The reasons that are advanced for the practice of fruitarianism or vegetarianism are very comprehensive, but the principal ones may be considered to be the following:—
1. Health.—(α) On the ground that animals are affected by diseases which are communicable, and are actually communicated, to man by the ingestion of their flesh, e.g. parasites, tuberculosis; (β) on the ground that the flesh of artificially fed animals is full of excretory substances, and that, therefore, under modern conditions, flesh-eating is injurious, and may be a cause of excretory substance and uric acid deposits or rapid tissue-destroying diseases in man; e.g. gout, cancer.
2. Economy.—On the ground that the assimilable nutriment from a given weight of selected fruit and grain and nut and vegetable foods will cost less than the same nutriment obtained from flesh foods.
3. Social Economy.—On the ground that an acre of cultivable land under fruit and vegetable cultivation will produce from two to twenty times as much food as if the same land were utilized for feeding cattle.
4. Racial Improvement.—On the ground that the aim of every prosperous community should be to have a large proportion of hardy country yeomen, and that horticulture and agriculture demand such a high ratio of labour, as compared with feeding and breeding cattle, that the country population would be greatly increased by the substitution of a fruit and vegetable for an animal dietary.
5. Character Improvement.—On the ground that after the virtues of courage and valour and fearlessness have been taught in the lower stages of evolution, the virtue of gentle humaneness and extended sympathy for all that can suffer should be taught in the higher cycles of the evolutionary spiral. Flesh-eating entailing necessarily an immense volume of pain upon the sentient animal creation should be abstained from by the “higher classes” in the evolutionary scale.
Organizations have been established to advocate this method of living under the name of “Vegetarian Societies” in many countries—chiefly the United Kingdom, America, Germany, France, Austria, Holland and Australia. Propagandism is carried on by lectures, literature, cookery demonstrations and restaurants. In England, the oldest and one of the most important societies is “The Vegetarian Society,” of which the headquarters are at Oxford Street, Manchester. There are also several small London societies, and an active London Association. A few provincial towns, too, have small societies. An attempt has been made to organize the various vegetarian societies of the world under the title of “The Vegetarian Federal Union.” The headquarters of the London societies and of the “Union” are at Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, E.C.
There are nominally about 35 organized societies in existence, but the extent to which public opinion and practice in the matter of dietary has been affected by vegetarianism is not to be gauged by the membership of such organizations. There are in England a number of vegetarian restaurants and boarding-houses, one hospital and one or two sanatoria. In Germany and America there are many institutions where flesh is only prescribed in special cases. Flesh food is not included in the dietary of the chief hospitals and orphanages of the native states of India, excepting in the wards devoted to Europeans.
The athletic side of the movement has been represented in national and international races by vegetarians winning the Berlin and Dresden walking match (125 m.), the Carwardine Cup (100 m.) and Dibble Shield (6 hours) cycling races (1901 and 1902), the amateur championship of England in racquets and in tennis (held by Mr Eustace Miles for a series of years), the cycling championship of India (3 years), half-mile running championship of Scotland (1896), world's amateur cycle records for all times from 4 hours to 13 hours (1902), 100 miles championship Yorkshire Road Club (1899, 1901).
In the religious world the Seventh-Day Adventists (who are connected with many sanatoria and the manufacture of food specialities) and some Bible Christians, the worshippers of Vishnu and the Swami Narang and Vishnoi sects, amongst others, preach abstinence from flesh food. The Salvation Army, the Tolstoyans and the Doukhobors encourage it. A number of orders in the Roman Catholic church (e.g. the Trappists) and in the Hindu faith (e.g. the Dadupanthi Sadus) are pledged abstainers.
The general question of food values is discussed in the article Dietetics; see also Nutrition. But there is no doubt that, whatever may be the view taken as to the extreme theory of vegetarianism, it has had considerable effect in modifying the excessive meat-consuming régime of previous days, and in introducing new varieties of vegetable cooking into the service of the table.
The literature on the subject is considerable, but the two classics are perhaps The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams, and The Perfect Way in Diet, by Dr Anna Kingsford. In former years the “Vegetarian Society” was the most active in producing literature, but since about 1901 the Order of the Golden Age has come to the front with new and up-to-date books, booklets and leaflets, and the Ideal Publishing Union has reprinted much of the earlier literature. The chief periodicals are the Vegetarian (weekly), the Herald of the Golden Age (monthly), the Vegetarian Messenger (monthly), the Vegetarian (American monthly), the Children's Garden (monthly).
(J. O.)
VEGETIUS (Flavjus Vegetius Renatus), a celebrated
military writer of the 4th century. Nothing is known of his
life, station and military experience, save that in MSS. he
is called vir illustris and also comes. His treatise, Epitoma rei mifitaris, sive institutorum rei militaris libri quinque, was dedicated to the reigning emperor (? Theodosius the Great).' His sources, according to his own statement, were Cato, Cornelius Celsus, Frontinus, Paternus and the imperial constitutions of Augustus, Trajan and Hadrian. The book, which is a confused and unscientific compilation, has to be used with great caution, but is none the less invaluable to the student of the ancient art of war.
The first book is a plea for army reform, and vividly portrays the military decadence of the empire. The third contains a series of military maxims which were (rightly enough, considering the similarity in the military conditions of the two ages) the foundation of military learning- for every European commander, from William the Silent to Frederick the Great. When the French Revolution arid the "nation in arms " came into history, we hear little more of Vegetius. Some of the maxims may be mentioned here as illustrating the principles of a war for limited political objects (see Army) with which he deals. " All that is advantageous to the enemy is disadvantageous to you, and all that is useful to you, damages the enemy"; " No man is to be employed in the field who is not trained and tested in discipline"; "It is better to beat the enemy through want, surprises and care for difficult places (i.e. through manoeuvre) than by a battle in the open field—maxims that-have guided the leaders of professional armies in all countries and at all times, as witness the Chinese generals Sun and Wu (see E. F. Calthrop, The Book of War, London, 1908). His "seven normal dispositions for battle," once in honour amongst European students of the art of war, are equally ludicrous if applied to present-day conditions. His book on siegecraft is important as containing the best description of late empire and medieval siege matters, &c, and from it amongst other things we learn details of the siege engine called onager, which afterwards played a great part in sieges. The fifth book is an account of the material and personnel, of this Roman navy.
In manuscript, Vegetius's work had a great vogue from the first, and its rules of siegecraft were much studied in the middle ages. It was translated into English, French and even Bulgarian before the invention of printing. The first printed editions are assigned to Utrecht (1473), Cologne (1476), Paris (1478), Rome (in Veteres de re mil. scriptores, 1487), and Pisa (1488). A German translation by Ludwig Hohenwang appeared at Ulm in 1475. Vegetius's position as the premier military critic was thenceforward assured. As late as the 18th century we find so eminent a soldier as Marshal Puysegur basing his own works on this acknowledged model, and the famous Prince de Ligne wrote " C'est un livre d'or." The fullest and most important modern edition is that of Karl Lang (Leipzig, 1869). An English version through the French was published by Caxton in 1489. For a detailed critical estimate of Vegetius's works and influence see Max Jahns, Gesch. der Kriegswissenschaften, i. 109-125.
VEGLIA (Slavonic, Krk), an island in the Adriatic Sea, off the west coast of Croatia, from which it is separated by the Canale della Morlacca. It is situated in the Gulf of Quarnero, and is separated from the island of Cherso, lying on the S.W., by the Canale di Mezzo. Together with Cherso and Lussin, the three principal islands of the Quarnero group, it forms the administrative district of Lussin, belonging to the Austrian crownland of Istria. Veglia is the largest island of the Quarnero group, having an area of 146 sq. It is 24 m. long and about 14 m. across at its widest part. The surface is mostly rugged and mountainous; but the central, southern and western districts are fertile. The principal town is Veglia. (pop. 2074),
