement, and the preservation and restoration of health; show, THROUGHOUT, how to DEVELOP, PERFECT, and make the MOST POSSIBLE out ofYOUR OWN SELF; disclose to parents their children's INNATE CAPABILITIES, natural callings, dispositions, defects, means of improvement, the modeof government especially adapted to each--it will enable business men tochoose reliable partners and customers; merchants, confidential clerks;mechanics, apprentices having natural GIFTS adapted to particularbranches; ship-masters, good crews; the friendly, desirable associates;guide matrimonial candidates in selecting CONGENIAL life-companions, especially adapted to each other; show the married what in each other toallow for and conciliate; and can be made the VERY best instrumentalityfor PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT, IMPROVEMENT, AND HAPPINESS. FOWLER AND WELLS, Phrenologists, 308 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. _Books sent prepaid by First Mail to any Post Office in the UnitedStates. _ WORKS ON WATER CURE, PUBLISHED BY FOWLER AND WELLS, 308 Broadway, New York. If the people can be thoroughly indoctrinated in the general principles of HYDROPATHY, and make themselves acquainted with the LAWS OF LIFE AND HEALTH, they will well-nigh emancipate themselves from all need of doctors of any sort--DR. TRALL. HYDROPATHIC ENCYCLOPÆDIA: A System of Hydropathy and Hygiene. ContainingOutlines of Anatomy; Physiology of the Human Body; Hygienic Agencies, and the Preservation of Health; Dietetics, and Hydropathic Cookery;Theory and Practice of Water Treatment; Special Pathology, andHydro-Therapeutics, including the Nature, Causes, Symptoms, andTreatment of all known Diseases; Application of Hydropathy to Midwiferyand the Nursery. Designed as a Guide to Families and Students, and aText-Book for Physicians. By R. T. Trall, M. D. Illustrated with upwardsof Three Hundred Engravings and Colored Plates. Substantially bound, inone large volume. Price for either edition, prepaid by mail, $3 00. This is the most comprehensive and popular work on Hydropathy, with nearly one thousand pages. Of all the numerous publications which have attained such a wide popularity, as issued by Fowlers & Wells, perhaps none are more adapted to general utility than this rich, comprehensive, and well-arranged Encyclopædia. --_N. Y. Tribune. _ * * * * * HYDROPATHIC FAMILY PHYSICIAN. A Ready Prescriber and Hygienic Adviser, with reference to the Nature, Causes, Prevention and Treatment ofDiseases, Accidents, and Casualties of every kind; with a Glossary, Table of Contents, and Index. Illustrated with nearly Three HundredEngravings. By Joel Shew, M. D. One large volume of 820 pages, substantially bound, in library style. Price, with postage prepaid bymail, $2 50. It possesses the most practical utility of any of the author's contributions to popular medicine, and is well adapted to give the reader an accurate idea of the organization and functions of the human frame. --_New York Tribune. _ * * * * * DOMESTIC PRACTICE OF HYDROPATHY, with fifteen Engraved Illustrations ofImportant Subjects, with a Form of a Report for the Assistance ofPatients in consulting their Physicians by Correspondence. By Ed. Johnson, M. D. Muslin, $1 50. * * * * * HYDROPATHY; or, the Water-cure. Its Principles, Processes, and Modes ofTreatment. In part from the most Eminent Authors, Ancient and Modern. Together with an Account of the Latest Methods of Priessnitz. NumerousCases, with Treatment described By Dr. Shew. $1 25. * * * * * CHRONIC DISEASES. An Exposition of the Causes, Progress, and Terminationof various Chronic Diseases of the Digestive Organs, Lungs, Nerves, Limbs, and Skin, and of their Treatment by Water and other HygienicMeans. By James M. Gully, M. D. Illustrated. Muslin, $1 50. * * * * * HOME TREATMENT FOR SEXUAL ABUSES. A Practical Treatise for both Sexes, on the Nature and Causes of Excessive and Unnatural Indulgences, theDisease and Injuries resulting therefrom, with their Symptoms andHydropathic Management. By Dr. Trall. 30 cts. * * * * * CHILDREN; THEIR HYDROPATHIC MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. ADescriptive and Practical Work, designed as a Guide for Families andPhysicians. With numerous cases described. By Joel Shew, M. D. 12mo. , 432pp. Muslin, $1 25. * * * * * MIDWIFERY, AND THE DISEASES OF WOMEN. A Descriptive and Practical Work, showing the Superiority of Water Treatment in Menstruation and itsDisorders, Chlorosis, Leucorrhoea, Fluor Albus, Prolapsus Uteri, Hysteria, Spinal Diseases, and other Weaknesses of Females in Pregnancyand its Diseases, Abortion, Uterine Hemorrhage and the GeneralManagement of Childbirth, Nursing, etc. , etc. Illustrated with NumerousCases of Treatment. By Joel Shew, M. D. 12mo. 432 pp. Muslin, $1 25. * * * * * COOK BOOK, NEW HYDROPATHIC, By R. T. Trall, M. D. A System of Cookery onHydropathic Principles, containing an Exposition of the True Relationsof all Alimentary Substances to Health, with Plain Recipes for preparingall Appropriate Dishes for Hydropathic Establishments, VegetarianBoarding-houses, Private Families, etc. , etc. It is the Cook's CompleteGuide for all who "eat to live. " Price, Paper, 62 cents; Muslin, 87cents. * * * * * CONSUMPTION; ITS PREVENTION AND CURE BY THE WATER TREATMENT. With Adviceconcerning Hemorrhage of the Lungs, Coughs, Colds, Asthma, Bronchitis, and Sore Throat. By Dr. Shew. Price, Paper, 62 cents; Muslin, 87 cents. * * * * * WATER-CURE APPLIED TO EVERY KNOWN DISEASE. A New Theory. A CompleteDemonstration of the Advantages of the Hydropathic System of CuringDiseases; showing also the fallacy of the Allopathic Method, and itsUtter Inability to Effect a Permanent Cure. With an Appendix, containingHydropathic Diet, and Rules for Bathing. By J. H. Rausse. Translatedfrom the German. Paper, 62 cents; Muslin, 87 cents. * * * * * WATER-CURE ALMANAC. Published Annually, containing Important andValuable Hydropathic Matter. 48 pp. 6 cents. * * * * * PHILOSOPHY OF WATER-CURE. A Development of the True Principles of Healthand Longevity. By John Balbirnie, M. D. With a Letter from Sir EdwardLytton Bulwer. Paper. Price, 80 cents. * * * * * WATER-CURE JOURNAL AND HERALD OF REFORMS. Devoted to Physiology, Hydropathy, and the Laws of Life and Health. Illustrated Engravings. Quarto. Monthly, at $1 00 a year. We know of no American periodical which presents a greater abundance of valuable information on all subjects relating to human progress and welfare. --_N. Y. Tribune. _ This is, unquestionably, the most popular Health Journal in the world. --_N. Y. Eve. Post. _ * * * * * RESULTS OF HYDROPATHY; OR, CONSTIPATION not a Disease of the Bowels;Indigestion not a Disease of the Stomach; with an Exposition of the trueNature and Causes of these Ailments, explaining the reason why they areso certainly cured by the Hydropathic Treatment. By Edward Johnson, M. D. Muslin. Price, 87 cents. * * * * * WATER-CURE LIBRARY. In Seven Volumes, 12mo Embracing the most popularworks on the subject. By American and European Authors. Bound inEmbossed Muslin. Price, only $7 00. This library comprises most of the important works on the subject of Hydropathy. The volumes are of uniform size and binding, and form a most valuable medical library. * * * * * WATER AND VEGETABLE DIET in Consumption, Scrofula, Cancer, Asthma, andother Chronic Diseases. In which the Advantages of Pure Water areparticularly considered. By William Lambe, M. D. , With Notes andAdditions by Joel Shew, M. D. 12mo. , 258 pp. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87cents. * * * * * ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES: A Guide, containing Directions for Treatmentin Bleeding, Cuts, Bruises, Sprains, Broken Bones, Dislocations, Railwayand Steamboat Accidents, Burns and Scalds, Bites of Mad Dogs, Cholera, Injured Eyes, Choking, Poison, Fits, Sunstroke, Lightning, Drowning, etc. , etc. By Alfred Smee, F. R. S. Illustrated with numerous Engravings. Appendix by Dr. Trall. Price, prepaid, 15 cents. * * * * * PARENTS' GUIDE FOR THE TRANSMISSION of the Desired Qualities toOffspring; and Childbirth made Easy. By Mrs. Hester Pendleton. Price, 60cents. * * * * * PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH. Illustrated with Cases, Showing the RemarkableEffects of Water in Mitigating the Pains and Perils of the ParturientState. By Dr. Shew. Paper. Price, 30 cents. * * * * * INTRODUCTION TO THE WATER-CURE. Founded in Nature, and adapted to theWants of Man. Price, 15 cents. * * * * * SEXUAL DISEASES; their Causes, Prevention, and Cure, on PhysiologicalPrinciples. Embracing Home Treatment for Sexual Abuses; ChronicDiseases, especially the Nervous Diseases of Women; The Philosophy ofGeneration; Amativeness; Hints on the Reproductive Organs. In onevolume. Price, $1 25. * * * * * THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN LIFE. By Sylvester Graham, M. D. With a Portrait andBiography of the Author. $2 50. * * * * * CURIOSITIES OF COMMON WATER; or, the Advantages thereof in preventingand curing Diseases; gathered from the Writings of several EminentPhysicians, and also from more than Forty Years' Experience. By JohnSmith, C. M. With Additions, by Dr. Shew. 80 cents. * * * * * PRACTICE OF WATER-CURE. With Authenticated Evidence of its Efficacy andSafety. Containing a detailed account of the various processes used inthe Water-Treatment, etc. By James Wilson, M. D. , and James M. Gully, M. D. 30 cents. * * * * * EXPERIENCE IN WATER-CURE. A Familiar Exposition of the Principles andResults of Water-Treatment in Acute and Chronic Diseases; an Explanationof Water-Cure Processes; Advice on Diet and Regimen and ParticularDirections to Women in the Treatment of Female Diseases, Water-Treatmentin Childbirth, and the Diseases of Infancy. Illustrated by NumerousCases. By Mrs. Nichols. Price, 30 cents. * * * * * WATER-CURE MANUAL. A Popular Work, 12mo. Embracing descriptions of thevarious Modes of Bathing, the Hygienic and Curative Effects of Air, Exercises, Clothing, Occupation, Diet, Water-Drinking, etc. Togetherwith Descriptions of Diseases, and the Hydropathic Remedies. By JoelShew, M. D. Muslin. Price, 87 cents. * * * * * CHRONIC DISEASES: Especially the Nervous Diseases of Woman. By D. Rosch. Translated from the German. 30 cts. * * * * * ALCOHOLIC CONTROVERSY. A Review of the _Westminster Review_ on thePhysiological Errors of Teetotalism. By Dr. Trall. Price, 30 cents. * * * * * DIGESTION, PHYSIOLOGY OF, Considered in Relation to the Principles ofDietetics. By G. Combe. Illustrated, 30 cents. * * * * * FRUITS AND FARINACEA THE PROPER FOODS OF MAN. With Notes by Dr. Trall. Illustrated by numerous Engravings. $1 00. * * * * * VEGETABLE DIET: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in allAges. Including a System of Vegetable Cookery. By Dr. Alcott. 87 cents. * * * * * SYRINGES. --We keep constantly for sale, at wholesale or retail, an assortment of the best Syringes, embracing a variety of styles, at different prices. The practical value of these instruments is becoming understood, and no family who have proper regard for health will be without one. We furnish with each instrument an ILLUSTRATED MANUAL of instructions, prepared by DR. TRALL, giving complete directions for its use. The prices of the best syringes, sent by mail, postage prepaid, are from $3 50 to $4 00. * * * * * FOWLER AND WELLS have all works on PHYSIOLOGY, HYDROPATHY, PHRENOLOGY, and the Natural Sciences generally. Booksellers supplied on the mostliberal terms. AGENTS wanted in every State, county, and town. Theseworks are universally popular, and thousands might be sold where theyhave never yet been introduced. Letters and other communications should, in ALL CASES, be post paid, and directed to the Publishers, as follows:FOWLER AND WELLS, 308 Broadway, N. Y. _Books sent by first Mail to any Post-Office in the United States_. WORKS ON PHYSIOLOGY, PUBLISHED BY FOWLER AND WELLS, 308 Broadway, New York. THE COMPLETE GYMNASIUM. A profusely illustrated work. Being theapplication of Gymnastic, Calisthenic, Kinesipathic, and Vocal Exercisesto the Development of Body and Mind, and the Cure of Disease. By R. T. Trall, M. D. Price, $1 25. * * * * * HEREDITARY DESCENT: its Laws and Facts applied to Human Improvement. ByO. S. Fowler. Price, 87 cents. * * * * * FOOD AND DIET; with Observations on the Dietetic Regimen suited toDisordered States of the Digestive Organs; and an Account of theDietaries of some of the Principal Metropolitan and other Establishmentsfor Paupers, Lunatics, Criminals, Children, the Sick, &c. By J. Pereira, M. D. , F. R. S. Octavo. Muslin. Price, $1 25. * * * * * COMBE'S PHYSIOLOGY, applied to the Preservation of Health, and to theImprovement of Physical and Mental Education. By Andrew Combe, M. D. WithNotes and Observations by O. S. Fowler. 87 cts. * * * * * MATERNITY; or, the Bearing and Nursing of Children, including FemaleEducation. By O. S. Fowler. 87 cents. * * * * * COMBE ON INFANCY; or, the Physiological and Moral Management ofChildren. By Andrew Combe, M. D. 87 cents. * * * * * PHYSIOLOGY, ANIMAL AND MENTAL, applied to the Preservation andRestoration of Health of Body and Power of Mind. By O. S. Fowler. Illustrated with Engravings. Price 87 cents. * * * * * AMATIVENESS: or, Evils and Remedies of Excessive and PervertedSexuality, including Warning and Advice to the Married and Single. Animportant little work. 15 cents--REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS: their Diseases, Causes, and Cure on Hydropathic Principles. 15 cents. * * * * * UTERINE DISEASES: or, the Displacement of the Uterus. A thorough andpractical treatise on the Malpositions of the Uterus and adjacentOrgans. Illustrated with Colored Engravings from Original Designs. By R. T. Trall, M. D. Price, $5 00. _Miscellaneous. _ HOW TO WRITE: a New Pocket Manual of Composition and Letter-Writing, embracing Hints on Penmanship and choice of Writing Materials, PracticalRules for Literary Composition in general, and Epistolary and NewspaperWriting, Punctuation, and Proof Correcting in particular; Directions forWriting Letters of Business, Relationship, Friendship and Love, Illustrated with numerous Examples of Genuine Epistles from the pens ofthe Best Writers, to which are added Forms for Letters of Introduction, Notes, Cards, &c. Paper, 30 cents; muslin, 50 cents. * * * * * HOW TO TALK: a New Pocket Manual of Conversation and Debate, withDirections for Acquiring a Grammatical and Graceful Style, embracing theOrigin of Language, a Condensed History of the English Language, aPractical Exposition of the Parts of Speech, and their Modifications andArrangement in Sentences; Hints on Pronunciation, the Art ofConversation, Debating, Reading and Books, with more than Five HundredErrors in Speaking Corrected. Paper, 30 cents; muslin, 50 cents. * * * * * HOW TO BEHAVE: a New Pocket Manual of Republican Etiquette, and Guide toCorrect Personal Habits; embracing an Exposition of the Principles ofGood Manners, Useful Hints on the Care of the Person, Eating, Drinking, Exercise, Habits, Dress, Self-Culture, and Behavior at Home; theEtiquette of Salutations, Introductions, Receptions, Visits, Dinners, Evening Parties, Conversation, Letters, Presents, Weddings, Funerals, the Street, the Church, Places of Amusement, Traveling, &c; withIllustrative Anecdotes, a Chapter on Love and Courtship, and Rules ofOrder for Debating Societies. Paper, 30 cents; muslin, 50 cents. * * * * * HOW TO DO BUSINESS: a New Pocket Manual of Practical Affairs and Guideto Success in Life; embracing the Principle of Business; Advice inReference to a Business Education; Choice of a Pursuit, Buying andSelling, General Management, Manufacturing, Mechanical Trades, Farming, Book and Newspaper Publishing, Miscellaneous Enterprises, Causes ofSuccess and Failure, How to Get Customers, Business Maxims, Letter to aYoung Lawyer, Business Forms, Legal and Useful Information, and aDictionary of Commercial Terms. Paper, 30 cents; muslin, 50 cents. * * * * * HAND BOOKS FOR HOME IMPROVEMENT (Educational); comprising, "How toWrite, " "How to Talk, " "How to Behave, " and "How to Do Business, " in onelarge gilt volume. Price, $1 50. * * * * * HOPES AND HELPS FOR THE YOUNG of both Sexes; Relating to the Formationof Character, Choice of Avocation; Health, Amusement, Music, Conversation, Cultivation of Intellect, Moral Sentiments, SocialAffection, Courtship and Marriage. By Rev. G. S. Weaver. Price, inpaper, 62 cents; muslin, 87 cents. * * * * * HINTS TOWARDS REFORMS; consisting of Lectures, Essays, Addresses, andother Writings. With the Crystal Palace and its Lessons. Second Edition, Enlarged. By Horace Greeley. Price, $1. 25. * * * * * HUMAN RIGHTS, AND THEIR POLITICAL guarantees. By Hurlbut. With Notes, byCombe. Paper, 62 cts. ; muslin, 87 cts. * * * * * Natural Laws of Man. A Philosophical Catechism. By J. G. Spurzheim, M. D. An important work. 80 cents. * * * * * HOME FOR ALL. A New, Cheap, Convenient and Superior Mode of Building;containing Full Directions for Constructing Gravel Walls. With Views, Plans and Engraved Illustrations. Price, 87 cents. * * * * * DEMANDS OF THE AGE ON COLLEGES. A Speech Delivered by Hon. Horace Mann, President of Antioch College. With an Address to the Students on CollegeHonor. Price, 25 cents. * * * * * AIMS AND AIDS FOR GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN, on the various duties of life, including Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Development; Self-CultureImprovement, Education, the Home Relations, their Duties to Young Men, Marriage, Womanhood, and Happiness. By Rev. G. S. Weaver. Paper, 62cts. ; muslin, 87 cts. * * * * * SCIENCE OF SWIMMING. Giving a History of Swimming, and Instructions toLearners. By an Experienced Swimmer. Illustrated with Engravings. 15cents. Every boy should have a copy. * * * * * WAYS OF LIFE: or, the Right Way and the Wrong Way. A First Rate Book forall Young People. By Rev. G. S. Weaver. Paper, 50 cts. ; muslin, 60 cts. * * * * * DELIA'S DOCTORS: or, a Glance Behind the Scenes. By Hannah GardnerCreamer. Paper, price 62 cents; muslin 87 cents. * * * * * IMMORTALITY TRIUMPHANT. The Existence of a God and Human Immortality, Practically Considered, and the Truth of Divine RevelationSubstantiated. By Rev. John Bovee Dods. Muslin, 87 cts. * * * * * KANSAS REGION: Embracing Descriptions of Scenery, Climate, Productions, Soil, and Resources of the Territory. Interspersed with Incidents ofTravel. By Max Greene. Price 80 cts; mus. 50 cts. * * * * * CHEMISTRY, AND ITS APPLICATIONS to Agriculture and Commerce. By JustusLiebig, M. D. , F. R. S. Price 25 cents. * * * * * BOTANY FOR ALL CLASSES. Containing a Floral Dictionary, and a Glossaryof Scientific Terms. Illustrated. 87 cents. * * * * * POPULATION, THEORY OF. Deduced from the General Law of Animal Fertility. Introduction by Dr. Trall. 15 cents. * * * * * LIFE ILLUSTRATED: A First-Class Pictorial Weekly Family Paper. Devotedto Entertainment, Improvement, and Progress. To illustrate Life in allits phases, to point out all legitimate means of Economy and Profit, andto encourage a spirit of Hope, Activity, Self-Reliance and Manlinessamong the People are some of the objects of this Journal. PublishedWeekly, at $2 a year. Half a year, $1. * * * * * TOBACCO. Three Prize Essays. By Drs. Shaw, Trall, and Baldwin. Price, 15cents. --TOBACCO: its History, Nature, and Effects on Body and Mind. 30cents. --USE OF TOBACCO; its Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Effects. By Dr. Alcott. 15 cents. --SOBER AND TEMPERATE LIFE; the Discourses andLetters of Louis Cornaro. With a Biography of the Author. With Notes andan Appendix. 30 cents. Twenty-five thousand copies have been sold. It istranslated into several languages. --TEA AND COFFEE; their Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Effects on the Human System. By Dr. W. Alcott. 15 cents. --TEETH; their Structure, Disease and Treatment. With numerousIllustrations. By John Burdell. Price, 15 cts. _Mesmerism and Psychology. _ A NEW AND COMPLETE LIBRARY OF MESMERISM AND PSYCHOLOGY, embracing themost popular works on the subject, with suitable Illustrations. In twovolumes of about 900 pp. Price, $3 00. ELECTRICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Physiology of. In a Course of Twelve Lectures. ByJohn Bovee Dods. Muslin. Price, 87 cents. MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM; or, the Universe Without and the Universe Within; in the World of Sense, and the World of Soul. By Wm. Fishbough. Price, Paper, 62 cents; Muslin, 87 cents. FASCINATION; or, the Philosophy of Charming. Illustrating the Principlesof Life, in connection with Spirit and Matter. By J. B. Newman, M. D. 87cents. PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM. Six Lectures. With an Introduction. By Rev. John Bovee Dods. Paper. Price, 30 cents. PSYCHOLOGY; or, the Science of the Soul. Considered Physiologically andPhilosophically. With an Appendix containing Notes of Mesmeric andPsychical Experience. By Joseph Haddock, M. D. 30 cts. * * * * * THESE works may be ordered in large or small quantities. A liberaldiscount will be made to AGENTS, and others, who buy to sell again. Theymay be sent by Express, or as Freight, by Railroad, Steamships, SailingVessels, by Stage, or Canal, to any City, Town, or Village, in theUnited States, the Canadas, to Europe, or any place on the Globe. Checksor drafts, for large amounts, on New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, always preferred. We pay cost of exchange. All letters should be postpaid, and addressed as follows: BOSTON: } FOWLER AND WELLS, { PHILADELPHIA: 143 Washington St. } 308 Broadway, New York. { 922 Chestnut St.