| SOME HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF VEGETARIANISM. |
By Dr. LAFAYETTE B. MENDEL,
PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY IN THE SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY.
VEGETARIANISM, as the term is popularly understood at the present time, is a system of living which teaches that the food of man should be derived directly from the plant world. Considered in the light of its history, however, vegetarianism involves something more than a mere dietetic program. It teaches that the use of animal food is morally wrong, as well as erroneous with respect to the processes of nutrition. The modern critics of the vegetarian propaganda have frequently overlooked the fact that this doctrine has repeatedly, if not always, been the expression of an ethical movement among its expounders; and that its development and transformation ought to be considered with reference to sociological, economic and ethical conditions as well as from the standpoint of physiology.
The use of fruits and vegetables as the appropriate food of mankind has found its advocates from earliest times. Pythagoras (500 B. C.) in particular has frequently been pointed out as the most eminent teacher of vegetarianism among the ancients. It is obvious that a philosophy of life which urged men to lead modest lives, to abstain from indulgences of various kinds, and to seek simplicity in every form, might readily and naturally proclaim the desirability of a simple diet. Abstemiousness in the use of food and asceticism in matters of conduct and religion were brought forth by the same attitude toward the problems of the world, and found expression in vegetarianism as a simple mode of nutrition. For the vegetable foods are as a rule easy to obtain and prepare for dietetic purposes. The praise which the earlier moralists bestowed upon the vegetarian diet and mode of living is merely an aspect of the reaction against the excesses of the period. In Rousseau's 'Return to Nature' likewise we find the advocacy of a simple vegetable diet incidental to the proposed change to primitive conditions of living and the striving for moderation in every feature of society. And even to-day vegetarianism is defended by arguments derived from purely ethical and religious, as well as from economic or hygienic considerations. This peculiar sentiment which defends and prescribes the exclusive use of vegetable foods in the struggle against immorality and the attempt to establish a more virtuous community is expressed by Tolstoi in words illustrating how
