Figs or Pigs?
FIGS OR PIGS?
Fruit or Brute?
Shall We Eat Flesh?
A Comprehensive Statement of the
Principal Reasons for Entertaining the Vegetarian or Fruitarian Principle,
With Numerous Citations from Eminent Authorities.
By James Madison Allen
Author of "Messages from the Spiritual Congress;" "Basic Elements of Humane and Peaceful Civilization;" "The Normalfa, or Natural Alphabet for Printing and Writing all Possible Languages;" etc., etc.
PUBLISHED BY
J. M. and M.T. ALLEN;
233 Commercial Street
Springfield, Mo.
1896.
Preliminary Observations.
HE VEGETARIAN MOVEMENT is assuming such prominence in Europe and America that a convenient and inexpensive Manual or Text Book, systematically arranged, covering the entire field of arguments in behalf of the Vegetarian Philosophy has become a necessity.
The food of human beings, except infants, should be derived directly and wholly from the Plant Kingdom—embracing an almost limitless variety of tree fruits and small fruits, nuts, grains, roots, tubers, tender leaves and stalks, saps, etc., which may be used in their natural state, or when necessary cooked and prepared in simple, wholesome ways, without the use of animal admixtures, or of mineral except perhaps salt.
No food should be used which necessitates slaughter. Even animal milk and its products, and eggs, would better be discarded; preparations of oat milk, etc., the sap of the South American "cow tree," nuts, vegetable oils, etc., substituted.
All the chemical elements of nutrition required for health, strength, and longevity, are present and combined in best proportions in the plant kingdom; and we may wisely relieve ourselves entirely from the maintenance and care of all food animals, and from the injurious, brutalizing, and debasing influences connected with killing, cooking and devouring them.
The object of the following essay, however, is simply to answer in a concise but comprehensive and decisive manner the question involved in its title; leaving untouched entirely or mostly other branches of the general subject Diet—such as the use of animals products not requiring slaughter, tea, coffee, salt and other conditions, etc., the objections to which though valid, are not so serious as to the use of flesh.
Figs or Pigs?Fruit or Brute?
Shall We Eat Flesh?
The chief reasons for entertaining the Vegetarian
or Fruitarian Principle may be arranged under the fol-
lowing heads:
1. Anatomical.
2. Physiological and Hygienical.
3. Pathological.
4. Psychological.
6. Chemical.
7. Agricultural.
9. Gustatorial and Sentimental.
10. Intuitional.
11. Historical.
12. Eventual.
ANATOMICAL.
The use of animal food by man is contrary to the evident design of Nature, as indicated by his anatomical structure, which is in all respects nearly identical with that of the orang-outang and other varieties of the Simiadæ or "monkey-tribe," which are naturally frugiverous (fruit and nut-eating) animals.
Says Baron Cuvier: "Man resembles no carnivorous animal. There is no exception, unless man be one, to the rule of herbivorous animals having cellulated colons. The orang-outang perfectly resembles man, both in the order and number of his teeth. The resemblance also of the human stomach to that of the orang-outang is greater than to that of any other animal. The intestines are also identical with those of herbiverous animals, which present a large surface for absorption, and have ample and cellulated colons. The cœcum, also, though short, is larger than that of the carniverous animals; and even here the orang-outang retains its accustomed similarity. The structure of the human frame, then, is that of one fitted to a pure vegetable diet, in every essential particular. It is true that the reluctance to abstain from animal food, in those who have been long accustomed to its stimulus, is so great (in some persons of weak mind) as to be scarcely overcome; but this is far from being any argument in its favor."
"The rational vegetarianism of today is entirely scientific, and dictated by the sole desire to follow a system conforming to the laws of nature. It has science on its side, and only the force of habit is opposed. . . . Man is not intended to eat meat. His jaw is made to grind grain and fruits. His hands were made to gather them. The Darwinian theory does not permit us for an instant to doubt the frugiverous nature of man. His intestinal canal is also a proof. In the lion this is three times as long as the body, in man seven or eight times as long." Dr. De Neville, in Review of Reviews.
Says Thomas Bell, F. R. S., etc.: "It is not, I think, going too far to say, that every fact connected with human organization goes to prove that man was originally formed a fruit-eating animal. The opinion is principally derived from the formation of his teeth and digestive organs, as well as from the character of his skin and general structure of his limbs."
The articulation of the inferior maxillary, or lower jaw bone, with the zygomatic process of the temporal bone, in flesh-eating animals, is such as to permit the direct or cutting motion, but prevent the lateral or grinding, which latter is the principal motion in man and other plant-eating creatures.
The cuspid, canine, or eye teeth of flesh-eating animals are excessively developed, adapting them to the cutting or tearing of flesh; and the construction of the stomach is adapted to the digestion of chunks of flesh food.
"The hog, where food is abundant, invariably chooses fruits, nuts, roots, vegetables. The digestive organs of the hog are very similar to those of man; but his teeth are widely different. His cuspids and bicuspids assimilate to those of the carnivora. His incisors bear no resemblance to those of man. The true molars alone resemble his and those of other animals that live on vegetables. This comparison therefore proves man still further removed from the carnivora than is the hog; hence if flesh be not a natural diet for the hog—which it is not—it cannot be for man." Dr. Stillman.
Says Prof. Lawrence: "The masticating and digestive organs of the orang-outang may be easily mistaken for human. The differences are that the canine teeth are longer and more pointed and have intervals in the jaws to receive them when the jaws are closed, and the valvular folds of the stomach are wanting. But the orang is the true type by which to compare man to ascertain his dietic character. Now what are the facts about the orang? When left to choose his food, he is wholly frugiverous. Therefore comparative anatomy proves man to be not a flesh-eating animal."
Says the poet Shelley: "Comparative anatomy teaches us that man resembles frugiverous animals in everything, and carniverous in nothing."
Linnæus, the naturalist, remarks: "This species of food is that which is most suitable to man, as is evinced by the structure of the mouth, of the stomach and of the hands."
2. PHYSIOLOGICAL AND HYGIENICAL.
It is demonstrably and unmistakably true that the purest blood, the most substantial and efficient bone and muscle, the most symmetrical forms, and the most perfect and uninterrupted health and exquisite enjoyment of all the physical functions, are produced by a vegetable diet; especially whenever that diet has been well selected and applied through several successive generations.
"It has not been improperly said of vegetable feeders that with them it is morning all day long. 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 is thought to be imparted to it by the nervous system. The senses, the memory, the understanding and the imagination have been observed to be improved by a vegetable diet." Dr. Lamb.
"A vegetable diet enables one to bear hardships and fatigue. This has been demonstrated very forcibly by the recent long-distance walk from Berlin to Vienna, in which vegetarians triumphed so gloriously. Since I have abstained from eating flesh food I can climb hills with great ease and never get out of breath. . . . Vegetarians have invariably bright, clear complexions. How convenient, in traveling, to be able to make a meal ofl" a piece of bread and an apple." Lady Paget.
"Those who have throughout life consumed little or no flesh will be found to have preserved the teeth longer than those who have made flesh a prominent part of their daily food." Sir Henry Thompson.
"A vegetable diet promotes clearness of ideas, quickness of perception, and is much to be preferred by those who labor with the mind." Benjamin Franklin.
"The evidence is overwhelming that it promotes health, strength, vigor and endurance; gives brilliancy and profundity to the intellect, buoyancy to the spirits, exquisiteness to the special senses, tone and depth to the moral faculties, and greater humanity to the man throughout." Juliette H. Stillman, M. D.
"I am now satisfied that man would live longer and enjoy more perfectly the 'sane mind in a sound body' should he never taste flesh." N. J. Knight, M. D.
3. PATHOLOGICAL.
Those who use animal food are more liable to disease, and their diseases are more severe, and tend more to putridity, than is the case with vegetarians.
"Animal food disposes the body to inflamatory, putrid and scorbutic diseases, and the character to violence and coarseness." Encyclopedia Americana.
"Animal food, in general, digests sooner than most kinds of vegetables; and not being so much in accordance with man's nature, constitution and moral character, it is very liable to generate disease, inflammation, or fever, even when it is not taken to excess." Dr. Chauncy Stephenson, Chesterfield, Mass.
"The objections, then, against meat-eating are three-fold—intellectual, moral and physical. Its tendency is to check intellectual activity, to depreciate moral sentiment, and to derange the fluids of the body." Dr. Cole, Boston.
"A disregard of the intention of nature in the use of animal food is the chief cause of disease and early decay, which has reduced the living age of man to the present standard, and filled this brief span with pain and misery." Prof. Lawrence.
"Nothing is more certain than that animal food is inimical to health. This is evident from its stimulating qualities—producing, as it were, a temporary fever after every meal; and not only so, but from its corruptible qualities it gives rise to many fatal diseases. But that which ought to convince every one of the salubrity of a of a diet consisting of vegetables (that is, plants—including fruits, nuts, grains, roots, etc.) is the consideration of the dreadful effects of totally abstaining from it, unless it be for a very short time." Dr. Whitlaw.
"A vegetable-eating person is seldom sick on account of his diet. Flesh-eaters are disposed to all kinds of maladies, take contagious diseases and succumb to epidemics readily. The reason is, they take into their systems the decayed and broken-down tissues of the animal—which are always present in the economy, parsing to the excretory organs—and hence the tissues of their own body change with great rapidity and are less substantial than those of a vegetable-eating person. The flesh-eater contains a large per cent, of substances in a state of decomposition—which renders him liable to disease from the slightest exciting causes." Dr. Stillman.
"The numerous maladies of the stomach and the intestines from simple catarrh to the most serious diseases of the organs, are often due to our appetite for meat and other stimulants." Dr. DeNeville.
"The hog is a scavenger by nature. His organization indicates it, for he has a regular system of sewers running all through his body and discharging on the inside of his fore legs, the express object of which is to convey away the filth with which his body teems.
What must be the condition of the body of an animal so foul as to require a regular system of drainage to convey away its teeming filth? Sometimes the outlets get closed by the accumulation of external filth. Then the scrofulous, ichorous stream ceases to flow, and the animal quickly sickens and dies, unless the owner speedily cleanses the parts, and so opens anew the feculent fountain and allows the festering poison to escape.
What dainty-morsels those same feet and legs make! What a delicate flavor they have, as every epicure asserts! Do you suppose the corruption with which they are saturated has any influence upon their taste and healthfulness?
The process of fattening hogs is one productive of disease. A fat hog is one which is grossly diseased. That this is the case is shown by the condition of the liver. The livers of all fat hogs are masses of disease. Every butcher will tell you that he finds not more than one liver in twenty among fat hogs which is not covered with abscesses.
The loathesome tape-worm and the terrible trichinae are communicated by the eating of pork. No cure for trichinosis has been discovered. About one hog in every ten is affected. No pork is safe." J. H. Kellogg, M. D.
"The hogs in town are dying with the cholera. The elephantine butcher and dispenser of barley mead was compelled to or did ship his to Chicago, to be devoured by the anarchists, that the lives and health of our people might be spared until the town goes license in the spring." Anon.
Cancer, and every other form of scrofulitic disease, was traced by the ancient Romans to the one source indicated by the name they applied: "Scrofula," diminutive of the Latin word Scrofa, hog.
"The Philadelphia Record reports the seizure of five cattle suffering from consumption and lump jaw, that were about to be made into sausage in Camden, N. J." Anon.
"Celsus affirms that the bodies which are filled with much animal food become the most quickly old and diseased. It was proverbial that the ancient athletes were the most stupid of men. The cynic Diogenes, being asked what was the cause of this stupidity, is reported to have answered, 'Because they are wholly formed of the flesh of swine and oxen.' Contagions act with greater virulence upon bodies prepared by a full diet of animal food." . . . "Abstaining from animal food palliates, when it does not cure, all constitutional diseases; while on the other hand, the use of animal food aggravates, and tends to develop to a fatal issue, such diseases. The recuperative force is more active in those who abstain from animal food, and they recover more readily and quickly from accidents and wounds." Dr. Lamb.
"Meat and whiskey are both stimulants. When one accustomed to the use of either fails to get it, a loss of force is felt. This feeling is an abnormal condition produced by the continued use of stimulating diet and drinks, that keep the system under a high pressure process, without properly nourishing it. One whose wastes are fed by flesh becomes exhausted sooner than he who depends upon plants." Dr. Stillman.
"Fat meats, butter, and all greasy substances are difficult of digestion, offensive to the stomach, and tend to derange that organ and induce disease." Dr. Beaumont.
Timoric, in his account of the plague of Constantinople, asserts that the Armenians, who live chiefly on vegetable food, were far less disposed to the disease than other people." Dr. Beaumont. "In pulmonary consumption there is no remedy equal to a diet of fruit, grains and vegetables." Dr. A. P. Buchan.
The London Lancet cites a case where a child of 18 months was covered with ulcers; head, face, neck, body, and limbs, a mass of sores; had been blind a year; eight physicians pronounced the case incurable; a diet of ripe fruit was prescribed September 13; on January 1 not an ulcer remained, the skin was clear and fair, and sight restored.
4. PSYCHOLOGICAL.
By the law of Influences, man is affected, for good or ill, by whatever surrounds him. The Soul of Things is a reality which finds a responsive recognition in the inner life of man. Spirituality or animality, refinement or grossness, in our surroundings, induces a corresponding condition in ourselves: we are magnetized by the objects, by the life around us. There are emanations from all things. The objects, animate or inanimate, so called, the creatures, the people that surround us, breathe upon us the qualities of their inner life; and we cannot escape the fact, whether conscious of its existence or not. Those who partake of animal food open the door of their animal nature, for the ingress of animal influences, and become negative, more or less, to the surrounding magnetisms emanating from the animal faculties, whether of beast or man. In this condition, they cannot so readily be approached and inspired by the truly spiritual influences, either of the earth or skies.
"Criminals confess that they cannot tell for their lives why they commit murder. This is why:—The very act of killing the animal transmits to the flesh eaten the taint of murder. The child, the youth, the man, goes heedlessly along eating of that taint until nurtured by kindred passion-making thoughts and acts, the terrible deed is done in a fit of abstraction, and the poor unfortunate is hung by the law as a warning to others. Suppose the killing idea had been obliterated from the so-called murderer's knowledge, from the food he ate, and that a vegetable diet had always been his and good passionless thoughts had been practiced from childhood up,—could the murder ever have been committed? Never! The man could not have been capable of the deed." Anon.
"One thing aids these oriental mystics: they eat no meat; and this is in keeping with a great law of nature. The more a nation abstains from the consumption of meat, the more temperate and gentle it is, and hence the better prepared for spiritual things." Anon.
Says Bronson Alcott: "Meat is out of all fitness, the opposite of spiritual food. We should subsist on vegetables and fruits, to be divine. When we pluck the apple above our head, eating is an aspiration; and the clustering grapes of our own arbor shed their soft purples in mellowing light upon the whiteness of our souls."
Thoreau observes: "I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition, has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food. . . . I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual inprovement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other, when they come in contact with the more civilized."
Under a true system of civilization, cannibalism towards animals would seem as abhorrent as does now cannibalism towards humans.
"Oh the horrors of the slaughter house! Every animal killed knows the one who takes its life, but it is helpless, yet it resists, but cannot escape the death blow; realizing the cruelty, and wrong, that makes every nerve cry out in remontrance, and its blood curdles and boils in its veins with fear and dread of what is coming; and this condition produces a high state of fever that poisons every atom of its flesh; and when eaten it causes disease that brings death to the eater, sooner or later." J. H. Neff.
"CIVILIZED CANNIBALS."
Murdering is the business of the people!
Beasts, birds, fish, all are murdered!
The pelted ox is in the car; he is crazy at the rush;
How wild and big his eyes!
He snuffs murder ahead!
A man knocks him down and stabs him!
Dead so quick?
His carcass is "decently" cut into slices,
And eaten by civilized cannibals:
Is there no other way to live?
Angels! are there any slaughter-houses in your country?
O chemists, psychologists, ethnologists!
Try your skill at extracting pabulum from all things,
Without the destruction of life!
Save us the universal crime of murdering
And devouring the innocent!
J. O. Barrett.
"I believe that vegetable diet has a decided action upon the mind. In a kind of way it dematerializes the mind: the grosser elements are kept in subjection and the spiritual rises predominant. . . . The practice of vegetarianism will play a most important part in refining the masses and rendering them less coarse and brutal. . . . Evolution is going on in our food the same as in other things." Lady Paget.
The earth-world, in its "civilized" portions at least, is now being brought in touch with the heavenly world, to an extent probably never before experienced. As one of the results of this spiritual overshadowing, may we not look for an entire abandonment, ultimately, by the civilized world, of every form of animal food? In other words, will not the animal magnetism eventually be overcome, neutralized, displaced, superceded, swept away from the earth, by spiritual magnetism, and man emerge from his animalism, cast out the beast that is now within him, cease to be brutal, and cruel, and war-like, and, looking upward for guidance through the spiritual faculties, instead of downward through the animal, become at last truly human, and achieve for himself the glorious and peaceful destiny which Nature designed for him as a mortal being capacitated to walk hand in hand with the angels?
5. PHRENOLOGICAL AND MORAL.
The use of animal food tends to develop the base of the brain prematurely, and gives rise to those passional outbursts of hate and lust, which darken human life and cover the earth with the offspring of unrestrained propensity, rather than with the tokens of mutual spiritual affection. The love which flesh-eating incites is the love of self, the love which the ferocious beast feels for his victim, the desire for self gratification regardles of effects upon others. It is unquestionable that animal food stimulates. This stimulation or excitement (like that from fermented liquors), in passing from the body into the brain comes necessarily first in contact with the lower part of the brain, and there expends itself mainly. Here are located those faculties which are related especially to the bodily and selfish life; and these are inflamed, "whipped up," thrown into a state of feverish excitement; and the higher faculties, those which should always direct and control the lower, are for the time being measurably ignored, forgotten, disregarded; which throws the human into the sphere of the animal, prostrates the higher nature at the feet of the lower, ties hand and foot the spiritual impulses, unbalances, perverts and distorts the whole mental being, and draggles in the mire and slime of beastliness and sensualism the priceless gem of angelhood, implanted in every human soul.
Animal food develops the war spirit. Note the well-known ferocity of butcher's dogs, and the taming of the tiger by farinaceous food.
"The natural diet of all animals is constitutionally calculated to develop their respective natures; and as the paramount characteristic of all carnivorous animals is rapacity and ferocity, therefore animal food, eaten by man, naturally and necessarily develops a like rapacious fiercenes in him also, whereas a vegetable diet is constitutionally adapted to foster docility and goodness." O. S. Fowler, Phrenologist.
Says Shelley: "The advantage of a reform in diet is obviously greater than that of any other. It strikes at the root of the evil. To remedy the abuses of legislation, before we regulate the propensities by which they are produced, is to suppose that by taking away the effect, the cause will cease to operate."
"A tiger can be fed upon a diet from which flesh is excluded, and have tolerable health; but he will lose the ferocious habits of his native state. A tiger's whelp fed upon vegetable food is a domesticated animal; and this is true of all carnivorous beasts." Dr Stillman.
"Not long since The Israelite had an article on the easiest method of slaughtering animals. What right, I said to myself indignantly, have they to slaughter animals at all. Who gave them the right to kill, to 'slaughter' those harmless creatures? . . . 'Thou shalt not kill' is a divine command—divine to-day, yester-day and forever. If you say this applies to man only, I would reply that I believe I can find more of useless, harmful men upon the earth than of four-footed beasts. . . . If you must kill, will kill, then hunt the human brutes." Dr. Ditson.
If all who eat flesh were obliged to do the killing, or to witness it, few there are who would not speedily become vegetarians.
"Those further advanced in civilization have become so squeamish that they employ others to do the killing, and have the flesh so cut up and seasoned with spices that they are not reminded of the crimes they are committing. When a being has arrived at that stage of civilization, it is a crime to eat flesh." The Vegetarian.
If to eat flesh be not an absolute necessity, the preliminary killing is a wholly unjustifiable barbarity.
"Did you ever go into a slaughter-house? If so, what did you find there? Killing, life-taking, bloodshed, cruelty, suffering, pain, stench, filth, cursing, anger, revenge, bleating, bellowing, groaning, disease, darkness and death. Now turn from this ghastly and horrible scene and go into the garden, and what do you find there?
Luscious fruits, golden grain, wholesome vegetables, beautiful flowers, lovely fragrance, sunshine, birds singing, bees gathering honey, peace, harmony, beauty, life. Everything lovely, beautiful and healthful. Now the
law of God, nature, or life, is that like produces like. Then if you live on the products of the butcher, (or rather murder) house, can you not see that the result or fruits will be the same? And on the other hand, if you live on the products of the garden, God's appointed store-house, you will have life, health, peace, harmony, happiness and beauty." Dr. Neff.
"There is a better way, one that must triumph in the end—the Reign of Love, the golden rule: 'Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.' No other law is necessary, and under it no animal can be killed and eaten. . . . It is against the law in this country to eat human beings; so flesh eaters
take bodies of any animals that are not protected by law. . . The difference between cannibalism and feeding on any flesh, is only in degree—the crime is the same in both cases. . . . We should be able to do right by the animal kingdom—something which we cannot do so long as flesh is eaten. ... It would not be a slight thing if we should dispense with the slaughter, or murder, every year in the United States of from 60,000,000 to 70,000,000 animals. . . . We could then bring up our children without developing in them the instinct of cruelty." Anon.
Humboldt says: "The habit of eating animals diminishes our natural horror of cannibalism. It is, indeed, civilized cannibalism; we care tenderly for (domesticated) animals, cherish and fatten them (like as the savage cannibal fattens his captive before eating him) only in the end to show our 'love' by slaying and devouring!"
"I don't want to make a graveyard of my stomach. I have not eaten meat for forty years. . . . Would there not be less murder in the land, if less killing of animals? I believe it makes people bloody and savage. Stop killing animals, and you will not kill me. In the company of Christians who kill animals I am afraid, but not in the company of a Hindoo. Away with this bloodletting. Elder Fred W. Evans, Shaker.
"It was not from those who lived on vegetables, that robbers or murderers, sycophants or tryants, have proceeded; but fiom flesh-eaters. Porphyry of Tyre.
Following the disuse of animal food, it will be found that alcoholic drinks, tobacco, morphine and the like (including all drug medicines) will also cease to be used.
"In the same line of argument lies the question of intemperance. Temperance advocates can talk until 'dooms-day,' but the drinking habit will never be obliterated so long as we partake of flesh diet. A heavy drinker is invariably a heavy meat eater. The unfortunate drunkard never dreams that the feverish, poisonous germs gnawing at his vitals, first found their lodgement out of the flesh that had been killed." Dr. Ditson.
"The craving for strong liquors invariably ceases with abstinence from flesh. A vegetarian is never a drunkard. I am not an advocate of medicines of any kind. Plenty of air, cold water and sunshine, combined with a vegetarian diet and a healthy occupation, make the best doctor. . . . There is one great difficulty in this country [England]: you do not get sufficient fruit, ripened in the sun. Look at the Italians in their sunny clime—they almost live upon fruit, and how healthy they are!" Lady Augusta Paget.
"The use of animal food hurries on life with an unnatural and unhealthy rapidity. We arrive at puberty too soon; the passions are developed too early; in the male they acquire an impetuosity approaching to madness; females become mothers too early and too frequently; and finally, the system becomes prematurely exhausted and destroyed, and we become diseased and old, when we ought to be in middle life." Dr. Lamb.
While the eating of animal food thus stimulates propensity, and unbalances the higher and lower natures, the act of slaughtering animals blunts moral sentiment, and is revolting to the most ennobling instincts and sympathies of human nature. Children invariably shrink with horror at sight of butchery—as do all persons whose native sympathies have not been habitually violated, blunted and crushed.
Thoreau observes: "I have found repeatedly of late years, that I cannot fish without falling a little in self respect. I have tried it again and again. I have skill at it; but always when I have done, I feel that it would have been better if I had not fished."
"Little Carl, our bright-eyed happy-faced, sunny-tempered boy of 10, had been fishing. He came home jubilant over the fact of having caught five rock bass.
Carl said his prayers as usual that night and went to bed. Pretty soon he called out: "O, mamma, one poor little fish was hurt dreadfully! The hook was fastened in so tight that I couldn't get it out, and another boy had to do it for me. The little fish's body was all torn and bleeding. O mamma, it was just awful! How it must have hurt! I felt so sorry that I put it right back into the water." Our Youth.
O. S. Fowler remarks: "What could the lion, or tiger, or butcher do with active Benevolence, or Conscientiousness (or Spirituality)? . . . No one faculty should ever be so exercised as to clash with the normal function of any other. . . . . Animal food is therefore (unnatural, improper, and injurious,) because it can be procured only by violating man's moral constitution."
"The only reasonable standpoint is to abstain from food which necessitates the infliction of pain and the taking of life. It is about two years ago, when I had occasion to read some papers about slaughter houses and the transport of cattle, that the irresistible conviction came upon me that I must choose between giving up the eating of animal food or my peace of mind, so revolting were the disclosures made. Oh, the poor cattle, knocked about, frightened, starved and left without water while exposed to the burning rays of the sun or huddled together in the transport ships ! Can anything be more cruel? And these were not the only considerations which moved me. I began to feel that I had no right to indulge in food which necessitated any of my fellow creatures following a brutalizing and degrading occupation like that of a butcher. Having weighed well these matters I became a fullblown vegetarian." Lady Paget.
The useful, docile, gentle, innocent, teachable, beautiful, nimble, long-lived, patient, enduringly strong animals, subsist upon plant food; while the idle and useless, vicious and cruel, unteachable, treacherous, uncomely and repulsive, impatient, excitable and only spasmodically strong, relatively short-lived, predatory creatures, eagerly devour flesh.
The slaughter and consumption of animals for food may be entirely consistent with the present form of "civilization;" may be appropiate to the era of war
general violence and confusion, sensualism and corruption; but it is not consistent with a social system which looks to the removal from the earth of these and all other evils, and the establishment of universal purity and spirituality, order, love, harmony and peace.
Waving his horns and looking for pelf;
The baker, upon his bread board below,
Was kneading and rolling about the dough.
As the baker's rolling-pin struck the lumps,
The shelf was shaken—the cockroach fell—
Ah, where?—The baker could not tell!
Stern fate would have the cockroach go;
Dead and buried—his fate unknown—
Perished the cockroach all alone.
In its midst a bit of dainty bread;
A lovely lady, with hands most fair,
Unraveled the napkin lying there.
A pig, with skewers its joints to bind;
A hare, with parsley stuck in his nose;
And snipes and pheasants, all laid in rows.
Were carved by the flourish of sharp-edged steel;
The well-charged waiters were borne around
By valets, in coats with gold-lace bound.
That dance in the hall on the wax-light beams;
But he must have a most delicate smell,
Who by the strange odor the dish could tell!
That circle around the lady fair:
The guests all around the table arise—
Gaze toward her in dread surprise.
"And kindly, I pray, don't question me!"
And glad were they, when the fright was o'er,
To turn to the sumptuous feast once more.
Delicate morsels of richest meat;
A dreadful sight met her constant view—
She had bitten the cockroach through and through!
Was the "ghost" of the luckless cockroach seen;
And while confusion in her ears did ring,
The spirit of the cockroach seemed to sing:—
Why rolled your eyes and paled your cheek?
Why dread to bite a poor worm like me,
But eat sheep and sivine most greedily?"
See the table strewn with carcasses there—
Mangled and torn, all flesh from bone—
O, leave such horrible feasts alone!
Bear gracious nourishment for thee;
Live, fair one, as a lady should;
And being beautiful—be good!
Be thou more merciful than they;
Thy health will last—thy life be long!—
Anon.And thus the cockroach ceased his song."
6. CHEMICAL.
Since all the animals obtain their food—either directly, or in the case of the carnivorous indirectly—from the plant kingdom, it follows that we gain nothing, chemically considered, by taking our sustenance at second hand from the animals.
Chemical analysis of various articles of diet shows that not only are the elements of human nutrition all present in the plant kingdom, but in more abundant quantity in many of the articles in common use, and combined in more suitable proportions, than is the case with any animal flesh.
In muscle making properties barley, southern corn, oats, wheat, beans, lentils, peas etc., outrank beef; in heat and fat producing, nuts, sweet cherries, dates, figs, prunes, barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, rice, rye, wheat, beans, lentils, peas, sweet potatoes etc., far outrank the meats; in phosphorus, figs, prunes, barley, southern corn, oats, beans, peas, etc., excel animal flesh; in the higher elements of nerve and brain nutrition, lying beyond the scope of present chemical science, in the realm of physiological electro-magnetism or psychical chemistry, the fruits, nuts, and grains are inmeasurably superior to all forms of animal diet; while as to the relative proportion of solid matter and water, wheat, peas, rice, beans, lentils, corn, and oatmeal head the list with 3 to 3½ times as much solid matter as the meats—and the juicy fruits and vegetables are on the other hand superior to the meats where a large amount of liquid is desirable.
Health and strength can perhaps be more perfectly sustained upon whole wheat [unbolted, unleavened] than upon any other one article: it containing more nearly the due proportion of azotized and non-azotized matter, required to renew the system and to supply combustible material.
The muscles are nourished by the nitrates; fat and heat are derived from the carbonates; the brain, nerves and bones use the phosphates. These are present in the body in about the proportion of 25 per cent. of nitrates, 62 of carbonates, and 8 of the phosphates. Substances containing these elements in organized plant form are required for food. In the inorganic, mineral, or purely chemical form they are not food, and if used do not make blood or tissue. If twice or doubly organized, beyond the plant form into the animal form, the combination becomes weaker for purposes of nutrition—the substances are far on their way back to the inorganic form and are heavily laden with the element and principle of decay: each mouthful of flesh, with its blood, containing wornout and broken-down cells—decomposed tissues—effete matter practicaly dead, inorganic and poisonous, and on its way to the lungs, skin, and kidneys for rejection. This waste matter when such food is eaten, is a source of irritation in the system—which in addition to the normal elimination of its own waste, has a more than double task imposed upon it, and is "stimulated" to undue exertion in the effort to rid itself of the foreign invader. The result is that the purifying organs have more to do than they can perform; some portion of the waste matter remains in the blood, is circulated and re-deposited, and the tissues and organs become laden with humors and diseases of every form and every degree of severity and loathsomeness. How much better to conform to Nature's physiological chemistry and not attempt to nourish life with the elements of death!
"Four classes of substances are necessary for the maintenance of life—the albuminoids, the carbohydrates, the fats, the minerals. Now meat contains but three of these, while the vegetables contain all four. Vegetable food is also necessary for our intellectual life: the phosphorus contained in vegetable food is almost double the amount contained in animal food. . . . Those who believe that meat gives the rose color to the cheeks and lips are in error. As professor Mussa has shown, the amount of iron oxide contained in vegetable food is much greater than that found in meat." Dr. DeNeville.
"Every element required for nutrition is found in the plant kingdom." Dr. Edward Smith.
"I have no hesitancy in expressing an opinion in favor of the sufficiency of a dietary from which the meat element is wholly excluded." Dr. Guy, King's College, London.
"As regards laborers who seek strength and muscle in pork and beef, may we not refer them to the ox, the horse, the bison, the elephant, and ask if these powerful creatures get their majestic muscles from dead hogs, horses, sheep, cows and hens? Must the working ox digest three or four pounds of beef per day that he may keep up his strength? There is nothing more strikingly simple in Nature than the fact that other substances produce these results. Will you deny this in the face of an unmistakable truth, and assert to-morrow that you must have sausage and chicken, mutton and ham, to sustain you ? . . . That cold countries require flesh-eating to generate heat in the body, is an exploded notion. . . . Vegetable fibrine and animal fibrine, vegetable albumen and animal albumen hardly differ even in form." G. L. Ditson, M. D.
Grain and other nutritious vegetables yield us, not only starch, sugar and gum, the carbon which protects our organs from the action of oxygen, and produces in the organism the heat which is essential to life; but also, in the form of vegetable fibrine, albumen and caseine, our blood, from which the other parts of our body are developed." Prof. Liebig, in "Animal Chemistry."
7. AGRICULTURAL.
It requires not more than one-eighth as much land to sustain a given number of persons from the direct products of the soil, as from those products converted into beef or pork.
"A spot of ground which, if in Mexico when used for bananas, will support two hundred aud fifty persons, would sustain in wheat in Europe ten persons, or in beef and pork only one." Humboldt.
"Careful estimates prove that a horse (or cow) requires for its sustenance the product of eight times as much land as would furnish food for a man." New York Tribune.
A system of life which rejects animal food will include a system of agriculture which rejects animal fertilizers—at least until they have been returned to the inorganic condition, by decay, composting with lime etc. While the human (or animal) organism cannot be built up with unorganized substance, the plant world requires it and cannot be nourished with any other. Vegetable or animal substances used as fertilizers, until they may be mechanically absorbed as foreign matter, cannot be appropriated by the growing plant, until they have been decomposed and returned to the inorganic realm. Fresh animal fertilizers in contact with plants induce an irritation or stimulation, by premature absorption, and generate disease. Vegetables thus treated may grow rapidly but they are frail and feverish, will not endure drouth, decay early and are not so clean and wholesome.
8. ECONOMICAL AND LABORIAL.
In point of economy, in both labor and money, it is a great mistake to use flesh. To "own" animals is to be owned by animals.
It is proved by chemical deduction that as much real nutriment can be obtained for a given sum, from farinaceous food and fruits, as for several times that sum expended on the flesh and juices of animals. The economy of labor in favor of vegetarianism (or of fruit-eating) is beyond estimation. Who that has ever had charge of animals, has produced their food and fed it to them etc., does not know what an incessant slavery it imposes? Who that has ever cooked on the usual plan, with flesh and its concomitants, has not inwardly sighed, yea, groaned in spirit, at the endless complications and never ending demands of the kitchen? At least nine-tenths of the labor of the kitchen, especially of the disagreeable portion thereof, would be dispensed with by a simple diet, consisting mainly of fruits and nuts. To follow a modern cook-book were as disastrous to purse and health—as physically and morally impossible—as to follow the fashion magazines! Who that has served the numerous courses in which dead animals predominate, removed the horrid "remains," washed the greasy "dishes, pots and kettles," etc., but has wondered, at least, if there might not be some way of ministering to the food-wants of the body, less tedious, odious, revolting and filthy?
"Did you ever think how much the American people work for the animal world? To raise hogs, cattle, calves, mutton, poultry etc., constitutes half of a farmer's labor. Think also of the amount of consumption in grain and vegetables to feed these. Were these farmers vegetarians they could live well on half the labor they now expend. Then again, when we contemplate the number of butchers and traffickers in flesh, the scene becomes truly appalling. Were all these laborers to go into the fields, and there cultivate vegetables and fruits, the price of living in the great cities would be reduced miore than one-half. Then our people would begin to be clean and healthy. No smallpox would molest them. The desire for intoxicating drinks would pass away." Anon.
"Whether cattle are, in civilized countries, a blessing or a curse, we will not now argue. We have our private opinion that the whole tribe of domestic animals, in all places where the earth's surface will admit of general cultivation, are, with the single exception of a few of the working creatures, not only a nuisance to the human race, but a source of national poverty, and a cause of epidemics, diseases, and frequent pestilences. But so long as the majority of our people can find immediate gain and present pleasure in the rearing of cattle and swine, and in the use of, and traffic in, beef, pork, butter, cheese, etc., we can hardly expect that all the lessons of all the pestilences that have ever desolated the earth, nor all the lectures on physiology and the laws of life that we can write, will induce the masses so to revolutionize their habits of living as to exchange the cattle-raising and hog-breeding business to the more ennobling, and healthful and permanently profitable cultivation of grain, fruits, and vegetables. We could easily show that less than one fourth of the toil of the laboring classes, which is now expended in the pork, beef, and dairy business, were it intelligently directed to legitimate and normal agriculture, would provide ample nutrition for all the millions that exist on the globe." R. T. Trall, M. D.
PROPORTIONATE COST IN LAND AND IN DOLLARS OF TYPICAL ARTICLES OF DIET:
| 100 Parts. | Muscle Making. | Heat and Fat Making. | Total. | Lbs a Year For a Man. | Acres Requ'd. | Cost. |
| Wheat | 14.6 | 69.4 | 84 | 560 | 13 | $11 |
| Oats | 17 | 66.4 | 83.4 | 560 | 12 | 10 |
| Beans | 23 | 58.7 | 81.7 | 577 | 1 | 26 |
| Peas | 23 | 60 | 84 | 560 | 1 | 25 |
| Potatoes | 2.4 | 22 | 24.4 | 2012 | 14 | 50 |
| Apples | 5 | 10 | 15 | 3136 | 14 | 40 |
| Figs | 5 | 58 | 63 | 775 | 12 | 60 |
| Prunes | 3.9 | 78 | 570 | 560 | 13 | 50 |
| Beef | 15 | 14 | 29 | 1650 | 4 | 200 |
This table shows that a person living on beef alone (if such a thing were possible) would require for his support twelve times as much land as if he lived on wheat or prunes alone, or sixteen times as much as if on potatoes or apples; the cost in money being eighteen times as much as for wheat, twenty as for oats, four times as for potatoes or prunes, five times as for apples, eight times as for peas or beans, etc. (Combining the inequalities, it might be said that beef represents 12 x 18, or 216 times as many items of cost—including land and money—as does wheat!)
Phosphorus is left out of the calculation, the per cent, being too small to materially alter the result as to the purpose intended. If the list were extended, still more striking contrasts would appear.
If we based our estimates and comparisons upon the use of only such food as is attractive, palatable, wholesome and nutritious in its natural state, uncooked, plant food would be still more overwhelmingly superior, both in point of economy and labor, and in every phase of lofty and noble sentiment.
9. GUSTATORIAL.
It is the uniform experience and testimony of those who have abstained from animal food and its usual concomitants, for some considerable time, that their pleasure in eating is greatly increased. Their food "relishes" better. Their nerves of taste are in a healthy, natural condition, instead of being blunted and seared and "tanned" and deadened by being brought in contact with highly-seasoned, stimulating food, hot drinks, tobacco etc.
"I became a vegetarian from ethical considerations; and the problem that for sometime tormented me was, whether it were possible to keep up a successful and at all interesting existence without ox-hips. There is now no doubt about the possibility of such an existence, nor even as to its positive hygienic advantages. I had been considerable of a vulture, and for some time after eliminating flesh from my menu I had a desire for it. But gradually that desire faded away, and there came in its stead a growing repugnance for flesh. After a few weeks of fruits and vegetables there came over me a feeling of exaltation and superiority, intellectual crispness and moral and physical integrity, that was truly novel." J. Howard Moore, Author.
The blood and breath of carnivorous animals emit an unpleasant, ghastly scent, while those of herbiverous do not. Compare the cat and cow.
Says Plutarch: "It is best to accustom ourselves to eat no flesh at all, for the earth affords plenty enough of things not only fit for nourishment, but for enjoyment and delight. You ask me, 'for what reason Pythagoras abstained from 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 dead carcass; or what motive could suggest the notion of nourishing himself with the flesh of animals which he saw, the moment before, bleating, bellowing, walking, and looking around them. How could he bear to see an impotent and defenceless creature slaughtered, skinned, and cut up for food? How could he endure the sight of the convulsed limbs and muscles? How bear the smell arising from the dissection? Whence happened it that he was not disgusted and struck with horror, when he came to handle the bleeding flesh and clear away the clotted blood and humors from the wounds? We should, therefore, rather wonder at the conduct of those who first indulged themselves in this horrible repast, than at such as have humanely abstained from it."
Everything connected with the use of flesh is disagreable, filthy, non-elevating, laborious and enslaving. Everything connected with the use of fruits, nuts, grains etc., is on the contrary agreable, cleanly, elevating, simple and easy, and promotive of liberty and leisure.
THE SONG OF THE VEGETARIAN.
Away with your beef and your mutton!
Avaunt with your capers and sauce!
For beeksteaks I don't care a button!
Veal cutlets! I count them as dross;
Lamb stew, chicken salad, don't mention;
With my stomach roast pig don't agree;
From such messes I practice abstention—
Farinacea's the forage for me!
O stay me with rice and with porridge!
O comfort me sweetly with grits!
Baked beans give me plenty of courage.
And cracked wheat enlivens my wits.
From such food new youth I shall borrow,
Till, as hearty as hearty can be,
I expire of old age, like Cornaro—
Farinacea's the forage for me!
When night comes, ah! sweet the reflection
(As my senses are muffled in sleep),
Nothing living to serve my refection
Has been butchered—not even a sheep.
No lamb has been led to the slaughter;
No calves hung up by their feet;
No lobsters been drowned in hot water;
No cows killed that I might have meat.
Clean of heart I encounter the cattle—
Let brutal carnivora blush!
When my soul is oppressed with life's battle,
I forget all about it in mush.
Begone with your flesh-pots of Egypt;
To the dogs with your coffee and tea;
Let your pates de foie gras be reshipped—
Farinacea's the forage for me!
Arcadian.
10. INTUITIONAL.
It is in accordance with the universal, instinctive demand and perception of the unperverted, natural appetite of childhood, to call for "fruit, fruit, fruit!" This is the "voice of God," crying aloud in the wilderness of human depravity ignorance and animality, for that which shall yet constitute the actual form of sustenance for the human race, as it already constitutes the really true and legitimate form—using the word fruit in its broad sense, to include nuts and grains.
Those who from moral conviction reject the usual mixed diet, and return toward the natural or fruit diet, enjoy presently a certain intuitive consciousness of the rightness of the principle, which becomes more and more clear and powerful, in proportion to the thoroughness with which the principle is adhered to; until at length nothing can be more certain and real than this same instinctive, indescribable, self-demonstrating consciousness—which is above and beyond, and yet fully in harmony with Reason.
All who, from principle, have gone far in the diet reform, have enjoyed this blissful realization of being in accord with the voice of God in the soul—than which there can be nothing more delightful or more needful to the human race in every department of life.
To quote again from Shelley: "It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparations, that it is rendered susceptible of easy mastication and digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices does not excite intolerable loathing, horror and disgust. Let the the advocate of animal food force himself to a decisive experiment on its fitness, and, as Plutarch recommends, tear a living lamb with his teeth, and, plunging his head into its vitals, slake his thirst with the steaming blood. When fresh from the deed of horror, let him revert to the irresistible instincts of nature, that would rise in judgment against it, and say, 'Nature formed me for such work as this.' Then, and then only, would he be consistent."
11. HISTORICAL.
Says Dr. Whitlaw: "All philosophers have given their testimony in favor of vegetable food, from Pythagoras to Franklin."
Says Dr. Bell: "By far the greater number of the inhabitants of the earth have used in all ages, and continue to use at this time, vegetable aliment alone."
"Two fifths of the world's population to-day subsist principally upon rice. So far as a vegetarian diet being incompatible with health and muscular power is concerned, it would seem that any intelligent man ought to know that the whole history of the human race proves to the contrary. From the pre-historic period to the time of the Roman soldiers, who often performed their wonderful campaigns under the meagre (?) stimulus afforded by coarse brown bread and sour wine, down to the coolie of the present day, who, fed on rice, is much more active and enduring than the negro meat-eater—including the peasantry of the various parts of Europe, who thrive on the coarsest vegetable and fruit diet—the facts are certainly refutatory of the implications above refered to." A. W. Stockwell.
The writer has abstained from flesh about forty-five years, having become convinced when a lad of fourteen or fifteen, by reading, observation, reflection and instinct, that the use of animal food tends to degrade and brutalize the human race, and keep it in subjection to the animal appetites and passions. That it is unnecessary to either health, strength or longevity, witness the ox, horse, camel, elephant, reindeer, etc., who derive their immense strength and endurance from herbage alone; witness the ancient Pythagorians and Essenes; the great mass of the ancient Egyptians and Persians, whose physical, mental and moral superiority are well-known facts of history; the Brahmins, who eschew milk and its products and eggs, as well as flesh, yet are among the most healthy, vigorous and long-lived of their race; the great bulk of the four hundred and fifty lions of Chinese, who subsist mainly upon rice and use neither butter, cheese nor milk; the negroes of Brazil, who subsist almost wholly upon farinha or mandioca flour, and yet endure the hardest labor; the Mexican Indians, according to Humboldt; the Society of Bible Christians, whose creed embraced vegetarianism, and one of whose American members was reputed to be the strongest man in Philadelphia; the bulk of the hardiest and hardest laboring class in Scotland and Ireland, whose chief reliance is upon oatmeal and potatoes; the peasantry of France, who live mostly upon bread, and the common people of Spain, who live principally upon bread and onions; the Caffres of the coast of Africa, who subsist mostly upon "mellis" or corn, and who according to Prof. Welch of Yale University, are a hardy race, who live to be over a century old, and who "are singly able to lift a bag of salt from the ground, raise it to the head, carry it down an embankment and on board the vessel—the whole weight of which is not less than six hundred pounds;" the Brazilian women, seen by the same, who can carry bags of sugar in the same manner, weighing three or four hundred pounds, and who live on fruits; Himalayans, seen at Calcutta, whose strength was said to be equal to that of three Europeans—who were able to "grasp a man with one hand on his chest and the other on his back and hold him out at arm's length so tightly that he could not escape—yet these men never ate animal food, nor drank any stronger drink than water."
Witness also the experiments, experience and testimony of many of the most eminent philanthropic progressive and pure thinkers, writers and doers, in all ages of the world; such as the Grecian poet Homer, three thousand years ago, who observed that "the Homolgians (Pythagorians) were the longest-lived and honestest of men;" Plautus, a distinguished Roman writer of two thousand years ago; Seneca; Plutarch, the "father of history;" Cicero, the Roman orator, who said, "Man was destined to a better occupation than that of pursuing and cutting the throats of dumb creatures;" Cyrus the Great, of Persia, who was brought up on bread and water, and who, with his vegetarian army, conquered the then known world; the immortal law-giver of Sparta, Lycurgus, whose people and army were among the most brave, heroic, athletic and enduring known to history; the army of ancient Rome in its palmiest days; the Polish soldiers of the army of Napoleon, who were especially noted for their wonderful endurance, and who lived on oatmeal bread and potatoes; Claudius Galen, second century, the celebrated physician, who lived one hundred and forty years, and practiced always the most rigid temperance and abstemiousness; Socrates; the philosopher Epicurus; Zeno, the stoic philosopher ; Diogenes, the cynic, who declared, "We might as well eat the flesh of men as the flesh of other animals;" Troctus, Empedocles, Quintus, Sextus, Appolonius; Porphyry of Tyre, third century, who wrote a book on abstinence from animal food, and maintained the following propositions—1, "That a conquest over the appetites and passions will contribute greatly to preserve health and to remove distemper," 2, "That a simple vegetable diet is a mighty help toward obtaining this conquest over ourselves;" Ovid, who represents Pythagoras as saying:
"Take not away the life you cannot give;
For all things have an equal right to live.
Kill noxious creatures, where 'tis sin to save;
This only just prerogative we have:
But nourish life with vegetable food,
And shun the sacreligious taste of blood;"
Lord Bacon; Peter Gassendi, famous French philosopher; Voltaire; Rousseau; Prof. Hitchcock, the eminent geologist of Amherst College; Dr. Thomas Dick, author of the "Philosophy of Religion;" Prof. Bush; Thomas Shillitoe, a distinguished Quaker; many of the ers;" Oliver Goldsmith, the naturalist and poet, who
wrote:
"No flocks that roam the mountains free
To slaughter I condemn:
Taught by the hand that pities me,
I learn to pity them;"
Alexander Pope, the poet, who ascribes all the bad passions and diseases of the human race to their subsisting on the flesh, blood and miseries of animals; Emanuel Swedenborg; Sir Isaac Newton; Sir Richard Phillips, the Abbe Gallani; Benjamin Franklin; Horace Greeley, Newton, an English author; Dr. Cheyne, who says, "I have sometimes indulged the conjecture that animal
food was not intended for human creatures. They seem to me neither to have those strong and fit organs for digesting them, nor those cruel and hard hearts, or those diabolical passions, which would easily suffer them to tear and destroy their fellow-creatures. To see the convulsions, agonies, and tortures of a poor fellow-creature, whom they cannot restore or recompense, dying to gratify luxury, must require a rocky heart and a great degree of cruelty and ferocity. I cannot find any great difference, on the fact of natural reason and equity only, between feeding on human flesh and feeding on brute animal flesh, except custom and example;" Dr. Jackson, distinguished surgeon in the English army, who said: "My health has been tried in all ways in all climates. I have worn out two armies and can wear out another. I eat no animal food and drink no spirits of any kind, wear
no flannel at any season, and regard neither wind, rain, heat or cold;" Thomas Parr, who died at the age of one hundred and fifty two years and some months; Johnson, American missionary to Trebizond; Chandler and Caswell, missionaries to Siam; Magliabechi, an Italian, who abjured cookery, at the age of forty, and confined himself for about fifty years afterwards chiefly to fruits and grains and water; Oberlin and Swartz; Francis Hupazoli, sardinian ecclesiastic, merchant at Scio, and Venetian Consul at Smyrna, who ate but little except fruits, and drank water, and lived one hundred and fifteen years; Miss Hinckley, poetess; John Whitcomb, whose health was so good at one hundred and four years that he rose and bathed himself in cold water, even in mid-winter—whose wounds would heal like those of a child—who drank only water for eighty years, and subsisted for thirty years on bread and milk chiefly; Captain Ross, the celebrated navigator, who with his company spent the winter of 1830-31 above 70° North latitude, without beds or bed-clothing, or animal food with no evidence of any suffering from the mere disuse of flesh and fish; Henry Francisco, one hundred and twenty-five years old; Prof. Adam Ferguson; Howard the philanthropist, who with constitution not very strong, endured in his visits to the prisons of Europe the greatest fatigue of body and mind, and the most dangerous exposures to pestilential diseases; Gen. Elliot, British; Thomas Bell, F. R. S., etc., previously cited; Sir Charles Bell; Linnaeus, the naturalist; Prof. Owen; Shelley the poet, who entertained the most earnest convictions on this subject, and wrote a treatise against the slaughter of animals and their use as food; John Wesley, who, for the last half of his long life of eighty-eight years, was a thorough-going vegetarian, and who lived four successive years entirely on potatoes, never enjoying better health than then, nor relaxing his arduous labors; Henry Judkins, who lived one hundred and sixty-nine years; Ephraim Pratt, one hundred and sixteen years (who, on account of ill health, adopted a vegetable diet at seventy and was well ever after); his son, one hundred and three years; John Maxwell, one hundred and four years (married at seventy a third wife, who bore him seven children, married again at ninety-five—could walk sixty miles in nine hours); J . Effingham of Cornwall, who died in 1757, aged one hundred and forty-four years (walked a league eight days before his death); Patrick O'Neill, at one hundred and thirteen married a seventh wife, walked without a cane, was never ill in his life; Baron Cuvier; Lamartine, educated a vegetarian of the strictest sort, and who possessed as fine a physical frame as could be found in France; Samuel Chinn of Marblehead Mass., who subsisted four years on fruit and unground wheat, uncooked—and who, being appointed a delegate to a convention at Worcester, fifty-eight miles distant, filled his pocket with wheat walked there during one day, attended the convention, and the third day walked home again with comparative ease; "Father Sewall," of Maine, a man of giant size, who lived ninety years or more, and abstained from flesh and fish, etc., between thirty and forty years; Miles Grant, the noted Adventist, who could preach fifteen sermons a week, and perform a vast amount of other labor; Bronson Alcott, the "sage of Concord;" Thoreau, the sweet writer of Nature; Geofrey, Percy and Vauguelin, distinguished French chemists; Dr. J. Berdell, distinguished dentist of New York; Drs. Sylvester Graham, Alcott, Shew, Priessnitz, Abernethy, Smethurst, Schrodt, Schlemmer, Claude Bernard, Trail, Rush, Guy of King's College London, Jarvis, Jennings, Beaumont, Van Coothe, Condie, Clark, Buchan, Salgues, Cullen, Gregory, James, Hufeland, Taylor, Cranstoun, Foote, Oswald, Ditson, Kellogg, Robertson, Heald, Gorhan, Peebles, Stillman, and a host of other physicians of the present day, together with their numerous pupils and followers; Rev.
Henry S. Clubb, President Vegetarian Society of America and editor of Food, Home and Garden, Vice President Universal Peace Union and editor of the Peacemaker, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pa.; Profs. O. S. and L. N. Fowler, Prof. S. R. Wells, Prof. Nelson Sizer, Prof. Mussey, etc., etc.
12. EVENTUAL.
The trend of the world is towards a non-animal diet. Numerous vegetarian eating-houses, boarding houses and sanitariums have been established in Germany, Austria, France, England and the United States, with excellent results. Vegetarian societies in Europe and America, periodicals and books, are also among the agencies now rapidly disseminating the Vegetarian Philosophy—the Gospel of Peace on Earth as applied to the Diet of Man. When the earth becomes everywhere densely populated, it will become necessary to economize the soil, which can best be done by ceasing to keep animals for food—for the reason that a vastly greater population can be sustained by the direct productions of the soil, than when those productions are converted into flesh. The race will then become from necessity, if it shall not already have become so from choice or moral conviction, vegetarians.
(Already is this prospective necessity become a present one in China; in which country, according to Sir John Davis, the raising of cattle and all other kinds of stock is explicitly discouraged, on the ground that it exhausts the soil, and tends to lessen its capacity to produce food for man. In New England the density of population is restricting the local production of meats to a quantity far below the present demand.)
And it will then become necessary to balance the births and deaths; which, in the pure, spiritual and intuitive conditions accompanying the universal elevation of man to a fruit diet and consequent passional self-control, will be practicable and easy.
Then will the earth become one vast garden of fruits and flowers, where purity, love and innocence may repose in peaceful bowers; and the perhaps mythical "Eden" of the past will become a substantial verity at last! In that garden, each Adam and Eve will hear the voice of God within, and will not be "ashamed," nor "hide themselves." No butcher "Satan" shall be there to tempt them to partake of the forbidden flesh. The "tree of knowledge" will shed for them its luscious fruits, and they shall partake and be happy. "Paradise is regained!"
"No longer now
He slays the lamb that looks him in the face,
And horribly devours his mangled flesh;
Which, still avenging nature's broken law,
Kindled all putrid humors in his frame,—
All evil passions, and all vain belief,
Hatred, despair, and loathing in his mind,—
The germs of misery, death, disease, and crime.
No longer now the winged inhabitants,
That in the woods their sweet lives sing away,
Flee from the form of man; but gather round,
And prune their sunny feathers on the hands
Which little children stretch, in friendly sport,
Towards these dreadless partners of their play."
Shelley.
SUPPLEMENTARY (A.)
A LIST OF FOODS DERIVED FROM THE PLANT KINGDOM.
CLASS 1.—FROM FLOWERING PLANTS. | |
| 1. Seeds. | 5. Leaves, Leaf Stalks, Flowers. |
| 2. Fleshy Fruits. | 6. Receptacles, Bracts. |
| 3. Roots, Subterranean Stems, Tubers. | 7. Stems. |
| 4. Bulbs, Young Shoots. | 8. Sap. |
CLASS 2.—FROM FLOWERLESS PLANTS. | |
| 1. Ferns. | 3. Algæ or Sea Weeds. |
| 2. Lichens. | 4. Fungi or Mushrooms. |
(CLASS 1.) Sub-Class 1.—Seeds or Seed-Fruits.
(a) Mealy.
1. Cereals or Grains.—Wheat, Oats, Barley, Rye, Maize [Corn,] Buckwheat, Rice, Millet, Sorghum, Durra.
2. Legumes.—Peas, Beans, Lentils, Cacao-Beans [Chocolate.]
3. Capsules.—Chestnuts.
(b.) Oily.
Nuts.—Butternut, Black Walnut, Hickory-nut, Hazel-nut, Filbert, Beech-nut, Peanut, Almond, Pecan, Brazil or Castana-nut, Cocoanut, Maderia-nut, Cashew-nut, Pistachio-nut, Sweet Acorn, etc.
Sub-Class 2.—Fleshy Fruits.
1. Drupes.—Peach, Nectarine, Apricot, Plum, Cherry, Olive, Date.
2. Pomes.—Apple, Pear, Quince, Accoo, Mellar.
3. Berries. [Baccate or Berried Fruits.] Grape, Currant, Gooseberry, Huckleberry, Barberry, Buffalo-berry, (Checkerberry,) Cranberry, Elderberry.
4. Aurangiæ.—Orange, Lemon, Lime, Citron, Shaddock, Pomegranate.
5. Solanaceæ.—Tomato, Egg-Plant, Okra.
6. Gourds, Pepones.—Cucumber, Muskmelon, Watermelon, Pumpkin, Squash.
7. Cycones.—Figs.
8. Sorosis—Mulberry, Pineapple.
9. Eterio.—Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackberry , Blueberry. Brambleberry.
10. Unclassified.—Bread-Fruit, Guava, Durion, Manna, Lecchi, Jujube, Shuvia, Avocador, Mangostan, Locust or St. John's Bread, Cacao-Pulp, Anchovy-Pear, Mango-Apple, Pawpaw, Mandrake, Plantain, Banana, etc.
Sub-Class 3.—Esculent Roots, Subterranean Stems, Tubers.
1. Roots.—Turnip, Carrot, Parsnip, Beet, Radish: Skurret, Malanga (Cuba.)
2. Subterranean Stems.—Artichoke.
3. Tubers.—Sweet potato, White potato, Yam.
Sub-Class 4.—Bulbs, Young Shoots.
Onions, Leeks, Chivers, Shallots, Rozambole (Den-
mark,) Asparagus.
Sub-Class 5.—Leaves, Leaf Stalks and Flowers.
1. Cooked.—Cabbage, Cauliflower, Spinach, Mustard, Dandelion, Cowslip, Parsley, Beet-tops, Turnip-tops, Sorrel, etc.
2. Raw (Salads.)—Lettuce, Garden Cress, Water Cress, Celery or Smallage, Endive, Chicory, Succory, Cabbage, Cauliflower, etc.
Sub-Class 6.—Receptacles, Bracts.
Brussels Sprouts, etc.
Sub-Class 7.—Stems.
Rhubarb, (Asparagus), Milk Weed.
Sub-Class 8.—Sap.
Maple, Sugar Cane, Sorghum.
[Surely Nature, the "Bountiful Mother," has furnished us here a most extensive variety of innocent food, amply sufficient for the supply of all our proper wants—without descending to the "sacrilegious taste of blood."]
(B.)
VEGETARIAN LIFE.
No skinning of eels, no chopping of hash,
No beating of steak with rude clatter and crash;
No frying of pork with its frizzling sound,
In which tones more pleasant are haplessly drowned;
No grease on the cloth and no saving of swill,
With loathsome diseases doomed porkers to fill;
No spoiling of meats, and no fear of the flies;
They harmlessly buzz o'er the food of the wise;
No stewing of oysters (the dull, sluggish things;)
Nor turtles nor fishes—naught that bites nor that stings
No whiskey, no beer, no brandy or wine,
O'er which men grow noisy, or prone as the swine;
The sweet singing-bird is not stayed in her flight
To glut the gross maw of some death-dealing wight—
Nor lamb, nor the ox, nor sensual swine
Unfeelingly slain for the human canine.
(There's no milking of cows to rob the poor calves,
No grumbling, no hypo, no living by halves;
No churning, no butter, no making of cheese,
But oh, we live quiet and nice as you please.)
Our food? O ye gods, what a feast do we find!
To which the flesh-eater is sadly purblind.
There's fragrant strawberries, and currants like gems—
Bright rubies suspended on emerald stems—
To say naught of 'sparagus, green peas, and corn,
Food tender, nutritious, and fresh as the morn,
With the beautiful wealth of bread-forming grains
We gather from bounty of broad fertile plains;
And ripe, juicy melons, with fair, golden hues,
And pulp as refreshing as midsummer dews;
And cherries so tempting, through leaves of bright green;
The long, trembling blackberry's ebony sheen;
The raspberry, too, with the color subdued
To velvety softness, as pretty as good;
The plum, with bright surface breathed on by the fays,
Who bring out sweet honey from mellowing rays;
And proud purple grapes dyed as clouds at the dawn;
(Pray eat them ere tendrils or leaves are withdrawn!)
The peach with gray vesture of delicate hue,
While soft golden tints peep suggestively through;
The pear drooping gracefully down from its stem,
The apple, too—fruit to try flesh-eater's phlegm;
The clear sunny yellow, the rich russet brown,
The rosy-cheeked, mottled, white belt and red crown,
The green and deep crimson—all shades which the light
E'er painted, from purple to pure lily white—
Sour apples, half sour, and spicy, and sweet,
Pear-flavored, peach-flavored, all palates to meet;
The solid and light, the juicy and dry,
At hand through all seasons, in tempting supply.
With this wealth before us, the butcher may slay,
The sportsman may, vulture-like, feed on his prey;
But a purer, holier repast is ours,
In fruits kindly nursed in the heart of the flowers.
Emily M. Guthrie.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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