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THE  J.  F.  C. 

HARRISON 

COLLECTION  OF 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

BRITISH  SOCIAL  HISTORY 


TX 
392 
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V44 
vol.  fit 


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^■^ 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG  UNIVERSITY 


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t^-' 


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THE 


VEaETARIM  MESSENGER: 


DESIGNED    TO    AID    IX    THK 


EXTENSIVE   DIEFUSION   OF    TRUE  PRINCIPLES    IN    RELATION 


FOOD    OF    MAN; 

ADVOCATING 


AND    THE   ADOPTION   OF 


VEGETAEIAN    HABITS    OE    DIET, 

AS     PllESCRTBED      T.Y     THE      NATURE      OF      THE      HUMAN     CONSTITUTION,     AND 

CONSEQUENTLY     MOST    CONDUCIVE    TO    THE    HEALTHFUL    EXERCISE    AND    FULL    DEVELOPMENT 

OF    THE    niYSICAL,    INTELLECTUxVL,    AND    MORAL    TOWERS. 


IF    WE    WOULD    INCREASE    IN    THE    KNOWLEDGE    AND    LOVE    OF  TRVTII,  WE    MUST    PKACTIPE  THE  TRUTH 

WE     ALREADY    POSSESS. 


VOL    VI. 


ERED      PITMAN,     2  0,     PATERNOSTER     ROW: 

AND    SOLD    BY    ALL    BOOKSELLEKS. 

MDCCCLVI. 

—  — — —  ■  \ 


irswicM  : 

FKINTED    BY    J.    M.    BUKTON    AND    CO. 


CONTENTS. 


I'AOE 

To  Our  Readers   .......  1 

Association  and  General  Agency  .  .  .  .  .1 

Observations  on  the  Vegetarian  System  ....  2 

Tlic  Controversialist  and  Correspondent  3,  15,  23,  29,  36,  47,  60,  76,  84,  90,  96,  104 

The  Vegetarian  Treasury  .  .       6,  19,  25,  33,  53,  67,  79,  86,  92,  101,  106 

Results  of  Discussion  .  .  ...  7 

Man's  Repugnance  to  the  Destruction  of  Life  .  .  .  .7 

On  the  Proper  Food  of  Man  .  .  ...  .  10 

The  London  Commissariat        .  .  .  .  .  .12 

Impediments  to  Progress      .  .  .  .  .■  .21,27 

Flesh-Eating  and  its  Concomitants  .  .  .  .  .21 

Vegetarian  Diet  as  a  Curative  Agent — Scrofula  .  . .  .  22 

Flesh-Eating  an  Incentive  to  the  "War  Spirit  .  .  .  .27 

Difficulties  in  the  Social  Circle  .  .  .  .  .35 

The  Vegetarian  Practice  in  Extreme  Climates  .  .  .  .35 

The  Annual  Meeting  and  Conference  .  .  .  .43 

The  Preying  upon  Animals  the  Trainer  for  War       .  .  .  .43 

Birds,  the  Horticulturists'  Best  Friends  .  .  .  .46 

The  Eighth  Annual  Meeting     .  .  .  .  .  .57 

Moral  Movements  and  their  Adherents  .  .  .  .  57 

Enemies  of  the  Oyster  .  .  .  .  .  .58 

Testimony  of  a  Working  Man  .  .  .  .  .59 

The  Recent  Conference  and  Meeting         .  .  .  .  .71 

Culture  and  Importance  of  Rice         •  .  .  .  .71 

Village  Horticultural  Societies  .  ...  .  .75 


iv  CONTENTS. 


PAGK 

Approaching  Vegetarian  Festivals           .                 .                 .                 .  .83 

The  Banana                     ......  83 

Eecent  and  Approaching  Meetings          .                 .                 .                 .  .89 

Disadvantages  of  Hurried  Criticism                 ....  89 

Experience  of  a  Cornish  Mechanic        .                 .                 .                .  .89 

Curious  Subject  of  Discussion          .....  9-5 

Approaching  Banquet  in  Birmingham    .                 .  .              .                 .  .95 

The  Dietetic  Constitution  of  Man                   ....  95 

The  Recent  Birmingham  Banquet           .                 .                 .                 .  .103 

The  Close  of  the  Year     ......  103 

The  Facts  at  our  Doors           .                 .                 .                 .                 .  .103 

Supplement : — 

Accrington  Vegetarian  Association  Lectures                    .                 .                 .  1,  85,  49 

Local  Operations  and  Intelligence                  .     10,  11,  13,  21,  SO,  31,  33,  48,  5G,  <Sb^  78 

London  Vegetarian  Association  Meeting                .                .                .  .11 

Vegetarian  Meeting  at  Middleton                    .                 .                 .                 .  13 

Accrington  Vegetarian  Association  Meeting           .                 .                 .  .15 

Crawshawbooth  Vegetarian  Association  Meeting            ...  23 

Birmingham  Vegetarian  Association  Lectures        .                 .                ,  ,  23,  33 

Eighth  Anniversary  of  the  Vegetarian  Society                ...  39 

Banquet  of  the  Glasgow  Vegetarian  Association     .                 .                 .  .59 

Birmingham  Vegetarian  Association  Banquet                  ...  67 


INDEX. 


The  Letter  S  refers  to  the  Supploncnt. 


Accrinpton  Vegetarian  Associa- 
tion, Lecture,  1  S.,  35  S. ;  Meetiiijr  15  S. 
Acknowledgment, A.n  Encouraging  25 
Advantage    of    Mixing    Foo'X 

The,  G7;  of  Vegetarian  Tractice  52 

African  Eiiicnrisiu         .       .       .  102 

Agriculture,  Importance  of  2G 

Aliment  The  Moral  Effect  of       .  6 

All  Good  Things  ai-e  Common    .  70 

Animalcula;  in  Water  .  .  13 
Annual  Meeting  and  Conference, 

4:5;  The  Eighth       ...  57 
Appeal  to  Mothers,  An          .       .  55 
Approaching  Banquet  in  Bir- 
mingham    05 

Approaching  Vegetarian  Festivals  83 

Art  of  Health, The  .  .  bO 
Associations,  Formation  of,  24 ; 

and  General  Agency       .       .  1 

Autumn    ...               .        .  91 

Bailey,  W.  G.,  Letter  of,  47  .  62 
Balbirnie,  Dr.,  Letter  of  3  ; 

versus  Dr.  Balbirnie          .  17 

Banana,  The 83 

Bandelocuue,  M.,  on  Scrofula  l(i 
Beauty,  a  World  of    .       .       .20 
Birds  the  Horticulturists'  Best 

Friends  ......  46 

Birmingham  "  Renegade,"  The 
32  f  Vegetarian  Association 
Lecture,  23  S.,  33  S.,  Ap- 
proaching Banquet  in, 95 ; 
Kecent  Banquet  in,  103 ;  Ve- 
getarian Association  Ban- 
quet          67  S. 

Boatmen  or  the  Volga,  The          .  79 

Body,  The  Demands  of  the       .  02 

BoRMOND,  Mr  Joseph,  Speech  of  7i  S. 

Brahmins  of  India,  The  .  .  10 
Bread,  Whole  Meal,  34  ;  Brown, 

How  they  Make  in  liondon  52 

I'ritish  Seaman,  Letter  of  a         .  9 

BuFFON,  Opinion  of    .        .       .  OS. 

Bulk  in  Food,  Necessity  for         .  33 

Bushmen,  The     ....  3  S. 

Butter  Making,  Dutch  .        .       .  03 

Carrara,  Vegetarianism  in  .  .  03 
Carnivorous    Animal,    Letter 

of  a 30 

Children,  Little  .       .       .       .  79 

Clarke,  Mr.  Geo.,  Speech  of      .  18  S. 

Clear  the  Way  ....  106 
Closeof  the  Year  .  .  .  .103 
Commissariat,  The  London,  12 ; 

The  Glasgow        ...  76 

Composition  of  Sausages      .       .  87 

Compulsory  Vaccination  .  .  76 
Conference,  The  Recent,  and 

Meeting 71 

Conlinement,  Wild  Animals  in  81 
Consumption,    Vegetarianism 

and,  20;  of  Meat  in  Loudon  80 

Controversial  Articles,  99  .  .  101 
Cornish  Mechanic,  Experience 

of  a 89 

Corpulent,  A  Useful  Hint  to  the  79 
Crawshawbooth       Vegetarian 

Association  Meeting       .       .  23  S. 

Croat  Labourers,  The  .  .  101 
Cruelty  to  Animals  Society,  A 

Subject  for  the     ...  70 


Cruelties  in  the  Preparation  of 

Animals  for  Food 
i>ueltics  in  the  Fattening  of 

Animals,  101        .        .  '    . 
Culture  and  Importance  of  Rice 
OaNLiFFE,  Mr.  J.,  Lecture  of, 

35,  S.;  Speech  of     .        .        . 
Curious  Subject  of  Discu5Sion  . 


80 


106 
71 


47  S. 
95 


Driily  Neivs,  The,  90 ;  and  Vege- 
tarians        96 


Dairies,  The  London  . 
Danger  of  the  Present  Period 
Dangers  of  Becoming  Too  Fat 

in  Sparta  .... 
Darwen  Discussion,  The,  47, 60 
Death  of   a  Remnant  of  the 

Keign  of  Georgk  II. 


70 
82 


68 
Deaths  from  Preveniible  Diseases  51 
Demands  of  the  Body,  The  92 

Destruction  of  Life,  Man's  Re- 
pugnance to  the  .  .  .7 
Diet  aud  Health  of  the  Romans  6 
Diet,  Inquiries  as  to  .  .  .  77 
Dietary  of  O.mar  Pasha's  Troop?  93 
Dietetic  Tables  for  the  Seden- 
tary and  the  Active  .  .  66 
Dietetic  Constitution  of  Man, 

The 95 

Differences,  Enmities  and  .  .  106 
Ditficulties  of  the  Social  Circle  35 
Disadvantages  of  HurriedCritieism  80 
Discussion,  Results  of,  7;  Curi- 
ous Subject  of  .  .  .  95 
Disease  in  Fattened  Animals  .  86 
Diseases  of  Animals  Communi- 
cated to  Man  ...  94 
Doors,  The  Facts  at  Our  .  .  103 
Dutch  Butter-making         .       .       93 


Eating  Houses,  Vegetarian 

Edinbiu'gh  Vegetarian  Associa- 
tion          

Effects  of  Tea  and  Coffee  on 
the  Poor      .... 

Eighth  Annual  Meeting 

Eighth  Anniversary  of  the  Ve- 
getarian Society  . 

Encouraging  Acknowledge- 
ment, An 

Enemies  of  the  Oyster 

Enjoyment  of  Life,  Vegetarian 
Diet  and  the 

Enmities  and  Differences     . 

Epicurism,  African    . 

Erroneous  Quotations  . 

Esquimaux,  The 

Excessive  Sleep 

Exercise  Essential  to  Growth 


66 


102 
57 

SOS. 

25 

58 

93 
106 
102 

77 
3S. 

20 

53 


Experience  of  a  Cornish  INIechanic  89 
Experiments,  Satisfactory       .       78 
Extreme  Climates,  Vegetarian- 
ism and         ....       35 
Facts  at  our  Doors,  The       .        .  103 
Fattened  Animals,  Disease  in  .       86 
Feeding  Poultry     ....    26 
Festive  Occasions       ...       33 
Flesh-Eating,  Lecture  on,  I  S  ; 
a  Hindrance  to  Missionary 
Success,  19  ;   and  its  Con- 
comitants; 21  ;  SWEDENBORG 

on,  87 ;  An  Incentive  to  the 
War  Spirit       .       .       .       .27 


Flesher  Trade  versus  Vegetari- 
anism, The         .        .       .37, 

Pleshers  of  Glasgow,  Soiree  of  the 

Flowers,  The,  are  in  the  Fields 
again 

Food  and  Clothing  of  tlic  Rus- 
sian Soldier  .... 

Formation  of  Associations   . 

PoRSTER,  Dr.,  Letter  of     . 

French,  Scotch,  and  English 

French  Emperor,  The,  the  Cook 
aud  Pine  Apples 


Gardens,  Japanese  ...  88 
General  Agency,  Associations  aud  1 
German  Vegetarian  Testimony  18 
Glasgow  Vegetarian  Associa- 
tion, Banquet  of  the  .  .50  8. 
Glasgow  Commissariat,  The  .  75 
Good,  How  to  Do  .       .        ,  53 

Gratitude 6 

Griffin,  Mr.  N.  Speech  o/         .    42  S 
Gutta  Percha,  Substitute  for   .       87 


Habit  and  Ignorance 

Harvey,  Alderman,  Speech  of 

Health,  The  Art  of     . 

Himalaya,  The  Natives  of  . 

Hint  to  Employers 

Historical  Fact,  An 

Home  of  Florence  Nigut- 
iNOALE,  The  .... 

Home-made  Sausages  . 

florse-flesh  Sausages  . 

Horticultm-al  Societies,  Village 

How  they  Make  Brown  Bread 
in  London         ... 

How  to  Do  Good 

Hurried  Criticism,  Disadvan- 
tages of     .        .       . 


Idle,  The       .       .       .       .        . 
Impediments  to  Progi'ess  21, 
Importance  of  Agriculture 
Importance  of  Tranquillity  in 
Nurses       .... 


6 

76  S. 
80 
68 
34 

6 

87 
60 
26 
75 

52 
53 

80 

31 

27 
26 


Inconsiderate  Writer,  An 
Infant  and  the  Mother,  The  . 
Influence  of  War,  The     . 
Inhabitants  of  Travancorc,  The 
Innovation  .... 
Inquiries  as  to  Diet 
Insti'uctions  for  Vegetarian  Diet 

Jains  or  Buddhists,  The    . 
Japanese  Gardens  .... 
Jewish  Mode  of  Slaughtering  . 
Johnston, Professor,  Opinion  of 
Joining  the  Society 

Kaffirs,  The 

Kan-mahomed,  Anecdote  of 
King,  Mr.  C.  R.,  Lecture  of, 
23  S  ;  Speech  of,  . 

Labourers,  The  Croat    .       .       .101 
Laurie,  Dr.,  Speech  of      .       .        71  S. 
Lawrence,  Professor,  Opinion  of     8  S. 

Lentils 102 

Letter  of  a  Vearetarian,  37,  39 ; 
of  John  Temple,  38 ;  of  a 
Carnivorous  Animal,  39 ;  of 
a  British  Seaman,  9  ;  of 
Another ''Renegade"    .       •    24 


90 
6 
101 
25 
10 
77 
19 

19 

loo 

7S. 
79 

34 
10 

77  S. 


I  NDEX. 


Little  Children       ....    79 
Local  Operations  and  Intelligence : — 

Accrington,  10,  21,  31,  34, 18     .    56  S. 

Earnsley 56  S. 

Bii-mingham,  11,13,30,31,  34, 
48,  57,  65, 78  S. 

Boston,  30,         .        .        .        .        48  S. 

Colchester,  10,  11,  22,30,  31, 
34,57 65  S. 

Crawshawbooth,  10, 13,22,  31, 
67, 66  S. 

Darweu,  13,        .        .        .        .48  S. 

Dunfermline,  57,    .        .       .       66  S. 

Edinburgh,  31,34,57,         .        .66  8. 

Glasgow,  22,  30,  31,  57,  G6,      .        78  S. 

Hull,  12,  13,31,34,      .        .        .58  8. 

Kirkcaldy,  22, 31,    .        ,        .        34  S. 

Leeds,  13,22,31,34,     .        .       .588. 

Liverpool,         .        .       ,        .        12  S. 

London,  12,  13,  22,  31,         .        .58  8. 

Manchester,  12, 22, .        .        .        58  8. 

Methven,  10,  30,  34,    .       .       .    58  8. 

Newcastle-on-Tyne,  31,58,    .       66  8. 

Newton-le-\Aailovvs  ,        .       .    22  8. 

Padstow 34  8. 

Paisley 66  S. 

Salford      ....  58  8, 

Locusts  from  the  Holy  Land        .    17 
Lombard,  M.,  on  Phthisis  .        .        16 
London  Commissariat,  The,  12; 
■Vegetarian Association  Meet- 
ing, 11  8.;  Oonsiimption  of 
"Wheat  in,  80;  Dairies,  The       70 
Love  of  Nature       .        .        .        .56 
LowNE,  Dr.,  Letter  of      .       .       61 

Man,  The  Dietetic  Constitution  of  95 
Man's  Kepugnance  to  the  De- 
struction of  Life        .        .        .7 
Manure  for  Strawberries  .        .        87 
Memory,  The,  of  the  Dead   .        .    25 
Metcalfe,  llev,  "W.,  Speech  of       74  S. 
Middleton,  Vegetarian  Meeting  at  13  8. 
Misery,  Whisky  and      .        .        .66  8. 
Mistaken  Medical  Practice      .       88 
"Modern  Nebuchadnezzars,"  The  104 
MoralEffectof Aliment, The,  6; 

Movements  and  their  Adherents  57 
Mothers,  An  Appeal  to  .        .       .55 

Natives  of  Sien-a  Leone,  The, 

54;  of  Himalaya  ...  68 
Nature,  Love  of  .  .  .  .56 
Natural  Instincts,  Perversion  of  69 
"Nebuchadnezzars,  The  Modem"  104 
Necessity  for  Bulk  in  Pood  .  33 
New  Zealanders,  The  .  .  3  8. 
Nightingale,  Florence,  The 

Home  of        ....       87 
Noble,  Mr.  J.   Speech  of      .        .45  S. 
North  British  JReview         .        .        45 
Novel  Temperance  Society,  A         81 
Nursery,  Ventilation  of  the        .    56 

Objection  Answered,  An   .       .  17 
Observations  on  the  Vegetarian 

System 2 

Otaheitans,  The     ...  19 

Oyster,  Enemies  of  the  58 


Palmer,  J.  G.  Esq., Lecture  of, 

49  8.,  Speech  of  .  .  .  77  S. 
Palmer^  Mr.,  Speech  of  .  .  65  8. 
Patagonians,  The  .  .  .  .2  8. 
Patriotic  Sporting      .       .  8 

Pekeira,  Dr,  Opinions  of     .        .7  8, 
Peiversion,  Virulence  and,  91  ; 

of  Natural  Instincts        .        .    69 
PiLLSBURY,  Mr.  Parker,  Speech 

of       , 62  S. 

Poetry  :— 
A  World  of  Beauty        .       .       20 
Love  of  Nature  .        .        .        .56 
All  Good  Things  are  Common      70 
The  Flowers  are  in  the  Fields 

again  ....  82 
Autumn  ;  ....  94 
Clear  the  Way  .  .  .  1C6 
Politeness  and  Truth  .  .  .66 
Pork  and  Scrofula  ...  20 
Pork-Eaters,  A  Scrap  for  .  .  82 
Preying      upon     Animals     the 

Trainer  for  War,  The         .       43 
Progress,  Impediments  to,  21        .    27 
Proper  Food  of  Man,  On  the    .        10 
Publication  of  Speeches  as  Tracts    5 
Pwich's  Vegetarian  Eating  House  62 

Rations  for  the  Troops,  Varied,      68 
liccent  and  Approaching  Meet- 
ings, The,  h9  ;  Conference 
and  Meeting,  71 ;  Birming- 
ham Banquet       .        .        .      103 
Register  !  Register !  Register  !       32 
Results  of  Discussion        .        .         7 
Rice,  Culture  and  Importance  of    71 
Robust  Health,  Vegetarianism 

and 86 

Romans,  Diet  and  Health  of  the     6 
Russian     Soldier,    Food     and 

Clothing  of  the       .       .        .    20 

Satisfactory  Experiments        .       78 
Sausage  Making  Mania,  The  69 

Sausages, Horse  Flesh,  26  ;  Home- 


made, 69  ;  Composition  of 

Scrofula,  Pork  and,  20  ;  Vege- 
tarian Diet,  as  a  Curative 
Agent 

"  Scrutator, "  Letter  of,  32, 49 

Seizure  of  Unwholesome  Meat 

Sierra  Leone,  Natives  of  . 

Simpson,  James,  Esq.,  Speech  of, 
IS.,  15  8.,  35  S.,  39  8.,  69  S., 
Letter  of 

Slaughtering,  Jewish  Mode  of  . 

Sleep,  Excessive     .... 

Smith,  John  Pye,  D.D.,  Opinion 
of 

Soap  and  Tallow    .... 

Social  Circle,  Difficulties  of  the 


87 


99 

100 

20 

11 

55 
35 


Soir6e  of  the  Fleshers  of  Glasgow  36 


Spencer's  Social  Statics 
Sporting,  Patriotic  . 
Strawberries,  Manure  for  . 
Subject    for     the    Cruelty    to 

Animals  Society,  A 
Substitute  for  Gutta  Percha    . 


44 
8 

87 


70 
87 


SwEDENBORG,  19  ;  ou  Flesh-catiug  87 


Swedes  and  Spirit  Drinking, The   88 

Tea  and  Coffee,  Effects  of,  on 

the  Poor 102 

Teeth  of  Man,  Lecture  on  the         49  S. 
Teetotalism  and  Vegetarianism  .    24 
Temple,  John,  Letter  of   .        .        38 
Terra  del  Fuego,  Inhabitants  of  .      2  S. 
Testimony,  A  Valuable,  91 ;  of 

a  Working  Man  ...  59 
To  Our  Readers  ....  1 
TowGooD,  Mr.  F..  Speech  of  .  47  S. 
Tour,  A  Vegetarian  .  .  .85 
Travancore,  The  Inhabitants  of  25 
Truth,  Politeness  and  .        .       .67 

Unwholesome  Meat,  Seizure  of  .  56 
Useful  Hint  to  the  Corpulent  .       79 

Vaccination,  Compulsory     .       .    76 
Valuable  Testimony,  A      .        .       91 
Varied  Rations  for  the  Ti  oops    .    68 
Vegetable  Locust,  The,  17,       .       20 
Vegetarian, Eating  House,A,54; 
Controversy,  3,  15,  23 ;  Diet. 
Instructions  for,  19 ;  Diet  as 
a  Curative  Agent,  22;  Meet- 
ings in  Edinburgh, 3'-';  Prac- 
tice in  Extreme  Climates, 
35;  Practice,  Advantages  of, 
52;  Letter  of  a,  37,  39  ;  Eat- 
ing Houses,  66;  Approach- 
ing Festivals,  83  ;  Tour,  85  ; 
Society.Eighth  Anniversary 
of  the,  39  S.;  Diet  and  the 
Enjoyment     of    Life,    93; 
Humbug  Tract,  The     . 
Vegetarianism,  Teetotalism  and 
24  ;  and  Economy,  5  ;    The 
Flesher  Trade  verszcs,  37,  38; 
In  Relation  to  the  Pleasures 
of  Life,  35  S.;  and  Robust 
Health,  86;  in  Cararra,93; 
and  Consumption  . 
Ventilation  of  the  Nursery 
"  Viator,"  Letter  of    . 
Village  Horticultural  Societies 
Virulence  and  Perversion  . 
Volga,  The  Boatmen  of  the   . 

War,  The  Preying  upon  Animals 
the  Trainer  for,  43 ;  The  In- 
fluence of  . 
Ward,  Mr.  W.  G.,  Letter  of,  15, 
32 ;  Lecture  of,  33  S.;'Speecli 
of,  42  8.  ....        72  S. 

Way. to  Convince  the  Mistaken, 

The 86 

Wesley's,  John,  Endurance  and 

Health 33 

Whisky  and  Misery  .       .       56 

Whole-Meal  Bread  .  .  .34 
MHiolesale  Destruction  of  Larks  34 
"  Why  !  How  in  the  World  do 

you  Live  ?  "  ...  81 
Wild  Animals  in  Confinement  81 
Working  Man,  Testimony  of  a  .  59 
World  of  Beauty,  A  .  .  .  20 
Writer,  An  Inconsiderate  .  .  91 
Year,  The  Close  of  the      •       .      103 


100 


29 
56 
85 
75 
91 
79 


101 


THE 


VEGETAEIAN    MESSENGER. 


TO    OUR   READEES, 


In  entering  upon  the  Sixth  volume  of  the  Messenger,  we  have  to  inform  our  Readers  that 
the  plan  of  our  publication  is  precisely  that  carried  out  during  the  volume  just  completed. 
We  are  happy  to  learn  that  our  arrangement  and  labours  during  the  past  year  have 
produced  at  least  a  measure  of  satisfaction  in  our  Subscribers  and  Friends,  as  well  as 
that  we  have  been  welcomed  in  our  mission  to  the  more  distant  Inquirer  into  Dietetic 
Reform.  Our  declaration  is,  thus,  "  to  go  straight  on "  in  the  course  approved,  rather 
than  to  waste  time,  or  divert  a  moment's  energy  from  the  demands  of  usefulness  before 
us  in  the  year  1855. 

In  relation  to  the  past  year,  we  have  heartily  to  acknowledge  the  support  of  our 
Friends  in  the  dissemination  of  the  knowledge  of  Vegetarian  Principles,  by  the  circula- 
tion of  the  Messenger^  and  to  state  that,  independent  of  their  private  aid,  and  of  the 
number  of  copies  disposed  of  by  booksellers,  twenty-one  thousand  stamped  copies  of  the 
3fessenger  and  Supplement  have  been  circulated  through  the  post  to  all  parts  of  Great 
Britain,  and  many  copies  to  various  parts  of  the  Continent,  as  well.  It  is  to  labours  in 
this  direction  that  we  think  we  trace  the  growing  inquiry,  interest,  and  often  intelligence , 
which  are  now  so  commonly  discovered  almost  every  where,  as  to  the  principles  and 
objects  of  the  Vegetarian  Movement — an  impression  far  beyond  the  influence  directly 
produced  by  the  number  of  acknowledged  organized  adherents  of  the  Vegetarian  Society, 
and  calling  for  strenuous  exertion,  in  order  to  secure  the  results  that  may  naturally 
follow  from  more  extended  advocacy. 

There  is,  thus,  every  encouragement  to  prosecute  our  way  rejoicing,  and  we  have  the 
more  pleasure  in  once  more  inviting  the  co-operation  of  the  friends  of  Dietetic  Reform, 
still  further  to  spread  information  of  the  truth  and  happiness  of  the  Vegetarian  System, 
in  the  first  instance ;  and  next,  to  labour  to  advance  to  organization  and  active  usefulness 
all  who,  from  previous  acquaintance  with  our  reform,  have  already  attained  to  the 
determination  to  make  it  a  fixed  habit  of  life.  It  is  thus,  as  every  year's  reflection 
and  experience  more  powerfully  demonstrate,  that  whilst  reaping  the  advantages 
of  a  peaceful  and  happy  system  of  life  ourselves,  we  shall  best  discharge  the  duties 
of  our  position  and  time,  in  actively  ministering  to  the  wants,  progress,  and  happiness 
of  the  world. 


ASSOCIATIONS    AND    GENERAL    AGENCY. 


"We  are  happy  to  learn  that  the  active 
operations  of  some  of  the  various  Associa- 
tions, with  which  the  year  has  just  termi- 
nated, are  likely  to  be  followed  up,  in  the 
first  months  of  the  year,  by  arrangements 
not  merely  securing  similar  measures  in 
bringing  meetings  to  bear,  but  also  in  more 
attention  than  heretofore  being  given  to 
General  Agency. 


London,  in  continuing  the  routine  of 
activities  persevered  in  since  May  last,  is 
the  first  to  enter  upon  a  course  of  Agency 
for  the  first  two  months  of  the  year,  and 
several  Associations  in  Lancashire  and 
Yorkshire,  are  also  identified  with  simi- 
lar engagements  for  a  somewhat  later 
period. 

Considering  the  number  of  Associations, 


OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  YEGETARIAN   SYSTEM. 


it  is  no  doubt  within  the  means  of  these,  to 
engage  and  maintain  one  or  more  talented 
Agents,  whose  sphere  of  operations  could  he 
made  wider  than  that  of  the  Association  in 
its  monthly  arrangements  of  meetings  or 
lectures,  and  would  thus  materially  aid  in 
increasing  the  number  of  members  and 
inquirers  in  connection  with  such  Associa- 
tions. Much  can  no  doubt  be  said  in  favour 
of  the  volunteer  labours  of  the  movement ; 
but  since  these  can  hardly  be  maintained 
with  sufficient  continuity  at  certain  times 
when  it  may  be  desirable  to  make  a  wide 


impression,  the  matter  of  fact  procedure  of 
Agency  has  to  be  resorted  to,  and  here,  as  in 
other  benevolent  movements,  where  ability, 
principle,  and  good  management  are  brought 
to  bear,  the  public  are,  no  doubt,  most 
essentially  to  be  benefited. 

We  thus  hope  to  see  the  attention  of  our 
Associations  directed  more  to  the  wants  and 
labours  of  Agency,  as  an  adjunct  to  what 
else  is  being  done  amongst  us  during  the 
present  year,  and  as  a  work  already  called 
for  in  the  demands  and  increasing  interest 
of  the  Vegetarian  question. 


OBSEEVATIOKS  ON  THE  VEGETARIAN  SYSTEM. 


The  following  matter  is  from  the  pen  of 
Professor  Daumer,  of  Nurnberg,  Bavaria, 
and  will  be  read  with  interest,  as  further 
evidence  of  the  soundness  of  Vegetarian 
theories,  which  claim  to  be  based  upon  facts 
as  widely  extended  as  the  history  of  mankind. 

"  Among  the  many  physical  and  moral 
reforms  which  are  to  obtain  amongst  us,  is  the 
dietetic,  if  not  the  most  important  of  all,  at 
least  one  of  the  most  important.  Yet  is  the 
civilized  world  blotted  by  a  horrible  set  of  bar- 
barisms, and  the  old,  customary,  cruel, 
slaughtering  of  animals,  and  the  use  of  their 
flesh  as  food,  is  still  so  commonly  carried  out, 
that  people  cannot  think  that  this  reform 
would  be  other  than  distasteful  to  them, 
whilst  activity  in  its  propagation  is  re- 
garded as  absurd,  treated  with  ridicule,  and 
sometimes  results  in  exasperation  and  hate. 
The  Vegetarian  system,  however,  which 
advocates  the  giving  up  of  the  use  of  flesh  as 
food,  is  based  upon  the  most  weighty  physi- 
ological, moral,  ethical,  and  philanthropic 
reasons.  That  a  state  of  high  moral  and 
intellectual  culture  and  refinement  cannot 
possibly  be  arrived  at  by  mankind  whilst  the 
devouring  and  entombing  of  flesh  in  our  own 
stomachs  continues,  and  that  this  aliment 
produces  and  fosters  an  army  of  diseases,  is 
to  me  so  clear  that  only  a  pertinacious  fond- 
ness for  the  use  of  flesh  can  withstand  its 
evidence. 

"Before  giving  up  my  flesh-eating  prac- 
tice (which,  alas,  I  wished  to  do  only  after 
I  had  lived  in  it  half  a  century),  Itsuff'ered 
from  time  to  time  with  a  horrible  tooth- 
ache, which  continued  for  many  days 
and  nights  at  a  time.  Since  I  have  given 
up  the  use  of  flesh  as  food  I  have  been  free 
from  this  sufi'ering,  and  as  I  have  not  re- 
nounced the  use  of  the  vegetable  stimulant 
which  I  used  whilst  living  in  the  use  of  flesh, 
as  tea,  coffee,  "and  condiments,  but  now  use 


them  more  than  formerly,  it  is  clear  these 
last  cannot  be  regarded  as  the  cause  of  my 
former  sufi'erings.  Only  twice  in  the  course 
of  several  years,  have  I  fallen  back  into  this 
misery,  after  having  been  induced  in  each 
case  to  accommodate  myself  to  the  prevailing 
regimen  and  eat  flesh,  which  has  tended  to 
confirm  my  opinion  as  to  the  injurious  and 
disease-producing  eff'ect  of  this  food.  Two 
other  instances  illustrative  of  this  have  come 
under  my  observation.  One  is  the  case  of  a 
child  who  was  much  troubled  with  worms 
whilst  fed  on  flesh,  but  these  disappeared  as 
the  quantity  of  flesh -meat  was  reduced. 
That  a  flesh  diet  is  a  great  disadvantage  in 
relation  to  the  intellectual  powers,  seems  very 
clearly  demonstrated  in  the  experience  of  my 
former  foster-son  —  the  foundling  Caspar 
Hauser.  This  young  man  was  sustained 
in  his  cage  on  bread  and  water  only,  and  ate 
and  drank  nothing  else  for  a  long  time  after 
his  appearance  in  the  world  ;  he,  however, 
gradually  accustomed  himself  to  partake 
of  water-soups,  milk-pap,  and  unseasoned 
chocolate  without  disadvantage,  but  the 
smell  of  flesh-meat  was  intolerably  ofi'ensive 
to  him,  and  of  this  he  felt  the  greatest  ab- 
horrence. On  his  simple  diet  he  became 
well  developed,  displayed  considerable  power 
of  apprehension,  and  manifested  unusually 
flne  and  delicate  feeling.  At  length,  how- 
ever, and  with  the  greatest  precaution  and 
very  gradually,  a  little  flesh-broth  was  in- 
troduced into  his  water-soups,  and  as  he 
became  accustomed  to  it,  the  quantity  and 
strength  of  the  flesh-broth  were  increased, 
until  in  this  respect  he  conformed  to  the  or- 
dinary dietetic  practice.  But  the  most  de- 
plorable results  were  produced  in  relation  to 
his  intellect  and  mental  powers ;  learning 
became  difficult,  the  nobleness  and  refine- 
ment of  his  nature  were  beclouded,  and  he 
appeared  only  as  an  ordinary  individual.     Of 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


course,  this  change  was  attributed  to  any 
cause  rather  than  to  the  use  of  flesh-meat, 
and  I  was  not  then  sufficiently  acquainted 
with  the  effects  of  diet  on  the  mental  and 
moral  powers,  to  regard  it  as  I  should  now . 
But  from  my  present  point  of  view,  and 
with  my  present  information  on  the  subject, 
I  have  little  doubt  this  unfortunate  result 
was  caused  by  the  use  of  preparations  of 
flesh,  and  that   it  operates  even  more  inju- 


riously mentally  and  morally,  than  in  its 
physical  results,  I  am  astonished  that  the 
use  of  flesh  as  food  should  be  so  much  sup- 
ported by  physiologists  and  medical  men, 
surely  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they 
are  themselves  passionately  fond  of  this  in- 
human diet ;  for,  alas  !  man  is  too  much 
accustomed  to  use  his  reason  to  justify  and 
support  those  practices  which  please  and 
delight  him  on  other  grounds." 


THE    CONTROVRRSULIST    AND    CO  K  K  F.  SPONDENT. 


THE   RECENT   VEGETARIAN    C0NTE.0VE11SY. 

Our  readers  will  have  understood  from  the 
remarks  of  our  last  number,*  that  the  dis- 
cussion raised  and  carried  on  in  the  pages 
of  the  Nonconformist,  and  reproduced  by 
us  with  some  additions,  was  terminated. 
It  appears,  however,  that  there  is  matter 
on  both  sides  the  question  unsaid,  for  the 
expression  of  which  we  have  been  appealed 
to.  Our  fairness,  and  desire  to  see  the  truth 
established,  as  well  as  that  every  opportunity 
of  elucidation  and  explanation  of  what  has 
already  been  said,  should  be  given,  lead  us  thus 
to  re-open  the  controversy  by  the  insertion 
of  the  following  letter  from  Dr.  Balbirnie. 
\ye  would,  however,  remark  that  exceed- 
ingly lengthy  communications  are  inconve- 
nient to  us,  as  well  as  to  the  Nonconform st, 
and  we  therefore  trust  that  our  correspondents 
who  may  favour  us  with  any  further  matter 
of  this  kind,  will  bear  this  in  mind,  as  far  as 
is  consistent  with  the  due  expression  of  the 
matter  in  hand,  since  exceedingly  lengthy 
articles  necessarily  exclude  a  variety  of 
matter,  which  is  generally  more  acceptable, 
as  well  as  more  useful  to  the  general  reader. 

Dear  Sir — Perceiving  that  you  have  repro- 
duced in  your  pages  an  unfinished  controversy, 
I  may  with  great  propriety  transmit  you  the 
substance  of  my  second  letter  to  the  Noncon- 
formist, which,  however,  was  refused  insertion 
on  the  ground  of  the  controversy  occupying  too 
much  space  for  a  general  newspaper — an  objec- 
tion which  will  not  apply  to  your  periodical. 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Nonconfonnist ." 
"  It  will  be  seen  from  the  time  that  has  elapsed 
since  the  date  of  the  last  letter  of  Mr.  Ward, 
that  I  sit  very  easy  under  his  accusations,  and 
should  have  treated  them  with  the  silence  they 
deserve  ;  but,  having  Had  letters  from  strangers 
as  well  as  friends,  appealing  '  to  me  to  extract 
the  poison  from  a  venomous  pen,'  I  obey  their 
call.  T  plainly  stated  that  it  formed  no  part  of 
the  object  of  my  first  letter  to  open  any  of  the 
grounds  of  the  Vegetarian  controversy,  but  sim- 
ply to  rebut  certain  allegations.  At  the  same 
time  I  shall  not  shun  further  discussion  with  any 
of  your  correspondents,  who  are  sufl5ciently  wise 
to  discuss  the  mooted  points  in  a  tone  and  tem- 
per worthy  of  sincere  truth-seekers.  Without 
*  Controversialist  and  Correspondent,  vol.  v.  p.  116, 


any  periphrasis,  'beating  about  the  bush,'  or  any 
refutation  of  Grub-street  abuse,  I  proceed  to  deal 
briefly  with  his  accusations. 

"  1st.  As  to  my  '  audacity '  in  quoting  Mr.  W. 
'  where  he  never  spoke,'  for  this  he  must  blame 
himself  or  his  printer.  He  gives  a  sentence  from 
Dr.  Euchan  defined  by  inverted  commas;  and 
then  goes  on  to  say,  'But  the  disease  most  com- 
mon in  this  country  is  the  scurvy,'  etc. — leaving 
the  reader  to  believe  that  he  has  ceased  quoting 
Dr.  BuCHAN,  and  is  now  speaking  '  on  his  own 
head.'  Is  not  this  a  fair  inference  ? 

"2nd.  I  am  gravely  charged  with  making  a 
'  wholesale  perversion '  of  a  sentence  of  Mr. 
Ward's — of  '  dishonestly  '  holding  him  up  as 
teaching  a  new  dietetic  doctrine,  Mr.  W.  even 
propounding  a  '  moral  problem  as  to  the  amount 
of  castigation  I  deserve  for  my  dishonesty !'  Again, 
the  impartial  reader  must  judge  between  us.  I 
quote  in  italics  the  sentence  on  which  I  founded 
my  induction  of  the  doctrine  Mr,  Ward  taught. 
"  'We  boldly  tell  the  doctor,  that  we  reject  from 
our  bodies,  as  superfluous  and  unnecessary,  more 
fihrine  and  iron  every  day  after  our  meals  of  brown 
bread,  than  he  can  yet  from  the  amount  of  flesh  he 
can  safely  eat  in  a  day  J  1 1 ! 

"  What  is  the  obvious  inference  ?  the  inference, 
at  least,  that  a  medical  man  would  draw  from  it — 
one  M'ho  knows  that  the  alvine  evacuation  is  an 
excretion  from  the  glands  of  the  bowels — the  scum 
(so  to  speak)  of  the  blood — who  knows  that  in 
the  healthy  individual  it  contains  not  a  particle  of 
the  nutrient  elements  of  the  food,  but  only  its  indi- 
gestible debris,  as  the  husk  of  farinaceous  grains, 
the  skins  and  seeds  of  fruits,  leaves,  woody  fibre, 
etc.  ?  Can  language  convey  more  clearly  than 
these  words  the  idea  that  brown  bread  is  especially 
rich  in  nutrient  principle,  that  even  the  part  re- 
jected, •  the  superfluous  and  unnecessary  '  part  of 
it,  i.  e.  the  branny  scale  (I  don't  say  bran),  con- 
tains more  fibrine  and  iron  than  any  amount  of 
flesh  a  man  can  safely  consume  in  a  day  ?  Yet, 
for  drawing  this  necessary  inference,  Mr.  Ward 
charges  me  with  dishonesty  !  Had  I  not  a  right 
to  observe  on  this,  that  *  no  one  but  a  person 
unacquainted  with  the  facts  would  make  an  asser- 
tion so  utterly  nonsensical '  ?  And  who  does  not 
reiterate  this  sentiment  ?  Then  I  go  on  to  state, 
what  is  the  fact,  that  the  branny  scale  in  question 
(the  excreted  one.  Men  entendu)  is  as  devoid  of 
nutriment,  and  as  incapable  of  solution,  as  are 
the  rinds  or  stones  of  fruits,  the  exterior  pellicle 
of  the  potato,  or  the  fibres  of  the  cocoa  nut. 

"  But  Mr.  Ward  is  evideatly  conscious  of 
having  here  got  into  a  mess,  and  resolved  upon  a 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


redeeming  stroke.  He  treats  us  to  the  'artful 
dodg-e '  in  right  earnest.  He  tries  adroitly  to 
make  a  feint — a  diversion  from  a  telling  attack 
upon  his  weak  point.  He  seeks  to  shift  the  ground 
of  the  controversy,  and  begins  to  talk  of  a  matter 
that  was  never  the  subject  of  dispute.  He  invokes 
Professor*  Johnston's  analysis  of  wheat  to  prove 
the  nutritive  power  of  the  hran  of  bread — which 
was  not  the  matter  called  in  qiiestion.  Now 
everybody  who  knows  the  A  B  C  of  dietetics  and 
chemistry  knows  this.  Mr.  'Ward's  vainglorious 
chuckling  at  my  '  ignorance '  here  is  quite  amus- 
ing. Why,  I  could  give  him  chapter  and  verse 
of  my  own  writings  in  which  I  say  even  stronger 
things  of  the  natural  power  of  hran  (with  the 
meal)  than  even  Mr.  Johnston's  analysis 
shadows  forth.  How  different  this  bran  is  from 
the  denuded,  exhausted,  scaly  refuse  ('  twenty 
scales  ' !  Mr.  Ward  says ;  twenty  thousand  is 
nearer  the  mark)  of  the  brown  bread-eater's 
excreta,  needs  not  to  be  told. 

"  But  out  of  Mr.  Ward's  own  mouth  I  will 
convict  him.  He  says:  'Now  the  intelligent 
reader  of  my  former  letter  fully  understands  that 
the  nutriment  I  spoke  of,  was  in  bread  and  not 
in  the  bran.^  Begging  Mr.  Ward's  pardon, 
the  nutriment  he  spoke  of  was  'that  ivhich  we 
reject  from  our  bodies  as  superfluous  and  un- 
necessary.^ Do  we  then  reject  bread  as  the  super- 
fluous and  unnecessary  part  of  our  food  ? 
Certainly  not,  but  the  branny  scale.  The  sub- 
stance, therefore,  of  which  Mr.  Ward  really 
spoke  was  the  branny  scale — not  the  bread — 
which  indicates  at  once  my  inference  and  my 
honesty,  and  saddles  Mr.  Ward  with  the  double 
stigma  of  a  bad  logician  and  a  cunning  calum- 
niator. The  possible  evasion,  may  be  the  reply, 
'Oh!  but  I  meant  bran  as  it  exists  in  bread.' 
To  this  I  make  answer,  that  we  have  only  to  do 
with  what  Mr.  Ward  said.  If  he  was  not 
competent  clearly  to  express  his  meaning,  he  had 
no  right  to  enter  the  arena  of  discussion  with  the 
airs  and  flourishes  he  displayed,  much  less  to 
arraign  those  who  do  mean  exactly  what  they 
affirm.  By  this  time  it  will  be  seen  that  we  are 
quite  at  one  with  Vegetarians  as  to  the  nutritive 
power  of  whole-meal  bread.  Mr.  Ward  admits 
all  I  contend  for,  viz.,  that  the  nutriment  is  not 
contained  in  the  '  branny  scale '  —  that  it  is 
'something  besides,'  as  he  expresses  it,  'some- 
thing between  the  bran  and  the  fine  flour.'  Pre- 
cisely. This  tertium.  quid,  then,  is  something 
between  the  inert  covering,  or  'branny  scale,' 
and  tlie  fine  flour,  viz.,  the  pollen,  or  'pollard,' 
adherent  to  the  scales. 

"3rd.  I  am  next  accused  of  not  supporting 
my  statement  about  the  connection  of  Vege- 
tarianism and  consumption.  But  it  is  time 
enough  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  my  opinion 
when  it  is  in  danger  of  being  overthrown.  I 
have  yet  seen  neither  facts  nor  figures  to  in- 
validate it.  When  I  do,  I  shall  gladly  give  it  up, 
as  I  have  no  object  to  maintain  but  truth,  on 
whose  side  soever  it  may  be. 

*  He  makes  for  the  nonce,  this  quondam  Profes- 
sor into  a  "Profound"  Chemist !— the  said  *•  Profes- 
sor "  (Lecturer)  being  the  author  of  an  Anti-Vegeta- 
rian and  Anti- Teetotal  book  full  of  blunders.  Any- 
thing for  a  flourish  ! 


"Another  correspondent  (Mr.  Wilkinson) 
has  my  best  thanks  for  his  kindly-tempered  note. 
He  and  others  must  decide  who  is  the  aggressor. 
I  do  not  profess,  however,  to  go  to  quaker- 
lengths  in  the  doctrine  of  forbearance.  The 
feelings  of  almost  every  man  in  the  country 
just  now  is  with  me  here.  When  '  Russia'  comes 
'  bullying,'  meekness  is  no  virtue — the  shine 
must  be  taken  out  of  him — his  shallowness  and 
bravadoism  exposed.  I  hope  Mr.  Wilkinson 
will  well  understand  that  I  am  neither  an  enemy 
to  the  Vegetarianism  of  some,  nor  a  thick-and- 
thin  advocate  of  a  mixed  diet  for  all.  I  am 
often  making  converts  to  it  of  men  who  will 
bless  me  every  day  of  their  lives  for  the  change. 
But  many  are  Vegetarians  who  should  not  be 
Vegetarians,  or  not  till  much  later  in  life.  Doc- 
trinally  on  this  subject,  let  me  distinctly  contend 
for  the  principle  that  so  long  as  the  circumstances 
and  constitutions  of  mankind  are  so  diverse  as  they 
are,  there  can  be  no  universal  diet ! — no  more 
than  there  can  be  a  standard  size  and  cut  and 
quality  of  coat.  Far  too  much  stress  is  laid  on 
the  renunciation  of  flesh-eating — as  if  in  that 
precise  article  of  faith  and  practice,  consisted  the 
whole  '  law  and  prophets '  of  a  sound  dietetic 
regimen.  Moderate  flesh-eating  would  be  in- 
finitely less  mischievous  than  the  -  diversified 
mixtures  and  dainties  by  which  many  Vegeta- 
rians compound  for  flesh.  Let  me  here,  also, 
repudiate  the  common  notion  that  men  can  be 
classed  dieletically,  like  the  lower  animals.  No  ! 
Man  is  neither  a  carnivorous,  frugivorous,  grami- 
nivorous, herbivorous,  nor  omnivorous  animal. 
Neither  anatomically,  nor  physiologically  has  he 
any  precise  analogues  in  the  brutes  beneath  him  ; 
— nor  can  he  have.  Man  is  essentially  a  cooking 
animal,  and  one  that  has  no  fixed  habitat.  He  is 
a  denizen  of  every  clime.  To  talk  of  man's 
natural  food,  therefore,  in  the  same  sense  that  we 
talk  of  the  natural  food  of  brute  animals  is  an 
error.  When  at  all  removed  from  the  savage 
state,  almost  every  morsel  he  puts  into  his  mouth 
is  denaturalized  by  the  arts  of  cookery — changed 
into  an  entirely  different  substance  from  its  ori- 
ginal by  the  chemic  force.  How  wide  is  the 
distance  between  boiled  potatoes,  peas-pudding, 
rice-curry,  apple-dumpling,  bread,  porridge, 
hominy,  omelettes,  soups,  buttered-toast,  and  pie- 
crust, blanc-mange,  and  mushroom  patties, 
and  their  raio  representatives  !  Animals  eat  the 
food  that  is  daily  furnished  them  from  the 
liberal  bosom  of  nature.  Man  (under  Provi- 
dence) as  his  own  provider,  and  as  the  '  partaker 
of  a  condition'  wherein  there  is  a  mighty  dis- 
tance between  the  food  and  his  mouth,  has  to 
seek  it  in  all  climes,  and  has  also  to  preserve  it 
from  spoiling  when  gotten,  and  store  it  up  against 
a  thousand  contingencies.  In  an  Edenic  clime, 
and  with  an  Edenic  life,  one  could  very  well 
afford  to  live  on  Eden's  food.  Far  other  is  the 
toiling  lot  of  ninety-nine  in  the  hundred  of  our 
fellow-creatures. 

"From  the  two  striking  facts  stated  by  Mr. 
Wilkinson,  no  positive  inference  in  favour  of 
my  position  can  be  drawn.  Nevertheless,  they 
carry  with  them  a  weight  and  suggestiveness  we 
cannot  ignore.     The  late  Dr.  Hope,  and  a  large 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND  CORRESPONDENT. 


family  of  brothers  and  sisters,  all  died  of  con- 
sumption before  forty.  If  I  recollect  rightly, 
there  was  said  to  be  no  hereditary  taint.  He  at- 
tributed the  tendency  to  his  mother's  Vegetarian 
crotchets,  and  the  squashy,  or  stinted  diet  she 
enforced  upon  them  as  children,  and  growing 
youths.  Isolated  fucts,  however,  tell  nothing. 
Another  correspondent,  a  patient  (H.  S.),  throve 
upon  Vegetarian  diet.  His  was  just  the  sort  of 
constitution  it  was  fitted  for,  and  he  would  never 
have  been  ill  if  his  lot  had  not  placed  him  tempo- 
rarily under  ungenial  or  under  unhygienic  influ- 
ences. 

"  Here,  then,  I  calmly  take  ray  leave  of  Mr. 
Ward  ;  not  in  the  least  'irate,'  or  disconcerted 
at  the  spectre  of  quackery  he  holds  up  to  frighten 
me  withal.  The  water-cure  is  only  another  word 
for  a  mode  of  healing  diseases  on  strict  hygienic 
principles,  or  an  enforcement  of  diet,  regimen, 
air,  exercise,  etc.  In  all  this  there  is  no 
quackery.  You  may  conceive,  then,  how  easily 
I  sit  under  Mr.  Ward's  puerile  insinuations  on 
this  head.  Those  who  know  me  intimately,  or 
have  consulted  me  professionally,  and  who  have 
read  my  humble  efforts  to  unveil  the  mystery  of 
physic,  and  to  strip  it  of  its  false  pretensions,  will 
vindicate  me  of  any  taint  or  tendency  of  this  sort. 
My  work  on  Consumption  has  been  reviewed  in 
upwards  of  fifty  journals,  and  the  best  of  them 
have  all  concurred  in  this  eulogy — that  it  was 
utterly  free  from  the  least  tincture  of  quackery. 

"I  have,  in  conclusion,  to  apologize  for  the 
length  of  this  letter  (my  last  to  Mr.  Ward).  I 
have  had  to  unhorse  and  disarm  one  of  the 
Bashi-hazouks  of  literature — men  overbearing  in 
their  tone,  furious  in  their  passions,  haters  of  all 
who  touch  their  prejudices,  deadly  in  their  as- 
saults when  they  think  they  may  pounce  upon 
an  antagonist  from  a  safe  ambush,  and  gloating 
with  savage  delight  when  they  imagine  they  have 
*  thrust  the  lance  home ' ;  but  who,  when  fairly 
eonfronted,  prove  utterly  unskilful  in  fence." 
Your  obedient  servant, 

John  Balbirnie. 

publication  of  speeches  as  tracts. 

Dear  Sir — Having  been  for  some  consider- 
able time  an  advocate  of  Vegetarianism,  and 
also  a  reader  of  its  publications,  I  think  it 
the  duty  of  its  friends  to  spread  its  principles 
as  widely  as  possible,  and  in  no  way,  in  my 
opinion,  can  it  be  done  more  efficiently  than  by 
reading.  I  always  make  a  practice  of  lending 
my  Messenger  to  my  friends,  and  find  that  the 
speeches  of  Mr.  Simpson,  Mr.  Smith,  and 
others,  have  very  great  weight  with  them, 
and  tend  to  convince,  if  not  to  induce  all  to 
adopt  the  Vegetarian  diet. 

I  think  if  a  reprint  of  the  speeches  of  these 
gentlemen  were  brought  out  in  a  series  of  tracts, 
in  a  cheap  form  for  circulation,  that  many  of 
our  friends  would  purchase  them  for  gratuitous 
distribution,  and  this  would  no  doubt  tend  to 
facilitate  our  onward  progress. 

I  am,  Sir,  yours  truly, 

Bristol.  P.  G. 

Our  correspondent  does  not  seem  to  be 
aware  that  several  of  the  earlier  addresses 


on  the  Vegetarian  question  were  thus  pub- 
lished as  tracts,  and  were  widely  circulated 
in  1848  and  1849,  such  tracts  being  still  to 
be  had,  if  required. 

VEGETARIANISM   AND   ECONOMY. 

Sir — As  the  economical  character  of  the 
Vegetarian  system  of  diet  is  sometimes  ques- 
tioned, and  nothing  is  so  convincing  as  practical 
experience,  I  send  you  a  summary  of  the  house- 
hold expenses,  of  a  family  of  three  persons  resi- 
ding in  Manchester,  from  July  1st,  1853,  to 
July  3rd,  1854,  as  taken  from  entries  regu- 
larly made  in  the  Working  Man's  Housekeeping 
Book. 


Annual 

"Weekly 

Expenditure 

Expenditure 

ARTICLES  or   FOOD. 

ot  a  family 

of  a  family 

of  3  persons. 

of  3  persons, 

' 

about. 

£     s.     d. 

s. 

d. 

Bread,  Flour,  and  Barm 

8  12     61 

3 

H 

Oatmeal,  liice,  &  Tapioca 

0  12     8i 

0 

3 

Fruit         .        .        .        . 

1  10     1 

0 

7 

Vegetables     . 

1  15     6 

0 

8 

Milk 

4     1     4 

1 

(i 

Butter   .... 

5     0    41 

2 

0 

E.-gs         .        .        .        . 

1     9  10 

0 

7 

Sugar     .... 

2  15    8 

1 

0 

Tea 

1  14  10 

0 

8^ 

Coffee    .... 

2     0    5 

0 

9 

Cocoa        .        .        .        . 

0  14    5i 

0 

3 

Cheese 

0    9     Oi 

0 

2} 

Treacle  and  Honey  . 

0    6  lOi 

0 

n 

Buttermilk    . 

0     1     4i 

0 

Salt,  Vinegar,  Spices,  &c. 

0  11     1 

0 

Baking  Powder 

0     4  11 

0 

1 

Total 

£32    1     0 

12 

n 

Although  the  price  of  flour  has  been,  during 
the  greater  part  of  that  period,  nearly  double 
what  it  previously  was,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
whole  expenditure  for  food  for  52  weeks  only 
amounted  to  £32  Is.  Od.,  the  annual  expendi- 
ture for  each  individual  being  thus  £10  13s.  8d. 
per  head. 

A  s  butter  forms  the  largest  item  of  expense 
next  to  bread  and  flour,  and  may,  as  well  as 
tea  and  coffee,  be  dispensed  with,  or  at  least 
materially  lessened,  to  the  great  advantage  of 
health,  perhaps  a  saving  of  from  £7  to  £8 
might  thus  be  effected,  after  allowing  for  the 
use  of  a  greater  proportion  of  fruit,  cocoa,  etc., 
as  substitutes. 

An  examination  of  the  summary  which,  indeed, 
is  a  principal  advantage  of  the  Housekeeping 
Book,  which  should  be  more  generally  used — will 
show  that  an  undue  expense  has  been  incurred 
for  flour  in  proportion  to  the  other  farinaceous 
articles — oatmeal  and  rice — also  that  too  little 
fruits  and  vegetables,  especially  the  former,  have 
been  consumed.  To  this  as  well  as  the  saving 
above  alluded  to,  I  am  now  directing  my 
attention,  being  satisfied  that  Providence 
has  so  wisely  ordered  all  things  as  to  make 
the  cheapest  and  most  palatable  food  also  the 
best. 

I  may  observe  that  our  bread  was  made  at 
home  and  of  the  best  bread  flour,  and  wheat-meal, 
fresh  from  the  mill,  mixed  in  equal  proportions  : 
also,  that  we  drink  no  intoxicating  liquors,   do 


not  use  tobacco  in  any  form,    and  have  had  no 
occasion  for  a  doctor  in  the  house. 

I  ara,  Sir,  respectfully  yours, 
Manchester.  E.  S. 


P.  S. — T  beo^  to  suggest  that  a  Vegetarian 
Housekeeping  Book  be  published,  containing  the 
items  adapted  to  our  wants. 


THE     VEGETARIAN     TEEASUEL 


THE   INFANT   AND    THE   MOTHER. 

As  the  infant  begins  to  discriminate  between 
the  objects  around,  it  soon  discovers  one 
countenance  that  ever  smiles  upon  it  with 
peculiar  benignity.  When  it  wakes  from 
its  sleep,  there  is  ever  one  watchful  form 
bent  over  its  cradle.  If  startled  by  some 
unhappy  dream,  a  guardian  angel  seems  ever 
ready  to  soothe  its  fears.  If  cold,  that  min- 
istering spirit  brings  it  warmth  ;  if  hungry, 
she  feeds  it ;  if  happy,  she  caresses  it.  In  joy 
or  sorrow,  weal  or  Avoe,  she  is  the  first  object 
of  its  thoughts.  Her  presence  is  heaven ;  the 
mother  is  the  Deity  of  infancy. — Dickens, 

DIET   AND    HEALTH    OF   THE    ROMANS. 

So  fully  were  the  Homans  at  one  time 
persuaded  of  the  superior  goodness  of  vege- 
table diet,  that,  besides  the  private  example 
of  many  of  their  great  men,  they  estab- 
lished laws  concerning  food,  amongst  which 
were  the  lex  fannia,  and  the  lex  licinia^ 
which  allowed  very  little  animal  food ; 
and,  for  a  period  of  five  hundred  years, 
diseases  were  banished,  along  with  the  physi- 
cian, from  the  Roman  empire.  Nor  has 
our  age  been  destitute  of  examples  of  men, 
brave  from  the  vigour  both  of  their  bodies 
and  minds,  who,  at  the  same  time,  have 
been  drinkers  of  water  and  eaters  of  vege- 
tables.— Dr.  Whitlaw. 

AN   historical   FACT. 

"Wheat  was  first  sown  in  the  North  American 
colonies  in  1692,  on  the  Elizabeth  Islands, 
in  Massachusetts,  by  Gospold,  at  the  time 
he  explored  that  coast.  That  was  just  252 
years  ago,  and  since  that  time  so  great  has 
been  the  increase  of  this  cereal,  that,  in  the 
year  1849,  according  to  the  census  of  18-50, 
the  product  amounted  to  100,503,899  bushels. 
Up  to  IGIO,  and  perhaps  later,  England 
supplied  the  colonics  with  the  greater  part 
of  their  breadstuffs.  How  changed  is  it 
now  !  All  Europe  is  looking  to  us  for  bread. 
The  bread  sent  to  the  colonies  in  1610  was 
not  cast  upon  the  waters  never  more  to  return. 
Two  hundred  and  forty  years  afterwards  it 
rolls  back  in  a  continuous  stream,  to  gladden 
the  hearts  of  half-famished  millions  in  Eng- 
land, and  France,  and  Belgium.  The  de- 
scendants of  men  originally  lashed  and 
scourged  from  their  shores,  and  forced  to 
make  their  future  habitations  beneath  the 
uninviting  sky — more  humane  than  the 
taskmasters  of  their  fathers — are  now  striving 


to  return  good  for  what  was  considered  an 
evil,  by  supplying  them  with  bread. 

THE   MORAL    EFFECT    OF   ALIMENT. 

The  moral  effect  of  aliment  is  clearly  evinced 
in  the  different  tempers  of  carnivorous  and 
frugivorous  animals.  The  same  effect  of 
aliment  is  discernible  among  the  different 
species  of  men ;  the  peaceful  temper  of  the 
frugivorous  Asiatic  is  strongly  contrasted 
with  the  ferocious  disposition  of  the  carni- 
vorous European. — Rousseau. 

HABIT   AND    IGNORANCE. 

Habit  and  ignorance  have  a  much  greater 
share  in  occasioning  the  dirt,  diseases,  and 
wretchedness  of  large  sections  of  the  popu- 
lation than  has  generally  been  understood 
by  philosophers  and  philanthropists.  The 
Scottish  Highlander  gives  up  the  best  room 
in  his  cabin  to  a  cow,  the  Irish  cotter  to  a 
pig  ;  they  sleep  surrounded  with  filth  ;  and 
whether  the  potato  crop  has  failed  or  been 
abundant,  makes  no  difference,  in  this  respect, 
to  their  condition.  Poverty  is  not  the  cause 
of  the  dungheap  before  the  door,  but  indiffe- 
rence to  cleanliness ;  an  indifference  which  they 
carry  with  them  as  emigrants,  and  retain  in 
the  United  States  when  their  wages  have 
been  quadrupled.  Upon  this  subject  the 
sanitary  reports  have  rendered  invaluable 
service  to  the  public,  in  removing  prevalent 
misconceptions  by  plain  statements  of  fact. 
They  abound  with  instances  of  disease  and 
wretchedness,  occasioned,  not  by  poverty,  but 
a  total  disregard  of  the  laws  of  health  ;  and 
this,  not  only  in  towns,  but  in  rural  villages 
and  situations  naturally  salubrious  ;  and  they 
trace  the  effect  of  causes  of  mortality,  by 
which  the  rich  are,  relatively  to  their  num- 
bers, as  frequently  the  victims  as  the  poor. 
—  Westminster  Review. 

GRATITUDE. 

Ah !  while  wc  view  the  blessings  of  the  year, 
Chasten  the  smile  of  joy  with  virtue's  tear  ; 
And  as  we  take  the  heaven  conferr'd  supplies, 
Let  soft  compassion  in  our  bosom  rise  ; 
Since  from  thy  hand  unsparing  we  receive, 
0  teach  our  hearts  unsparingly  to  give  ; 
With  souls  uplifted  while  the  knee  we  bend, 
May  grateful  incense  to  thy  throne  ascend. 
And  may  the  suppliants  find  acceptance  there, 
As  warm  with  pious  love  they  breathe  the 

prayer ; 
With  thee  may  every  thought  begin  and  end, 
0  First  and  Last !  Creator  !  Father !  Friend  ! 


MAN'S   REPUGNANCE  TO   THE   DESTRUCTION   OF   LIFE. 


KESULTS    OF     DISCUSSION. 


The  results  of  the  honest  discussion  of  sub- 
jects is  no  doubt  beneficial,  in  leading  to  the 
formation  of  more  correct  opinions  than  are 
generally  entertained  to  begin  with  upon  any 
new  question.  The  method  in  which  discus- 
sion may  be  conducted,  however,  is  so  varied, 
as  very  materially  to  affect  the  conclusions 
to  be  arrived  at,  and  even  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  are  the  principal  actors  in  it. 

Inquiry  and  communication  are  constantly 
producing  discussion  in  social  life,  and  when 
this  is  for  the  purpose  of  eliciting  the  truth, 
the  results  thus  regulated  are  useful  at  every 
step.  Unfortunately,  however,  there  are 
other  objects  than  those  of  truth,  so  com- 
monly made  leading  elements  in  discussion, 
and  especially  in  public  discussion,  that  what 
should  be  its  natural  product,  is  of  an  exceed- 
ingly uncertain  character,  and  is  often  falla- 
cious to  the  public,  whilst  productive  of  mis- 
chief to  the  actors  in  it.  Probably  this  has 
led  to  the  popular  conclusion  that  "  a  man 
can  prove  any  thing"  in  discussion,  "if  he 
be  but  clever  enough." 

There  is,  however,  it  must  be  admitted,  a 
counterpart  to  the  want  of  candour,  honesty, 
or  other  errors  of  the  discussionist,  and  that  is 
in  the  want  of  intelligence,  discriminating 
power,  and,  above  all,  the  substituting 
of  opinions  for  facts,  in  the  public  who  are 
appealed  to.  With  the  mass  of  the  public, 
it  seems  sutficient  to  quote  influential  names 
in  support  of  positions  intended  to  be  sup- 
ported, forgetful  that  the  deductions  of  the 
greatest  philosophers  are  all  simple  and 
intelligible  to  the  "  common  sense  "  of  men, 
when  once  they  are  referred  to  the  facts  on 
which  they  are  founded.  "  Common  sense  " 
and  "  common  things"  ever  go  together  in 
the  progress  of  the  world ;  the  apparently 
complicated  is  ever  being  reduced  to  the 
simple,  and  if  the  theories  of  all  are  sub- 
mitted to  the  test  of  a  common  sense  view 


of  the  facts  on  which  they  profess  to  be 
founded,  an  issue  is  satisfactorily  arrived  at, 
for  the  analysis  and  subsequent  corrobora- 
tion, or  refutation,  of  the  subject  for  which 
attention  is  claimed.  This  position  is 
absolutely  true  of  all  essential  things  ;  and 
for  the  more  abstract  questions  of  truth, 
these  neither  are  nor  can  be  addressed  to 
popular  attention  with  any  practical  result, 
and  can  thus  well  be  left  to  the  disputations 
of  the  scientific  world,  who,  however,  so  far 
as  any  thing  can  be  made  useful,  have  to 
resort  to  the  same  searching  analysis  for 
fact  and  sound  deduction  therefrom,  which 
has  to  be  pursued  in  commoner  and  more 
essential  things. 

How  much  safer,  then,  for  the  public,  in 
estimating  the  value  of  the  positions  of  the 
discussionist,  to  ask  for  the  facts  on  which 
the  opinions  of  men  of  name  and  profound 
acquirement  are  supposed  to  be  based,  and  to 
receive  the  name  and  opinion  as  at  all  times 
secondary  to  the  facts  on  which  it  is  pre- 
sumed to  be  founded.  It  is  this  simple 
process,  due  to  the  common  sense  of  society, 
that  would,  at  once,  put  down  two-thirds 
of  the  errors  and  false  assumptions  which 
belong  to  opinions  without  facts,  and 
whether  on  all  essential  facts  of  science,  or 
social,  or  even  political  questions,  would  be 
a  grand  safeguard  to  the  well-being  of  the 
honest  and  well-intentioned  of  every  class. 

Discussion,  thus,  for  want  of  honesty  in 
the  discussionist,  and  more  intelligence  in 
the  public,  is  rendered  questionable  and 
uncertain  in  its  results ;  but  with  the  general 
observance  of  the  rule  of  seeking  the  facts, 
and  letting  the  opinions  of  the  authorities 
quoted  be  regarded  as  valuable,  or  otherwise, 
as  it  may  be  found  in  accordance  with  these, 
the  public  have  the  most  powerful  engine 
for  the  correction  of  error,  and  the  sound 
guidance  of  the  future. 


MAN'S    REPUGNANCE   TO   THE   DESTRUCTION   OF    LIFE. 


There  is  an  error  far  too  commonly  enter- 
tained, that  man  is  by  nature  prone  to  inflict 
pain,  and  is  capable  of  deriving  pleasure 
from  such  pursuits  as  result  in  the  destruc- 
2 


tion  of  life.  In  a  world  in  which  order  is 
the  exception,  and  disorder  the  prevailing 
characteristic,  this  may  seem  a  somewhat 
natural  conclusion,  but  will  not  for  a  moment 


MAN'S   REPUGNANCE  TO   THE   DESTRUCTION   OF   LIFE. 


bear  the  test  of  a  careful  examination.  In- 
stances in  support  of  this  view  are  quoted 
from  the  striking  conduct  of  certain  classes 
of  the  animal  creation  in  the  destruction  of 
their  prey,  and  from  man's  own  conduct  to 
the  inferior  animals,  and  even  toAvards  his 
own  species,  in  uncertain  and  conflicting 
passages  of  his  history.  "We  need  hardly, 
however,  for  a  moment  observe,  that  the  in- 
stance of  the  carnivorous  tribes  in  relation 
to  their  prey,  especially  if  taken  "with  their 
other  characteristics,  is  much  more  cal- 
culated to  serve  as  a  warning  than  as  an 
example,  and  that  the  higher  order  of  endow- 
ments observable  in  the  nature  of  man, — 
ascending  in  our  admiration  of  the  broad 
difference  we  seek  to  establish  between  him 
and  the  inferior  animal  creation,  to  the 
"lordly  and  noble" — are  at  least  strikingly 
inharmonious  with  habits  of  prey.  Nor  can 
man  in  his  savage  conflicts  with  his  brother 
man,  be  presented  in  such  a  light  as  at  all  to 
do  honour  to  our  perceptions  of  what  we 
acknowledge  to  be  the  highest  attributes  of 
his  character.  "With  the  progress  of  civili- 
zation, the  arts  of  peace,  and  the  cultivation 
of  brotherly  kindness,  have  been  discovered 
to  be  the  most  ennobling  to  nations  as  well 
as  to  individuals ;  and  thus,  man,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  savage  acts  of  the  earlier  periods 
of  his  fallen  history,  or  the  blood-thirsty 
cravings  of  savage  races  of  the  present  day, 
can  no  more  draw  a  precedent  for  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  course  of  destructive  conduct 
to  his  fellow-beings,  than  he  can  from  the 
observance  of  the  practice  of  the  carnivorous 
animals  in  destroying  their  prey.  Both 
courses  are  unworthy  of  him. 

The  great  error  in  all  the  conclusions 
which  have  tended  to  ascribe  pleasure  to 
man's  nature  in  destruction  and  bloodshed, 
arises  from  the  consideration  of  man  in 
depraved  or  abnormal  conditions,  and  the 
want  of  careful  consideration  as  to  his 
nature,  moral,  intellectual,  and  physical. 
It  cannot  be  for  a  moment  denied,  that  the 
tiger,  as  well  as  the  other  tribes  of  the  car- 
nivora,  are  constituted  in  direct  relation  to 
their  prey,  and,  as  what  is  natural  is  ever 
made  easy  and  pleasurable,  the  normal  con  ■ 
dition  of  all  these  races  shows  that  there  is 
not  merely  adaptation,  but  the  highest 
satisfaction  in  every  act  associated  with  it, 
not  excepting  those  of  the  destruction  of  life, 
essential  to  their  existence  as  animals  of 
prey.  Unless,  however,  we  take  the  Carib 
(commonly  regarded  as  the  most  degraded 
and  blood-thirsty  of  the  human  species)  as  a 
type  of  the  human  race,  we  shall  find  nothing 
in  the  families  of  mankind  which  at  all 
approximates  to  the  thoroughly  expressed 
characteristics  of  the  animals  of  prey ;  and 
from  the  moment  that  we  seek  a  standard 


in  relation  to  the  highest  orders  of  humanity, 
and  bring  philosophical  observation  to  bear 
in  pointing  out  what  are  the  essential  cha- 
racteristics of  human  nature,  we  find  that 
the  assumed  tendency  to  destroy  life  is  at 
least  more  than  brought  into  question. 

Regarding  man  as  a  physical  being,  his 
natural  instincts  are  all  repelled  by  every 
step  essential  to  the  strict  imitation  of  the 
animal  of  prey ;  and  though  intellect  may 
aid  him  in  substituting  the  knife  and  other 
destructive  implements  for  the  teeth  and 
claws  of  the  carnivora,  nature  is  still  forcible 
in  her  instinctive  declarations  of  repugnance 
to  the  processes  essential  to  the  making  use 
of  these.  Above  and  beyond  all,  however, 
there  is  the  moral  nature  of  man,  which,  in 
its  leading  benevolent  characteristic,  opposes 
itself  to  the  destruction  of  life,  and  to  the 
needless  injury  of  the  weak  and  defenceless; 
and  though  the  intellect  may  here  again  be 
said  to  have  an  influence  in  modifying  and 
directing  this  tendency  where  the  life  and 
health,  or  other  essential  conveniences  of 
man,  are  brought  into  danger,  the  modifying 
influence  of  this  is  still  such  as  ever  tends  to 
the  declaration,  that  the  bloodshed  and  de- 
struction of  the  inferior  animal  creation,  as 
well  as  of  the  human  species,  are  opposed 
both  to  the  instincts,  the  intellectual,  and 
the  moral  state  of  the  human  subject. 

"We,  of  course,  at  once  apprehend  the  ob- 
jections to  the  picture  we  have  attempted  to 
draw  of  the  natural  constitution  of  man,  but 
are  ready  to  meet  them  without  fear  that  our 
theory  should  be  at  all  marred  in  fact.  "  "We 
see  men  delight  in  the  destructive  acts  of 
sporting,"  says  one ;  and  "  have  we  not  be- 
fore us  ample  evidence  in  the  destructive 
features  of  history,  that  men  take-  delight  in 
the  destruction  of  life,  and  this  even  in  the 
most  civilized  nations  of  the  earth } "  says 
another.  "  Is  not  man  unquestionably  en- 
dowed with  a  tendency  to  combat  and 
destroy?"  says  a  third.  On  the  first  of 
these  popular  objections  we  have  simply  to 
remark,  that  the  phases  of  society  suggesting 
such  conclusions  are  the  result  of  erroneous 
training.  Certainly,  we  behold  men  who, 
from  the  force  of  education  in  destructive 
practices  in  sporting,  can  shoot  down  and 
otherwise  destroy  thousands  of  the  beautiful 
specimens  of  the  animal  creation,  and  some 
of  these  even  of  the  gentlest  and  most  in- 
offensive kind,  and  with  an  apparent  zest, 
which  seems  to  declare  that  they  are  vain  of 
their  practice  as  destroyers.  We  behold 
even  men  of  rank  and  title  most  conspicuous 
in  these  practices,  and  the  other  day,  even, 
nearly  a  thousand  of  God's  harmless  crea- 
tures,— warm-blooded,  complete  in  their  ani- 
mal existence,  and  of  nervous  life  sentient 
as  that  of  their  destroyers — were  shot  down 


MAN'S  REPUCtNANCE  TO   THE   DESTRUCTION   OF   LIFE. 


in  the  name  of  kindness  and  patriotism,  if 
not  of  mercy  itself,  as  we  read  in  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  the  public  prints  : 

"Patriotic  Sporting. — Lord  Ward  with 
some  of  his  friends  commenced  shooting  on 
the  Hurcott  Manor,  on  Friday  last,  the  game 
which  he  intends  to  send  to  our  soldiers  in 
the  Crimea.  There  were  eight  guns,  and  at 
the  close  of  the  day's  warfare  the  result  was 
the  death  of  336  hares,  140  rabbits,  78 
pheasants,  3  partridges,  and  1  woodcock, 
total  558.  On  the  following  day  his  lord- 
ship, with  Sir  J.  S.  Pakington,  Bart.,  and 
others,  had  a  day's  shooting  for  the  same 
object,  on  the  Witley  estates.  There  Avere 
nine  guns,  and  the  day's  sport  yielded  188 
hares,  123  rabits,  and  103  pheasants,  making  j 
a  total  of  414,  and  of  both  days,  972."  I 

All  this,  however,  we  contend,  is  solely  j 
and  purely  the  result  of  training ;  for  though  i 
there  is  certainly  considerable  difference  j 
manifested  between  the  savage  and  the  | 
civilized  in  the  tendencies  to  destructive  \ 
pursuits  (the  results  of  training  in  previous 
generations),  there  is,  in  degree  at  least, 
pain  and  compunction  experienced  in  the 
first  steps  which  have  to  be  passed  through 
before  the  practice  of  sporting  in  any  of 
these  forms  can  give  pleasure.  The  acci- 
dental shooting  of  one's  dog,  or  the  wailing 
cry  of  the  hare  when  closely  pressed  by  the 
hound,  are  quite  suflScient,  early  on,  to  turn 
some  from  what  might  ultimately  have 
become  a  confirmed  sporting  habit.  But 
though  the  sense  of  pain  is  associated  with 
the  first  acts  of  slaughter,  and  even  in  some 
cases  intense  compunction  experienced, 
where,  from  trepidation,  inexperience,  or 
other  accidental  circumstances,  life  has  not 
been  fully  destroyed,  the  shame  at  manifest- 
ing other  feelings  than  those  of  the  trained 
sportsman,  with  other  indurating  effects  of 
progress  in  the  perpetration  of  such  acts,  but 
too  commonly  suffice  to  repress  much  of  these 
early  natural  feelings  (where  the  steps  to 
the  ultimate  practice  of  the  sportsman  are 
not  even  more  imperceptibly  taken),  till,  at 
length,  what  was  painful  becomes,  compara- 
tively at  least,  an  inferior  pleasure.  It  is 
in  this  way,  just  as  in  the  processes  to  which 
the  helpers  of  the  slaughter-houses  are  sub- 
mitted, that  education  can  be  perfected,  and 
though  the  first  act  in  each  vocation  is 
accompanied  by  a  throbbing  bosom,  the 
ultimate  results  of  departure  from  nature 
(always  constant  in  proclaiming  against  the 
practice,  notwithstanding,  to  begin  with)  is 
to  prove,  at  most,  that  man,  by  the  force  of 
adaptability,  can  exist  otherwise  than  as  the 
instincts  of  his  nature,  the  powers  of  his 
reason,  and  the  mercy  and  benevolence  of 
his  moral  nature,  will  infallibly  direct. 
As  to  the  conclusions  to  be  drawn   from 


the  warlike  practices  of  the  majority  of  the 
races  of  mankind,  and  more  especially  of 
those  of  the  most  civilized  communities,  (on 
the  practice  of  which  the  argument  is  in- 
tended to  be  most  forcibly  placed),  we  might 
simply  call  attention  to  the  notable  discre- 
pancy between  the  principles  of  profession  or 
belief,  and  the  practice  of  such  communities, 
and  inquire  whether,  in  a  land  of  Christians, 
the  obligations  of  Christian  conduct  to  others 
are  only  to  be  binding  so  far  as  suits  the 
convenience  or  expediency  of  individuals  or 
nations.  But  we  prefer  to  go  to  the  root  of 
the  matter,  and  to  state  that  the  destruction 
of  human  life  is  lamentably  opposed  to  the 
whole  nature  of  man.  By  man  in  a  state 
of  nature,  we  only  refer  to  the  normal  state 
of  man — not  the  savage  state, 

*'  Nor  think  in  Nature's  state  they  blindly  trod ; 
The  state  of  Nature  was  the  reign  of  God  :  " 

And  if  required  to  account  for  the  facts  that 
seem  to  establish  any  other  conclusion,  we 
have  again  to  revert  to  the  force  of  habit  and 
unfortunate  training,  in  bringing  about  the 
dire  conflicts  and  slaughter  of  Christian 
nations  as  now  witnessed,  after  hundreds  of 
years  of  the  profession  of  the  "  humanizing 
teaching  of  the  Gospel  of  Peace."  Men  are 
not  proof  against  evil  example  and  training, 
even  here,  any  more  than  in  their  erroneous 
practices  in  slaughtering  and  preying  upon 
the  brute  creation — the  great  step  of  tran- 
sition to  the  ''  forging  of  the  sword,"  and  the 
slaughter  of  our  "  brother  man.''  For  illus- 
trations to  prove  our  position,  the  merest 
every-day  incidents  of  war,  will  amply 
satisfy  us.  We  extract  one  worthy  of  deep 
attention,  from  the  events  of  the  present  war. 

"  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  the  whole 
range  of  fiction,  a  more  affecting  incident 
than  is  contained  in  the  following  extract 
from  a  letter  written  by  a  British  seaman, 
now  serving  in  the  Baltic,  to  his  wife,  who 
resides  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Boston, 
Lincolnshire.  The  letter  is  dated  Hango 
Roads,  May  22nd,  and  is  published  at  length 
in  the  Boston  Guardian.  It  was  his  first 
service  on  shore  as  a  soldier,  having  been 
sent  on  shore  with  a  boat's  crew  of  marines 
to  silence  a  fort  and  take  some  guns : — 

'  We  dispersed  at  a  few  hundred  yards  dis- 
tance from  the  beach,  to  keep  the  coast  clear 
whilst  the  boat's  crew  made  prizes  of  the 
guns.  The  enemy  had  the  advantage  of  the 
wood,  and  also  knowing  the  country  well, 
and  a  troop  of  them  showed  in  advance. 
We  were  ordered  to  fire.  I  took  steady  aim 
and  fired  on  my  man  at  about  sixty  yards. 
He  fell  like  a  stone.     At  the  same  time  a 

broadside  from  the  went  in  amongst 

the  trees,  and  the  enemy  disappeared,  we 
could  scarce  tell  how.  I  felt  as  though  I 
must  go  up  to  him^  to  see  whether  he  was 


10 


ON  THE  PROPER  FOOD  OF  MAN. 


dead  or  alive.  He  lay_  quite  still,  and  I  was 
more  afraid  of  him  lying  so  tlian  when  he 
stood  facing  me  a  few  minutes  before.  It's 
a  strange  feeling  to  come  over  you  all  at  once 
that  you  have  killed  a  man.  He  had 
unbuttoned  his  jacket,  and  was  pressing  his 
hand  over  the  front  of  his  chest  where  the 
wound  v/as.  He  breathed  hard,  and  the 
blood  poured  from  the  wound,  and  also  from 
his  mouth,  every  breath  he  took.  His  face 
was  white  as  death,  and  his  eyes  looked  so 
big  and  bright  as  he  turned  them  and  stared 
at  me.  I  shall  never  forget  it.  He  was  a 
fine  young  fellow,  not  more  than  five-and- 
twenty.  I  went  down  on  my  knees  beside 
him,  and  my  breast  felt  so  full,  as  though 
my  own  heart  would  burst.  He  had  a  real 
English  face,  and  did  not  look  like  an 
enemy.  "What  I  felt  I  never  can  tell,  but  if  my 
life  would  have  saved  his,  I  believe  I  should 
have  given  it.  I  laid  his  head  on  my  knees, 
and  he  grasped  hold  of  my  hand  and  tried  to 
speak,  but  his  voice  was  gone.  I  could  not 
tell  a  word  he  said  ;  and  every  time  he  tried 
to  speak  the  blood  poured  out  so,  I  knew  it 
would  soon  be  over.  I  am  not  ashamed  to 
say  that  I  was  worse  than  he,  for  he  never 
shed  a  tear,  and  I  couldn't  help  it.  His  eyes 
were  closing  when  a  gun  was  fired  from  the 

to  order  us  aboard,   and  that  roused 

him.  He  pointed  to  the  beach,  where  the 
boat  was  just  pushing  ofi"  with  the  guns 
which  we  had  taken,  and  where  our  mariners 
were  waiting  to  man  the  second  boat,  and 
then  he  pointed  to  the  wood,  where  the 
enemy  were  concealed — poor  fellow,  he  little 
thought  how  I  had  shot  him  down  !  I  was 
wondering  how  I  could  leave  him  to  die  and 
no  one  near  him,  when  he  had  something 
like  a  convulsion  for  a  moment,  and  then 
his  face  rolled  over,  and  without  a  sigh  he 
was  gone.  I  trust  the  Almighty  has  received 
his  soul.  I  laid  his  head  gently  down  on 
the  grass  and  left  him.  It  seemed  so  strange 
when  I  looked  at  him  for  the  last  time ;  I 
somehow  thought  of  everything  I  had  heard 
about  the  Turks  and  the  Russians  and  the 


rest  of  them — but  all  that  se§med  mfar  offy 
and  the  dead  man  so  near.  * 

To  man,  even  in  a  transition  state  from 
nature's  ways,  it  must,  indeed,  be  "  a  strange 
feeling  that  you  have  killed  a  man."  But  let 
us  glance  from  this  instance  of  early  compunc- 
tion to  the  results  of  a  few  months'  training 
in  the  trenches  before  Sebastapol,  and  what 
then  do  we  see  ?  We  make  the  extract  from 
the  letter  of  a  Marine. f 

"  I  have  not  had  my  clothes  off  to  sleep 
since  I  have  been  here,  and  I  shan't  if  we 
stop  for  six  months.  We  sleep  with  our 
belts  on  and  60  rounds  of  ammunition,  and 
our  muskets  loaded  by  our  sides.  *  *  *  * 
You  can  tell  Bob"!  have  got  a  slap-up  great- 
coat for  him,  that  I  got  one  night  when  I 
was  out  on  picket.  The  man  that  had  it 
that  night  will  never  want  it  again,  for  he 
was  not  able  to  carry  away  a  small  bit  of 
lead  I  made  him  a  present  of.' ' 

We  here  see  how  lightly  is  the  destruction 
of  life  held  after  the  "  hard  practice"  of  a 
brief  period  ;  and  it  is  thus,  we  contend,  that 
the  instances  presented  of  men  taking  pleasure 
in  the  pursuits  of  war,  are  but  a  further  stage 
of  erroneous  and  abnormal  training. 

For  the  rest,  man  is  obviously  both  comba- 
tive and  destructive,  whether  he  live  without 
preying  upon  the  animal  creation,  or  carry- 
ing war  into  his  neighbour's  country  .''  But 
combativeness  and  destructiveness  but  re- 
quire the  regulation  of  the  moral  nature  to 
be  important  gifts,  even  for  the  progress  of 
morals,  and  their  legitimate  exercise  is  the 
contending  against  and  putting  down  of 
difficulty  and  evil. 

Man  in  harmony  with  his  nature,  is  thus 
opposed  to  slaughter  and  bloodshed,  whether 
encountered  in  seeking  food,  or  conquest, 
and  an  accurate  observation  of  the  features 
of  his  history,  we  believe,  will  prove  what 
the  wisest  moralists  have  contended  for,  that 
he  is  only  susceptible  of  enduring  happiness 
in  a  life  of  obedience  to  the  peaceful,  mer- 
ciful, and  noble  attributes  of  his  being. 
•  Inquirer^  July  15, 1854.    +  Times,  Sept.,  29,  1854. 


ON    THE    PKOPEK 

There  are  few  subjects  on  which  a  greater 
diversity  of  opinions  is  entertained  than 
that  which  relates  to  the  proper  diet  of  the 
human  family.  Some  of  those  who  have 
investigated  the  subject  extensively,  have 
come  to  a  full  conviction  that  a  Vegetarian 
diet  is  that  which  is  most  in  accordance  Avith 
the  laws  of  human  physiology,  and  for  which 
the  anatomical  structure  of  man  is  evidently 
best  adapted.  So  far  as  history  can  be  relied 
on  from  its  earliest  records  down  to  the  pre- 
sent period,  it  is  manifest  that  from  two- 
thirds  to  three-fourths  of  the  human  race 
have  in   every  age  subsisted  almost  exclu- 


FOOD    OF    MAN. 

sively  on  vegetable  aliment,  The  Brahmins 
of  India,  and  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Hindostan,  neither  kill  nor  eat  any  sort  of 
animal  for  food ;  and  it  is  certain  that  such 
has  been  the  rule  of  their  conduct  for  more 
than  tv)o  thousand  years  !  While  they  rear 
numerous  herds  of  cattle  on  account  of  their 
useful'and  patient  services  to  man,  such  is 
their  sympathy  and  veneration  for  these 
animals,  that  to'kill,  or  even  treat  one  of  them 
with  cruelty,  is  there  deemed  a  capital  offence. 
There,  indeed,  every  living  creature,  even 
the  meanest  animal,  meets  with  justice  and 
tenderness,  and  the  idea  that  fruits,  grains. 


ON  THE  PROPER  FOOD   OF    MAN. 


11 


and  farinaceous  productions  are  the  proper 
and  natural  sources  of  man's  nutriment,  and 
are  sufficient  for  the  support  of  his  physical 
existence,  seems  to  obtain  almost  universally. 
The  Japanese  for  the  most  part  feed  on  rice, 
pulse,  fruits,  roots,  and  herbs.  The  Chinese, 
and  the  most  laborious  and  useful  portions 
of  the  families  and  nations  on  the  earth,  sub- 
sist for  the  most  part  on  vegetable  diet.  And 
the  people  that  are  sustained  on  such  food 
exclusively,  are  said  "  of  all  men  to  be  the 
handsomest,  the  most  robust,  the  least  ex- 
posed to  disease  and  violent  passions,  and  to 
attain  to  the  greatest  longevity." 

There  are  others,  again,  well  versed  in  the 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  who  think  a 
mixed  diet,  partly  animal  and  partly  vege- 
table, is  that  which  is  the  most  suitable  and 
best  fitted  for  maa'8  nourishment.  Animal 
food,  they  contend,  is  more  allied  to  our 
nature  than  vegetable,  and  more  easily  assi- 
milated to  the  sustenance  of  our  physical 
powers.  Yet  it  is  admitted  that  the  vege- 
table kingdom  is  the  only  source  of  nourish- 
ment, directly  or  indirectly,  of  all  animal 
support ;  and,  consequently,  that  there  is  no 
nutrition  for  animal  or  man's  maintenance 
but  what  is  drawn  from  the  vegetable  world. 
It  is  admitted  also  by  such  as  have  investi- 
gated this  dietetic  inquiry  with  a  desire  to 
come  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth,  that,  in 
temperate  and  warm  climates  especially,  an 
animal  diet  is  more  wasting  than  one  of 
vegetables,  because  it  excites,  and  by  its 
stimulating  qualities  produces,  a  temporary 
fever  after  every  Jlesh-meal^  and  by  these 
stimulating  tendencies,  urges  unduly  the 
springs  of  life  into  constant  preternatural 
and  debilitating  exertions;  and  that  we 
seldom  see  those  who  indulge  much  in  a 
mixed  or  animal  diet,  to  be  remarkable  for 
health  or  longevity. 

But  it  is  not  uncommon  to  meet  with  per- 
sons whose  views  and  habits  are  still  more 
carnivorous;  who  seem  to  look  upon  Jiesh 
rather  than  bread^  as  being  the  constituent, 
or  ''  staff  of  life,"  and  who  endeavour  to 
convince  us,  that  throughout  all  life,  struggle 
is  the  law  of  ascension,  death  is  indispensable 
to  the  continuation  of  human  life,  and  that 
hence  all  those  butcheries,  and  even  those 
rude  antagonisms,  occurring  between  man 
and  man,  are  justifiable  and  in  accordance 
with  the  nature  of  things.  War  is  considered 
by  such  persons  as  a  legitimate  consequence 
of  the  condition  of  our  race,  and  all  the  con- 
comitants of  war,  such  as  butchery,  hunting, 
martial  games,  and  field  sports,  are  equally 
legitimate.  When  battle  and  destruction 
cease,  say  they,  the  whole  animal  world, 
with  man  at  its  head,  must  terminate  in  an- 
nihilation ;  the  law  is  that  animal  life  must 
be  perpetuated  through  death  and  decay. 


We  remember  reading,  with  no  little  sur- 
prise, in  a  very  popular  work,  on  The  Rela- 
tion between  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  some 
parts  of  Geological  Science,   by  John  Pye 
Smith,  D.D.,   sentiments  like   the    above. 
"The   mysterious  principle    of  life,"    says 
Dr.  Smith,  "  is  universally  maintained  by 
the  agency  of    death.     From  dead  organic 
matter  the  living  structure  derives  its  neces- 
sary supplies.  The  processes  of  nutrition,  assi- 
milation, growth,  exhaustion,  and  reparation, 
hold  on  their   irresistible  course    to   decay 
and  dissolution —  in  other  words,  to  death. 
Some   persons  have  dreamed  of   sustaining 
animal  life  by  exclusively  vegetable  food ; 
ignorant  that  in  every  leaf,  or  root,  or  fruit, 
which  they  feed  upon,  and  in  every  drop  of 
water  they  drink,  and  in  the  very  air  they 
breathe,  they  put  to  death  myriads  of  living 
creatures,  whose    bodies   are  as  '  curiously 
and  wonderfully  made '  as  our  own,  which 
were    full  of    animation    and  agility,   and 
enjoyed  their  modes  and  periods  of  existence 
as  really  and  efiectively  under  the  bountiful 
care  of  Him  '■  who  is  good  to  all,  and  whose 
tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works,'  as  the 
stately  elephant  and  the  majestic  horse,  or 
man,  the  earthly  lord  of  all.      By  far  the 
larger  portion   of   the    animal    creation  is 
formed,  in  every  part  of  its  anatomy,  internal 
and  external,  for  living  upon  animal  food, 
and  cannot  live  upon  any  other."     Agreeing 
with  the  principles  of  Dr.  Smith,  we  were 
not  surprised  to  read  corresponding  senti- 
ments in  a  work  recently  published  by  J.  W. 
Bradley,  of  our  city,  entitled,  Wild  Scenes  and 
Wild  Hunters  of  the  World,  written  by  J.  C. 
Webber.     We  could  not  reasonably  expect  a 
Wild  Hunter  to  advocate  any  other  view  of 
human  diet  than  one,  by  the  carrying  out  of 
which  his  every  day's  existence  is  sustained ; 
but  we  might  have  expected  something  more 
intellectual,  more  scientific,  more  in  harmony 
with  truth,  and  resting  less,  in  its  conclusions, 
on  mere  appearances,  from  one  so  elevated 
in  the  literary  world  as  Dr.  Smith.     We 
admit,  with  him,  that  a  "large  portion  of 
the  animal  creation  is  formed,  in  every  part 
of  its    anatomy,  internal  and  external,   for 
living  upon  animal  food";  we  do  not  even 
stop  here,  but  maintain  that  each  and  every 
part  of  any  organized  animal,  taken  sepa- 
rately, indicates  and  gives  the  key  to  a  know- 
ledge of  all  the  rest,  and  demonstrates  the 
structure,  the  character,  and  habits  of  the 
animal.     Thus,  if  the  stomach  of  an  animal 
is  so  organized  and  adapted  as  only  to  digest 
animal  food,  its  jaws  must  also  be  so  con- 
trived as  to  lay  hold  on  and  devour  such  prey ; 
its  claws  to  seize  and  tear  it ;  its  teeth  to  cut 
and  divide  it ;    the  whole  structure  of  its 
locomotive  organs  to  pursue  and  obtain  it; 
its  organs  of  sense  to  perceive  it  from  afar ; 


12 


THE  LONDON   COMMISSARIA.T. 


and  in  its  brain  must  have  been  placed  by 
creation  the  necessary  instinct  to  enable  it  to 
conceal  itself,  and  to  bring  its  victim  -within 
its  toils.  Are  these  anatomical  peculiarities 
met  with  in  the  structure  of  man's  organiza- 
tion ?  Is  every  part  of  his  anatomy,  internal 
and  external,  formed  for  living  upon  animal 
food  ?  Is  his  stomach  like  that  of  the  carni- 
vora  ?  or  has  he  the  corresponding  "  external 
anatomy"  of  their /ae^s,  claws,  teeth,  locomo- 
tive organs,  organs  of  sense,  and  instinct- 
imbued  brain  ?  Baron  Cuvier,  whose  know- 
ledge of  comparative  anatomy  was  acknow- 
ledged to  be  profound,  says,  "  Fruits,  roots, 
grains,  and  the  succulent  parts  of  vegetables, 
are  the  natural  food  of  man ;  his  hands 
afford  him  a  facility  in  gathering  them  ;  and 
his  short  and  canine  teeth,  not  passing  beyond 
the  common  line  of  the  others,  and  the  tu- 
bercular teeth,  would  not  permit  him  to  feed 
on  herbage,  nor  devour  Jlesh,  unless  these 
substances  were  previously  prepared  by  the 
culinary  processes."  Linnaeus,  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  naturalists  that  ever  lived, 
says,  "  The  species  of  food  most  proper  and 
suitable  for  the  human  race  is  fruits,  fari- 
nacea,  etc. ;  this  is  evinced  by  the  series  of 
quadrupeds,  by  analogy,  the  wild  man,  or 
orang  outang  ;  by  the  structure  of  the  mouth, 
of  the  s^omacA,  and  of  the  hands."  Gassendi, 
Daubenton,  Sir  Edward  Home,  Ray, 
Professor  Lawrence,  Lord  Monboddo, 
Roget,  Bell,  and  other  eminent  and  scientific 
men  concur  in  their  testimony,  that  man,  by 
his  anatomical  structure,  "  internal  and  ex- 
ternal," is  unquestionably  designed  to  feed 
on  fruits,  grains,  roots,  and  other  vegetable 
productions. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  we   should  here 
dwell  upon  the  Bible  testimony  respecting 
the  proper  food  of  man.     Science  and  reli- 
gion, when  correctly  understood,  will  always 
be  found  in  harmony  with  each  other.     The 
original  dietetic  law,  recorded  in  Gen.  i,  29, 
gives  direction  to  mankind  to  eat  seeds,  and 
fruits,    and   "living   herbs"  ;  but  no  such 
ordinance  or  appointment  is  there  to  be  found 
respecting^^sA  for  food.    In  Paradise,  "The 
Lord  God  caused  to  grow  every  tree  that 
was  pleasant  to  the  sight,  and  good  for  food." 
"  Mark  well ;  no  stain 
Of  blood  is  seen— no  reeking  flesh  appears 
In  Eden's  banquet  hall ;  but  luscious  fruits 
In  rich  profusion  lie,  and  every  sense 
Is  charmed  and  sated  too,  but  not  inflamed 
To  lawless  lust,  or  sensual  act.    Around 
The  harmless  Lion  walks  ;  the  fearless  Lamb 
Beside  the  monarch  plays ;  the  gentle  Dove, 
And  tow'ring  Eagle,  here  are  friends  for  love." 


But  we  must  here  again  recur  to  Dr. 
Smith's  account  of  those  deluded  persons 
who  "have  dreamed  of  sustaining  human 
life  by  a  diet  exclusively  vegetable,' '  igno- 
rant that  in  all  that  they  eat  and  drink  and 
breathed,  they  put  to  death  myriads  of  living 
creatures.  All  this  is  mere  declamation ; 
unsustained  by  scientific  facts.  Whenever 
men  of  standing  undertake  to  assume  premises 
agreeing  more  with  the  suggestions  of  per- 
verted appetites  than  with  the  teachings  of 
unbiassed  science,  they  ought  to  give  "the 
truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the 
truth."  It  is  true  that  animalculse  may  be 
found  in  stagnant  water,  in  putrid  roots,  and 
decaying  fruits ;  but  no  such  existences  are 
found  in  those  articles  when  pure.  Take 
your  most  powerful  microscopes,  and  ex- 
amine the  sound  and  healthful  root,  or  the 
equally  perfect  and  nutritious  fruit,  and 
where  are  your  "myriads  of  living  crea- 
tures." Look  at  a  drop  of  pure  fresh  water. 
Where  are  all  those  innumerable  animal- 
culae,  "fighting  with  each  other  like  young 
demons,"  of  which  Dr.  Smith  speaks  ?  No 
such  things  are  ever  found  in  pure,  fresh, 
living  water.  An  excellent  article  on  this 
subject  appeared  in  the  Philadelphia  Public 
Ledger,  of  August  2,  1853.  "  The  idea  en- 
tertained by  most  persons,  that  all  water, 
whether  found  in  springs,  wells,  brooks, 
ponds,  or  cisterns;  or  even  the  fresh  rain 
water,  is  filled  with  living  creatures,  is, 
as  far  as  the  miscroscope  will  enable  us  to 
ascertain,  without  foundation  in  truth.  Water 
is  a  compound  of  two  gases — hydrogen  and 
oxygen — and  the  existence  of  animalcules  in 
it  is  altogether  dependent  on  certain  causes, 
such,  for  example,  as  its  contact  with  vege- 
table matter ;  thus,  if  you  take  a  bowl  of 
water,  and  place  a  handful  of  hay,  or  other 
vegetable  matter  in  it,  in  a  few  days  the  top 
will  be  covered  with  a  scum,  which,  by 
putting  a  small  quantity  under  the  micro- 
scope, will  be  found  to  be  a  mass  of  ani- 
malcules, but  still  only  of  the  lower  order, 
most  of  them  being  the  Monads;  the 
smallest  of  which  class  being  so  minute  that 
80,000,000  can  swim  about  in  one  drop." 

Thus  far,  then,  we  are  persuaded  our 
sentiments  in  favour  of  Vegetarianism,  as 
the  proper  food  of  man,  are  borne  out  by 
the  facts  of  science.  The  objections  have 
been  met  and  answered,  and  we  trust  our 
readers  will  join  us  in  the  faith  and  practice 
of  Vegetarianism. — American  Vegetarian, 
by  the  Rev.  W.  Metcalfe,  M.D. 


THE    LONDON    COMMISS AEIAT. 


A  VERY  interesting  article  in  the  Quarterly 
Review  gives  us  some  insight  into  the  extent 
of  the  requirements  of  London  and  its  neigh- 


bourhood, supposed  to  contain  about  two 
millions  and  a  half  of  inhabitants.  Billings- 
gate, Smithfield,  and  Covent  Garden,  are  the 


THE  LONDON   COMMISSARIAT. 


13 


representatives  of  the  three  different  divisions. 
Mark  Lane  is  the  great  corn  market ;  but 
with  regard  to  corn,  it  is  more  spread 
abroad,  and  if  the  calculation  is  made  that 
each  person  consumes  1  qr.,  or  480  lb.,  in 
the  year,  we  may  reckon  that  they  require 
2,500,000  qrs.,  in  one  shape  or  another.  Our 
estimate  would  be  that  such  a  quantity  of 
corn,  combined  with  fruits  and  vegetables, 
would  be  sufficient  to  maintain  the  popula- 
tion without  the  flesh  of  animals. 

WET. 

DESCHlrTION    or   fISH.  NO.   OF    FISH. 

Salmon  and  Salmon  Trout  406,000 

Live  Cod              .        .  400,000 

Sole3          ....  97,520,000 

Whiting        ....  17,920,000 

Haddock           .        .        .  2,470,000 

Plaice             ....  33,600,000 

Mackarel           .        .        •  23,520,000 

Fresh  Herrings  (in  barrels)  175,000,000 

Ditto               (in  bulk)  1,050,000,000 

Sprats           ....  32.000,000 

Eels           ....  10,000,000 

Flounders              .        .        .  259,000 

Dabs                  .        .        .  270,000 

DRY. 

Cods  .        .        .        .         .         750,000 

„    salted  .        .        .         1,600,000 

Haddocks,  smoked  .        .  19,500,000 

Bloaters  ....      147,000,000 

Red  Herrings  .        .  50,000,000 

Dried  Sprats  .        .        .     288,000,000 

SHELL    PISH. 

Oysters       ....  495,896,000 

Lobsters  ....        1,200,000 

Crabs  ....  600,000 

Shrimps  ....     498,429,000 

Whelks,  Mussels,  Periwinkles, 
Cockles         ....    420,700,000 


3,367,040,000 


Three  thousand  three  hundred  and  sixty 
seven  million,  is  the  number  of  lives  sacri- 
ficed from  the  fishy  tribes,  to  supply  the 
unnatural  demand  of  the  London  stomachs. 
Who  would  believe  it  .'>  Christian  men  and 
women  eat  them  .greatly  without  considera- 
tion. Many  of  these  fish  are  kept  in  a  state 
between  life  and  death,  retaining  that  spas- 
modic quivering  of  the  flesh,  which  shows 
that  life  and  feeling  are  not  quite  extinct. 
The  lobsters  are  dragged  reluctantly  out  of 
their  rock-bound  dwellings  with  much  pinch- 
ing and  twisting.  On  arriving  here,  the 
fighting,  twisting  masses  are  plunged  in 
their  baskets  into  boiling  water,  and  thus  an 
end  is  put  to  their  existence,  and  the  black 
coat  changed  for  a  red.  What  tortures  they 
endure  we  cannot  say  ;  they  are  not  injured 
for  the  market ;  so  that  question  is  not  con- 
sidered. The  crabs,  however,  cannot  be 
treated  in  the  same  way ;  their  nervous 
systems  being  more  acute,  or  their  tenacity 
being  less,  they  dash  off  their  claws  in  con- 
vulsive agony,  if  placed  alive  in  boiling 
water.  To  prevent  this,  a  needle  is  merci- 
lessly thrust  through  the  head,  to  kill  them 
before  boiling.     The  careless  cruelties  that 


are  perpetrated  on  this  host  of  God's  crea- 
tures, that  men  thoughtlessly,  foolishly, 
needlessly  devour,  to  bring  upon  themselves 
numerous  ills,  is  beyond  the  power  of 
description. 

Oxen  sent  to  London  by  rail  322,188 

Sheep          ....  1,630,793 

Calves             ....  101,776 

Pigs          ....  127,852 

Oxen  imported  into  London  .  56,065 

Sheep           .        •        .        .  229,918 

Calves               ....  25,720 

Pigs               ....  10,131 


Besides  these  supplies  about  37,000  tons 
of  flesh  are  forwarded  to  the  market, 
which  vpill  probably  cost  the  lives  of 
200,000  sheep  and  20,000  oxen 


2,182,609 


321,834 


220,000 


2,724,443 
An  estimate   of  the   fowls  and    game, 
pigeons  and  wild  fowl,  rabbits,  hares, 
and  other  game,  gives  us  the  probable 
total  amount  supplied  to  London         .  5,759,900 


8,484,343 
All  these  animals,  being  killed  with  all  their 
blood  in  them,  are  very  unwholesome. 

Here  we  have  a  sacrifice  to  the  human 
mausoleum,  which  undertakes  to  put  away 
eight  millions  and  a  half  of  the  inhabitants 
of  this  terrestial  globe. 

A  description  of  Smithfield  is  the  least 
horrible  part  of  the  drama,  which  indivi- 
duals of  the  human  race  are  compelled  to 
enact  to  supply  the  smoking  boards,  the 
origin  of  the  dire  diseases  which  afflict  the 
race.  "  If  a  stranger  ventures  into  this 
living  mass,  he  is  enabled  to  watch  more 
narrowly  the  reason  of  the  universal  ferment 
among  the  beasts.  The  drover  with  his  goad 
is  forcing  the  cattle  into  the  smallest  possible 
compass,  and  a  little  further  on  half-a-dozen 
men  are  making  desperate  efforts  to  drag 
refractory  oxen  up  to  the  rails  with  ropes. 
In  the  scuffle  which  ensues,  the  slipping  of 
the  ropes  often  snaps  the  fingers  of  the  per- 
sons who  are  conducting  the  operation,  and 
there  is  scarcely  a  drover  in  the  market  who 
has  not  had  some  of  his  digits  broken.  The 
sheep  squeezed  into  the  hurdles  like  figs  in  a 
drum,  lie  down  upon  each  other,  '  and  make 
no  sign ' ;  the  pigs,  on  the  other  hand,  cry 
out  before  they  are  hurt.  This  scene,  which 
has  more  the  appearance  of  a  hideous  night- 
mare than  a  weekly  exhibition  in  a  civilized 
country,  is  accompanied  by  the  barking  of 
dogs,  the  bellowing  of  cattle,  the  cursing  of 
men,  and  the  dull  blow  of  sticks,  a  charivari 
sound,  which  must  be  heard  to  be  appreci- 
ated. The  hubbub  gradually  abates  from 
twelve  o'clock  at  night,  the  time  of  opening, 
to  its  close,  3  p  .m.  next  day ;  although 
during  the  whole  period,  as  fresh  lots  are 
headed  up,  individual  acts  of  cruelty  continue. 
Can  it  excite  surprise  that  a  state  of  things, 


14 


THE  LONDON   COMMISSARIAT. 


the  worst  details  of  which  we  have  suppressed, 
because  of  the  pain  which  such  horrors  ex- 
cite, sometimes  so  injures  the  stock  that,  to 
quote  the  words  of  one  of  the  witnesses  before 
the  Smithfield  Commission,  '  a  grazier  will 
not  know  his  own  beast  four  days  after  it 
has  left  him  ? '  The  flesh  itself  suffers  in 
quality  ;  for  anything  like  fright  or  passion 
is  well  known  to  affect  the  blood,  and  con- 
sequently the  flesh  itself.  Beasts  subjected 
to  such  disturbances,  will  often  turn  green 
within  twenty-four  hours  after  death.  Mr. 
Slater,  the  well-known  butcher  of  Kensing- 
ton and  Jermyn-street,  asserts  that  mutton 
is  often  so  disfigured  by  blows  and  the  goad, 
that  it  cannot  be  sold  for  the  west  end 
tables." 

There  are  officers  appointed  to  condemn 
all  tainted  flesh  in  the  markets.  According, 
however,  to  a  competent  witness  —  Mr. 
Harper — bad  flesh-meat  can  be  disposed  of 
to  any  amount  in  the  metropolis  to  butchers 
who  live  in  low  neighbourhoods,  and  who 
impose  it  on  the  poor  at  night.  "  There  is 
one  shop,  I  believe,  "  he  says,  "  doing  £500 
per  week  on  diseased  flesh.  This  firm  has 
a  large  foreign  trade.  The  trade  in  diseased 
flesh  is  very  alarming,  and  anything  in  the 
shape  of  flesh  can  be  sold  at  Id.  per  lb.,  or 
about  8d.  per  stone  ! ! " 

Thus,  in  addition  to  the  natural  evils 
arising  from  eating  the  flesh  and  blood  of 
animals,  the  air  is  tainted,  the  morals  and 
the  health  of  the  population  are  corrupted, 
and  no  wonder  fevers  and  cholera  prevail. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  a  more  pleasant  de- 
partment of  the  commissariat. 

At  the  first  dawn  of  morning,  in  the  midst 
of  squalid  London,  sweet  country  odours 
greet  the  early  riser,  and  cool  orchards  and 
green  strawberry  slopes  seem  ever  present  to 
the  mind — 

"  Bright  volumes  of  vapour  through  Lothbury 
glide, 
And  a  river  flows  on  through  the  vale  of 
Cheapside." 

As  early  as  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  a 
person,  looking  down  the  way  of  Piccadilly, 
will  perceive  the  first  influx  of  fruit  and 
vegetables  to  Covent  Garden.  Different 
portions  of  the  market  are  dedicated  to  dis- 
tinct classes  of  vegetables  and  fruits.  The 
finest  of  the  delicate  and  soft  fruits,  such  as 
strawberries,  peaches  etc.,  are  lodged  in  the 
central  alley.  On  the  large  covered  space  to 
the  north  is  the  wholesale  fruit  station,  fra- 
grant with  pears,  apples,  greengages  or  other 
fruits  in  season.  The  southern  open  space 
is  dedicated  to  cabbages  and  other  vegetables, 
and  the  extreme  south  front  is  occupied 
wholly  by  potato-salesmen.  Around  the 
whole  quadrangle  on  a  busy  morning  there 
is  a  party-coloured  fringe  of  waggons  backed 


in  towards  the  central  space,  in  which  the 
light  green  of  cabbages  forms  the  prevailing 
colour,  interrupted  here  and  there  with 
the  white  of  turnips,  or  the  deep  orange 
of  digit-like  carrots ;  and  as  the  spectator 
watches,  the  whole  mass  is  gradually  absorbed 
into  the  centre  of  the  market.  Meanwhile, 
the  wholesale  fruit-sales  are  well  furnished 
from  the  railways,  which  pour  in  supplies 
from  the  surrounding  country  and  from 
foreign  ports.  In  one  night  the  south-eastern 
line  brought  up 

100  tons  of  green  peas  from  France 
50    ,,     of  fruit  from  Kent 
10     ,,     of  filberts 
25     ,,     of  plums  from  France 
10    ,,     of  black  currants  from  France. 

During  two  mornings  that  we  visited 
Covent  Garden,  we  saw  613  baskets  (bushels) 
of  strawberries  that  had  arrived  from  Hou- 
fleur,  and  1,000  baskets  of  greengages 
arrived  from  the  same  place  during  the  week. 
It  is  impossible  to  give  any  idea  of  the 
amount  of  fruits  and  vegetables  imported  into 
London.  The  returns  of  the  five  railways 
show  that  about  70,000  tons  of  vegetables 
and  green  fruits  are  brought  up  in  this  way. 
The  total  amount  must  be  very  large ;  and 
we  have  no  hesitation  in  asserting  that  if 
these  articles  were  properly  used,  with  a 
mixture  of  farinaceous  produce,  and  if  no 
fruits  and  corn  were  fermented  and  made 
into  alcoholic  and  poisonous  drinks,  there 
would  be  enough  to  feed  the  population, 
without  resort  to  the  carcasses  of  animals, 
fish,  flesh,  or  fowl. 

That  is  what  we  desire  to  see,  in  order 
that  the  health  and  moral  tone  of  England 
may  improve,  and  reach  to  that  height 
which  philanthropists  vainly  imagine  will 
come  without  this  return  to  the  laws  of 
nature.  Science  and  the  experience  of 
many  living  witnesses  can  testify  to  the 
great  benefits  likely  to  be  derived  from  such 
a  course.  When  no  blood  is  spilt  to  furnish 
our  meals,  no  poison  is  drunk  to  stimulate 
and  destroy  our  life  powers,  then  may  we 
expect  that  the  prophecies  of  the  world's 
happiness  will  be  fulfilled,  and  they  shall 
"  no  more  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  God's  holy 
mountain."  As  true  journalists,  we  must 
give  this  as  our  opinion  ;  and  the  Vegeta- 
rians who  have  acted  on  this  principle  are 
ready  to  testify  to  the  comparative  health, 
strength,  and  moral  vigour  which  they  enjoy 
in  entire  abstinence  from  the  flesh  of  ani- 
mals. Although  we  plead  for  hydropathy 
and  homoeopathy  as  the  cures  of  the  ills 
which  afflict  humanity,  we  advocate  a  pure 
diet,  cleanliness,  air,  and  exercise  as  the 
means  of  securing  health.  Try  this  system 
in  the  hospitals,  in  the  schools,  in  the  work- 
houses.    Science,  we  know,  is  in  our  favour, 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND  CORRESPONDENT. 


15 


and  we  are  prepared  to  maintain  by  chemis- 
try, physiology,  and  comparative  anatomy, 
that  fruits  and  farinacea  are  the  proper  food 
for  man ;  and  when  that  doctrine  shall  be 
acted  on,  we  may  say  with  Shelley, 

"Happiness 
And  science  dawn,  though  late,  upon  the  earth, 


Peace  cheers  the  mind,  health  renovates  the  frame, 

Disease  and  pleasure  cease  to  mingle  here, 

Reason  and  passion  cease  to  combat  there, 

And  every  shape  and  mode  of  matter  lends 

Its  force  to  the  omnipotence  of  mind, 

Which  from  its  dark  mine  drags  the  gem  of  truth 

To  decorate  its  paradise  of  peace." 

— Journal  of  Health  and  Progressionist. 


THE    CONTEOVERSIALIST    AND    CORRESPONDENT. 


THE   VEGETARIAN   DISCUSSION. 

We  present  the  following  letters,  in  reply 
to  the  one  inserted  in  our  last  *  by  Dr. 
Balbirnie. 

DR.  balbirnie    and    HIS    LAST   WORDS. 

"Over  proud 
-  And  under  honest ;  in  self-assumption  greater 
Than  in  the  note  of  judgment."— Shakespeare. 

"I  am  well  acquainted  with  your  manner  of 
wrenching  the  true  cause  the  false  way.  It  is  not 
a  confident  brow,  nor  the  throng  of  words  that 
come  with  such  more  than  impudent  sauciness  from 
you,  can  thrust  me  from  a  level  consideration." — 

Shakespeare. 

Dear  Sir — Aha!  the  doctor  is  in  the  field 
again  !  He  is  again  convalescent.  True,  we  had 
evidence  of  his  raving  mania,  his  exhaustion,  and 
then  his  leave  takings,  and  all  was  over.  But 
his  "  friends  "  have  exhumed  him ;  anxious  for  his 
fame,  they  have  given  a  little  spasmodic  activity 
to  the  battered  doctor,  placed  him  on  Rosinante 
again,  handed  him  his  lance  and  shield,  and  sent 
him  in  search  of  another  windmill !  But  how 
altered  !  We  are  not  now  soiled  with  the  rude 
abuse  of  the  dragoon  who  would  ruthlessly 
trample  us  beneath  his  horse's  hoofs.  The  Indian 
has  laid  aside  his  tomahawk,  and,  if  we  can  but 
heal  his  wounded  vanity,  he  will  perhaps  hand  us 
the  pipe  of  peace!  Now  he  comes  with  "bated 
breath  and  whispering  humbleness,"  "to  ask 
leave  for  room  for  a  few  more  last  words,"  "to 
rebut  certain  allegations,"  to  parade  his  learning 
and  importance,  to  refer  us  to  the  "  chapter  and 
verse  of  his  own  writings,"  to  assure  us  that  fifty 
journals  have  reviewed  "my  work"  and  the  best 
of  them  have  concurred  in  eulogising  it.  Pshaw  ! 
we  are  nauseated  with  this  endless  sound,  this 
brassy  ring  of  vanity.  Fifty  journals  have  looked 
at  Balbirnie,  and  the  best  of  them — none  but 
the  best ! — have  concurred  in  burning  incense  to 
his  idol — self.  Pray,  doctor,  tell  us,  was  the  fact 
of  their  eulogising  your  book  the  test  of  their 
respectability?     We  may  pause  for  an  answer. 

But  we  have  gained  a  point.  "By  this  time" 
the  Vegetarian  has  compelled  the  doctor  to  admit 
the  nutritive  value  of  bran.  And  yet,  ungrateful 
for  the  teaching  he  has  received,  he  spends  about 
half  his  letter  to  show  that  somehow,  or  in  some 
way,  I  have  blundered  on  the  bran  question. 
And  yetj  marvellous  !  he  is  "at  one  with  me  by 
this  time,"  he  says  on  this  same  question ! 

The  doctor  is  thimble-rigging.  Tor  peas  he 
has  questions.  The"fibrine  and  iron  "is  first. 
That  is  answered :  we  have  it  in  our  whole-meal 
bread ;  even  the  refuse,  the  undigested  portion, 
contains  more  fibrine  and  iron  than  the  doctor's 
*  Controversialist  and  Correspondent,  p.  3. 


beef-steak.  But  then  he  shows  the  question  of 
"  nutriment."  "  Your  undigested,  indigestible 
branny  scale  contains  no  nutriment."  Of 
course  not,  doctor.  Your  oracular  statement  is 
but  a  miserable  truism.  Surely,  every  one  knows, 
without  a  revelation  from  Malvern,  that  the  re- 
fuse is  not  the  product,  that  the  faeces  is  not  the  " 
nutriment.  The  doctor  sets  out  with  the  iniict- 
ment  that  the  Vegetarians  are  a  "  flabby,"  pale 
lot,  without  "  stamina  and  power  of  energetic  en- 
durance." Because  our  food,  "  unless  well  ma- 
naged (!)  tends  to  produce  an  excess  of  the  al- 
buminous elements  of  the  blood,  and  a  deficiency 
of  its  fibrine,  iron,  and  red  particles."  This  was 
met  with  a  positive  negative ;  no  Vegetarian 
eating  whole-meal  bread  will  be  afflicted  with 
one  of  the  doctor's  list  of  failings.  And  the 
doctor's  statement  is  miserably  unscientific. 
Every  authority  in  physiology  (but,  of  course,  no 
one  is  an  authority  with  the  doctor  but  himself) 
would  teach  him  that  the  deficiency  of  "  fibrine  " 
in  the  blood  is  not  from  any  defect  in  the  food 
while  there  is  a  sufficiency  of  albumen,  but  from 
a  languid  assimilating  power.  Por  the  fibrine  of 
the  blood  is  not  the  fibrine  of  the  food,  but  a 
vitalized  product  of  the  albuminous  elements. 
Therefore,  although  the  consumptive  sufferer  is 
afflicted  with  a  deficiency  of  "  fibrine,"  and  an 
excess  of  unvitalized  albumen  in  his  blood,  the 
error  is  not  in  the  diet,  but  in  the  bad  air,  defi- 
cient exercise,  want  of  bght,  or  similar  causes, 
that  have  reduced  the  power  of  assimilation  below 
par.  As  I  have  advanced  so  far,  I  may  as  well  at 
once  separate  for  ever  Vegetarianism  and  Con- " 
sumption,  which  the  doctor  has  so  sillily  and  ig- 
norantly  conjoined,  certainly,  for  no  other  rea- 
son but  that  he  may  make  diet  another  of  the 
uncertainties  of  the  miserable,  unscientific  empi- 
ricism of  old  physic,  that  the  doctor  may  have  a 
larger  field  to  prey  on  the  hopes,  and  fears,  and 
calamities  of  mankind.  For  what  connection 
can  there  be  between  the  sixty  thousand  annual 
deaths  from  consumption,  and  the  one  thousand 
members  of  the  Vegetarian  Society  ?  About  one 
in  every  sixth  death  from  consumption,  and  about 
one  Vegetarian  death  to  every  thirty  thousand 
deaths.  At  a  moment,  from  figures  alone, 
must  be  seen  the  absurdity  of  connecting  things 
so  unequal.  Without  referring  to  theories  or 
facts,  it  is  easily  seen  that  something  more  gene- 
ral and  universal  than  the  thousand  Vegetarians 
must  be  at  the  base  of  the  sixty  thousand  annual 
deaths  from  consumption.  Particularly  when  it 
is  remembered,  that  this  annual  slaughter  is  not 
from  the  peasantry  of  our  country,  who  are  par- 
tial Vegetarians,  or  from  the  oatmeal-eating 
labourers  of  Scotland,  but  principally  from  our 
town  artizans,  our  middle  and  upper  classes,  who 


16 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND  CORRESPONDENT. 


are  emphatically  the    flesh-eaters  of  the  com- 
munity. 

It  may  not  be  of  much  importance  to  notice 
that  scrofula  (of  which  consumption  is  but  a 
phase,  and  a  principal  one)  is  named  after  a  pig. 
For  the  Greeks  and  Romans  saw  some  connec- 
tion between  eating  pork  and  the  disease, 
named,  in  consequence,  scrofula.  And  although 
this  is  true  to  our  day,  there  is  no  doubt  a  still 
more  efficient  cause  in  impure  air.  M.  Ban- 
DELOcauE  in  his  Etudes  sur  la  Maladie  Scrofu- 
leiix,  says,* 

"  Invariably  it  will  be  found,  on  examination, 
that  a  truly  scrofulous  disease  is  caiised  by  a 
vitiated  air,  and  it  is  not  always  necessary  that 
there  should  be  a  prolonged  stay  in  suoh  an  at- 
,  mosphere.  Often  a  few  hours  each  day  is  suffi- 
cient, and  it  is  thus  they  may  live  in  the 
most  healthy  country,  pass  the  greater  part  of 
the  day  in  the  open  air,  and  yet  become  scrofu- 
lous, because  of  sleeping  in  a  confined  place, 
where  the  air  has  not  been  renewed." 

He  gives  the  following  remarkable  instances  : 

"  At  three  leagues  from  Amiens  lies  the  village 
of  Oresmeaux ;  it  is  situated  in  a  vast  plain, 
open  on  every  side,  and  elevated  more  than  on^ 
hundred  feet  above  the  neighbouring  villages. 
About  sixty  years  ago,  most  of  the  houses  were 
built  with  clay,  and  had  no  windows ;  they  were 
lighted  by  one  or  two  panes  of  glass  fixed  in  the 
wall ;  none  of  the  floors,  sometimes  many  feet 
below  the  level  of  the  street,  were  paved.  The 
ceilings  were  low ;  the  greater  part  of  the  in- 
habitants engaged  in  weaving.  A  few  holes  in 
the  wall,  and  which  were  closed  at  will  by  means 
of  a  plank,  scarcely  permitted  the  light  and  air 
to  penetrate  into  the  workshop.  Humidity  was 
thought  necessary  to  keep  the  threads  fresh. 
Nearly  all  the  inhabitants  were  seized  with 
scrofula,  and  many  families  continually  ravaged 
by  that  malady  became  extinct ;  their  last  mem- 
bers, as  they  write  me,  died  rotten  with  scrofula. 

"  A  fire  destroyed  nearly  a  third  of  the  village ; 
the  houses  were  re-built  in  a  more  salubrious 
manner,  and  by  degrees  scrofula  became  less 
common,  and  disappeared  from  that  part. 
Twenty  years  later,  another  third  of  the  village 
was  also  consumed  ;  the  same  amelioration  in 
building,  with  a  like  efl'ect  as  to  scrofula.  The 
disease  is  now  confined  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
older  houses,  which  retain  the  same  causes  of 
insalubrity." 

Again,  M.  Lombard,  of  Geneva,  who  has 
been  long  occupied  in  searching  out  the  secret 
causes,  and  the  influences  of  trades  on  pulmonary 
phthisis,  arrives  at  the  following  conclusions  :  t 

1st.  "The  circumstances  which  multiply 
phthisis,  are  misery,  sedentary  life,  and  absence 
of  muscular  exercise,  shocks  sustained  in  work- 
shops, a  curved  posture,  the  impure  air  of  shops, 
the  inhalation  of  certain  mineral  or  vegetable 
vapours,  and  lastly,  air  loaded  with  thick  or  im- 
palpable dust,  or  light,  elastic,  filamentous 
bodies." 

2nd.  "The  circumstances    which    exercise    a 

•  Quoted  in  Sanitary  Economy,  Edinburgh,  1850. 
+  An.  d'Hygiene,  tome  xi,  pm-tie  1,  Jan.,  1831. 
Quoted  by  Quetelet. 


preservative,  are  riches,  active  life  and  fresh  air, 
regular  exercise  of  all  parts  of  the  body,  inhala- 
tion of  animal  or  vegetable  emanations." 

So  far,  then,  from  consumption  being  origi- 
nated or  developed  by  vegetable  food,  the  great- 
est inquirers  impute  not  the  slightest  cause  to 
food  of  any  sort,  so  long  as  it  got  in  sufficient 
quantity  or  quality  short  of  misery.  And, 
therefore,  when  Dr.  Balbirnie  threw  consump- 
tion into  contact  with  Vegetarianism,  he  did  it 
ignorantly  knowing  little  of  the  matter,  or  moved 
by  a  more  despicable  motive,  the  getting  of  pelf 
out  of  the  fears  and  ignorance  of  the  public. 

Balbirnie  tells  us  there  can  be  "no  universal 
diet,  no  more  than  there  can  be  a  standard  size 
and  cut  and  quality  of  cloth ! "  Perhaps  not. 
The  vegetable  world  is  so  extensive  and  varied, 
from  articles  of  costly  price  to  others  cheap  as 
air  or  water,  that  we  do  not  explct  rich  and  poor 
Vegetarians  will  agree  to  subsist  on  one  standard 
and  universal  diet.  Neither  is  it  necessary.  Let 
each  cut  their  cloth  to  the  standard  of  their 
means  and  necessities. 

"  Far  too  much  stress  is  laid  on  the  renuncia- 
tion of  flesh-eating,"  says  the  doctor,  although 
he  knows  very  well  that  "  flesh-eating "  is  the 
corner-stone  of  wrong  dietetic  habits,  and  that 
the  man  who  is  a  Vegetarian,  is  something  vastly 
more  than  a  mere  abstainer  from  flesh.  He  is 
necessarily  a  thinking  man ;  a  reasonable  man 
willing  to  sacrifice  his  appetite  for  future  good  ; 
an  abstainer  from  "  wine  and  strong  drink,"  so 
that  with  the  slaughter-house  closed,  and  the  gin 
and  ale-shop  gone,  he  may  do  something  to  pro- 
duce a  millennium  without  a  drunkard,  without  a 
blood-stained  brute,  and  without  a  quack. 

We  are  next  told  by  the  doctor  that  "  moderate 
flesh-eating  would  be  infinitely  less  mischievous 
than  the  diversified  mixtures  and  dainties  by 
which  many  Vegetarians  compound  for  flesh." 
I  can  answer  for  myself  and  for  many  of  my  ac- 
quaintances, that  our  "compounds"  and  "dain- 
ties "  are  far  less  than  when  we  were  moderate 
flesh-eaters.  Simplicity  and  plainness  are  our 
rule  and  practice.  But  I  confess  I  heard  with 
some  degree  of  horror  that  when  Balbirnie 
was  a  Vegetarian  (for  the  public  should  know  he 
is  a  renegade  from  truth  and  simplicity),  he  com- 
pelled his  poor  children  to  eat  a  rice  mess,  with 
cheese  sauce  !  So  it  may  be  the  memory  of  these 
follies  that  inspired  his  charge. 

Dr.  Balbirnie,  full  blown  with  vanity,  ven- 
tures on  a  new  revelation  :  "  Man  is  neither  a 
carnivorous,  frugivorous,  granivorous,  herbivo- 
rous, nor  omnivorous  animal.  Man  is  a  cooking 
animal.  He  is  a  denizen  of  every  clime."  And 
so  are  roses.  "  There  is,  in  truth,  no  country  with- 
out roses ;  from  Sweden  to  the  coasts  of  Africa, 
from  Kamschatka  to  Bengal,  or  on  the  mountains 
of  Mexico,  the  rose  flourishes  in  all  climates  and 
in  all  soils."  And  they  need  not  to  be  watered 
with  brandy  or  manured  with  beef  in  one  coun- 
try, while  in  another  they  are  left  to  a  sterile 
soil,  and  the  mere  influence  of  heat  and  seasons. 
And  the  dog  and  the  horse  have  been  the  con- 
stant companions  of  man  in  his  migrations,  and 
they  have  not  departed  from  their  natural  food. 
And  surely,  if    climatic  considerations  do  not 


influence  and  reverse  the  food  of  man's  companions, 
they  cannot  necessarily  do  this  for  him.  As  to 
man  having  no  "  analogues  in  the  brutes  beneath 
him,"  possessing  no  anatomical  or  physiological 
characteristics  that  may  be  classed  with  other 
animals,  it  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  Linn^us, 
CuviER,  Daubenton,  Gassendi,  Lawrence, 
RoGET,  cum  multis  aliis,  declare  he  has,  and  that 
Doctor  Balbirnie  contradicts  them  ! 

But,  after  all,  diet,  regimen,  diet,  are  Balbir- 
nie's  means  of  curing  all  diseases  1  Indeed,  if 
man  possesses  no  natural  characteristics  to  in- 
dicate his  natural  food,  upon  what  rule  does  Dr. 
Balbirnie  proceed?  Of  course — prescribes 
according  to  his  judgment,  is  the  sapient  answer  ! 
In  short,  his  teaching  is  to  perplex  the  public, 
lead  them  from  a  simple  and  natural  rule  of  life, 
to  rely  on  his  judgment !  Our  pubhc  teaching 
he  would  make  the  private  property  of  the  doctor, 
and  then  call  upon  the  public — 

"  Buy  my  specific  ! 
Taken  as  a  liquid  it  awakens ; 
Taken  as  a  powder  it  promotes  sleep." 

And  now,  sir,  if  you  or  the  readers  of  this 
letter,  think  I  have  pilloried  the  doctor  too  long, 
— pelted  him  without  mercy,  I  would  call  your 
attention  to  the  proud  insolence  with  which  he 
commenced  this  correspondence,  to  the  air  of 
contemptuous  superiority  with  which  he  at- 
tempted to  carry  it  on,  to  the  Russian  trick  he 
is  fond  of  displaying,  acting  the  coward,  running 
away,  and  singing  a  Te  Deum  to  his  victory,  and 
then  I  trust  you  will  confess  that  I,  having 

"  To  brand  pretension's  quackery  with  scorn  ;  " 
that  I,  having  to  show  up  the  Barnum  of  doc- 
tors, who,  like  his  prototype,  when  he  has  made 
his  fortune,  may  publish  his  own  history,  adver- 
tised as  "  humbug,"  and  fling  world-wide  a  loud 
laugh  at  the  bare  contemplation  of  how  he  has 
lived  and  fattened  on  the  credulity  of  the  public  : 
I  say,  when  all  this  is  contemplated,  it  will  be 
admitted  that,  considering  the  nature  of  the 
work,  I  have  shattered  this  "  whited  wall "  with 
as  little  dust  and  dirt  as  possible. 

I  am,  dear  Sir,  yours  obediently, 

W.  G.  Ward. 
Monmow  House,  Handsworth,  Staffordshire, 
Jan.  9th,  1855. 

DR.    BALBIRNIE   VCVSUS   DR.    BALBIRNIE. 

Dear  Sir — In  reading  the  long  letter  of  Dr. 
Balbirnie,  in  your  last  number,  I  was  amused 
to  find  a  striking  illustration  of  how  little  value 
attaches  to  the  dictum  of  a  medical  man,  as  to 
the  suitability  or  otherwise  of  the  Vegetarian 
practice  of  diet  to  particular  individuals,  although 
the  doctor  maintains  that  this  is  a  matter  for 
professional  guidance. 

Your  correspondent,  H.  S.,  mentions  *  that 
whilst  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Balbirnie  at 
Malvern,  he  was  advised  by  the  doctor  "to  a 
trial  of  a  little  flesh-diet,"  which,  however,  he 
declined.  In  his  last  letter,t  Dr.  Balbirnie 
admits  that  H.  S.  "throve  upon  Vegetarian  diet," 
and  accounts  for  this  by  saying  "his  was  just  the 
sort  of  constitution  it  was  fitted  for  "  ;  then  why 

*  Controversialist  and  Correspondent,  vol.  v.,  p.  96. 
t  Controversialist  and  Correspondent,  p.  5. 


display  his  ignorance  of  the  fact  by  advising 
him  to  try  anything  else  ?  The  discovery  of  the 
doctor  is  therefore  somewhat  late,  and  by  no 
means  complimentary  to  his  professional  skill, 
since  it  appears  to  have  been  made  only  after  a 
successful  experiment  by  H.  S.,  of  nine  years' 
Vegetarian  practice,  persevered  in  contrary  to 
Dr.  Balbirnie's  own  advice.  Leaving  the 
doctor  to  reconcile  the  discrepancy  between  his 
former  advice  and  present  statements, 

I  am,  dear  Sir,  respectfully  yours. 
Church.  H.  W. 

AN    OBJECTION   ANSWERED. 

Sir — I  do  not  know  whether  you  will  be  able 
to  make  any  use  of  this  communication,  but  I 
can  assure  you  that  the  popular  objection  to 
Vegetarianism,  drawn  from  the  supposed  fact,  that 
by  the  "locusts  and  wild-honey"on  which  St.  John 
the  Baptist  subsisted  in  the  wilderness,  is  meant 
the  insect  locust,  is  considered  a  very  strong 
argument  against  Vegetarianism  by  some  of  my 
acquaintances. 

I  never  knew  of  the  existence  of  a  vegetable 
locust  or  honey-locust  until  a  few  months  ago, 
when  I  saw  some  legumes  exposed  for  sale  in 
some  of  the  grocer's  shops  here,  ticketed  "  Lo- 
custs from  the  Holy  Land,"  They  well  merit 
the  name  of  honey  locust,  for  they  are  exceed- 
ingly sweet  and  cloying,  but  I  suspect  these  were 
not  a  fair  sample,  being  probably  deteriorated 
with  keeping.  I  afterwards  met  with  the  enclosed 
extract,*  and  as  the  locusts  sold  in  the  shops  here 
exactly  tally  with  the  description  in  the  extract, 
I  have  no  doubt  but  that  those  consumed  by  St. 
John  were  from  the  vegetable  kingdom.  There 
is  another  argument  in  favour  of  this  supposition, 
in  the  fact  tliat  the  insect  locust  is  only  to  be 
met  with  at  rare  and  uncertain  periods  (if  it  were 
otherwise  the  country  would  not  be  habitable), 
which  would  render  it  impossible  for  any  one  to 
derive  subsistence  from  them  for  any  lengthened 
period. 

You  may,  perhaps,  be  already  acquainted  with 
these  facts,  but  I  assure  you  I  made  the  discovery 
with  much  pleasure,  since  it  destroys  one  sup- 
posed objection  in  relation  to  Scripture,  thought 
to  be  based  on  fact. 

Seeing  that  there  was  an  appointment  of  food 
in  the  beginning,  and  that  this  has  never  been 
revoked  (indeed  it  could  not  be,  for  God  is  un- 
changeable), I  regard  all  instances  of  flesh-eating 
recorded  afterwards  only  as  evidences  of  permis- 
sion, and  there  is  a  great  difference  with  God 
between  appointment  and  permission.  People 
usually  look  to  the  letter  more  than  to  the  spirit 
of  the  Word,  and  I  am  always  glad  to  find  any- 
thing that  removes  objections  drawn  from  sup- 
posed fact. 

Hoping  that  on  some  suitable  occasion  you 
may,  through  the  pages  of  the  Messenger,  correct 
the  impression  (which,  I  believe,  generally  pre- 
vails) that  St.  John  the  Baptist  subsisted  on 
animal  substances  in  the  wilderness,  and  deeply 
feeling  your  zeal  and  exertions  in  the  cause  of 
Dietetic  Reform, 

I  am.  Sir,  yours  very  respectfully, 

Liverpool.  S.  J. 

*  Treasury,  p.  20. 


18 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND  CORRESPONDENT. 


The  locust  tree  is  common  in  Palestine,  in 
several  countries  bordering  the  Mediterra- 
nean, and  in  America,  but  in  much  greater 
abundance  in  certain  parts  of  the  East 
Indies,  from  which  the  vegetable  locust  is  an 
article  of  export  to  this  country,  and  has  been 
more  or  less  so  for  many  years. 

"We  are  aware  that  some  persons,  even 
with  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the 
vegetable  locust  fruit,  have  still  inclined  to 
the  opinion  that  St.  John  fed  upon  such  an 
improbable  food  as  that  of  the  animal  locust, 
the  destroyer  of  vegetation.  It  would  seem 
that  such  express  the  sentiment  of  the  old 
German  proverb,  "  Better  a  flea  in  the  cab- 
bage than  no  meat  at  all ; "  and  that  it  is 
possible  for  "meat"  to  get  into  the  under- 
standing. The  class,  however,  in  modern 
intelligence,  are  thinly  scattered,  and  should 
reflect  that  if  John  the  Baptist  had  had  to 
feed  upon  the  animal  locust,  his  whole  time 
would  have  been  absorbed  in  following  it,  in 
its  migratory  and  destructive  course,  to  the 
sacrifice  of  his  divine  mission,  as  the  great 
preacher  of  repentance. 

GERMAN   VEGETARIAN   TESTIMONY. 

Dear  Sir — In  a  former  number  of  your 
periodical,*  you  have  spoken  of  the  advantage 
likely  to  arise  from  the  publication  of  Vegetarian 
experience,  and  as  I  ara  fully  impressed  with  the 
importance  of  this,  will  you  allow  me  to  com- 
municate some  particulars  as  to  my  own  experi- 
ence. In  1844,  my  eldest  brother,  who  from 
moral  reasons,  had  already  abstained  from  flesh 
many  years,  directed  my  attention  to  a  German 
book — the  Ber  Weg  Zum  Parodies  (The  Way  to 
Paradise),  by  Dr.  Zimmerman — which  defended 
abstinence  from  the  use  of  flesh-meat,  intoxi- 
cating liquids,  tea,  and  cofl'ee,  with  great  zeal. 
The  author,  with  whom  I  corresponded  after 
reading  his  book,  was  in  England  in  1840,  when 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Dr.  Alcott  of 
America,  who  was  living  at  the  time  at  Ham 
Common,  near  Richmond.  He  took  up  the 
principles  of  this  uncommon  man  with  much 
zeal,  and  the  result  of  his  embracing  these  was 
the  above  book,  which  through  the  force  of  its 
evidence  acquired  many  adherents,  but  the 
greater  part  of  whom  for  want  of  firmness 
have  returned  to  the  old  regimen. 

In  that  year  I  went  over  to  the  standard  of 
Vegetarianism,  and  the  advantages  I  have 
gained  by  its  adoption,  leads  me  to  look  back 
with  the  deepest  regret  upon  my  continuing  so 
long  in  my  former  practice  of  diet.  The  magni- 
ficent work  of  Gleizes,  Thalysie,  ou  la  Nouvelle 
Existence,  has  tended  to  strengthen  me  in  my 
already  complete  conviction  of  the  immorality  of 
slaughtering  animals,  and  using  their  flesh  as 
food,  and  my  acquaintance  and  connection  with 
the  Vegetarian  Society  of  Great  Britain,  has 
given  me  the  force  of  a  giant  oak  in  a  vehement 
hurricane.  Its  excellent  President  is  so  kind 
as  to   send  me   every  month   a  copy  of  your 

*  Controversialist  and  Correspondent,  vol.  v.,  p.  70. 


periodical,  which  is  a  great  treasury  of  instruc- 
tion. 

In  my  earlier  years,  I  suffered  from  asthma, 
feebleness  of  memory,  idleness  of  spirit,  and 
other  not  praiseworthy  qualities.  From  all 
these  evils  I  have  now  been  delivered  for  years, 
and  I  feel  a  force  of  living  in  myself,  which  I 
might  regard  as  indestructible,  were  not  all 
earthly  life  limited.  In  the  exercise  of  my 
muscles,  fcr  physical  strength  and  quickness,  I 
do  not  fear  to  compete  with  any  flesh-eater  who 
is  similarly  constituted  with  me. 

Some  years  ago,  I  made  an  essay  to  settle 
in  Texas,  and  I  spent  the  hottest  portion  of  the 
year  in  a  settlement  of  that  country,  and  in  Ha- 
vanna,  but  I  can  assure  you  that  a  little  heat 
is  nothing  to  a  Vegetarian,  though  the  heat  in 
these  countries  is  not  slight.  Heat  and  cold  are 
as  nothing  to  the  Vegetarian ;  he  can  endure 
either  without  much  inconvenience  ;  it  is  diflScult, 
however,  for  a  Vegetarian  to  travel  in  the  flesh- 
eating  countries  of  America. 

I  regard  the  Vegetarian  principle  as  a  high  and 
holy  principle,  which  forms  the  base  of  all  other 
reforms  calculated  to  benefit  mankind.  But 
when  I  observe  its  slow  progress  in  Germany,  I 
can  only  attribute  this  to  the  want  of  acquaint- 
ance with  its  merits.  If  Germany  had  such 
works  as  Graham's  Science  of  Human  Life, 
and  Smith's  Fruits  and  Farinacea,  the  know- 
ledge of  Vegetarian  principles,  as  well  as  their 
practical  adoption,  would  be  greatly  extended. 
Public  speakers  in  this  cause,  such  as  Mr.  J. 
Simpson,  Mr.  J.  Smith,  Mr.  J.  Bormond, 
and  other  zealous  members  of  the  Vegetarian 
Society,  would  surely  gain  for  it  many  adherents  ; 
but  we  have  no  Vegetarian  advocates,  and,  till  this 
moment,  the  number  of  German  Vegetarians 
known  to  me  has  been  very  small.  Perhaps  it 
may  interest  you  to  know  that  Professor 
Daumer  of  Nurnberg,  the  foster-father  of 
Caspar  Hauser  ;  Gustave  Struve,  a  man  in 
the  noblest  meaning  of  the  word,  and  Professor 
Gottfried  Kinkel,  who  is  now  living  in  Eng- 
land, and  other  political  fugitives,  are  practical 
Vegetarians.  The  excellent  Alex  de  Herled, 
professor  of  chemistry  in  Berlin,  assured  my 
brother,  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  as  to  his  dietetic 
habits,  that  he  eats  "  very  little  flesh,"  and  that 
some  of  his  scientificfriendswere  eating  "noflesh." 

The  Vegetarian  system  has  already  had  its 
martyrs.  I  read  to-day  in  a  book,  bearing  the 
title  of  Geschrehte  der  Religion  (History  of  Reli- 
gion), by  Dr.  Ranch,  that  in  the  year  1052,  at 
Goslar,  in  the  Hartz  Mountains,  some  men  were 
hanged,  because  they  would  not  eat  flesh.  Thank 
Heaven,  the  time  for  such  persecution  is  past ! 
otherwise  the  Vegetarians  of  to-day  might  be 
hanged  by  thousands. 

A  young  Vegetarian,  as  I  am,  has  his  difficul- 
ties in  this  country,  for  it  is  no  easy  matter  to 
find  a  wife  who  will  adopt  the  Vegetarian  system. 
But  not  yet,  for  all  that,  have  I  lost  hope  on 
this  subject. 

With  the  most  zealous  wishes  for  the  success 
of  our  cause — I  am.  Sir, 

With  the  greatest  respect,  yours  truly, 

Oppeln,  Silesia.  G.  W. 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY . 


19 


INSTRUCTIONS   FOR   VEGETARIAN 
DIET. 

Sir — Having  received  a  few  Vegetarian  tracts 
from  a  Vegetarian  of  Bath,  and  being  very 
much  in  favour  of  the  movement,  I  propose 
making  a  trial  for  three  months,  to  see  how  it 
acts  upon  ray  constitution,  not  that  I  consider, 
for  one  instant,  that  it  will  impair  it,  for  I 
hardly  ever  touch  flesh-meat,  but  at  the  same 
time  I  know  I  am  not  partaking  of  a  proper 
vegetable  diet.  I  shall,  therefore,  feel  greatly 
obliged  by  your  sending  me  information,  in- 
structions, and  recipes  how  to  proceed  each 
day.      Whatever    expense    you    may   incur    in 


doing  this,    shall   be    remitted   you  by   return 
of  post. 

I  remain.  Sir,  yours  very  truly, 

Edinburgh.  Y.  C.  J. 

Till  the  publication  of  the  small  work  on 
Cookery  on  Chemical  and  Physiological  Prin- 
ciples, some  time  since  promised  to  the  public, 
we  cannot  do  better  than  address  our  corres- 
pondent to  the  Vegetarian  Cookery,  or  such 
smaller  works  as  the  Fenny  Vegetarian 
Cookery,  which  will  be  found  guides  to  infor- 
mation of  the  kind  sought,  as  well  as  certain 
parts  of  the  volumes  of  the  Messenger,  to  which 
the  headings  will  readily  direct  attention. 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASUEY. 

INNOVATION.  j  the  drawer  to  pay  himself;    a  very  singular 

plan  to  our  apprehension ;  but,  as  Mr. 
"Wilkinson  remarks,  "  clairvoyant  people 
know  with  whom  they  have  to  deal." — 
Swedenhorg  :  a  Biography  and  an  Exposition. 


Time  is  the  great  innovator.  He  gradu- 
ally undermines  and  upsets  everything,  but 
excites  no  alarm  because  he  effects  what 
he  brings  to  pass  gradually.  All  friends 
of  mankind  will  imitate  time — carry  much 
when  they  can,  and  little  when  no  more 
is  to  be  gained ;  but  always  keep  progress- 
ing ;  for,  like  fruit,  the  institutions  of  one 
age  grow  stale  and  useless  by  the  next. — 
Fhonetic  Journal. 

THE    OTAHEITANS. 

The  narrative  of  the  first  missionary  voyage 
to  the  South  Sea  Islands,  informs  us, 
that  until  the  Europeans  visited  the  Ota- 
heitans,  they  had  few  disorders  amongst 
them.  Their  temperate  and  regular  mode 
of  life,  the  great  use  of  vegetables,  little 
animal  food,  and  absence  of  all  noxious 
distilled  spirits  and  wines,  preserved  them 
in  health. — Temperance  Cyclopcedia, 

SWEDENBORG. 

The  simplicity  of  his  life  was  remarkable  ; 
he  affected  no  singularity,  made  no  display ; 
in  dress  he  conformed  pretty  much  to  the 
fashion,  though  rather  an  older  one  than 
the  period  of  wearing.  He  was  above  five 
feet  nine  inches  in  height,  rather  thin,  and 
of  a  brown  complexion  ;  his  eyes  nearly 
hazel  and  rather  small ;  thin,  pale,  and 
retaining  to  old  age  the  appearance  of  erect 
dignity ;  venerable,  mildly  expressive,  and 
beautiful  countenance,  lightened  always  by 
uncommon  animation,  and  ever  appearing 
to  smile.  He  dressed  in  velvet,  with  a  full 
bottomed  wig,  with  rufB.es,  a  hilted  sword, 
and  gold  headed  cane.  Do  our  readers 
realize  him  ?  He  was  a  self-helper,  needed 
none  to  wait  upon  him  :  he  lived  for  many 
of  the  later  years  of  his  life  nearly  a  Vege- 
tarian, yet  taking  coffee  but  no  liquors, 
though  conforming  to  a  glass  of  wine  in 
company.  He  gave  away  the  greater  num- 
ber of  his  books,  and  when  his  landlord 
presented  his  bills,  he  sent  him  usually  to 


ELE8H-EATING     A     HINDRANCE    TO    MISSION- 
ARY   SUCCESS. 

The  Rev.  Wm.  Clarkson,  a  missionary  in 
Western  India,  in  a  little  work  entitled 
Missionary  Encouragements  in  India,  after 
describing  the  influence  of  caste  as  one  of  the 
hindrances  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  in 
that  country,  mentions  the  following  strik- 
ing fact,  showing  that  the  slaughter  of 
animals,  and  the  use  of  their  flesh  as  food 
by  the  missionaries,  was  another  obstacle 
to  the  reception  of  their  teaching  by  the 
people  among  whom  they  laboured. 

"The  Jains  or  Buddhists  increased  the 
popular  prejudice,  by  describing  us  as  eaters 
of  animal  flesh.  One  of  them  said  to  the 
native  teacher, — '  Your  teacher  tells  us  to 
repent  of  our  sins.  Go  and  tell  him  to 
repent  of  his  own;  for  he  causes  animals 
to  be  slain,  and  eats  them ! '  " 

In  the  journal  of  Mr.  Smylie,  a  mission- 
ary who  has  passed  thirty-seven  years  in 
India,  the  following  anecdote  is  given  : 

"  Passing  ditches,  dusty  roads,  and  puddy 
fields,  we  arrived  at  Sakargunge ;  we  were 
led  into  the  mandel's  house,  where  we  found 
seats  prepared  for  us.  As  I  was  taking  my 
seat,  I  saw  Kan-Mahomed  (Mahomed's 
ear),  seated  in  an  out-of-the-way  corner 
inside.  This  told  us  we  were  likely  to  have 
something  unpleasant  to  do.  Although 
there  were  about  thirty  or  forty  Moslems 
gathered  together  here,  Kan-Mahomed 
asked  us  for  a  Bible,  I  was  sorry  we  had 
none  to  give  ;  however,  we  promised  to  give 
him  one  as  soon  as  we  could  get  them. 
Rising  from  the  great  pillow  on  which  he 
was  reclining,  he  said,  '  I  would  with  plea- 
sure take  you  by  the  hand,  if  you  Christians 
would  not  eat  swines'  flesh,  and  drink 
liquor.'      Had  Mahomed  seen  the  answer 


20 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


to  this,  he  would  not  have  allowed  it  to 
leave  his  heart ;  for  a  greater  set  of  drunk- 
ards never  existed  than  the  Musselmans ;  if 
they  do  not  drink  English  rum,  they  smoke 
gunga  to  a  very  great  extent ;  they  drink, 
too,  but  our  friend  had  never  thought  on 
the  many  ways  Mussulmans  get  intoxicated 
without  being  known,  simply  because  it 
does  not  set  them  raving  like  fools  and 
madmen." 

No  doubt  the  Koran  is  violated  both  in 
the  letter  and  spirit,  but  numerous  facts 
show  the  importance  of  missionaries  laying 
aside  all  habits  which  may  prevent  inquiry 
and  confirm  prejudice.  All  experience, 
especially  in  hot  countries,  shows  the  import- 
ance of  abstaining  from  all  kinds  of  flesh  as 
food  and  alcoholic  liquors,  on  personal  and 
social  grounds,  that  is,  for  the  sake  of  health 
and  for  example's  sake. 

THE   VEGETABLE    LOCUST. 

As  we  drew  nearer  to  the  trees  I  saw  that 
they  were  not  pine  trees,  but  very  different 
indeed.  Both  trunk  and  branches  had  long 
thorny  spikes  upon  them,  like  porcupine 
quills,  and  the  leaves  were  of  a  bright  shin- 
ing green,  pinnate,  with  small  oval  leaflets. 
But  what  was  most  singular  was  the  long 
bean-shaped  pods,  that  hung  down  thickly 
from  the  branches.  These  were  about  an 
inch  and  a  half  in  breadth,  and  some  of 
them  not  less  than  twelve  inches  in  length. 
They  were  of  a  reddish-brown,  nearly  a 
claret  colour.  Except  in  the  colour,  they 
looked  exactly  like  large  bean-pods  filled 
with  beans. 

I  was  not  ignorant  of  what  species  of  tree 
was  before  us :  I  had  seen  it  before.  I 
knew  it  was  the  honey-locust  or  thorny- 
acacia — the  "  carob  tree"  of  the  East,  and 
the  famed  "  algarabo "  of  the  Spaniards. 
I  was  not  ignorant  of  its  uses  either,  for  I 
knew  this  to  be  the  tree  upon  which  (as 
many  suppose)  St.  John  the  Baptist  sus- 
tained himself  in  the  desert,  where  it  is 
said  "his  meat  was  locusts  and  wild  honey." 
Hence  it  is  sometimes  called  "  St.  John's 
bread." — Captain  Reid's  Desert  Home. 

FOOD     AND      CLOTHING      OF      THE      RUSSIAN 
SOLDIER. 

The  Russian  soldier  is  certainly  neither 
weak  nor  famished.  Our  correspondent 
reported,  apparently  with  some  little  surprise, 
that  the  men  taken  or  left  upon  the  field 
of  battle  were  almost  uniformly  strong  and 
muscular,  in  the  prime  of  youthful  life,  well 
fed,  and  sufficiently  clothed.  There  were 
no  traces  of  any  such  physical  incapacity 
as  was,  perhaps,  expected.  Possibly  the  food 
described  as  forming  their  daily  rations 
might  seem  indifl'erent  to  those  who  lived 


upon  sound  beef  and  pork,  but  it  was  clearly 
nutritious  enough  to  keep  the  consumer  in 
good  working  order.  The  equipment  of  the 
men  was  good,  serviceable,  and  devised  with 
a  proper  appreciation  of  a  soldier's  real 
wants.  Every  man  had  his  warm  trousers, 
worn  inside  a  pair  of  strong  well-made  boots, 
while  his  outer  clothing  consisted  of  a  long 
loose  great-coat,  which  might,  we  should 
think,  prove  rather  cumbersome  in  any  rapid 
evolutions,  but  which  clearly  left  easy  room 
for  the  play  of  the  muscles.  Most  of  the 
arms  taken  were  found  to  be  excellent  of 
their  kind,  and  the  workmanship  of  the  guns 
in  particular  excited  general  admiration. 
In  one  respect  the  most  desirable  arrange- 
ments had  been  adopted.  The  uniform  of 
the  officers  was  scarcely  distinguishable  from 
that  of  the  men,  so  that  their  lives  were  not 
exposed  to  any  extraordinary  risk.  Alto- 
gether, the  individual  Russian  soldier  proved 
to  be  rather  above  the  standard  at  which  he 
had  been  rated. — Times^  Oct.  15,  1854. 

PDRK   AND    SCROFULA. 

A  few  months  since,  in  conversation  with 
a  neighbour  on  the  subject  of  dietetics,  he 
told  me  that  he  had  Jewish  authority  for 
saying  that  no  Jew  or  Mahometan,  who 
lived  strictly  according  to  the  rules  of  their 
faith,  was  ever  known  to  have  the  scrofula. 
On  the  first  opportunity,  after  hearing  this 
statement,  I  called  on  Dr.  J.  V.  C.  Smith 
of  Boston,  who  has  travelled  extensively  in 
the  East,  to  inquire  if  his  observation  con- 
firmed this  statement.  In  reply,  the  Dr. 
stated  that  he  did  not  see  a  case  of  scrofula 
nor  a  hog  in  all  Egypt  or  Palestine.  And 
he  added,  that  he  had  no  doubt  that  the 
use  of  pork  greatly  aggravated  scrofula. — 
E.  A.    American  Vegetarian. 

EXCESSIVE    SLEEP. 

The  habit  of  excessive  sleep,  beyond  the 
actual  wants  of  the  system,  is  often  formed 
by  sheer  sloth,  or  by  the  wish  to  prolong 
unconsciousness  of  sorrow  and  cares  of  life. 
This  sort  of  sleep  enervates  the  bodily  func- 
tions and  unstrings  the  spirits ;  and  the 
last  eff'ect  is  due  quite  as  much  to  the  phy- 
sical torpor  and  relaxation  induced,  as  to 
the  sense  of  dissatisfaction  with  one's-self 
which  the  indulgence  entails. — Leisure  Hour. 

A   WORLD    OF   BEAUTY. 

"Oh,  what  a  world  of  beauty 

A  loving  heart  might  plan, 
If  man  but  did  his  duty. 

And  helped  his  brother  man  ! 
Then  angel  guests  would  brighten 

The  threshold  with  their  wings, 
And  love  divine  enlighten 

The  old  forgotten  strings." 


FLESH-EATING  AND  ITS   CONCOMITANTS. 


21 


IMPI^^DIMENTS    TO    PROGRESS. 


The  careful  observer  must  readily  discover 
how  much  sooner  the  world  gives  its  assent 
to  abstract  principles  of  truth,  than  to  those 
which  have  a  practical  bearing.  This  is 
manifest  in  religion,  morals,  and  the  whole 
social  history  of  mankind.  The  Vegetarian 
system  being  pre-eminently  a  practical  one, 
and  associated  with  the  daily  business  of 
life,  is,  therefore,  in  its  very  outset,  sub- 
jected to  a  difficulty  as  great  or  greater  than 
nearly  any  other  practical  reform,  the 
application  of  its  principles  having  incon- 
venient relation  to  personal  considerations, 
and  the  purification  of  the  daily  habits  of 
life,  usually  left  to  accident  and  the  more 
"  convenient  season." 

Want  of  information  in  regard  to  the 
adoption  of  our  principles,  is,  however,  the 
first  impediment  to  progress  with  which  the 
organization  professedly  promulgating  its 
principles  has  to  contend.  With  one  class, 
and  this  the  most  intelligent  and  liberally 
educated,  there  is,  to  begin  with,  nothing 
more  than  a  smile  bestowed  upon  the  bene- 
volent enthusiasm,  which,  in  the  stirring 
activities  of  life,  finds  time  to  commiserate 
the  condition  of  the  animal  creation,  or 
ventures  to  apply  "self-sacrificing  principles 
of  diet"  at  the  risk  of  "  injury  to  health." 
With  others,  there  is  a  proud  and  indignant 
scorn  of  all  consideration  upon  the  subject, 
custom  and  prevailing  taste  being  considered 
to  be  amply  condemnatory  of  our  system, 
without  staying  to  reason  for  a  moment 
upon  it. 


The  merits  of  our  system,  and  its  claims 
upon  popular  attention,  however,  but  re- 
quire to  be  presented  on  a  single  occasion, 
in  their  varied  and  important  aspects,  singu- 
larly to  change  the  previous  impressions 
upon  the  subject.  It  is  seen  that  the 
soundest  principles  of  feeding  the  body  (the 
temple  of  the  soul,  by  which  all  outward 
manifestations  of  mind  have  to  be  deve- 
loped), are  worthy  of  the  highest  considera- 
tion, and  that  man,  like  the  inferior  animal 
creation,  is  directed  to  a  food  which  is  best 
suited  to  his  intended  development,  and 
that,  though  error  and  custom  may  have  led 
him  into  various  habits  opposed  to  his  origi- 
nal constitution,  obedience  to  the  charac- 
teristics enstamped  upon  him  must  certainly 
be  most  likely  to  secure  the  normal  and 
happiest  development.  And  then,  following 
the  consecutive  reasoning  from  man's  nature, 
in  the  corroborative  evidence  of  his  original 
condition,  the  facts  of  science,  and  the 
harmony  observable  between  the  charac- 
teristics of  man  and  "  subsistence  upon  the 
fruits  and  vegetable  products  of  the  earth, 
and  the  antagonism  identified  with  the 
different  processes  connected  with  a  system 
of  preying  upon  animals,  the  primary 
impressions  produced,  even  upon  a  popular 
inquiry  upon  the  subject,  are  such  as  assent 
to  the  principles  for  which  we  contend,  in  the 
more  intelligent  classes,  and  at  least  give 
freedom  on  the  part  of  others  who  did  not 
expect  that  we  had  got  so  much  to  say 
for  ourselves." 


FLESH-EATIIS^a    AND    ITS     CONCOMITANTS. 


Fle-h-eating  renders  the  body  much  more 
liable  to  sickness.  How  can  persons  be 
healthy  who  are  every  day,  and  at  every 
meal,  swallowing  the  seeds  of  disease  ? 
Nearly  all  our  domestic  animals  are  more 
or  less  diseased,  nor  is  this  to  be  wondered 
at,  considering  the  improper  and  unnatural 
manner  in  which  they  are  kept  and  fed. 
They  are  often  shut  up  in  dark,  ill-ventilated 
sties  and  stables,  fed  on  highly  nutritious 
food,  and  kept  without  exercise,  breathing 
an  atmosphere  polluted  with  filth,  and  des- 
titute of  any  means  of  cleansing  their  dirty 
bodies. 


Sylvester  Graham  says  :  "  It  is  a  noto- 
rious fact,  that  almost  every  animal  which 
is  fatted  and  killed  for  human  food  is  actu- 
ally in  a  state  of  disease  when  butchered. 
It  is  extremely  difficult,  indeed  nearly  im- 
possible, to  find  in  the  butchers'  markets  of 
any  of  our  cities  or  towns,  a  perfect  healthy 
liver  from  a  fatted  animal ;  and  it  is  by  no 
means  an  uncommon  thing  for  fatted  hogs  to 
die  of  disease  when  just  about  to  be  killed 
for  the  market." 

As  far  as  my  own  observation  goes,  the 
above  is  a  literal  fact.  I  have  seen  hogs 
killed  that  had  been  fattened  at  the  distillery, 


their  teeth  were  black  and  rotten,  their  livers 
and  lungs  ulcerated  in  every  case  more  or 
less ;  and,  still  worse,  I  have  seen  the  diseased 
livers  and  lungs  chopped  up  and  eaten  with 
gusto  by  those  who  knew  that  they  were 
diseased. 

I  know  a  distillery,  not  a  hundred  miles 
from  Dayton,  and  I  know  a  man  who  goes 
to  that  distillery  every  week  to  buy  up  the 
sick  hogs,  and  kill  them  for  Dayton  mar- 
ket. I  know  not  whom  to  blame  most,  the 
death-dealing  distiller,  who  poisons  the 
people  with  his  whisky  and  his  hogs,  or  the 
mean  wretch  of  a  butcher,  who  deals  out 
diseases  by  the  pound,  for  filthy  lucre.  I 
have  been  told  by  butchers,  that  they  have 
killed  animals  for  food  repeatedly,  that  they 
knew  could  not  have  lived  many  days  if  they 
had  not  been  killed.  The  number  of  animals, 
thus  "  killed  to  save  their  lives,"  flesh-eaters 
generally  have  no  idea  of.  The  inhabitants 
of  our  large  cities  drink  the  milk  of  diseased 
animals  in  their  infancy,  eat  their  flesh  in 
youth,  and  die  themselves  the  victims  of 
disease  in  man  and  womanhood.  When 
shall  our  cities  be  the  abode  of  purity,  health, 
beauty,  and  intelligence  .►•  Never  while  the 
people  are  such  riotous  eaters  of  flesh. 

Hogs,  it  is  well  known,  often  kill  and  eat 
their  young.  I  have  seen  them  feasting 
upon  the  carcass  of  a  horse— in  fact,  there  is 
nothing  too  filthy  for  a  hog  to  eat ;  if  it  ever 
had  any  sense  of  cleanliness,  it  has  lost  it  in 
these  degenerate  days,  and  where  eating  is 
concerned,  seems  to  know  no  difi'erence  be- 
tween the  clean ^nd  the  unclean. 

In  New  York  hogs  are  regularly  fattened 
on  the  bodies  of  dead  horses ;  the  tottering 
masses  of  corruption  are  boiled  down,  run 
out  in  troughs,  and  greedily  devoured  by  the 
waiting  porkers,  who,  in  turn,  are  to  be  de- 
voured by  the  genteel  and  gay,  the  lady  in 
cotton  and  the  lady  in  satin,  in  the  shape  of 
sandwiches  at  a  pic-nic,  and  of  "  splendid 
ham"  at  an  alderman's  dinner.  If  it  only 
bore  a  true  label,  "concentrated  essence  of 
diseased  dead  horse,"  in  conspicuous  charac- 
ters upon  it,  perhaps  even  hog-eaters  might 
pause  before  they  built  up  the  soul's  temple 
with  such  material. 

"  But  the  pure,  innocent  lamb  that  skips 
over  our  hills,  drinks  of  the  clear  brooks, 
and  nibbles  the  green  herb  :  surely  the  flesh 
of  such  an  animal  cannot  be  injurious." 
Well,  let  us  hear  what  is  the  evidence  on 


that  subject.  "  Lambs,  from  the  unnatural 
condition  of  the  sheep,  premature  weaning, 
and  various  diseases  to  which  they  are  sub- 
ject, frequently  die  in  great  numbers  before 
they  are  fattened  for  slaughter.  During  the 
fattening  process,  the  lambs,  in  many  parts 
of  the  country,  are  taken  from  their  natural 
haunts  in  the  fields  and  on  the  hills,  con- 
fined in  the  fold  or  shed,  fed  on  a  more 
nutritious  diet,  and  taking  little  exercise, 
many  of  them  die  of  disease." 

There  are  no  less  than  twenty-six  diseases 
to  which  sheep  are  subject;  the  small-pox, 
rot,  and  other  epidemics  often  take  off  great 
numbers,  and  not  a  few  of  these  find  their 
way  into  the  markets  of  our  cities  and  the 
stomachs  of  our  flesh- eaters. 

Some  years  ago,  much  discussion  took 
place  in  the  English  House  of  Commons 
respecting  the  small-pox,  which  it  was  said 
had  been  brought  into  England  by  the  sheep 
which  had  been  imported.  "  The  sheep  had 
been  slaughtered  and  exhibited  in  the  sham- 
bles, the  mutton  bought  and  eaten,  the 
sraall-pox  taken  in  with  it,  and  thus  spread 
through  the  country  by  wholesale."  There 
is  little  doubt  that  many  diseases  have  ori- 
ginated and  the  virulence  of  others  been 
increased  in  this  way. 

Even  wild  animals,  though  generally  free 
from  disease,  are  not  always  so.  In  the 
Western  States  they  are  often  found  with 
diseased  livers,  caused,  no  doubt,  by  the 
malaria  existing  in  the  atmosphere,  which, 
when  breathed  by  man,  produces  the  fever 
and  ague. 

In  short,  those  who  eat  flesh  can  never  be 
certain  they  are  not  planting  the  seeds  of 
disease  in  the  system,  for,  even  if  they  kill 
the  animals  upon  which  they  feed  themselves, 
they  cannot  always  tell  whether  the  animal 
was  healthy  or  not.  If  a  vegetable  is 
diseased,  it  is  in  almost  every  case  evident 
to  the  senses,  and  the  judgment  of  the 
possessor  leads  him  at  once  to  throw  it  away. 
There  is  but  little  danger  of  any  one  palming 
off"  upon  us  rotten  apples  or  potatoes  for 
sound  ones. 

Thus  Vegetarians,  abstaining  from  dead 
cows,  sheep,  hogs,  and  worse  things,  and 
living  upon  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  run  less 
risk  of  disease  and  its  accompanying  evils, 
and  have,  therefore,  a  much  better  chance 
to  be  healthy  and  happy. — W.  Denton, 
from  the  Type  of  the  Times. 


VEGETAETAN  DIET   AS   A   CURATIVE  AGENT-SCROEULA. 


We  extract  the  following  highly  interesting 
case  from  the  pages  of  a  contemporary,* 
as  one  of  many  others  proving  not  merely 
the  safety,  but  the  great  advantage,  of  abjur- 
*  The  Journal  of  Health  and  Progressionist. 


ing  the  flesh  of  animals,  and  returning  to 
a  diet  in  accordance  with  the  primitive 
history  of  man. 

"  Until  very  recently   I  was  not   aware 
there  existed  an  enrolled  Society  of  Yege- 


THE   CONTEOYERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


23 


tarians,  else  I  should  have,  ere  this,  become 
a  member,  and  have  stated  my  case  to  you. 
More  forcible  evidence  in  favour  of  Vege- 
tarian diet  can  scarcely,  I  presume,  be  pro- 
duced on  your  records.      It  is  now  forty- 
three  years  since  I   commenced  abstaining 
from  animal  food,  and  I  have  unremittingly 
persevered    ever    since,    for    the    strongest 
reasons,  showing  themselves  in  results  most 
beneficial  and  wonderful.     In  adverting  to 
my  motives    for  adopting  the   Vegetarian 
system,  allow  me  to  state  my  whole  case 
from  infancy,  as  it  will  furnish  a  powerful 
example  in  favour  of  the  cause.     My  father 
and  mother  were  the  offspring   of  parents 
far  advanced  in  life,  extremely  weak  and 
degenerated    in   their    physical     structure, 
remarkably  diminutive,  and  afflicted  during 
the  whole  of  their  lives  with  diseases  which 
terminated  their  career  at   an  early  period. 
My  father   died   at    forty    of    an    internal 
scrofula,  and  my  mother  before  she  attained 
sixty,  of  a   chronic   asthma.      They  left  a 
progeny  of  thirteen,   but  only   myself  and 
one  other  have  survived  to  the  present  time, 
the  other  eleven  having  been  carried  off  by 
hereditary  scrofula,  to  which  I  should  have 
fallen   a  victim,   had   I    not    adopted    the 
Vegetarian  system,  Avhich  I  commenced  at 
the   age   of    twenty -seven.      Before   I   was 
seven  years  old,  I  began  to  be  afflicted  with 
ulcers  in  my  neck  and  throat,  which  were  of 
so  virulent  a  nature  that  it  was  pronounced 
to  be    the  "  King's   evil,"  and   considered 
incurable.     I  was  daily  under  the  surgeon's 
hands    for    many    years,     subject    to    fre- 
quent attacks  of   vertigo,   accompanied  by 
sick  headaches.     Later  in  life  I  was  afflicted 
with    severe  bilious    attacks,   said  to   arise 
from  a  diseased  liver.     I  was  also  frequently 
afflicted  with  tic  doloureux,  the  pain  of  which 
would  render  me  at  times  delirious.      Such 
a  combination  of  complaints  reduced  me  to 
a  state  so  weak  and  nervous,  that  it  was 
with  the  utmost  difficulty  I   could  pursue 
my  professional  avocations ;  even  at  intervals 
of  convalescence,  I  was  attended  by  several 
medical   men    of   eminence,    all   of   whom 
recommended  stimulating  food,  which  evi- 
dently only  increased  my  maladies.     I  was 
at  length    pronounced   incurable,   and  left 
to  my  fate. 

"  I  was  declining  when  chance  threw  in 
my  way  the  writings  of  Dr.  Lambe,  and  a 
work  of  Mr.  Newton's  on  natural  diet; 
although  it  occurred  to  me,  that  by  adopting 


their  system  it  might  possibly  create  a 
diversion  in  my  favour,  I  spoke  of  it  to  my 
medical  advisers  ;  one  and  all  declared  that 
a  vegetable  diet  Avould  rapidly  hasten  my 
departure  to  the  other  world.  Although 
under  no  conviction  of  the  efficacy  of  Vege- 
tarianism, I  adopted  it  as  a  forlorn  hope  or 
last  effort  of  despair,  which,  at  any  rate, 
could  scarcely  render  my  condition  worse. 
Very  soon,  however,  after  commencing,  to 
my  utter  amazement,  all  my  complaints  left 
me,  and  from  a  very  weak  and  decrepid 
person,  I  became  healthy  and  strong  :  and 
now,  for  the  long  period  of  forty  years,  have 
had  no  return  of  those,  said  to  he,  incurable 
diseases.  For  more  than  twenty  years,  I 
practised  my  profession  of  a  portrait  painter, 
scarcely  even  allowing  myseff  country  air 
or  exercise,  yet  suffered  no  inconvenience 
except  from  intense  application*  and  from 
working  too  much  by  lamp-lighx.  A  pre- 
mature decay  of  sight  came  on,  which 
compelled  me  to  change  my  occupation  to 
that  of  gardener,  which  I  have  followed 
ever  since,  working  most  laboriously  with  the 
same  uninterrupted  health,  until  within  the 
last  three  years.  During  the  winter  months,  I 
have  had  several  attacks  of  my  old  liver 
complaint,  causing  indigestion.  This  I 
attributed  to  old  age,  but  have  since  had 
reason  to  think  it  arose  from  living  too 
much  on  white  bread,  with  an  insufficiency 
of  fruit ;  for  having,  for  the  last  sixteen 
months,  changed  my  diet  to  brown  bread 
with  a  much  larger  proportion  of  fruit,  I 
seem  to  have  gained  an  accession  of  strength, 
and  no  return  whatever  of  indigestion. 

"  Before  I  commenced  the  vegetable 
regimen,  the  slightest  draught  or  wetting 
would  produce  a  severe  cold.  Now,  although 
exposed  to  all  weathers,  and  never  changing 
my  wet  clothes,  I  never  take  cold;  and 
though,  when  a  young  man,  my  hand  shook 
as  if  palsied,  now,  at  seventy,  it  is  per- 
fectly steady,  even  after  the  hardest  day's 
labour. 

"  I  have  the  fullest  conviction  that  a 
pure  vegetable  diet  would  be  the  means  of 
subduing  almost  every  disease — that  it 
would  promote  longevity,  and  regenerate 
mankind,  both  physically,  morally,  and 
mentally. 

"  Hoping  this  plain  statement  may  have 
some  weight  in  gaining  converts  to  your 
rational  and  much  desired  cause,  I  con- 
clude." 


THE  CONTEOVERSIALIST  AND  COERESPONDENT. 


THE   RECENT    CONTROVERSY. 

"VVe  insert  the  following  letter  pertaining  to 
the  discussion  between  Dr.  Balbirnie  and 
Mr.  "Ward. 


Sir — I  have  read  with  considerable  interest  the 
letters  which  have  lately  appeared  in  the  Messen- 
ger, in  reference  to  Vegetarianism  and  its  ten- 
dency to  cause  consumption,  and  I  should  like  to 


24 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


make  a  few  remarks  myself,  but  I  am  not  going 
to  write  "a  very  long  letter"  nor  yet  enter  into 
the  dispute,  but  shall  confine  myself,  in  what  I 
have  to  say,  to  the  spirit  it  has  been  carried  on 
in,  and  not  to  what  it  was  about. 

Mr.  Ward  is  not  the  only  champion  of  Vege- 
tarianism who  is  doing  the  cause  a  vast  deal 
more  injury  than  any  of  its  professed  enemies, 
and  in  the  late  correspondence  between  him  and 
Dr.  Balbirnie,  the  overhearing  style  of  his 
letters  makes  a  more  vivid  impression  on  the 
mind  than  his  arguments,  weakened  as  they  are 
by  so  much  clap-trap  and  useless  flourish ;  and 
it  struck  me,  and  I  dare  say  has  struck  others, 
that  it  was  very  like  "  pot "  calling  "  kettle," 
when  Mr.  Ward  complained  of  the  doctor  for 
bringing  forth  such  an  array  of  kettle-drums, 
etc. 

But  I  am  sorfy  to  have  to  complain  of  graver 
faults,  namely,  quibbling  and  downright  unfair- 
ness, and  to  substantiate  this  charge  I  need  only 
refer  to  a  glaring  instance  of  this,  as  displayed  in 
the  way  he  has  supported  his  assertion  about  the 
bran  of  brown  bread.  Let  any  one  just  read 
what  has  been  said  by  both  parties  in  this  part  of 
the  discussion,  and  the  verdict  will  be  at  once 
given  against  Mr.  Ward,  i.  e.  against  his  way  of 
defending  himself — besides  the  bran  and  flour, 
there  are  intermediate  substances  between  these 
two.  Again,  how  much  like  spite  and  anger  is 
the  way  he  "  lets  out,"  that  the  doctor  has  been 
a  Vegetarian.  "  It  may  be  well  to  inform  your 
readers,"  says  Mr.  Ward,  "that  Dr.  Bal- 
birnie is  a  renegade."  Did  it  never  strike  Mr. 
Ward  that  he  is  a  renegade  ?  a  seceder  from  old 
estabhshed  customs  which  he  has  been  bred, 
born,  and  reared  in?  If  we  are  to  look  at  change 
of  opinion  and  practice  in  the  light  ]\Ir.  Ward 
does,  we  are  all  of  us  renegades  in  some  way  or 
other.  But  the  worst  of  it  is,  Mr.  Ward  is  not  an 
exception  among  the  Vegetarians  in  this  respect, 
for  the  "staunch  Vegetarians,"  the  "pioneer 
Vegetarians,"  as  they  call  themselves,  are  all 
chargeable  with  the  same  want  of  charity,  and 
in  many  instances  do  not  refrain  from  attri- 
buting any  cause  but  the  right  one  to  any 
secession  which  takes  place,  and  they  will  even 
place  seceders  among  the  list  of  insane,  for 
returning  to  darkness  after  having  seen  the  light, 
as  they  say,  and  as  I  firmly  believe  they 
think. 


Birmingham. 


Another  Renegade. 


FORMATION    OF   ASSOCIATIONS. 

Dear  Sir — I  was  extremely  pleased  to  notice 
a  communication  from  Edinburgh  in  your  last 
month's  Messenger.  Perhaps  it  may  not  be 
known  to  your  correspondent  that  there  have 
been  two  meetings  held  here,  since  the  visit  of 
Mr.  Simpson  and  Mr.  Griffin  in  October  last, 
by  a  few  parties  desirous  of  getting  up  a  spirit  of 
inquiry  in  favour  of  Vegetarianism.  From  the 
number  who  presented  themselves  being  thought 
insufficient  to  go  into  the  matter  thoroughly,  the 
meeting  was  again  adjourned  to  an  indefinite 
period,  though  it  was  hoped  that  each  one  who 
felt  an  interest  in  the  subject  would  do  his 
utmost  to .  spread  the  Vegetarian   principle.    I 


am  persuaded  that  Edinburgh  could  do  some- 
thing, if  there  were  a  few  decided  Vegetarians 
forming  themselves  into  a  body  for  advocating 
and  propagating  their  views. 

I  may  state  that  I  have  now  been  four  months 
a  total  abstainer  from  the  flesh  of  animals,  and, 
like  your  correspondent,  I  found  some  difficulty 
in  getting  on  with  the  cookery  for  the  first 
month,  but  I  got  a  Penny  Vegetarian  Cookery, 
and  since  then  the  practice  has  been  easy  ;  and 
experience  enables  me  now  to  go  on  in  a  great 
measure  without  reference  to  Cookery  books 
at  all.  Yours  truly, 

Edinburgh.  R.  J. 

Information  bearing  upon  the  formation 
of  Vegetarian  Associations  will  be  found  in 
the  back  numbers  of  the  Messenger^  in  the 
department  of  Local  Operations,  where  the 
instructions  and  rules  for  such  organizations 
are  given.  Literally,  wherever  "two  or  three" 
are  congregated,  and  call  attention  to  the 
question,  Vegetarianism  is  found  to  progress. 
Order  and  organization  are  however  required, 
and  added  to  the  suggestions  referred  to,  we 
would  suggest  the  calling  in  the  aid  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  nearest  Vegetarian  Associa- 
tion, if  "  assurance "  amongst  our  northern 
friends  requires  to  be  made  "  doubly  sure." 
After  the  marked  success  which  recently  at- 
tended the  exposition  of  the  Vegetarian 
system,  in  the  hands  of  the  President  of  the 
Society,  it  seems  nothing  less  than  a  matter 
of  surprise  that  organization,  and  a  steadily 
progressing  Association,  have  not  already 
been  secured  in  the  capital  of  Scotland. 
Why  not  .^  we  ask. 

TEETOTALISM   AND   VEGETABIANISM. 

Dear  Sir — I  think  much  useful  and  encou- 
raging matter  is  lost  to  your  pages,  by  each  one 
not  systematically  communicating  the  more 
valuable  portions  of  his  correspondence  bearing 
on  the  Vegetarian  question.  I  have  been  accusing 
myself  of  neglecting  the  interests  of  our  movement 
in  this  way,  on  many  past  occasions,  and  as  1 
intend  to  amend  my  practice,  I  send  the  enclosed 
as  a  beginning. 

I  am,  yours  truly, 

J.  N.  J. 

Dear  Sir — I  find  that  you  are  a  member  of 
a  society  of  which  I  am  a  great  lover,  that  is  the 
Vegetarian  Society,  for  I  carry  out  its  principle 
and  practice  and  find  that  temperance  and  Vege- 
tarianism work  well  together,  I  should  like  to 
have  been  at  the  lecture  and  heard  Mr.  Simp- 
son, for  I  want  all  the  information  on  the 
subject  I  can  get.  I  have  a  great  deal  to  contend 
with  in  this  pig-eating  and  beer-drinking  county, 
in  carrying  out  my  two  principles ;  nay,  I  need 
not  say  two,  for  I  think  they  are  only  one. 

I  thank  you  for  the  bills  you  sent  me. 
Although  I  am  the  only  one  that  holds  these 
principles  about  here,  I  am  not  afraid  to  carry 
them  out,  for  I  believe  that  lam  acting  according 
to  the  laws  of  nature,  for  I  find  that  I  have 
better  health,  and  am  stronger  than  I  ever  was 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


25 


before.     If  you  can  send  me  anything  to  supply 
me  with  arguments,  please  to  do  so. 

Yours,   in   the   cause   of   Temperance   and 
Vegetarianism  combined, 

Wrawhy,  Lincolnshire,  W.  G. 

As  already  stated,  we  are  at  all  times 
obliged  by  communications  such  as  can 
either  communicate  information,  or  even 
encourage  any  in  their  first  steps  in  adopt- 
ing the  Vegetarian  practice. 

AN    ENCOURAGING   ACKNOWLEDGMENT.    * 

Sir — I  am  going  to  remove  from  this  country 
at  the  end  of  this  month,  and  I  think  my  next 
place  will  be  Philadelphia,  or  some  other  part  of 
America. 

I  cannot  leave  without  tendering  my  siucere 
thanks  for  the  benefit  and  advantages  I  have  de- 
rived, both  mentally,  physically,  and  pecuniarily, 
from  your  invaluable  periodical .  It  is  now  more 
than  seven  years  since  I  partook  of  the  carcass 


of  any  living  thing  ;  it  is  not  a  matter  of  choice 
with  me  now,  for  I  think  that  I  could  not,  if  I 
was  wishing  to  do  so,  partake  of  such  food  again. 

I  have  had  some  fear  that  my  present  practice 
of  diet  would  be  a  disadvantage  to  me  on  board 
ship;  but  that  fear  is  now  gone,  and  its  place 
taken  by  a  strong  feeling,  tliat  I  shall  have  a 
great  advantage  over  my  fellow  passengers.  If 
time  permits,  I  will  give  you  my  experience  of  a 
Vegetarian  sea  voyage. 

Wishing  success  to  the  Messenger,  and  the 
Vegetarian  cause, 

I  remain,  yours  respectfully, 

Glasgow.  R.  J. 

"We  are  happy  to  receive  and  acknowledge 
this  simple  and  honest  tribute  of  thanks 
on  the  part  of  our  friend  about  to  emigrate, 
and  shall  be  happy  both  to  receive  his  pro- 
mised communication,  and  to  transmit  the 
Messenger  to  him,  as  to  many  of  our  other 
friends  in  America. 


THE     VEGETAHl 

THE   MEMORY    OF   THE   DEAD. 

It  is  an  exquisite  and  beautiful  thing  in  our 
nature,  that  when  the  heart  is  touched  and 
softened  by  some  tranquil  happiness  or 
affectionate  feeling,  the  memory  of  the  dead 
comes  over  it  most  powerfully  and  irresistibly. 
It  would  seem  almost  as  though  our  better 
thoughts  and  sympathies  were  charms,  in 
virtue  of  which  the  soul  is  enabled  to  hold 
some  vague  and  mysterious  intercourse  with 
the  spirits  of  those  whom  we  loved  in  life. 
Alas !  how  often  and  how  long  may  those 
patient  angels  hover  around  us,  watching  for 
the  spell  which  is  so  seldom  uttered,  and  so 
soon  forgotten  ! — Dickens. 

THE   FRENCH,    SCOTCH,    AND    ENGLISH. 

The  French  appear  to  withstand  cold  and 
privations  better  than  the  Scotch  and 
English,  but  yet  not  so  well  as  the  Irish. 
The  doctors  assign  a  reason  for  this  endurance, 
by  the  greater  amount  of  bread  which  they 
consume,  and  a  more  moderate  share  of  meat 
than  the  British;  "for  meat,"  say  they, 
"only  partially  invigorates,  while  bread, 
being  the  stafi"  of  life,  gives  a  hardy  vigour 
and  solidity  to  the  frame,  which  we  find 
particularly  in  French  troopers,  who,  al- 
though small  in  stature,  support  on  their 
square  shoulders  and  ample  chest  an  amount 
of  objects,  stowed  away  in  their  knapsacks, 
which  English  soldiers  of  corresponding 
stature  would  find  most  inconvenient  on  a 
day's  march." —  Correspondent  of  the  Morning 
Herald, 

THE   INHABITANTS    OF   TRAVANCORE. 

Our  way  led  through  the  city  of  Trevandrum, 
which  is  a  remarkably  picturesque  one,  being 
so  thickly  planted  with  all  kinds  of  trees, 


AN     TREASURY. 

the  most  remarkable  of  which  is  the  Erica 
Palm,  whose  slender  stems  were  festooned 
with  the  pepper  plants :  cucumbers  and 
creeping  gourds  of  many  varieties,  covered 
the  walls  and  low  mud  buildings  which  serve 
as  dwellings  for  the  poorer  classes.  The 
inhabitants  are  of  a  rich  brown  colour,  and 
the  men  are  a  fine  race.  They  shave  their 
heads,  excepting  one  lock  on  the  forehead, 
which  they  allow  to  grow  long,  and  it  is  kept 
tied  in  a  peculiar  knot,  and  hangs  down 
between  the  eyes.  Their  only  clothing  is  a 
very  thin  and  white  cloth  round  their  middle, 
and  a  small  piece  of  fine  muslin  laid  across 
the  forehead,  and  tied  at  the  back  of  the 
head,  the  long  ends  floating  on  their  shoulders, 
the  bare  shining  skulls  being  exposed  to  the 
sun.  The  women  wear  nothing  on  the  head 
but  their  own  hair  gathered  into  a  knot,  and 
their  only  garment  consists  of  a  very  scanty 
petticoat.  I  was  informed  by  a  native  of 
high  rank  that  they  eat  no  meat,  being 
Brahmins,  but  delight  in  having  a  great 
variety  of  curries  served  at  their  meals,  even 
as  many  as  thirty  and  forty.  These  curries 
are  formed  of  difi'erent  vegetables,  and  fruits, 
and  various  preparations  of  milk :  rice, 
plainly  boiled  and  spiced,  is  in  high  request. 
They  make  a  point  of  tasting  every  dish,  if 
it  is  ever  such  a  little  bit.  Much  butter  is 
used  in  their  cookery.  I  had  once  the 
honour  of  tasting  some  of  these  dishes  from 
a  prince's  table  :  but  cannot  say  they  were 
palatable  to  a  European — they  were  sour  and 
greasy.  These  people  never  taste  spirituous 
liquors ;  and  my  informant  expressed  great 
disgust  at  the  idea  of  eating  meat.  They 
chew  a  great  deal  of  the  betel  nut,  and  the 
aromatic  paun  leaf,  which  is  cultivated  in 
large  fields,  similar  to  the  hop-fields  of  Kent. 


26 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


They  bathe  everj'  evening,  and  change  their 
clothes ;  they  then  pray,  and  must  keep 
themselves  from  defilements,  amongst  which 
they  are  pleased  to  class  the  touch  of  a 
European.  One  of  their  customs  is  to  set 
apart  three  weeks  once  a  year  (just  after  the 
extreme  hot  weather)  for  the  performance 
of  violent  exercises^  which  are  taken  in  high- 
walled  courts.  Young  men  of  good  families 
usually  meet  in  them  for  this  purpose.  The 
games  consist  of  lifting  heavy  weights  and 
throwing  them  to  a  distance,  leaping, 
running,  and  stretching  their  limbs.  These 
exercises  are  varied  and  continued  for  three 
weeks,  after  which  they  take  baths,  and  are 
shampooed  by  their  attendants.  This  custom, 
they  say,  preserves  their  health  for  the  year, 
and  circulates  the  blood,  and  expels  obnoxious 
humours  from  the  system.  They  usually 
appear  thinner  after  their  probation,  and  in 
high  spirits. — -Extract  from  the  Manuscript 
Journal  of  a  Lady,  from  Journal  of  Healthy 
Vol.  3,  No.  41. 

IMPORTANCE    OF   AGRICULTURE. 

It  is  observed  that,  of  all  the  material  in- 
terests influencing  humanity,  there  is  none 
which  so  completely  and  so  tyrannically 
fetters  the  individual  as  the  care  for  his  daily 
bread  ;  and  though  this  great  feature  is 
evinced  by  different  pursuits  in  life,  yet  these, 
like  so  many  tributary  streams  and  rivulets, 
are  continually  meandering  till  they  terminate 
in  the  all-absorbing  ocean  of  agriculture, 
which  is  the  soul  of  all  the  other  branches 
of  industry  invented  in  modern  ages  ;  with- 
out it  none  other  can  stand.  It  is  that  art 
on  which  a  thousand  millions  of  men  are 
dependent  for  their  very  life ;  in  the  pro- 
secution of  which  about  nine-tenths  of  the 
fixed  capital  of  civilized  nations  are  em- 
barked ;  and  upon  which  more  than  two 
hundred  millions  of  human  beings  expend 
their  diurnal  labour  ;  the  parent  and  fore- 
runner of  all  the  other  arts. — Professor 
Muspratt's  Chemistry. 

HORSE-FLESH    SAUSAGES. 

A  man  named  Mathieu  was,  on  Saturday, 
tried  by  the  Tribunal  of  Correctional  Police 
for  attempting  to  sell  some  corrupt  flesh  as 
food.  He  was  arrested  as  he  went  one  day 
to  a  public-house,  kept  by  a  man  named 
Collin,  with  some  of  the  flesh  in  his  posses- 
sion. He  declared  that  he  lived  at  Romain- 
ville,  and  his  residence  was  visited.  This 
account  was  given  of  it  in  the  proces  verbal 
of  a  commissary  of  police  : — "I  found,  in  a 
badly  closed  shed,  almost  in  ruins,  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  horse-flesh,  in  a  com- 
plete state  of  decomposition,  and  the  putrid 
smell  from  which  was  so  strong,  that  I  and 
my  men  Avere   obliged  to  take  precautions 


before  entering.  Three  of  the  police  agents 
who  accompanied  me  were,  nevertheless, 
aff'ected  by  the  exhalations,  and  began  vomit- 
ing. Having  entered  the  shed,  the  most 
hideous  spectacle  presented  itself.  A  sort  of 
bed,  composed  of  dung  and  pieces  of  linen, 
was  in  the  centre.  Near  it  was  an  elderly 
woman,  whose  sickly  appearance  showed  that 
she  had  been  subjected  to  the  noxious  in- 
fluence of  the  atmosphere ;  she  held  a  child 
on  her  knees  who  Avas  in  a  dying  state.  A 
young  girl  of  sixteen,  Avho  was  also  ill,  but 
more  robust,  occupied  herself  with  house- 
hold afi'airs.  Along  the  wall  were  hung 
pieces  of  flesh,  which  were  already  teeming 
with  worms  ;  in  the  corner  were  the  entrails 
of  a  horse ;  they  were  completely  putrified, 
but  were,  I  was  told,  destined  to  be  made  up 
into  sausages.  In  a  chamber  near  I  dis- 
covered three  enormous  tubs,  full  of  some- 
thing of  a  greenish  colour,  mixed  up  with 
corrupted  blood.  This  was  destined  for  food. 
I  found,  in  another  part  of  the  building,  the 
bones  and  head  of  a  horse ;  the  animal  must 
have  been  at  least  15  years  old.  I  ordered 
all  these  horrible  things  to  be  buried,  and  to 
be  covered  with  essence  of  turpentine."  The 
public-house  keeper,  in .  whose  house  the 
man  was  arrested,  said  that  he  had  brought 
some  sausages  made  from  his  rotten  horse- 
flesh to  him  for  sale,  but  that  he  had  refused 
to  take  them.  The  man  had  earnestly  re- 
presented to  him  that  they  were  very  good, 
and,  to  convince  him,  boiled  one  and  ate  it ; 
but  it  smelt  horribly.  In  his  defence  the 
accused  said  that  he  liked  horse-flesh,  and 
that  he  had  purchased  a  horse  to  serve  him 
for  food  until  the  spring.  He  also  said  that 
his  wife  was  ill,  and  that  he  had  thought 
horse-flesh  would  strengthen  her.  But  he 
denied  that  he  had  sold  any  of  it,  either  in 
sausages  or  otherwise.  The  tribunal  con- 
demned him  to  three  months'  imprisonment, 
and  50  f.  fine. — Galignani. 

FEEDING    POULTRY. 

Professor  Gregory,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend, 
observes  :  "  As  I  suppose  you  keep  poultry, 
I  may  tell  you  that,  it  has  been  ascertained 
that  if  you  mix  with  their  food  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  egg-shells  or  chalk,  which  they 
eat  greedily,  they  will  lay  twice  or  thrice 
as  many  eggs  as  before.  A  well-fed  fowl  is 
disposed  to  lay  a  large  number  of  eggs,  but 
cannot  do  so  without  the  materials  of  shells, 
however  nourishing  in  other  respects  her 
food  may  be  ;  indeed,  a  fowl  fed  on  food  and 
water,  free  from  carbonate  of  lime,  and  not 
finding  any  in  the  soil,  or  in  the  shape  of 
mortar,  which  they  often  eat  on  the  walls, 
would  lay  no  eggs  at  all  with  the  best  will  in 
the  world." — Family  Herald.,  No.  568. 


FLESH-EATING  AN   INCENTIVE  TO   THE  WAR   SPIRIT. 


27 


IMPEDIMENTS     TO     PEOGRESS/ 


The  common  result  of  a  fair  inquiry  into 
the  arguments  and  practice  of  Vegetarian- 
ism, is  to  produce  a  desire  for  an  experiment, 
something  which  will  practically  test  the 
new  views  and  theories  arrived  at.  There 
is  here,  however,  great  difficulty  to  be  en- 
countered, in  endeavouring  to  break  through 
the  social  customs  of  society,  even  after  a 
conviction  has  been  produced  that  the  system 
to  be  entered  upon,  is  established  in  truth. 
The  presumptive  evidence  that  what  prevails 
is  best  (sufficient  as  this  is  for  the  many), 
may  have  been  overcome,  but  only  to  intro- 
duce the  inquirers  to  this  further  impedi- 
ment. 

Good  principles,  we  all  know,  are  pro- 
verbially difficult  to  be  reduced  to  practice, 
and  with  the  most  moral  of  society,  even 
taking  into  account  the  greater  ease  experi- 
enced in  following  out  conviction  in  one 
case  than  another,  there  is  always  danger  of 
sacrificing  conviction  to  expediency,  and 
protracting  to  a  period  of  greater  ease  and 
convenience,  the  adoption  of  the  practice 
which  ought  to  be  vitalized  in  act  at  the 
time.  We  swim  with  the  stream,  and  do 
not  feel  its  power  till  we  seek  to  stay  our 


course,  and  leave  its  current ;  and  in  this 
aspect  of  morals,  the  history  of  the  adopters 
of  Vegetarianism  is  highly  interesting,  as 
showing  how  powerful  are  the  trammels  in 
which  most  are  held  by  the  prevailing  habit 
of  the  social  circle. 

The  family  influence,  so  powerfully  ar- 
ranged in  opposition  to  any  attempt  to 
depart  from  its  influence  and  teaching,  is 
often  miscalculated ;  and  it  is  this  passage 
in  the  history  of  the  experimenter  in  Vege- 
tarianism, which  serves  at  once  to  try  the 
moral  courage.  Here  commonly  arises  the 
opposition  of  those  most  intimately  asssoci- 
ated  with  domestic  ties,  who,  naturally 
enough,  object  to  the  impropriety  and  danger 
of  following  "  absurdities '' ;  and  even  though 
the  notions  leading  to  this  opposition,  in 
judicious  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  indivi- 
dual, may  ultimately  be  shown  to  be  ground- 
less, the  impediments  they  present  are  seri. 
ously  inconvenient  when  encountered,  even 
where  not  continued,  in  spite  of  the  most 
striking  evidences  of  beneflt  produced,  a 
further  disadvantage  under  which  many 
labour. 

*  Continued  from  p.  21. 


FLESH-EATING  AN   INCENT 

In  our  miscellaneous  reading,  we  are  fre- 
quently struck  with  the  numerous  and  varied 
facts  to  be  met  with,  illustrating  and  cor- 
roborating the  Vegetarian  Philosophy.  Col- 
lateral testimony,  of  the  character  to  which 
we  refer,  appears  to  us  particularly  valuable, 
and  worthy  of  being  noted;  as,  coming 
from  a  neutral  or  possibly  an  adverse  source, 
it  ought  to  have  greater  weight  with  the 
inquirer,  to  whom  the  same  facts,  adduced 
by  a  partisan  of  our  system,  might  probably 
assume  the  phase  of  special  pleading.  The 
Rev.  W.  Metcalfe,  of  Philadelphia,  informs 
us,  that  when  in  the  year  1817,  the  religious 
society,  of  which  he  is  the  head,  adopted  the 
principle  of  abstinence  from  the  flesh  of 
animals  as  food,  they  did  so  solely  from  a 
religious  conviction  of  the  impropriety  of 
taking  animal  life  for  the  purpose  of  satis- 
fying appetite.  When  they  took  this  step, 
they  were  comparatively  ignorant  of  the  laws 
of  physiology,  and  totally  unacquainted  with 
the  multifarious  scientific  evidence  in  favour 
of  their  new  practice,  which  the  subsequent 


IVE   TO   THE   WAE   SPIRIT. 

researches  of  chemists  have  only  recently 
brought  to  light.  In  the  dietetic  management 
of  their  bodies,  and  in  the  regulation  of  their 
conduct  towards  the  inferior  creation,  this 
religious  body  was  guided  solely  by  the 
"  light  within  "; — by  a  strong  moral  sense — 
and  it  must  now  be  matter  of  great  satisfac- 
tion to  them,  to  find  their  obedience  to 
religious  conviction  justified  by  the  strongest 
testimony  both  of  science  and  experience. 
In  like  manner,  the  secular  Vegetarian, 
who  adopts  the  practice,  probably  from 
some  single  consideration,  such  as  a  regard 
to  health  or  economy,  must  be  agreeably 
surprised,  as  well  as  strengthened  in  his 
conviction,  when  he  finds  the  motives  and 
inducements  to  adhere  to  the  system  mul- 
tiplied from  other  and  unexpected  sources, 
in  the  course  of  his  reading  and  experience. 

In  a  work  published  some  time  ago  by. 
Professor  J.  W.  F.  Johnstone,*  we  meet 
with  a  mass  of  facts  and  information  con- 

*  Catechism  of  Agricultural  Cliemistry  and 
Geology, 


28 


FLESH-EATING  AN  INCENTIVE  TO  THE  WAR  SPIRIT. 


firmatory  of  the  truth  of  the  Vegetarian 
system,  although  such  is  the  force  of  pre- 
judice, that  the  same  author  assumes  an 
antagonistic  position,  when  he  comes  to 
••write  more  popularly  and  directly  on  the 
subject  of  diet.*  The  especial  object  of 
our  remarks,  however,  is  to  direct  attention 
to  some  statements  of  a  work  on  the  late 
war  with  the  Kaffirs,  f  which  aflford  a  strik- 
ing illustration  of  the  intimate  connection 
between  the  use  of  flesh  as  food,  and  the 
unholy  passion  for  war,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  corroborate  the  general  principle  of 
Vegetarianism.  After  the  revolt  had  been 
concerted  among  the  native  Chiefs,  we  are 
informed,  "  Their  fanatical  prophet,  Um- 
LANJENi,  now  issued  the  command  to  '  slay 
and  eat,'  which,  as  the  usual  food  of  the 
Kaffirs  in  time  of  peace  is  corn,  roots,  and 
sour  milk,  is  the  conventional  mode  with 
them  of  commencing  a  war,  the  stimulus  of 
animal  food  being  only  resorted  to,  to  excite 
their  energies  on  such  occasions ;  their 
warlike  passions  fairly  aroused,  farms  were 
attacked  in  every  direction,  houses  plun- 
dered and  burned,  and  the  police  efi'ectually 
resisted  in  their  attempts  to  enforce  the 
restitution  of  stolen  cattle." 

Again,  after  describing  the  disgusting 
way  in  which  some  of  the  natives,  while 
engaged  in  the  war,  fed  on  even  the  roasted 
entrails  of  their  cattle,  our  author  remarks, 
"  The  fondness  of  the  Fingo  for  animal  food 
is  extraordinary,  and,  when  in  the  field,  he  will 
do  almost  anything  to  obtain  it ;  the  daily 
ration  is  a  mere  trifle  to  him,  serving  only  to 
whet  his  appetite,  and  in  spite  of  the  conse- 
quent severe  self-punishment  of  being  two 
days  without,  he  cannot  resist  devouring  the 
whole  issue  of  *  three  days  rations '  at  one 
glorious  meal.  .  .  .  '  Notwithstanding 
this  propensity  for  flesh,  the  Fingo,  like  the 
Kaffir,  seldom  touches  it  in  time  of  peace, 
but  keeps  his  cattle  to  look  at  and  admire, 
living  entirely  on  pumpkins,  maize,  Kaffir- 
corn,  roots,  and  milk." 

Both  these  races  are  described  as  of  great 
strength,  tall,  muscular,  well  made,  brave, 
and  indomitable,  and,  as  will  be  seen  from 
the  preceding  extracts,  they  are  practical 
Vegetarians^  being  reared  and  sustained  on 
vegetable  productions  and  milk,  except  when 
engaged  in  war,  when  they  resort  to  the 
use  of  a  flesh-diet,  apparently  for  the  express 
purpose  of  fostering  the  war  spirit,  as  a 
stimulus  to  the  destructive  propensities  which 
that  unholy  passion  rouses  into  activity.  -In 
this  matter,  then,  untutored  savages  exhibit 

*  Chemistry  of  Common  Life. 
t  Campaigning    in    Kaffirland,    or   Scenes    and 
Adventures  in  the  Kaffir   War  of  1851-2 :    by 
Captain  W.  R.  King,  74th  Highlanders. 


a  profounder  philosophy  than  the  Christian 
nations,  who  plume  themselves  on  the  advan- 
tages of  a  high  civilization,  as,  in  times  of 
peace,  when  it  is  their  interest  to  promote 
concord  and  amity,  and  to  foster  and  encou- 
rage the  growth  of  the  milder  virtues,  they 
wisely  order  their  diet  and  habits  of  life  in 
accordance  with  these  objects;  but,  in  time 
of  war,  when  it  is  their  object  to  rouse  into 
action  the  fierce  and  destructive  susceptibi- 
lities of  their  nature,  they  resort  to  the  use 
of  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food,  recognising 
the  relation  of  this  species  of  nourishment 
and  the  habits  necessary  to  procure  it,  with 
the  lowest  and  worst  qualities  of  human 
nature. 

•*  In  peace  there's  nothing'  so  becomes  a  man 
As  modest  stillness  and  humility ; 
But  when  the  blast  of  war  blows  in  our  ears, 
Then  imitate  the  action  of  the  tiger." 

"The  Kaffirs,"  the  same  author  informs 
us,  "  are,  undoubtedly,  one  of  the  finest  races 
of  savages  in  existence,  and  of  a  physical 
type  very  diff'erent  from,  and  superior  to,  all 
other  South  African  races.  .  .  .  Although 
their  flocks  and  herds  constitute  their  chief 
wealth,  and  cattle  hold  the  highest  place  in 
their  estimation,  being  supposed  to  have 
been  created  superior  to  man  at  first,  and 
none  but  the  grown-up  males  are  allowed 
the  honour  of  milking  them,  or  even  enter- 
ing the  kraal,  etc.  ;  yet,  in  time  of  peace 
they  never  touch  flesh,  unless  it  be  game, 
living  almost  entirely  on  milk,  fruit,  and 
vegetables,  with  berries,  leaves,  and  roots 
of  various  kinds." 

The  foregoing  quotations  show  that  the 
possession  of  flocks  and  herds  does  not  neces- 
sarily lead  to  the  use  of  them  as  food,  and 
may  thus  tend  to  remove  the  misconceptions 
of  certain  objectors,  who  regard  the  accounts 
of  the  possession  of  flocks  and  herds,  by  the 
patriarchs  mentioned  in  Holy  Writ,  as  a 
proof  that  the  use  of  flesh-meat  was  quite 
customary  in  those  primitive  times,  never 
considering  that  the  fleece  and  the  milk 
might  be  a  sufficient  inducement  to  possess 
such  property.  In  the  case  of  the  Kaffirs, 
moreover,  we  are  told  that  the  cattle  are  kept 
"to  be  looked  at  and  admired,"  and  that 
they  only  resort  to  the  slaughter  of  these 
peaceful  creatures,  when  their  minds,  having 
become  excited  by  the  foul  passions  of  hate 
and  revenge,  demand  corresponding  aliment, 
that  their  bodies,  being  thus  stimulated  by 
an  unnatural  diet,  may  become  the  more 
ready  instruments  of  the  fierce  and  warlike 
dispositions,  the  return  of  mental  sanity  and 
peace  being  again  distinguished  by  their  re- 
sorting to  the  use  of  the  simple  products  of  the 
soil  as  their  chief  subsistence — the  analogies 
of  nature  being  thus  evet  complete. 


THE  CONTROVEESIALIST  AND   COERESPONDENT. 


29 


THE    COl^TROVEKSIALIST    AND    CO  REE  SP  ONDENT. 


VEGETARIANISM   AND    CONSUMPTION. 

The  following  letter  will  be  found  to  con- 
tain an  important  and  interesting  review  of 
the  leading  statements  which  led  to  the 
recent  discussion  between  Mr.  Ward  and 
Dr.  Balbiknie. 

Dear  Sir — On  perusing  the  discussiou  upon 
this  question,  no  one  can  fail  to  observe  that  the 
disputants  spend  labour  and  time  in  the  attempt 
to  depreciate  each  other  in  the  eyes  of  the  public, 
which  ought  to  have  been  employed  in  the  inves- 
tigation of  truth ;  in  fact,  that  the  discussion,  as 
a  whole,  is  the  very  opposite  of  that  which  should 
characterize  a  patient  and  close  inquiry  into 
facts. 

Casting  aside,  therefore,  all  personalities,  and 
the  useless  warfare  upon  minor  points,  I  propose 
to  examine,  in  detail,  the  assertions  of  Dr.  Bal- 
BiRNiE,  in  the  extract  from  his  work  in  which 
he  attempts  to  connect  Vegetarianism  with  con- 
sumption, together  with  all  the  evidence  he  has 
adduced  in  support  of  his  assertions. 

In  doing  this,  I  shall  keep  Mr.  Ward's  state- 
ments and  arguments  almost  entirely  out  of 
view,  because,  generally  speaking,  he  opposes 
only  assertion  to  assertion,  and  his  ipse  dixit  to 
that  of  Dr.  Balbirnie's,  thus  continually 
introducing  fresh  issues,  each  of  which,  if  called 
upon,  he  would  be  bound  to  support  by  proof, 
but  which,  standing  thus  unsupported,  appear 
only  as  Mr.  Ward's  opinions,  and  of  no  value 
as  part  of  the  record  of  evidence. 

I  may  here  remark,  that  mere  assertion  or 
opinion,  cannot  be  admitted  as  evidence  upon  a 
disputed  question.  I  mention  this  here,  because 
Dr.  Balbirnie  seems  to  imagine  that  his  asser- 
tion or  opinion,  is  evidence,  until  overthrown  by 
opposing  evidence.  Thus,  he  says  :  "It  is  time 
enough  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  my  opinion 
when  it  is  in  danger  of  being  overthrown.  I 
have  yet  seen  neither  facts  nor  figures  to  invali- 
date it."  Dr.  Balbirnie  must,  on  the  slightest 
reconsideration,  see  that  it  is  Ms  opinion,  when 
questioned,  which  requires  the  support  of  facts 
and  figures,  because,  if  it  cannot  be  thus  sup- 
ported, it  can  never  be  shown  to  be  correct. 
But  to  show  how  necessary  it  is  to  reject  mere 
assertions  or  opinions,  advanced  even  by  talented 
and  learned  men,  take  the  following  illustration, 
which  is  drawn  from  the  discussion  itself.  Dr. 
BuCHAN  gives  it  as  his  opinion,  "  that  consMm/)- 
tions,  so  common  in  England,  are  in  part  owing 
to  the  great  use  of  animal  food."  Dr.  Bal- 
birnie, however,  informs  us  that,  "the  class  of 
the  community  who  consume  most  animal  food, 
are  the  butchers,  who  are  of  all  others  the  least 
subject  to  consumption  !  "  It  is  plain  that  if  any 
persons  make  a  great  use  of  flesh,  it  must  be 
those  who  consume  most  animal  food ;  so  that, 
according  to  Dr.  Buchan,  the  great  use  of  flesh 
produces  part  of  the  consumptions,  and  accord- 
ing to  Dr.  Balbirnie,  it  is  a  preservative  from 
consumptions  !  This  difference  of  opinion,  how- 
ever, is  only  what  may  be  expected,  where  general 
facts  are  only  glanced  at,  and  not  thoroughly 


examined,  and  to  me  it  appears  no  more  surprising 
that  doctors,  under  such  circumstances,  should 
differ,  than  that  any  other  men  should  differ.  Dr. 
Balbirnie  must,  therefore,  be  contented  to 
have  his  assertions,  even  though  reiterated,  set 
aside,  and  a  call  made  upon  him  to  table  his 
facts. 

The  point  at  issue  is.  Whether  Vegetarianism 
produces  consumption?  or  whether  it  tends  to 
produce  a  condition  of  body  favourable  to  the 
development  of   that  disease?    Dr.  Balbirnie 
has  said,  that  "  the  use  of  no  particular  food  has 
been   found   uniformly   to   correspond   with   its 
development."      It   is   clear,   then,   that  Vege- 
tarianism is   not   uniformly  the   cause   of  con- 
sumption, nor  is  it  invariably  the  cause  of  its 
development.     "  But,"  adds  the  Doctor,  "  herbiv- 
orous animals    are  certainly  more  affected  with 
tubercular  diseases  than  carnivorous,"  and  this 
"  comparison  refers,  of  course,  to  animals  placed 
in  similar  circumstances."     Tliis  assertion,  Mr. 
Editor,  I  would  call  your  particular  attention  to, 
because  the  Doctor  evidently  chuckles  over  it  as 
a  staggerer  for  Mr.  Ward,  as  well  as  for  the 
whole  batch  of  Vegetarians.     I  have  heard  a  hen 
chuckling  over  rotten  eggs  before  now,  but  never 
knew  a  chick  produced  from  them  for  all  that. 
But  to  the   point,  and  listen   to   the   Doctor's 
evidence.     He  says,  "  the  genuine  specimen   of 
the  domesticated  herbivorous  animal  is  the  town- 
fed  cow.     Of  these,  nine  in  ten  die  with  tuber- 
culated  lungs  !  "     This,  to  me,  is  a  satisfactory 
statement,   because    it    is    straightforward  and 
open,  challenging  inquiry  by  actual  figures,  and 
refers  to  a  well-known  fact.     To  complete  the 
comparison,  however,  we  require  a  reference  to 
the  genuine  specimen  of  a  domesticated  carnivorous 
animal,   placed  in  similar  circumstances,  to  the 
town-fed  cow.     Here  an  important  link  of  the 
chain  is  wanting.     True,  we  are  informed  that 
there  are  crowds  of  carnivorous  animals  "  which 
are  quite  as  much  crammed,  'cribbed,  cabined, 
and    confined'  as  the    phthisical   cow  of  town 
stables  ";  but  the  similarity  of  their  circumstances 
does  not  appear  very  striking.     A  glance  at  the 
circumstances    in   which    the    town-fed   cow  is 
placed,  will  be  here  appropriate.     She  is  gene- 
rally   confined    in    badly-ventilated,    and   often 
most   filthy   places,    and,  whether    well   or    ill- 
situated  in  this  respect,  she  rarely  gets  out  of 
her  stable — she  is  tied  to  a  stake,  so  as  to  make 
exercise  impossible,  and  her  food  is,  to  a  large 
extent,  the  refuse  of  breweries.     In  these  dis- 
advantageous circumstances  she  is  milked  twice 
a-day  at  least ;  and  though  this  demand  upon 
her  strength,   in  more  favourable  conditions,  is 
not  generally  found  very  injurious,  what   must 
the  effect  be  in  the  circumstances  described  ?     It 
would  not  be  difiicult  to  enlarge  these  remarks, 
but  sufficient  has  been  said  to  show  that  the 
circumstances  of  the  town-fed  cow  are  peculiar 
to  herself,  and  there  is  no  other  animal,  herbiv- 
orous or  carnivorous,  with  which  I  am  acquainted, 
placed    in    circumstances    so    trying     to     the 
animal  constitution.     With  the  exception  of  the 
confinement,  therefore,  it  does  not  appear  that 


30 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


the  carnivorous  animal  is  placed  in  circumstances 
at  all  similar  to  the  town-fed  cow ;  and  even  in 
this  particular  of  the  confinement,  the  advantage 
is  in  favour  of  the  confined  carnivora.  In  the 
various  menageries,  or  public  gardens,  where  they 
are  to  be  found,  their  health  and  comfort  is 
scrupulously  attended  to  ;  they  have  always  suffi- 
cient room  to  take  exercise ;  and,  instead  of 
being  fed  on  any  artificial  food  (whether  the 
refuse  of  breweries  or  any  thing  else),  they  have 
their  natural  food  provided  them ;  and  as  to  any 
drain  upon  their  constitutions  aualagous  to  milk 
taken  from  a  cow,  of  course  no  such  thing  exists. 
Until,  then.  Dr.  Balbirnie  produces  his  sin- 
gular carnivorous  animals,  nay,  crowds  of  them, 
placed  in  similar  circumstances  to  the  town-fed 
cow,  I,  for  one,  shall  not  be  staggered  by  his 
assertion. 

I  cannot  help  remarking,  that  if  the  Doctor 
could  establish  his  assertion,  that  a  cow  deprived 
of  exercise,  of  its  natural  food,  etc.,  is  more 
liable  to  a  certain  disease  than  a  carnivorous 
animal  under  the  same  circumstances,  still  he  is 
a  long  way  off  proving  that  therefore,  man,  eating 
vegetable  food  of  an  entirely  different  description, 
and  placed  in  entirely  different  circumstances, 
should  be  liable  to  the  same  disease !  But, 
although  so  far  from  the  point  to  be  established, 
still  the  impression  of  such  a  statement,  as  this 
under  discussion,  upon  ignorant  persons,  and  upon 
those  who  give  ready  credence  to  the  opinion  of 
a  learned  and  talented  man,  would  undoubtedly 
be  equivalent  to  telling  them,  that  they  risk  an 
attack  of  consumption  by  making  a  trial  of 
Vegetarian  diet,  and  this  is  no  doubt  the  impres- 
sion the  doctor  wishes  to  fix  on  their  minds.  If 
he  means,  however,  that  the  human  subject,  only 
under  similar  circumstances  to  the  coio,  will  thus 
be  endangered,  we  need  find  no  fault  with  his 
statement. 

The  Doctor  next  asserts,  "  that  butchers  who 
use  much  animal  food,  are  seldom  consumptive  "  ; 
which  is  repeated  afterwards  in  stronger  language, 
thus  :  "  If  meat-eating  were  a  real  cause  of  con- 
sumption, butchers — the  class  of  the  community 
who  consume  most  animal  food — would  be  pre- 
cisely those  the  most  obnoxious  to  consumption. 
But  the  fact  is  quite  the  reverse ;  butchers  are, 
of  all  others,  the  least  subject  to  consumption  !  " 
To  assert  that  they  are  least  subject  to  consump- 
tion, is  as  much  as  to  say  that  they  are  less 
subject  to  the  disease  than  the  members  of  the 
Vegetarian  Society  itself,  and  when  the  Doctor 
has  produced  his  facts  and  figures  to  prove  this, 
I  shall  believe  him,  and  not  till  then.  I  would 
not,  however,  be  understood  as  questioning  the 
fact,  that  butchers  are  seldom  consumptive;  but 
that  this  is  owing  to  their  eating  much  animal 
food,  or  because  they  eat  most  animal  food,  there 
is  no  evidence  to  show.  Indeed,  opinions  to  the 
contrary  can  be  produced  from  anti -Vegetarians. 
Dr.  Buchan's  opinion  has  already  been  noticed, 
but  the  following  quotation  from  Lowne's 
Lectures  on  Animal  Physiology,  contains  not  only 
an  opinion,  but  such  grounds  for  the  opinion  as 
Dr.  Balbirnie  will  find  it  difficult  to  dispose  of: 
"  It  is  commonly  supposed  that  largely  partaking 
of  animal  food  is  a  protection  to  the  consumptive 


patient,  and  the  pretty  general  exemption  from 
this  disease  which  butchers  enjoy,  has  been 
attributed  to  their  eating  largely  of  their  trading 
commodity.  If  flesh  eating,  however,  would  save 
us  from  consumption,  then  heef-eating  England, 
instead  of  being  the  principal  sufferer,  ought  to  be 
the  last  nation  in  the  world  to  suffer.  I  should 
rather  attribute  the  health  of  the  butcher  to  his 
active  habits  and  outdoor  employment,  than  to 
the  imagined  protection,  which  is  as  commonly 
partaken  by  thousands  who  suffer  from  this  disease 
as  by  the  butchers  themselves."  The  italics  are 
mine.  I  leave  you,  Mr.  Editor,  and  your  readers, 
to  judge  between  Doctors  Balbirnie  and 
LowNE,  conceiving,  that  the  opinion  and  fads 
of  the  latter,  so  eclipse  the  mere  dictum  of  the 
former,  that  the  conclusion  to  be  arrived  at  can- 
not for  a  moment  be  doubted. 

Dr.  Balbirnie  further  says,  in  a  "few  cases 
I  could  distinctly  connect  the  development  of 
consumption  with  a  prolonged  experiment  of 
Vegetarian  diet."  If  by  this  is  meant,  that  in 
the  cases  referred  to.  Vegetarianism  produced 
consumption,  then  it  ought  to  have  been  so  ex- 
pressed, for  the  words  used  do  not  by  any  means 
warrant  such  a  meaning.  It  is  distinctly  said, 
that  the  development,  not  the  prodiiction,  of  con- 
sumption was  connected  with  a  prolonged  experi- 
ment in  Vegetarian  diet,  and  Mr.  Ward  was 
perfectly  correct  in  stating,  that  it  was  the  Vege- 
tarian experiment  which  developed  the  disease, 
the  seeds  of  which  had  been  sown  previous  to 
the  experiment.  By  what  they  were  sown  does 
not  appear,  but  as  there  are  various  causes  of 
consumption  besides  diet,  it  was  incorrect  for 
Mr.  Ward  to  assume  that  it  had  been  originated 
by  the  previous  diet.  Let  us  inquire,  however, 
what  is  meant  by  the  connection  of  consurnption 
with  Vegetarian  diet.  If  I  had  had  the  favour 
of  a  word  with  Dr.  Balbirnie,  I  should  have 
asked  him,  if  he  merely  means  that,  in  the  cases 
referred  to,  the  individuals  commenced  the  prac- 
tice of  Vegetarianism,  with  the  diseased  tendency 
then  existing,  and  that,  after  giving  up  the  use 
of  flesh,  the  disease  became  developed  ?  If  this 
is  all,  I  should  then  ask,  whether,  if  Vegetarian- 
ism had  not  been  adopted,  the  disease  would  have 
been  developed  at  all,  and,  if  so,  whether  it  would 
have  been  developed  sooner  or  later  than  uiuler 
the  practice  of  Vegetarianism?  I  should  ask 
these  questions,  not  to  get  the  Doctor's  opinion 
upon  the  cases,  but  for  the  purpose  of  being 
directed  to  such  facts  and  figures  as  would,  by 
taking  an  average  of  cases,  show  decidedly  whe- 
ther the  disease  would  have  been  developed 
sooner  under  the  one  practice  or  the  other.  For 
example,  if  Dr.  Balbirnie  has  a  list  of  say 
100  patients,  all  of  whom  had  a  tendency  to 
consumption,  and  suppose  50  of  them  gave  up 
flesh-meat,  and  in  40  of  these  cases  the  disease 
became  developed,  and  the  patients  died ;  whereas 
out  of  the  50  who  kept  to  flesh-eating  only  10 
cases  of  consumption  occurred,  then  the  Doctor 
can  prove  his  case — the  connection  of  consump- 
tion with  Vegetarianism  will  arise  out  of  the 
mists  of  uncertainty,  and  there  will  be  no  longer 
opinions  required  upon  the  subject,  for  the 
facts  will  annihilate  the  opinions.     But  if  Dr. 


THE  CONTROVEKSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


31 


Balbirnie  has  no  such  facts  and  figures,  then  his 
statement  becomes  reduced  to  a  mere  opinion, 
which  every  one  may  follow  or  not,  just  as  he 
pleases.  But,  again,  if  Dr.  Balbirnie  can 
connect  a  few  cases  of  Vegetarianism  with  con- 
sumption, how  many  might  be  connected  with 
flesh-eating  upon  the  same  kind  of  evidence  ? 
If  a  Vegetarian  were  to  die  of  consumption, 
every  body  who  knew  him,  doctor,  minister,  and 
layman,  would  all  agree  in  saying  that  it  was  his 
Vegetarianism  which  killed  him  :  whereas,  any 
flesh-eater  who  dies  of  this  disease,  is  buried 
without  remark  as  to  the  cause.  But,  if  the  fact 
of  his  having  eaten  flesh  is  put  to  the  fact  of  his 
having  died  of  consumption,  how  easy  it  would 
be  to  say,  it  was  Ms  flesh-eating  that  killed  him. 
The  naked  fact  of  the  two  circumstances  being 
coincident,  proves  nothing  on  the  one  side  or 
the  other ;  and  to  produce  conviction  there  must 
be  statistics  embracing  many  cases,  in  place  of 
vague  surmises  respecting  individual  ones. 

The  remainder  of  Dr,  Balbirnie's  assertions 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  reply  to,  except  by 
denying  them.  It  is  no  easy  matter  for  a  Vege- 
tarian to  believe  statements  which  contradict  his 
every-day  experience,  nor  would  it  be  profitable 
to  waste  much  time  in  refuting  them.  "Unless 
well  managed,"  says  the  Doctor,  "  Vegetarianism 
tends  to  produce  an  excess  of  the  albuminous 
element  of  the  blood,  and  a  deficiency  of  its 
fibrine,  iron  and  red  particles,  imparting  a  pale- 
ness and  flabbiness  to  the  tissues,  a  general 
delicacy  of  looks,  and  a  want  of  stamina  and 
power  of  energetic  endurance.  This  is  a  state 
of  matters  assuredly  verging  on  to  the  patho- 
logical condition  of  the  fluids  characterizing  the 
scrofulous  constitution.  Hence  the  necessity 
for  caution  in  Vegetarian  experiments."  This 
reminds  me  of  the  old  stories  about  pale  teeto- 
tallers, and  may  prove  an  excellent  scare-crow 
to  people  who  know  nothing  of  Vegetarianism. 
But  how  does  the  Doctor  know  that  Vegetari- 
anism will  do  all  this  ?  I  am  anxious  to  learn 
something  of  the  experiments  by  which  he 
arrived  at  such  conclusions,  because  Vegetarians 
who  take  particular  observation  of  their  own 
bodies,  find,  by  experience,  just  the  reverse  of 
what  the  Doctor  says.  He,  himself,  has  experi- 
mented with  Vegetarian  diet  for  two  years,  and 
considers  himself  qualified  to  give  counsel  upon 
the  subject :  so  have  I  experimented  with  flesh 
diet,  and  Vegetarian  diet  too — my  first  experi- 
ment of  Vegetarianism  extending  to  six  weeks, 
and  ray  last  to  nearly  eight  years,  and  I  consider 
myself,  so  far  as  experiment  and  experience  goes, 
far  better  qualified  to  give  counsel  upon  such 
a  subject,  than  Dr.  Balbirnie  himself. 

In  conclusion,  the  Doctor  says  :  "  But  there  is 
a  lime  to  eat  animal  food  !  The  grand  questions 
are  the  measure  and  proportions  of  it — when  to 
stop,  and  when  to  recommence,  and  how  far  to 
go."  Suppose  for  a  moment  any  public  lecturer 
were  to  go  about  the  country,  teaching  that 
"  there  is  a  time  to  eat  bread,  the  grand  questions 
are  the  measures  and  proportions  of  it,"  etc.,  it 
would  take  people  rather  by  surprise.  Would 
not  the  universal  voice  of  the  people  reply,  "We 
eat  bread  when  we  are  hungry,  and   leave  off 


when  we  are  full,  and  that  is  the  measure,  these 
are  the  proportions,  the  time  to  stop,  and  recom- 
mence, and  the  length  to  go."  Would  not  they 
argue,  that  bread  was  a  wholesome  article  of 
diet,  and  that  hunger  and  fulness  indicated  with 
suflicient  accuracy  all  they  required  to  know 
about  it  ?  And  would  they  not  argue  correctly, 
even  according  to  Doctors  who  do  not  argue 
about  the  measure  and  proportions  of  bread,  but 
are  extremely  anxious  to  ascertain  for  themselves 
and  the  public  the  measure  and  proportions  of 
flesh  to  be  consumed?  If  flesh  is  a  natural  diet, 
how  is  it  that  the  problem  as  to  the  quantity 
should  not  be  solved  as  easily  as  that  of  bread  ? 
Doctors  in  their  writings  speak  continually  about 
the  proper  proportions  of  flesh  to  be  taken,  con- 
sequently there  are  improper,  or  injurious  pro- 
portions, and  every-day  experience  confirms  this. 
One  man  says  he  cannot  eat  animal  food  above 
two  or  three  times  a  day,  another  man  only 
once,  a  third  only  two  or  three  times  a  week, 
and  so  on  ;  every  one  who  has  made  observations 
on  this  matter,  is  on  the  hunt  for  his  proper 
proportion :  disclosing  the  fact  that  each  has 
found  he  may  eat,  not  too  much  merely,  for  one 
may  eat  too  much  of  any  thing,  but  too  great  a 
proportion  for  his  health  and  comfort.  The 
fact,  then,  that  this  too  great  a  proportion  is 
found  hurtful  and  injurious,  is  one  which  ought 
never  to  be  lost  sight  of.  No  doubt,  individual 
cases  might  be  referred  to,  in  which  a  proper 
proportion  of  other  articles  of  diet  was  found 
necessary,  but  to  go  into  an  inquiry  about  such 
cases,  would  only  be  leading  us  from  the  more 
important  inquiry  as  to  the  effects  of  flesh. 
Dr.  Balbirnie  distinctly  informs  us,  that  "the 
grand  questions  are  the  measure  and  proportions 
of  it — when  to  stop,  and  when  to  recommence, 
and  how  far  to  go."  He  does  not  give  us  the 
answers  to  these  grand  questions,  and  so  far  as 
I  have  discovered,  no  answers  are  given  in  any 
physiological  or  dietetic  work  yet  published,  the 
grand  truth  being  that  no  general  answer  can 
be  given — each  man  must  reply  to  the  grand 
questions  from  his  own  experience — each  must 
ascertain  for  himself  the  measure  and  propor- 
tion which  is  injurious  to  him.  Now,  if  it  is 
true,  Mr.  Editor,  and  Dr.  Balbirnie  himself 
propounds  the  fact,  that  the  measure  and  pro- 
portion of  flesh  to  be  consumed,  are  grand  and 
important  questions ;  is  it  not  likewise  true, 
that  few  persons  are  able  to  discover  the  proper 
proportions ;  or  if  they  are,  are  not  able  to  resist 
the  temptations  of  the  table,  and  so  eat  (not 
merely  too  much)  but  too  often  of  that  which 
they  know  does  them  injury?  Vast  multitudes 
can  lay  down  no  rule  for  themselves,  and  if 
they  could,  have  not  faith  enough  to  follow 
it  ;  and  so,  from  one  cause  or  another,  this 
mysterious  proportion  is  exceeded.  And  what  is 
the  result  ?  I  will  not  dogmatize,  but  I  appeal 
to  the  common  sense  of  every  one,  whether 
disease  of  some  kind  must  not  be  the  con- 
sequence. If  no  such  consequence  follows,  then 
what  makes  the  questions  of  the  measure  and 
proportion  so  important?  But  if  disease  does 
follow,  what  is  the  disease  ?  or  if  diseases,  what 
are  they?     These  are   questions,  which,  if  the 


32 


THE   CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


flesh-eating  physiologist  or  physician  overlooks, 
the  Vegetarian  will  not. 

Upon  a  calm  review  of  the  whole  question, 
then,  it  cannot  be  said  that  Dr.  Balbirnie  has 
established  his  assertions.  On  the  contrary,  his 
few  facts  have  been  weighed  in  the  balances  and 
found  wanting,  and,  instead  of  triumphantly 
proving  that  Vegetarianism  produces  or  develops 
consumption,  his  own  statements  have  been 
shown  to  create  a  grave  suspicion,  almost 
amounting  to  certainty,  that  flesh  itself  is  a  very 
general  agent  in  the  production  of  disease, 
whether  consumption  itself,  or  not,  does  not  yet 
appear. 

Having  already  occupied  too  much  space,  I 
subscribe  myself,  Yours  respectfully, 

SCRUTATOR. 

THE   BIRMINGHAM    "  KENEGADE." 

*'  RoGXJE, — I  am  a  soldier,  and  have  learnt  some- 
what in  the  wars. 

TocHO. — Aye,  marvy, — I  would  fain  know  what  'tis. 

Rogue. — 'Tis  when  I  see  a  knave  thrust  his  nose 
into  the  business  of  another,  to  tweak  it  very 
lustily."  Mountaineer Sy  act  2. 

Dear  Sir — A  petty  driveller,  who  has  reason 
to  feel  ashamed  of  his  character  and  position,  has 
ventured,  under  the  nom  de  guerre  of  "  Another 
Renegade,"  to  find  fault  with  my  public  advo- 
cacy and  defence  of  Vegetarianism.  And  he 
boldly  assures  us,  that  not  only  am  I  doing  a 
serious  wrong  to  the  Society,  but  each  and  all  of 
the  "  staunch  Vegetarians  "  are  doing  the  same. 
Really,  Sir,  if  this  be  the  truth,  we  are  greatly 
indebted  to  this  person.  The  Society  must  call 
in  this  sapient  scribe,  and  give  him  the  office  of 
Commandant  General.  But  not  too  fast.  Sup- 
pose we  examine  our  censor,  and  see  who  and 
what  he  is — for  this  is  easily  done.  The  anony- 
mous does  not  conceal  him.  A  full  length 
survey,  and  a  moment's  consideration,  leads  to 
the  conclusion,  if  it  does  not  reveal,  that  our 
censor  is  a  poor  fellow  halting  between  a  hospital 
and  a  lunatic  asylum. 

"  There  is  no  boldness  like  the  impudence 
That's  locked  in  a  fool's  blood. " 

But  I  am  not  going  to  create  an  ocean  to 
drown  a  fly.  Let  him  go.  He  is  surely  quite 
incurable.  Infinite  Wisdom  teaches  us,  in  a  Book 
this  meddler  may  not  reverence,  "  that  though 
you  bray  a  fool  in  a  mortar,  yet  will  not  his 
foolishness  depart  from  him." 

If  any  reasonable  person  wants  to  know  any- 
thing about  "the  bran,  and  flour,  and  intermediate 
substances,"  and  asks  in  a  teachable  disposition, 
I  will  do  all  I  can  to  explain  in  an  easy  and  kind 
manner  all  about  them.  But  for  the  Birming- 
ham "  renegade,"  I  can  only  prescribe  cold  water 
bandages  to  the  head. 

I  am.  Sir,  yours  respectfully, 

W.  G.  WARD. 

Sandsworthy  Staff.,  March  3,  1855. 

VEGETARIAN   MEETINGS    IN   EDINBURGH. 

Sir — In  the  last  month's  Messenger,  I  see  a 
communication  from  Edinburgh,  signed  R.  J._. 
stating  that  there  have  been  two  Vegetarian 
Meetings   in  this    city   since  the   visit   of  Mr. 


Simpson  and  Mr.  Griffin,  and  that  there  were 
very  few  persons  present.  At  this  I  am  not 
much  surprised,  for,  though  I  am  a  constant  re- 
sident hero,  and  not  totally  unacquainted  with 
the  advertising  columns  of  the  newspaper  press, 
as  well  as  being  in  a  public  business  (I  do  not 
mean  an  intoxicating  liquor  establishment),  and 
frequently  about  town,  yet  I  never  heard  of,  or 
saw,  any  notification  of  either  of  the  meetings  to 
which  R.  J.  refers.  I  beg,  therefore,  to  suggest, 
that  a  little  more  publicity  should  be  given  to 
the  announcement  when  the  next  meeting  is 
proposed,  as  I  dare  say  there  are  several  Vege- 
tarians in  Edinburgh,  who,  like  myself,  are  not 
members  of  the  Society.  I  am,  Sir,  respectfully 
yours, 

Udinbtn'ffJi.  G.  C.  J. 

"  REGISTER  !    REGISTER  !    REGISTER  !  " 

Dear  Sir — On  looking  over  the  new  list  of 
members,  I  am  concerned  to  find  how  few  of  the 
Vegetarians  in  this  locality  have  attended  to 
registration  in  the  General  Society.  This  is  a 
serious  delinquency,  and  as,  very  probably,  it 
may  prevail  in  other  localities,  I  deem  it  im- 
portant to  bring  the  matter  thus  publicly  under 
the  notice  of  our  friends. 

In  a  body  like  ours,  numerically  so  insignificant, 
and  which  has,  besides,  so  much  to  contend  with 
in  the  ignorance,  prejudices,  and  false  appetites 
of  society,  the  closest  union  is  of  the  utmost 
importance.  Some  may  suppose  it  sufficient  to 
give  in  their  adhesion  to  a  local  Association. 
But  this  is  a  mistake.  The  local  Associations  are, 
no  doubt,  essential  to  progress,  but  our  influence 
on  public  opinion,  and  the  estimate  which  will 
be  formed  of  us  as  a  "  party,"  will  depend  on  the 
front  we  can  present  as  a  national  organization. 
The  necessity  for  joining  the  General  Society  can- 
not, therefore,  be  too  forcibly  impressed  on  our 
adherents  ;  and,  in  connection  with  this  subject, 
I  may  take  the  liberty  of  suggesting  to  our 
friends  the  propriety  of  attending  to  their  sub- 
scriptions. Hitherto,  the  "  sinews  of  war  "  have 
been  drawn  too  exclusively  from  one  source, 
which  is  not  creditable  to  us.  Let  us,  therefore, 
attend  to  this  part  of  our  duties  likewise.  Let 
"  each  give  according  to  his  means  " ;  but,  above 
all,  let  us  not  entirely  overlook  our  obligations  on 
this  score,  which,  I  fear,  may  be  too  much  the 
case. 

I  may  also  take  notice  of  what  has  struck  me 
rather  luipleasantly  in  perusing  the  list,  namely, 
the  absence  of  the  names  of  the  "  better  halves  " 
of  many  of  our  friends.  Where  this  occurs  from 
mere  neglect,  the  fault  is  unpardonable ;  and, 
with  respect  to  those  cases  where  the  good  lady 
is  still  among  the  "flesh-pots,"  I  must  say  it  reflects 
small  credit  on  the  husband,  who  must  either  be 
gravely  remiss  in  his  duty  to  his  wife  in  this 
important  concern,  or  there  must  be  sad  "  poverty 
of  genius,"  if,  with  all  the  elements  of  attraction 
and  conviction  which  the  Vegetarian  system  pre- 
sents, he  yet  fail  to  bring  her  "within  the  fold." 
I  fear  I  have  trenched  too  much  on  your  valuable 
space,  and  shall  conclude  with  best  wishes  for 
the  cause. 

A  LOCAL  SECRETARY. 


THE  VEGETAEIAN  TREASURY. 


33 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TEEASUEY. 


FESTIVE   OCCASIONS. 

Now  a  public  dinner  is  a  thorouglily  English 
mode  of  celebrating  an  event,  or  of  commenc- 
ing an  undertaking— there  can  be  no  doubt 
of  that.      Whether  the   "  custom  is  more 
honoured  i'  th'  breach  than  the  observance," 
some  folk   are   inclined   to   question.      We 
frankly  confess  that  we  are  not  of  the  number. 
We  believe  that  men  have  bodies  as  well  as 
souls  —  that  the  two   are  very    intimately 
associated — and  that  the  reflex  influence  of 
the  one  upon  the  other  is  far  more  powerful 
than  superficial  observers  are  apt  to  imagine. 
We  lay  no  great  stress  upon  the  satisfaction 
of  the  stomach — though  that  is  not  to  be 
despised  as  a  thing  of  no  consequence,  as 
every  one  will  admit  who  closely  watches  and 
contrasts  the  play  of  his  own  temper  an  hour 
before,  and  an  hour  after,  dinner.      Much 
less  do  we  set  store  on  any  artificial  stimulus 
to  the  nervous  energies.     Meat   and  drink 
are  but  the  conditions  to  something  far  better. 
The  liberation  of  social  sympathies,  the  inter- 
change of  courteous  acts  and  expressions,  the 
general  commingling  of  good  will,  and  the 
thaw  of  individual  reserves,  which  invariably 
accompany  a  public  repast,  make  up  alto- 
gether a  genial  atmosphere  for  the  budding 
forth  of  whatever  kindliness  and  generosity  a 
man  may  possess,  and  greatly  aids  the  process 
of  moral  amalgamation.     Accordingly,  per- 
sonal prejudices,  antipathies,   and  shyness, 
originating  frequently  in  nothing  but  want 
of  acquaintance,    or  foolish  fancies,   never 
stand  so  good  a  chance  of  being  routed  as 
when  marched  up  to  the  festive  board.    They 
must  be  uncommonly  sturdy  veterans  to  stand 
their  ground  there.     They  seldom  do,  how- 
ever.    More  frequently,  like  ghosts  of  cock- 
crow, they   "  haste   away,"    and  leave  the 
ground  clear  for  the  more  amiable  sentiments 
of  our  nature.     The  thing  is  liable  to  abuse, 
undoubtedly,   as   all  good  things  are — but 
Christian  gentlemen  are  usually  supposed  to 
be  under  some  self-control  when  the  occasion 
calls  for  it. — Nonconformist. 

NECESSITY   FOE,   BULK   IN    FOOD. 

Straw,  except  when  new,  is  not  a  very  nutri- 
tious food,  for  we  find  a  great  part  of  it 
unchanged  in  the  fceces  of  the  animal  fed 
upon  it.  Its  principal  use  is  to  give  a  bulk 
to  the  food  taken.  Even  in  the  case  of 
turnips,  a  food  of  considerable  balk,  straw  is 
necessary,  because  they  contain  nearly  90  per 
cent,  of  water,  which  becomes  soon  separated. 
Thus  it  is  that  cattle  fed  upon  turnips  volun- 
tarily take  2  or  3  lbs.  of  straw  daily,  or  as 
much  as  will  serve  to  give  the  necessary  bulk 
to  the  food.     The  digestive  process  of  herb- 


ivorous animals  is  very  complicated.  The 
food  is  primarily  taken  into  the  first  stomach 
or  rumen,  which  is  analogous  to  the  crop  in 
birds.  Here  it  is  moistened  with  a  secre- 
tion from  the  stomach.  The  coarse  unraas- 
ticated  food  is  from  thence  transmitted  into 
the  second  stomach,  or  reticulum,  where  it  is 
rolled  up  into  little  balls,  one  of  which  from 
time  to  time  is  returned  to  the  mouth  to  be 
further  comminuted  and  insalivated.  After 
this  reduction,  it  is  sent  into  the  manyplus, 
or  third  stomach,  where  it  is  further  reduced 
to  a  pulpy  mass,  and  in  this  state  enters  the 
fourth  stomach,  where  true  digestion  com- 
mences. The  object  of  the  three  first  sto- 
machs being  merely  to  obtain  a  proper  com- 
minution of  the  food,  it  is  necessary  to  have 
that  food  of  sufficient  bulk,  otherwise  the 
peristaltic  motion  of  the  stomach  would  be 
impeded.  This  would  .appear  to  be  the 
reason  for  giving  straw  with  turnips  and 
other  kinds  of  succulent  food. — Dr.  Lyox 
Playfaie., 

JOHN     "Wesley's    endurance    and   unin- 

TERRUPTED   HEALTH. 

Alas !  Few,  we  doubt,  would  have  envied  the 
condition  in  whichr  he  was  placed.  The 
inconveniences  and  dangers  which  he  em- 
braced, that  he  might  preach  the  Gospel,  and 
do  good  of  every  kind  to  all  that  would 
receive  it  at  his  hands  :  the  exposing  of  him- 
self to  every  change  of  season,  and  incle- 
mency of  weather,  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
work,  were  conditions  which  few  but  him- 
self would  have  submitted  to.  He  frequently 
slept  on  the  ground,  as  he  journeyed  through 
the  woods,  covered  with  the  nightly  dews, 
and  with  his  clothes  and  hair  frozen  by  the 
morning  to  the  earth.  He  would  wade 
through  swamps,  or  swim  over  rivers,  and 
then  travel  till  his  clothes  were  dry.  His 
health  in  the  meantime,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  was  almost  uninterrupted.  Much  may 
be  laid  to  the  account  of  his  "iron  body," 
as  his  brother  Samuel  terms  it,  but  we  think 
every  pious  mind  will  rather  impute  both  his 
health  and  preservation  to  Him  who  mint' 
hers  the  hairs  of  our  head,  and  whose 
guardian  care  is  especially  over  those,  who 
aim  to  walk  worthy  of  him  unto  all  pleasing. 
*  *  In  sixteen  years  he  was  only  once  sus- 
pended from  his  labour  by  sickness,  though 
he  dared  all  weathers,  upon  the  bleak  moun- 
tains, and  used  his  body  with  less  compassion, 
than  a  merciful  man  would  use  his  beast. — 
Life  of  Wesley,  pp.  112,  331. 

Without  questioning  the  influence  of  the 
causes  here  assigned  for  Mr.  Wesley's 
freedom  from  disease  under  disadvantageous 


31 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


circumstances,  we  would  remark,  that  another 
great  cause  of  this  may  be  found  in  the 
practice  of  early  rising,  and  his  simple  habits 
of  diet,  it  being  an  undoubted  fact,  that,  for 
a  considerable  portion  of  his  life,  he  was  an 
abstainer  from  the  use  of  "  flesh  and  wine."* 

THE    KAFFIRS. 

"While  I  cannot  go  the  lengths  of  some  who 
have  panegyrized  the  Kaffirs  as  the  finest 
race  of  men  ever  beheld,  I  may,  without 
fear  of  contradiction,  state  that  there  are 
many  remarkably  fine  and  well-made  men 
amongst  them.  Many  of  them  are  tall, 
robust,  and  very  muscular,  etc.  In  stature 
they  vary  from  five  to  six  feet  ten  inches ; 
and  a  cripple  or  deformed  person  is  seldom 
seen  amongst  them.  The  particular  causes 
to  which  they  are  indebted  for  their  fine 
forms  and  athletic  strength  of  body,  I  do 
not  pretend  to  develop ;  but  it  may  be 
observed  that  they  are  exempt  from  many 
of  those  causes  that,  in  more  civilized  socie- 
ties, contribute  to  impede  and  cramp  the 
growth  of  the  body.  Their  diet  is  exceed- 
ingly simple,  their  exercise  that  of  the  most 
salutary  nature ;  their  limbs  are  not  en- 
cumbered with  clothing ;  the  air  they 
breathe  is  pure;  their  frame  is  not  shaken 
or  enervated  by  the  use  of  intoxicating 
liquors,  for  they  are  not  acquainted  with 
them  ;  they  eat  when  they  are  hungry,  and 
sleep  when  nature  demands  it. — Barrow's 
Travels,  p.  109. 

WHOLE-MEAL   BREAD. 

Under  the  present  high  price  of  wheat  and 
prospect  of  scarcity^  before  the  next  harvest, 
it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  every  one 
that  the  best  possible  application  should  be 
made  of  the  cereals  which  are  used  for  family 
consumption.  Every  experienced  family 
housekeeper  knows  that  a  much  larger 
amount  of  material  for  the  table  arises  from 
wheat  simply  ground  into  bread-meal  (that 
is,  the  full  produce  of  whatever  grain, 
previous  to  the  bran  being  extracted  there- 
from) than  from  finely  dressed  flour  arising 
from  the  same  quantity  of  grain  ;  and  there 
are  many  of  our  intelligent  people  who  know 
that,  for  the  promotion  of  the  health  of  a 
family,  the  loaf  made  from  bread-meal  is  a 
better  and  more  healthy  diet  than  the  loaf 
made  from  flour ;  and  also  that  the  fermented 
loaf,  made  either  from  flour  or  bread-meal,  is 
a  decidedly  more  economical  and  digestible 
article  of  domestic  consumption,  than  the  cake 
so  common  in  the  cottages  of  the  labouring 
population  of  our  country.  By  the  term 
*'  cake,"  I  mean  the  produce  of  flour  kneaded 
in  milk  or  water  with  a  little  butter,  and 

*  Vol.  iv.  Treasury,  pp.  1,  23. 


without  fermentation.    B. 

Gazette. 


■The  Agricultural 


WHOLESALE   DESTRUCTION    OF    LARKS. 

I  have  been  much  pained  during  the  late 
severe  weather  at  the  wholesale  destruction 
of   small  birds,   such  as  larks,   consequent 
upon  the  frost  and  snow  having  cut  off  their 
usual  supplies  of   food,    and  thus    leading 
them  to  approach  the  dwellings  of  man  in 
quest  of  subsistence.      Large  numbers  have 
thus  fallen  a  prey  to  the  arch  destroyer,  hav- 
ing been  snared,  shot,  or  otherwise  killed,  and 
then  off'ered  for  sale   as    supplies  for    the 
table.     A    Liverpool   paper    mentions  that 
large  numbers  of  larks — that  beautiful  bird 
by  whose  minstrelsy  we  have  so  often  been 
charmed  in  our  country  rambles — have  been 
caught  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Southport, 
"  one  man  having  taken  sixty  dozen,  in  pan- 
tiles, in  one  day,  during  the  frost,"  and  at 
Blackpool,  during  the  past  week,  numbers  of 
these  birds  were  off'ered  for  sale  at  sixpence 
the   dozen.     At    this   low   price,   doubtless 
many  of    them  will  have   been   entombed 
in  the  stomachs  of  those  who  regard  almost 
every  creature  that  walks,  swims,  or  flies, 
as  lawful  food  for  man.     I  cannot  but  regard 
this  taking  advantage  of  the  necessities,  and 
turning  these  "  harmless  tenants  of  the  air  " 
to  account  in  this  way,  as  something  trea- 
cherous and  inhuman.     Let  all  who  hold  our 
principles  labour  diligently  to  extend  them, 
and  thus  hasten,  whilst  they  pray  for,  the 
advent  of    that  day,    when  man   shall  no 
longer  "hurt  or  destroy"  not  merely  in- 
off'ensive  animals,  but  even  those  to  which 
he  is  indebted  for  their  ministrations  to  his 
happiness,  in  contributing,  by  their  hymns 
of  praise  and  melody,   to  the  beauty  and 
attractiveness  of  rural  scenes. — D.  A. 

THE   IDLE. 

The  idle  should  not  be  classed  among  the 
living;  they  are  a  sort  of  dead  men  that 
cannot  be  buried. 

A   HINT   TO    EMPLOYERS. 

There  is  a  limit  to  toil  set  by  God.  He  who 
has  given  bounds  to  the  ocean — who  has 
placed  the  duration  of  light  and  darkness 
under  rule — who  has  put  all  things  under 
law — whose  universe  is  an  embodiment  of 
order,  has  made  it  impossible  to  continue 
toil  beyond  a  certain  limit,  without  detri- 
ment. And  if  that  limit  be  passed,  injury 
succeeds.  The  man  made  rich  by  the  long 
hour  system  may  be  a  murderer  of  men — 
the  destroyer  of  morals  and  happiness — the 
adversary  of  souls  ;  and  may  hold  riches  as 
Judas  held  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver — his 
gains  may  be  the  price  of  blood  ! — Rev.  S. 
Martin. 


THE   VEGETARIAN  PRACTICE  IN  EXTREME   CLIMATES. 


35 


DIFFICULTIES    OF    THE    SOCIAL    CIRCLE. 


Want  of  knowledge  is,  doubtless,  the  lead- 
ing cause  of  the  opposition  to  the  progress 
of  Vegetarianism  in  the  social  circle,  as 
with  the  public.  Erroneous  training  for 
generations,  unquestionably  begets  tenden- 
cies to  error  in  observation  and  judgement, 
when  new  questions  are  brought  before  the 
attention.  Especially  is  this  likely  to  occur 
where  the  will  and  affections,  rather  than 
the  understanding,  have  to  do  with  the  deci- 
sion, as  is  commonly  the  case  in  domestic 
life.  It  would  thus  be  unreasonable  to  look 
for  less  than  strong  opposition  here,  even 
though  such  opposition  be  mixed  up  with,  or 
suggested  by,  the  sincerest  affection  or  regard. 
All  this,  then,  having  to  be  met,  is  ex- 
cusable enough,  where  it  gives  way  to  fact 
and  practical  observation ;  and  this  is 
generally  the  case  where  intelligence  is 
brought    to    bear   in    the     experiment    of 


Vegetarian  practice.  The  intelligence  best 
calculated  to  secure  this  satisfactory  result, 
is  of  two  kinds.  First,  a  knowledge  of 
the  principles  and  arguments  of  the  system 
should  be  attained,  and,  this  secured,  there 
is  always  enough  discernible  in  the  system 
to  procure  a  measure  of  respect  for  it,  if  not 
to  silence  anything  but  pure  dogmatic  op- 
position, which  ultimately  has  to  give  way 
to  an  intelligent  adherence  to  principle.  It 
is  both  curious  and  interesting  to  witness 
such  a  conflict  in  a  family.  A  more  or  less 
isolated  member  has  been  attracted  by  the 
teaching  and  practice  of  Vegetarianism,  and 
avows  his  practical  conviction  of  its  cor- 
rectness, and  this  mere  announcement  is 
received  with  far  more  alarm  than  would 
have  been  that  of  a  resolution  to  emigrate 
to  the  gold-fields  of  Australia  or  California. 
*  Continued  from  p.  27. 


THE   VEGETARIAN  PRACTICE   IN   EXTREME   CLIMATES. 

In   quoting   the    following    remarks  from  "  As  my  own  discoveries  in  this  important 

the  experience  of  the  pedestrian  Stewart,  subject  may  be  of  some  use  to  mankind,  I 
whose  work  *  presents  some  remarkable  in- 
stances showing  the  effects  of  simplicity  of 
diet  in  preserving  the  human  constitution, 
interesting  evidence  is  afforded,  in  reply  to 
the  doubts  so  commonly  felt  as  to  the  practi- 
cability of  Vegetarianism  in  certain  climates. 

''Upon  a  comparative  view  of  constitutions 
and  climates,"  says  he,  "  I  find  them  reci- 
procally adapted,  and  offering  no  difference  of 
good  and  evil.  I  then  consider  the  aliment, 
and  though,  upon  a  superficial  observation, 
the  difference  might  be  supposed  wisely 
adapted  to  the  difference  of  climate;  yet 
upon  more  critical  investigation,  I  am  dis- 
posed to  believe  the  aliment  of  flesh  and 
fermented  liquors  to  be  heterogeneous  to  the 
nature  of  man  in  every  climate. 

"  I  have  observed,  among  nations  whose 
aliment  is  vegetables  and  water,  that  disease 
and  medicine  are  equally  unknown,  while 
these  whose  aliment  is  flesh  and  fermented 
liquor,  are  constantly  afflicted  with  disease, 
and  medicine  more  dangerous  than  disease 
itself;  and  not  only  those  guilty  of  excess, 
but  others  who  lead  lives  of  temperance. 
These  observations  show  the  great  import- 
ance of  the  congeniality  of  aliment,  in  the 
discovery  and  continuance  of  which  depends 
the  inestimable  blessing  of  health,  or  basis 
of  well-being  or  happiness. 

*  Stewart's  Travels. 


shall  relate  the  state  of  my  own  health  and 
aliment.  At  a  very  early  period  I  left  my 
native  climate,  before  excess,  debauchery,  or 
diet  had  done  the  least  injury  to  my  body. 
I  found  many  of  my  countrymen  in  the 
region  of  India,  suffering  under  a  variety  of 
distempers;  for  though  they  had  changed 
their  country,  they  would  by  no  means 
change  their  aliment ;  and  to  this  ignorant 
obstinacy  I  attributed  the  cause  of  their 
disorders.  To  prove  this  by  my  own  expe- 
rience, I  followed  the  diet  of  the  natives, 
and  found  no  change  in  my  health  effected 
by  the  greatest  contrariety  of  climate,  to 
which  I  exposed  myself  more  than  any  of 
my  countrymen  dared  to  do.     *     * 

"  As  I  possess,  from  care  and  nature,  a 
perfect  constitution,  my  body  may  serve  as  an 
example  which  may  generalize  the  effect  of 
aliment  upon  most  other  bodies.  I  observed  in 
travelling,  if  my  body  was  wet,  and  must 
continue  any  time  in  that  state,  I  abstained 
from  all  nourishment  till  it  was  dry,  and 
always  escaped  the  usual  disorders  of  cold, 
rheumatism,  and  fever.  When  I  was  in  the 
frigid  zone,  I  lived  upon  a  nutritious  aliment, 
and  ate  much  butter,  with  beans,  peas,  and 
other  pulse.  In  the  torrid  zone,  I  dimin- 
ished the  nutritious  quality  of  my  food,  and 
ate  but  little  butter,  and  even  then  found 
it   necessary  to  eat    spices    to    absorb  the 


36 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


humours,  whose  redundancy  is  caused  by  heat, 
and  are  noxious  in  hot  climates.     In  cold 


climates  nature  seems  to  demand  that  redun- 
dancy, as  necessary  to  health  and  strength." 


THE    CONTROVERSIALIST 

SOIREE    OF   THE   FLESHERS   OF   GLASGOW. 

The  following  correspondence,  arising  out  of 
some  remarks  made  at  a  recent  meeting  of 
the  Fleshers,  or  butchers,  of  Glasgow,  will 
be  read  with  interest.  The  report  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  evening,  after  a  tea- 
party  in  the  City  Hall,  is  accompanied  by 
some  strongly  sympathetic  comments  on  the 
part  of  the  Editor  of  the  Glasgow  Examiner^ 
which,  taken  with  all  due  consideration,  as 
out  of  the  ''abundance  of  the  heart,"  still 
call  for  a  moment's  comment. 

The  fleshers  (we  give  them  their  own 
designation,  as  less  repugnant  to  them  than 
our  own  term,  butchers),  says  the  Examiner, 
''  Do  not  occupy  a  mean  status  in  society  when 
they  cau  furnish  such  a  §jrand  spectacle  as  the 
City  Hall  afforded  on  Tuesday  night.  The 
fleshers  are,  indeed,  a  very  industrious  and  use- 
ful class  of  tradesmen.  They  are  most  useful  to 
the  farmer  and  the  beef-eater,  which  means 
nearly  everybody.  *  *  *  Mr.  Temple's 
clever  speech  sadly  cut  up  our  old  friends,  the 
Vegetarians;  but  the  fleshers  need  never  fear 
them  so  long  as  Scripture  and  reason  are  strong 
in  favour  of  beef-eating;  and  the  practice,  we 
guess,  will  continue  to  the  end  of  the  w^orld.  ♦  * 
It  has  been  said  that  the  slaughtering  business 
must  blunt  the  sensibility  of  the  feelings ;  but 
this  cannot  apply  to  the  fleshers  of  Glasgow,  for 
they  have  a  fund  for  assisting  their  unfortunate 
brethren.  Has  human  sympathy  manifested 
itself  so  strong  as  to  do  so  in  other  trades  ?  *  * 
"  Such  social  meetings  are  not  only  entertaining, 
but  tend  much  to  cultivate  and  strengthen  the 
friendly  feelings  and  sympathies  of  the  heart, 
and  seem  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  whole  con- 
stitution of  human  nature." 

The  confusing  of  success  in  business,  or 
the  result  of  demand  for  the  flesh  of  ani- 
mals (however  mistaken  and  disadvantageous) , 
with  the  reference  to  a  status  of  society 
which  bespeaks  moral  influence,  will  at  once 
be  open  to  the  discernment  of  our  readers. 
The  butchers  may  be  useful  to  society  in 
meeting  the  unhealthy  demand  set  up  for 
flesh-meat,  much  as  the  spirit-seller,  in  cer- 
tain aspects,  can  be  said  (though  certainly  in 
a  less  degree)  to  have  his  business  called 
into  existence  by  demand  ;  but  the  butchers, 
like  the  spirit-sellers,  we  apprehend,  can 
never  be  expected  to  hold  an  influential 
status  in  society,  and  this  from  the  very 
nature  of  their  avocations — antagonistic  as 
we  hold  these  to  be  to  the  physical  and 
moral  progress  of  society.  As  to  the  beef- 
eaters meaning  "nearly  every  body,"  we  not 
only  remark  that  this  is  a  very  broad  compli- 
ment to  flesh-eating,  but  that  it  is  not  true. 
After  thousands  of  years  of  erroneous  practice 


AND    CORRESPONDENT. 

since  man's  original  departure  from  his  ap- 
pointed diet,  the  great  majority  of  the  people 
of  all  countries  of  the  earth  are,  practically, 
exceptions  to  meat -eating,  not  one  in  three 
of  the  whole  inhabitants  of  the  earth  being 
habitual  consumers  of  flesh. 

As  to  the  "blunting  of  the  sensibilities" 
not  being  incident  to  the  "  slaughtering 
business,"  as  shown  from  the  fact  of  the 
fleshers  of  Glasgow  having  "  a  fund  for 
assisting  tlceir  unfortunate  brethren,"  the 
fallacy  is  at  once  seen,  and  society  will 
hardly  do  more  than  laugh  at  the  claim 
here  set  up,  till  a  little  more  consideration 
has  been  shown  for  the  anbnals  submitted  to 
their  hands.  We  deplore  the  mistakes  which 
have  set  up  such  a  calling  as  that  of  the 
butcher,  and  the  butcher's  disadvantages  in 
it,  but  cannot  altogether  resist  the  conclu- 
sions of  Richerand,  on  this  subject,  in  his 
work  on  physiology.  * 

" '  A  purely  vegetable  diet  conveys  iuto  the 
blood,'  says  Pythagoras,  '  mild  and  bland 
principles.'  This  fluid  excites  the  organs  in  a 
moderate  degree,  and  this  check  over  the  phy- 
sical excitement  facilitates  the  observance  of  the 
laws  of  temperance,  the  original  source  of  all 
virtues.  The  carnivorous,  or  flesh-eating  species, 
are  marked  by  their  strength,  their  courage,  and 
their  ferocity.  Savages  who  live  by  hunting, 
and  who  feed  on  raw,  bloody,  and  palpitating 
flesh  (like  the  tiger),  are  the  most /erocioMS  of 
men ;  and  in  our  country  (France)  in  the  midst 
of  those  scenes  of  horror,  called  '  the  reign  of 
terror,'  which  we  have  suffered,  it  was  observed 
that  Butchers  t(;ere/ore/rtosf  in  the  massacres 
and  in  all  the  acts  of  atrocity  and  barbarity.  It 
would  seem,  1st,  that  the  habit  of  slaying  ani- 
mals had  familiarized  them  to  shed  h^man 
blood ;  2nd,  that  the  daily  use  of  animal  food 
made  them  ferocious." 

Mr.  Temple's  speech  we  leave  to  our 
correspondents,  here  simply  presenting  the 
remarks  in  question. 

"Mr.  Temple  next  addressed  the  meeting. 
He  said  there  was  a  Society  in  the  city  whose 
object  was  to  extinguish  their  trade.  He  alluded 
to  the  Vegetarian  Society,  of  whose  principles  he 
had  been  requested  to  make  a  short  review.  If 
the  Vegetarians  had  the  right  on  their  side,  their 
principles  would  suffer  nothing  by  scrutinising, 
for  the  more  the  torch  of  truth  was  shaken,  the 
more  it  shined,  and  if  wrong,  the  sooner  their 
fallacies  were  exposed  the  better.  Vegetarians 
were  those  who  lived  entirely  on  vegetable  sub- 
stances, because,  as  they  said,  food  of  any  other 
description  was  not  suited  to  man's  nature. 
Now,  he  might  say  that  those  in  this  hall  used 
as  much  of  that  objectionable  food  as  any  of  the 
community,  and  he  was  sure  they  could  all  say 

*  p.  137. 


THE   CONTROVEESIALIST  AND   COREESPONDENT. 


37 


that  flesh-meat  was  pleasant  to  the  taste,  good 
for  the  stomach,  and  good  for  building  up  their 
bodies.  And  he  could  say,  without  the  least 
fear  of  contradiction,  that  those  bright  lamps 
never  shone  over  fairer  women  and  better  look- 
ing men.  (Cheers.)  The  spirit  of  independence 
existed  largely  in  the  breasts  of  those  who 
used  flesh-meat,  whereas  those  who  sub- 
sisted entirely  on  vegetable  diet  were  of  quite 
an  opposite  character,  as  illustrated  by  the 
negroes,  who  submitted  to  the  greatest  injustice 
ever  perpetrated  on  mortal  man." 

On  the  reference  of  the  Editor  of  tlie  Ex- 
aminer, however,  to  "  Scripture  and  reason 
being  strong  in  favour  of  beef-eating,"  we 
beg  to  suggest  a  little  amended  reading  of 
Scripture,  from  whicli  it  will  be  seen  that 
flesh- eating  formed  no  part  of  the  original 
and  natural  diet  of  man,  but  is  incident 
only  to  his  fallen  condition,  and  that,  if 
quoted  from  Scripture,  it  ranks  with  other 
permissive  systems — slavery  amongst  the 
rest.  As  to  the  "guess"  that  such  a 
practice  as  flesh-eating  "  will  continue  to 
the  end  of  time,"  we  find  here,  too,  that  the 
"abundance  of  the  heart"  overwhelms  the 
prophecies  of  Scripture,  which  declare  it 
shall  not.  (Isa.  Ixv.  25.) 

In  conclusion,  we  are  happy  to  agree  with 
the  Examiner,  in  his  commendation  of  the 
beneficial  results  of  social  tea-parties,  and 
merely  wish  our  brethren,  the  fleshers,  as 
early  a  change  in  the  special  nature  of  their 
vocation  as  may  be — one  such  as  shall  give 
them  callings  not  opposed  to,  but  traly  "  in 
harmony  with,  the  whole  constitution  of 
human  nature." 

THE  FLESHER   TRADE   V.    VEGETARIANISM. 

"To  the  Editor  of  the  Glasgow  Examiner." 
"Sir — I  observe  from  your  report  of  the 
Fleshers'  Soiree,  held  the  other  night  in  the 
City  Hall,  that  one  of  the  speakers  who  adverted 
to  the  existence  of  the  Vegetarian  Society, 
appears  to  labour  under  the  misapprehension 
that  the  object  of  that  Society  is  one  of  mere 
hostility  to  a  class — in  short,  '  to  put  down  the 
flesher  trade.'  I  deem  it  proper,  therefore,  in 
order  to  set  ourselves  right  with  the  members  of 
the  flesher  trade,  and  all  whom  it  may  concern, 
to  extract  the  following  quotation  from  the  pub- 
lished constitution  of  the  Vegetarian  Society, 
from  which  it  will  appear  that  we  have  no  such 
narrow  and  unfriendly  object  in  view;  but  that 
the  Vegetarians,  in  promulgating  their  opinions, 
are  actuated  by  wider  considerations,  and  of  an 
entirely  humane  and  philanthropic  character: — 
"  '  The  objects  of  the  Association  are,  to  induce 
habits  of  abstinence  from  the  flesh  of  animals  as 
food,  by  the  dissemination  of  information  upon 
the  subject,  by  means  of  tracts,  essays,  and  lec- 
tures, proving  the  many  advantages  of  a  physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral  character,  resulting  from 
Vegetarian  habits  of  diet ;  and  thus,  to  secure, 
through  the  association,  example,  and  efforts  of 
its  members,  the  adoption  of  a  principle  which 


will  tend  essentially  to  true  civilization,  to  uni- 
versal brotherhood,  and  to  the  increase  of  human 
happiness  generally.' 

"  While,  however,  the  design  of  the  Vegetarian 
Society  is  conceived  in  no  hostile  or  unfriendly 
spirit  to  the  parties  engaged  in  meeting  the 
demand  for  animal  food,  and  while  we  recognise 
the  utility  of  their  profession  whilst  such  demand 
exists,  yet,  it  is  obvious  that,  on  the  general 
adoption  of  the  dietetic  habits  inculcated  by 
Vegetarians,  the  trade  would  find  their  '  occu- 
pation gone  ' ;  but  we  need  hardly  remind  them 
that  this  is  an  event  of  which  the  present  genera- 
tion of  fleshers  can  be  under  no  apprehension. 
The  Vegetarians  are  neither  so  vain  nor  so  san- 
guine as  to  imagine  that  their  peculiar  views  are 
going  to  be  adopted  by  society  at  a  bound.  The 
history  of  all  similar  movements,  which  have  to 
encounter  the  ignorance,  prejudices,  and  false 
appetites  of  human  nature,  shows  how  tardy  is 
the  progress  of  truth,  and  I  daresay  the  trade 
will  have  ample  time  to  '  set  their  house  in 
order '  during  the  transition,  which,  though 
slow,  is  sure  to  follow  from  a  mode  of  living  at 
once  barbarous,  repulsive,  wasteful,  unwholesome, 
and  inconsistent  with  the  highest  conditions  of 
civilization.  The  Vegetarians  contend,  then,  that 
man  is  constitutionally  adapted  to  subsist  on  a 
vegetable  diet,  comprising  the  various  grains, 
roots,  fruits,  etc.,  and,  consequently,  that  the  use 
of  the  inferior  animals  for  food  is  an  invention  of 
man,  and  not  an  ordinance  of  Nature.  They  do 
not  assert  this  on  mere  assumption ;  but  base 
their  arguments  both  on  science  and  experience. 
The  facts  of  anatomy  and  physiology  confirm  the 
position  we  take  up  as  to  the  dietetic  character  of 
man,  and  experience  shows  that  he  thrives  best, 
is  sufficiently  nourished,  and  can  best  sustain 
the  wear  and  tear  of  life,  on  a  diet  composed  of 
vegetable  substances.  The  modern  researches  of 
chemistry^  as  well,  confirm  the  propriety  and 
economy  of  Vegetarian  diet,  while  they  expose 
the  wasteful  and  roundabout  way  of  obtaining 
nourishment  by  means  of  animal  food.  Did 
space  permit,  I  should  be  happy  to  go  into  details 
on  these  various  aspects  of  the  question,  and  I 
regret  that  the  gentleman  who  professed  to 
review  the  principles  of  Vegetarianism,  at  the 
late  trade  soiree,  did  not  deal  with  the  numerous 
facts  and  arguments  on  which  our  principles  are 
usually  defended,  and  from  which  we  object  to 
the  use  of  animal  food. 

"  Beyond  the  statement  that  the  company  then 
assembled  were  large  consumers  of  flesh — ergo, 
fine  specimens  of  humanity — and  the  allusion  to 
the  depressed  condition  of  the  Negro  race,  as  a 
result  of  vegetable  diet,  we  have  nothing  what- 
ever to  grapple  with.  We  suspect  that  the 
Negro,  like  his  brother  of  paler  complexion,  has 
wandered  from  the  path  of  nature  in  seeking 
his  supplies  of  food,  and  that  other  causes  must 
be  sought  for,  to  account  for  the  abject  con- 
dition of  the  race.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
might  refer  to  some  of  the  most  miserable  and 
ill-conditioned  of  our  species,  such  as  the  Esqui- 
maux, and  other  northern  tribes,  who  yet  use 
very  large  quantities  of  animal  food.  We  admit 
that  the  enslaved  portion  of  the  human  race  is 


38 


THE   CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


mainly  confined  to  Vegetable  diet,  and  their 
known  capacities  for  labour  would  argue  that  it 
agrees  with  them.  We  must,  however,  demur  to 
the  Corporation  of  Fleshers  being  considered  as 
the  heau  ideal  of  humanity.  We  fear  it  is  a 
trade  which  is  barren  of  great  names,  and  that 
the  occupation  is  not  friendly  to  the  high  devel- 
opment of  human  nature.  We  have  said  nothing 
as  to  the  oflfensiveuess  and  repugnance  to  the 
sentiments  of  the  means  necessai*y  to  procure  the 
supplies  of  animal  food.  The  atrocities  of  the 
slaughtering  system  have  been  graphically  de- 
scribed by  Dickens  in  his  Household  Words. 
But  a  recent  publication  by  Mr.  Lewis,  revealing 
the  deplorable  state  of  matters  in  connection 
with  the  slaughter-house  in  our  own  city,  con- 
strains us  to  think  that  the  adoption  of  a  system 
of  living  can  neither  be  too  rapid  nor  too  general, 
which,  while  it  would  confer  great  sanitary 
advantages  on  the  community,  would,  at  the  same 
time,  remove  a  numerous  class  of  our  fellow 
creatures  from  scenes  and  circumstances  of  the 
lowest  and  most  depraving  character. 

"A  VEGETARIAN." 

VEGETARIANISM  VCrSUS  THE  FLESHER  TRADE. 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Glasgow  Examiner." 
"  Si  r — I  observe  a  letter  from  '  A  Vegetarian '  in 
last  week's  Examiner,  in  which  he  states,  when  I 
was  addressing  the  Flesher's  Soiree,  I  appeared 
'to  labour  under  the  misapprehension  that  the 
object  of  the  Vegetarian  Society  was  one  of  mere 
hostility  to  a  class,  in  short,  to  put  down  the 
Flesher  Trade.'  Now,  I  never  either  thought  or 
said  that  Vegetarians  had  an  ill-feeling  to  Fleshers 
as  individuals ;  and,  I  believe,  that  they  are 
actuated  alone  by  what  they  conceive  to  be 
humane  and  philanthropic  principles ;  but,  I  con- 
tend that  I  was  right  when  I  said  that  the  object 
of  their  Society  was  to  put  down  the  Flesher 
Trade,  and  your  correspondent  proves  I  was 
correct  by  the  extract  he  makes  from  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Vegetarian  Society,  and  he,  in 
his  own  words,  says  it  is  obvious  that  on  the 
general  adoption  of  his  principles  the  trade  would 
find  their '  occupation  gone.'  Your  correspondent 
appears  very  reluctant  to  admit  that  that  is  their 
object,  and  to  keep  us  from  being  alarmed  at 
being  starved  out,  he  tells  us,  that  the  present 
generation  of  Fleshers  have  nothing  to  fear  from 
Vegetarianism ;  but  this  consolation  of  his  goes 
for  nothing,  as  it  would  be  easy  to  prove  that  the 
consumption  of  animal  food  is  yearly  increasing. 
Your  correspondent  also  says  that  I  did  not  take 
up  the  numerous  facts  and  arguments  on  which 
his  principles  are  founded.  Now,  I  admit  that  I 
have  not  seen  any  facts  on  which  Vegetarianism 
is  founded ;  but  I  did  take  up  those  arguments 
which  are  foremost  in  the  mouths  of  Vegetarians. 
Again, '  Vegetarian,'  in  alluding  to  the  corporeal 
frame  of  Fleshers,  says,  sarcastically,  '  fine  speci- 
mens of  humanity.'  He  appears  to  be  labouring 
under  the  erroneous  notion  that  Fleshers  are 
overgrown  monsters;  and,  then,  he  says,  he  fears 
it  is  a  trade  barren  of  great  names,  and  that  the 
trade  is  not  favourable  for  the  development  of 
human  nature.  Now,  I  know  Fleshers'  sons  who 
have  risen  to  be  ministers,  and  I  know  two  who 


have"  wrought  at  the  trade  who  are  attending  the 
University  with  an  eye  to  the  ministry.  The 
most  of  master  Fleshers,  and  a  large  number  of 
journeymen,  are  connected  with  our  churches, 
and  not  a  few  are  elders  and  deacons;  and  I 
know  some  of  my  brethren  in  the  trade  who  take 
an  active  part  in  these  movements  which  purify 
and  elevate  man ;  and,  as  an  indication  of  our 
character,  look  to  the  number  of  shops  that  were 
open  in  Glasgow  on  Sabbath,  11th  Feb.  Capt. 
Smart  reports  that  there  were  335  fruit  and 
confection  shops  open,  31  vegetable  shops  open, 
and  only  one  Flesher.  Thus  it  would  appear  that 
those  who  deal  in  Vegetarians'  food  are  366 
times  more  given  to  open  Sabbath  profanation 
than  those  who  deal  in  flesh.  But  Fleshers  are 
not  the  only  persons  who  use  flesh-meat.  The 
holiest,  the  wisest,  the  greatest,  and  the  best  of 
Beings  that  ever  trod  earth's  surface  has  used 
flesh,  and  it  amounts  to  blasphemy  to  say  that  it 
had  a  barbarous  and  uncivilizing  influence  on 
Him  ;  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  people  of 
Christendom  use  flesh.  Yet,  in  face  of  that, 
'  Vegetarian'  has  the  hardihood  to  assert  that  it  is 
a  barbarous  custom. 

"  Again,  '  Vegetarian '  thinks  that  because 
Dickens  and  Lewis  have  shown  that  there  are 
cruel  and  depraved  men  connected  with  our  trade, 
that  that  is  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  speedy 
suppression  of  our  trade  deing  desirable.  Let 
him  apply  the  same  test  to  other  trades,  and 
then  say  how  many  have  stood  the  same  ordeal. 
So  much,  then,  for  the  personalities ;  now  for  a 
glance  at  one  or  two  of  the  principles  he  lays  down. 

"  '  Vegetarian '  says,  his  principles  will  tend 
essentially  to  true  civilization,  to  universal 
brotherhood,  and  to  the  increase  of  human  hap- 
piness generally."  Now,  it  will  be  admitted  that 
results  are  the  true  test  of  principles.  Now, 
there  are  countries,  such  as  all  the  natious  of 
Africa  and  India,  who  subsist  on  the  Vegetarian 
diet,  as  the  western  and  northern  nations  of 
Europe,  who  use  flesh ;  the  former  (the  Vege- 
tarian) nations  are  in  the  midnight  of  heathen 
darkness  ;  the  latter  are  in  the  foreground  of  art, 
science,  literature,  and  Christianity. 

" '  Vegetarian  '  says  that  flesh  is  wasteful  and 
unwholesome.  Now,  there  is  not  a  part  of  the 
animal  that  is  not  of  use  to  man  :  but  perhaps  he 
refers  to  the  production  of  the  animal.  Did 
space  permit,  I  could  show  that  Scotland  could 
produce  more  grain  and  roots  for  man  by  keeping 
cattle  than  it  can  do  without  them.  Did  we  give 
over  eating  flesh  and  fish,  the  hills  and  the  glens, 
the  rivers,  and  the  lakes  of  old  Caledonia  would 
cease  to  do  anything  for  the  support  of  her  hardy 
sons;  and,  as  regards  unwholesomeness,  those 
persons  who  endure  the  greatest  amount  of 
bodily  labour,  such  as  ploughmen  and  miners, 
use  flesh-meat  to  a  large  extent,  not  because  it  is 
a  luxury,  but  because  experience  has  taught  them 
that  it  renews  their  strength,  and  replaces  the 
tear  and  wear  of  their  bodies;  and  another  very 
strong  argument  for  the  strength-giving  property 
of  beef  is,  a  few  thousands  of  beef-eating  British 
have  conquered  and  subdued  150  millions  of 
Vegetarian  Indians.  'Vegetarian'  talks  of  the 
repugnance  to  the  sentiments  of  killing  cattle. 


THE  CONTEOVERSIALIST  AND  CORRESPONDENT. 


39 


Now,  the  ox  being  an  animal  of  instinct,  and 
having  no  account  to  give  at  death,  it  is  all  the 
same  to  it  whether  death  comes  early  or  late, 
and  the  death  that  man  gives  it  is  much  less 
painful  than  dying  from  disease.  But  Vege- 
tarians kill  far  more  than  we  do.  The  cabbage, 
for  instance,  contains  numerous  animalculae,  and 
all  these  have  to  be  killed  before  a  Vegetarian 
can  make  a  meal  of  it.  As  regards  the  number 
of  deaths,  we  may  say  Vegetarians  strain  at  a 
gnat,  and  swallow  a  camel.  Without  taking  up 
any  more  Vegetarian  arguments,  I  may  say  that 
any  practice  which  is  commended  and  sanctioned 
by  the  Word  of  God,  is  a  safe  one.  God  said  to 
Noah,  '  Every  living  creature  that  moveth  shall 
be  meat  for  you.'  For  4000  years  killing  of 
cattle  was  necessary  to  the  worshipping  of  God, 
and  the  holy  men  who  ministered  at  the  altar 
received  part  of  the  flesh  for  their  food.  Again, 
when  the  Lord  of  Glory,  with  two  celestial  com- 
panions, visited  Abraham,  the  patriarch  killed 
and  dressed  a  fatted  calf,  of  which  the  heavenly 
guests  partook.  Again,  when  Elijah  was  in  a 
solitary  ravine,  he  was  hungry,  and  God  put 
forth  a  miraculous  influence  on  the  ravens,  and 
caused  them  to  carry  bread  and  flesh  morning 
and  evening  to  his  servant.  When  Jesus  was 
in  the  world,  he  chose  his  disciples  from  amongst 
fishers,  which  is  a  trade  akin  to  ours,  and  he  went 
with  them  on  their  fishing  expeditions,  and 
pointed  where  they  might  catch  the  greatest 
number ;  and  the  fact  that  the  Bible  approves 
of  flesh  eating  is  another  evidence  that  the 
Author  of  Nature,  the  Author  of  Man,  and  the 
Author  of  that  Book,  is  one  and  the  same  Being. 

"JOHN  TEMPLE. 
"  37,  Oxford  Street  Glasgow,  28th  Feb.,  1855." 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Glasgow  Examiner." 
"Sir — In  your  paper  of  the  24th  February, 
a  Vegetarian  says,  that  '  the  Vegetarians  contend 
that  man  is  constitutionally  adapted  to  subsist 
on  a  vegetable  diet,  comprising  the  various  grains, 
roots,  fruits,  etc.,  and,  consequently,  that  the 
use  of  the  inferior  animals  for  food  is  an  inven- 
tion of  man,  and  not  an  ordinance  of  Nature.* 
This  is  certainly  bold  enough.  If  the  Vegeta- 
rians would  read  the  Bible,  they  would  find  that 
our  authority  for  eating  flesh  is  the  highest  of 
all  authority,  and  that,  instead  of  animal  food 
being  an  invention  of  man,  it  is  an  arrangement 
of  the  Divine  Being.  We  wonder  what  they 
would  make  of  Gen.  ix,  3  :  'Every  moving  thing 
that  liveth  shall  be  meat  for  you,  even  as  the 
green  herb  have  I  given  you  all  things ' ;  and 
Deut.  xii,  15:  'Thou  mayest  kill  and  eat  flesh 
in  all  thy  gates,  whatsoever  thy  soul  lusteth  after, 
according  to  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  thy  God 
which  he  hath  given  thee '  Sacred  History  shows 
us  that  the  people  availed  themselves  of  the 
privilege  of  eating  flesh  thus  granted  them  by 
the  Great  Creator.  But,  lest  the  Vegetarians 
should  say  that  this  privilege  was  abolished  in 
the  Gospel  dispensation,  we  shall  see  what  the 
New  Testament  saith,  1  Cor.x,  25  :  'Whatsoever 
is  sold  in  the  shambles  that  eat,  asking  no  ques- 
tions for  conscience  sake;  '  and  in  1  Tim.  iv,  1 : 
'  In  the  latter  times  some  shall  depart  from  the 
faith,  giving  heed  to  seducing  spirits  and  doc- 


trines of  devils,  etc.,  and  commanding  to  abstain 
from  meats  which  God  hath  created  to  be  re- 
ceived with  thanksgiving,  etc.  For  every  crea- 
ture of  God  is  good,  and  nothing  to  be  refused, 
if  it  be  received  with  thanksgiving.'  After  such 
Scripture  authority,  we  think  it  would  be  impugn- 
ing the  wisdom  of  the  Creator  to  seek  proof  of 
the  adaptation  of  the  constitution  of  man  to  be 
nourished  by  the  flesh  of  animals ;  we  could 
judge  of  this,  a  priori ;  but  to  satisfy  the  Vege- 
tarians we  may  mention,  that  daily  experience 
has  proved,  in  all  ages,  that  the  palate  of  man 
relishes  flesh — his  teeth  easily  masticate  it — his 
stomach  rapidly  digests  it — and  it  nourishes  his 
body  well,  and  even  animates  his  spirits.  We  do 
not  deny  that  it  would  be  possible  for  man  to 
exist  on  vegetables,  his  constitution  being  wisely 
adapted  to  accommodate  itself  to  a  variety  of 
circumstances ;  but  we  affirm  that  he  would 
thrive  better  if  part  of  his  food  were  flesh  also. 
We  would  ask  the  Vegetarians,  how  a  sufficiency 
of  food  could  be  obtained  according  to  their  sys- 
tem ?  If  they  say,  Grow  more  grain  and  vege- 
tables, we  reply.  That  if  animals  were  not  fed  for 
slaughter,  they  would  not  be  reared,  and  without 
animals,  we  could  scarcely  grow  any  grain  or 
vegetables  at  all.  For  did  they  know  the  laws 
of  agricultural  chemistry,  they  would  see  that, 
in  the  wise  arrangements  of  our  beneficent  Crea- 
tor, the  refuse  of  animals  is  the  food  of  plants, 
or,  in  other  words,  the  carbonic  acid  gas  exhaled 
from  the  lungs  of  animals,  but  especially  their 
excrements,  are  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
growth  of  grain  crops  and  vegetables.  So,  the 
more  cattle  we  can  feed  for  the  shambles,  we  can 
grow  proportionately  more  grain  and  vegetables 
too.  If  the  Vegetarians  lament  the  destruction 
of  animal  life,  it  does  not  require  a  great  stretch 
of  intellect  to  perceive,  that  if  their  theory  were 
attempted,  there  would  soon  be  little  life  to  enjoy 
of  any  kind  ;  for  farmers  would  not  feed  cattle 
for  the  mere  purpose  of  looking  at  them ;  and, 
without  cattle,  grains  and  roots  would  not  grow 
— and  without  crops,  how  could  the  Vegetarians 
themselves  live  ?  Instead  of  progress,  we  would 
retrograde ;  vegetable  life  would  fade,  and  ani- 
mal life  would  become  dwarfish,  and  even  univer- 
sal death  would  soon  spread  over  our  fair  earth, 
and  leave  it  a  barren  desolation. 
*'  Yours  etc 
"  A  CARNIVOROUS  ANIMAL. 

"P.S.— Hurrah!  for  the  'Roast  Beef  of  Old 
England.'" 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Glasgow  SentineV 
"Mr.  Editor — The  enclosed  reply  to  certain 
letters  from  correspondents,  opposed  to  the 
Vegetarian  system,  which  appeared  in  the 
columns  of  the  Glasgow  Examiner,  was  addressed 
to  the  editor  of  that  paper,  but  declined  on  the 
allegation  of  'want  of  space.'  Under  these 
circumstances,  your  insertion  of  the  vindication 
will  oblige  yours  respectfully, 

"A  Vegetarian." 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Glasgow  Examiner." 
"  Sir — I  proceed  to  reply  to  the  letters  of 
your  correspondents  on  the  subject  of  Vegeta- 
rianism, and,  at  the  outset,  must  use  the  liberty 


40 


THE  CONTEOVERSALTST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


of  reminding^  our  friends  that  the  suhject  to  be 
discussed  relates  to  dietetics,  and  not  to  theology. 
I  will  further  take  the  liberty  of  saying  that  if 
it  were  a  religious  question,  which  it  is  not,  an 
assembly  of  divines,  rather  than  a  jury  of 
butchers,  would  be  the  appropriate  tribunal  to 
which  to  submit  it.  As  a  practical  and  physio- 
logical question,  then,  Vegetarianism  must  be 
settled  by  scientific  evidence  and  experience. 
We  know  it  is  common,  on  the  part  of  the  adver- 
saries of  new  views  who  lack  argument,  and  when 
reason  fails,  to  run  to  the  armoury  of  the  Bible 
for  isolated  passages  with  which  to  assail  them. 
Astronomy,  geology,  etc.,  have  each  been  so 
treated  ;  and  while,  by  the  dexterous  application 
of  texts  of  Scripture,  an  unfavourable  impression 
may  be  made  on  minds  of  a  certain  class,  yet 
such  tactics  must  in  the  end  signally  fail,  as,  we 
believe,  they  will  assuredly  fail  in  the  case  of 
Vegetarianism. 

"  In  pursuance  of  the  same  ignoble  system  of 
tactics,  we  are,  therefore,  not  surprised  to  find 
the  infamous  upholders  of  Negro  slavery  en- 
deavouring to  shut  the  mouths  of  the  friends  of 
human  freedom,  with  such  passages  as  the  fol- 
lowing: 'Both  thy  bondmen  and  thy  bond- 
maids, which  thou  shalt  have,  shall  be  of  the 
heathen  that  are  round  about  you ;  of  them  shall 
ye  buy  bondmen  and  bondmaids.  Moreover, 
of  the  children  of  the  strangers  that  do  sojourn 
among  you,  of  them  shall  ye  buy,  and  of  their 
families  that  are  with  you,  which  they  begat  in 
your  land ;  and  they  shall  be  your  possession. 
And  ye  shall  take  them  as  an  inheritance  for 
your  children  after  you,  to  inherit  them  for  a  pos- 
session ;  they  shall  be  your  bondsmen  for  ever ; 
but  over  your  brethren  the  children  of  Israel,  ye 
shall  not  rule  one  over  another  with  rigour.' 
Lev.  XXV.  44 — 46 

"  We  would,  therefore,  caution  our  friends  as 
to  the  use  they  make  of  their  quotations  from 
Scripture,  and  cannot  but  regard  as  a  rash  and 
irreverent  proceeding  the  endeavour  to  show 
that  the  Saviour  of  the  world  was  addicted  to 
flesh-eating,  and,  therefore,  that  Vegetarianism 
is  anti-scriptural.  We  know  that  attempts  have 
been  made  to  prove  that  the  same  august  Exem- 
plar used  intoxicating  drinks,  and  that  at  the 
marriage  of  Cana  of  Galilee,  he  supplied  the 
guests  with  a  large  quantity  of  intoxicating 
liquor,  after  they  had  already  'well  drunk.'  But 
we  need  hardly  protest  against  such  a  use  of  the 
Scriptures — its  shocking  impropriety  must  be 
apparent  to  every  serious  mind.  Your  corres- 
pondents having  ransacked  the  Bible  for  authority 
to  show,  that  '  every  living  creature  shall  be 
meat  for  us,'  appear  also  to  have  discovered,  that 
of  whatsoever  is  sold  in  the  shambles,  we  are 
bound  to  eat,  asking  no  questions.  Should 
either  of  these  gentlemen  patronise  the  Great 
Exhibition  of  Paris,  during  the  ensuing  summer, 
and  find  himself  seated  at  dinner  in  one  of  those 
splendid  restaurant  establishments,  for  which  the 
French  raetropohs  is  famed,  he  may  possibly 
find,  in  the  bill  of  fare,  a  dish  composed  of 
certain  little  animals  that,  in  Scotland,  frequent 
the  bottoms  of  our  walls,  or  probably  a  delicate 
morsel  of  certain  creeping  things  that  infest  our 


gardens,  and  which,  on  the  continent,  have 
lately  risen  into  great  favour  with  the  gour- 
mands ;  will  our  friend,  in  such  a  case,  feel 
bound  to  eat, '  asking  no  questions '  ? 

"  But  we  are  curious  to  know  why  your  corres- 
pondents, in  their  intimate  acquaintance  with 
Scripture,  and  professed  regard  for  its.  authority, 
have  thought  proper  to  pass  over  the  very  first 
chapter  in  the  Bible,  and  which,  we  observe, 
contains  the  following  passage  :  'And  God  said. 
Behold,  I  have  given  you  every  herb  bearing 
seed,  which  is  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and 
every  tree,  in  the  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree 
yielding  seed  ;  to  you  it  shall  be  for  meat.' 
(Gen.  i.  29.)  What  will  your  correspondents 
say  as  to  this,  the  original  appointment  of  man's 
food,  while  yet  he  was  in  his  highest  state — 
before  he  had  forfeited  his  innocence  by  the  in- 
fraction of  the  laws  of  his  Creator?  Is  it 
unreasonable  to  suppose  that,  in  such  circum- 
stances, the  Allwise  Creator  would  direct  his 
children  to  that  species  of  nourishment  best  cal- 
culated to  sustain  their  frames,  and  to  subserve 
most  effectually  their  various  requirements  ?  We 
should  also  like  to  inquire  why  it  is  that  in 
quoting  the  passage,  '  Every  moving  thing  that 
liveth  shall  be  meat  for  you,"  our  friends  should 
stop  short  there.  Why  not  give  us  the  benefit 
of  the  succeeding  and  connected  verse :  "But 
flesh,  with  the  life  thereof,  which  is  the  blood 
thereof,  shall  ye  not  eat '  ?  (Gen.  ix.  4.)  How 
do  your  correspondents  dispose  of  the  blood  ? 
Do  they  not  apply  it  to  dietetic  use,  in  defiance 
of  this  very  passage?  I  must  say  our  friends 
have  a  convenient,  if  not  a  very  consistent  way 
of  dealing  with  Sacred  Writ.  They  talk  glibly  of 
the  practice  of  flesh-eating  being  "commended" 
and  "  sanctioned  "  by  the  authority  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. Have  they  forgotten  the  history  of  the 
Jews?  When  Jehovah  guided  them  in  their 
long,  and  dreary,  and  difficult  passage  through 
the  wilderness,  upon  what  did  He  sustain  them? 
On  manna.  And  when  this  ungrateful  people 
murmured  at  the  fare,  and  lusted  for  the  flesh- 
pots  of  Egypt,  we  are  told,  "  He  granted  them 
their  request,  but  sent  leanness  into  their  souls." 
Let  our  friends  read  the  11th  chapter  of  Numbers 
for  the  result:  'And  while  the  flesh  was  yet 
between  their  teeth,  ere  it  was  chewed,  the  wrath 
of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  the  people,  and 
the  Lord  smote  the  people  with  a  very  great 
plague.'  Let  us  now  turn  to  the  Book  of 
Daniel.  Will  our  friends  dare  to  question  the 
wisdom  and  inspiration  of  the  prophet,  when  he 
refused  to  defile  himself  with  the  meat  from  the 
king's  table?  'Then  said  Daniel  to  MelZar, 
whom  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs  had  set  over 
Daniel,  Hananiah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah, 
Prove  thy  servants,  I  beseech  thee,  ten  days,  and 
let  them  give  us  pulse  to  eat  and  water  to  drink. 
Then  let  our  countenances  be  looked  upon  by 
thee,  and  the  countenances  of  the  children  that 
eat  of  the  portion  of  the  king's  meat;  and  as 
thou  seest  deal  with  thy  servants.  So  he  con- 
sented to  them  in  this  matter,  and  proved  them 
ten  days.  And  at  the  end  of  ten  days  their 
countenances  appeared  fairer,  and  fatter  in  flesh, 
than  all  the  children  which  did  eat  the  portion  of 


THE  CONEOVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


41 


the  king's  meat.'  (Dan.  i.  11 — 15.)  So  much, 
then,  for  the  '  argument  from  Scripture,'  which, 
we  fear,  will  prove  a  two-edged  weapon  in  the 
hands  of  your  correspondents.  It  must  not, 
however,  be  supposed  that  the  Vegetarians  regard 
it  as  sinful,  on  scriptural  grounds,  to  partake  of 
animal  food.  They  admit  the  permission  to  use 
it.  But  they  cannot  shut  their  eyes  to  distinc- 
tions, or  to  the  consequences  of  an  inferior  mode 
of  living,  where  such  is  preferred.  Neither  is  it 
safest  or  wisest  to  regulate  our  conduct  by  the 
permissions.  We  see  the  enormities  into  which 
the  Mormons  of  America  have  been  led,  by  taking 
this  course  with  respect  to  polygamy. 

"  Having  stated  the  real  objects  of  the  Ve- 
getarian Society,  I  am  content  to  pass  over  the 
remarks  of  your  correspondent  on  that  head. 
We  have  no  quarrel  with  the  fleshers,  and  are 
glad  to  hear  of  their  sons  being  drafted  into 
more  agreeable  employments.  But  it  does  ap- 
pear to  us  rather  a  singular  application  which 
your  correspondent  has  made  of  Captain 
Smart's  statistics,  in  his  attempt  to  establish 
the  religious  respectability  of  his  brethren  in 
trade,  which,  however,  has  not  been  assailed. 
In  stating  that  366  vegetable,  fruit,  and  confec- 
tion shops  were  found  to  have  been  open  on  Sun- 
day, he  surely  does  not  mean  to  draw  the  loose 
and  absurd  conclusion,  that  Sabbath  profanation 
has  any  relation  to  abstinence  from  flesh,  or 
that  the  shops  in  question  were  opened  by,  and 
for  the  exchisive  convenience  of,  the  Vegetarian 
portion  of  the  community.  Your  correspondent 
objects  to  the  use  of  animal  food  being  con- 
sidered barlarous.  The  whole  process  of  pro- 
viding it  is  highly  offensive  to  a  mind  claiming 
any  degree  of  refinement.  Our  best  feelings 
shrink  from  contemplating  the  process.  Our 
slaughter-houses  are  therefore  kept  out  of  sight, 
and  the  very  carcasses  are  not  allowed  to  be  con- 
veyed through  our  streets  uncovered,  in  deference 
to  this  universal  repugnance  to  blood  and 
slaughter.  Society,  therefore,  endorses  the  judg- 
ment we  have  pronounced  on  this  point.  How 
very  different  in  the  case  of  vegetable  diet !  We 
pluck  the  apple  from  the  tree,  or  the  grain  from 
the  stalk,  with  feelings  of  pleasure  and  desire — 
a  proof  of  the  harmony  subsisting  between  that 
species  of  food  and  the  nature  of  man.  Your 
correspondent  demurs  to  the  claim  of  the  Vege- 
tarian Society,  that  its  principles  tend  to  *  true 
civilisation,  to  universal  brotherhood,  and  to  the 
increase  of  human  happiness  generally.'  The 
refining  influence  of  a  vegetable  diet  will  appear 
from  what  has  just  been  stated,  and  the  mere 
fact  of  a  merciful  regard  for  the  inferior  creation 
prc-supposes  a  corresponding  concern  for  the 
interests  of  their  fellow-men,  unless,  indeed,  the 
Vegetarians  be  grossly  inconsistent.  While,  if 
we  can  establish  the  superior  healthfulness  and 
economy  of  the  Vegetarian  system  of  living  to 
those  of  a  mixed  diet,  and,  by  so  doing,  can 
induce  society  to  adopt  our  views,  we  conceive 
we  shall  be  contributing  to  the  increase  of 
human  happiness  in  no  mean  degree.  Our  friend 
is  not  quite  precise  in  his  classification  of  the 
natives  of  India  and  Africa  as  subsisting  on  a 
vegetable  diet.     The  people  of  these  immense 


continents  exhibit  a  variety  of  modes  of  living, 
and  even  in  those  cases  where  vegetable  diet  ob- 
tains, it  is  too  generally  associated  with  other 
inferior  habits  and  conditions,  which  go  far  to 
neutralise  the  good  effects  of  abstinence  from 
flesh.  To  speak  of  beef-eating  as  the  handmaid 
of  'art,  science,  literature,  and  Christianity,' 
sounds  somewhat  strangely.  Many  of  our 
highest  intellects  have  acknowledged  the  ad- 
vantage of  abstaining  from  it. 

"  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  when  engaged  in  his 
great  work,  confined  himself  to  vegetable  diet. 
While  other  great  names,  such  as  Milton, 
Shelley,  Franklin,  Wesley,  Howard, 
owed  much  of  the  clearness  of  their  minds,  and 
the  excellence  of  their  productions,  to  the  same 
salutary  practice.  But,  while  we  claim  the 
tendency  of  the  Vegetarian  principle  to  promote 
civilization,  we  do  not  assert  that  it  does  so  ex- 
clusively, or  even  chiefly.  The  elements  of  pro- 
gress are  numerous  and  varied,  and  there  are 
many  circumstances  that  go  to  determine  the 
condition  of  a  nation  irrespective  of  matters  of 
diet.  We  believe  it  would  be  diflScult  to  account 
satisfactorily  for  the  striking  diversities  of  race 
existing  in  the  human  family.  Much,  no  doubt, 
may  be  traceable  to  climate,  diet,  mental  culture, 
and  the  peculiar,  social,  and  religious  institu- 
tions, while  much  would  still  remain  obscure. 
It  will  not  do,  therefore,  to  select  a  feeble  and 
enervated  race,  the  victim  of  ages  of  the  most 
unfavourable  and  depressing  conditions,  such  as 
the  natives  of  India,  that  have  been  subjected  to 
British  sway,  for  comparison  with  their  con- 
querors of  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  stock,  who, 
besides  the  circumstance  of  an  invigorating 
climate,  have  enjoyed  for  centuries  the  over- 
whelming advantages  of  free  institutions ;  un- 
less, indeed,  your  correspondent  will  undertake 
to  trace  the  superiority  of  the  latter  to  the 
modicum  of  animal  food  that  enters  into  their 
diet.  But  the  absurdity  of  such  an  attempt 
will  appear  from  the  fact  that  some  of  the 
greatest  consumers  of  animal  food  rank  the 
lowest,  physically  as  well  as  intellectually,  among 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Besides,  history 
tells  us,  that  animal  food  is  not  necessary  to  the 
possession  of  the  highest  military  qualities. 
The  Persians,  under  Cyrus,  were  fed  on  the 
simplest  vegetable  fare ;  and  their  exploits  are 
perhaps  unequalled  in  the  annals  of  war.  The 
Greek  and  Roman  armies  in  their  best  days  were 
reared  on  vegetable  food.  The  Polish  soldiers 
under  Bonaparte,  reared  almost  entirely  on  oat- 
meal bread  and  potatoes,  would  march  forty 
miles  in  a  day,  and  fight  a  pitched  battle,  and  the 
next  morning  be  fresh  and  vigorous  for  further 
duties.  The  peasantry  of  Scotland  and  Ireland 
live  mainly,  many  of  them  exclusively,  on  vege- 
table diet,  and  their  indomitable  qualities  in  the 
field  cannot  be  surpassed.  The  Kaffirs  of  South 
Africa  are,  perhaps,  the  finest  and  bravest  race  of 
savages  in  existence.  In  the  late  war,  their 
daring  and  physical  strength  astonished  the 
British  soldiers,  whom  they  frequently  dragged 
from  their  ranks  into  the  bush  by  main  force. 
The  Kaffirs,  although  possessed  of  numerous 
cattle,  confine  themselves    almost    entirely   to 


42 


THE   CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


vegetable  food.  Your  correspondent  challenges 
our  statement — that  the  use  of  flesh  is  wasteful 
and  unwholesome.  That  it  is  unwholesome,  none 
can  have  better  opportunities  of  knowing  than 
those  engaged  in  the  trade.  Few  of  the  animals 
slaughtered  can  be  declared  entirely  free  from  dis- 
ease ;  and  the  prevalence  of  consumption,  measles, 
dropsy,  liver  complaints,  and  other  disorders,  is 
notorious  in  the  trade,  and  out  of  it.  The  use  of 
food  so  affected  cannot,  we  submit,  be  considered 
as  wholesome.  That  it  is  wasteful  will  appear 
presently,  and  the  following  facts  will  at  once 
serve  as  an  illustration : — It  has  been  ascertained 
in  America  that,  to  fatten  a  pig  so  as  to  produce 
200  lb.  of  pork,  requires  15  bushels  of  corn.  It 
has,  at  the  same  time,  been  found  that  this  quan- 
tity of  pork  will  sustain  a  man,  at  2  lb.  a-day, 
for  100  days.  But  the  same  quantity  of  corn, 
used  directly  by  the  man,  will  sustain  him  for 
480  days,  at  the  liberal  allowance  of  a  quart 
a-day.  But  we  are  told  that  more  grain  is  pro- 
duced by  keeping  cattle  than  without  them.  To 
feed  cattle  with  a  view  to  the  manure  would,  we 
fear,  be  bad  economy  ;  more  especially  while  we 
allow  to  go  to  waste  great  resources — which  our 
cities  afford — of  the  most  valuable  materials  for 
agricultural  purposes.  But  then 'the  hills  and 
the  glens,'  on  the  pastures  of  which  we  rear  our 
cattle,  could  be  turned  to  no  other  account !  It 
is  not  for  us — in  view  of  what  has  been  done 
during  the  last  fifty  years  to  make  the  '  waste 
places '  of  Scotland  '  blossom  like  the  rose  ' — to 
set  limits  to  science  and  agricultural  enterprise. 

"But  we  are  referred  to  the  laws  of  agricultural 
chemistry,  and  we  are  told  that,  if  farmers  ceased 
to  feed  cattle  for  the  shambles,  the  sources  of 
carbonic  acid  gas  would  be  interfered  with,  that 
thus  vegetable  life  would  decay,  and  '  chaos  come 
again.' 

"  A  better  acquaintance  with  agricultural 
chemistry  would  have  assured  your  correspon- 
dent that  there  are  other  sources  of  carbonic  acid 
gas  than  those  to  which  he  refers,  such  as  the 
decay  of  vegetables  in  the  air,  of  roots  in  the  soil, 
of  the  remains  of  animals,  as  well  as  the  com- 
bustion of  wood  and  coal,  and,  especially  in 
volcanic  countries,  the  very  craeks  and  fissures  of 
the  earth.  We  may,  therefore,  safely  leave  the 
balance  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  to  the 
ordinary  operation  of  the  laws  of  nature.  Your 
correspondents  claim  for  animal  food  a  greater 
capacity  to  sustain  bodily  labour  and  the  wear 
and  tear  of  life.  Neither  science  nor  experience 
warrants  the  assertion.  Did  space  permit,  nu- 
merous facts  might  be  cited  to  establish  the 
contrary. 

"Brindley,  the  celebrated  canal  engineer, 
informs  us  that,  in  the  various  works  in  which  he 
was  engaged,  the  workmen  being  paid  by  the 
piece,  and  each  exerting  himself  to  earn  as  much 
as  possible,  the  men  from  Lancashire  and  York- 
shire, who  adhered  to  their  customary  diet  of 
oatmeal  porridge  and  bread,  with  water  for  their 
drink,  sustained  more  labour,  and  made  greater 
wages,  than  others  who  lived  on  a  more  expensive 
diet,  comprising  bacon  and  beer.  An  analysis 
of  the  two  kinds  of  food  will  at  once  show  the 


superiority  of  vegetable  food,  both  with  respect 
to  nutriment  and   economy.     Such    articles    as 
wheat,  rice,  peas,  and  beans  contain  from  82  to 
92  per  cent,  of    solid  nutritious  matter,  while 
beef  and  mutton  only  contain  36  per  cent.,  the 
rest   being  water.  Chemists   have   shown   that, 
to  supply  the  material  of  the  flesh  of  our  bodies 
from  beef  and  mutton  is  five  times  more  expen- 
sive  than  from  such   articles    as   beans,    peas, 
barley,  and  wheat.     The  presence  of  three  kinds 
of    principles — carbonaceous,   nitrogenous,   and 
inorganic — are  requisite  in  all  food.     The  first, 
for  the  purposes  of  respiration,  and  to  sustain 
animal  heat ;   the  second,  to  repair  the  waste  of 
the  muscular  and  nervous  tissues ;  and  the  third, 
for  the  requirements  of  the  bones.     '  Grain  and 
other  nutritious  vegetables,'  says  Leibig,  'yield 
us,  not   only  (in  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  fibrin,  albumen,  and  casein)  our  blood, 
from   which  the   other  parts   of  our  body  are 
developed.'      'Good   wheaten  bread,'  says   Dr. 
Carpenter,  'contains  more  nearly   than   any 
other  substance  in  ordinary  use  the  proportion 
of  azotised  (nitrogenous)  and  non-azotized  (car- 
bonaceous) matter,  which  is  adapted  to  repair 
the   system,  and  to  supply  the  wants  of  com- 
bustible material,  under   the  ordinary  conditions 
of  civilised  life  in  temperate  climates ;  and  we  find 
that  health  and  strength  can  be  more  perfectly  sus- 
tained upon  that  substance  than  upon  any  other, 
taken  alone.'  But  flesh,  while  it  contains  materials 
to  supply  the  muscular  an^  nervous  systems,  is 
almost  entirely  deficient  of  the  heart-producing 
element,  or  the  material  for  the  bones.     It  is 
true  that  animal  food  is  more  stimulating  than 
vegetable  food,  and  we  are  apt  to  mistake  the 
stimulation  for  strength  ;  but  the  febrile  excite- 
ment (for  it  is  nothing  else)  of  animal  food  is  a 
disadvantage,  and  wears   out   the   constitution 
more  rapidly  than  the  unstimulating  and  tranquil 
action  of  vegetable  diet.     Your  correspondent's 
plea  for  depriving  the  ox  of  its  life  is  not  satis- 
factory.   No    doubt  man,  being  '  made  a  little 
lower  than  the  angels,'  has  dominion  over  the 
inferior  creation.     But  a  question  arises,  how  far 
he  is  entitled  to  exercise   his   authority  in  an 
arbitrary   manner,  and  from  mere   selfish  con- 
siderations. 

"With  regard  to  the  'numerous  aniraalculae' 
which  our  friend  fancies  he  has  discovered  in  the 
cabbage,  it  is  no  doubt  a  fact,  that  such  will  appear 
in  decaying  vegetable  matter,  and  for  wise  and 
useful  purposes,  but  we  entirely  deny  their  exis- 
tence in  sound  fruits  and  farinacea.  The  cab- 
bage, and  other  crude  vegetables,  the  Vegetarians 
generally  leave  for  the  use  of  the  cattle,  and 
their  consumers.  But  we  must  conclude.  In 
our  anxiety  to  meet  fully  the  various  objections 
of  your  correspondents,  we  have  taken  up  much 
space,  but  trust  your  readers  will  derive  advan- 
tage from  the  opportunity  aO'orded  them  of  as- 
certaining the  truth  or  error  in  the  subject  under 
discussion.  "  A  VEGETARIAN." 

—  Glasgoui  Sentinel,  March  24. 


THE  PEEYING  UPON  ANIMALS   THE  TRAINER  FOR  WAR. 


43 


THE    ANNUAL    MEETING    AND    CONFERENCE. 


It  will  be  seen  from  our  advertising  pages, 
that  a  Vegetarian  Conference  is  proposed, 
as  an  additional  feature  of  interest,  at  the 
time  of  the  Annual  Meeting. 

Everybody  of  calm  observation  must  see, 
and  be  ready  to  admit,  the  unfavourable 
eflFects  produced  upon  everything  vrhatever 
which  has  an  elevating  and  improving  ten- 
dency, as  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  certain 
fruits  of  a  state  of  war.  All  good  things 
do,  in  truth,  languish  and  decline,  while  the 
antagonistic  evils  assailing  humanity  are 
rapidly  fostered  into  rank  growth.  Vege- 
tarians, thus,  do  well  to  meet  with  the 
avowed  purpose  of  conferring  with  each 
other ;  and,  doubtless,  by  renewed  efforts, 
and  the  extension  of  their  labours  to  meet 
the  demand  for  a  more  sufficient  and  deeper- 
felt  advocacy  of  their  system,  they  will  best 
discharge  the  duties  of  their  position. 

On  the  outset,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  broad 
is  the  peace-principle  involved  in  the  practice 
of  ceasing  to  prey  upon  the  animal  creation. 
Accepting  the  teeming  stores  of  Nature's 
garden,  we  live  in  accordance  with  the  earliest 
prescription  of  man's  food,  and  that  which, 
to-day,  as  in  all  intermediate  time,  is  alone 
in  harmony  with  reason.  With  this  happy 
and  more  complete  system  prevailing  in 
the  practices  of  men,  war  could  have  no 
place,  at  least  in  civilized  communities ;  for, 
with  the  development  of  morals  and  in- 
tellect in  a  degree  corresponding  to  the  phy- 
sical obedience  contended  for,  man  could 
not  withdraw  himself  from  the  slaughter  of 
animals,  without  at  the  same  time  recog- 
nizing, to  a  far  greater  extent  than  is  now 
practised,  the  principle  of  love  for  his 
fellow-man,  the  extinguisher  of  the  spirit 
of  human  strife  and  bloodshed  everywhere. 
This  philosophy  of  our  system,  however, 
may  seem  too  visionary  and  far  off  to  be 
more  than  smiled  at.  The  same  has  been 
remarked    of    all     good    things     in    their 


earliest  history,  and  stands  as  no  valid 
objection  to  the  practical  claims  of  Vege- 
tarianism now,  since,  as  far  as  our  num- 
bers and  influence  extend,  the  adherents 
of  the  system  put  a  more  effective  veto  upon 
war,  with  its  untold  curses,  than  the  most 
prominent  of  other  philanthropists  have 
ever  yet  done,  from  the  fact  that  they  do 
not  overlook  the  errors  and  false  training 
which  necessarily  lead  to  war. 

AVe  thus  trust  that  the  obligations  of  the 
times  will  be  fully  recognized  by  our  Vege- 
tarian friends  far  and  wide,  and  that  the 
meeting  in  Manchester  will  be  such  as  not 
merely  to  enable  the  Society  to  hold  its  own 
progress  secure,  but  to  exercise  a  further 
special  effect  in  realizing  steps  to  the  ultimate 
conviction  that  the  common  social  dietetic 
practices  are  amongst  the  evils  at  the  root  of 
our  political  mistakes  and  wrong-doings. 

The  occasion  of  the  Conference  will,  also, 
most  probably,  be  accompanied  by  some  pub- 
lic teaching  of  the  principles  of  our  system, 
on  a  large  scale;  and  this,  it  may  be  ex- 
pected, apart  from  the  proposed  Vegetarian 
Festivals  in  the  months  following  July  to 
the  close  of  the  year,  will  still  further  increase 
the  usefulness  of  the  plan  laid  down  for  the 
approaching  Annual  Meeting.  The  Con- 
ference will  be  of  interest  and  importance  to 
Vegetarians,  but  some  Public  Meeting  will 
doubtless  be  brought  to  bear,  to  give  some 
assembled  at  these  deliberations  an  oppor- 
tunity of  making  their  visit  to  Manchester 
as  useful  as  well  may  be. 

As  regards  the  place  fixed  for  the  Annual 
Meeting,  it  may  be  remarked  that  it  is  as 
central  as  possible,  and  offers  more  facilities 
for  the  greatest  numbers  assembling  than 
any  other ;  and  is  thus  a  very  important 
feature  in  the  objects  sought  to  be  secured. 
We  trust  the  arrangements  to  be  promul- 
gated will  still  further  develop  the  goodness 
of  the  plan  laid  down. 


THE    PREYING    UPON    ANIMALS    THE    TRAINER    FOR    WAR. 

itself,  at  best  stand  still  and  can  make  no 
progress ;    when    even    sustained  attention 


At 
all 


a  time  when  morals  are  oppressed,  and 
things,    including    Christianisra 

6 


good 


44 


THE  PREYING   UPON   ANIMALS   THE  TRAINER  FOR  WAR. 


sufficient  to  make  wise  social  laws  cannot 
be  secured, — when  all  breathes  war,  or 
shrinks  and  fades  before  its  breath — it  is  in 
a  measure  encouraging  to  see  that  the  germ 
of  all  this  evil,  is,  at  least,  dimly  perceived, 
and  that  the  truth  as  old  as  man's  history, 
and  always  knoAvu  to  the  few,  will  come  to 
be  popularly  understood. 

The  best  efforts  of  philanthropy  com- 
monly overleap  some  external  social  con- 
dition or  other,  the  neglect  of  Avhich  is  fatal 
to  the  realization  of  the  object  professed 
and  sought  to  be  attained.  This  is  so  with 
the  great  majority  of  the  professors  of 
Christianity,  who  bold  a  theoretical  ex- 
position of  its  principles,  and  by  erroneous 
habits  make  this  difficult,  or  almost  im- 
possible, to  be  reduced  to  practice.  It  is, 
again,  pre-eminently  so  with  our  brethren 
of  the  Peace  Society,  who,  whilst  they 
denounce  war  on  the  one  hand,  sanction,  in 
the  great  majority  of  their  practice,  the 
slaughter  and  preying  upon  the  animal  crea- 
tion, Avhich  is  the  great  trainer  for  war,  and 
overleaping  the  consideration  of  which,  they 
now,  and  must  ever,  have  but  a  compara- 
tively feeble  influence  for  the  attainment  of 
their  benevolent  object. 

It  is  thus  happy  to  perceive,  here  and 
there,  in  the  writing  of  a  recent  period  (if 
the  voice  be  somewhat  lower,  or  even  un- 
heard, under  the  noise  of  other  and  worse 
interests, now),  that  much  that  the  facts  of  the 
past  and  present  prove, — what  nature  in  the 
great  laws  enstamped  upon  her  shows — 
what  the  poets  have  sung,  and  what  mercy 
and  reason  combined  dictate,  is  felt  and 
acknowledged  in  its  educational  importance 
on  society,  and  the  results  on  a  future  gene- 
ration clearly  apprehended. 

We  extract  the  followino^  matter,  shoAving- 
how  cruelty  to  animals  is  the  forerunner  of 
aggression  and  war,  Avith  its  thousand  curses 
upon  the  human  species,  from  Social  Stafics,* 
as  amply  illustrating  a  measure  of  the  prin- 
ciple for  Avhich  we  contend— that  man  must  be 
consistent  to  be  happy,  and  live  in  harmony 
Avith  his  whole  moral,  intellectual,  and  phy- 
sical nature,  Avhich  forbids  the  slaughtering 
and  preying  upon  the  brute  creation,  as 
grounded  in  error,  a  remnant  of  fallen  and 
acquired  savage  nature,  and  ultimately  to 
disappear  before  the  progress  of  a  real  and 
enlightened  civilization. 

"  Whoever  thinks  that  a  thoroughly- 
civilized  community  could  be  formed  out  of 
men  qualified  to  wage  Avar  Avith  the  pre- 
existing occupants  of  the  earth — that  is, 
Avhoever  thinks  that  men  might  behave 
sympathetically  to  their  I'ellows,  whilst  be- 
having unsympathetically  to  inferior  crea- 
tures, will  discover  his  error  on  looking 
♦  pp.  411,  412,  by  H.  Spknckr, 


at  the  facts.  He  will  find  that  hvmian 
beings  are  cruel  to  one  another  in  proportion 
as  their  habits  are  predatoiy.  Tlie  Indian, 
whose  life  is  spent  in  the  chase,  delights  in 
torturing  his  brother  man  as  much  as  in 
killing  game.  His  sons  are  schooled  into 
fortitude  by  long  days  of  torment,  and  his 
squaw  made  prematurely  old  by  hard  treat- 
ment. The  treachery  and  vindictiveness 
which  Bushmen,  or  Australians,  show  to  one 
another,  and  to  Europeans,  are  accompani- 
ments of  that  never-ceasing  enmity  existing 
between  them  and  the  denizens  of  the  Avil- 
derness.  Amongst  partially-civilized  nations 
the  two  characteristics  have  ever  borne  the 
same  relationship.  Thus  the  spectators  in 
the  Roman  amphitheatres  were  as  much 
delighted  by  the  slaying  of  gladiators  as  by 
the  death-struggles  of  Avild  beasts.  The 
ages  during  Avhich  Europe  was  thinly 
peopled,  and  hunting  a  chief  occupation, 
Avere  also  the  ages  of  feudal  A'iolence, 
universal  brigandage,  dungeons,  tortures. 
Here  in  England,  a  whole  province  depopu- 
lated to  make  game  preserA-^es,  and  a  law 
sentencing  to  death  the  serf  who  killed  a 
stag,  shoAV  how  great  activity  of  the  preda- 
tory instinct,  and  utter  indifi'erence  to  human 
happiness,  co  existed.  In  later  days,  when 
bull-baiting  and  cock-fighting  Avere  common 
pastimes,  the  penal  code  Avas  far  more  severe 
than  now ;  prisons  Avere  full  of  horrors ; 
men  put  in  the  pillory  Avere  maltreated  by 
the  populace ;  and  the  inmates  of  lunatic 
asylums,  chained  naked  to  the  wall,  Avere 
exhibited  for  money,  and  tormented-  for  the 
amusement  of  visitors.  Conversely,  amongst 
ourselves  a  desire  to  diminish  human  misery 
is  accompanied  by  a  desire  to  ameliorate  the 
couflition  of  inferior  creatures.  Whilst  the 
kindlier  feeling  of  man  is  seen  in  all  varie- 
. tics  of  philanthropic  effort:  in  charitable 
societies,  in  associations  for  iraproA-ing  the 
dAvellings  of  the  labouring  classes,  in  anxiety 
for  popular  education,  in  attempts  to  abolish 
capital  punishments,  in  zeal  for  temperance 
reformation,  in  ragged  schools,  in  endeavours 
to  protect  climbing  boys,  in  inquiries  con- 
cerning '  labour  and  the  poor,'  in  emigration 
funds,  in  the  milder  treatment  of  children, 
and  so  on ;  it  also  shows  itself  in  societies 
for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  animals,  in 
acts  of  parliament  to  put  down  the  use  of 
dogs  for  purpose  of  draught,  in  the  condem- 
nation of  steeple-chases  and  baltuet,  in  the 
late  inquiry  Avhy  the  pursuers  of  a  stag 
should  not  be  punished  as  much  as  the  carter 
who  maltreats  his  horse  ?  and,  lastly,  in 
Vegetarianism." 

It  will  be  perceived  that  the  writer  here 
merely  approaches  the  subject  of  Vege- 
tarianism, arriving  at  it  last,  and  refer- 
rin"-  to  it  as  one  of  the  humanizing  influences 


THE   PREYING  UPON  ANIMALS  THE   TRAINER   FOR  WAR. 


45 


of  the  times.  In  this  aspect,  however, 
carrying  the  inquiry  no  further  than  that' of 
philosophical  observation  and  investigation, 
it  is  at  least  interesting  to  contemplate  how 
much  deeper  and  comprehensive  the  claims 
of  this  reform  are,  seeing  that  they  begin 
with  the  early,  personal,  and  social  training 
of  its  adherents — a  training  most  power- 
fully recommended  to  the  attention,  as 
beginning  at  the  beginning,  and  working  its 
way  in  the  subsequent  experience  of  life, 
ever  combining  and  harmonizing  with  all 
that  is  lastingly  good. 

A  further  valuable  article  we  notice  from 
a  number  of  the  North  British  Review  :  * 

"We  cannot  close  these  observations 
without  referring  to  those  causes  which 
create  and  foster  in  man  that  love  of  adven- 
ture, and  those  habits  of  cruelty,  which 
throw  a  halo  around  the  red  target  of  war, 
inciting  the  young  to  its  bloody  mysteries, 
and  hardening  the  old  in  their  military 
frenzy.  When  we  witness,  for  the  first  time, 
the  cruel  experiments  which  science  some- 
times demands  from  her  votaries,  the  heart 
sickens  at  the  sight,  and  the  head  turns 
instinctively  away  from  the  living  agonies 
before  it.  Soon,  however,  does  the  heart 
resume  its  normal  tranquillity,  and  as  soon 
does  the  eye  return  to  the  sight  of  pain. 
Need  Ave  wonder,  then,  that  the  child,  acois- 
tomed,  almost  from  his  birth,  to  the  infliction 
of  pain,  and  deriving  his  earliest  pleasure 
from  the  extinction  of  life,  should  in  his 
riper  jea^  boast  of  the  number  and  magni- 
tude of  his  cruelties,  and  thus,  by  an  easy 
transition,  pass  to  the  atrocities  of  war,  as  a 
step  in  advance,  or  as  the  climax,  of  his 
early  achievements. 

"  It  is  painful  to  remember  how  we  first 
exercised  our  dominion  over  living  nature, 
by  the  capture  and  destruction  of  the  love- 
liest insects ;  and  how  we  arrested  the 
industrious  bee  in  its  honest  labours,  and 
even  when  in  our  own  service,  by  robbing  it 
at  once  of  its  life  and  treasure.  By  the 
hazel  wand,  with  its  line  of  cord  and  its  hook 
of  steel,  we  committed  havoc  among  the 
minnows,  before  the  spring  gun  had  intro- 
duced us  to  the  more  lethal  tube  which  was 
guilty  of  the  blood  of  sparrows.  Though 
but  a  youthful  spectator  in  the  scene,  we 
gaze  with  delight  on  the  varied  feats  of  the 
angler.  We  watch  him  in  the  stream  and 
in  the  pool,  impaling  the  writhing  Avorm 
upon  his  line — sacrificing  one  life  to  take 
another ;  and  with  the  bright  sun  above 
him,  and  the  dove-like  sky  around,  and  rock 
and  woodland  demanding  his  admiration  of 
peaceful  nature,  he  terminates  his  every  act 
of  pleasure  by  every  variety  of  pain.  The 
life  Avhich  he  has  caught  is  rudely  dashed 
*  November,  1851,  pp.  44—47. 


out  against  the  rock,  or  crushed  by  his  living 
hand,  or  alloAved  to  pass  away  in  the  slow 
and  fluttering  agonies  of  pain.  Thus,  hard- 
ened lor  the  future,  our  river  hero  is  soon 
introduced  to  a  still  higher  sport,  and  still 
bloodier  gambols.  The  companion  of  the 
licensed  fisherman,  or  of  the  lawless  poacher, 
he  is  invited  to  the  romantic  drama  of  the 
sunning  of  the  water  by  day,  and  the  burn- 
ing of  it  by  night,  in  which  the  picturesque 
grandeur  of  rock  and  stream,  and  the  sub- 
limity of  AA^orlds  in  the  canopy  above,  form  a 
strange  contrast  with  thcAvork  of  death  below. 
Frightened  by  the  ruddy  blaze,  the  salmon 
seeks  for  shelter  beneath  the  stones  and  clifi's, 
or  lies  stupified  beside  them,  till  the  river 
Neptune,  with  his  three-pronged  trident, 
dashes  it  into  the  flesh  of  his  glittering  prey, 
and  casts  him  in  triumph  to  the  shore. 

"Harrowing  as  is  the  sight  itself,  and 
painful  as  it  is  in  all  its  details  and 
accessories,  we  are  yet  disposed  to  regard  our 
river  sports  as  more  humane  in  their  cha- 
racter, and  less  cruel  in  their  practice,  than 
those  of  the  gun  and  the  chase.  We  cannot, 
indeed,  afllrm,  as  some  have  done,  that 
ichthyological  life  is  less  painfully  surren- 
dered than  that  of  the  mammalia,  though 
our  early  cruelties  make  us  indulge  in  the 
belief  that  the  amount  of  suffering  is 
proportional  to  the  magnitude  of  thesuflTerer. 
Yet,  when  Ave  see  the  salmon  stretched  on 
the  ground  without  a  wound,  and  slain  with- 
out the  shedding  of  blood,  our  sympathy 
is  immeasurably  less  than  that  which  is 
called  forth  when  we  scan  the  stately  hart, 
with  its  glazed  eye  and  its  quivering  limb, 
or  the  comely  roe-deer,  perforated  by  the 
rifle,  or  torn  by  the  ferocious  hound.  Our 
animal  associations,  too,  have  a  powerful 
influence  over  our  sympathies.  Ourselves  a 
genus  in  the  mammiferous  community,  we 
naturally  associate  their  sufl'erings  with 
our  own.  The  shrieks  of  the  female  orang- 
outang, so  singularly  human,  are  said  to 
thrill  through  the  very  heart  of  her  pur- 
suers ;  and  Ave  would  not  envy  the  sports- 
man whose  domestic  sympathies  are  not 
aAvakened  when  he  has  slain  the  hart  in 
the  presence  of  his  mate,  or  the  tender  hind 
in  the  act  of  caressing  its  ofl'spring.  The 
death  of  a  sportive  fawn,  killed  by  the 
random  shot  of  the  deer-stalker,  will  call 
forth  a  deeper  feeling  than  the  demise  of 
3,000  salmon  caught  in  one  net  by  the  arctic 
fisherman.  But  though  we  have  thus  ofl'ered 
a  palliative  of  fly--flshing  as  less  inhuman 
than  some  of  our  other  amusements,  we 
have  no  toleration  for  the  doctrine  that  the 
nervous  system  of  cold-blooded  animals  is 
but  little  sensitive,  and  that  the  hook  pulls 
only  against  a  piece  of  unfeeling  carti- 
las^e.  *  *  *  * 


46 


BIRDS   THE   HORTICULTURISTS   BEST   FRIENDS. 


"  From  the  river  scene  our  apprentice 
soldier  passes  to  the  field  and  to  the  heath, 
to  the  rock  and  to  the  forest,  to  Avouud  and 
to  slay  his  victims.  It  is  a  question  to  which 
humanity  invites  us,  but  which  we  cannot 
here  discuss.  How  far  it  is  justifiable  to  con- 
sider animal  life  as  entirely  at  our  disposal. 
The  dominion  which  has  been  assigned  to 
us  over  the  dumb  creation  may  not  involve 
a  right  over  their  lives.  The  flesh  may  be 
ours,  but  not  the  feelings  and  affections 
which  it  breathes.  It  is,  doubtless,  a  crime 
to  kill  with  unnecessary  pain.  It  is  a 
greater  crime  to  kill  for  the  pleasure  of 
killing,  or  the  vanity  of  having  killed.  It  is 
a  crime  to  kill  when  the  victim  is  innocent, 
and  the  carcass  useless.  It  may  be  a  crime 
to  kill  when  the  feelings  and  affections  of 
uncomplaining  instinct  are  violated  by  the 
deed  ;  and  when  we  consider  in  the  abstract 
the  value  of  life — our  inability  to  restore  it 
— the  beauty  and  loveliness  of  the  forms 
which  clothe  it,  and  the  possibility  that  in 
its  nobler  aspects,  and  under  its  almost 
rational  instincts,  it  may  have  a  responsi- 
bility here,  and  a  life  hereafter,  it  would  be 
well  to  pause  before  we  strike,  and  to  re- 
joice over  the  life  which  we  may  have  spared. 

"  Such  is  the  education  of  the  civilian  and 
the  soldier — of  the  man  that  purchases  and 
whets  the  sword,  and  of  him  that  delights 
in  its  blood  spots,  and  anticipates  glory  from 
being  its  victim.  It  is  an  education,  this,  of 
easy  acquirement — it  is  but  the  lesson  of  the 
eye  and  the  limb.  The  mind  hybernates 
under  its  teaching,  and  the  heart  ossifies 
under  its  training.  It  is  the  nursery  of 
war — its  school — its  university — its  ap- 
prenticeship. It  has  a  government  grant 
in  its  support.  The  Christian  layman  prac- 
tises at  its  ring,  and  the  priest  blesses  it 
with  his  sanction.  Let  the  friends  of  peace, 
then,  counteract  this  early  passion  for  ad- 
venture and  cruelty.  Let  not  the  mother 
turn  her  milk  into  blood,  nor  the  father  his 


parental  tenderness  into  cruelty.  Time 
will  soon  soften  natures  which  custom  has 
not  hardened  ;  and  the  stripling  will  hardly 
seek  in  his  manhood  for  what  have  not  been 
the  amusements  of  his  earlier  days.  The 
cruelty  of  youth  diminishes  as  we  advance 
in  years,  age  replaces  it  with  a  nobler  am- 
bition ;  and  it  in  is  the  final  lustrum  of  our 
being  that  we  truly  feel.  The  infliction  of 
pain  and  the  shedding  of  blood  become 
torture  to  our  chastened  and  more  sensitive 
nature— ephemeral  life  even  is  spared— and 
all  other  life  stands  sacred  when  we  are 
about  to  draw  the  first  breath  of  that  better 
life  which  we  can  never  lose." 

The  graphic  description  of  the  progres- 
sive training  here  referred  to,  could  hardly 
be  exceeded  in  correctness,  so  far  as  it  ex- 
tends ;  but  still,  there  is  much  that  is  still 
overlooked,  or  no  more  than  glanced  at, 
in  the  continuous,  though  possibly  unseen, 
system  of  destruction  carried  out  by  proxy, 
to  supply  the  ordinary  demands  of  the 
table,  and  the  ultimate  effects  of  the  flesh 
of  animals,  again,  in  inducing  unfavourable 
physical  conditions,  to  present  difficulty,  and 
be  contended  with,  in  more  than  the  ways 
here  pointed  out. 

The  inquiry,  "  How  far  it  is  justifiable  to 
consider  animal  life  entirely  at  our  disposal," 
will,  at  least,  produce  no  harm  with  the 
most  opposed  to  the  theory  and  practice 
of  Vegetarianism,  especially  if  the  subject 
be  divested  of  some  of  its  palpable  as- 
sumptions, which  often  involve  the  denial 
of  the  commonest  facts. 

Many  of  the  inquiries  raised  by  this 
writer  belong  to  the  very  genius  of  Vegeta- 
rianism, and  if  fairly  followed  out,  must 
ultimately  end  there,  rendering,  when 
adopted,  the  results  of  education  certain  and 
happy,  because  guaranteeing  society  against 
many  of  the  gross  and  glaring  evils  and 
anomalies  which  now  produce  its  greatest 
sufferings  and  misery. 


BIEDS    THE    HORTICULTURIST'S    BEST    FEIENDS. 


We  extract  the  following  appeal  for  the 
birds,  from  an  American  publication*  having 
merely  exception  to  take  to  two  brief  pas- 
sages which  we  omit,  and  which  seem,  to  us 
at  least,  to  be  at  variance  with  the  other- 
wise truthful  and  humane  observations  of 
the  writer : — 

"Just  now,  on  a  bright  March  morning, 
as  we  heard  the  early  bluebird  and  robin 
salute  the  rising  sun  with  their  glad  songs 
of  spring,  we  determined  to  make  an  appeal 
to  our  readers  infavour  of  the  horticulturist's 
best  friends,  and  against  the  savage  and 
senseless  custom  of  bird  killing. 
•  Prairie  Farmer. 


"  Our  Legislature,  we  see,  has  passed  a  law 
prohibiting  the  untimely  destruction  of 
game-birds ;  but  no  one  seems  to  have 
thought  of  preventing  the  wanton  slaughter 
of  our  singing  birds  and  insect  eaters,  or 
the  more  systematic  killing  of  some  species 
known,  or  suspected  of  doing  the  husband- 
man an  occasional  ill  turn,  while  really 
acting  as  industrious  and  indispensable 
helpers. 

"  This  Game  Law  is  doubtless  a  good  enact- 
ment.* *  *  AVe  trust,  moreover,  that  the 
tendency  of  this  law  will  not  be  to  lead 
persons  who  will  shoot  something^  to  exercise 
their  skill  on  those  lesser  birds  which  are 


THE  CONTROVERSALIST  AND  CORRESPONDENT. 


47 


our  chief  protection  against  the  appalling 
increase  of  insects  injurious  to  vegetation. 

"It  has  been  said,  by  one  ot  our  most 
learned  writers,  that  insects  annually  destroy 
crops,  in  these  United  States,  of  the  value 
of  at  least  twenty  millions  of  dollars,  and 
this  estimate  is  believed  to  be  far  below  the 
reality,  and  except  our  hope  of  relief  through 
meteorological  or  elemental  influences,  we 
have  scarce  any  dependence  for  checking  the 
increase  of  the  countless  swarms  of  destructive 
insects  save  the  birds,  and  the  few  predaceous 
insects  themselves ;  and  these  latter  we  are 
full  as  apt  to  sacrifice  to  our  ignorance,  as  we 
are  the  birds  in  our  mistaken  prejudices. 

"  That  most  of  our  small  birds  feed  largely 
on  insects  is  beyond  dispute;  and  that  just 
about  in  proportion  to  the  decrease  of  birds 
has  been  the  increase  of  our  insect  enemies, 
many  have  asserted,  and  those  best  informed 
fully  believe. 

"  In  evidence  of  this  let  us  watch  a  pair  of 
our  smallest  and  most  sociable  and  confiding 
birds — the  common  wren — and  see  how 
often  and  how  loaded  with  insect  carcasses 
they  arrive  at  the  nest.  See,  too,  the  heavy 
burthen  of  worms  which  the  blackbird, 
following  the  furrow,  bears  to  his  greedy 
oifspring.  And  yet,  on  some  silly  pretence, 
you  suffer  your  boys  to  break  up  the  nest  of 
the  little  chatterer,  and  you  remorsely  shoot 
down  the  poor  blackbird,  because,  forsooth, 
he  helps  himself  to  a  little  corn,  when  you 
have  neglected  turning  up  grubs  for  him  ; 
and  that,  too,  when  he  has  preserved  an 
hundred  times  the  valne,  and  many  more 
times  the  quantity  his  pressing  wants  have 
made  him  appropriate.*  *  *  The  red  headed 
woodpecker,  the  blue  jay,  and  even  that 
gentle  warbler,  the  robin,  have  occasionally 
vexed  us  beyond  bearing  by  their  petty 
thefts  in  the  fruit  garden  and  orchard,  and 
we  have  been  tempted  to  treat  them  unjustly. 
For,  though  these  birds  love  small  fruits,  in 
their  season  and  out,  and  the  two  former 
greatly  delight  in  scooping  out  the  inside  of 
the  tenderest  apples,  yet  we  have  fully 
satisfied  ourselves  that  these  birds  do  earn 
their  wages — ten  times  over.  And  we  have 
not  the  least  question,  from  actual  experi- 
ence, that  if  the  farmer  will  set  the  plough 
a-going,  the  moment  his  corn  is  up,  the 
blackbird  will  follow  the  new  furrow,  and 
gather  up  heaps  of  noxious  grubs,  instead  of 
following  the  corn  row,  to  pull  for  the  soft 
kernel  at  the  base  of  the  plant,  and  which  is 


by  no  means  so  desirable  a  blackbird  deli- 
cacy as  would  be  a  juicy  cut- worm,  or  a  large 
fat  grub — the  larvae  of  some  dangerous  insect. 

"  It  has  been  admitted  by  practical  farmers 
that  it  will  pay  well  to  set  a  man  at  work  to 
collect  the  cut-worms  in  the  hills  of  corn ; 
and  it  will  most  certainly  pay  to  employ  men 
to  destroy  rose  bugs,  caterpillars,  borers, 
curculios,  etc.,  etc..  in  the  garden  and 
orchard.  In  fact,  if  we  dispense  with  birds, 
hand  picking  is  our  only  alternative  in  most 
cases.  And  will  any  one  venture  to  say  that 
a  few  nests  of  birds  will  not  prove  more 
eflSicient  than  the  labours  of  a  man,  and  come 
much  cheaper,  too  }  Nature  has  given  the 
bird  perceptive  faculties  in  connection  with 
this  insect-killing  vocation,  never  equalled 
by  man  ;  and  then,  the  bird  labours  for  his 
own  and  family's  sustenance,  and  works  with 
a  will  as  well  as  an  '  instinct.' 

"  There  is  no  mistake  about  it ;  birds  are 
the  horticulturist's  best  friends,  and  he  can 
better  dispense  with  the  labours  of  animals 
than  he  can  spare  the  help  of  birds — and  to 
the  farmer  they  are  equally  necessary  and 
much  less  annoying. 

"  And  yet  birds  are  still  wantonly  destroy- 
ed, or  are  victims  to  our  ignorance  of  their 
worth,  and  our  prejudices  against  some  of 
their  venial  acts.  There  have  been  even 
laws  enacted  for  their  destruction  within  our 
time  ;  and  our  Pilgrim  Fathers,  we  believe, 
enacted  a  tax  of  so  many  birds,  heads  of  every 
citizen.  And  to  this  day  the  most  useful 
birds  die,  as  did  the  Salem  witches,  the 
victims  of  a  delusion,  or  a  prejudice  made 
powerful  by  time  and  old  custom. 

"It  is  very  easy  to  secure  the  service  of 
birds  ;  plenty  of  low  trees,  thick  shrubs, 
hedges,  etc.,  but  really  the  least  objection- 
able will  readily  appear,  only  when  you  con- 
struct houses  for  them;  such  are  the  martins, 
swallows,  bluebirds,  wrens,  etc.,  and  these 
are  among  the  most  useful  of  our  birds. 

"  There  is  yet  another  aspect  in  which  to 
view  this  subject — in  connection  with  the 
grace  and  beauty  of  the  feathered  tribe — 
their  social  and  confiding  habits — conjugal 
fidelity  and  care  for  their  young,  and  many 
more  amiable  traits,  from  which  man  might 
well  take  lessons,  while  enjoying  their  de- 
lightful society. 

"  Spare  the  birds,  good  friends,  and  pro- 
vide fitting  homes  for  them,  and  grudge 
them  not  a  morsel  of  food  from  the  stores 
they  help  to  save  from  insect  enemies." 


THE    CONTROVERSIALIST 

THE    DARWEN   DISCUSSION. 

The  following  correspondence  forms  the 
fii'st  part  of  a  discussion  recently  commenced 
in  the  Barwen  Examiner, 


AND    CORRESPONDENT. 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Danoen  Examiner." 

"Sir — Having  given  Vegetarianism  a  nine 
months'  trial,  upon  the  prniciple  Experientia 
docet,  and  with  the  idea  that  there  is  no  thing  so 


48 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST   AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


bad,  but  has  some  good  point  or  other,  I  hope 
you  will  find  room  in  your  excellent  paper  for  a 
few  retoarks  on  the  system  which  many  in  Darwen 
are  practising  at  the  present  time.  A  casual 
reader  of  the  speeches  of  leading  Vegetarians 
will  nearly  always  find  that  they  take  Scripture 
as  their  starting  point,  but  refuse  to  knock  under 
to  w|iat  they  call  Scripture  arguments.  In  an 
account  of  the  Vegetarian  Banquet  at  Leeds,  on 
the  20th  of  July  last,  we  read  :  '  Over  the  or- 
chestra was  a  circular  tablet  containing  the  words 
"Mercy  and  Truth";  below,  the  words  of  the 
orir/inal  appointment  of  man's  food — "Behold,  I 
have  given  you  every  herb  bearing  seed,  which  is 
upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and  every  tree,  in 
the  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yieldmg  seed;  to 
you  it  shall  be  for  meat."  Gen.  i,  29.'  Is  not  this 
Scripture  argument  ?  Let  us  examine  this  foun- 
dation of  the  Vegetarian  fabric,  and  we  shall  soon 
have  a  reductio  ad  absurdum.  Now  in  this  verse 
we  are  told  that  every  herb  bearing  seed  should 
be  for  meat.  Flesh  is  not  forbidden  because 
herbs  are  mentioned.  Because  vegetables  are 
mentioned  and  nothing  said  about  cooking  them, 
is  it  not  lawful  to  cook  them  ?  Again,  if  the 
verse  is  to  be  taken  as  a  literal  commandment, 
would  the  hemlock  berries  and  Ignatius  beans, 
etc.,  etc.,  form  exceptions.  The  verse  says  *  every 
herb  bearing  seed.'  It  cauuot  therefore  be  lite- 
rally a  command. 

"  Do  the  Vegetarians  wish  to  live  as  Adam 
lived  in  Paradise,  thinking  that  to  be  the  most 
natural  mode  of  living  ?  Then  alter  the  name  of 
the  Association  ;  let  it  be  called,  '  Vegetarian  and 
Go-Naked  Society.'  We  know  that  our  first  pa- 
rents when  in  Paradise  went  naked  ;  v/e  do  not 
know,  for  a  certainty,  that  they  did  not  eat  flesh 
— so  the  Go-Naked  part  of  the  Society  would 
have  the  better  argument. 

"  Supposing  our  first  parents  to  have  been 
Vegetarians?  Mr.  Simpson  said  (in  his  Ban- 
quet speech)  'when  you  find  man  living  otherwise 
(than  as  a  Vegetarian),  it  is  associated  with  the 
violence  that  covered  the  earth.'  Adam,  they 
say,  was  a  Vegetarian,  yet  he  fell,  and  '  through 
him  sin  entered  into  the  world.'  But  what  does 
Mr.  N.  Griffin  say?  'They  saw  the  aniraal- 
ized  (!)  man  raised  into  all  the  dignity  of  his 
nature,  and  developing  his  varied  powers,  his 
soul  being  drawn  into  blessed  communion  with 
the  God  who  made  him,  and  constantly  advancing 
to  the  highest  and  noblest  purpose  of  his  exist- 
ence ;  and  they  thought,  when  tliis  was  done,  they 
had  accomplished  their  work.'  With  such  '  soft 
sawder'  as  this  would  they  make  one  believe  that 
all  Vegetarians  are  pious  and  holy  men  ;  and  that 
all  pious  men  never  do  such  a  horrid  tiling  as  eat 
mutton-chop.  At  last  we  have  found  the  sine 
qua  lion  of  religion,  which  is  to  do  all  sorts  of 
wonderful  things  for  every  body — Vegetarianism  ! 
which  could  not  keep  sin  out  of  the  world  when 
it  was  out,  but  is  now  going  to  make  man  a  dif- 
ferent being.  I  know  this,  it  loas  making  me  a 
very  different  being  very  fast,  a  skin-and-bone 
being,  but  I  would  rather  keep  my  flesh  on  my 
bones  as  long  as  I  can,  and  be  a  Vegetarian  when 
flesh-meat  is  scarce.  They  say  it  is  unnatural  to 
eat  flesh;  is  not  that  man  a  natural  who  does 


not  ?  Soon  after  Adam  fell,  when  he  had  to  eat 
his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  we  find  his 
son  was  a  keeper  of  sheep,  for  what  other  than 
the  unnatural  purpose  of  eating  them  ?  Tims 
early  were  animals  sacrificed  to  God,  '  and  the 
Lord  had  respect  unto  Abel  and  to  hisofferhifj' 

"  I  have  noticed  the  argument  which  is  the 
foundation  (in  sand)  of  the  Vegetarian  building ; 
but  there  is  one  thing  more,  which  does  indeed 
upset    it,  viz.,  in  the  verse  following  we  find : 
'And  to  every  beast  of  the  earth  and  fowl  of  the 
air,  and  to  every  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the 
earth,  wherein  there  is  life,  I    have  given  every 
green  herb  for  meat.'      Here  we  have  the  very 
same  words   which  are   applied  to   man  in  the 
preceding  verse.     Do  lions  and  tigers,  bears  and 
wolves,  eagles  and  hawks,  in  their  natural  state, 
live  upon  herbs,  etc.  ?    What  is  literal  ni  the  one 
verse  is  literal  in  the  other,  and  vice  versa.  So  mueh 
for  the  original  appointment  of  man's  food.    We 
read  that  the  Lord  approved  of  the  sacrifices  of 
Noah  and  Abel,  etc.  Mr.  Simpson  says  that  the 
slaughter  of  animals,  especially  of  lambs,  is  brutal 
and  cruel.     Yet  God  commanded  animals  to  be 
killed  and  offered  in  the  Temple.     We  read  of 
Peter's  vision,  of    our  Saviour   by  a  miracle 
feeding  the  multitude  with  loaves  and  fishes,  of 
his  eating  fish  himself;  and  we  are  warned  in 
1  Tiyn.  iv,  3,   that  persons  shall    come  in    the 
latter  times,  'commanding  to  abstain  from  meat, 
which    God  hath   created   to    be   received    with 
thanksgiving  of  them  which  believe  and  know  the 
truth.     For  every  creature  of  God  is  good,  and 
nothing  to   be  refused,  if  it  be  received   with 
thanksgiving.     For  it  is  sanctified  by  the  Word 
of  God   and  by   prayer,'     Mr.   Simpson    then 
supposes  Talleyrand  on  the  top  of  Primrose 
Hill,  with  his  future  dirmers  grouped  around  him 
—30  oxen,  200  sheep,  100  calves,  200  lambs,  50 
pigs,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.     I  suppose  a  Vegetarian  boy 
would  see  a  mountain  of  corn,  cabbage,  turnips, 
and  potatoes.     He  would  not,  of  course,  see  the 
butter,  the  milk,  the  cheese,  the  sheep-skins,  and 
ox-skins,  etc.,  etc.     Vegetarians  profess  to  live 
naturally  like   Adam.     Eggs   and   milk  do  not 
grow  in  the  field,  butter  and  cheese  are  far  from 
being  herbs,  and  yet  they  talk  about  the  original 
appointment  of  man's  food.     Mr.  Simpson  says 
that  there  is  no  poetry  in  beef-steaks,  and  he  said 
this  with  a  sheep-skin  on  his  back.     I  am  sure 
there  is  no  poetry  in  that.     He  has  made  a  great 
discovery — there  is  no  poetry  in  beef — we  don't 
want  any,  we  always  leave  the  poetry  till  after 
dinner.     He  tells  us  that  the  proportional  length 
of  the  intestines  of  man  approximating  to  that  of 
the  horse,  the  cow,  and  the  sheep,  the  food  of 
man  should  approximate  too.     Does  he  mean  to 
turn   his  Vegetarian  flock  out   to  graze  on  the 
tender  grass,  the  daisies,  and  the  buttercups  ? 

"  Experience  is  a  good  school  master ;  I  have 
tried  Vegetarianism,  and  found  that  it  is  not 
what  it  pretends  to  be.  I  found,  to  my  cost, 
that  Mr.  Simpson's  poetical  system  would  not 
act.  "I  remain,  faiihfullv, 

«'  W.  G.  B." 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Darwen  Examiner." 
"  Sir— In  the  last  number  of  your  valuable 


THE   CONTROVEESIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


49 


paper,  I  noticed  a  letter  signed  '  W.  G.  B.'  pur- 
porting to  be  an  attack  on  the  Vegetarian  system. 
*•  The  writer  is  evidently  a  tyro  in  controversy, 
and  his  claims  to  advise  the  public  of  Darwen 
rest  on  a  very  slight  foundation,  for  it  would  seem 
that  his  command  of  our  glorious  mother  tongue 
is  so  limited  that  he  has  been  under  the  necessity 
of  interlarding  his  letter  with  sundry  Latin  quo- 
tations, to  the  delight  of  admiring  school  boys. 
Like  a  child  who  exiubits  a  pugnacious  disposition, 
ere  his  muscles  have  acquired  sufficient  voUinie 
and  power  to  carry  out  the  behests  of  his  will, 
'  W.  G.  B.'  appears  to  have  rushed  into  the  field  of 
controversy  without  the  power  to  wield,  or  the 
skill  to  use,  its  keen  and  trenchant  weapons.  The 
production  indeed  is  so  boyish,  that  it  might  have 
been  safely  left  unnoticed,  but  perhaps,  sir,  a  few 
comments  upon  it  may  assist  in  dispelling  certain 
misapprehensions  which  exist,  or  appear  to  exist, 
in  the  mind  of  the  writer. 

"  He  has,  it  seems,  given  Vegetarianism  a '  nine 
months'  trial,'  when,  fearing  that  a  lengthened 
experience  would  transform  his  body  into  a  bagful 
of  bones,  he  returned  to  the  fleshpots  of  Egypt. 
With  most  men  this  would  have  been  an  end  of 
the  matter,  but  '  W.  G.  B.'  resolved  to  improve  the 
occasion  by  reading  an  homily  to  benighted  Vege- 
tarians. He  states  as  the  basis  of  his  reasoning, 
that  Vegetarians  'take  Scripture  as  their  starting- 
point,  but  refuse  to  knock  unSer  to  what  they 
call  Scripture  argument.' 

"  This  is  a  great  mistake,  and  one  which  a 
moderate  acquaintance  with  Vegetarian  literature 
would  have  prevented  him  from  falling  into. 
There  are,  I  know,  both  Vegetarians  and  teetotal- 
ers able  and  willing  to  defend  their  practice  on 
scriptural  grounds,  but  the  advocates  of  both 
systems  generally  seek  to  establish  their  princi- 
ples on  the  solid  foundation  of  social  economy, 
morality,  and  science,  and  only  take  up  scriptural 
arguments  against  those,  who  regard  eating  herbs 
and  drinking  water  as  less  acceptable  to  God, 
than  bibbing  wine  and  worrying  lambs. 

"  As  the  pro-scriptural  assumption  on  which 
'W.  G.  B.'  attempts  to  argue  the  question,  is  an 
error  in  fact,  and  that  it  is  so  an  official  connec- 
tion of  several  years  with  the  Vegetarian  Society 
enables  me  to  state  with  something  like  authority, 
the  clumsy  superstructure  of  inapt  quotations 
and  narrow  criticism  falls  to  the  ground. 

"The  statement  that  Vegetarians  refuse  to 
'knock  under  to  Scripture  argument,'  is  rather 
cool,  and  being  interpreted,  means,  that  Vegeta- 
rians refuse  to  acknowledge  as  '  Scripture  argu- 
ment,' the  niuinble-jumble  of  such  writers  as 
'W.  G.  B.'  How  are  the  mighty  fallen,  when  the 
writers  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  are 
mangled  by  such  interpreters  ! 

"  As  a  conclusion  to  these  strictures,  I  will 
venture  to  offer  a  little  advice  to '  W.  G  .B.',  which 
I  recommend  him  to  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly 
digest.  Should  he  ever  again  venture  to  grasp 
the  weapons,  and  essay  the  part  of  a  literary  gla- 
diator, 1  hope  he  will  be  more  careful  of  his 
reputation,  and  do  battle  in  a  better  cause. 
Whatever  he  may  think,  society,  as  such,  cares 
little  for  the  confessions  or  experiences  of  youth, 
especially  when  obtruded  without  a  cause.     No- 


body knew,  nobody  cared,  when  '  W.  G.  B.' 
became  a  Vegetarian,  and  nobody  would  have 
heard  of  his  declension,  had  he  not  been  deter- 
mined to  rise  from  a  dull  obscurity,  by  inflicting 
upon  your  readers  a  recital  of  his  famous  *  nine 
months'  trial.' 

"  The  practice  of  Vegetarianism  originated 
thousands  of  years  ago — has  survived  clianges 
which  have  swept  away  races,  creeds,  and  lan- 
guages— and  will  not  be  affected  by  the  Quixotic 
tilt  of  '  W.  G.  B.'  And  I  may  state  that  the 
Vegetarians  of  Darwen  need  not  his  advice  about 
what  they  shall  eat,  drink,  and  avoid ;  and  that 
many  of  them  are  too  advanced  in  years  to  value 
the  disquisitions  and  experience  of  a  boy. 
"  I  am,  sir,  yours  truly, 

"W.  T.  A." 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Darwen  Examiner." 

"Sir — It  is  only  a  few  days  since  my  atten- 
tion was  directed  to  a  letter  on  Vegetarianism  by 
'  W.  G.B.,'  in  your  March  paper,  and,  with  your 
permission,  I  shall  now  proceed  to  answer  his 
assertions  and  assumptions  on  that  question. 

"  First  of  all,  with  regard  to  himself, '  W.  G.  B.' 
informs  us,  that  he  gave  a  nine  months'  trial  to 
Vegetarianism  on  the  principle  that  Experientia 
docet  (experience  teaches).  As  I  am  anxious  all 
should  understand  what  I  say,  you  will  please 
excuse  me  for  translating  any  Latin  words  which 
may  be  used.  In  stating  this,  '  W.  G.  B.'  does 
not  tell  the  whole  truth,  which  is  as  follows  :  He 
gave  Vegetarianism  a  trial  of  one  mouth  at  least, 
and  then  he  changed  his  motto  to  Experientia 
docuit  (experience  has  taught) — signed  his  name 
to  a  document,  stating,  that  he  was  desirous  of 
becoming  a  member  of  the  Vegetarian  Society, 
and  to  co-operate  with  that  body  m  promulgating 
the  knowedge  of  the  advantages  of  a  Vegetarian 
diet.  So  that,  during  the  tirst  part  of  his  absti- 
nence from  flesh,  experience  taught  him  the 
advantage  of  Vegetarianism,  and  during  the  latter 
part  of  it,  it  taught  him  (according  to  his  own 
story)  there  was  no  adouniaye  in  Vegetarianism ! 
'  W^.  G.  B.'s'  experience  therefore  must  have 
taught  him  a  falsehood  in  the  one  case  or  the 
ather,  and  though  it  is  thus  convicted  of  an 
untruth,  he  would  have  people  to  trust  it  im- 
plicitly, as  an  oracle  of  veracity. 

"The  appointment  of  man's  food  is  first  quoted, 
'Behold,  i  have  given  you  every  herb  bearing 
seed,  which  is  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and 
every  tree  in  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yielding 
seed,  to  you  it  shall  be  fjr  meat.'  On  which 
'W.  G.  B.'  remarks:  'Flesh  is  not  forbidden 
because  herbs  are  mentioned.  Because  vegetables 
are  mentioned,  and  nothing  said  about  cooking 
them,  is  it  not  lawful  to  cook  them  ?  '  The  folly 
of  such  reasoning  is  quite  apparent.  It  is  arguing 
from  that  which  is  not,  to  that  which  is,  and  can 
be  applied  in  defence  of  anything,  however  wicked 
and  aboininanle.  Thus,  the  cannibal  may  argue, 
'Human  Hesh  is  not  forbidden  because  herbs  are 
mentioned,'  and  his  argument  would  be  on  a 
perfect  par  with  '  VV.  G.  B's  ' — if  the  one  is  right, 
so  is  the  other.  But,  again,  who  says  that  flesh 
is  forbidden,  and  that  it  is  unlawful  to  eat  it  ? 
Vegetarians    do   not,   and   therefore   the    whole 


50 


THE   CONTEOVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


argumentation  (if  such  a  hodge  podge  mixture 
of  senteuces  deserve  the  name)  falls  to  the 
ground.  It  is  the  old  trick  of  setting  up  a  man 
of  straw  and  then  knocking  him  down  again.  To 
assume  that  Vegetarians  assert  that  Scripture 
forbids  the  eating  of  flesh,  or  that  they  teach  it 
to  be  unlawful,  or  a  sin  to  eat  it,  is  assuming 
that  which  is  false  ;  and  if  you  like,  Mr.  Editor, 
I  will  just  mark  this  assumption  as  Man  of 
Straw,  No.  1. 

" '  Again/  he  asks,  '  if  the  verse  is  to  be  taken 
as  a  literal  commandment,  would  the  hemlock 
berries  and  Ignatius  beans,  etc.,  etc,  form  excep- 
tions ? '  'W.  G.  B.'here  assumes  that  all  the 
herbs  which  at  present  exist  on  the  earth,  grew 
likewise  in  paradise — that  the  hemlock  and  igna- 
tiana,  as  well  as  the  myrtle  and  the  rose,  flourished 
there  !  Perhaps,  too,  there *was  a  doctor's  shop 
(and  a  boy  in  it)  to  prepare  doses  of  the  said 
herbs !  but  then,  all  this  is  only  a  perhaps,  for 
we  know  for  certain  that  all  the  herbs  now  on 
the  earth  did  not  exist  in  paradise ;  but  that 
after  the  fall  a  new  description  of  plants  were 
originated.  God  said  to  Adam,  '  Cursed  is  the 
ground  for  thy  sake,  in  sorrow  shalt  thou  eat  of 
it  all  the  days  of  thy  life.  Thorns  also  and 
thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to  thee,  and  thou 
shalt  eat  the  herbs  of  the  field.'  This  second 
assumption,  therefore,  may  be  marked,  Man  of 
Stratv,  No.  2. 

"  'W.  G.  B.'  thinks  that  Vegetarians  ought  to 
go  naked,  and  ought  to  append  to  the  name  of  their 
Society,  *  Go-Naked  Society,'  and  in  such  case 
thinks  that  the  Go-Naked  part  of  the  Society 
would  have  the  better  argument.  Now  I  do  not 
think  so,  because  before  Adam  and  Eve  were 
driven  out  of  paradise  it  is  related,  '  Unto  Adam 
also  and  to  hs  wife  did  the  Lord  God  make  coats 
of  skin  and  clothed  them  ;  '  so  that  the  Go-Naked 
part  of  the  Society  would  be  as  bare  of  argument 
as  of  clothing,  if  they  were  to  try  such  an  experi- 
ment.    Jot  down.  Mail  of  Straw^  No.  3. 

'•  It  would  take  up  too  much  space,  and  more  of 
ray  time,  than  the  next  paragraph  of  *  W.  G.  B's.' 
letter  deserves,  to  quote  what  he  says  and  answer 
it.  It  is  an  attempt  to  show  from  certain  Vege- 
tarian speeches,  that  Vegetarians  pretend  to  be 
all  pious  and  holy  men  ;  *  and  that  all  pious  men 
never  do  such  a  horrid  thing  as  eat  a  mutton 
chop.'  It  is  only  necessary  to  say  that  all 
Vegetarians  repudiate  such  sentiments,  and  that 
the  attempt  to  attribute  such  tenets  to  them  by 
one  who  has  been  a  Vegetarian  himself,  and  who 
of  course  knows  that  it  is  not  a  religious  society, 
and  that  no  such  sentiments  are  held  amongst 
them,  is,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  a  course  which  ia 
unfair  and  unjust. 

"  But  Adam's  sou  was  a  keeper  of  sheep,  and 
for  what  other  purpose  than  that  of  eating  them  ? 
One  of  the  purposes  was  that  which  '  W.  G.  B.' 
points  out,  namely,  sacrifice — and  I  ask,  If  they 
were  necessary  for  sacrifices,  was  it  not  a  suffi- 
cient reason  for  keeping  them,  without  assuming 
that  they  were  likewise  necessary  for  food  ? 
There  is  no  proof  of  their  being  used  for  food, 
but  *  W.  G.  B.'  does  not  need  a  proof,  and  so 
triumphantly  assumes  that  because  Abel  kept 
sheep,  therefore  he  ate  them ;  whereas,  according 


to  the  narrative,  Abel  kept  sheep  and  sacrificed 
them,  and  we  are  therefore  certain  that  he  kept 
them  for  that  purpose,  however  many  his  other 
p\irposes  might  be.  'W.  G.  B.'  is  just  as  far  from 
proving  that  flesh  was  eaten  at  the  time  referred 
to,  as  that  it  was  eaten  in  Paradise ;  and  these 
additional  assumptions  form  Man  of  Straw,  No.  4. 
"  He  next  showed  that  every  green  herb  was 
appointed  to  every  beast  and  fowl,  and  asks,  *  Do 
lions  and  tigers,  etc.,  live  upon  herbs  ! '  He 
wants  to  show  that  this  verse  is  incorrect,  and 
wishes  us  to  argue  that  therefore  the  first  quoted 
one  is  incorrect  too  !  However,  I  won't  admit 
the  incorrectness  of  this  verse,  but  just  treat 
him  to  a  very  similar  one,  in  which  a  similar 
difficulty  occurs  on  his  side  of  the  question : 
'  Every  moving  thing  that  liveth  shall  be  meat 
for  you,'  etc.  Does  '  W.  G.  B.'eat  every  moving 
thing  that  liveth  ?  If  he  does,  I  shall  then  answer 
this  question  of  his  in  full. 

"  This  letter  is  extending  to  such  a  length, 
Mr.  Editor,  that  I  am  now  making  my  remarks 
as  brief  as  possible. 

"The  argument  of  Christ  eating  flesh,  and 
giving  it  to  others,  would  be  excellent,  providing 
that  Vegetarians  held  it  to  be  a  sin  to  eat  flesh. 
We  have  seen,  however,  that  they  do  not,  and, 
therefore,  the  mere  mention  of  this  circumstance, 
without  any  attempt  to  shosv  what  it  proves 
against  Vegetarianism,  goes  for  nothing.  Bat 
let  us  see  whether  it  opposes  Vegetarian  argu- 
ments or  not.  Vegetarians  maintain  that  vege- 
table diet  was  the  original  food  of  man,  and  that 
flesh  was  not  appointed  with  the  vegetable  food. 
Now,  I  ask,  does  the  circumstance  of  Christ 
eating  flesh  disprove  these  statements?  They 
argue  that  vegetable  food  is  cheaper  and  more 
nutritious,  and  that  Vegetarians  are  healthier  and 
live  longer  than  flesh-eaters ;  but  in  what  way 
are  these  facts  disproved  by  Christ's  eating  fish  ? 
I  might  here  enumerate  all  the  leading  arguments 
of  Vegetarianism  to  show  that  they  stand  or  fall 
upon  their  own  intrinsic  merit,  and  are  not  in 
tiie  least  aff"ected  by  the  practice  of  Christ, 
whether  he  was  a  Vegetarian  or  not;  but  space 
forbids  this  at  present. 

"'W.  G.  B.'  is  fond  of  quoting  Scripture,  but 
he  ought  to  show  the  connection  of  his  quota- 
tions with  the  subject  in  hand.  To  suit  his 
purpose  he  quotes  part  of  a  verse,'  commanding 
to  abstain  from  meat,'  etc.  Now  the  persons 
referred  to  in  this  passage  (1  Tim.  iv.  3)  are  said 
to  have  departed  from  the  faith,  giving  heed  to 
seducing  spirits,  and  doctrines  of  devils  ;  speak- 
ing lies  in  hypocrisy;  having  their  conscience 
seared  with  hot  iron ;  forbidding  to  marry,  and 
commanding  to  abstain  from  meaf,  etc.,  not  meat 
as  '  W.  G.  B.'  has  it.  It  is  plain  from  the  full 
quotation  given,  that  the  reference  is  to  those 
who  teach  erroneous  religious  doctrines,  and  not 
to  those  who  only  point  out  the  facts  of  economy, 
chemistry,  and  physiology,  in  relation  to  food. 
Let  '  W.  G.  B.'  combat  those  facts,  if  he  can,  in- 
stead of  perverting  Scripture  for  the  purpose  of 
having  a  fling  at  Vegetarians.  The  arena  in 
which  Vegetarians  engage  their  opponents  is 
science,  and  knowing  his  own  inability  to  combat 
them  on  their  own  open  ground,  he  attempts  to 


THE   CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


61 


drag  them  to  Scripture,  and  pretends  that  they 
found  their  arj^uments  upon  it ;  thus  concealing^, 
at  one  and  the  sanae  time,  the  scientific  founda- 
tions of  their  faith,  and  his  ignorance  of  any 
lever  strong  enousi;h  to  move  or  shake  them. 
But  even  when  taken  to  Scripture,  Vegetarians 
can  show  it  does  not  contradict  the  sciences — 
that  it  does  not  condemn  their  principles — that 
they  have  read  it  often  more  closely  than  their 
opponents — that  even  '  W.  G  B.'s  '  ignorance  of 
it  is  conspicuous,  and  his  application  of  it  erro- 
neous. I  may  farther  remark,  that  the  misappli- 
cation of  the  passage  last  quoted  to  Vegetarians 
will  become  obvious,  when  it  is  stated  that  the 
Vegetarians  have  no  religious  creed — that  tliey 
teach  neither  doctrines  of  angels  nor  doctrines 
of  devds — neither  tell  lies  nor  truths  about  reli- 
gious doctrines,  and  neither  forbid  to  marry  nor 
command  to  abstain  from  meat,  as  religious  duties. 

"  Lastly, '  W.  G.  B.'  informs  us  that, '  eggs  and 
milk  do  not  grow  in  the  fi.eld,  and  butter  and 
cheese  are  far  from  being  herbs.'  This  remark 
flows  from  '  W.  G.  B.'s  '  constant  desire  for  mis- 
representation. He  would  have  people  to  believe 
that  Vegetarians  are  inconsistent  with  the  object 
of  the  Society,  which  is  simply  "to  induce  habits 
of  abstinence  from  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food,' 
and  the  only  inconsistency  may  appear  in  the 
name  'Vegetarian,'  which  of  course  does  not 
include  animal  productions.  The  whole  incon- 
sistency then  rests,  not  in  the  practice  of  Vegeta- 
rians, but  between  the  name  of  the  Society  and 
its  object — the  former  having  reference  to  the 
principal  food  of  Vegetarians,  and  the  latter  pre- 
scribing abstinence  from  flesh.  But  as  every 
one  is  at  liberty  either  to  conform  his  habits 
strictly  to  the  name  of  the  Society,  by  abstaining 
from  every  thing  animal,  or  'only  to  follow  out 
the  object  of  the  Society  by  abstinence  from 
flesh  only ;  the  reference  made  to  eggs,  milk, 
etc.,  proves  nothing  in  favour  of  flesh-eating,  and 
nothing  against  abstaining.  Vegetarians  gene- 
rally do  not  object  to  animal  productions,  and  it 
is  therefore  not  inconsistent  to  use  them. 

'*  I  am  aware  that  I  am  giving  an  importance 
to  some  remarks  of  '  W.  G.  B.'s,'  by  thus  noticing 
them,  which  intrinsically  they  do  not  deserve ; 
but  he  having  once  been  a  member  of  the  Vege- 
tarian Society,  I  have  been  anxious  to  show  how 
completely  he  misrepresents  it,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  must  know  he  is  doing  so. 

"  But,  in  conclusion,  adds  '  W.  G  B.,'  '  Experi- 
ence is  a  good  schoolmaster ;  I  have  tried  Vege- 
tarianism, and  found  that  it  is  not  what  it 
pretends  to  be.  I  found,  to  my  cost,  that  Mr. 
Simpson's  poetical  system  would  not  act.' 
That  is  to  say,  the  nine  mouths'  experience  of 
'  W.  G.  B.'  is  to  set  aside,  say  my  own  experience, 
which  has  extended  over  eight  years  ;  and  we  are 
to  credit  the  words  of  a  young  man  who  has 
written  a  letter  against  Vegetarianism,  in  which 
he  coolly  sets  aside  the  real  foundation  and  argu- 
ments for  Vegetarianism,  and  introduces  state- 
ments of  his  own,  coined  by  him  for  the  purpose  of 
appearing  like  Vegetarian  arguments ;  and  then  as 
coolly  tells  us,  that  these  abortions  of  his  own 
brain,  are  the  foundation  of  the  Vegetarian  fabric, 
and  asks  us  to  see  how  easily  he  can  overset  it ! 


"  This  young  man's  experience,  moreover, 
seems  to  tell  him,  first  one  thing,  then  another, 
yet  it  is  to  be  trusted  as  a  good  schoolmaster  ! 
It  is  a  kind  one,  at  any  rate,  for  it  says  any  way 
he  likes  is  best.  It  will  testify  in  favour  of 
Vegetarianism  and  flesh-eating  by  turns,  just  as 
appetite  dictates.  The  fact  is,  having  turned 
his  back  on  Vegetarianism,  he  must  say  some- 
thing to  justify  himself,  and  it  appears  an  excel- 
lent joke  to  assign  as  a  reason  that  he  was 
becoming  a  skin-and-bone  being.  One  thing  I 
can  testify  is,  that  his  reasons  and  arguments  do 
not  even  possess  skin  and  bone,  for  they  are  so 
hollow,  it  is  easy  to  see  through  them  :  and  this 
last  one  is  like  the  rest.  I  can  give  him  statistics 
to  show  that  those  who  eat  least  flesh  are  the 
tallest,  the  strongest  and  heaviest;  but 'W.G.  B's' 
single  experience  is  of  greater  value  than  sta- 
tistics, no  doubt.  If  he  had  told  the  truth  of  the 
matter  he  would  have  exclaimed,  in  the  language 
of  Scripture,  '  I  will  eat  flesh  because  my  soul 
lonrjeth  to  eat  it : '  and  like  the  Israelites  of  old, 
perhaps  he  wept  again,  saying,  '  Who  will  give 
me  flesh  to  eat  ? ' 

"I  am,  yours  respectfully, 

"  SCRUTATOR." 
MEDICAL   TESTIMONY. 

We  have  great  pleasure  in  inserting-  the 
following  letter,  which,  whilst  correcting  the 
mistake  of  "  Scrutator  "  as  to  the  writer 
being  an  "  An ti- Vegetarian,"  *  affords,  at 
the  same  time,  ample  testimony  as  to  the 
general  importance  of  our  movement,  and 
the  personal  benefits  derived  from  a  length- 
ened practical  adherence  to  it.  We  trust, 
ere  long,  to  have  the  pleasure  of  welcoming 
our  medical  friend  as  a  public  advocate  of 
the  system  he  already  privately  recommends 
to  the  attention  of  his  more  restricted  circle 
of  personal  acquaintance. 

Dear  Sir — At  page  30  of  the  Vegetarian 
Messenger  for  April,  quoting  from  my  Lectures  on 
Animal  Physiology,  it  is  stated  by  "Scrutator," 
that  I  am  an  "Anti- Vegetarian."  This  I  beg  you 
will  grant  me  the  favour  to  contradict. 

I  own  that  I  deserve  to  be  thus  misrepresented, 
seeing  I  have  so  long  enjoyed  the  blessings  of 
Vegetarianism  without  making  a  greater  effort 
than  I  have  hitherto  done  to  impart  a  knowledge 
of  them  to  others.  The  ma!iy  and  serious  duties 
of  my  past  life  must  plead  an  excuse  for  me 
beyond  my  immediate  sphere  of  action.  I 
believe,  however,  that  my  Vegetarian  principles 
are  well  known  to  all  with  whom  I  come  in 
personal  relation. 

Trusting  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant,  when 
I  shall  be  able  to  work  more  extensively  in  the 
glorious  field  which  it  is  your  happiness  to 
occupy,  and  wishing  you  every  possible  success 
in  your  righteous  undertaking,  which,  I  conceive, 
is  alike  conducive  to  the  well-being  of  man  and 
the  true  glory  of  God, 

I  remain,  dear  sir. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

London.  B.  T.  LOWNE,  M.R.C.S  ,  &c. 

*  Controversialist  and  Correspondent,  p.  30. 


52 


TPIE   CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


punch's  vegetarian  eating  house. 

S.  I.^ — The  article  referred  to  will  be  found  in- 
serted in  our  present  number.*  The  wit  is 
amusing,  and  depends,  as  Avit  often  does, 
upon  the  assumption  of  extreme  conduct  or 
behaviour  in  others,  which  may  or  may  not 
be  found  identified  with  individuals,  but  not 
with  a  system.  Our  friend  Fundi  here 
represents  an  extreme  of  practice  which  the 
Vegetarian  Society  does  not  follow,  or  profess 
to  follow,  and  thus,  in  his  ingenuity,  merely 
raises  a  laugh  at  the  picture  he  draws,  at 
which  we  are  also  able  to  laugh,  and  with  the 
additional  advantage,  that  we  know  ^\e\lwhen 
to  laugh,  and  where  the  laugh  properly  ends. 

HOW    TIIEY     MAKE    BROWN     BREAD     IN 
LONDON. 

Sir — The  Family  Economist  states  that,  "If 
bakers  are  applied  to  for  brown  bread,  they  gener- 
ally produce  it  by  merely  takings  a  portion  of  the 
regular  dough,  and  sprinkling  among  it  as  much 
bran  as  will  bring  it  to  the  colour  required." 
A  fact  that  has  come  to  my  own  knowledge,  tend- 
ing to  corroborate  this,  I  will  now  relate. 

There  lives  in  Islington  a  baker  who  sells  very 
nice  brown  bread.  A  lady  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, wishing  to  bake  some  at  home,  sent  her 
servant  to  this  baker's  for  some  of  the  meab 
but  forgetting  at  the  moment  the  name  of  it, 
told  the  servant  to  ask  for  "  some  of  the  meal  his 
brown  bread  was  made  of."  The  servant  was 
surprised  to  see  the  baksr  first  weigh  some 
flour,  and  then  mix  a  portion  of  bran  with  it, 
and  told  him  he  was  mixing  bran  with  the  flour  1 
The  baker,  however,  told  her  that  was  what  he 
always  did  —  that  was  the  meal  be  made  the 
brown  bread  of.  The  lady,  profiting  by  the 
candid  confession,  now  buys  her  fine  flour  sepa- 
rately, and  bran  at  the  rate  of  one  shilling  per 
bushel,  and  mixes  them  herself.  In  this  way 
she  has  made  excellent  brown  bread,  and  much 
cheaper  than  if  she  had  bought  what  is  called 
wheat-meal  at  the  corn-chandler's.  For,  it  must 
be  remembered,  that  in  London,  vpe  have  to  pay 
the  same  price,  or  very  nearly  so,  for  flour  mixed 
with  bran  as  for  fine  flour. 

Thus  is  the  problem  solved :  —  How  to  get 
wheat-meal  in  London  at  a  fair  price.  Buy  half 
a  bushel  of  bran  for  6d.,  and  half  a  bushel  of 
pollard  for  7d.  or  8d.,  mix  them  together,  and  to 
every  10  lb.  of  flour  add  2^^  lb.  of  this  mixed 
bran  and  pollard. 

Those  who  have  not  been  accustomed  to  eat 
brown  bread,  had  better  begin  with  a  smaller 
quantity  of  the  bran,  and  if  this  be  soaked  in 
hot  water  an  hour  or  two  before  the  bread  is 
made,  it  will  not  be  so  hard  and  harsh,  and  will 
not  act  so  much  on  the  bowels. 

I  hope  poor  Vegetarians  with  large  families 
will  take  the  above  hint  and  act  upon  it,  as  they 
will  find  it  of  great  use  m  relation  to  economy. 
But  many  of  tliem  will  say,  "  We  have  got  no 
oven."  To  such  I  would  recommend  Ball's 
Portable  Suspending  Oven,  for  baking  bread,  etc., 
*   Vegetarian,  Treasury  p  54. 


in  front  of  a  common  fire.  These  ovens  turn 
round  before  a  common  fire,  just  in  the  same 
manner  as  a  leg  of  pork  that  is  being  roasted, 
and  Mr.  Bokmond  says  they  bake  bread  beau- 
tifully. The  smallest  size  will  bake  a  2^  lb.  loaf, 
and  costs  5s.,  and  one  that  will  bake  a  5  lb. 
loaf,  costs  8s.  I  think  we  should  have  to  travel 
far  before  we  could  get  a  side  oven  for  these 
prices.  I  am,  yours  truly, 

L'>ndon.  T.  H  .S. 

Our  correspondent  is  no  doubt  correct  in 
his  discovery  as  to  the  brown  bread  usually 
made  by  the  London  bakers.  As  in  other 
populous  districts,  however,  other  bread 
made  from  excellent  wheat-meal  can  doubt- 
less be  had.  The  best  brown  bread  is  made 
at  home,  where  there  is  the  convenience  for 
baking  it ;  and  this,  out  of  London,  is 
^  generally  secured ;  and  where  Vegetarians 
either  purchase  the  meal  of  some  one  on 
whom  they  can  fully  depend,  or  wash  and 
grind  the  grain  in  a  mill  of  their  own,  the 
results  are  most  satisfactory.  We  hope 
shortly  to  return  to  this  subject. 

ADVANTAGE  OF  VEGETARIAN  PRACTICE. 
Sir — Having  adopted  the  Vegetarian  practice 
of  diet  during  the  last  six  months,  I  wish  to 
acknowledge  the  benefit  I  have  derived  in  conse- 
quence, and  the  means  by  which  I  was  led  to 
take  this  step.  An  accidental  circumstance 
having  prevented  my  making  this  statement  in 
the  way  I  at  first  intended,  I  am  induced  to  adopt 
the  present  mode  of  communicating  my  expe- 
rience, in  order  that  it  may  be  useful  to  others. 

I  was  led  to  commence  the  practice  through 
hearing  the  arguments  advanced  by  Mr.  Bor- 
MOND,  in  a  lecture  in  July  last.  I  have  since 
attended  one  of  the  lectures  given  by  Mr.  BOR- 
MOND,  in  Ebenezer  Chapel,  Shoreditch  (in  Jan- 
uary last),  and  wished,  at  the  close,  to  rise  atul 
bear  testimony  to  the  superiority  of  the  Vege- 
tarian system,  but  the  room  not  being  so  full  as 
I  expected  it  would  be  on  the  following  night,  I 
reserved  my  remarks,  but  unfortunately  was 
prevented  from  attending  then. 

I  am  utterly  astonished  at  the  increase  of 
physical  strength  that  I  have  experienced  since 
abstaining  from  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food,  for 
I  »ised  to  think,  with  the  majority  of  people  in 
this  country,  that  flesh-meat  was  best  suited  to 
impart  muscular  strength,  but  I  am  now  con- 
vinced that  idea  is  erroneous.  I  may  mention 
two  instances  that  will  suffice  to  prove  this. 

I  am  in  the  habit  occasionally  of  laying  cocoa- 
nut  matting  down  in  offices,  which  requires  a 
great  deal  of  labour  to  lay  it  as  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  do.  This  is  effected  by  means  of  a 
long  stretcher,  five  feet  long,  which  is  forced 
forward  with  the  utmost  strength  a  man  can 
exert,  whilst  a  second  man  places  a  long  nail  in 
the  floor  to  keep  the  iiiatting  stretched  tight. 
These  stretches  are  taken  about  every  three- 
quarcers  of  a  yard,  until  the  floor  is  covered,  and 
tills  labour  I  consider  to  require  far  more  exertion 
than  dragging  a  loaded  truck  for  a  whole  day. 
This    work    used    to   fatigue  and    distress    me 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


53 


exceediiip^ly  when  I  lived  upon  a  mixed  diet,  but 
since  I  have  adopted  the  Vegetarian  system,  I  have 
no  such  distressing  feelings,  and  very  seldom  feel 
tired,  or  if  I  do,  this  feeling  is  of  short  duration. 

The  next  striking  instance  I  would  mention  is, 
that  although  living  at  a  distance  from  ray 
employ,  about  twenty  minutes'  walk,  I  am  in  the 
habit  of  going  home  to  my  dinner  in  the  middle 
of  the  day,  which,  in  the  hottest  part  of  the  sum- 
mer, used  to  fatigue  me  to  that  degree,  that  I  was 
scarcely  able  to  take  my  food;  but  since  abstain- 
ing from  flesh  meats,  and  although  the  weather 
was  hotter  than  usual  last  summer,  I  experienced 
no  such  distressing  feeling.  I  thus  consider 
that  I  am  abundantly  compensated  for  denying 
myself  the  slight  gratification  (which  would  only 
extend  over  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  a  day)  of 
eating  flesh-meat. 

In  addition  to  this  increase  of  physical  strength, 
my  animal  spirits  are  greatly  increased,  and  I 
experience  a  pleasurable  feeling  of  vivacity 
beyond  what  I  formerly  enjoyed.  Two  of  my 
children  have  vohintarily  adopted  my  practice  of 
diet,  one  of  these  being  ten,  and  the  other  four- 
teen, years  old;  and  as  I  have  nine  children,  I 
should  like  them  all  to  follow  the  same  course. 
I  do  not  know  that  we  have  had  three  joints  in 
the  house  since  last  July,  a  few  ounces  of  meat 
only  being  procured  occasionally  for  those  who 
are  not  satisfied  without  it.  We  have  all  sorts  of 
puddings  instead  of  the  flesh  we  formerly  used. 

While  I  am  writing,  I  may  as  well  say  that  I 
have  also  improved  in  appearance,  and  gatiiered 
flesh,  and  that  I  exceed  in  swiftness  of  foot  any 
of  my  children,  my  age  being  forty-seven,  and 
that  of  my  eldest  son  eighteen.  I  may  also  men- 
tion that  a  lady  of  my  acquaintance  adopted 
Vegetarianism  sometime  about  May  last,  as  well 
as  others,  through  hearing  Mr.  Bormond  at 
Shoreditch. 

I  desire  to  thank  all  to  whom  I  am  indebted 


for  the  promulgation  of  a  knowledge  of  this 
valuable  system,  so  beneficial  to  the  human  race, 
although,  at  the  same  time,  my  joyous  feelings 
are  not  independent  of  the  grace  and  love  of  Gon 
in  my  heart.  Wishing  the  cause  every  success, 
I  remain,  your  obedient  servant, 
Hoxton,  S.  W. 

EDINBURGH    VEGETARIAN   ASSOCIATION. 

Dear  Sir — I  have  the  gratification  of  being 
able  to  report  to  you  the  fact  of  our  having 
formed  the  nucleus  of  a  Vegetarian  Association 
in  Edinburgh,  at  a  meeting  held  in  Sinclair's 
Temperance  Hotel,  on  Saturday  evening,  the 
21st  of  April.  Our  friends,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cou- 
pbr,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  Smith,  of  Glasgow, 
kindly  came  over,  and  favoured  us  with  their 
presence  and  assistance  on  the  occasion. 

Our  number  is  very  small,  but  the  Glasgow 
friends  gave  us  some  encouragement  by  stating, 
that  we  have  more  numerical  strength  than  they 
were  able  to  command  at  starting. 

I  enclose  a  list  of  our  office-bearers,  requesting 
that  you  will  have  the  goodness  to  give  it  a  place 
on  the  cover  of  the  Messenger.  These  are  all 
that  have  as  yet  joined  our  Association,  but  we 
doubt  not  that  there  are  other  Vegetarians  in 
Edinburgh  who  will  come  forward  and  help  us, 
knowing  that  we  are  desirous  of  spreading  our 
views  by  means  of  an  active  organization  ;  espe- 
cially if  our  Association  be  brought  fairly  before 
the  public  by  advertising,  issuing  of  tracts,  etc., 
and  the  announcement  of  a  regular  place  of 
meeting,  so  as  to  secure  the  attention  of  in- 
quirers and  others  more  or  less  favoiirable  to  the 
movement. 

Any  suggestions,  or  rules  for  general  manage- 
ment, would  be  very  thankfully  received  by  us 
at  your  hands. 

I  am,  dear  Sir,  respectfully  yours, 

JEditiburgh.  H-  J- 


THE    YEGETAK 

EXERCISE   ESSENTIAL   TO    GROWTH. 

It  is  a  mistake  into  whicli  many  breeders 
fall,  to  deprive  the  young  animal  of  exer- 
cise by  confining  it  entirely  in  the  stall. 
Such  a  procedure  is  perfectly  correct  with  a 
fattening  calf,  but  not  with  one  that  is 
rearing.  The  muscular  apparatus  of  a  young 
animal  requires  a  certain  degree  of  exercise, 
without  which  it  cannot  increase.  Unless 
the  vitality  residing  in  the  various  organs  be 
called  into  action,  it  becomes  enfeebled  ;  and 
as  vitality  is  the  cause  of  increase  in  the 
body,  any  diminution  of  its  power  is  highly 
prejudicial  to  growth.  The  amount  of  exer- 
cise must,  of  course,  vary  with  the  age  of  the 
animal.  A  child  at  the  breast  sleeps  twenty 
hours  of  the  day,  and,  consequently,  wakes 
only  four.  The  vitality  being  in  the  ascen- 
dancy during  sleep,  the  mass  of  the  body 
rapidly  increases.  The  limbs  of  a  young 
child  are  not  adapted  for  its  support,  and 
hence  it  is  unnecessary  to  exercise   them. 


IAN    TRKASURY. 

But  a  calf  or  a  sheep  possesses  limbs  fitted 
for  a  certain  amout  of  progression,  and  by 
permitting  their  due  exercise,  the  health  of 
the  animal  is  sustained.  But  whilst  we 
should  endeavour,  in  the  rearing  of  cattle, 
to  use  every  means  to  keep  the  animal  in  its 
normal  state  of  health,  our  treatment  must 
be  entirely  diff'erent  when  we  desire  to  fatten 
the  same  animal. — Dr.  Lyon  Playfair. 

HOW   TO    DO    GOOD. 

Dr,  Johnson  wisely  said,  ''  He  who  waits  to 
do  a  great  deal  of  good  at  once,  will  never 
do  any  thing."  Life  is  made  up  of  little 
things.  It  is  but  once  in  an  age  that  occa- 
sion is  offered  for  doing  a  great  deed.  True 
greatness  consists  in  being  great  in  little 
things.  How  are  railroads  built  ?  By  one 
shovelful  of  dirt  after  another ;  one  shovelful 
at  a  time.  Thus,  drops  make  the  ocean. 
Hence,  we  should  be  willing  to  do  a  little 
good  at  a  time,  and  never   "  wait  to  do  a 


51 


THE  VEGETARIAX  TREASURY. 


great  deal  of  good  at  once,"  If  we  would  do 
much  good  iu  the  world,  we  must  be  willing 
to  do  good  in  little  things,  little  acts  one 
after  anotheY";  speaking  a  word  here,  giving 
a  tract  there,  and  setting  a  good  example  all 
the  time ;  we  must  do  the  lirst  good  thing 
we  can,  and  then  the  next,  and  the  next, 
and  so  keep  on  doing  good.  This  is  the  way 
to  accomplish  any  thing.  Thus  only  shall 
we  do  all  the  good  in  our  power.  —  The 
Leisure  Hour. 

THE    NATIVES    OF   SIERRA   LEONE. 

The  natives  of  Sierra  Leone,  whose  climate 
is  said  to  be  the  worst  on  earth,  are  very 
temperate ;  they  subsist  entirely  on  small 
quantities  of  boiled  rice,  with  occasional 
supplies  of  fruit,  and  drink  only  cold  water  ; 
in  consequence,  they  are  strong  and  healthy, 
and  live  as  long  as  men  in  the  most  propi- 
tious climates. —  Monthly  Magazine,  Juhj, 
1815. 

DEATHS    FROM    PREVENTABLE    DISEASES. 

At  a  time  when  ministers  come  forward  and 
startle  the  nation  by  declaring  that  Great 
Britain  requires  a  foreign  legion  to  help  her 
to  fight  her  battles,  surely  the  followiug 
ought  to  excite  attention : — "  Year  after 
year,  year  after  year,  have  Registrars'  Re- 
ports declared  the  thousands  dying  of  pre- 
ventable diseases,  and  yet  these  diseases  are 
not  prevented.  Year  after  year  has  it  been 
stated  that  from  preventable  causes  death 
is  twice  as  busy  aihong  the  poor  as  among 
the  rich,  and  yet  do  a  double  number  of  the 
poor  die  on.  Year  after  year  has  it  been 
demonstrated  that  preventable  typhus  is 
^annually  destroying  upwards  of  thirty  thou- 
sand of  our  people  ;  and  yet  by  preventable 
typhus  are  upwards  of  thirty  thousands 
annually  destroyed.  How  can  we  account 
for  this  apathy  .^  Whence  springs  it  ?  What 
is  the  cause  ?  Are  these  slaughters  permitted 
through  cold-heartedness .''  through  igno- 
rance }  through  a  want  of  power  to  save } 
But  the  facts  are  known ;  the  power  to  save 
exists  ;  and  yet  these  things  continue.  Can 
we  conceive  a  body  of  men,  engifted  with 
a  mightier  privilege  than  that  of  being 
permitted  to  stretch  out  the  right  hand  of 
salvation  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  crushed 
and  trampled  human  beings  .►*  to  give  them 
health }  to  give  them  better  powers  .?  powers 
of  thought,  powers  of  action,  powers  of  doing 
good,  powers  of  being  happy }  Can  we,  I 
say,  conceive  a  mightier  earthly  privilege 
than  this  .''  Yet  this  is  possessed — has  been 
for  years  possessed  by  legislators,  and  things 
are  as  they  are  : — One  hundred  thousand  suf- 
fering fellow-creatures  are  annually  perishing 
in  hngland  from  preventable  diseases.  We 
•  may  not  now  stop  to  calculate  the  national 
expense  of  this  mortality,  the  pauperization, 


the  destitution,  the  widowhood,  the  orphan- 
age, the  crime,  the  taxes  on  public  and 
private  benevolence,  which  such  wrongs 
must  occasion.  Of  these  another  time. 
Only  let  it  from  this  hour  forth  be  deeply 
impressed  upon  the  hearts  of  all  here  as- 
sembled, that  one  hundred  thousand— o^'e 
HUNDRED  THOUSAND  humau  beiugs  are 
annually  perishing  in  England  from  preven- 
table diseases. — Hopley's  Lecture  on  Respi- 
ration. 

A     vegetarian    EATING-HOUSE.* 

The  immense  success  of  the  late  Vegetarian 
Banquet  at  Leeds  has  induced  an  enterprising 
enthusiast  to  start  an  Eating  House,  con- 
ducted entirely  without  the  assistance  of  the 
Butcher.  But  not  only  is  the  Butcher 
renounced,  but  also  the  Fishmonger,  on  the 
principle  that  it  is  wrong  to  catch  fish :  for 
Vegetarianism  professes  to  be  an  improve- 
ment on  that  doctrine,  the  first  promulgators 
whereof  were  fishermen.  The  Poulterer  is 
excluded  likewise ;  for  not  even  eggs  are 
tolerated  :  it  being  considered  cruel  to  rend 
the  tie  which  exists  between  them  and  hens, 
if  not  cocks  also  :  and  although  this  objec- 
tion may  not  apply  in  the  case  of  ducks,  by 
reason  of  the  indiiference  of  those  birds  to 
their  eggs,  yet  it  is  thought  that  to  eat 
ducks'  eggs  would  be  to  take  a  shameful 
advantage  of  the  ducks'  neglect  of  their 
eggs.  Recourse  is  not  even  had  to  the  Dairy- 
man ;  to  drink  cows'  milk  is  to  rob  calves : 
and  if  the  cow  has  no  calf,  to  milk  her  is 
to  weaken  her,  by  creating  an  artificial  drain 
upon  her  constitution.  Milk  quite  sufficient 
for  the  composition  of  puddings  and  pies  is 
obtained  from  various  plants,  and  the  re- 
quirements of  the  tea  and  breakfast-table 
are  completely  met  by  the  milk  of  the  cocoa 
nut. 

In  short,  the  Baker,  the  Greengrocer,  and 
the  Grocer  in  ordinary,  purvey  all  the 
materials  which  form  the  bill  of  fare  pro- 
vided at  these  novel  Refreshment  Rooms  : 
the  staple  of  the  kitchen  is  derived  entirely 
from  the  kitchen-garden.  The  beverages — 
for  the  establishment  is  teetotal  as  well  as 
Vegetarian— essentially  consist  of  the  un- 
fermented  juice  of  the  pump. 

We  have  honoured  this  Vegetarian  Eating 
House  Avith-  a  visit,  and  on  inquiring  what 
there  was  ready,  were  informed  by  the 
waiter  that  there  was  "  some  very  nice  grass 
just  up."  "  Do  you  think,"  we  cried,  "  that 
we  are  going  to  be  such  geese  as  to  eat 
that.>"  "Nice  young  grass,  Sir,"  he  re- 
peated: "  ilew  cut." 

The  idea  of  grass  made  us  ruminate  a 
little.     "  Any  hay  ?  "  said  we. 

"  jSTo    'ay.    Sir,"    answered    the    waiter 

*  See  ControversiaUst  and  Correspondent,  p.  52 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


55 


blandly.    "No  'ay,  Sir;  but  beautiful  grass 
— sp  ar  r  0  wgrass . ' ' 

"  Peas,  Sir  ?  "  suggested  the  waiter.  We 
ordered  peas.  '.'Two  peas — thoroughly 
done  !  "  shouted  the  man,  down  a  pipe. 

"AVhat  will  you  take  to  drink,  Sir.^  "  he 
asked,  returning  to  the  table.  "There's 
toast-and- water — there's  apple- water,  lemon- 
ade, ginger-beer." 

"Any  ale  .?  " 

"  Hadam's  hale,  Sir ;  very  old ;  first 
liquor  as  ever  was  drunk." 

"Bring  us  a  pot  of  Adam's  ale  apiece  ; 
we  prefer  it  mild." 

"  Yessir."  So  saying  the  waiter  dis- 
appeared ;  and  presently  returned  with  our 
dinner ;  for  which,  however,  we  found  our 
two  peas  insufficient,  so  we  demanded  what 
else  there  was. 

"  Kidneys,  Sir — fine  kidneys.     Marrow." 

"  Come,"  we  said.  "  This  is  better  than 
we  thought.  Kidneys  and  marrow.  Bring 
a  couple  of  marrow-bones." 

"No  bones,  Sir.     Vegetable  marrow." 

"  Two  kidneys  then." 

"Two  kidneys,  Sir,  yessir." 

"  Let.  them  be  devilled." 

"Very  sorry,  Sir:  don't  devil  our  kid- 
neys. Red-nosed  kidneys,  or  kidney-beans, 
Sir }" 

"  Red-nosed  kidneys  ! "  we  cried  in  aston- 
ishment. 

"  Yessir.     'Taturs,  Sir." 

"Potatoes  with  red-noses!"  we  again 
exclaimed.  "  In  this  abode  of  Temperance  ! 
"Well ;  never  mind  :  bring  us  some  of  your 
debauched  potatoes. " 

"  'Ow  will  you  'ave  them,  Sir  ?     Plain  ?  " 

"  Hey  .'' — 'UO.  A  la  maitre  d'  hotel — that 
is  with  parsley  and  butter." 

"  Parsley,  Sir,  we  'ave  ;  but  no  butter. 
Butter  a  hanimal  substance,  Sir  ;  we  use  no 
hanimal  substance.     He,  Sir." 

"  One  wants  something  else  with  pota- 
toes," we  observed. 

"You  can  'ave,"  replied  the  waiter, 
"minced  turnip,  or  'ashed  carrot,  cabbage 
'art  stufl'ed,  scolloped  hartichokes,  curried 
brocoli,  fricasseed  cucumber,  roast  onion, 
stewed  endive,  truffle  and  mushroom  pie, 
beet-steaks,  pumpkin  chops."  We  chose  a 
slice  of  roast  onion  ;  and  when  we  had  eaten 
it,  the  waiter  inquired  whether  we  would 
take  pastry  or  cheese.  "  How  is  it  you 
have  cheese,''  we  demanded,  "  and  not 
butter.!*''  "  Damson  cheese,  Sir,''  was  his 
reply.  AVe  had  some  bread  and  damson 
cheese ;  and  then  asked  what  was  to  pay. 
"Yessir.  Two  peas  is  eight;  and  kidneys 
is  five — that's  thirteen — and  two  roast  onions 
is  one  shilling,  two  and  a  penny  :  and  breads 
and  cheeses  four :  and  two  waters  a  apeny 
each  is  two  and  fivepence  apeny." 


We  settled  this  little  account  without  any 
demurrer  ;  and  under  the  excitement  of  the 
generous  fare  we  had  been  partaking  of,  gave 
the  waiter  half-a-crown,  telling  him  to  keep 
the  change,  which  amounted  to  a  halfpenny 
for  himself. — Punch. 

AN   APPEAL   TO    MOTHERS. 

"  In  a  ramble  I  took  a  few  days  ago,  T  was 
distressed  by  the  peculiarly  plaintive  tone 
in  which  a  cow,  standing  alone  by  a  barn, 
was  lowing.  '  What's  the  matter  with  her  .?>  ' 
I  asked,  of  a  man  who  leaned  over  the  wall. 
'  Calf  killed  ! '  was  his  abrupt  reply,  and  as 
he  spoke  he  spread  a  fresh  skin  on  the  wall. 
The  poor  mother  recognized  it,  ran  up,  and 
began  licking  it,  and  smelling  to  the  little 
hoofs  that  hung  down.  She  then  looked 
into  the  man's  face,  and  lowed  piteously, 
and  again  caressed  the  remains  of  her  mur- 
dered darling.  '  She'll  go  on  that  way  for 
four  or  five  days,'  said  the  master,  and  sure 
enough  it  was  so,  for  I  never  passed  that 
way  Avitliout  hearing  her  plaintive  tones.'' 
—H.J. 

SOAP   AND   TALLOW. 

How  often  is  the  old  saw  verified  that  "  Ne- 
cessity is  the  mother  of  invention."  We 
arc  at  war  with  Russia,  and  already  two 
discoveries  have  been  made  and  patented,  by 
which  substitutes  are  provided  to  a  very  con- 
siderable extent  for  two  of  the  chief  articles 
we  have  hitherto  imported  from  the  realms 
of  the  Czar.  The  new  system  of  grinding 
wheat  by  conical  mills,  it  was  stated  by  Sir 
John  Shelley  and  Mr.  C.  Hindley,  M.P., 
to  Sir  James  Graham,  at  the  Admiralty, 
would,  if  universally  adopted  in  this  coun- 
try, save  per  annum  as  much  flour,  from  the 
quantity  used  at  present,  as  would  feed  one 
million  more  people.  If,  therefore,  we  get 
no  more  wheat  from  that  dreaded  TambofF 
that  so  terrified  our  innocent  and  noble 
neighbour,  Lord  Derby,  this  invention  bids 
fair  to  compensate  for  the  loss.  The  second 
important  article  from  Russia  is  tallow,  and 
here  again  we  have  found  a  substitute,  and 
that,  too,  by  a  Liverpool  man.  A  patent  has 
been  taken  out  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
France,  Belgium,  etc.,  for  the. making  of 
soap  by  means  of  tallow  extracted  from  ma- 
terials hitherto  considered  nearly  worthless, 
and  which  can  be  obtained  at  less  than  one- 
sixth  of  the  price  paid  for  Russian  tallow, 
and  soap  manufactured  at  a  cost  of  £10  or 
£L2  per  ton  cheaper  than  it  has  hitherto 
been.  It  possesses,  moreover,  far  more  of 
the  cleansing  property  than  ordinary  soap, 
and  promises  to  be  a  great  boon  to  laun- 
dresses on  one  side,  and  cloth  manufacturers 
especially  on  the  other.  On  the  principle, 
we  suppose,    of  lucus  a  non   lucendo,   it  is 


called  in  Liverpool,  "  empire  soap,"  not  be- 
cause it  has  anything  to  do  with  the  empire 
of  Eussia,  but  because  it  has  not — a  good 
practical  joke,  Avhich  will  not  prevent  the 
millions  who  detest  the  Czar,  to  wash  their 
hands  of  him  altogether.  A  portion  of  this 
new  soap  is  in  our  possession  ;  and  from  the 
licenses  that  have  been  applied  for  by  soap 
manufacturers  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
we  have  little  doubt  it  will  soon  be  well 
known,  and  generally  used,  from  John-o'- 
Groat's  House  to  the  Land's  End. — Liver- 
pool Journal. 

WHISKY   AND    MISERY. 

Whisky  and  misery,  whichever  be  the  cause, 
whichever  be  the  effect,  always  go  together. 
In  the  island  of  Mull,  about  £3,000  of 
money  raised  in  charity,  was  spent  in  the 
year  ending  October  1 0th,  1848,  for  the 
eleemosynary  support  of  the  people.  In  the 
same  space  of  time,  the  expenditure  of  the 
people  on  whisky  was  £6,099  !  In  the  year 
ending  October  10th,  18J0,  the  sum  paid  in 
the  island  of  Skye  for  Avhisky  was  £10,855  ; 
considerably  more  than  double  the  amount 
expended  in  relief  by  the  Destituiion  Fund^ 
and  more  than  double  the  consumption  of  the 
same  district  in  1845,  the  year  before  the 
distress  commenced!  "That  is,"  says  the 
Quarterly  Review,  which  quotes  the  facts 
from  excellent  authority,  "the  increased 
consumption  of  whisky  exactly  tallies  with 
the  extraneous  aid  received — ^in  other  words, 
the  whole  amount  of  charitable  assistance 
went  in  whisky  .'" — The  Freeman. 

SEIZURE    OF   UNWHOLESOME   MEAT. 

Yesterday  morning,  Mr.  C.  Gibson,  toAvn- 
clerk  of  Salford,  appeared  at  the  Salford 
Borough  Court,  to  support  an  information 
against  a  man  named  David  Doherty,  the 
tenant  of  a  farm,  called  "  High  Field  Farm," 
in  Pendleton,  charging  him  with  having  had 
in  his  possession  a  quantity  of  meat,  which 
was  unfit  for  human  food.  On  the  evening 
of  "Wednesday  last,  Mr.  Pickering,  one  of 
the  Inspectors  of  Nuisances  for  the  Borough 
of  Salford,  visited  the  defendant's  farm.  In 
a  barn,  he  found  a  hind-quarter  of  beef;  in 
a  stable  two  quarters  of  beef,  one  fore  and 
the  other  hind  ;  in  a  slaughter-house,  three 
sides  and  two  fore-quarters  of  beef — all  of 
which  was  in  a  diseased  state,  and  unfit  for 
human  food.  He  also  found  the  carcasses 
of  two  calves  which  were  too  young  to  be 
eaten,  and  a  quantity  of  meat  which  had 
been  cut  up,  all  of  which  was  unfit  for  food. 
The  quantity  of  meat  seized,  and  which, 
after  being  examined  by  some  butchers,  was 
ordered  by  the  magistrates  to  be  destroyed, 
was  1,288  lb.      Mr.  R.  B.  B.  Cobbett,  who 


appeared  for  the  defendant,  pleaded  guilty  to 
the  charge,  but  urged,  in  mitigation  of  the 
sentence,  that  he  was  brought  up  under  an 
act  which  had  only  recently  been  applied  to 
Pendleton,  in  consequence  of  its  incorpora- 
tion with  Salford ;  and  that  he  Avas  about  to 
be  punished  for  the  commission  of  an  act 
which,  but  for  that  act,  was  a  lawful  one. 
Mr.  Trafford  said  it  was  impossible  to  sup- 
pose that  the  defendant  could  have  been 
ignorant  that  he  was  committing  an  unlawful 
act.  The  magistrates  should  therefore  in- 
flict upon  him  two  penalties  of  £10  each,  for 
two  of  the  pieces  of  meat  which  were  found 
on  his  premises,  with  costs.  Mr,  Pickering 
said  that  he  believed  the  penalty  would  be 
paid.  — Manchester  Guardian. 

ventilation  of  the  nursery. 
The  nursery  ought  always  to  be  one  of  the  lar- 
gest rooms  in  the  house.  It  should  be  without 
carpet,  and  the  bed  without  curtains. 
Wherever  there  is  any  quantity  of  curtains 
to  a  bed,  it  is  injurious  to  the  health  of  the 
persons  sleeping  in  it,  as  it  prevents  their 
obtaining  a  proper  supply  of  fresh  air,  and 
they  are  thus  compelled  to  breathe  that 
which  has  already  been  vitiated  by  being 
once  drawn  into  the  lungs.  The  effect  of 
Avant  of  A'^entilation  upon  the  rearing  of 
children,  was  very  strikingly  shown  in  the 
Dublin  Foundling  Hospital,  some  years  ago. 
Between  the  years  1781,  and  1791,  19,420 
children  were  received  into  that  institution ; 
and  of  these,  17,420  died.  This  great  mor- 
tality was  partly  owing  to  the  use  of  improper 
food  ;  but  the  effects  of  deficient  ventila- 
tion in  many  hospitals  have  been  dreadful. 
At  one  time  no  one  was  ever  known  to 
recover  after  an  amputation  ;  because,  with 
the  air  supplied  to  it,  the  body  had  not  power 
to  heal  the  wound.  At  St.  Bartholomew's 
Hospital,  London,  the  eff'ects  of  improved 
ventilation  have  been  clearly  shown.  In 
the  year  1685,  the  deaths  there  were  1  in  7  ; 
in  1689,  they  were  1  in  10  ;  in  1783,  1  in 
14 ;  in  1800,  1  in  15 ;  and  in  1815,  1  in  16. 
— Dr.  J.  S.  Wilkinson. 

love  of  nature. 
I  care  not.  Fortune,  what  you  me  deny  ; 
You  cannot  rob  me  of  free  Nature's  grace, 
You  cannot  shut  the  windows  of  the  sky. 
Through  which  Aurora  shows  her  brighten- 
ing face ; 
You  cannot  bar  my  constant  feet  to  trace 
The  woods  and  lawns,  by  living  stream  at 

eve. 
Let  health  my  nerves  and  finer  fibres  brace. 
And  I  their  toys  to  the  great  children  leave ; 
Of  fancy,   reason,   virtue,   nought    can  me 
bereave.  Thomson. 


MORAL  MOVEMENTS   AND  THEIR  ADHERENTS. 


57 


THE    EIGHTH    ANNUAL    MEETING. 


The  deliberations  of  the  approaching  Vege- 
tarian Conference,  will,  of  course,  embrace 
all  the  usual  routine  of  business  transactions 
at  an  Annual  Meeting,  besides  others, 
which,  from  the  extension  of  the  time  of 
members  being  together,  will  admit  of  more 
extended  discussion.  By  this  treatment  of 
subjects,  we  hope  the  programme  of  the 
officers  of  the  Society  will  embrace  every- 
thing of  practical  interest  to  Vegetarianism 
in  its  progress,  and  to  the  requirements  of 
members  themselves,  in  order  that  each  may 
render  the  individual  service  to  the  move- 
ment which  duty  to  the  interests  of  society 
at  least  prescribes.  These  subjects  would, 
indeed,  form  a  somewhat  extended  bill  of 
fare  ;  but  since  the  consideration  of  them  is 
called  for,  and  that  the  Conference  is  for 
Vegetarians,  and  in  practical  results  is  looked 
to  as  of  great  importance  at  this  stage  of 
our  progress ;  we  do  not  see  that  with  the 


ample  time  and  opportunity  before  the 
members,  any  one  subject  of  usefulness 
should  be  omitted. 

Besides  these  operations  directly  addressed 
to  Vegetarians,  and  in  which  the  public  are 
not  otherwise  interested,  than  as  far  as 
regards  their  practical  results  in  extending 
the  knowledge  of  Vegetarianism,  there  is, 
it  will  be  seen,  to  be  a  Public  Meeting  in 
the  Town  Hall,  in  which  some  of  the  lead- 
ing members  of  the  Conference  will  be 
speakers.  This  part  of  the  arrangements 
of  the  Annual  Meeting  will  be  of  great 
interest,  as  the  occasion  will  doubtless  bring 
together  many  who  can  well  enter  upon  the 
exposition  of  the  various  arguments,  views, 
and  experience,  of  the  system  they  specially 
commend  to  public  attention.  Perhaps 
there  may  be  more  than  one  meeting  to  give 
effect  to  the  opportunity  presented  of  making 
useful  the  talent  assembled. 


MOEAL    MOVEMENTS    AND    THEIR    ADHERENTS. 


Annual  gatherings  of  all  kinds  are  in  their 
social  aspects  not  merely  attractive  and 
useful,  but  present  aspects  of  the  greatest 
interest,  by  which  to  judge  of  the  actual 
position  of  movements,  and,  in  a  retrospective 
point  of  view,  afford  evidence  of  the  greatest 
importance. 

We  may  assume  to  begin  with,  that  the 
adherents  of  all  sound  systems  of  teaching, 
are  beneath  and  behind  the  principles  of 
their  system,  considered  in  their  abstract 
purity.  This  is  true  of  Christian  systems — 
religions  of  all  kinds— as  well  as  of  all 
inferior  systems  involving  moral  principles. 
Look,  for  instance,  at  the  Peace  Movement, 
embracing  some  men,  who,  in  certain  cir- 
cumstances, could  sanction  and  advocate 
war,  whilst  the  preying  upon  animals,  the 
great  trainer  for  the  slaughter  of  the  human 
species,  is  sanctioned  and  practised  in  nearly 
every  case.  Look  at  the  professors  of  Tem- 
perance, abjuring  alcoholic  drinks,  and  often 
living  in  the  intemperate  use  of  flesh  and 
tobacco,  whilst  abstinence  from  flesh,  the 
great  excitant  in  their  cases,  would  reduce 
the  struggles  and  difficulties  to  hold  their 
pledge,  and  in  the  more  absolute  temperance 
of  habits,  make  all  good  things  easier  to 
them.  Look,  again,  at  the  many  incongruous 
ways  in  which  Vegetarianism  is  attempted 
to  be  carried  out   by  individuals,  and  the 

7 


discrepancy  between  extreme  opinions  and 
eccentricities,  and  the  sensible  adoption  of 
-  the  system,  thus  made  apparent.  In  short, 
wherever  we  turn,  the  same  is  observable, 
and  the  imperfection  of  the  adherents  of  a 
system  is  declared,  when  practice  is  compared 
with  principle. 

This  imperfection  in  the  practices  of  men, 
however,  in  no  way  invalidates  the  goodness 
of  the  system  they  profess  to  follow,  when 
the  question  is  philosophically  regarded,  any 
more  than  the  imperfection  of  our  present 
practice  in  levying  war  on  a  neighbouring 
country,  proves  the  worthlessness  of  the 
Gospel  of  Peace,  which  we  profess  to  honour 
and  follow.  The  fact  proves  our  disregard  of 
what  we  profess,  but  leaves  the  principle  of 
Love  untarnished,  though  it  may  have  to  wait, 
for  its  practical  realization,  for  a  people  who 
shall  be  less  followers  of  expediency  than  we 
are,  and  shall  ground  their  principles  on 
a  personal  reform  something  more  than 
abstract. 

It  is,  however,  with  the  retrospective  view 
of  the  Vegetarian  movement,  and  as  to  how 
far  Vegetarians  fulfil  the  obligations  resting 
upon  them  in  regard  to  the  public,  that  we 
would  have  to  do  for  a  moment.  This  one 
aspect  of  inquiry  is  peculiarly  applicable  at 
the  period  when  we  approximate  to  the  close 
of  eight  years  of  labour  in  our  movement. 


68 


ENEMIES   OF  THE   OYSTEE. 


"What  have  we  done,  then,  in  the  time  ?  how 
has  this  been  accomplished?  and  what 
pecuniary  support  has  been  tendered  to  push 
on  the  knowledge  of  the  advantages  of  the 
system  ? 

In  regard  to  the  fruits  of  their  labours, 
Vegetarians  have,  unquestionably,  much  to 
rejoice  in.  There  is  to-day  a  consideration 
in  wide-spread  classes  of  our  country,  as 
well  as  a  respectful  notice  secured  for  our 
principles  in  a  literary  point  of  view, 
which,  considering  our  short  term  as  an 
organization,  are  not  less  than  astonishing. 

If  we  ask,  next,  How  has  this  been  se- 
cured ?  we  at  once  point  to  the  facts  of 
sound  organization,  zeal,  and  what  may  not 
be  inaptly  designated,  the  chivalry  of  the 
Vegetarian  advocacy.  These  afford  the  re- 
sults which  now  surprise  us ;  but  when  we 
look  from  the  effects  to  the  actors,  we  see 
that  only  a  few  have  been  labourers, 
whilst  many  might  probably  have  been 
cooperators,  whose  work  might  naturally 
have  been  expected  still  further  to  have 
added  to  our  state  of  progress. 

As  to  the  inquiry,  however,  into  the  pe- 
cuniary assistance  tendered  by  members  of 
the  movement,  in  support  of  the  advocacy  of 
their  principles,  we  fear  we  are  most  of  all 
at  fault.  It  is  well  known  that  a  compa- 
vative  few  are  found  to  support  and  ad- 
rance  most  moral  movements,  when  these 
are  scrutinized ;  but  though  a  few  pull  the 
strings  of  operation,  a  many  may  still  be 
found  to  contribute  to  the  expenses  incident 
to  this  first  planning  and  direction.  No 
doubt  this  is  so  in  the  Vegetarian  move- 
ment, and  it  is  known  that  large  benevo- 
lence enters  into  its  operations,  there  being 
private  individuals  who  largely  dispense 
of  their  means  to  spread  a  knowledge 
of  the  advantages  of  Vegetarianism.  But 
still,  in  our  retrospective  glance,  we  fear  we 
are  most  certainly  assailable  on  the  head  that 
the  great  majoiity  of  our  adherents  do  far 


ENEMIES    OF 

The  enemies  of  the  oysters  are  many,  and  all 
of  them  go  about  seeking  what  oysters  they 
may  devour.  First  comes  the  sea-crab,  who 
sets  himself  on  an  oyster,  and  drills  a  little 
round  hole  in  his  back,  and  makes  the  poor 
oyster's  back  ache,  w^hich  causes  him  to  take 
a  long  breath,  when  the  villanous  crab  runs 
a  "stinger"  down  his  throat,  and  the  poor 
oyster  is  in  the  sea-crab's  stomach.  On  the 
sea-shore  bushels  of  shells  are  found  perfectly 
riddled  with  holes  by  the  crabs.  Sometimes 
the  crab  files  the  oyster's  nose  off,  so  as  to 
run  in  his  stinger. 

Second  comes  the  drum-fish,  who  weighs 
about  thirty  or  forty  pounds,  and  is  about 


less  in  contributions  to  advance  their  cause 
than  they  well  might,  "Who,  we  would  ask, 
saves  by  learning  the  truth  as  much  as  the 
Vegetarian  ?  and  why  not  then  find,  as  one 
would  naturally  expect,  every  one,  without 
exception,  giving  a  portion  of  his  savings  to 
add  to  the  knowledge,  and  increase  the  happi- 
ness of  the  rest  of  society  !  The  adherent 
of  Temperance  introduces  economy  into  his 
household,  and  too  frequently  he  forgets  to 
make  his  offerings  of  thankfulness  and  grate- 
ful acknowledgment  for  benefits  received. 

But  who  so  obdurate  as  the  Vegetarian 
who  forgets  his  daily  advantages,  and  the 
need  of  the  many  without  for  the  better  and 
happier  system  to  which  he  has  himself  at- 
tained !  For  a  Vegetarian  to  withhold  his 
hand  in  helping  on  his  cause  is,  to  us,  a  sor- 
rowful enormity  we  hardly  dare  entertain. 
But  still,  the  retrospect  of  the  eight  years, 
we  much  fear,  will  convict  the  adherents  of 
the  movement  of  less  done  in  pecuniary  con- 
tributions in  relation  to  benefits  received,  than 
in  any  other  way,  where  the  aid  of  numbers 
has  been  required. 

If,  however,  there  be  advantage  in  our 
retrospect,  it  is  in  directing  attention  to  these 
errors  and  imperfections,  in  order  that  each 
may  think  the  more  carefully  what  his  means 
of  usefulness  are,  and  with  the  new  period 
of  Vegetarian  advocacy  just  opening,  con- 
sider how  the  past  bears  testimony  to  con- 
sciousness of  services  rendered,  and  how  the 
obligations  of  the  future  may  best  be  dis- 
charged. We  think  a  strictly  conscientious 
examination  of  the  claims  of  our  movement 
upon  its  adherents  will,  in  this  way,  do  them 
no  harm,  and  may  add  both  the  assistance  of 
many  who  now  are  only  actors  socially  and 
not  publicly,  and  at  the  same  time  secure 
larger  funds  to  work  with ;  and  thus  the 
material  assistance  essential  to  progress  will 
not  fail,  in  time  to  come,  to  have  more  general 
and  just  relation  to  the  means  of  contribution 
in  each  member  of  our  movement. 


TMK    OYSTER. 

two  feet  long  ;  he  is  large  about  the  stomach, 
and  tapers  off  towards  both  ends.  He  is  by 
no  means  a  modest  fish  ;  for,  just  as  soon  as 
his  eye  rests  on  an  oyster,  he  starts  toward 
him,  for  the  purpose  of  making  his  acquaint- 
ance, and,  grabbing  him  in  his  mouth, 
smashes  him  into  chowder,  "in  the  twink- 
ling of  a  cat's  tail,"  and  immediately  looks 
about  for  his  nearest  relatives  —  being 
opposed  to  having  families  separated,  he  is 
anxious  to  have  them  all  rest  in  his  stomach 
at  once.  It  is  often  the  case  that  two  or 
three  pounds  of  oyster  shells  are  found  in  a 
drum  fish's  stomach. 

Third    comes    the    sea-star  —  everybody 


TESTIMONY   OF   A  WORKING  MAN. 


59 


knows  what  a  sea-star  is,  for  they  look  just 
like  a  star.  These  stars  have  five  points,  but 
no  legs,  and  as  they  do  not  keep  horses  and 
waggons,  they  find  it  very  inconvenient  to  go 
afoot — not  having  any  feet — so,  when  they 
wish  to  travel,  they  lock  themselves  fast  to 
each  other,  until  they  form  a  large  ball, 
sometimes  ten  feet  in  circumference,  and 
permit  themselves  to  be  driven  about  by  the 
waves  of  the  sea,  and  roll  away,  they  know 
not,  nor  care  not,  whither ;  but  if  they 
happen  to  roll  over  an  oyster  bed,  they  all 
immediately  let  loose  of  each  other,  and  hug 
an  oyster,  and  wrap  their  five  points  about 


him,  and  hug  him  closely,  hug  him  dearly, 
until  the  oyster  desires  him  to  stop,  and  just 
opens  his  mouth,  to  say,  "  Hold,  enough," 
when  the  rascally  star  runs  a  little  "  nipper  " 
down  oyster's  nose,  and  he  is  a  "  goner." 

Fourth  comes  man,  with  dredging-irons — 
with  scoops,  shovels,  and  tongs — pulling  him, 
and  making  him  into  oyster  soup,  pie,  fry, 
roast,  and  so  on,  and  so  forth,  eating  him 
whole,  and  indiscriminately,  body  and  soul, 
without  saving  the  pieces.  Thus  it  is  with 
poor  oyster,  troubles  beset  him  on  every  side, 
and  though  thousands  desire  to  have  him, 
yet  none  wish  to  he  him. — Quebec  Gazette. 


TESTIMONY    OF 

Some  two  or  three  years  ago,  I  received 
through  the  post  several  numbers  of  the 
Vegetarian  Messenger^  which  I  read  with 
some  degree  of  eagerness.  Although  I 
liked  roast-beef  and  gravy  to  my  Sunday 
dinner,  and  could  relish,  now  and  then, 
bones  of  dead  animals  stewed  for  soup,  I 
must  confess  I  could  not  help  but  love,  yes, 
sir,  love^  the  Vegetarian  system.  Its  ad- 
vocates appeared  clear-headed  and  earnest ; 
— its  principles  peaceful  and  kind — love  in 
its  broad  sense  was  stamped  upon  it — it 
promised  a  greater  degree  of  serenity  and 
freedom  of  mind,  as  well  as  a  more  exquisite 
enjoyment  of  life,  than  the  flesh-eating 
practice — it  was  beautiful,  and  my  heart 
could  not,  as  I  have  already  hinted,  resist  its 
overtures.  But  still  the  tiesh-eating  habits 
in  which  I  had  been  trained  from  my  youth 
up,  were  not  very  easy  to  break  off.  Never- 
theless, I  continued  to  read  the  strange 
books  that  the  postman  would  bring,  to- 
gether with  some  furnished  to  me  by  a  kind 
friend,  till  at  last  the  truthfulness  of  Vege- 
tarianism took  hold  of  my  intellect  also. 
Judgment  and  heart,  .noAV,  said  it  was 
wrong  to  take  the  life  of  poor  unoffending 
animals,  and  then  to  eat  their  dead  bodies, 
which  in  all  probability  would  be  diseased  ; 
so  I  cleared  my  table  of  their  "  mangled 
remains,"  and  to-day,  I  am  happy,  healthy, 
and  strong. 

I  have  an  amount  of  mind-independence, 
coupled  with  a  keen  appreciation  of  the 
beautiful  and  all-glorious  world,  with  which 
I  feel  myself  surrounded,  that  I  would  not 
exchange  for  all  the  gratification  the  far 
famed  "  roast-beef  of  old  England  "  could 
afford.  The  more  I  read,  think,  and  ex- 
amine, the  body-feeding  practices  of  man- 
kind, and  the  nature  of  the  human  con- 
stitution, the  more  I  am  convinced  that 
Vegetarianism  is  best  adapted  for  physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral  development.  I  do 
not  wonder,  when  I  am  told  that  many  of  the 
wise  and  good  of  all  ages  of  the  world's 


A    WOEKING    MAN. 

history  have  been  Vegetarians  —  that  the 
great  world-work — its  finest  specimens  of 
art — have  been  produced,  as  well  as  that  its 
meanest  drudgery  has  ever  been,  and  is 
still,  performed  by  those  who  live  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  Edenic  command,  con- 
tained in  the  Genesis  of  the  inspired  Book. 
I  like  Vegetarianism  because  it  aids  me  in 
my  thought-hours — regulates,  refines,  and 
elevates  —fosters  all  that  is  beautiful,  benevo- 
lent, and  lovely  within  us ;  while  the  life- 
destroying,  animal-eating  customs  violate  and 
darken  all  that  would  remind  us  of  Heaven 
or  of  God.  I  like  Vegetarianism  because 
it  aids  me  in  my  efforts  to  detach  myself  from 
my  fellow-man,  to  unloosen  his  grasp,  and 
to  become  freer  in  my  actions  towards  him. 
Oh !  it  is  a  glorious  thing  to  be  a  man — a 
sober  man  —  having  for  my  pedestal  the 
green-covered  earth,  decorated  with  river, 
mountain,  and  dale — wrapped  round  with  a 
mantle  of  stars.  Wine-bibbers,  and  riotous 
eaters  of  fiesh  may  laugh  and  imagine  a  sort 
of  pleasure  in  their  animal  practices,  but  I 
would  draw  mine  from  higher  sources.  The 
glorious  sun — the  golden  orb  of  day — as  he 
comes  forth,  "like  a  strong  man  to  run  a 
race,"  mirroring  himself  in  my  soul,  fills 
me  with  gratitude  and  thanksgiving.  I  am 
no  longer  poor,  but  rich  ;  I  stand  erect,  and 
move  along  like  a  monarch  and  a  freeman. 
The  vast  dome  of  heaven,  as  it  bends  over 
me  in  awful  sublimity,  inspires  me  M'ith 
great  thoughts  and  holy  aspirations.  Night, 
with  its  star-encircled  brow,  shining  silently 
in  infinite  space,  begets  holiest  emotions  in 
the  soul.  As  I  stand  upon  some  mountain- 
thought — some  high  pinnacle  of  the  temple 
of  God's  truth — viewing  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  and  all  their  glory,  I  see  nature  filled 
with  living  hieroglyphics,  calling  up  my  de- 
voutest  sentiments,  making  my  eyes  weep,  and 
knees  bend  in  deepest  adoration  and  heartfelt 
thankfulness  that  I  live — live  at  peace  with 
all  creation.  Oh!  I  would  call  upon  my 
flesh-eating    and    dram-drinking    brothers 


60 


THE   CONTEOYERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


everywhere  to  change  their  course,  to  arise 
and  shake  themselves,  and  hasten  hack  with 


all    speed 
manhood. 


to    their    primitive    purity    and 


THE    CONTROVERSIALIST    AND    CORRESPONDENT. 


THT3   DARWEN  DISCUSSIOISr. 

We  give  the  following  in  connection  with 
the  discussion,  part  of  which  has  already 
appeared  in  our  pages  : 

"To  the  Editor  of  the  Blachhurn  Weekly  Tiniest 

"  Sir— It  did  not  surprise  me  that  'W.  T.  A.' 
should  rush  out  of  the  Vesjetarian  ranks,  as  their 
'  literary  gladiator,'  for  the  purpose  of  proving-, 
not  that  my  statements  are  inaccurate,  but  to 
show  that  I  was  '  a  tyro  in  controversy  ' ;  yet  I 
certainly  did  not  expect  the  honour  of  a  'multi- 
tude' of  other  assailants,  with  '  Scrutator'  at 
their  head.  If '  Scrutator's  '  letter  was  selected 
out  of  the  'multitude'  as  the  most  complete 
defence  of  Vegetarianism,  his  misrepresentations 
are  so  apparent,  his  reasoning  is  so  weak,  that 
one  can  only  exclaim,  'Poor,  indeed,  is  the  best.' 

"He  has  contradicted  ray  assertions,  but  which 
has  he  proved  to  be  false  ?  And  in  his  long 
letter  has  he  shown  a  single  argument  against 
flesh-eating?  Is  his  scientific  knowledge  so  ex- 
tensive that  he  will  not  throw  his  pearls  before 
swine  ?  Or  why  does  he  not  convince  us  of 
error — in  the  words  of  a  Vegetarian,  '  give  anti- 
Vegetarianism  a  fatal  blow  '  ?  We  ask  for  proofs, 
not  statements  ;  facts,  not  assumptions.  He  as- 
sumes that,  because  God  gave  to  Adam  permis- 
sion to  eat  fruits  and  herbs,  he  therefore  did  not 
allow  him  to  eat  flesh  ;  he  assumes  that,  because 
Abel  sacrificed  the  firstlings  of  his  flock  and  the 
fat,  that  was  a  '  sufficient  reason  '  for  his  being  a 
keeper  of  sheep.  He  assumes  that  there  were 
two  creations ;  that  Vegetarians  are  not  Vege- 
tarians ;  that  they  are  the  strongest,  the  tallest, 
the  longest  livers,  and  last,  though  not  least,  the 
heaviest.  (In  his  letter  he  says,  '  heartiest,'  but 
he  has  since  withdiawn  'heartiest,'  and  put 
*  heaviest.  '  )  I  leave  the  reader  to  judge  whether 
'Scrutator'  has  proved  that  a  'Vegetarian 
diet'  is  far  superior  to  a  mixed  diet.  He  wages 
war  against  a  prevailing  custom, — it  is  for  him 
to  prove  that  custom  an  injurious  one.  Has  he 
done  so?  ' Scrutator '  states  that  experience 
taught  me  the  advantage  of  a  Vegetarian  diet  at 
the  end  of  a  month.  Does  he  call  a  month's 
trial  of  a  diet,  experience?  Being  at  that  time 
a  Vegetarian,  I,  of  course,  joined  the  Vegetarian 
Society;  but  as  for  my  having  obtained  any  ad- 
vantage at  any  time  from  a  Vegetarian  diet,  is, 
like  many  more  of  '  Scrutator's  '  assertions, 
entirely  false.  If  I  felt  no  worse  at  the  end  of 
one  month,  I  certainly  did  at  the  end  of  nine. 
We  see  from  this  what  they  call  Vegetarian 
experience,  viz. :  four  weeks  living  on  sago  pud- 
dings, etc. 

"When  a  class  comes  before  the  public,  with 
great  professions  and  many  seeming  arguments — 
when  its  members  contend  that  all  mankind  are 
wrong  who  will  not  follow  their  example — when 
they  abuse  those  who  expose  their  pretensions, 
and  assert  that  a  custom  which  has  existed  in 


every  age  of  the  world  is  injurious  to  health, 
religion,  and  morality — then  it  is  time  to  see  upon 
what  foundation  this  new  'ism'  is  founded. 

"But  when  this  class  is  so  divided  that  one 
refuses  to  allow  what  the  other  asserts,  and  a 
third  contradicts  the  other  two,  then  it  is  time 
that  this  chameleon  humbug  should  be  exposed. 
For,  as  the  Vegetarian  author,  Mr.  Smith,  asserts 
that  Vegetarianism  is  proved  from  Scripture  ; 
when  he  writes  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  Fruits 
and  Farinacea,  '  Here  (Gen.  i,  29)  we  have  plainly 
and  distinctly  stated  what  God  intended  should 
be  the  food  of  mankind.'  Again,  he  says  on  this 
text,  'No  one,  I  think,  can  mistake  the  language 
here  employed,  or  arrive  at  any  other  conclusion, 
than,  that  fruits  and  herbs  bearing  seed,  were 
expressly  granted  as  the  food  of  man.'  Mr. 
Hall,  another  of  these  verdant  gentry,  writing 
on  this  subject,  states,  '  Scripture  is  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  of  every  principle,'  and  that  Vege- 
tarianism is  'the  fore-runner,  the  John  the 
Baptist,  to  the  light  of  Christianity  ! '  So  *  W. 
T.  A.'  wishes  us  to  believe  that  '  the  pro-scriptu- 
ral assumption'  is  an  'error  in  fact,' and  the 
mystifying  man  of  straw  (cabbage?)  'Scruta- 
tor '  comes  out  with  a  puff',  •'  Vegetarians  have 
no  religious  creed  ;  they  teach  neither  doctrines 
of  angels  nor  doctrines  of  devils '  1  Which  of 
these  four  are  we  to  believe  ? 

"Further,  Mr.  John  Smith,  in  a  Vegetarian 
pamphlet,  asserts  (we  have  plenty  of  these  Ve- 
getarian assertions),  that  flesh-eating  is  an  injury 
to  morality  and  religion.  Whatever  is  an  injury 
to  morality  and  religion  must,  of  course,  be 
immoral  and  sinful.  Again,  a  great  many 
followers  of  this  '  ism '  have  united  to  form  a 
religious  sect,  calling  themselves  '  Bible  Chris- 
tians.' One  of  their  doctrines  is  thus  expressed 
in  a  letter  from  Mr.  William  Metcalfk, 
Philadelphia.  '  Eating  the  flesh  of  animals  is  a 
violation  of  the  first  dietetic  law,  given  to  man- 
kind by  the  Creator*,  as  a  guide  to  moral  and 
physical  health.  His  laws  are  like  himself,  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever.  To  trans- 
gress his  laws  by  killing  animals  we  consider 
sinful.' 

"Mr.  Simpson,  in  his  lectures  at  Darwen, 
taught  the  same  doctrine. 

"But, 'Scrutator' says,  'The  argument  of 
Christ  eating  flesh,  and  giving  it  to  others, 
would  be  excellent,  providing  that  Vegetarians 
held  it  to  be  a  sin  to  eat  flesh.' 

"If  it  was  cruel  and  immoral  to  kill  animals, 
would  God  have  commanded  sacrifices  ?  If  a 
flesh-diet  was  unhealthy,  etc,,  would  Christ 
have  eaten  fish  ?  Would  God  have  sent  his 
prophet  Elijah  flesh  to  eat?  (1  Kings  xvii,  6): 
'  And  the  ravens  brought  him  bread  and  flesh  in 
the  morning,  and  bread  and  flesh  in  the  evening.' 
Would  Christ,  by  a  miracle,  have  filled 
Peter's  net  with  fishes ;  and,  by  another 
miracle,  have  given  fishes  to  the  multitude  ? 

"  This  brings   me  back  to  my  assertion  in  the 


March  No.  of  the  Barwen  Examiner,  viz.,  that 
Vegetarians  ofteu  take  Scripture  as  their  starting 
point ;  but,  when  assailed,  refuse  to  acknowledge 
Scripture  arguments. 

"For  we  have  seen  that  Mr.  Smith  takes 
Scripture  as  his  starting  point;  that  Mr.  Hall 
considers  Scripture  to  be  the  beginning  and 
ending  of  every  principle ;  and  that  a  numerous 
sect  of  Vegetarians  consider  flesh-eating  sinful. 
Yet  '  W.  T.  A.'  vaunts  his  official  connection  to 
prove  that  'the  pro-scriptural  assumption  is  an 
error  in  fact,'  and  'Scrutator,'  the  man  of 
straw,  has  the  audacity  to  assert  that  I  coolly 
set  aside  the  real  foundation  and  arguments  for 
Vegetarianism !  ' 

"In  another  place  he  writes  thus:  'The 
cannibal  may  argue,  human  flesh  is  not  for- 
bidden because  herbs  are  mentioned.'  It  is  not 
forbidden  here,  but  in  numerous  other  places, 
but  where  is  there  a  command  against  eating  the 
flesh  of  animals  ? 

"  I  have  proved  that  Gen.  i.  29,  was  neither 
a  command  nor  an  appointment,  only  a  general 
permission.  For  as  in  the  following  verse  the 
permission  is  granted  to  beasts  of  the  field  and 
fowls  of  the  air  to  eat  the  green  herb,  yet  was 
this  neither  a  command  nor  an  appointmetit  (for 
carnivorous  animals),  but  similar  to  the  per- 
mission granted  to  man  in  the  preceding  verse. 

"  His  third  paragraph  is  to  the  efl'ect  that 
when  Adam  fell,  there  was  a  new  creation  of 
poisonous  herbs,  thorns,  thistles,  etc.  Will 
'  Scrutator  '  prove  this,  as  I  do  not  'know  for 
certain '  that  a  new  description  of  plants  were 
originated  after  the  fall?  If  we  take  this  para- 
graph as  a  guide,  they  must  allow  that  Genesis 
i.  29,  was  a  command  only,  so  long  as  there  were 
no  poisonous  herbs. 

'■  The  next  sentence  is  a  thorough  evasion . 
He  gives,  as  a  reason  why  Vegetarians  should 
not  go  naked,  that  'unto  Adam  and  his  wife 
did  the  Lord  God  make  coats  of  skins  and 
clothed  them.'  Now  this  was  after  the  fall  from 
a  state  of  innocence,  and  Mr.  Smith  informs 
ns  that  '  a  diet  of  fruit,  roots,  and  farinaceous 
substances,  constitute  the  diet  of  those  who  live 
during  the  second  reign  of  peace  and  innocence 
on  the  earth.'  In  fact,  that  Vegetarianism  is  a 
return  to  primeval  innocence.  Adam  and  Eve, 
when  in  a  state  of  innocence,  went  naked  ;  Vege- 
tarians likewise,  having  returned  to  the  diet  (so 
they  say)  and  innocence  of  our  first  parents, 
should  imitate  them  also  in  the  clothing  depart- 
ment. The  question  then  occurs,  Where  did  the 
skuis  come  from  with  which  Adam  and  Eve 
were  clothed?  As  yet  there  were  no  sacrifices; 
then  why  were  animals  killed  in  Paradise  ? 
Then,  he  states  that  Abel  was  a  keeper  of 
sheep — not  for  the  purpose  of  eating  them,  but 
for  sacrifice.  The  absurdity  of  such  an  idea 
is  apparent,  when  we  consider  that  he  only 
sacrificed  the  firstlings  of  his  flock ;  and  the 
fat,  even  as  Cain  ofiered  his  first-fruits.  If  he 
offered  up  the  fat  of  his  flock,  what  became  of 
the  lean?  Adam  had  two  sons — Cain  and 
Abel;  Cain  got  his  living  by  tilling  the 
ground;  Abel  by  keeping  sheep — not  by  sacri- 
ficing them.     Is  it  not  a  certainty  that  the  flesh 


of  these  sheep  formed  a  part  of  their  diet  ? 
But  'Scrutator'  wishes  us  to  believe  that 
Abel  had  no  use  for  his  flock,  but  that  of  sacri- 
fice, and  a  skin  now  and  then  for  clothing,  both 
of  which  objects  might  easily  have  been  attained 
without  his  being  a  '  keeper  of  sheep.' 

"  He  then  quotes  the  verse,  '  Every  moving 
thing  that  livetb  shall  be  meat  for  you.'  This  also 
is  a  general  permission  ;  and  as  Gen.  i.  29,  does 
not  forbid  flesh,  so  this  does  not  forbid  fruits,  etc. 

"  He  states  that  Vegetarians  are  not  incon- 
sistent in  using  for  food,  eggs,  milk,  butter, 
cheese,  etc.  First,  they  say,  that  God  appointed 
man  to  live  on  herbs  and  fruit  alone,  and  then 
depart  from  this  so-called  appointment  by  eating 
animal  productions.  If  this  is  not  inconsistency, 
what  is  ?  They  are  like  the  Pythagorean  Sir 
Richard  Phillips,  who  would  not  eat  animal 
food,  but  was  very  much  addicted  to  gravy  over 
his  potatoes  ! 

"  His  next  assertion,  like  all  the  others,  with- 
out a  shadow  of  truth,  is  that  Vegetarians  are 
'  the  tallest,  the  strongest,  and  the  heaviest.' 

"  He  tells  us  that,  Tim.  iv.  3  does  not  refer  to 
Vegetarians ;  it  does  refer  to  a  class  of  people 
which  commands  to  abstain  from  certain  meats, 
and  not  only  does  it  class  Vegetarians  among 
these  false  teacliers,  but  gives  a  reason  why 
their  doctrines  should  be  rejected  :  '  For,'  writes 
St.  Paul,  'every  creature  ot  God  is  good,  and 
nothing  to  be  refused,  if  it  be  received  with 
thanksgiving.'  Paul  does  not  deny  any  one 
the  choice  of  his  own  food,  but  condemns 
those  who  teach  that  it  is  wrong  to  eat  certain 
meats — '  every  creature  of  God.'  In  reference 
to  this  text,  a  Vegeta  ian  (Mr.  Hall),  says, 
'  God  himself  will  and  does  sanction  those  who 
come  in  the  latter  days  (of  whom  I  stand  in  the 
midst),  commanding  to  abstain  from  flesh.'  Let 
the  reader  judge  the  reasoning  (rather  muddy)  of 
these  two  champions  1  Though  Mr.  Smith  and 
others  assert  that  flesh-eating  is  an  injury  to  reli- 
gion, and  Vegetarianism  favourable  to  it,  yet  it  is 
a  well-known  fact,  that  at  least  two  of  the  Dar- 
wen  Vegetarians  are  professed  infidels  !  '  Tell  it 
not  in  Gath.' 

"  The  system  has  been  very  extensively  tried  iu 
America,  but  it  turned  out  a  complete  failure  there 
— the  bubble  has  burst,  showing  its  emptiness. 
Vegetarians  cannot  deny  tliis,  though  they  at 
tempt  to  qualify  it.  In  an  address  from  the 
American  Society  to  that  iu  England,  we  read, 
'  The  movement  in  this  country  (America),  though 
in  some  respects  a  failure,  was  not  quite  a 
failure  after  all  '*  How  important  and  influential 
must  that  Society  be,  which,  in  this  civilized 
country,  notoriously  numbers  less  than  a  thousand 
members ;  and,  of  these,  who  can  tell  how  many 
have  returned  to  what  '  W,  T.  A.'  calls  the 
'flesh-pots  of  Egypt,'  or  rather,  to  the  roast  beef 
of  old  England  ?  Does  it  not  speak  well  for  the 
common  sense  of  the  millions  of  Great  Britain, 

*  [We  object  to  give  insertion  to  the  quotation 
and  comments  of  "  W.  G.  B.'  following  the  above, 
for  the  reason  that  "  W.  G.  B."  quotes  matter 
from  a  private  report  issued  to  none  but  members 
of  the  Vegetarian  Society,  and  so  improperly  in- 
troduced into  "  W.  G.  B.'s"  letter.] 


62 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


that  hardly  a  thousand  simpletons  can  be  found 
'  green  enough  '  to  be  voluntary  Vegetarians  ? 

*"0h  !  poor  ignorant  gluttous,'  exclaims  a  man 
of  cabbage.  'Do  you  not  know  what  a  sinful 
and  immoral  act  you  commit  in  eating  roast 
beef!  I,  a  Vegetarian,  swallow  millions  of 
animalcules  in  a  glass  of  water — I  take  away 
lives  by  the  million  ;  but  it  is  very  cruel,  sinful, 
unhealthy,  and  immoral  to  eat  a  beef-steak  ! ' 

"  But,  sir,  they  call  it  an  economical  system. 
I  call  it  very  bad  economy  for  a  man  to  wear 
himself  to  skin  and  bone  for  the  sake  of  a  shil- 
ling a  week — like  the  Frenchman's  horse,  which 
died  as  soon  as  it  had  learned  to  live  on  one 
straw  a  day !  This  is  Vegetarian  economy  ! 
Even  the  Secretary  of  the  Darwen  Vegetarian 
Society,  I  am  informed,  is  obliged  to  resort  to  a 
flesh  diet,  now  and  then,  to  recruit  his  wasted 
strength.*         *  *  *  * 

"  Sir  Walter  Scott  gave  the  system  a  trial, 
and  he  states,  that  whilst  a  Vegetarian  he  was 
affected  with  a  nervousness  '  never  felt  before  or 
since' 

"Miss  Marshall,  of  Heston,  Middlesex, 
who  was  a  Vegetarian,  I  believe,  several  years, 
was  obliged  to  resume  flesh  for  her  health's  sake. 

"Mr.  FuLLBROOK,  who  tried  it  about  six 
months,  states  :  '  It  causes  an  irritability  of  tem- 
per, and  want  of  vigour  and  spirit.' 

"  Now,  sir,  if  Vegetarians  do  prove  anything, 
it  is  this — that  there  are  some  men  who  can  live 
a  long  time  on  very  little  food. 

"But,  because  Paul  the  hermit,  lived  to  a 
great  age,  and  is  said  (we  must  not  believe  all 
that  is  said  )  to  have  subsisted  on  fruits,  etc.,  and 
drank  small  beer — is  that  sufficient  reason  why 
we  should  all  drink  small  beer  ?  Because  there 
may  be  two  or  three  well-authenticated  instances 
of  men  living  to  a  good  old  age,  living  on  dates 
and  water — does  it  follow  that  the  rest  of  man- 
kind should  live  on  dates  and  water  too  ?  Should 
we  not  share  the  same  fate  as  the  Vegetarian 
Mr.  Newton,  who,  with  his  brown  bread  and 
water,  was  so  weak  that  he  could  hardly  walk 
along  the  streets  ? 

"  If  there  are  one  hundred  old  men  in  a 
country,  and  one  lives  on  fruits,  etc.,  are  we  to 
imitate  the  one,  or  the  ninety-nine  ? 

"But  Mr.  Smith  brings  up  his  Vegetarian 
army  ;  he  states  that  'the  food  of  the  Irish  pea- 
santry of  the  present  day  is  almost  wholly  com- 
posed of  the  potato.'  If  he  had  said  the  food  of 
the  idle  part,  etc.,  of  the  Irish  peasantry,  he  would 
have  been  nearer  right.  But  allowing  Mr. 
Smith's  assertion  to  be  true,  within  the  last  few 
years  where  have  been  more  abject  misery  and 
want,  anarchy  and  murder,  with  dire  disease,  than 
in  Vegetarian  Ireland  ?  Not  till  the  Irish  pea- 
sant is  fed  on  more  substantial  food  than  potatoes 
will  he  rank  as  a  working  man. 

"Again,  he  gives  as  samples  of  Vegetarians 
the  Lazzaroni  of  Naples — a  set  of  lazy  beggars 
who  lie  basking  in  the  sun,  and  beg  a  poor  living, 
rather  than  work  for  a  good  one, 

"He  states  that  'the  inhabitants  of  Asia  and 
Africa  are  compelled  by  their  climate  to  refrain, 
in  a  great  measure,  from  animal  food.'     What  is 
•  See  Note  on  page  61. 


the  characteristic  of  these  Vegetarian  nations  ? 
Where  the  intellectual  superiority,  the  extra 
superfine  morality  and  innocence  ?  Are  they  not 
noted  for  indolence,  ignorance,  superstition,  fatal- 
ism, and  inactivity  ? 

"But  when  Vegetarianism  was  attempted  in 
America  and  England,  as  a  matter  of  course,  in 
nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty,  it  failed.  It  may 
do  for  those  whose  employment  needs  little  exer- 
tion, if  they  wish  to  deny  themselves,  and  to  be 
able  to  say  with  the  Pharisee  of  old,  '  I  thank 
God  that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are.' 

"  The  stomach  of  flesh-eating  animals  generally 
consists  of  a  simple  globular  sac ;  in  herb-eating 
animals,  the  stomach  is  divided  into  two  or  m  ore 
stomachs,  so  to  speak  ;  in  animals  that  chew  the 
cud,  the  stomach  is  more  complicated  still.  The 
stomach  in  man  is  a  simple  sac,  without  any 
division  or  complication,  so  that  it  is  very  nearly 
allied  to  that  of  flesh-eating  animals,  though  very 
different  from  that  of  the  Vegetarian  cow. 

"  If  you  wish  to  see  the  effects  of  a  flesh-diet 
fully  carried  out,  mark  the  British  soldier,  who 
has  his  daily  ration  of  flesh-meat.  Famed  all 
over  the  world  for  steadiness  of  purpose,  con- 
tempt of  danger,  endurance  of  fatigue,  and 
bravery  under  the  most  trying  circumstances,  the 
British  soldier  has  not  found  his  equal  yet. 
Look  at  our  hardy  and  gallant  sailors  —  could 
they  be  excelled  by  a  race  of  cabbage-eaters  ? 
Are  our  soldiers  and  sailors  deficient  in  strength, 
longevity,  and  muscular  development,  because 
they  are  not  Vegetarians  ? 

"Thus  we  find  that  the  most  civilized  nations 
in  the  world  are  flesh-eaters. 

"'Scrutator'  complains  that  I  will  not 
touch  upon  scientific  arguments  in  favour  of 
Vegetarianism,  for  the  very  good  reason  that  they 
have  none,  not  because  I  knew  of  no  lever  strong 
enough  to  move  them. 

"  If,  then, '  Scrutator  '  will  screw  out  a  little 
more  truth  in  his  next  than  he  has  in  his  last — 
if  he  will  bring  to  light  some  of  his  '  scientific 
arguments ' — if  he  will  prove  flesh-eating  to  be 
an  injury  to  health,  longevity,  morality,  and 
religion,  and  Vegetarianism  favourable  to  them — 
if  he  will  make  known  the  'scientific  foundation 
of  their  faith '  —  perhaps  he  may  succeed  in 
converting  the  poor  flesh-eating  Gentiles  to  the 
Vegetarian  faith. 

"  Yours  truly, 

"  W.  G.  BAILEY." 

The  following  letter,    in    reply    to    the 
above,    was    forwarded    to    the   Blackburn 
Weekly  Tunes,  but  declined  on  account  of 
its  length. 
"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Blackburn  Weekly  Times." 

"  Sir — In  a  supplement  to  your  paper  of  the 
9th  inst.,  you  publish  '  W.  G.  B.'s'  reply  to  my 
strictures  on  his  letter,  in  which  he  complains  of 
my  want  of  arguments  against  flesh-eating.  I 
have  no  doubt  he  would  have  been  better  pleased 
if  I  had  passed  over  all  his  clumsy  assumptions, 
and  gone  into  fresh  matter.  The  work  I  took  in 
hand,  hov/ever,  was  to  expose  these  assumptions, 
and  I  did  so. 

"  He  now  speaks  of  my  assumptions  and  mis- 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


63 


representations.  First,  he  says,  I  assumed,  'that 
because  God  gave  Adam  permission  to  eat  fruits 
and  herbs,  he  therefore  did  not  allow  him  to  eat 
flesh.'  I  never  assumed  nor  said  anything  of  the 
kind,  and  it  is  a  pure  coinage  of  the  man  of 
logic  who  penned  the  miserable  truism  that 
'  Flesh  is  not  forbidden  because  herbs  are  men- 
tioned.' The  relationship  of  these  two  argu- 
ments is,  I  think,  apparent.  I  assumed  nothing 
about  Abel  ;  we  are  told  he  made  an  offering  of 
the  firstlings  of  his  flock,  and  the  fat,  and 
'  W.  G.  B.'  assumes  that  he  ate  the  rest.  The 
next  assumption  of  mine,  he  says,  is,  that 
there  were  two  creations,  referring  to  my  state- 
ment of  a  new  description  of  plants  having 
been  originated.  If  the  verse  which  says, 
'  Cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy  sake ;  thorns  also 
and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to  thee,'  does  not 
prove  that  thorns  and  thistles  did  not  grow 
before,  then  I  cannot  prove  that  a  new  descrip- 
tion of  plants  were  originated.'  I  am  told  I 
assume  that  Vegetarians  are  not  Vegetarians. 
'  W.  G.  B.'  here  outruns  the  bounds  of  discre- 
tion in  his  anxiety  to  make  me  the  author  of 
assumptions,  and  calls  that  an  assumption  which 
I  would  not  try  to  prove,  far  less  assume  it  to 
be  so,  unless  I  intended  to  be  traitor  to  my 
principles.  Then,  he  says,  I  assume  that  Vege- 
tarians are  the  strongest,  etc.  I  did  not ;  I  only 
off'ered  to  prove  by  statistics  that  those  who  eat 
least  flesh  are  the  strongest,  etc.  So  much  for 
my  assumptions,  and  as  for  my  misrepresenta- 
tions, they  are  'so  apparent '  he  does  not  take 
the  trouble  to  point  them  out !  How  easy  it  is 
to  say  things !  He  leaves  the  reader  to  judge 
whether  I  proved  the  superiority  of  Vegetarian 
diet.  The  reader  is  not  so  oblivious  but  that  he 
knows  that  I  never  tried  to  do  so,  and  that,  as 
I  have  already  stated,  I  had  other  work  in 
hand. 

" '  W.  G.  B.'  says  it  is  entirely  false  that  he 
received  any  advantage  at  any  time  from  a  Vege- 
tarian diet.  Well,  and  whose  falsehood  is  it? 
'  W.  G.  B.'  signed  a  document  declaring  that  he 
'  was  desirous  of  joining  the  Vegetarian  Society, 
and  of  promulgating  a  knowledge  ofTUE  advan- 
tages OF  A  Vegetarian  diet  ! '  Now,  if  he 
received  no  advantages,  and  knew  of  none,  I 
ask,  against  whom  does  the  charge  of  falsehood 
lie? 

"In  my  previous  letter  I  spoke  of  '  W.  G.  B.' 
joining  the  Vegetarian  Society,  after  at  least  one 
month's  experience.  Referring  to  this,  he  asks, 
'  Does  he  call  a  month's  trial  of  a  diet,  ex- 
perience?' He  again  refers  to  this  period  as 
'four  weeks  living  on  sago  puddings.'  I  now 
find  that  he  was  a  Vegetarian  for  ten  weeks  in- 
stead of  four,  before  he  joined  the  Society.  Yet 
he  deliberately  speaks  only  of  four  weeks,  for 
the  purpose  of  making  it  appear  that  he  Lad 
little  or  no  experience  of  Vegetarianism 
before  he  became  a  member.  Is  a  ten  weeks' 
trial  of  a  diet,  experience,  I  wonder  ?  And  did 
the  ten  weeks'  trial  not  convince  him  there  was 
some  advantage  in  Vegetarianism  ?  The  docu- 
ment above  referred  to  gives  the  reply. 

"One  of  'W.  G.  B.'s'  assumptions  was,  that 
Vegetarians  maintained  that  the  eating  of  flesh  was 


unlawful,  and  he  now  attempts  to  prove  it.  He 
quotes  the  Rev.  W.  Metcalfe,  who  undoubt- 
edly states  his  opinion  to  be,  that  killing  animals 
is  sinful.  Next  we  have  Mr.  John  Smith 
spoken  of  on  the  same  side ;  but  I  know  his 
opinions  too  well  to  allow  him  to  be  unceremo- 
niously committed  to  such  a  doctrine.  He  says  : 
'If  the  flesh  of  animals  be  necessary  to  the 
health,  happiness,  and  longevity  of  man,  then  the 
law  of  self  preservation  will  warrant  his  taking 
the  life  of  animals.'  Mr.  Hall  (of  whom  I 
never  before  heard,  but  who  is  held  up  as  a 
Vegetarian  champion),  if  correctly  reported 
by  'W.  G.  B.,'  perhaps  might  not  find  a 
single  individual  in  the  whole  Society  who 
sentiments.  Mr.  Simpson 
same  doctrine  as  Mr.  Met- 
It  is  to  no  purpose,  how- 
W.  G.  B.'  shows  that  one  person,  or 
hold   that   it   is   a  sin  to  eat  flesh. 


would    adopt    his 
did  not  teach  the 
CALFE  at  Darwen. 
ever,  that 
even   two. 


because  the  Vegetarian  Society  at  no  time  ever 
acknowledged  such  a  tenet,  and  when  he  became 

member,  he  knows  that  he  was  not  required  to 
ubscribe  to  any  such  belief.  Allow  me  to  ask, 
whether  'W.  G.  B.,'  while  a  Vegetarian,  held  and 
taught  this  doctrine  ?  If  he  did  not,  where  is 
his  consistency  (truth  rather)  in  asserting  that 
this  is  a  tenet  of  the  Vegetarians  ?  But  it  is  not 
only  one  or  two  who  hold  this  opinion  :  '  a  great 
many  followers  of  this  '  ism,'  says '  W.  G.  B.', 
'have  united  to  form  a  religious  sect,  calling 
themselves  'Bible  Christians,'  whereas,  this 
religious  sect  was  formed  at  least  thirty  years 
before  the  'ism 'was  heard  of!  I  will  not  pretend 
to  say  what  the  religious  doctrines  of  this  sect 
are,  for  I  am  positively  ignjraHitof  them;  but  I 
have  heard  one,  at  least,  of' its  members  assert 
repeatedly  that  he  did  not  consider  it  sinful  to 
eat  flesh.  I  do  know,  howevei*,  that  it  has  no 
connection  with  the  Vegetarian  Society. 

"I  may  here  state,  once  for  all,  that  if 
*  W.  G.  B.'  is  to  debate  this  question  with  me,  he 
must  answer  jny  arguments,  not  other  people's  : 
he  must  quote  my  words,  not  Mr.  Hall's.  I  am 
not  responsible  for  other  people's  opinions, 
neither  are  they  for  mine.  The  Vegetarian 
Society  is  not  responsible  for  the  opinions  of  its 
members,  or  their  reasons  for  abstaining.  It 
only  requires  abstinence  from  flesh,  and  that  is 
its  internal  bond  of  union.  One  man  abstains 
on  account  of  his  health,  and  another  from 
motives  of  humanity,  and  so  on  ;  but  the  Society 
takes  no  cognizance  of  their  motives.  All  this 
'W.  G.  B.'  knows  perfectly  well,  and  yet  he 
persists  in  deliberate  misrepresentation.  To  end 
this,  however,  will  '  W.  G.  B.'  debate  Vegeta- 
rianism upon  such  principles  and  facts  as  I  may 
lay  down  ?  Will  he  give  up  the  manufacture  of 
spurious  Vegetarian  arguments,  and  answer  my 
arguments,  instead  of  dissecting  his  own  men  of 
straw  ?  If  he  will,  I  shall  at  once  take  the 
initiative,  and  give  him  some  '  scientific  argu- 
ments '  to  digest  and  reply  to. 

"'W.  G.  B.'  informs  us  that  two  of  the 
Vegetarians  in  Darwen  are  infidels.  He  ought 
to  have  added,  and  this  proves  that  Vegetarians 
teach  infidelity.  When  he  finds  up  another  two 
who  may  be  members  of  the.  Society  of  Friends, 


64 


THE  COXTROVERSALIST  AND   C0ERE3P0NDEXT. 


he  will  theo  conclude  that  Vegetarians  are 
QpUakers.  And  so  on,  till  the  truth  at  last  comes 
out,  apparent  even  to  his  own  obliviousness,  that 
the  Vegetarian  Society,  or  Vegetarians  as  a  body, 
teach  neither  doctrines  of  angels  nor  doctrines 
of  devils — that  whatever  their  individual  religious 
convictions  may  be,  whether  churchmen,  dissent- 
ers, or  infidels.  Vegetarianism  stands  out  from 
all  as  a  separate  question. 

"'But  when  this  class  is  so  divided,  etc  ,  it  is 
time  this  chameleon  humbug  should  be  exposed.' 
'  W.  G.  B.'  however  does  not  expose  it.  He  only 
exposes  the  opinions  of  two  or  three  of  its 
members ;  and,  because  they  diflfer,  he  calls 
Vegetarianism  a 'chameleon  humbug.'  On  this 
principle  what  is  the  medical  profession  to  be 
termed  ?  One  advocates  allopathy,  another 
homoeopathy,  and  a  third  hydropathy  —  each 
calling  the  others  empirics  and  quacks ;  and  ac- 
cording to  '  W.  G.  B.,'  because  the  curers  differ, 
therefore  curing  diseases  is  a  '  chameleon  hum- 
bug.' So  with  religion,  because  almost  every 
body  differs  from  every  other  body  on  religious 
points,  is  religion  therefore  a '  chameleon  humbug' 
too  ?  Thus  let  him  follow  out  his  own  reason- 
ing, and  he  becomes  an  infidel  also. 

"  Gen.  i,  29, '  W.  G.  B.'  says,  is  only  a  permis- 
sion. Well,  call  it  so  for  the  sake  of  argument. 
What  is  it  a  permission  to  do  ?  To  eat  vegetable 
food  certainly,  he  cannot  deny  that.  Now  about 
1700  years  afterwards  God  said  to  Noah,  'Every 
moving  thing  that  liveth  shall  be  meat  for  you.' 
'  W.  G.  B.'  says,  '  This  also  is  a  general  permis- 
sion.' The  matter  therefore  stands  thus.  In 
the  beginning  God  permitted  man  to  eat  vegeta- 
ble food,  and  1700  years  after  he  permitted  him 
to  eat  flesh  :  so  that  for  1700  years  man  had  no 
permission  to  eat  flesh.  This  is  entirely  *  W.  G. 
B.'s '  own  version  of  the  matter,  and  he  may  de- 
cide at  his  leisure  whether  man  ate  flesh  without 
permission  or  not. 

"As  to  the  '  Go-naked '  argument,  I  am  told 
my  reply  was  a  thorough  evasion.  Certainly  it 
will  be  when  I  become  a  supporter  of  the  doctrine 
that  Vegetarians  have  returned  to  primeval  inno- 
cence !  If  '  W.  G.  B,'  thinks  flesh-eaters  so 
innocent  as  to  believe  what  he  says  on  this  point, 
he  will  find  himself  mistaken.  I  am  a  supporter 
of  the  good  old  doctrine  that  there  is  neither 
Vegetarian  nor  flesh-eater  upon  the  earth  who 
doeth  good  and  sinneth  not.  Adam  fell,  and 
God  clothed  him.  Vegetarians  are  fallen,  and 
they  should  be  clothed.  These  are  my  argu- 
ments ;  where  is  the  evasion  ? 

"By  the  way,  will'W.  G.  B.' point  out  two 
or  three  of  the  numerous  places  where  human 
flesh  is  forbidden  in  the  Bible  ?  I  do  not  think 
he  reads  the  Bible  so  often  as  he  should,  or  else 
I  do  not. 

"  '  First,  they  say  that  God  appointed  man  to 
live  on  herbs  and  fruits  alone,  and  then  depart 
from  this  so-called  appointment,  by  eating  ani- 
mal productions.  If  this  is  not  inconsistency, 
what  is  ?  '  Any  Vegetarian  who  argues  in  the 
words  here  stated,  and  maintains  that,  as  flesh 
was  not  appointed,  therefore,  it  should  not  be 
eaten,  must  likewise  admit  that,  as  eggs  and  milk 
were  not  appointed,,  therefore,  they  should  not 


be  used.  Vegetarians,  however,  do  xiot  require 
to  use  this  argument,  and  I  decline  to  do  so  ;  so 
*  W.  G.  B.'  must  reserve  his  fire  till  he  finds 
some  one  who  does.  Then  you  give  up  the 
argument  of  the  appointment?  I  may  be  asked. 
Not  at  all ;  I  only  reserve  liberty  to  use  it  in  my 
own  way.  My  argument  is  this :  When  '  W.  G.  B.' 
says  that  without  flesh  he  was  becoming  a 
skin-and-bone  being  —  when  Dr.  Balbirnie, 
with  all  the  authority  of  bis  class,  maintains  that 
Vegetarianism  induces  consumption,  and  many 
others  declare  the  impossibility  of  living  in 
health  and  strength  without  flesh,  then  it  is  that 
1  can  triumphantly  refer  to  the  appointment  of 
man's  food,  and  show  that  this  sine  qua  non 
(this  tudispensable  requisite)  of  health  and 
strength,  is  not  even  mentioned  in  that  appoint- 
ment !  Now,  if  flesh  is  so  important  to  the  well- 
being  of  man,  why  was  it  so  omitted?  God, 
the  Creator  of  man,  the  Maker  of  his  physical 
frame,  knew  best  what  was  necessary  for  his 
support,  yet  he  did  not  appoint  or  permit  the  use 
of  flesh,  until  man  bad  lived  in  the  world  1,700 
years  !  But  go  from  the  infinite  Creator  to  con- 
sult his  creature  in  the  person  of  a  doctor — a 
student  of  the  human  frame — and  the  first  thing 
he  would  appoint  would  be  flesh,  as  the  most 
important  for  the  nourishment  of  the  body. 

"  I  should  not  wonder  if  '  W.  G.  B.'  will  call 
it  an  assumption  of  mine,  to  say  that  permission 
was  not  granted  for  1,700  years,  but  my  reply 
is,  that  the  fact  of  a  permission  being  granted  to 
Noah,  proves  clearly  that  he  had  no  permission 
before,  and  '  W.  G.  B.'  may  controvert  that  if 
he  can. 

"  Dr.  KiTTO,  taking  the  same  view,  says,  in 
his  Daily  Bible  Illustrations :  '  It  appears  to  us 
that  the  words  then  uttered  (to  Noah)  contain 
a  distinct  reference  to  the  original  grant,  and  an 
extension  of  it — "i^very  moving  thing  that  liveth 
shall  be  meat  for  you,  even  as  the  green  herb 
have  I  given  you  all  things."  (Gen.  ix.  3.) 
And,  as  the  language  most  clearly  implies,  the 
extension  was  now  first  made,  and  was  necessary 
to  satisfy  the  conscience  of  a  righteous  man,  it 
is  manifest  that  animal  food  could  only  before 
the  flood  have  been  eaten  by  those  whose  trans- 
gressions brought  that  awful  judgment  upon  the 
world.'  This  is  almost  equivalent  to  saying  that 
it  was  a  sin  to  eat  flesh  before  the  permission 
was  granted,  but  '  W.  G.  B.'  would  have  us 
believe  thateven  Adam  andEvE  in  Paradise  killed 
animals  for  food !  Did  space  permit,  I  might 
quote  the  opinions  of  one  or  two  more  flesh- 
eaters,  to  show  how  they  contradict  each  other, 
and  then  exclaim,  '  Which  of  these  four  are  we 
to  believe  ?  '  When  this  flesh-eating  class  is  so 
divided  that  '  W.  G.  B.'  denies  what  Dr.  Kitto 
asserts,  and  both  of  them  may  contradict  the 
other  two,  it  is  time  that  this  flesh-eating 
chameleon  humbug  should  be  exposed ! 
'  W.  G.  B.'  need  not  he  offended  when  I 
remind  him  that  he  should  not  be  such  'a  tyro 
in  controversy '  as  to  use  a  sword  that  cuts  both 
ways.  I  leave  'the  reader  to  judge' whether 
he  has  done  so  or  not. 

"  He  repeats  his  saying  that  Vegetarians  refuse 
to  knock  under  or  to  acknowledge  Scripture  argu- 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


65 


meuts.  This  elegant  piece  of  composition  I 
certainly  did  not  understand  at  first,  but  it  now 
appears  to  mean,  that  Vegetarians  quote  Scrip- 
ture, and  yet  refuse  to  admit  that  they  advocate 
Vegetarianism  on  religious  grounds.  Perfectly 
true,  we  do  that ;  and  so  does  '  W.  G.  B.'  quote 
Scripture  against  Vegetarianism,  and  more  than 
that,  as  I  will  show  presently,  perverts  it,  and  he 
will  hardly  maintain  he  does  so  upon  religious 
grounds.  So,  in  like  manner,  the  devil  quoted 
Scripture,  perverting  it,  but  not  upon  religious 
grounds,  I  fancy ;  and  with  these  two  eminent 
examples  before  them,  if  Vegetarians  are  reproved 
for  quoting  Scripture,  it  will  only  be  Satan  re- 
proving sin  after  all. 

"  I  am  next  informed,  that  1  Tim.  iv.  3  does 
refer  to  a  class  of  people  which  commands  to 
abstain  from  certain  meats.  So  far,  this  is  per- 
fectly correct.  Further,  I  am  told  that  the 
apostle  classes  Vegetarians  among  these  false 
teachers,  but  as  the  apostle  does  not  say  so  him- 
self, I  feel  rather  timid  about  taking  '  W.  G.  B.' 
as  my  ghostly  instructor  on  this  point.  To  make 
sure,  I  propose  to  examine  the  whole  passage  m}'^- 
self.  First,  the  persons  referred  to  in  this  pas- 
sage are  said  to  have  'departed  from  the  faith, 
giving  heed  to  seducing  spirits  and  doctrines  of 
devils.'  Now  what  faith  have  Vegetarians  de- 
parted from  ?  We  have  men  of  all  sects  of 
Christians  in  the  Society,  and  who  differ  on  re- 
ligious doctrines  as  much  as  if  they  had  never 
been  Vegetarians.  Now,  how  can  they  be  said 
to  have  departed  from  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ 
by  becoming  Vegetarians  ?  Let  '  W.  G.  B.'  re- 
ply. The  only  faith  they  have  departed  from,  is 
that  which  some  of  them  once  had  in  the  dead 
carcasses  of  cows,  calves,  sheep,  and  swine.  Again, 
what  seducing  spirits  have  they  given  heed  to  ? 
what  doctrines  of  demons  do  they  entertain? 
what  lies  do  they  speak  in  hypocrisy  ?  Who 
dare  say  their  conscience  is  seared  (as)  with  a  hot 
iron?  Who  ever  heard  even  a  whisper  amongst 
them  against  marriage  ?  The  next  sentence, 
then,  is  the  only  one  out  of  the  whole  which 
*W.  G.  B.'  attempts  to  apply,  viz.,  'and  com- 
manding to  abstain  from  meats.'  When  a  com- 
mandment is  given,  the  person  who  commands  is 
presumed  to  be  in  authority,  and  to  have  power 
to  enforce  his  commands.  Now,  who  is  there  | 
amongst  the  Vegetarians  that  even  presumes  to 
take  any  authority  excepting  what  is  delegated 
by  the  voluntary  votes  of  the  members.  Again, 
who  are  the  commanded?  Is  not  the  Vegetarian 
Society  an  association  of  persons  who  have  volun- 
tarily, and  for  reasons  of  their  own,  given  up 
flesh?  Who  commanded  '  W.  G.  B.'  to  give  it 
up  ?  or  who  imposed,  or  attempted  to  impose,  a 
penalty  for  his  going  back  to  the  dead  cows,  or, 
as  he  calls  them,  the  '  roast  beef  of  Old  England  ? ' 
He  knows  very  well  no  one  did — he  was  free  to 
come  and  free  to  go,  and  he  is  welcome  to  re- 
main. Now  this  voluntaryism  is  completely  fatal 
to  the  idea  of  a  commandment  existing  on  the 
subject  amongst  Vegetarians.  St.  Paul  him- 
self, though  he  tells  us  that  every  creature  of 
God  is  good,  himself  sets  the  example  of  volun- 
tary abstinence  :  '  Wherefore,  if  meat  make  my 
brother  to  offend,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the 


world  standeth.'  And  again,  '  It  is  good  neither 
to  eat  flesh,  nor  to  drink  wine,  nor  any  thing 
whereby  thy  brother  stumbleth,  etc'  In  these 
verses  two  things  are  observable: — 1st.  That  it 
is  not  only  allowable,  but  right,  to  abstain  from 
flesh,  if  a  man  thinks  he  has  a  good  reason  for 
doing  so.  2nd.  St.  Paul  was  not  afraid  of  any 
bad  effects  of  abstinence,  although  he  was,  perhaps, 
one  of  the  most  laborious  men  that  ever  lived. 

•"W.  G.  B.'  omits  no  opportunity  of  intro- 
ducing the  words  'man  of  cabbage,'  'cabbage- 
eaters,'  '  cabbage  association,'  '  verdant  gentry,' 
•  chameleon  humbug,'  etc.  I  certainly  cannot 
admire  the  wit  which  can  descend  to  cull  the 
every-day  stale  words  of  flesh-consumers,  and 
retail  ttiem  as  nicknames  for  opponents ;  and 
especially  when  the  author  of  this  wit  and 
wisdom,  only  a  few  months  ago,  was,  in  his  own 
language,  a  man  of  cabbage,  a  cabbage-eater,  a 
member  of  the  cabbage  association,  one  of  the 
verdant  gentry,  and  a  supporter  of  the  chame- 
leon humbug  himself ! 

"Unless  'W.  G.  B.'  give  the  name  of  the 
person  who  informed  him  that  the  Darwen 
Secretary  resorts  to  a  flesh-diet  now  and  then,  I 
shall  conclude  that  himself  is  the  author  of  this 
falsehood. 

"  Space  fails  me  to  expose  the  unfair  and 
garbled  quotation  of  what  Mr.  Newton  said, 
and  the  false  impression  he  contrives  to  convey 
of  Mr.  WilsOiN's  speech;  the  perversions 
being,  at  the  same  time,  founded  on  communica- 
tions of  a  private  report,  which  '  W.  G.  B.'  had 
no  right  to  use. 

"It  is  far  from  my  wish  to  give  this  contro- 
versy a  personal  tendency.  The  public  are  by 
no  means  interested  in  thepersons  of  the  'literary 
gladiators';  but  the  utter  recklessness  of 
assertion  in  which  my  opponent  indulges,  has 
compelled  me  to  expose  him.  I  do  not  refer  to 
arguments  merely,  but  to  matters  of  fact.  For 
example :  his  assertion  that  he  never  received 
any  advantage  from  the  practice  of  Vegetarian- 
ism, in  the  very  face  of  the  document  to  the 
contrary,  which  he  signed  with  his  own  hand; 
his  repeated  assertion  as  to  his  four  weeks' 
experience,  while  at  the  same  time  he  knew  it  to 
be  ten,  and  his  assertion  that  the  followers  of 
this 'ism' united  to  form  a  religious  sect,  whilst 
the  said  sect  was  in  existence  thirty  years  before 
the  '  ism  '  was  heard  of.  Then  we  have  the  low 
and  vulgar  attempt  to  injure  Vegetarianism  by 
scurrility ;  his  announcement  that  two  of  the 
Darwen  Vegetarians  are  infidels,  and  his  impu- 
dent insinuation  as  to  the  Darwen  Secretary — 
these  things  mark  the  man  I  have  to  deal  with. 

"  If  '  W.  G.  B.'  accepts  my  challenge  I  shall 
write  again,  but  not  to  follow  the  tortuous  course 
of  his  pen.  He  calls  for  'scientific  facts,'  and  I 
shall  have  much  pleasure  in  supplying  them,  far 
more  than  in  criticising  the  perplexing  mixture 
of  truth,  falsehood,  sense,  nonsense,  nicknames, 
and  mockery,  contained  in  his  last  production 
especially. 

"I  remain,  yours  tralv, 

"SCRUTATOR." 

Sir — On  taking  up  the  Messenger  for  June,  I 
find  a  letter  from  one  signing  himself  "  W.  G.  B.," 


68 


THE   CONTEOVEESIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


who  happens,  once  upon  a  time,  to  have  been  a 
Vegetarian  for  nine  months,  but  has  been  taught 
by  experience,  and  has  given  up  the  practice 
because  Scripture  does  not  teach  Vegetarianism  ! 
As  I  have  been  a  Vegetarian  for  about  one  year, 
and  have  discontinued  the  practice,  perhaps  you 
will  set  my  testimony  to  the  truth  of  Vegeta- 
rianism against  that  of  "  W.  G.  B." 

I  became  a  Vegetarian  because  I  had  an  inward 
consciousness  of  its  truth.  I  had  hardly  learnt 
its  first  principles  when  I  adopted  it ;  but,  since 
that  time,  by  reading  attentively  your  3Iessevger, 
and  all  the  books  I  can  lay  my  hands  on,  I  have, 
I  trust,  got  further  than  the  first  principles. 
Though  I  have  been  obliged  to  relinquish  the 
practice  of  Vegetarianism  for  a  short  period,  I 
most  firmly  believe  in  its  truth,  and  in  the 
benefits  it  confers  upon  its  adherents.  I  never 
before  had  such  a  season  of  mental  enjoyment 
as  during  my  practice  of  the  system  ;  and  had  it 
not  been  for  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  prac- 
tising Vegetarianism  in  London,  away  from 
home,  most  likely  1  should  now  be  one  of  its 
disciples. 

I  think  we  are  indebted  to  "Scrutator  "  for 
his  admirable  answer  to  "  W.  G.  B."  As  I  have 
heard,  and  had  to  reply  to  the  arguments  used  by 
"  W.  G.  B.,"  I,  of  course,  am  the  more  grateful 
for  this  letter. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

London.  H. 

VEGETARIAN    EATING    HOUSES. 

Dear  Sir — Notwithstanding  what  our  friend 
Punch  has  said  about  the  "Vegetarian  Eating 
House,"  I  should  be  heartily  glad  to  see  one 
established  in  the  centre  of  London,  and  I  think 
if  one  were  established  near  St.  Paul's,  it  would 
further  the  interest  you  have  at  heart,  and  also 
it  might,  I  think,  very  soon  be  made  to  pay.  I 
have  frequently  been  asked  by  different  friends, 
"Where  can  I  get  a  Vegetarian  dinner?"  My 
answer  has  of  course  been  "Nowhere,"  and  I 
have  given  that  answer  with  some  pain.  All 
reformers,  except  Vegetarians,  can  obtain  what 
they  want  with  comfort  in  London,  but  Vegeta- 
rians either  must  sacrifice  their  practice,  or  put 
up  with  a  very  indifferent  dinner. 

Hoping  that  you  will  give  some  attention  to 
the"  above, 

I  am,  your  obedient  servant, 
London.  II. 

"We  have  often  teen  surprised  at  the 
difficulties  complained  of  by  Vegetarians, 
in  securing  a  proper  provision  for  themselves, 
and  especially  those  resident  in  London. 
For  ourselves,  both  in  London,  and  in  several 
countries  of  the  Continent,  we  have  always 
found  it  easy  to  reduce  the  Vegetarian  sys- 
tem to  a  practical  and  satisfactory  question. 
All  that  is  wanted  is  intelligence,  and  a  little 
business  tact ;  and  if,  with  these  qualifica- 
tions, the  question  of  securing,  not  meagre, 
but  ample,  provision  even  in  a  foreign  coun- 
try, can  be  secured,  it  cannot  be  supposed 
that  there  are  any  but  imaginary  difficulties 
to  be  overcome  at  home. 


There  have  been  Vegetarian  Eating  Houses 
established  on  a  certain  scale  in  Manchester, 
and  less  attempts  made  in  London,  but  they 
have  failed ;  sometimes  from  mis-manage- 
ment, but  oftener,  for  want  of  sufficient 
numbers  to  make  a  certain  daily  demand. 
We  will,  however,  put  it  in  the  poAver  of  our 
correspondent  to  succeed  in  making  a  provi- 
sion for  himself,  if  he  desire.  Let  him  have 
such  a  book  as  the  Vegetarian  Cookery.,  and 
let  him  regularly  get  provided  at  some  hotel, 
cook's,  or  confectioner's  (such  as  abound  in 
London),  with  dishes  made  from  its  recipes, 
and  there  can  be  ample  success  secured,  and 
for  a  moderate  remuneration.  Of  course, 
where  two  to  four  joined,  and  agreed  to  pay 
for  the  provision  in  accordance  with  its 
value  (always  cheaper  than  the  other,  after 
leaving  a  respectable  profit),  the  expense 
would  be  much  less.  As  to  the  cooking,  any 
one  who  cannot  make  excellent  dishes  from 
the  recipes  recommended,  cannot  cook  at 
all  respectably  on  any  system,  there  being  no 
very  special  training  required,  but  only  the 
usual  degree  of  intelligence  and  attention 
to  the  instructions  laid  down,  as  required  in 
other  mixed  diet  preparations. 

DIETETIC   TABLES   FOE,  THE    SEDENTARY  AND 
THE   ACTIVE. 

Dear  Sir — Permit  me,  through  the  medium 
of  your  excellent  periodical,  to  avail  myself  of 
your  knowledge  upon  a  subject  which  is  to  me, 
f  nd  probably  to  others  also,  one  of  importance. 
The  information  I  request  is  the  following : — 
What  do  you  consider  to  be  the  best  dietetical 
selection  from  the  beautiful  stores  of  nature,  for 
those  who  have  little  or  no  manual  labour  to 
perform  ? 

For  several  years  I  have  adhered  to  a  system 
of  diet  which  I  believe  to  be  more  in  accordance 
with  the  physical  happiness,  the  mental  improve- 
ment, and  the  higher  and  nobler  part  of  man, 
than  a  diet  partly  composed  of  the  carcasses  of 
animals,  which  a  moment's  thought  almost  would 
show  ought  to  have  some  other  sepulchre  than 
the  human  stomach.  During  this  period  I  have 
held  no  sinecure ;  "  by  the  sweat  of  my  face  have 
I  eaten  bread  " ;  yet,  astounding  as  the  statement 
may  be  to  the  skin-and-bone  correspondent  of 
the  Darwen  Examiner,  I  have  found,  greatly  to 
my  advantage,  that  "Mr.  Simpson's  poetical 
system  would  act."  It  is  as  poetical  in  practice 
as  in  theory,  though  I  do  not  wonder  that 
"  W.  G.  B."  failed  to  see  this  fact. 

We  may  lay  it  down  as  a  truth,  that  in  order 
to  appreciate  the  beauty  and  poetry  of  the  things 
we  come  in  contact  with,  there  must  be  some 
"  spark  of  the  light  divine  "  in  ourselves.  One  of 
the  poets,  exulting  in  the  light  and  radiance 
which  met  his  admiring  gaze,  wherever  he  looked, 
exclaimed — "There's  poetry  in  every  thing!" 
but  he  ought  to  have  made,  at  least,  one  exception, 
it  would  appear. 

But  leaving  "  W.  G.  B."  to  enter  the  charnel- 
house,  for  which,  according  to  his  own  statement. 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


67 


he  is  emineutly  fitted,  I  may,  according  to  the 
principle  he  so  learnedly  (!)  states — '  Experientia 
docet '  — say  that  my  experience  only  serves  to 
convince  me  of  the  advantages  resulting  from  a 
diet  which  is  in  harmony  with  man's  nature.  I 
have  never  found  it  difficult  to  obtain  from  Vege- 
tarian fare  the  materials  which  are  required  to 
supply  the  waste  of  the  body,  induced  by  hard 
labour.  It  seems  to  me,  that  the  difficulty  is 
just  the  reverse  of  this.  Our  danger  is  that  of 
taking  too  much  nutritive  food,  to  the  neglect  of 
other  kiuds,  which,  though  containing  less  nutri- 
tive parts,  are  equally  necessary  to  the  healthy 
working  of  the  system.  Many  Vegetarians  who 
have  little  active  exercise  greatly  err  liere. 

It  would  be  a  valuable  service  rendered  to  our 
"  good  old  cause  "  if  some  one,  qualified  for  the 
work,  would  compile  a  dietetic  table,  adapted  to 
those  who  have  to  work  hard  with  the  hand,  and 
another  for  those  whose  work  is  confined  to  the 
head.  Such  tables  are  a  desiderata,  and  the  good 
resulting  from  them  would  amply  repay  any  well- 
wisher  of  Vegetarianism  for  the  trouble  of  com- 
piling them.  For  want  of  a  guide  of  this  kind, 
I  have  to  trouble  you  with  this  letter.  Very 
soon  I  shall  have  to  exchange  my  manual  labour 
for  other  employment,  which  will  give  less  exer- 
cise to  the  body.  The  diet  which  has  been 
proper  for  the  first,  would  be  injurious  in  the 
latter  case.  Possibly,  I  might  make  a  selection 
which  would  combine  the  necessary  ingredients 
in  due  proportion,  but  I  doubt  whether  my  selec- 
tion would  be  the  best  for  recommending  Vege- 
tarianism to  others.  Some  attention  ought  to  be 
given  to  this  subject.  We  owe  it  as  a  duty  to 
the  cause. 

Mr.  Simpson's  poetical  system  is  all  fair 
and  comely  to  look  upon,  but  the  brightest  gem 
may  be  hidden    within  the  most  unsightly  in- 


crustations. The  loveliest  of  "  earth's  angels  " 
may  be  robed  in  garments  of  fantastic  cut. 
We  ought  to  save  Vegetarianism  from  all  whimsi- 
calities, for  these  throw  a  shadow  over  the  radiant 
form.  Believing  this  to  be  an  obligation  we  owe 
to  the  system  we  have  adopted,  allow  me.  Sir, 
to  ask  you  to  point  out  a  few  varieties  of  Vege- 
tarian fare  adapted  to  those  engaged  in  study, 
and  which  are  likely  to  commend  the  practice  to 
others.  Confiding,  for  a  statement  of  these,  in 
your  kindness,  and  well-known  anxiety  for  the 
success  of  the  cause,  towards  the  prosperity  of 
which  your  valuable  periodical  has  so  greatly 
contributed, 

I  am,  dear  sir,  yours  faithfully. 

'r.  M. 

We  have  simply  to  recommend  the  careful 
study  of  the  composition  of  food,  and  after 
taking  care  to  procure  what  is  suitable  for 
health,  to  have  the  food  procured  suitably 
cooked,  and  not  spoiled  by  ignorance  and 
mismanagement.  The  tables  published  in 
the  Messenger,  the  Vegetarian  Cookery,  the 
progressively  returning  instincts  of  the  ex- 
perimenter, and  reflection  on  all  these,  will 
result  in  the  philosophy  of  the  system.  It 
is  easy  to  see  from  the  table  of  the  com- 
position of  articles  of  food,  the  proportions 
of  the  blood-forming,  and  heat-forming 
principles,  and,  remembering  tha,t  experience 
teaches  that  the  hard-working  man  requires 
about  one  part  of  the  former  to  four  of  the 
latter  to  keep  up  vigorous  muscular  exertion, 
whilst  the  easy  in  life  require  six  propor- 
tions of  the  matter  to  form  heat  to  one  to 
form  blood,  all  the  intermediate  require- 
ments are  arrived  at  by  a  little  experience. 


POLITENESS    AND    TRUTH. 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 

rough  words  are  just  the  reverse ;  and  if 
not  the  product  of  ill-temper,  are  very  apt 
to  produce  it.  The  plainest  of  truths,  let  it 
be  remethbered,  can  be  conveyed  in  civil 
speech,  while  the  most  malignant  of  lies  may 
find  utterance,  and  often  do,  in  the  language 
of  the  fisb-market. — The  Family  Friend. 


Many  persons  plead  a  love  of  truth  as  an 
apology  for  rough  manners,  as  if  truth  was 
never  gentle  and  kind,  but  always  harsh,  mo- 
rose, and  forbidding.  Surely,  good  manners 
and  a  good  conscience  are  no  more  incon- 
sistent with  each  other  than  beauty  and 
innocence,  which  are  strikingly  akin,  and 
always  look  the  better  for  companionship. 
Roughness  and  honesty  are  indeed  sometimes 
found  together  in  the  same  person,  but  he  is 
a  poor  judge  of  human  nature  who  takes  ill- 
manners  to  be  a  guarantee  of  probity  of 
character ;  or  suspects  a  stranger  to  be  a 
rascal,  because  he  has  the  manners  of  a 
gentleman.  Some  persons  object  to  politeness, 
that  its  language  is  unmeaning  and  false. 
But  this  is  easily  answered.  A  lie  is  not 
locked  up  in  a  phrase,  but  must  exist,  if  at 
all,  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker.  In  the  or- 
dinary compliments  of  civilized  life,  there  is 
no  intention  to  deceive,  and  consequently  no 
falsehood.  Polite  language  is  pleasant  to 
the  ear,  and  soothing  to   the  heart,  while 


THE   ADVANTAGE   OF  MIXING  FOOD. 

The  equivalent  value  of  potatoes  and  beans 
could  not  be  compared,  because  their  respec- 
tive value  as  food  arises  from  totally  different 
causes.  Potatoes  are  of  great  use  in  keeping 
up  the  heat  of  the  body  and  in  forming  tal- 
low; but  are  in  the  highest  degree  unprofit- 
able for  forming  flesh.  It  will  be  seen  by  the 
table,  that  1550  lbs.  of  potatoes  would  be 
required  to  form  the  same  quantity  of  Jlesh 
that  100  lbs,  of  beans  would  do  ;  whilst  little 
more  than  200  lbs.  would  sufiice  to  form  the 
same  quantity  of  tallow :  hence  the  great 
advantage  of  mixing  food  so  as  to  supply,  in 
smaller  bulk,  those  constituents  of  which  one 
kind  of  food  is  deficient.     Sheep  fed  on  oil- 


68 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


cake  increase  in  weight  faster  than  on  any 
other  kind  of  food,  but  they  feel  quite  soft, 
and  when  fat  handle  like  a  bag  of  oil.  This 
is  because  they  receive  food  which  contains 
very  little  albumen  to  form  flesh,  so  that  tal- 
low is  the  only  product.*  But  if  with  the 
oil-cake  they  receive  oats  or  barley,  they  are 
firm  to  the  touch,  and  possess  plenty  of  good 
flesh,  and  the  fat  lies  equally  distributed 
amongst  the  muscular  fibre.  The  reason  here 
also  is  obvious ;  for  both  oats  and  barley  con- 
tain much  albumen,  t — Dk,.  Lyon  Playfaik. 

THE   NATIVES    OF   HIMALAYA. 

Mr.  Buckingham,  speaking  of  the  natives 
of  the  Himalaya  mountains,  says — There 
they  stood  like  the  statue  of  Hercules,  with 
all  their  muscular  powers  finely  developed, 
their  broad  and  expansive  shoulders  and 
breasts,  with  their  firm  muscles  like  rolling 
waves,  and  such  as  he  had  never  before  seen 
but  in  the  sculpture  of  the  ancients.  The 
Europeans,  anxious  to  test  their  strength, 
selected  some  of  the  best  men  they  could, 
from  among  the  English  Grenadiers  and 
the  vessels  in  the  harbour,  in  order  to  excel 
them  in  feats  of  strength ;  but  with  all  the 
efforts  they  could  make,  in  lifting,  hurling 
the  discus,  vaulting,  running,  and  wrestling, 
each  of  the  Indians  in  question  was  found 
equal  to  one  and  three-quarters  of  our  men. 
The  former,  nevertheless,  had  from  their 
infancy  upwards,  never  tasted  anything 
stronger  than  water. — Temperance  Cyclopedia. 

death,  of   a  kemnant  of    the  reign    of 

george  ii. — 
Died,  at  Thornhill,  near  Johnstone,  Ren- 
frewshire, on  the  morning  of  Friday,  Jan. 
26th,  Mrs.  Jane  Ranshall  (or  Ranton  by 
her  maiden  name),  who  was  born  seven  years 
previous  to  the  death  of  George  II.,  viz., 
8th  December,  ]753.  She  was,  therefore,  in 
her  102nd  year.  She  was  a  native  of  Erskine, 
Renfrewshire.  She  has  always  enjoyed  good 
health,  and  retained  possession  of  her  facul- 
ties to  the  last.  It  may  be  worthy  of  remark 
that  the  birth  of  this  woman  occurred  three 
years  prior  to  the  building  of  the  high 
.church  at  Paisley.  She  witnessed  many 
changes  during  her  protracted  lifetime — 
many  she  saw  borne  to  their  long  home — all 
the  companions  of  her  youth  have  long  gone 
before  her  to  that  undiscovered  country  from 
whose  bourne  no  traveller  ever  returned  to 
tell  what  is  doing  on  the  other  side.     It  is 

*  Oil-cake  owes  its  fattening  properties  partlj'  to 
its  oil,  but  principall}'  toils  mucilage.  When  oil- 
cake is  put  into  water,  it  dissolves  into  u  thick 
gummj'  mass. 

t  Chemically  speaking,  they  do  not  contain  albu- 
men, but  gluten.  All  the  nilrogenized  ingredients 
of  food  being  of  the  same  composition,  I  employ  lor 
them  one  term.  This  is  chemically  wrong,  but  agri- 
culturally correct. 


certainly  strange  to  think  that  a  woman, 
seven  years  old  at  the  death  of  George  II., 
and  thirteen  at  the  death  of  the  old  Pre- 
tender, and  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  (son 
of  George  XL),  should  only  have  bidden 
adieu  to  this  mortal  state  so  recently  as  the 
end  of  last  week. — Glasgoiv  Saturday  Font. 

We  present  the  following  additional  par- 
ticulars respecting  Mrs.  Ranshall,  elicited 
by  a  correspondent  from  members  of  her 
family,  and  from  which  it  will  be  seen  that 
she  was  remarkably  temperate,  and  of  active 
habits,  her  diet  being  essentially  Vegetarian 
in  its  character,  though  we  cannot  but  regard 
her  use  of  tobacco  as  mistaken  and  inju- 
rious, as  well  as  the  occasional  use  of  stimu- 
lants in  the  form  of  flesh  and  alcoholic 
beverages  :  "  Her  diet  consisted  of  porridge, 
sowens,  potatoes,  cheese,  and  milk,  etc.,  with 
an  occasional  sparing  use  of  flesh-meat.  She 
was  not  an  abstainer  from  alcoholic  beverages, 
and  kept  a  public  house  at  the  Thorn  for 
many  years,  but  never  had  any  liking  for 
such  drinks,  though  she  would  taste  them 
when  asked  by  the  frequ.enters  of  her  house. 
She  drank  tea,  and  also  smoked  tobacco, 
during  the  last  thirty,  or  thirty-five  years  of 
her  life,  if  not  longer,  and  had  the  impres- 
sion that  this  practice  tended  to  preserve  the 
teeth.  She  Avas  a  person  of  remarkably 
cleanly  habits,  and  very  healthy,  the  only 
times  of  her  being  unwell,  of  which  her  rela- 
tives are  aware,  being  when  she  had  the 
typhus  fever,  which  she  had  three  times ;  on 
the  last  occasion  she  was  eighty-two  years  of 
age.  She  appears  to  have  always  been  a 
very  strong  woman,  in  proof  of  which  I  may 
mention,  that  there  is  a  barn  at  Thornhill, 
Avhich  was  built  when  she  was  seventy,  and 
that  she  then  served  the  masons  with  lime 
and  stones.  She  always  cut  her  own  corn, 
going  about  with  a  leathern  apron,  and  never 
being  careful  to  avoid  wet  weather,  which 
she  seemed  rather  to  like.  Her  grandson 
remarked,  that  '  three  years  since  she  was 
thrashing  and  shearing  corn,  singing  on  the 
house  rig.'  I  saw  her  corpse,  and  rertiarked 
at  the  time  that  I  had  seen  persons,  not  more 
than  half  her  age,  much  older  looking. 
Her  father's  Bible,  with  the  family  register, 
is  still  in  good  preservation." — A.  H.  I. 

VARIED   RATIONS    FOR   THE   TROOFS. 

The  Daily  Netvs'  special  correspondent, 
writing  on  Dec.  23rd,  says  : — "  The  quality 
of  the  rations  is  a  subject  for  the  interference 
of  Parliament.  I  mentioned  the  biscuit 
question.  It  is  scandalous  that  our  troops 
should,  for  months  together,  live  on  a  sort 
of  bread  only  intended  for  exceptional  cases. 
I  appeal  to  the  whole  medical  faculty  to 
bear  me  out  that  biscuit,  even  the  best,  in 
its  dry  state,  eaten  for  weeks  and  months 


together,  is  higMy  injurious ;  and  that, 
when  fresh  meat  is  wanting,  hiscnit  and  salt 
meat,  without  any  addition  of  rice  and 
vegetables,  do  not  give  sufficient  sustenance 
to  enable  men  to  bear  up  against  cold  and 
fatigue.  Even  the  ration  of  rice,  going  on 
for  months  together,  must  in  the  end,  by  its 
sameness,  cease  to  have  a  good  effect  upon 
the  digestive  organs.  I  know  this  has  been 
felt,  and  that  a  faint  attempt  has  been  made 
to  send  out  Scotch  Barley.  But  somehow 
or  other  the  supply  was  discontinued,  and 
now  even  rice  has  been  stopped  as  a  ration, 
because  the  supply  ran  short,  and  barley 
suffices  for  the  Turks.  But  are  rice  and 
Scotch  barley  the  only  dried  vegetables  fit 
to  be  served  out  as  rations  to  an  army  in  an 
intrenched  camp  ?  Are  oatmeal,  peas,  beans, 
and,  most  nutritious  of  all,  are  lentils,  such 
luxuries — are  they  so  rare,  or  difficult  of 
transport,  that  it  is  unreasonable  to  ask  for 
them,  and  extravagant  to  send  ?  I  mention 
these  matters  not  as  matters  of  comfort,  but 
of  health  and  efficiency,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  my  views  will  have  the  concurrence  of 
your  medical  readers.  I  may  add,  that  I  am 
one  of  the  unrationed  few,  and  for  my  own 
subsistence  I  am  thrown  on  the  tender 
mercies  and  potted  moats  of  the  Levantines, 
who  carry  on  the  traffic  in  Balaklava.  I 
have  no  personal  interest  in  the  question  of 
varied  rations." 

We  regard  the  above  strictures  on  the 
mismanagement  and  want  of  knowledge,  as 
to  the  requisite  articles  of  food  for  the  pro- 
visioning of  our  unfortunate  soldiery  in  the 
Crimea,  as  exceedingly  useful,  and  suggestive 
of  a  far  more  efficient,  as  well  as  economical, 
means  of  feeding  large  masses  of  men,  whilst 
tending,  at  the  same  time,  to  maintain  their 
health  and  efficiency,  in  a  far  higher  degree 
than  the  ordinary  rations  of  our  soldiers  can 
possibly  do.  Our  readers  do  not,  of  course, 
need  to  be  informed  of  the  great  nutritive 
value  of  oatmeal,  peas,  beans,  and  lentils, 
as  well  as  of  barley,  but  the  commissariat  and 
medical  departments  of  our  army  do  seem 
most  lamentably  at  fault  in  their  selection  of 
food  for  the  men  dependent  on  their  exer- 
tions. It  is  encouraging,  however,  to  see 
that  the  genius  of  M.  Soyer  has  already 
produced  most  admirable  results,  even  with 
the  defective  supplies  at  his  command, 
affording  a  fresh  illustration  of  the  impor- 
tance of  a  knowledge  of  cookery  in  making 
the  Inost  of  whatever  description  of  food  may 
require  to  be  dealt  with. 

THE    SAUSAGE   MAKING   MANIA. 

The  British  sausage  has  always  been  a 
mystery  to  us,  and  a  mystery  we  have  felt  no 
inclination  to  go  into.  The  British  sausage  has 
in  our  eyes — for  we  have  usually  kept  it  out 


of  our  mouth — been  a  compound  in  which 
our  imagination  has  pictured  the  possibility 
of  those  who  have  led  literally  a  "  cat-and- 
dog  life,"  being  blended  together  at  last  in 
silent  union.  A  new  light  has  recently  been 
thrown  upon  the  sausage  by  an  advertise- 
ment, which  would  seem  to  show  that  there 
is  some  rather  close  connexion  between  the 
British  sausage  and  the  British  lion.  We 
have  often  heard  from  the  Protectionists  of 
the  decease  of  that  highly  popular  beast, 
though  we  suspect  that  the  creature  they 
patronised  under  that  name,  was  an  inferior 
brute  in  the  skin  of  the  nobler  animal. 
This  must  be  the  supposed  lion  alluded  to  in 
the  annexed  advertisement  as  having  "  gone 
off"  into  sausage  meat. 

"  HOME-MADE    SAUSAGES." 

''The  Noiseless  Lion  Sausage-Making 
Machine,  Mince-Meat,  and  Vegetable 
Cutter,  as  worked  in  the  Great  Exhibition, 
Dublin,  and  shown  in  several  public  institu- 
tions. It  was  inspected  and  patronised  by  the 
Lord  Lieutenant,  the  Countess  ot  St. 
Germains,  and  several  other  ladies  of  dis- 
tinction, on  account  of  the  simple  and  effec- 
tive working.  It  makes  no  noise,  is  not  dan- 
gerous (the  cutters  being  all  enclosed) .  The 
meat  (put  in  in  pieces  of  two  inches)  is  cut 
fine,  and  filled  into  the  skins  at  the  rate  of 
one  pound  per  minute  by  the  small  machine. 
It  will  also  cut  vegetables  for  soup  into  the 
size  of  peas ;  and  cut  bread  for  force-meat, 
etc.,  as  fine  as  grating.  It  can  be  worked 
on  counter,  dresser,  or  table,  and  in  appear- 
ance is  ornamental,  etc." 

Now,  we  presume,  it  is  not  imperative  on 
any  one  who  uses  this  machine,  to  use  it 
exclusively  for  lion  sausages,  inasmuch  as 
the  old  culinary  direction,  "  first  catch  your 
hare,"  would  naturally  suggest  the  difficulty 
of  corapl5'ing  with  the  hint,  "  first  catch  your 
lion."  If  the  machine  can  be  made  available 
in  producing  a  home-made  sausage  of  some 
wholesome  substance,  it  will  indeed  be  a 
boon,  and  we  can't  be  surprised,  that  even 
the  Countess  of  St.  Germains,  and  other 
ladies  of  distinction,  have  taken  an  interest 
in  its  working.  As  the  machine  is  "  orna- 
mental," it  is  probably  intended  to  become 
an  article  of  furniture  ;  and  if  the  "  ladies  of 
distinction"  begin  to  take  it  up  as  a  "hobby," 
we  shall  perhaps  find  "  sausage  making  " 
taking  its  turn  with  crotchet  work,  as  an 
object  of  fashionable  female  industry.  For 
our  own  parts,  if  a  lady  friend  were  to  offer 
her  services,  to  make  us  either  a  sausnge  or 
an  an ti -^macassar,  we  should  say  at  once, 
"  Give  us  a  sausage." — Funch. 

perversion  oe  natural  instincts. 
"  Look  at  the  consequences  to  man  arising 
out  of  the  perversions  of  his  natural  instincts. 


70 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


Scarcely  an  individual  is  to  be  found  for  any- 
protracted  period  in  a  state  of  perfect  health. 
Especially  is  this  true  of  the  inhabitants  of 
our  large  towns  and  cities,  where  our  arti- 
ficial system  is  carried  to  more  perfec- 
tion. (?)  Many  of  these  individuals,  if  asked, 
from  time  to  time,  *  How  do  you  do  ? ' 
would  reply,  '  Very  well,  I  thank  you.' 
But  press  them  closer,  and  we  find  their 
frequently  resorting  to  aperients,  and  so- 
called  antibilious  pills,  or  some  other  of  the 
many  domestic  remedies,  will  confirm  the 
truth  of  our  remarks.  Dr.  Abernethy  says, 
'  There  has  been  a  great  increase  of  medical 
men  of  late  years  ;  but  upon  my  life  diseases 
have  increased  in  proportion.'  What  a 
theme  for  reflection !  Contrast  this  with 
the  joyous  playfulness — consequent  upon  a 
healthy  organism— of  the  animals  living  in 
a  state  of  nature.  These,  not  possessing  the 
amount  of  reason  capable  of  subverting  their 
natural  instincts,  require  no  staff  of  medical 
officers  to  keep  them  in  a  state  of  moderate 
health.  Why,  then,  should  man  ^  Surely  it 
cannot  be  that  Infinite  wisdom  designed 
'creation's  lord'  to  be  inferior  incorporeal 
enjoyments  to  the  'beasts  of  the  field!' 
No.  It  is  because  man,  in  the  pride  of  his 
heart,  has  said,  '  We  will  have  none  of  thee, 
or  thy  laws,  0  Nature,  to  reign  over  us,'  and 
has  consequently,  in  his  shortsightedness, 
'  hewn  for  himself  cisterns,  broken  cisterns, 
that  will  hold  no  water." — S.  W. 

THE    LONDON    DAIRIES. 

A  Yorkshire  cow  in  a  London  dairy  establish- 
ment is  seldom  calculated  to  give  less  than 
twenty  quarts  of  milk  daily,  for  the  first  four 
months  after  dropping  her  calf,  and  many  of 
this  breed  have  been  known  to  give  from  thirty 
to  forty  quarts  of  milk  daily,  for  a  few  weeks 
after  calving.  Mr.  Briggs,  Edgeware  Road, 
London,  keeps  four  hundred  Yorkshire  cows 
in  his  dairy  ;  twenty  quarts  a  day  is  the 
average  quantity  of  a  great  proportion  of  his 
best  cows,  and  many  of  them  would  continue 
in  milk  all  the  year  round  ;  but  as  this  would 
be  injurious  to  the  animals,  and  would  dimi- 
nish the  yield  in  the  succeeding  year,  they  are 
intentionally  run  dry  about  six  weeks  before 
the  time  of  calving. — Agricultural  Gazette. 

DANGERS  OF   BECOMING  TOO  FAT  IN   SPARTA. 

The  ancient  Spartans  paid  as  much  attention 
to  the  rearing  of  men  as  the  cattle-breeders  in 
modern  England  do  to  the  breeding  of  cattle. 
They  took  charge  of  the  firmness  and  loose- 
ness of  men's  flesh,  and  regulated  the  degree 
of  fatness  to  which  it  is  lawful,  in  a  free  state, 
for  any  citizen  to  extend  his  body.  Those 
who  dared  to  grow  too  fat  or  too  soft  for 
military  exercise,  and  the  service  of  Sparta, 


were  soundly  Avhipped.  In  one  particular 
instance,  that  of  Nauclis,  the  son  of  Poly- 
bus,  the  ofi'ender  Avas  brought  before  the 
Ephori,  and  a  meeting  of  the  whole  people  of 
Sparta,  at  which  his  unlawful  fatness  was 
publicly  exposed,  and  he  was  threatened  with 
perpetual  banishment,  if  he  did  not  bring  his 
body  within  the  regular  Spartan  compass,  and 
give  up  his  culpable  mode  of  living,  which 
was  declared  to  be  more  worthy  of  an  Ionian 
than  of  a  son  of  Lacedenion,  —  Mr. 
Bruce' s   Classic  and  Historic  Portraits. 

A    SUBJECT   FOR   THE   CRUELTY    TO    ANIMALS* 
SOCIETY. 

"  There  were  about  300  clipped  sheep  in  the 
market,"  so  says  the  Smithfield  report  of  the 
19th  ult.  To  shear  even  fat  sheep  in  ordi- 
nary weather  before  May,  is  a  practice  which 
it  would  be  difficult  to  justify  ;  but  to  strip 
the  poor  things  under  the  degree  of  cold  we 
have  lately  experienced,  is  utterly  brutal, — 
Manchester  Examiner  and  Times,  March  3, 
1855. 

ALL    GOOD   THINGS    ARE    COMMON. 

"When  the  newborn  helpless  Stranger 

Enters  first  this  World  beneath, 
Born  in  Palace  or  in  Manger, 

'lis  the  common  air  we  breathe. 
When  the  silken  lids  asunder. 

To  the  miracle  of  sight. 
Open  first  with  joy  and  wonder, 

'Tis  unto  the  common  light : 

All  good  things  are  common. 

"On  him  now  in  quick  succession 

Influences  unnumbered  play ; 
Hidden  powers  in  due  progression 

Forth  unfold  from  day  to  day. 
Sun  and  shade,  the  earth  and  ocean, 

Change  of  season,  night  and  noon. 
Minister  to  one  emotion. 

Nature  knows  no  partial  boon  : 

Needful  things  are  common. 

"  Nature,  universal  Mother, 

Doth  bestow  on  every  soil, 
Unto  one  as  to  another. 

Equal  gifts  to  equal  toil. 
'Tis  on  all  the  rain  descendeth, 

'Tis  for  all  the  flowers  are  spread, 
'Tis  one  common  sky  that  bendeth 

O'er  the  humblest,  haughtiest  head  : 

All  such  things  are  common. 

"  Not  alone  the  broad  creation : 

Thought  and  feeling  both  are  free  ; 
Heart  and  mind  are  not  of  station,        * 

Nor  controlled  by  man's  decree. 
Like  the  precious  ore  in  mountains, 

Knowledge  yields  to  strength  and  skill ; 
Wisdom  from  her  sacred  fountains. 

Cries — Ye  thirsty  drink,  at  will ! 

Inmost  things  are  common." 


CULTURE  AND   IMPORTANCE  OF   RICE. 


71 


THE     RECENT    CONFERENCE    AND    MEETING. 


We  reserve  sufficient  of  our  space  to  inti- 
mate to  our  friends  who  were  not  present  at 
the  recent  Conference  and  Annual  Meeting, 
that  the  whole  proceedings  of  the  26th 
ultimo  were  in  every  way  made  attractive  by 
the  excellent  arrangements  entered  into, 
both  general  and  local,  by  those  whose 
duties  it  was  to  provide  for  the  occasion, 
as.  well  as  by  the  importance  and  interest  of 
the  matter  presented  to  the  Society  and  the 
public. 

We  have,  however,  to  regret,  that  though 
the  members  of  the  Vegetarian  Society 
present  exemplary  instances  of  persons 
making  sacrifices  to  be  present  on  these 
occasions,  both  of  time  and  expense  (some 
travelling  several  hundred  miles  to  be  present 
at  the  annual  meetings),  that  the  practice 
of  the  members  generally  leaves  these  ex- 
cellent instances  of  devotion  somewhat  too 
marked.  We  are  not  in  possession  of  the 
exact  numbers  present  on  the  26th,  but  our 
observation  of  this  and  similar  annual 
meetings  convinces  us,  that  we  have  still 
to  imitate  our  excellent  exemplars,  the 
Friends,  in    our  efforts  to  assemble    large 

CULTURE     AND    IMP 

AVe  extract  the  following  article  from  a 
recent  number  of  a  popular  periodical,  *  as 
presenting  an  interesting  account  of  the 
growth  and  importance  of  rice  as  an  article 
of  food. 

"Those  who  have  only  seen  rice  as  ex- 
posed for  sale  in  grocers'  windows,  or  who 
have  tasted  in  it  no  other  shape  than  as 
puddings,  may  with  truth  be  said  to  know 
nothing  of  it  as  an  article  of  food.  In  this 
country,  indeed,  little  is  understood  of  the 
important  part  this  grain  performs  in  em- 
ploying and  feeding  a  large  portion  of  the 
human  family.  Cultivated  in  all  four  quar- 
ters of  the  globe,  but  chiefly  in  America  and 
Asia,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  that  it 
forms  the  food  of  three-fourths  of  the  human 
race  :  in  other  words,  of  between  six  and 
seven  hundred  millions  of  the  population  of 
the  world. 

"  It  is  not  merely  that  the  densely-packed 
inhabitants  of  China,  Siam,  British  India, 
and  the  Eastern  islands,  employ  this  grain 
in  lieu  of  wheat.  It  stands  them  in  place  of 
*  Dickens's  Household  Words,  No.  275,  page  522. 


numbers  of  our  adherents,  their  May  meeting 
in  London,  still  far  exceeding  our  own 
muster  of  July. 

In  this,  however,  we  must  not  forget 
that  our  organization  extends  over  less  than 
eight  years,  and  whilst  we  would  stimulate 
the  observation  of  our  friends  to  what  may 
be  accomplished,  we  would  not,  at  the  same 
time,  undervalue  the  meeting  just  held. 

The  Conference  was  commenced  and  sus- 
tained throughout,  with  that  lively  interest 
which  the  nature  of  the  subjects  introduced 
was  certain  to  excite,  and  we  trust  that  the 
primary  object  of  the  assembly  will  have 
been  amply  secured  in  the  increased  interest 
in  which  every  thing  pertaining  to  our 
movement  will  be  viewed  by  the  members 
present,  during  the  official  year  just  entered 
upon.  The  details  of  the  subjects  discussed 
will  shortly,  we  learn,  be  before  the  mem- 
bers ;  and  it  will  be  our  duty,  by  the  middle 
of  the  present  month  (anticipating  the 
issue  of  the  Messenger  for  September),  to 
present  a  report  of  the  interesting  speeches 
delivered  at  the  public  Meeting  on  the 
evening  of  the  Conference. 

ORTANCE    OF    RICE. 

all  the  varied  food  of  European  countries  — 
of  bread,  vegetables,  flesh,  and  fowl.  The 
rice-dealer  is  at  once  their  baker,  green- 
grocer, butcher,  and  poulterer.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  enter  the  most  remote  village  in  the 
East,  without  seeing  piles  of  rice  stored  in 
half-open  granaries,  or  heaped  up  for  sale  in 
bazaars  in  such  boundless  profusion  as  to 
bewilder  a  traveller  from  the  west,  who  is 
apt  to  wonder  what  will  become  of  it  all. 
Three-fourths  of  the  warehouses  in  town  and 
country  the  traveller  may  depend  on  being 
rice  stores— three-fourths  of  the  lumbering 
native  craft  that  steal  along  the  coast,  and 
quite  that  proportion  of  the  lazy  bullock- 
carts  that  are  to  be  met  with  toiling  over 
Indian  roads,  are  certain  to  be  laden  with 
rice. 

"Of  rapid  growth,  and  easily  adapting 
itself  to  many  varieties  of  soils,  irrespective 
of  culture,  rice  appears  to  be  the  most  suit- 
able for  the  countries  in  which  it  is  found. 
The  abundant  rains  which  periodically  fall 
within  and  about  the  tropics,  are  precisely 
what  is  needed  by  this  semi- aquatic  plant. 


72 


CULTURE  AND  IMPORTANCE  OF  RICE. 


Sometimes,  however,  the  rainy  season  ceases 
before  its  time,  or  fails  altogether — in  which 
case  the  crops  will  assuredly  perish,  should 
there  exist  no  means  of  procuring  a  supply 
from  elsewhere,  by  aqueducts  and  dams,  or 
bunds,  as  they  are  termed.  The  construction 
of  works  of  irrigation  has,  from  the  earliest 
periods,  occupied  the  attention  of  Indian 
monarchs,  who  spared  no  efforts  to  keep 
their  subjects  well  supplied  with  water.  It 
long  formed  a  reproach  to  the  British 
government  of  India,  that,  whilst  the  Hindoo 
and  Mahometan  rulers  of  Hindostan  had  been 
alike  mindful  to  spend  a  portion  of  the  taxes 
on  works  of  this  kind,  they  allowed  the  bunds 
and  canals  to  fall  into  neglect  and  ruin. 

"  The  want  of  those  means  of  irrigation 
has  often  been  fatally  felt  in  some  districts  of 
India.  A  sudden  and  severe  drought  will 
destroy  the  growing  crops ;  and  when,  as  is 
unfortunately  the  case  in  some  parts,  there 
are  no  roads  by  which  to  convey  grain  from 
more  fortunate  districts,  the  consequences  are 
frightful.  In  this  way,  we  read  that  in  the 
year  eighteen  hundred  and  thirty-three,  fifty 
thousand  persons  perished  in  the  month  of 
September,  in  Lucknow — at  Kanpore  twelve 
hundred  died  of  want — in  Guntoor,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  human  beings, 
seventy-four  thousand  bullocks,  a  hundred 
and  sixty  thousand  cows,  and  an  incredible 
number  of  sheep  and  goats,  died  of  starva- 
tion— fifty  thousand  people  perished  from  the 
same  cause  in  Marwa ;  and  in  the  north-west 
provinces  half  a  million  of  lives  are  supposed 
to  have  been  lost.  During  that  year  a  mil- 
lion and  a  half  of  human  beings  are  believed 
to  have  perished  from  want  of  food. 

"  In  some  parts  of  India  the  monsoon 
rains  fall  heavily  for  a  short  period,  and  very 
slightly  at  other  times,  yielding  a  greater 
supply  than  is  needed  in  the  first  instance, 
and  too  little  afterwards.  To  meet  this  irre- 
gularity, and  store  up  the  too  copious  rains 
of  the  early  monsoon,  bunds  were  built 
across  valleys  to  form  artificial  lakes,  often 
of  vast  extent,  whence  the  adjacent  country 
was  irrigated  by  means  of  water-courses  car- 
ried frequently  for  many  miles  along  the 
flanks  of  mountains,  across  gorges  and  val- 
leys, and  through  the  most  difficult  country  ; 
operations,  which  would  have  sorely  puzzled 
our  best  European  engineers  to  have  accom- 
plished without  a  great  and  ruinous  outlay. 

"  We  have  been  long  accustomed  to  regard 
the  magnificent  ruins  yet  remaining  in  the 
prostrate  land  of  the  mighty  Pharaohs, 
with  feelings  of  mingled  awe  and  admiration, 
looking  upon  them  as  the  crumbling  types  of 
a  bygone  reign  of  architectural  and  engineer- 
ing greatness.  Further  eastward,  still  nearer 
the  rising  of  the  sun,  there  are,  however, 
ruins  quite  as  vast ;  monumental  vestiges  of 


former  greatness  fully  as  astounding.  The 
remains  of  ancient  works  of  irrigation  in  the 
island  of  Ceylon  alone,  are  sufficient  to  fling 
into  the  shade  the  boasted  labours  of  the  old 
Egyptian  kings,  to  dwarf  to  the  flimsiest 
insignificance  the  proudest  engineering  works 
of  the  present  rulers  of  India. 

"  Situated  amidst  the  wildest  solitudes,  or 
in  the  depths  of  unhealthy  jungle  districts, 
these  ruins  have  remained  almost  unknown 
to  Europeans.  Surrounded  by  stagnant 
swamps  or  dense  forests  and  jungle,  where 
once  were  fertile  plains  or  luxurious  valleys, 
rich  with  waving  rice-fields,  fields  that  in  those 
remote  ages  fed  a  vast  population,  those 
ruined  bunds  are  now  the  resort  of  wild 
elephants,  buffaloes,  and  innumerable  water- 
fowl. Here  and  there  a  cluster  of  miserable 
huts,  termed  out  of  mere  courtesy  a  village, 
may  be  seen  vegetating  in  the  less  overgrown 
corners  of  this  great  jungle- water  plain, 
like  islands  in  some  oriental  Dead  Sea,  but 
how  they  came  there,  or  what  their  inmates 
do,  is  not  easily  defined. 

"Of  the  extent  of  these  tanks  some  idea 
may  be  formed  from  the  fact  of  there  being, 
at  the  present  day,  not  fewer  than  fifteen 
villages  within  the  dried-up  bed  of  one  of 
them.  The  dilapidated  wall  of  this  great 
artificial  lake  is  fifteen  miles  in  length, 
extending  as  it  did,  at  one  time,  completely 
across  the  lower  end  of  a  spacious  valley. 
Built  up  of  huge  blocks  of  stone  strongly  fixed 
with  cement  work,  and  covered  with  turf,  it 
formed  a  solid  barrier  of  one  hundred  feet  in 
width  at  the  base,  shelving  off  to  forty  feet 
wide  at  the  top.  The  magnitude  of  these 
works  bear  ample  testimony  not  only  to  the 
ability  of  the  former  craftsmen  of  this  island, 
but  to  the  extent  of  the  then  population ; 
and  the  resources  and  public  spirit  of  the 
Cinghalese  monarchs,  who  could  successfully 
undertake  works  of  such  magnitude  and 
utility.  In  the  early  period  of  the  Christian 
era,  when  Britain  was  in  a  semi-barbarous 
state,  when  her  nobles  dwelt  in  rude  edifices 
but  little  removed  from  huts,  and  when  her 
navigators  had  not  learnt  to  tempt  the  perils 
of  an  over-sea  commerce,  Ceylon,  then  known 
as  '  the  utmost  Indian  isle,  Taprobane,' 
possessed  cities  of  vast  extent — as  large  as 
the  present  London — and  housed  her  mo- 
narchs and  priests  in  edifices  that  would 
astonish  the  architects  of  our  modern 
Babylon,  that  would  leave  our  proudest 
palaces  far  behind,  that  would  need  a  Milton 
to  describe,  and  a  Martin  to  delineate.  She 
was  also  a  liberal  exporter  of  rice  to  distant 
countries.  In  the  present  day,  with  but  a 
fourth  of  her  former  population,  Ceylon  is 
compelled  to  purchase  grain  from  Indian 
producers,  in  consequence  of  the  decay  of  her 
works  of  irrigation. 


CULTUEE  AND   IMPORTANCE   OF   RICE. 


73 


"It  must  not  be  supposed  by  European 
readers,  that  rice,  in  the  larger  acceptation 
of  the  word,  is  represented  by  '  the  finest 
Carolina,'  or  even  *  the  best  London  Cleaned 
Patna/  There  is  no  more  affinity  between 
those  white  artificial  cereals,  and  the  '  real, 
original '  staple  food  of  India  and  the  East, 
than  is  to  be  found  between  a  sponge-cake 
and  a  loaf  of  genuine  farm-house  bread. 
The  truth  is,  people  in  this  part  of  the  world, 
have  no  conception  of  what  good  rice  is  like. 
If  they  had,  there  would  not  be  such  a  lively 
demand  for  the  produce  of  the  Southern 
American  States.  But  such  is  prejudice, 
that  if  a  merchant  were  to  introduce  into  any 
port  of  Great  Britain,  or  Ireland,  a  cargo  of 
the  real  staple  of  food  of  orientals,  he  would 
not  find  a  purchaser  for  it,  so  inferior  is  it  in 
appearance,  in  its  colour,  shape,  and  texture, 
to  the  better-known  and  tempting-looking 
grain  of  South  Carolina. 

"  Perhaps,  no  greater  fallacy  exists,  than 
the  common  belief  in  the  poverty  of  the 
nutritive  qualities  of  rice.  That  may  hold 
good  in  regard  to  the  rice  consumed  in  this 
country,  but  certainly  not  if  applied  to  the 
common  rice  of  many  parts  of  the  East.  A 
hard-working  Indian  labourer  would  not 
make  a  meal  on  our  "  Finest  Carolina,  "  if 
he  could  get  it  as  a  present :  he  would  know 
that  he  could  not  do  half-a-day's  work  on  it, 
even  though  he  swallowed  a  full  Indian  al- 
lowance, and  that  is  saying  a  good  deal :  an 
Englishman  in  the  West,  can  have  no  con- 
ception of  the  prodigious  quantities  of  rice  a 
working-man  in  the  eastern  tropics  will  dis- 
pose of  at  one  sitting.  A  London  alderman 
might  well  envy  him  his  feeding  capacity. 

"  Perhaps,  it  may  be  thought,  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  hard  day's  work  in 
India ;  and  that,  therefore,  there  can  be  no 
good  grounds  for  vouching  for  the  nutritive 
properties  of  the  grain  of  those  countries. 
If  so,  it  makes  another  of  the  rather  long  list 
of  popular  modern  fallacies.  I  have  seen  as 
hard  work,  real  bone  and  muscle  work,  done 
by  citizens  of  the  United  Kingdom  in  the 
East,  as  was  ever  achieved  in  the  cold  West, 
and  all  upon  rice  and  curry — not  curry  and 
rice — in  which  the  rice  has  formed  the  real 
meal,  and  the  curry  has  merely  helped  to 
give  it  a  relish,  as  a  sort  of  substantial  Kit- 
chener's Zest,  or  Harvey's  Sauce.  I  have 
seen,  likewise,  Moormen,  Malabars,  and 
others  of  the  Indian  labouring  classes  perform 
a  day's  work  that  would  terrify  a  London 
porter,* or  coal-whipper  ;  or  a  country  navvy, 
or  ploughman ;  and  under  the  direct  rays  of 
a  sun,  that  has  made  a  wooden  platform  too 
hot  to  stand  on,  in  thin  shoes,  without  liter- 
ally dancing  with  pain,  as  I  have  done  many 
a  day,  within  six  degrees  of  the  line. 

"  It  wou]^be  a  matter  of  no  little  diffi- 


culty, and,  perhaps,  of  doubtful  interest,  to  tell 
how  many  varieties  exist  of  the  rice  family, 
in  eastern  lands,  from  the  whitest,  most 
delicately- formed,  table-rice  of  Bengal,  to 
the  bold,  red,  solid  grain  of  the  Madras 
coast,  and  the  sickly-looking,  transparent, 
good-for-nothing-but- starch  rice  of  arracan. 
Making  a  rough  guess  at  their  number,  there 
cannot  be  less  than  two  hundred  varieties. 
These  may  be  thrown  into  two  great,  widely- 
difi'erent  classes,  viz.,  field  rice  and  hill 
rice  :  the  distinctive  features  of  which  are, 
that  the  former  is  grown  in  cultivated  fields 
by  the  aid  of  water,  the  latter  on  dry  hill 
slopes  without  irrigation.  The  one  yields  a 
rich,  nutritious  grain,  in  great  abundance, 
the  other,  a  thin,  and  husky  rice,  fit  only  for 
the  food  of  cattle,  or  the  very  poorest  class 
of  natives.  With  this  last-mentioned  des- 
cription of  grain  there  is  scarcely  any  at- 
tempt at  cultivation,  in  a  European  sense 
of  the  word,  nor  is  there  any  feature  about  it 
worthy  of  notice;  so  that  the  reader  will 
readily  excuse  me  for  passing  to  the  more 
interesting  subject  of  the  ordinary  field  rice 
of  the  East. 

"  A  corn  field  in  the  ear,  a  hop  plantation 
in  bud,  a  cherry  orchard  in  full  blossom,  a 
bean  field  in  flower,  are  lovely  sights  to  look 
upon ;  yet,  I  have  beheld  one  more  beautiful. 
A  rice  field  half  grown  in  age,  but  fully  devel- 
oped in  the  rich  velvet  beauty  of  its  tropic 
green,  bending  to  the  passing  sea-breeze, 
amidst  a  cooling  bath  of  limpid  water,  with 
topes  of  cocoa-palms  clustering  about  its 
banks,  and  here  and  there  groves  of  the  yel- 
low bamboo  sweeping  its  bosom  with  their 
feathery  leaves  ;  above,  flights  of  gaily  plu- 
maged  paroquets,  or  gentle-voiced  doves, 
skimming  in  placid  happiness  across  the 
deeply  rich  azure  of  the  tropical  sky,  is  a 
scene  worth  all  the  toils  and  privations  of  an 
eastern  voyage  to  gaze  upon. 

"■  A  more  unpromising  or  uninviting  pros- 
pect can  scarcely  be  imagined  than  the  same 
fields,  when  being  prepared  for  the  grain,  at 
the  usual  sowing  time,  just  as  the  first  rains 
of  the  changing  monsoon  begin  to  fall.  Sa- 
turated with  water,  the  soil  wears  all  the 
attributes  of  slushiness.  Far  as  the  eye  can 
reach  along  the  ample  valley  lays  one  dull, 
unbroken  vista  of  rice-land,  ankle-deep  in 
rich  alluvial  mud.  No  cheerful  hedgerows ; 
nothing  by  which  at,  a  distance,  one  can  dis- 
tinguish one  field  from  another.  Here  and 
there  a  long,  irregular  earth-mound,  crowned 
with  rambling  stones,  marks  the  boundary- 
line  of  Abrew  Hickrema  Apoohamey,  and 
divides  his  humble  forty  ammomuns  of  rice- 
land  from  the  princely  domains  of  Adrian 
Hejeyrasingha  Seneratane  Modliar. 

"  Heavy  showers  have  fallen ;  the  fat, 
thirsty  soil  has  drunk  deep   of  the  welcome 


74 


CULTUEE   AND   IMPOETANCE   OF   EICE. 


down-pourings  from  above,  and  thus,  whilst 
it  is  in  rich  unctuous  humour,  the  serving- 
men  of  the  humble  Apoohamey,  and  the 
lordly  MoDLiAR,  ply  it  liberally  with  potations 
of  the  buffalo-plough.  It  is  quite  as  well 
that  the  stranger  traveller  is  informed  of  the 
nature  of  the  operation  which  is  going  on 
before  his  perplexed  eyes,  otherwise  he 
would  be  sorely  puzzled  to  know  what  it  all 
meant :  why  the  pair  of  sleepy-looking 
buffaloes  were  so  patiently  wading,  up  to 
their  portly  stomachs,  in  regular  straight 
■walks,  through  the  sea  of  slushy  quagmire, 
and  why  the  persevering  native  followed 
them  so  closely,  holding  a  crooked  piece  of 
stick  in  his  hand,  and  urging  them,  occa- 
sionally, with  a  few  oriental  benedictions. 
On  drawing  near  to  the  muddy,  nude  agri- 
culturist, you  perceive  that  the  buffaloes  are 
tied,  with  slight  pieces  of  string,  to  the  fur- 
ther end  of  a  long,  rambling  queer-looking' 
slip  of  wood,  which  they  are  dragging  delib- 
rately  through  the  slimy  ground,  a  few 
inches  below  the  surface,  and  at  the  other 
end  of  which  appears  to  be  tied  likewise,  the 
apathetic  Indian  ploughman. 

''  It  needs  all  the  faith  one  can  muster  to 
believe  that  this  actually  constitutes  the 
ploughing  operation  of  eastern  countries. 
You  have  no  doubt  about  the  man,  nor  the 
buffaloes ;  it  is  the  plough  that  is  so  intensely 
questionable.  It  bears  no  likeness  to  any 
kind  of  implement — agricultural,  manufac- 
turing, or  scientific — in  any  part  of  the 
world.  Still,  there  is  a  faint,  glimmering, 
indistinct  impression  that  you  have  some- 
where met  with  something  of  the  sort,  or 
that  you  have  dreamed  of  something  like  it. 
A  sudden  light  bursts  upon  you,  and  you 
recognize  the  thing, — the  entire  scene — man, 
buffaloes,  and  sticky  plough.  You  have 
seen  them  represented  in  plates  of  Belzoni's 
discoveries  in  Egypt,  and  in  Layard's 
remains  of  Nineveh,  There  they  all  are — 
as  veritable,  as  formal,  and  as  strange — as 
were  the  Egyptian  and  Ninevite  agricultu- 
rists, I'm  afraid  to  say  how  many  centuries 
ago.  It  was  precisely  the  same  set  of 
cattle,  man,  and  plough,  that  sowed  the  corn 
that  Joseph's  brethren  went  down  from  the 
land  of  Canaan  for,  when  they  heard  there 
was  corn  in  Egypt.  It  was  just  such  culture 
as  this,  thousands  of  years  since,  that  raised 
the  ears  of  corn  that  were  found  entombed 
in  the  mummy's  hand,  by  Mr.  Pettigrew, 
some  few  years  ago. 

"  There  is  nothing  peculiar  in  the  Cing- 
halese  mode  of  sowing  their  grain,  further 
than  that,  like  other  orientals,  they  blend  a 
certain  portion  of  superstition  and  religious 
observance  with  every  operation  of  their 
primitive  agriculture.  The  village  priest 
must  be  consulted  as  to  the  lucky  day  for 


scattering  the  seed ;  and  an  offering  at  the 
shrine  of  Buddha  is  necessary  to  secure  the 
protection  of  his  Indian  godship ;  in  addition 
to  which,  small  bouquets  of  wild  flowers,  and 
the  tender  leafelts  of  the  cocoa  palm  are 
fastened  on  sticks,  at  each  corner  of  the 
newly-sown  field,  in  order  to  scare  away  any 
evil  spirits  that  might  otherwise  take  it  into 
their  mischievous  hands  to  blight  the  seed. 

"  In  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time,  the 
rice-blades,  of  a  lovely  pale  green,  may  be 
seen  peeping  above  the  slushy  soil,  and  in  a 
few  more  days,  the  tiny  shoots  will  be  some 
inches  high.  Then  they  are  treated  to  a  cold 
bath,  from  the  nearest  tank,  bund,  or  river, 
as  the  case  may  be,  the  supply  of  water 
necessary  to  cover  the  field  as  high  as  the 
tops  of  the  growing  corn  being  brought  to  it 
by  means  of  water-courses,  or  mud-aud-stone 
aqueducts.  In  the  hilly  country  of  the  inte- 
rior, as  before  stated,  these  water-courses, 
even  as  now  existing,  and  of  a  comparatively 
humble  description,  are  marvellously  made 
and  managed.  For  many  miles  the  tiny 
gurgling  stream  flows  on  through  the  wildest 
parts  of  the  country ;  and  the  traveller  on 
his  horse,  may  ride  a  good  day's  journey 
without  reaching  the  end  and  destination  of 
one  of  those  simple,  but  most  useful 
aqueducts. 

"  In  hilly  country,  the  field  paddy  is  often 
grown  on  steep  ground,  cut  into  narrow  ter- 
races, which  rise  prettily  above  each  other, 
often  to  a  considerable  height.  In  such 
situations  the  plough,  small  and  light 
though  it  be,  cannot  be  used,  and  the  loosen- 
ing and  turning  up  of  the  ground  has  to 
be  performed  by  hand-labour.  Weeding, 
by  women  and  children,  takes  place  whilst 
the  rice  plants  are  but  a  few  inches 
in  height;  after  which  the  growth  and 
maturity  of  the  corn  becomes  very 
rapid. 

"The  period  which  elapses  between  the 
sowing  and  the  harvesting  varies  according 
to  the  particular  kind  of  rice  that  may  be 
under  cultivation.  From  three  to  five 
months  is  the  usual  time ;  and,  in  this  way, 
two  harvests  are  secured  during  each  year, 
in  favourable  situations,  though  in  much  of 
the  poor  light  soil  of  the  sea-board  not 
more  than  one  crop  can  be  taken,  and  then 
only  after  manuring,  or  the  ground  must 
lie  fallow  for  an  entire  year.  I  have  known 
many  fine  fields,  in  elevated  positions,  where 
the  supply  of  water  was  abundan^,  yield 
two  full  crops  every  year  in  succession  with- 
out the  aid  of  manure,  and  this  they  had 
continued  to  do  since  the  earliest  recollec- 
tion of  that  universal  patriarch,  the  oldest 
inhabitant." 

"■  The  harvest-home  of  Indian  farmers 
is,    as   with    us,   an    import|j^t   operation, 


VILLAGE  HOETICULTURAL   SOCIETIES. 


75 


though  carried  on  in  a  widely  different 
manner.  Here,  again,  a  lucky  day  must 
be  found ;  and,  when  obtained,  the  prior 
cuttings  of  the  ripe  field  are  carefully  set 
aside  for  an  offering  of  thankfulness  to 
Buddha.  There  is  not  any  attempt  at  stack- 
ing ap  the  corn  in  the  straw  :  it  is  removed 
to  the  threshing-floor  as  fast  as  cut — the 
said  threshing-floor  being  neither  more 
nor  less  than  a  very  dry,  smooth,  and  hard 
corner  of  the  nearest  meadoAV.  There  the 
operation  of  threshing  goes  on  in  precisely 
the  same  ancient  fashion  as  the  ploughing. 
The  cattle  that,  treading  out,  unmuzzled, 
the  corn  of  the  Cinghalese  cultivation,  in 
the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria,  are  employed 
precisely  in  the  same  manner  as  the  cattle 
were  during  the  sway  of  King  Cheops  of 
the  Nile  ;  and,  for  aught  we  know,  may  be 
lineal  descendants   of   the  same  cattle.     It 


is  quite  certain  that  the  agricultural  societies 
eastward  of  the  Pyramids  have  accom- 
plished very  little  in  the  improvement  of 
farming  implements  and  processes  during 
the  last  few  thousand  years." 

"When  trodden  out  by  the  hoofs  of 
cattle,  the  grain  is  winnowed  from  the 
chaff  by  simply  letting  it  fall  from  a  light 
shallow  basket  raised  to  some  height  from 
the  ground.  The  wind  blows  the  chaff 
away  whilst  the  corn  falls  in  a  heap  below. 
It  is  then  stored  in  dry  rooms,  or  buried 
in  pits  below  the  ground,  under  cover,  till 
required.  In  that  state  it  is  called  '  paddy,' 
having  a  rough  husk,  which  must  be  re- 
moved before  it  becomes  rice,  and  is  fit  for 
cooking.  Ihis  removal  is  accomplished  by 
simply  pounding  the  grain  in  a  large  wooden 
mortar,  after  which  it  is  again  winnowed, 
and  transformed  into   edible  rice."   *     * 


VILLAGE     HOKTICU 

Horticultural  Societies,  for  the  exhibi- 
tion of  garden  produce,  are  not  of  very 
recent  origin.  They  have  been  long  known 
and  appreciated  for  the  beneficial  influences 
they  exercise  in  the  promotion  of  gardening 
as  a  science,  while  they  tend,  in  an  especial 
manner,  to  diffuse  a  taste  for  this  pleasant 
and  healthful  pursuit  amongst  various 
classes  of  the  community.  It  is  only  recently, 
however,  that  they  have  risen  to  the  impor- 
tance which  they  now  hold  among  the  insti- 
tutions of  our  country — an  importance  such 
as  their  first  originators  could  not  have  con- 
templated, and  such  as  many  think  they  are 
scarcely  entitled  to  claim.  For,  say  they. 
Horticultural  Societies  go  on  increasing  day 
by  day,  and,  although  in  themselves  institu- 
tions of  high  value,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
but  that,  in  numerous  instances,  the  false 
importance  to  which  they  have  attained,  is 
the  means  of  diverting  attention  from  other 
important  means  of  promoting  horticulture, 
and  extending  a  taste  for  it  in  the  various 
grades  of  society. 

While,  however,  almost  every  town  of  any 
extent,  from  John  0' Groat's  to  the  Land's- 
End,  has  its  society  or  societies,  at  the  exhi- 
bitions of  which  the  professional  gardener 
may  produce  the  result  of  his  labours,  we 
find  few  such  for  the  humble  cottager. 
Village  Horticultural  Societies,  indeed,  seem 
to  have  been  hitherto  almost  entirely  over- 
looked in  the  rage  for  their  more  aristocratic 
neighbours,  the  town  societies.  They  are 
a  class  which,  it  is  true,  cannot  claim  any 
great  importance  on  account  of  their  direct 
influence  in  the  promotion  of  the  higher 
branches  of  gardening,  or  in  elucidating  its 
principles  as  a  science  ;  but  they  are  calcu- 
lated to  exercise  a  very  powerful  influence  on 


LTURAL     SOCIETIES. 

the  social,  and,  indeed,  we  may  say,  intel- 
lectual, progress  of  the  industrious  orders  of 
society  :  and  this  we  conceive  to  be  an  im- 
portant reason  why  these  societies  should 
obtain  the  serious  attention  of  all  who  desire 
the  progress  of  knowledge  and  of  social  com- 
fort, in  one  of  the  most  important  orders  of 
society — the  peasant  population. 

It  has  been  remarked  (and  will  agree  well 
with  the  observations  of  most  travellers), 
that  the  external  appearance  of  the  way-side 
cottages  of  a  country,  indicates  pretty  cor- 
rectly the  condition  of  the  peasant  popula- 
tion. The  miserable  mud  hovels  of  the  Green 
Isle  afford  correct  data  from  which  to  judge 
of  the  low  standard  of  civilization  in  that  un- 
fortunate country,  while  the  smiling  cottages 
of  England  and  Scotland  have  a  happier  tale 
to  tell  of  the  industry  and  social  comfort  of 
their  inmates.  But  even  a  surer  index  than 
this  of  the  progress  of  civilization  will  be 
found  in  the  character  of  the  cottage  gar- 
dens. When  we  see  the  little  plot  neglected 
and  overgrown  with  weeds — no  simple 
flower  to  cheer  the  eye  of  the  passing  tra- 
veller, or  waft  its  perfume  on  the  evening 
gale,  we  may  safely  conclude  that  the  cot- 
tager himself  is  unknown  to  the  hand  of 
refinement,  and  shares  but  a  tithe  of  the 
enjoyments  that  a  weU-directed  industry 
might  bring  within  his  reach.  On  the  other 
hand,  when  we  find  the  humble  cottage- 
garden  neatly  planted  with  flowers  and 
vegetables,  a  jasmine  diffusing  its  balmy 
odours  around  the  poor  man's  home,  and  a 
lively  China-rose  to  greet  him  with  its 
blushing  beauty  as  he  returns  from  his  daily 
labours,  we  may  then  depend  upon  the 
occupant  being  intelligent  and  industrious, 
and  the  home  itself  one  of  comfort — provided 


76 


THE   CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


in  an  ample  manner,  not  only  with  the 
necessaries  of  life,  but  also  with  a  goodly 
share  of  those  simple  luxuries  that  add  so 
much  to  the  happiness  of  the  humble  cottager. 
The  delightful  pursuit  of  gardening  will  be 
thus  seen  to  go  hand  in  hand  with  social 
elevation. 

The  importance  of  promoting  the  pursuit 
of  gardening  amongst  our  peasant  popula- 
tion is  greater  than  may  at  first  thought  be 
supposed.  It  is  a  pleasing  and  healthy  re- 
creation, that  can  be  enjoyed  equally  well 
by  the  humblest  peasant  as  by  the  wealthy 
peer,  and  that,  too,  without  affecting  the 
limited  income  of  the  working-man  :  on  the 
contrary,  it  may  be  made  the  means  of  bring- 
ing within  his  reach  many  a  comfort  that  he 
could  not  otherwise  possess.    It  is  an  amuse- 


ment that  every  one  can  enjoy :  the  plants, 
and  flowers,  and  fruits  of  the  garden  we  have 
all  learned  to  love  from  our  earliest  years, 
and  our  love  for  them  does  not  languish  or 
die,  although  it  may  be  that  we  have  lost  all 
relish  for  the  gayer  pleasures  of  this  busy 
world.  More  than  one  proud  name  in  Euro- 
pean literature  disappeared  from  the  bustling 
stage  of  public  affairs,  to  seek  shelter  from 
the  noisy  world  in  the  mild  and  peaceful 
shades  of  the  garden  bower. 

We  are  happy  to  observe,  that  some  of  the 
village  societies  recently  established  in  Scot- 
land, offer  prizes  for  the  most  neatly  kept 
cottage  gardens,  and  that  the  emulation  of 
the  villagers,  called  forth  by  this  means,  has 
led  to  marked  improvement  in  their  social 
habits.  —  Commonwealth . 


THE    CONTROVERSULIST 

THE    GLASGOW   COMMISSARIAT. 

The  Glasgow  Examiner^  in  calling  attention 
to  Dr.  Strang's  statistics  of  the  social  and 
economic  condition  of  Glasgow,  presents  the 
following  particulars  as  to  the  number  of 
animals  passing  through  the  cattle  market, 
and  the  number  killed  for  food  : 

"Having  disposed  of  the  vital  statistics,  the 
Doctor  proceeds  to  give  us  some  insight  into  the 
Commissariat  of  the  city.  It  seems  that, 
during  1854,  tliere  were  passed  through  our 
cattle  market  36,009  oxen,  114,780  sheep,  and 
59,737  lambs;  giving  a  total  of  210,528,  or 
rather  more  than  one  to  every  two  of  the  in- 
habitants. This  shows  an  increase  over  the  pre- 
ceding year  of  1,143  oxen,  and  of  14,641  sheep 
and  lambs.  There  were  killed,  however,  not 
quite  so  many  as  passed  through  the  cattle 
market.  Of  oxen,  there  were  slain,  27,881 ;  of 
calves,  2,004;  of  sheep,  94,027;  of  lambs, 
44,098;  of  goats,  36  ;  and  of  pigs,  4,633 ;  being 
a  total  of  172,669,  or  nearly  one  to  two  of  the 
entire  population.  Verily  there  is  much  to  do 
yet,  ere  the  citizens  are  all  cured  of  their  car- 
nivorous propensities,  and  become  vegetable- 
totalers.  The  only  year  in  which  the  amount 
killed  was  as  great  as  last  was  1852;  in  which 
31,238  oxen,  and  48,000  lambs,  were  killed.  In 
1843  there  were  28,443  oxen  killed,  but  there 
were  many  fewer  sheep  and  lambs.  Besides  the 
fresh  meat  used,  it  is  supposed  that  20,000  tons 
of  salt  meat  reach  by  the  Clyde  and  the  rail- 
ways, etc.  The  Doctor  thinks  that  annually 
every  inhabitant  eats  not  less  than  113  lb.  of 
flesh.  He  values  the  entire  butcher-meat  at 
£1,125,000,  or  an  amount  approachhig  a  million 
and  a  quarter.  He  thinks  the  consumption  of 
bread  cannot  be  under  144  millions  of  pounds 
weight.  The  gross  cost  is  nearly  the  same  as 
for  butcher-meat — approaching  a  million  and  a 
quarter.  Besides  this,  there  were  brought  to 
Glasgow  last  year,  no  less  then  3,367  tons  of 
fish,  valued  at  £94,276.  There  were  also  used 
1,100  tons  of  cheese,  and  918  tons  of  onions, 
and  above  one  million  pounds  weight  of  fruit." 


AND    CORRESPONDENT. 

The  writer  in  the  Examiner  does  not 
"believe  that  the  still-obtaining  consump- 
tion of  animal  food  is  simply  a  remnant  of 
savage  life,  a  custom  doomed  to  vanish  under 
the  light  of  human  reason ;  "  on  the  con- 
trary, he  evidently  rejoices  in  its  probable 
long  continuance,  and  in  the  fulness  of  his 
satisfaction,  exclaims :  "  Verily,  there  is 
much  to  do  yet,  ere  the  citizens  are  all  cured 
of  their  carnivorous  propensities,  and  be- 
come vegetable-totalers."  We  admit  that 
there  is  much  yet  to  be  done  in  putting  our 
system  fairly  before  the  public ;  but  take 
encouragement  from  the  past  active  and 
useful  efforts  of  our  Glasgow  friends,  that 
the  work  will  be  zealously  and  effectively 
prosecuted,  remembering  that  all  reforms 
have  commenced  with  a  small  number  of 
adherents,  and  that  a  small  upper  room  in 
Jerusalem  was  at  one  time  sufficient  to  con- 
tain all  the  followers  of  Christianity.  We 
know  what  these  men,  with  the  truth  in 
their  possession,  and  the  world  against  them, 
did,  and  have  thus  learnt  what  truth,  zeal, 
and  fidelity  can  everywhere  accomplish  by 
the  same  means,  and  cannot,  therefore, 
entertain  any  fear  as  to  the  ultimate  success 
of  our  movement. 

COMPULSORY   VACCINATION. 

Dear  Sir — Is  it  in  your  power  to  inform  me 
whether  there  really  is  a  law  in  force  to  compel 
me  to  have  ray  child  vaccinated  ? 

I  am  a  Vegetarian  of  many  years'  standing, 
and  I  do  not  believe  in  vaccination,  and  I  think  I 
have  sound  reasons  for  not  having  a  child  of 
mine  vaccinated  ou  any  account,  if  I  can  possibly 
avoid  it. 

I  have  an  impression  on  my  mind,  that  Vege- 
tarians generally  object  to  vaccination,  and  that 
there  was  a  sort  of  opposition  made  by  the 
Society,  some  time  ago,  to  some  compulsory  Act 
of  Parliament  then  in  contemplation  regarding 
vaccination. 


THE   CONTROVEHSIALIST  AND   COERESrONDENT. 


77 


I  see,  by  a  form  the  Registrar  of  Births  and 
Deaths  has  served  me  with,  that  I  am  required 
to  have  my  child  vaccinated  within  three  months 
after  birth,  or  subject  myself  to  a  penalty  of 
twenty  shillings. 

The  penalty  of  "  twenty  shillings  "  I  do  not 
care  about  paying,  if  the  law  can  do  me  no 
further  injury  than  that.  But  I  am  told  there 
is  a  much  heavier  penalty  to  be  inflicted — a  fine 
of  £50. 

Would  you  be  so  good  as  to  inform  me  what 
you  know  about  the  matter? 

I  beg  leave  to  apologize  for  thus  troubling  you, 
but  I  think  you  are  most  likely  to  afford  me  the 
information  I  require. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  yours  most  obediently, 

Grhmiby.  D.  C.  I. 

AVe  cannot  pronounce  upon  Vegetarians 
being  generally  opposed  to  vaccination,  but 
are  aware  that  many  are,  as  was  shown  by 
the  fact  of  their  earnest  petition  against  the 
present  Act,  certainly  in  force,  and  making 
vaccination  compulsory.  The  argument  of 
the  petition  referred  to  was,  that  though 
vaccination  may  be  a  precautionary  measure, 
made  necessary  to  the  meat-eating  world  by 
previous  errors  of  diet  in  consuming  the  flesh 
of  animals^  and  thus  inducing  a  febrile  state 
of  the  system,  likely  to  entertain  this  and 
other  diseases,  it  is  unnecessary  for  the  Vege- 
tarian, who,  abjuring  the  cause  of  danger, 
should  not  be  made  to  pay  the  penalty  con- 
sidered necessary  to  the  safety  of  those  who 
bring  the  evil  intended  to  be  avoided  upon 
themselves. 

By  the  Vaccination  Extension  Bill,  as 
newly  amended,  and  probably  now  law,  we 
perceive  that  the  fine  for  non-compliance 
with  the  Act  is  proposed,  as  before,  to  be 
One  Found  upon  the  first  complaint,  and  "  to 
be  afterwards  increased  at  the  discretion  of 
the  justices  imposing  the  penalty,"  which,  in 
case  of  repeated  complaints  for  non-compli- 
ance with  the  Act  in  respect  of  the  same 
child,  cannot,  however,  "  in  the  whole  amount 
of  such  penalty,"  exceed  "  Five  Founds.^' 

ERRONEOUS   QUOTATIONS. 

Sir — Your  May  number  contains  a  report  of 
a  lecture  at  Birmingham,  in  which  the  lecturer 
professes  to  give  an  extract  from  an  article  in  the 
Westminster  Review. 

On  turning  to  the  Review,  however,  I  found  that 
the  quotation  as  presented  differs  considerably 
from  the  original  article,  being  composed  of 
detached  sentences  and  clauses,  ingeniously  fitted 
together  and  interspersed  with  matter  from  an- 
other article  of  earlier  date,  so  as  to  convey  the 
impression  to  those  hearing  the  lecture,  or  reading 
the  report,  that  the  paper  in  the  Review  is  pro- 
Vegetarian  in  its  tendency,  instead  of,  as  is  the 
fact,  being  a  piece  of  free  and  impartial  criticism  on 
Vegetarianism  in  connection  with  other  isms 
of  the  day. 

I  have  ventured  to  call  your  attention  to  this 


way  of  treating  the  able  article  in  question, 
having  no  doubt  you  will  agree  with  me  that  it 
is  unfair,  as  essentially  altering  its  character ; 
and  thinking,  at  the  same  time,  that  you  might 
see  it  well  to  offer  some  hints  to  your  corres- 
pondents on  the  loose  and  inaccurate  way  in 
which  quotations  are  too  frequently  made. 

Allow  me  to  add,  that  I  am  no  captious  oppo- 
nent of  the  Vegetarian  system,  but  that  it  is  an 
earnest  desire  to  guard  against  anything  tending 
to  mar  its  beauty  and  truthfulness,  in  the  way 
of  presenting  it  to  public  attention,  that  leads 
me  to  trouble  you  with  this  communication. 
Yours  respectfully, 

Q. 

Some  parts  of  the  lecture  referred  to*  are 
certainly  open  to  objection,  and  in  the  report 
supplied,  difficulty  was  experienced  in  sepa- 
rating the  original  from  the  extracted  matter 
largely  composing  the  lecture. 

The  instance  in  question,  certainly 
aff'ords  a  suitable  opportunity  to  advise  our 
correspondents,  and  especially  those  who 
supply  reports  of  meetings  or  lectures,  to 
be  particular  in  the  marking  of  extracted 
matter  introduced,  which  ought,  at  all  times, 
to  bear  the  signs  of  quotation.  Again,  we 
would  throw  out  the  hint,  that  it  is  not 
proper  to  throw  into  italics  passages  of  a 
quotation  on  which  special  stress  is  laid  by 
the  commentator,  unless  such  passages  have 
previously  been  presented  in  the  same 
article  in  their  original  form.  Otherwise, 
an  author  is  made  to  say  what  he  has  not 
said,  or  the  reader  is  at  least  left  in  doubt  as 
to  the  original  quotations.  "We  have  to 
express  our  regret  that  the  matter  calling 
forth  these  remarks  was  not  checked  earlier, 
and  presented  in  a  form  more  suited  to  the 
nature  of  the  communication,  from  one  of 
those  seasons  of  pressure  as  to  time,  which 
all  who  provide  for  the  public  press  have  more 
or  less  to  encounter. 

INQUIRIES   AS   TO    DIET. 

Dear  Sir — Imbued  with  a  deep  sense  of 
regard  for  my  health,  I  am  anxious  to  conform 
to  such  a  system  of  diet  as  will  best  sustain  the 
constitution,  and  preserve  it  from  disease.  If  I 
had  been  a  subscriber  to  the  Vegetarian  Messen- 
ger for  some  time,  you  might  be  surprised  at  my 
asking  you,  what  kind  of  diet  would  be  best  for 
my  health  and  constitution,  but  when  I  inform 
you  I  have  only  just  commenced,  you  may  con- 
descend to  answer  my  question,  which  I  can 
assure  you  is  put  through  pure  motives. 

I  have  for  the  last  two  years  subsisted  entirely 
on  oatmeal  porridge  for  breakfast  and  supper, 
and  coffee  and  bread  and  butter  to  dinner  and 
tea ;  this,  you  will  observe,  is  a  singular  mode 
of  diet,  but  I  am  convinced  that  it  does  not  sup- 
port me  in  the  manner  required.  I  am  sixteen 
years  of  age,  and  am  naturally  of  a  strong  con- 
stitution ;  I  say  this  merely  because  I  think  it 
may  be  necessary,  as  your  advice  may  be  different 
*  Supplement,  vol.  vi,  pp.  23—29. 


78 


THE   CONTROVERSALTST   AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


from  what  it  would    be  had  I  been    a    grown 
person  :  T  am  also  very  thin. 

By  advising  me  as  to  what  diet  would  be  best, 
you  will  do  me  a  favour  which  I  cannot  forget. 
I  remain,  yours,  etc., 

Huddersfield.  H. 

We  recommend  our  young  adherent  to 
abandon  his  coffee  dinners  !  and  getting  the 
Penny  Cookery,  if  he  cannot  afford  to  pur- 
chase the  Vegetarian  Cookery,  get  some  of 
the  good  soups,  and  other  dishes  there  de- 
scribed. Common  cookery  is,  with  a 
measure  of  intelligence,  all  that  is  required, 
and  vigorous  growth  will  be  amply  secured, 
the  habits  being  good  in  other  respects. 
"VYe  have  spoken  of  soups,  which  are  easily 
prepared,  abundantly  nutritious,  of  very 
little  trouble  (one  preparation  being  suffi- 
cient, with  simple  heating  afresh,  for  several 
days),  and  still  it  is  lamentable  how  little 
our  friends  seem  to  know  or  understand  this. 
"With  the  barley  and  bread  soups,  or  the 
peas  and  barley,  (not  to  mention  numerous 
other  kinds)  and  bread,  witb  vegetables  and 
a  pudding,  a  dinner  is  had  which  puts  the 
"  flush  of  comfort "  on  the  cheek ;  and 
where  other  preparations  are  added,  no  one 
need  say,  "  How  shall  I  live  this  new  way } " 
The  fact  is,  this  is  the  old  way  of  living, 
and  the  other  a  merely  temporary  and  mis- 
taken practice,  to  disappear  before  a  higher 
state  of  civilization,  departure  from  which 
now  is  only  made  difficult  by  the  force  of 
custom. 

SATISFACTORY   EXPERIMENTS. 

Sir — I  am  wishful  to  bear  my  testimony  in 
behalf  of  the  advantage  of  Vegetarian  habits 
of  diet,  for  the  benefit  of  the  truth,  and  of  others 
who  may  see  this,  and  especially  for  the  benefit 
of  working  men. 

I  am  an  operative  shoemaker  employed  by  one 
of  the  first  shops  in  London,  and  am  in  the  habit 
of  sitting  at  my  employment  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  hours  a-day.  About  six  mouths  ago  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  a  lecture,  given  by 
Mr.  J.  BoRMOND,  in  London.  I  then  adopted 
the  Vegetarian  practice,  and  resolved  to  try  it 
well,  having  great  faith  in  the  truths  uttered  by 
the  lecturer.  The  experiment  is,  I  am  happy  to 
say,  completely  satisfactory  ;  I  am  now  in  better 
health,  more  cheerful  in  spirits,  and  able  to  do 
more  work  with  less  fatigue. 

I  may  mention  here,  that  at  first  I  was  subject 
to  a  feeling  of  drowsiness  whilst  at  my  work, 
and  this  I  continued  to  experience  for  a  few 
weeks,  at  intervals,  but  it  has  now  subsided,  and 
I  am  quite  well,  and  completely  satisfied  with  the 
choice  I  have  made. 

I  have  been  a  teetotaler  for  many  years,  and 
as  such,  and  also  as  a  Vegetarian,  I  may  say,  with 
all  proper  feeling,  that  I  will  yield  to  no  man  in 
the  trade  for  the  quantity  of  work  done  by  me, 
and  the  character  of  the  shop  for  which  I  work 
will  speak  as  to  the  quality  of  that  work. 

Allow  me  to  add,  that  through   the  instru- 


mentality of  Mr.  BoRMOND,  I  am  a  constant 
reader  of  the  Messenger,  and  feel  thankful  both 
for  the  benefit  I  have  derived  from  the  practice, 
and  the  instruction  I  have  received. 

London.  S.  W. 

P.S.  It  is  my  intention  to  make  my  Declara- 
tion, and  thus  connect  myself  with  the  Society 
as  early  as  convenient. 

Dear  Sir — Mrs.  Bolton  of  Dorington 
wishes  me  to  inform  you  that  she  has  derived 
considerable  advantage  by  tlie  adoption  of  the 
Vegetarian  system  of  diet.  She  has  been  a 
Vegetarian  now  twelve  months,  previous  to  which 
time  she  was  severely  troubled  with  several 
nervous  affections,  and  determination  of  blood  to 
the  head.  Very  soon  after  she  had  discontinued 
eating  flesh-meat  these  symptoms  vanished,  and 
she  is  now  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  perfect 
health,  which  she  attributes  entirely  to  her 
disuse  of  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food. 

If  you  think  the  above  worth  insertion  in  the 
Messenger,  you  are  at  liberty  to  make  use 
of  it. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  yours  fraternally, 

Grimsby.  D.  C.  J. 

Sir — Allow  me  to  state,  through  the  pages  of 
your  valued  and  instructive  journal,  that  about 
six  months  ago  I  was  induced  to  adopt  the 
Vegetarian  practice  of  diet,  on  hearing  some 
lectures  given  by  Mr.  Bormond  in  London. 
In  my  experience,  I  am  happy  to  say  I  have 
found  all  he  stated  to  be  true,  I  am  better  in 
health,  more  independent,  because  my  wants  are 
fewer,  and  my  diet  better  and  cheaper.  I  am  an 
operative  shoe-maker  and  I  find  that  I  can  do 
any  amount  of  work  without  fatigue.  I  may 
add,  that  I  can  now  do  with  much  less  sleep  than 
when  following  the  mixed  diet  practice. 

If  this  can  be  made  of  use  in  drawing  attention 
to  this  simple  yet  valuable  principle,  I  shall  be 
glad.  I  rejoice  in  my  new  habits  more  and 
more.  I  am.  Sir, 

London.  Y.  T. 

joining  the  society. 

Dear  Sir — I  have  received  your  kind  pro- 
posals, and  I  am  happy  to  say  they  meet  with 
my  approval,  and  that  I  shall  feel  it  an  honour  to 
join  such  a  Soeiety  as  the  Vegetraiau,  for  I  think 
there  is  no  other  Society  that  has  the  cause  of 
humanity  so  much  at  heart,  or  so  much  founded 
on  Bible  principles. 

Although  I  have  only  been  a  practical  Vege- 
tarian eight  months,  I  have  been  one  in  principle 
for  three  or  four  years,  but  was  afraid  of  being 
laughed  at  if  I  carried  out  my  convictions.  I 
have,  however,  since  found  out  that  he  is  not  a 
man  who  is  afraid  to  do  right  because  short- 
sighted people  laugh  at  him,  since  true  greatness 
of  soul  and  heart  is  shown  in  carying  out  that 
which  we  believe  to  be  right  between  God  and 
our  own  conscience. 

I  now  feel  that  the  earth  is  full  of  fruits  for 
man  and  beast,  and  even  feel  thankful  that  they 
have  been  provided  by  the  bountiful  hand  of 
God,  but  never  thought  of  these  things  when, 
like  the  wolf,  I  devoured  flesh  and  blood.      As 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


79 


to  the  effect  of  my  practice  upon  me  physically, 
I  may  say  that  I  feel  lighter  in  body  and 
mind ;  for,  under  the  old  system,  I  was  troubled 
with  indigestion  and  a  heaviness  that  I  never  feel 
now. 

I  have  been  a  cold  water  drinker  three  years, 
and  drink  no  tea  or  coffee,  nothing  but  cold 
water,  and  I  have  found  so  much  benefit  from 
this,    and    living    on    Vegetarian  food,   that   I 


would  not  change  my  practice  for  all  the  flesh 
and  blood  in  the  earth. 

I  beg  to  enclose  twelve  stamps,  and  to  request 
you  to  make  declaration  of  my  membership  as 
soon  as  you  can,  for  then  I  shall  feel  that  I 
belong  to  a  Society  that,  more  than  any,  is 
trying  to  carry  out  the  cause  of  humanity  and 
civilization.  Yours  respectfully, 

Wrawly.  W.  G. 


THE    VEGETARI 


LITTLE    CHILDREN. 

I  am  fond  of  children — I  think  them  the 
poetry  of  the  world,  the  fresh  flowers  of  our 
hearths  and  homes,  little  conjurors,  with 
their  "natural  magic,"  evoking  hy  their 
spells  what  delights  and  enriches  all  ranks, 
and  equalises  the  different  classes  of  society. 
Often  as  they  bring  with  them  anxieties  and 
cares,  and  live  to  occasion  sorrow  and  grief, 
we  should  get  on  very  badly  without  them. 
Only  think,  if  there  was  never  anything 
anywhere  to  be  seen  but  great  grown-up  men 
and  women  !  How  should  we  long  for  the 
sight  of  a  little  child !  Every  infant  comes 
into  the  world  like  a  delegated  prophet,  the 
harbinger  and  herald  of  good  tidings,  whose 
oiSice  it  is  "to  turn  the  hearts  of  the  fathers 
of  the  children,"  and  to  draw  "the  disobe- 
dient to  the  wisdom  of  the  just."  A  child 
softens  and  purifies  the  heart,  warming  and 
melting  it  by  its  gentle  presence  ;  it  enriches 
the  soul  by  new  feelings,  and  awakens  within 
it  what  is  favourable  to  virtue.  It  is  a 
beam  of  light,  a  fountain  of  love,  a  teacher 
whose  lessons  few  can  resist.  Infants  recall 
us  from  much  that  engenders  and  encourages 
selfishness,  that  freezes  the  afi'ections,  rough- 
ens the  manners,  indurates  the  heart ;  they 
brighten  the  home,  deepen  love,  invigorate 
exertion,  infuse  courage,  and  vivify  and 
sustain  the  charities  of  life.  It  would  be 
a  terrible  world,  I  do  think,  if  it  was  not 
embellished  by  little  children. — Binney. 

A  USEFUL  HINT  TO  THE  CORPULENT. 

Whilst  pigs  are  growing,  they  are  permitted 
the  use  of  a  yard,  but  when  it  is  desired  to 
fatten  them,  they  are  confined  to  a  sty.  This 
confinement  is  to  prevent  any  waste  of 
matter  in  the  production  of  motion.  Some 
even  confine  the  pigs  in  sties  so  narrow  that 
they  are  unable  to  turn,  and  as  dark  as 
possible,  in  order  to  induce  them  to  sleep. 
Most  farmers  are  aware  of  the  fact  that 
young  calves,  sheep,  and  pigs  fatten  more 
quickly  in  the  dark  than  in  the  light.  The 
explanation  of  this  fact  is  simply  this,  that 
they  pass  more  of  their  time  in  sleep.  Sleep 
is  that  portion  of  the  life  of  an  animal  when 
the  principal  growth  of  its  body  takes  place. 
In  sleep  all  the  voluntary  motions  cease ; 
vitality,  therefore,  now  increases  the  mass  of 


AN    TREASURY. 

the  body,  as  its  force  is  not  expended  in  pro- 
ducing motion.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  we 
like  those  lethargic  pigs  which  stagger  to  the 
trough  in  a  lazy  way,  and  sleep  as  soon  as 
they  have  finished  eating.  Very  little  matter 
being  expended  in  motion,  they  rapidly 
increase  in  size.  The  phlegmatic  Chinese 
or  Neapolitan  pig  fattens  quickly,  whilst  the 
unimproved,  long-legged  Irish  pig,  which 
gallops  about  at  such  an  extraordinary  rate, 
expends  all  its  food  in  the  production  of 
force,*  and  does  not  grow  rapidly. — Dr. 
Lyon  Playfair, 

the  boatmen  of  the  volga. 
Now,  for  the  first  time,  we  examined  with 
attention  the  appearance  of  our  crew  ;  and  a 
wild,  piratical-looking  set  the  majority  of 
them  were.  Bushy  whiskers,  beards,  and 
moustaches,  almost  concealed  their  grim 
visages,  while  the  hair,  worn  long,  was  cut 
with  mathematical  precision  in  a  line  with 
the  chin.  On  their  heads  were  caps  of  fur 
or  sheep  skin ;  a  shirt  and  a  pair  of  trousers 
of  cotton,  with  the  bottoms  of  the  latter 
confined  by  coarse  bandages,  in  the  place  of 
stockings ;  and  the  feet  encased  in  laptyi,  a 
kind  of  shoe,  made  of  matting.  A  large 
sheepskin  coat,  used  at  night  or  in  cold 
weather,  in  addition  to  these,  constituted 
their  entire  wardrobe.  There  was  no  great 
expenditure  of  time  in  preparing  their  break- 
fast. A  large  wooden  bowl  being  dipped 
into  the  river,  some  jet-black  bread,  broken 
into  pieces,  was  thrown  into  the  water  it 
contained,  and  a  little  salt  having  been 
sprinkled  over,  each  in  turn  helped  himself, 
with  a  wooden  spoon,  to  a  morsel  of  the 
contents.  Scanty  as  was  this  repast,  they  did 
not  forget  to  cross  themselves,  and  bow  many 
times,  while  uttering  a  short  prayer  or 
thanksgiving  before  commencing  the  frugal 
meal,  concluding  it  also  with  the  same  cere- 
mony.    Their  dinner  and  supper  consisted 

*  Dr.  Drury,  the  physician  to  the  private  lunatic 
asylum  in  Glasgow,  informed  me  that  very  violent 
patients  eat  an  enormous  quantity  of  food,  and  yet 
never  become  fat ;  while  low,  lethargic  patients 
(when  they  are  not  melancholic)  have  great  ten- 
dency  to  become  so.  In  the  first  case,  the  violent 
muscular  exertions  of  the  unhappy  patient  exhaust 
the  food  which  they  consume  ;  in  the  latter  case, 
it  produces  increase  of  size,  from  not  being  ex- 
pended in  the  production  of  force. 


80 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


of  the  like  simple  fare,  and  was  only  occa- 
sionally varied  by  eating  the  bread  and  salt 
dry,  and  sipping  the  water  alone  with  their 
spoons,  each  adhering  to  his  turn  with  the 
same  regularity.  When  we  afterwards  gave 
them  apples  and  cucumbers,  of  which  the 
lower  orders  in  Russia  are  all  passionately 
fond,  they  quite  luxuriated,  enjoying  the 
treat  much  more  than  any  alderman  ever  did 
the  greenest  fat  of  the  most  corpulent  turtle. 
— Scott's  Baltic,  Black  Sea,  and  Crimea. 

CRUELTIES    IN   THE   PREPARATION   OF 
ANIMALS   FOR  FOOD. 

Many  cruel  practices  are  resorted  to  in  the 
slaughter  and  preparation  of  the  bodies  of 
animals  for  use  as  food,  which  are  unthought 
of,  and  perhaps  unsuspected,  by  those  who 
afterwards  partake  of  their  flesh  at  the  table. 

Our  attention  has  been  recently  directed 
to  an  instance  of  this  kind,  in  the  abomi- 
nable practice  of  plucking  the  feathers  from 
living  poultry,  because  it  is  supposed  that 
fowls  stripped  when  living  are  less  liable 
to  have  their  skins  torn  in  the  operation. 
We  feel  grateful  that  our  practice  of  diet 
effectually  secures  us  from  any  participation 
in  these  attrocities,  and  much  fear  that 
nothing  short  of  the  falling-off  of  the  de- 
mand for  flesh  as  food  will  effectually  put  an 
end  to  this  and  similar  barbarities. 

The  facts  of  the  case  referred  to  are  detail- 
ed in  a  letter  to  the  Editor  of  the  North 
British  Daily  Mail^  of  June  14th,  under 
the  heading  of  "Revolting  Treatment  of 
Fowls."  The  writer  was  in  Glasgow,  and 
in  the  search  for  some  Polish  fowl,  was 
directed  to  the  Bazaar,  a  public  market  near 
the  Candleriggs.  "Stopping  at  the  first 
poulterer's,"  says  he,  "I  saw  two  persons 
engaged  in  plucking  fowls.  When  answer- 
ing my  questions,  they  desisted  from  their 
employment  for  a  moment,  when,  to  my 
astonishment  and  horror,  the  poor  animal  that 
the  man  was  holding  between  his  knees 
writhed  up  in  agony.  It  was  entirely  strip- 
ped of  its  feathers,  except  a  few  about  its 
head  and  points  of  its  wings.  The  man,  as 
he  spoke,  tried  to  cover  it  with  his  hand, 
but  could  not  keep  down  its  convulsive 
movements.  The  woman,  who  sat  opposite, 
was  plucking  a  duck.  If  alive,  it  was  past 
struggling,  so  that  I  could  not  know 
whether  it  likewise  was  living ;  but  I  saw, 
what  I  since  remarked  in  other  poultry 
prepared  for  the  table  in  Scotland,  that  it 
was  not  bled,  but  must  have  been  deprived 
of  life  by  strangulation,  or  some  such  means. 
I  left  the  stall  in  haste,  and  went  into 
another  shop  in  the  same  Bazaar,  where  I 
inquired  if  it  was  the  custom  to  pluck  living 
fowls,  stating  what  I  had  seen.  The  person 
answered  that  she  had  before  heard  that  it 


was  done,  though  the  poulterers  denied  it ; 
but  that  it  was  supposed  that  fowls  stripped 
when  living,  were  less  liable  to  have  their 
skins  torn  in  the  operation."     .... 

"  I  think  it  is  the  duty  of  all  Christians 
to  stem,  as  far  as  possible,  the  torrent  of 
brutality  and  cruelty  that  overwhelms  the 
inferior  animals,  very  much  through  the 
ignorance  of  how  such  matters  are  managed. 
If  fine  ladies,  and  fastidious  gentlemen, 
could  see  the  misery  that  most  animals  that 
call  them  master,  have  to  suffer  from  the 
horrid  cruelties  inflicted  on  them  by  careless, 
ignorant,  cruel,  ill-tempered,  or  drunken 
deputies,  I  think  they  must  be  startled  into 
more  attention  to  these  matters.  They 
would  be  paid  by  safety  from  many  mys- 
terious losses  of  valuable  cows,  horses,  dogs, 
etc.,  etc.,  and  also  by  the  affection,  un- 
changeable and  sincere,  of  these  poor  crea- 
tures, whose  lives  and  comforts  are  trusted 
to  our  care  by  their  great  Creator." 

We  agree  with  the  writer  in  the  above 
closing  remarks,  that  many  of  these  cruelties 
are  tolerated  only  "through  the  ignorance 
of  how  such  matters  are  managed,"  and 
therefore  cannot  but  rejoice  in  every  attempt 
to  direct  attention  to  their  existence ;  though, 
as  above  intimated,  we  do  not  think  this 
alone  will  bring  about  a  better  state  of 
things,  but  that,  so  long  as  animals  are  con- 
sumed as  food,  will  there  be  little  scruple  to 
take  their  lives  in  those  ways,  and  carry  out 
such  processes  in  preparing  them  for  the 
table,  as  shall  be  found  most  convenient  to 
the  operators,  irrespective  of  the  sufferings 
of  the  unoffending  creatures  "  whose  lives 
and  comforts  are  trusted  to  our  care  by  their 
great  Creator."— H.  W. 

THE   ART   OF   HEALTH. 

"  Walking  is  the  best  possible  exercise. 
Habituate  yourself  to  walk  very  far.  The 
Europeans  value  themselves  on  having  sub- 
dued the  horse  to  the  use  of  man;  but  I 
doubt  whether  we  have  not  lost  more  than 
we  have  gained  by  this  animal — for  no  one 
thing  has  occasioned  so  much  degeneracy  of 
the  human  body.  An  Indian  goes  on  foot 
nearly  as  far  in  a  day  as  an  enfeebled  white 
does  on  his  horse,  and  will  tire  the  best 
horses."  , 

CONSUMPTION  OP  MEAT  IN  LONDON. 

Few  people  have  any  idea  of  the  vast  con- 
sumption of  the  metropolis.  From  informa- 
tion obtained  from  official  sources,  Mr. 
Ormandy  finds  that  there  were  brought  into 
London  in  1854,  by  railways  and  steamboats 
and  by  the  common  roads,  301,322  oxen 
1,634,034  sheep,  92,559  calves,  and  169,345 
pigs,  or  a  total  of  2,197,260  animals.  These 
he  estimates  to  represent  349,438,848  lb.  of 
meat,  as  slaughtered  in  London,  and  to  this 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


81 


must  be  added  the  quantity  brought  in  by 
the  different  railroads  and  steamboat  com- 
panies, dead,  of  which  there  were  95,817,762 
lb.,  which  makes  a  grand  total  of  445,256,610 
lb.  as  the  actual  annual  consumption.  Cal- 
culating the  above  at  65d.  per  lb.,  the  value 
of  the  meat  consumed  last  year  in  London 
was  £12,059,000  ;  and,  taking  the  population 
at  2,362,000,  the  average  consumption  of 
each  person  was  188|  lb.  valued  at  £5  2s.  2d. 
Mr.  Ormandy,  in  his  report  for  the  year 
1850,  calculated  the  then  consumption  of 
each  person  at  180  lb.  so  that  in  four  years  it 
has  increased  8|  lb. — Manchester  Examiner 
and  Times y  April  25,  1855. 

"why  !    HOW  IN  THE  WORLD  DO  YOU  LIVE  }  " 

"  Why,  how  in  the  world  do  you  live  ! — you 
say  you  eat  no  meat  or  grease ! — how  is  it 
possible  for  you  to  live?  I  would  starve 
without  meat ;  and  it  must  be  wretchedly  poor 
living  without  grease  !  How  do  you  cook, 
or  do  you  eat  your  vegetables  raw  .>  Bless 
me  !  I  should  die  under  such  miserably  poor 
fare  !  "  Of  course,  with  becoming  humility, 
and  a  due  respect  for  the  flesh-fed  paro- 
chial powers  that  be,  we  are  forced  to 
acknowledge  that  we  have  adopted,  from  a 
conviction  of  its  being  more  in  harmony 
with  constitutional  instincts,  with  adaptation 
and  the  laws  of  God, — somewhat  the  plan  of 
many  of  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  and 
wise  men  of  olden  times,  of  using  for  a  diet, 
fruits  and  farinaceous  seeds  and  roots — either 
partaking  of  them  raw,  or  cooking  them  with 
or  without  water,  and  serving  them  up  in  the 
plainest  manner.  "  Why  !  It  is  not  possi- 
ble !  What !  cook  only  with  water,  and 
have  no  seasoning  I  it  must  be  a  horrible 
kind  of  diet !  I  don't  see  how  them  old 
fellows  could  have  stood  it,  but  I  reckon  they 
knew  no  better,  and  lived  up  to  the  best 
lights  they  had.  And  you  say  the  laws  of 
God  are  in  favour  of  such  a  poor  way  of 
living  .>  Why,  the  Bible  does  not  forbid 
meat- eating,  and  I  am  sure  our  preacher,  and 
all  the  preachers  and  elders  too,  eat  meat 
and  grease  too,  and  a  plenty  of  it ;  drink  tea 
and  coffee ;  and  love  pickles  and  preserves  ; 
and  can  eat  as  many  good  things,  and  smoke 
as  many  cigars,  as  anybody;  and  if  the 
preachers  don't  kno'wfl&.bout  the  laws  of  God, 
and  what's  best  for  us  to  eat,  and  drink,  and 
smoke,  we  should  like  to  know  who  does  } 
You  are  a  little  fanatical,  and  carry  tho 
matter  too  far.  Now  we  will  agree  there  is, 
in  general,  too  much  meat  eaten ;  and  perhaps 
it  would  be  best  for  all  of  us,  if  we  were  to 
eat  less,  but  to  give  it  up  entirely  is  out  of 
the  question.  What  in  the  world  would  we 
all  live  on  }  and,  besides,  what  would  become 
of  the  hogs  .^  So  don't  think  of  trying  to  cram 
any  such  notions  upon  us,  for  our  fathers  ate 


meat,  and  taught  us  to  eat  it ;  it  is  good,  and 
we  like  it,  and  would  rather  die  than  give  it 
up."  All  of  this  forcible  argument,  as  it  is 
considered,  against  Vegetarianism,  we  will  for 
the  present  dispose  of,  by  saying  that,  as  far 
as  our  observation  has  extended,  much  the 
larger  number  of  the  preachers  and  of  the 
elders,  know  a  great  deal  less  about  the  laws 
of  God  than  of  the  contents  of  the  larder ; 
and  that  nine-tenths  of  the  Christians  of  the 
present  day,  think  that  the  way  to  heaven 
lies  directly  through  the  meat-house,  the 
pantry,  and  the  dairy,  simply  because  they 
always  see  their  leaders  going  that  way. 
In  charity,  therefore,  we  refer  them  all  to 
the  perusal  of  the  American  Vegetarian  and 
Health  Journal,  that  the  savoury  cloud  of 
animalism  may  be  dispersed  from  the  vision, 
and  they  may  be  enabled  to  see  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Vegetarianism. — Extracted  from 
an  Article  by  A.  W.  Scales,  in  the  American 
Vegetarian. 

A  novel  temperance  society. 
The  Rev.  James  Martineau,  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Domestic  Mission  Society,  on  Thurs- 
day evening,  described  the  operation  of  a 
new  Temperance  Society,  which  has  been 
established  in  Germany,  and  the  object  of 
which  is,  not  to  apply  the  principles  of  tem- 
perance merely  to  the  beverages  in  which  its 
members  indulge,  but  to  their  ordinary 
habits  and  daily  life  ;  in  fact,  to  make  them 
temperate  in  eating,  sleeping,  social  indul- 
gencies  of  all  kinds,  domestic  furniture,  and 
entertainments.  A  tariff,  regulating  diet 
and  other  matters,  is  published,  which  the 
members  bind  themselves  faithfully  to  adhere 
to ;  and  at  the  same  time  pledge  themselves 
to  devote  the  surplus  which  accrues  from  the 
course  of  "moderation  in  all  things,"  which 
is  prescribed  by  the  Society,  to  the  support 
of  religious  and  charitable  institutions.  The 
Rev.  Gentleman  mentioned  the  subject  to 
show  that,  by  the  adoption  of  a  similar  plan 
here,  institutions  like  the  Domestic  Mission 
might  gain  an  increased  measure  of  support, 
while  those  who  adopted  these  principles  of 
self-denial  and  temperance,  would  gain  an 
equivalent  advantage. — Liverpool  Times. 

wild  animals  in  confinement. 
Were  it  not  that  custom  reconciles  us  to 
every  thing,  a  Christian  community  would 
surely  be  shocked  by  the  report,  and  still 
more  by  the  sight,  of  the  sacrifice  of  inno- 
cent and  helpless  creatures  —  pigeons  and 
rabbits,  for  instance  —  to  the  horrible  in- 
stincts of  snakes,  who  will  not  cat  anything 
but  what  is  alive.  An  account  was  recently 
given  of  a  night-visit  to  the  place  of  con- 
finement of  one  of  these  disgusting  reptiles, 
in  which  the  evident  horror  of  their  in- 
tended victims,  confined  in  the  same  cages, 


82 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


was  distinctly  mentioned.  The  gratification 
of  mere  curiosity  does  not  justify  the  in- 
fliction of  such  torture  on  the  lower  animals. 
Surely,  the  sight  of  a  stufl^ed  boa-constrictor 
ought  to  content  a  reasonable  curiosity. 
Imagine  what  would  be  felt  if  a  child  were 
subjected  to  such  a  fate,  or  what  could  be 
answered  if  the  present  victims  could  tell 
their  agonies,  as  well  as  feel  them !  Byron 
speaks  of  the  barbarians  who,  in  the  wanton- 
ness of  power,  were  "  butchered  to  make  a 
Roman  holiday"  ;  and,  verily,  the  horrors 
exhibited  in  our  public  gardens  and  mena- 
geries, are  somewhat  akin  to  the  fights  of 
gladiators ;  it  is  the  infliction  of  misery  for 
mere  sport.  With  reference  also  to  lions, 
tigers,  and  other  ferocious  animals  kept  in 
cages — if  retained  at  all,  the  space  allotted 
them  ought  to  be  much  larger  than  it  is,  so 
as  to  allow  them  full  room  for  healthful 
exercise.  At  present,  they  must  be  wretched  ; 
and,  considering  also  the  quantity  of  food 
they  consume,  which  might  be  converted  to 
useful  purposes — though  this  is  taking  a 
lower  view  of  the  matter — it  is  at  least  desi- 
rable that  the  number  should  be  much 
smaller,  and  a  much  greater  space  allowed 
them  to  exhibit  their  natural  vivacity. 
These  remarks  do  not,  of  course,  apply  to 
fowls,  and  other  animals,  who  are  allowed  a 
sufl&cient  share  of  liberty  to  exist  in  com- 
fort, and  to  whom  it  is  not  necessary  to 
sacrifice  the  existence  of  other  creatures. — 
Ogden's  Friendly  Observer. 

[We  entirely  agree  in  reprobating  the 
practice  of  placing  live  rabbits  and  other 
creatures  within  the  cages  of  boa-con- 
strictors. A  recollection  of  a  poor  little 
rabbit,  cowering  in  the  corner  of  one  of  these 
cages,  as  if  aware  of  its  approaching  fate, 
has  haunted  us  for  years.  No  purpose  of 
science  can  be  answered  by  this  constantly 
recurring  barbarity.  Zoological  Societies 
should  be  careful  not  to  run  any  risk  of 
counteracting  by  such  spectacles  the  elevated 
feelings  they  are  so  well  calculated  to  foster. 
— Ed.  0.  E.  J.] — Chambers's  Edinburgh 
Journal,  No.  433,  New  Series,  p.  256. 

A   SCRAP   FOR   PORK- EATERS. 

The  wife  of  one  of  the  lowest  class  of  horse- 
dealers  was  lately  complaining  to  me  of  the 
loss  her  husband  would  sustain,  by  a  diseased 
horse  which  he  had  turned  out  upon  a  piece 
of  grass.-  A  donkey  was  chosen  to  be  his 
companion,  who  died  in  consequence  of  such 
companionship,  and  the  poor  horse  has 
dwindled  away  almost  to  a  skeleton. 

The  horse-dealer  (who,  by  the  bye,  is  also 
the  keeper  of  a  low  beer  shop,  harlDouring 
immoral  characters)  in  some  degree  to 
recover  his  loss  of  a  ton  of  hay,  which  he  had 


calculated  the  meadow  might  have  yielded 
had  he  left  the  grass  to  grow,  and  also  the 
value  of  the  horse  and  donkey,  resolved  to 
purchase  a  few  hungry  pigs,  and  kill  his 
poor  starved  diseased  horse,  and  cut  it  up  for 
their  food,  as  he  is  persuaded  that  "  growing 
pigs  do  well  on  flesh."  This  practice,  if 
known  to  be  generally  adopted,  (and  who 
can  deny  that  butchers  and  others,  who  use 
all  sorts  of  ofi'al  for  feeding  pigs,  are  not 
very  scrupulous  as  to  what  they  employ  for 
this  purpose  ?)  wouldbe  apowerful  inducement 
to  many  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  Vegetarians, 
by  inducing  them  to  have  nothing  further  to 
do  with  these  unclean  animals. — R. 

The  practice  of  feeding  swine  on  the  flesh 
of  deceased  animals  and  the  garbage  of 
animals  slaughtered  for  the  table,  is  by  no 
means  uncommon.  It  has  come  to  our 
knowledge  that  this  is  extensively  carried  on 
in  the  town  of  Leeds,  and  that  a  large 
slaughtering  establishment  regularly  uses  the 
blood  and  ofi'al  of  animals  they  kill  by  boiling 
these  in  large  quantities  to  provide  foodforthe 
numerous  pigs,  in  connection  with  the  estab- 
lishment, and  which  they  devour  with  the 
greatest  avidity.  A  person  who  visited  this 
place  in  company  with  three  others,  des- 
cribes it  as  filthy  in  the  extreme,  and  that 
the  stench  was  so  overpowering  that  he  did 
not  recover  from  its  sickening  efi'ects,  for 
some  hours.  Two  of  those  accompanying  him 
were  unable  to  eat  flesh-meat  for  more  than  a 
week  after,  and  we  believe  our  informant 
still  abstains  from  it,  though  it  is  now  nearly 
twelve  months  since  his  visit  to  this  dis- 
gusting place. 

DANGER   OF   THE    PRESENT    PERIOD. 

The  danger  of  our  present  period  of  tran- 
sition is,  that  theory  should  expect  too 
much,  and  that  practice  should  do  too  little, 
in  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the 
people. — London  Journal. 

THE   FLOWERS   ARE  IN  THE  FIELDS  AGAIN. 

The  flowers  are  in  the  fields  again, 

The  sunlight's  on  the  grass. 
The  hawthorn's  bloom  flings  a  perfume 

To  greet  us  as  we  pass ; 
It  is  the  time  of  birds  and  flowers. 

Of  blue  and  sunny  skies, 
And  gives  this  changeful  world  of  ours 

A  glimpse  of  Paradise. 
The  flowers  are  in  the  flelds  again. 

And  clouds  and  storms  have  pass'd. 
They've  given  way  to  brighter  days, 

And  joy  is  ours  at  last; 
And  so  'twill  be  through  life's  career, 

In  sorrow,  glgom,  and  pain, 
The  sun  is  ever  shining  near, 

And  flowers  will  come  again. 

Family  Herald, 


THE  BANANA. 


83 


APPROiCHING-    VEGETARIAN    FESTIVALS. 


As  will  be  obseryed  from  our  previous 
announcements,  a  Vegetarian  Festival  is 
looked  forward  to  in  Glasgow,  on  tbe 
occasion  of  the  Anniversary  of  the  Associa- 
tion, the  period,  though  not  the  precise 
day,  being  fixed  for  the  close  of  September. 
We  are  happy  to  see  our  friends  thus 
early  preparing  for  an  event  of  much  interest 
to  themselves  and  numerous  inquirers  of  all 
classes,  many  of  whom  have  long  since  over- 
come the  first  impression  of  the  ^'■strangeness  " 
of  the  Vegetarian  system,  and  are  now  look- 
ing on  with  their  various  measures  of 
interest  to  the  practice  recommended.  The 
teaching  and  discussion  of  principles  afi'ect- 
ing  the  soundest  practice  of  diet,  are,  doubt- 
less, all  interesting ;  but  when  the  principles 
inculcated  have  their  accompaniments  of  prac- 
tical illustration  in  the  shape  of  some  inviting 
entertainment,  the  eflTect  cannot  but  be  the 
more  successful,  and  thus,  as  we  have  always 
found,  the  most  rapid  conversion  to  Vege- 
tarianism is  in  eating  one^s  way  into  the 
system,  concurrently  with  an  intelligent 
observation  of  its  principles  and  arguments. 
Like  our  Manchester  friends,  with  whom 
rests  the  merit  of  first  destroying  the  pre- 
judice that  the  Vegetarian  practice  of  diet 
was  one  of  self-denial,  if  not  of  starvation, 
the  Glasgow  Association  intend  to  preface 
their  arguments  in  favour  of  our  system  by 
a  banquet  or  soiree,  such  as  did  them  so 
much  honour,  and  gave  so  much  pleasure 
to  the  public,  at  the  close  of  their  last 
year's  important  labours. 


Birmingham,  we  are  informed,  is  like- 
wise commencing  the  arrangements  which 
are  to  result  in  a  large  Vegetarian  festival 
during  the  month  succeeding  the  one  in 
Glasgow,  and  should  the  growing  interest  in 
the  subject  be  sustained,  and  the  arrange- 
ments be  made  commensurate  with  it,  it  is 
probable  that  this  festival  of  the  Birming- 
ham Association  will  be  on  the  largest  scale, 
and  assemble  more  guests  than  have  been 
brought  together  on  any  previous  occasion  in 
the  history  of  our  movement.  The  limit 
to  these  entertainments  elsewhere,  is  gene- 
rally prescribed  by  the  size  of  the  hall  where 
they  are  held ;  but  Birmingham,  it  is  well 
known,  in  the  capacity  of  its  Town  Hall, 
offers  an  area  greater  than  most  places  of 
public  meeting,  and  to  see  this  filled  by 
a  company  of  the  Vegetarian  adherents  and 
friendly  inquirers  of  this  busy  town,  is  no 
more  than  may  be  realized,  and  is,  we  are 
informed,  quite  within  the  arrangements 
contemplated. 

Our  object  in  the  early  notice  of  these  ap- 
proaching festivals,  is  to  keep  them  before  the 
minds  of  our  readers,  in  order  that  as  large  an 
attendance  of  our  friends  from  a  distance  as 
possible  may  be  secured,  and  advantage 
taken  of  these  occasions,  by  the  arrange- 
ment of  business  and  pleasure  engagements, 
as  much  as  possible,  to  secure  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  Vegetarian  spirit  of  our  large 
meetings,  which  has  no  doubt  very  much 
contributed  to  the  popularity  and  healthy 
progress  of  our  movement  hitherto. 


THE    B 

You  see  the  banana- tree — a  tree  of  low 
growth,  with  a  palm-like  crown,  not  much 
above  your  head  in  height.  The  stem  shoots 
up  straight,  surrounded  by  leaves,  which 
fall  off  as  the  tree  increases  in  height,  and 
which  leaves  it  somewhat  rugged,  and  with 
rather  a  withered  appearance.  When  the 
tree  has  attained  the  height  of  four  or  five 
ells  [about  seventeen  feet],  it  ceases  to  grow, 
but  unfolds  and  expands  a  crown  of  broad 
light-green  leaves,  as  soft  as  velvet,  and 
from  two  to  four  ells  long,  and  which  bend 
and  are  swayed  gracefully  by  the  wind. 
The  wind,  however,  is  not  quite  gracious  to 


ANANA. 

them,  but  slits  the  leaves  on  each  side  of  the 
strong  leaf-fibre  into  many  parts,  so  that  it 
often  looks  tattered,  but  still  preserves,  even 
amidst  its  tatters,  its  soft  grace  and  its  beau- 
tiful movement.  From  amid  the  crown  of 
leaves,  shoots  forth  a  bud  upon  a  stock, 
and  resembling  a  large  green  flower-bud. 
This  shoots  up  rapidly,  and  becomes  as  ra- 
pidly too  heavy  for  its  stalk,  which  bends 
under  its  weight.  The  bud  now  bends  down 
to  the  stem,  and  grows  probably  as  large  as 
a  cocoa-nut,  its  form  being  that  of  a  rose- 
bud, and  of  a  dark-violet  colour.  I  saw 
upon   almost  all  banana  trees,  even  those 


84 


THE   CONTROVEESIALIST   AND   COKRESPONDENT. 


which  bore  rich  clusters  of  ripe  fruit,  this 
immense  violet-coloured  bud  hanging,  and 
was  not  a  little  curious  to  know  all  about 
it.  And  now  yoit  shall  know.  One  of  the 
outer  leaves  or  envelopments  of  the  bud 
loosens  itself,  or  opens  itself  gently  at  the 
top,  and  you  now  perceive  that  its  innermost 
side  glows  with  the  most  resplendent  vermilion 
red ;  and  within  its  depth  you  see  peeping 
forth,  closely  laid  together,  side  by  side,  six 
or  seven  little  light  yellow  figures,  not  un- 
like little  chickens,  and  very  like  the  woolly 
seed-vessels  in  the  single  peony  flower. 

The  leaf  encasements  open  more  and  more 
to  the  light  and  the  air,  and  those  little 
light  yellow  fruit  chickens  peep  forth  more 
and  more.  By  degrees  the  leaf,  with  its 
little  family,  separates  itself  altogether  from 
the  body,  and  a  length  of  bare  stem  grows 
between  them.  The  little  chickens  now 
gape  with  pale  yellow  flower  beaks,  and  put 
out  their  tongues  (they  are  of  the  didynamia 
order),  to  drink  in  the  sun  and  the  air ;  but 
still  the  beautiful  leaf  bends  itself  over  their 
heads  like  a  screen — like  a  protecting  wing 
— like  a  shadowy  roof.  The  sun  would,  as 
yet,  be  too  hot  for  the  little  ones.  But  they 
grow  more  and  more.  They  begin  to  de- 
velope  themselves,  to  plump  out  their  breasts, 
and  to  raise  their  heads  more  and  more. 
They  will  become  independent ;  they  will 
see  the  sun ;  they  need  no  longer  the  old 
leaf.  The  leaf  now  disengages  itself — the 
beautiful  maternal  leaf  —  and  falls  to  the 
earth. 

I  have  frequently  seen  these  leaf-screens 
lying  on  the  ground  beneath  the  tree,  and 
taken  them  up,  and  contemplated  them  with 
admiration,  not  only  for  the  part  they  act, 
but  for  their  rare  beauty  and  the  clearness 
of  the  crimson  colour  of  their  inner  side. 
One  might  say,  that  a  warm  drop  of  blood 
from  a  young  mother's  heart  had  infused 
itself  there. 

The  young  chickens  plume  themselves  now 
proudly,    and  with  projecting    breasts,  and 


beautiful  curved  backs,  and  beaks  raised 
aloft,  range  themselves,  garland-like,  around 
the  stem  :  and  thus,  in  about  two  weeks' 
time,  they  ripen  into  delicious  bananas,  and 
are  cut  off"  in  bunches. 

The  whole  of  that  dark  purple-tinted  bud- 
head  is  a  thick  cluster  of  such  leaf-envelopes, 
each  enclosing  such  an  ofl'spring.  Thus 
releases  itself  one  leaf  after  another,  and 
falls  ofi" ;  thus  grows  to  maturity  one  cluster 
after  another  until  the  thick  stalk  is  as  full 
as  it  can  hold  of  their  garlands ;  but  never- 
theless, there  always  remains  a  good  deal  of 
the  bud-head  which  is  never  able  to  develops 
the  whole  of  its  internal  wealth  during  the 
year  in  which  the  banana-tree  lives ;  for  it 
lives  and  bears  fruit  only  one  year,  and  then 
dies.  But  before  this  happens,  it  has  given 
life  to  a  large  family  of  young  descendants, 
who  grow  up  at  its  feet,  and  the  eldest  of 
which  are  ready  to  blossom  and  bear  fruit 
when  the  mother-tree  dies.  One  can  scarcely 
imagine  anything  prettier  or  more  perfect 
than  these  young  descendants,  the  banana 
children ;  they  are  the  perfect  image,  in 
miniature,  of  the  mother  tree,  but  the  wind 
has  no  power  upon  their  young  leaves ;  they 
stand  under  the  mother-tree  in  paradisaical 
peace  and  beauty. 

It  has  been  attempted  to  transplant  the 
banana  tree  into  the  southern  portion  of  North 
America,  where  so  many  trees  from  foreign 
climes  flourish :  but  the  banana-tree  will  not 
flourish  there ;  its  fruit  will  not  ripen ;  it 
requires  a  more  equal,  more  delicious 
warmth  ;  it  will  not  grow  without  the  para- 
disaical life  of  the  tropics. 

Roasted  banana  is  as  common  a  dish  at 
the  breakfast  of  the  Creoles  as  bread  and 
cofTee  ;  but  I  like  it  only  in  its  natural  state. 

Such  is  the  history  of  the  banana-tree — 
musa  paradisaica  —  as  it  is  called  in  the 
Tropical  Flora  ;  and  of  a  certainty  it  was 
at  home  in  the  first  Paradise,  where  all  was 
good. — Miss  Buemeu's  Somes  in  the  New 
World. 


THE    CONTROVERSULIST    AND    CORRESPONDENT. 


THE   DAllWEN   DISCUSSION. 

Since  our  last,  the  discussion  carried  on  in 
the  Blackburn  WeeJcli/  Times,  has  been  con- 
cluded by  the  further  insertion  of  three 
letters.  Having  already  reproduced  the 
discussion  in  our  pages,  we  should  regret 
that  we  cannot  give  its  conclusion,  if  any 
arguments  were  used  at  all  useful  to  the 
reader ;  but  the  further  attempt  at  assailing 
the  Vegetarian  practice  by  "  AV.  G.  B." 
having  sunk  to  a  low  personal  character, 
without  embracing  any  thing  beyond  refer- 
ences or  assertions  which  the  commonest 
apprehension  in  watching  the  discussion  will 


discover  to  be  false  or  mistaken,  we  should 
have  to  apologize  to  our  readers  for  the 
language  appearing  in  our  pages,  in  giving 
insertion  to  it. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted,  that  incon- 
siderate attempts  should  be  made  to  discuss 
questions  which  the  aspirant  to  notice 
knows  neither  practically  nor  in  theory  ;  and 
the  more  so  where  there  is  an  incapacity 
to  discern  when  the  attempted  argument 
has  been  refuted,  and  the  question  is  drawn 
to  a  narrower  issue.  Such  instances,  however, 
frequently  occur,  and  our  readers,  Ave  trust, 
will  in  some  measure  have  benefited  by  the 


THE  CONTEOVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


85 


exhibition  recently  presented  to  their  atten- 
tion, in  which  the  disadvantages  of  not 
knowing  the  subject  entered  upon  are  amply 
demonstrated. 

A   VEGETARIAN   TOUR. 

Dear  Sir — In  times  to  come  the  Vegetarian 
Anniversary  Meetings  will  be  looked  back  to  as 
the  coQiiuenceraent  of  a  great  and  beneficial 
change  in  society.  The  principles  which  we 
advocate  are  necessary  to  give  a  practical  ten- 
dency to  that  spirit  of  philanthropy  which  so 
many  minds  are  now  struggling  to  raise  up 
against  the  influences  which  make  humanity 
sufl'er  so  much  misery.  Our  chairman,  James 
Simpson,  Esq.,  in  opening  the  meeting,  observed 
how  few  of  the  workers  in  any  great  cause  con- 
tinued an  enthusiastic  advocacy  for  a  period  of 
seven  years.  Facts  are  stubborn  things,  and  it 
requires  a  firm  resolution  to  act  against  the 
custom  of  all  around  us ;  and  a  still  stronger 
mind  to  attempt  to  overthrow  custom.  "  Cir- 
cumstance is,  in  most  instances,  too  strong  for 
spirit.  We  all  fling  ourselves  into  life 
with  the  conviction  that  an  athletic  soul  may 
mould  all  things  as  it  wills ;  but  sooner  or  later 
we  find  we  have  flung  ourselves  against  a  rock 
which  sends  us  backward,  staggered  and  bleed- 
ing." With  God's  help,  and  in  a  good  cause, 
there  are  some  who  will  continue  to  batter  the 
walls  of  custom,  and  wield  the  weapons  of  truth, 
undaunted  by  the  discomfiture  of  some  of  their 
fellows.  If  Vegeterians  lead  the  forlorn  hope, 
the  greater  is  the  honour  and  glory  of  the  un- 
dertaking. 

With  these  preliraiuary  remarks,  I  send  you 
an  account  of  my  travels,  in  as  far  as  I  consider 
them  interesting  to  those  who  hold  our  princi- 
ples. I  left  London  on  the  25th  July,  and 
visited  Ilartwell,  near  Aylesbury,  where  there 
was  a  Temperance  Festival.  The  day  was  fine, 
and  a  large  number  of  persons  visited  the  park. 
In  a  village  so  rural,  and  amid  such  a  rich  and 
highly  cultivated  country,  I  certainly  expected  to 
find  abundance  of  fruit;  in  this  I  was  disap- 
pointed— there  were  no  fruit  stalls.  In  the  first 
class  stall  I  found  fruit  pies  on  the  table,  with 
large  joints  of  flesh,  and  also  some  strawberries, 
which,  however,  came  from  Isleworth.  The  con- 
clusion I  drew  from  this  was  the  general  corrup- 
tion of  taste.  Notwithstanding  the  notice  not 
to  smoke,  uumerous  individuals  were  seen  with 
pipes  and  cigars,  which  we  protested  against 
when  opportunity  offered.  There  was,  how- 
ever, a  very  respectable  audience  to  hear  the 
Temperance  speakers,  and  in  the  evening  several 
of  the  gentry  of  the  neighbourhood  came  to 
hear  Mr.  Gough.  Mr.  W.  Horsell  had  a 
book  stall  for  various  works  on  Temperance  and 
Vegetarianism,  which  attracted  some  attention. 
Thursday  was  a  very  wet  day,  and  on  Friday,  at 
the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Horsell,  Dr.  Lee  gave 
a  treat  to  the  men  who  had  been  engaged  on  the 
premises,  and  there  were  some  interesting 
speeches  on  Temperance,  Vegetarianism,  and 
anti-tobacco.  On  Thursday  I  was  not  present, 
having  attended  the  Vegetarian  Banquet,  which, 
being  fully  reported,  I  need  only  say  that  I,  like 
9a 


all  present,  was  much  gratified  by  the  spirit  dis- 
played in  the  management  of  the  whole  affair, 
and  wished  that  our  file  could  have  been  held 
in  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  and  the  nobility  and 
gentry  lookers  on. 

The  following  day,  the  pic-nic  to  Alderley 
heights  gave  us  another  opportunity  of  rejoicing 
in  the  gifts  of  nature.  Looking  down  upon  the 
fertile  valley,  and  around  on  the  choice  spirits  of 
our  movement,  as  we  enjoyed  the  beautiful  fruits, 
we  could  feel  with  the  poet  Shelley, 

"  How  sweet  a  scene  will  earth  become 
Of  happy  spirits  the  pure  dwelling  place, 
When  man,  with  changeless  nature  coalescing, 
Will  undertake  regeneration's  work." 

After  these  proceedings  a  friend  and  myself 
determined  ou  a  trip  to  the  lakes.  We  had  some 
discussion  in  the  carriage  arising  out  of  the 
smoking  propensities  of  one  man  whom  we 
stopped.  In  answer  to  a  question  why  I  ab- 
stained from  animal  food,  I  said,  because  I  wish 
to  live  and  to  enjoy  life.  All  pretend  to  have 
this  end  and  aim,  yet  the  majority,  by  their 
foolish  habits,  are  suicides.  We  saw  by  this 
party's  conduct,  and  his  admissions,  that  ou 
holiday  occasions  the  treat  was  an  extra  allow- 
ance of  gin,  tobacco,  and  edibles.  On  arriving 
at  Kendal,  we  called  on  a  brother  Vegetarian, 
whom  we  at  once  recognized  as  an  intelligent 
and  benevolent  man,  and  under  his  guidance  we 
found  a  comfortable  lodging  at  Windermere,  at 
Mr.  Leighton's. 

I  need  not  describe  the  beauties  of  the  Lake 
scenery.  They  must  be  seen  to  be  felt.  Our 
first  day's  walk  was  about  30  miles,  which  wjB 
accomplished  without  being  much  tired.  On 
this  jaunt  we  visited  Esthwaite  water  and  Conis- 
ton  water.  At  Hawkeshead  we  were  agreeably 
surprised  to  find  a  public  garden  where  all  sorts 
of  fruit  are  grown.  My  friend  and  I  are  believers 
in  fruit  and  farinacea,  and  we  had  a  most  luxuri- 
ous feast,  seasoned  by  a  good  appetite,  on  oatmeal 
cake  and  strawberries.  In  commending  our 
practice  to  Mr.  Baisbrown,  the  gardener,  we 
found  him  very  intelligent  and  unprejudiced. 
Seated  under  a  rustic  summer-house,  with  our 
table  set  out  with  fruits,  the  lines  of  Gold- 
smith occurred  to  me,  which  I  quoted  : 
"  No  flocks  that  range  the  valley  free, 

To  slaughter  we  condemn  ; 

Taught  by  that  power  which  pities  us, 

We  learn  to  pity  them. 

For  us  the  garden's  fertile  soil 

Its  guiltless  food  doth  bring ; 

Fresh  herbs  and  fruits  our  tables  spread, 

Our  water's  from  the  spring." 
Aud  beautiful  water  it  was,  altogether  a  repast 
much  more  fit  for  princes  than  the  carcasses  of 
animals  mixed  up  in  various  forms.  In  none  of 
the  guide  books  do  we  find  this  rational  and 
beautiful  resort  mentioned,  while  all  the  inns  are 
praised.  Miss  Martineau,  in  her  popular  guide, 
dwells  on  the  luxury  of  eating  the  fish  caught 
out  of  the  lakes,  and  says  nothing  of  these 
gardens,  of  which  we  found  three,  the  other 
two  being  one  at  Ambleside  and  one  on  Lake 
Windermere,  opposite  Bowness.  The  idea  of  a 
lady  rejoicing  in  the  fish  being  laid  before  her 
just  deprived  of  their  lives,  and  the  enjoyment 


86 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


of  the  waters  in  which  they  existed,  is  to  us 
monstrous;  but  it  shows  the  extent  to  which 
custom  carries  mankind  ;  they  suffer  for  their 
false  taste,  as  Pope  says,  in  his  Essay  on  Man — 

*•  Who  foe  to  nature  hears  the  general  groan. 
Murders  their  species,  and  betrays  his  own  ; 
But  just  disease  to  luxury  succeeds, 
And  every  death  its  own  avenger  breeds." 

Our  second  day  we  walked  twenty  miles,  and 
went  on  the  lake  in  the  steamer.  Our  walk 
extended  round  the  lakes  of  Rydale  and  Gras- 
mere,  and  we  visited  the  tomb  of  Words- 
worth.  I  have  often  thought  that  with 
"Wordsworth's  sentiments  on  frugality,  if 
the  truths  of  Vegetarianism  had  been  pre- 
sented to  him,  he  would  have  adopted  them. 
Before  I  knew  how  far  his  principles  could  be 
carried,  I  was  struck  with  the  beauty  of  this 
prayer,  which  in  some  measure  contributed  to 
draw  my  mind  towards  our  principles. 

"Dread  Power, 
"Whose  gracious  favour  is  the  primal  source 
Of  all  inspiration,  may  my  life  express  the  image 
Of  better  times  ;  more  simple  manners  and  more 

wise  desires, 
Nurse  my  heart  in  genuine   freedom,    all    pure 

thoughts  be  with  me, 
So  shall  thy  unfailing    love  guide,  support,  and 

cheer  me  even  to  the  end." 

The  next  day  was  wet,  and  we  called  on  Mr. 
Hudson,  of  the  Hydropathic  Establishment, 
which  is  beautifully  situated  about  a  mile  from 
Windermere  station,  a  most  delightful  place  for 
an  invalid  to  recruit.  We  also  called  on  an  old 
farmer  named  Roger  Barron,  who  is  in  his 
ninety-fourth  year,  and  yet  able  to  move  about. 
Some  people  may  quote  his  habits  as  a  cause  of 
his  great  age;  but,  though  moderate,  he  has  not 
abstained  from  the  ordinary  food  and  drinks, 
and  we  should  say  that  if  he  had  lived  according 
to  the  laws  of  health,  he  might  have  been  hale 
and  strong.  He  has  been  deaf  for  years,  and 
though  now  able  to  move  about,  is  very  infirm. 
With  the  fine  air  and  exercise  which  many  enjoy 
in  this  country  we  should  see  many  long-lived 
men  but  the  bad  habits  of  the  rest  of  the  world 
are  spread  through  the  district ;  a  bit  of  genuine 
bread  is  not  to  be  obtained ;  smoking  and  drink- 


ing are  prevalent.  One  man  of  seventy,  to  whom 
we  spoke,  boasted  of  his  health  and  strength  in 
justification  of  his  habits,  and  while  men  see  these 
examples,  they  will  point  at  them  and  forget  the 
number  who  go  to  early  graves.  We  must  en- 
deavour to  establish  the  idea  that  man's  life 
should  extend  to  100  years,  and  that  all  this 
disease  and  death  has  a  cause.  Another  wet  day. 
We  started  in  the  morning,  under  a  gleam  of 
sunshine,  intending  to  reach  the  Old  Man  moun- 
tain ;  but  got  no  farther  than  our  friend's, 
Mr.  Baisbrown,  the  gardener,  of  Hawkes- 
head,  with  whom  we  had  an  agricultural  con- 
versation. We  were  pleased  to  find  that  he 
had  discarded  the  use  of  pigs,  being  convinced, 
after  careful  calculation,  that,  notwithstanding 
all  his  waste  from  the  garden,  the  pork  cost  him 
Is.  9d.  per  lb.;  he  said  he  required  no  animal 
manure  for  his  garden ;  he  grew  potatoes  weighing 
16  oz.  each  ;  off  less  than  half-an-acre  of  ground 
he  had  drawn  £50  worth  of  strawberries.  He 
used  soot  and  sulphuric  acid.  He  mentioned  a 
certain  plan  of  preventing  disease  in  potatoes, 
which  had  now  succeeded  for  several  years.  The 
tops  always  drooped  a  few  days  before  they 
turned  spotted ;  on  observing  this  sign,  he  im- 
mediately pulled  up  all  the  stalks,  leaving  the 
roots,  placing  his  feet  on  each  side  to  prevent 
the  potatoes  from  being  drawn  out  with  them. 
The  potatoes  may  then  be  left  till  November,  or 
dug  up  as  wanted.  This  information  maybe  useful 
to  some  of  our  Vegetarian  friends,  and,  as  Mr. 
B .  has  proved  it  thoroughly,  by  leaving  one  row, 
which  were  bad,  he  is  certain  that  this  is  the 
remedy. 

Wishing  all  success  to  our  principles,  which 
is  the  re-establishment  of  nature's  laws,  and  the 
relief  of  mankind  from  a  great  cause  of  their 
blindness,  and  ignorance,  and  consequent  suffer- 
ing, I  conclude,  having  completed  the  account  of 
our  journey,  which  was  terminated  by  a  railway 
trip  to  London,  the  following  day,  in  which  I  had, 
for  a  travelling  companion,  a  lady  who  had  heard 
something  of  Vegetarianism,  and  who,  I  hope,  had 
some  of  her  objections  removed. 

I  am,  dear  Sir,  yours  truly, 

London,  August  ith,  1855.  VIATOR. 


THE    VEGETAEIAN    TREASURY. 

ful  rapidity.*  This  probably  arises  from 
the  liver  being  unable  to  produce  the  proper 
quantity  of  bile.  In  certain  diseases  arising 
from  inflammation  of  the  liver,  both  this  organ 
and  the  blood  become  loaded  with  fat.  The 
food,  which  otherwise  would  have  formed 
bile,  now  produces  fat  and  flesh. — Dr.  Lyon 
Playfair. 


THE    WAY    TO    CONVINCE    THE    MISTAKEN. 

"When  we  wish  to  show  any  one  that  he  is 
mistaken,  our  best  way  is  to  observe  on  what 
side  he  considers  the  subject — for  his  view  is 
generally  right  on  this  side — and  admit  to 
him  that  he  is  right  so  far.  He  will  be  satisfied 
with  this  acknowledgment  that  he  was  not 
wrong  in  his  judgement,  but  only  inadver- 
tent in  not  looking  at  the  whole  of  the  case. 
— Fhonetic  Journal. 

DISEASE   IN   FATTENED   ANIMALS. 

You  may  have  heard  that  Mr.  Bakewell 
used  to  bring  his  sheep  to  the  market  some 
time  before  other  feeders.  This  he  efi'ected 
by  producing  rot.  In  the  early  stages  of  rot 
sheep  acquire  both  fat  and  flesh  with  wonder- 


VEGETABIANISM    AND    ROBUST  HEALTH. 

"  As  regards  Vegetarianism,  which  I  believe 
is  more  favourable  to  health  than  flesh- 
eating,  most  people  hereabout  (Aberdeen- 
shire) are  Vegetarians  through  necessity,  the 
majority  being  too  poor  to  afford  a  flesh -diet, 
and  a  stout  and  healthy  people  they  are,  and 
*  You  ATT  on  Sheep,  p.  446. 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


87 


no  mistake.  Very  few,  I  apprehend,  of  the 
stout  Highlanders  who  routed  the  Russians 
on  the  heights  of  Alma  were  brought  up  on 
animal  food,  and  they  are  generally  repre- 
sented as  being  the  best  looking  men  of  all 
the  British  army." — J.  G.  D. 

SUBSTITUTE  FOR  GUTTA  PERCHA. 

Dr.  RiDDELL,  officiating  superintending 
surgeon  of  the  Nizam's  army,  in  making 
experiments  on  the  Muddar  Plant  of  India 
(Asdepia  gigantea),  had  occasion  to  collect 
the  milky  juice,  and  found  that  as  it  gradu- 
ally dried,  it  became  tough  and  hard,  like 
gutta  percha.  He  was  induced  to  treat  the 
juice  in  the  same  manner  as  that  of  the  gutta 
percha  tree,  and  the  result  has  been  the 
obtaining  a  substance  precisely  analogous  to 
gutta  percha.  Sulphuric  acid  chars  it ;  nitric 
acid  converts  it  into  a  yellow  resinous  sub- 
stance ;  muriatic  acid  has  but  little  effect 
upon  it ;  acetic  acid  Jias  no  effect  ;  nor  has 
alcohol.  Spirit  of  turpentine  dissolves  it 
into  a  viscid  glue,  which  when  taken  between 
the  finger  and  thumb,  pressed  together,  and 
then  separated,  shows  numberless  minute  and 
separated  threads.  The  foregoing  chemical 
tests  correspond  exactly  with  the  established 
results  of  gutta  percha.  It  becomes  plastic 
in  hot  water,  and  has  been  moulded  into  cups 
and  vessels.  It  will  unite  with  the  true 
gutta  percha.  The  muddar  also  produces  an 
extensive  fibre,  useful  in  the  place  of  hemp 
and  flax.  An  acre  of  cultivation  of  it  would 
produce  a  large  quantity  of  both  fibre  and 
juice.  The  poorest  land  suffices  for  its  growth, 
and  no  doubt,  if  well  cultivated,  there  would 
be  a  large  yield  of  juice,  and  a  finer  fibre. 
A  nearly  similar  substance  is  procurable  from 
the  juice  of  the  Euphorbia  tirucelli,  only 
when  it  hardens  after  boiling,  it  becomes 
brittle.  The  subject  is  most  important,  and 
if  common  hedge  plants,  like  the  foregoing, 
can  yield  a  product  so  valuable,  the  demand 
for  which  is  so  certain  quickly  to  outrun 
supply,  a  material  addition  will  have  been 
made  to  the  productive  resources  of  the 
country. — Journal  of  the  Society  of  Arts. 

COMPOSITION   OF   SAUSAGES. 

At  the  sitting  of  the  Adulteration  of  Food, 
etc..  Committee,  yesterday,  in  reply  to  a 
question  as  to  sausages,  Dr.  Thompson  said, 
it  had  often  been  asserted  that  they  were 
made  of  horses'  tongues.  Indeed,  he  had 
reason  to  believe  that  all  the  tongues  of  all 
the  horses  killed  by  the  knackers,,  were  used 
for  food! — Alliance  Weekly  New$,  July  28. 

THE   HOME   OF   FLORENCE   NIGHTINGALE. 

But  in  the  whole  of  the  lovely  view,  never 
seemed  a  spot  more  fair  or  attractive  than 
the  old  and  many-gabled  rural  seat  of  Lea 
Hurst,  on  that  central    knoll,    henceforth 


classic  for  ever — the  English  home  of  Flo- 
rence Nightingale,  whose  name,  like 
Grace  Darling's,  now  quickens  the  beat  of 
millions  of  hearts.  Some  people  are  born 
with  a  genius  for  nursing,  or  dancing, 
or  poetry ;  and  Miss  Nightingale  may  be 
regarded  as  the  archetype  of  her  order* 
Her  spirit  first  showed  itself  in  an  interest 
for  the  sick  poor  in  the  hamlets  around  Lea 
Hurst,  but  at  length  found  a  sphere  requir- 
ing more  attention  and  energy  in  continental 
hospitals,  and  afterwards  in  London,  where 
she  took  the  office  of  matron  to  a  retreat  for 
decayed  gentlewomen.  And  now  she  is  gone 
to  tend  and  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the  sufferers 
by  the  Siege  of  Sebastopol.  AVhat  a  contrast 
to  the  quiet  pastoral  retirement  of  Holloway, 
with  its  fire-side  memories  and  its  rural 
delights !  They  avIio  love  not  war  must  still 
sorrow  deeply  over  the  fate  of  its  victims ; 
and  to  such,  even  now  amid  all  the  din  of 
arms,  the  beautiful  and  beneficent  name 
of  Florence  Nightingale  cometh  sweetly 
as  "  flute-notes  in  a  storm."  And  in  after 
ages,  when  humanity  mourns — as  mourn  it 
will — over  the  blotches  and  scars  which 
battle  and  fire  shall  have  left  on  the  face  of 
this  else  fair  world,  like  a  stream  of  sunlight 
through  the  cloud  with  which  the  present 
strife  will  shade  the  historic  page  of  civi- 
lization, will  shine  down  upon  it,  brighter 
and  brighter,  the  memory  of  the  heroic 
maiden  of  Lea  Hurst,  till  all  nations  shall 
have  learnt  to  do  "justly,  love  mercy,  and 
walk  humbly  before  God,"  and  covetousness, 
war,  and  tyranny  shall  be  no  more. — Dr. 
Spencer  T.  Hall. 

swedenborg  on  flesh-eating. 
Eating  the  flesh  of  animals,  considered  in 
itself,  is  something  profane  ;  for  the  people 
of  the  most  ancient  time  never  ate  the  flesh 
of  any  beast  or  fowl,  but  only  seeds,  espe- 
cially bread  made  of  wheat,  also  the  fruits  of 
trees,  esculent  plants,  milk,  and  what  is  pro- 
duced from  milk — as  butter.  To  kill  ani- 
mals and  to  eat  their  flesh,  was  to  them 
unlawful,  and  seemed  as  something  bestial ; 
they  only  sought  from  them  service  and  uses, 
as  appears  also  from  Genesis  i,  29,  30  ;  but 
in  succeeding  times,  when  man  began  to  grow 
fierce  like  a  wild  beast,  yea  fiercer,  then 
first  they  began  to  kill  animals,  and  to  eat 
their  flesh,  and  because  man  was  such  a 
character,  it  was  even  permitted ;  and  at  this 
day  also  it  is  permitted ;  and  so  far  as  man 
does  it  out  of  conscience,  so  far  it  is  lawful ; 
for  his  conscience  is  formed  of  those  things 
which  he  thinks  to  be  true ;  wherefore  also 
at  this  day  no  one  is  by  any  means  condemned 
for  this,  that  he  eats  flesh. — Arcana  Coelestia. 

manure  for  strawberries. 
The  following  is  from  a  communication  to 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


the  Friend'' s  Beview^  and  may  be  very  useful 
to  many  of  our  readers.  "The  writer  had  a 
very  productive  bed,  thirty  to  forty  feet. 
'  I  applied,'  says  he,  '  about  once  per  week, 
for  three  times,  commencing  when  the  green 
leaves  first  begin  to  start,  and  made  the 
last  application  just  before  the  plants  were 
in  full  bloom,  the  following  preparation;  — 
Nitrate  of  potash  (saltpetre),  glauber  salts, 
and  sal  soda  (carbonate  of  soda),  each  one 
pound,  nitrate  of  ammonia,  one  quarter  of 
a  pound — dissolving  them  in  thirty  gallons 
of  river  or  rain  water.  One  third  of  this 
was  applied  at  a  time  ;  and  when  the  wea- 
ther was  dry,  I  applied  clear  soft  water 
between  the  times  of  using  the  preparation, 
as  the  growth  of  the  young  leaves  is  so 
rapid,  that,  unless  supplied  with  water,  the 
sun  will  scorch  them.  I  used  a  common 
watering-pot,  making  the  application  towards 
evening.  Managed  in  this  way,  and  the 
weeds  kept  out,  there  is  never  any  necessity 
of  digging  over  the  bed,  or  setting  out  new. 
Beds  of  ten  years  are  not  only  as  good, 
but  better  than  those  of  two  or  three  years 
old." 

MISTAKEN  MEDICAL   PRACTICE. 

There  is  a  great  tendency  in  the  medical 
profession,  as  well  as  out  of  it,  to  prescribe 
for  children  who  are  out  of  health,  a  stimulat- 
ing meat  diet.  A  pallid,  scrofulous  child,  for 
example,  is  taken  before  the  family  attendant, 
and  the  order  is  immediately  issued:  "Let 
him  have  as  much  good  beef  and  mutton  as 
he  will  eat."  Fortunately,  the  child's  repug- 
nance to  meat  frequently  nullifies  this  com- 
mand. He  refuses  to  take  the  meat  which  is 
earnestly  pressed  upon  him.  Here,  as  in  so 
many  other  cases,  the  natural  indications  are 
neglected,  and  an  artificial  standard  erected. 
Nature  gives  the  child  a  disrelish  for  animal 
food,  and  this  instinct  is  healthy  and  con- 
servative ;  for  in  these  instances  the  stomach 
is  generally  unable  to  digest  any  but  the 
simplest  aliment.  Frequently,  it  will  be 
found,  on  examination,  that  the  child's 
tongue  is  furred,  his  breath  foul,  his  bowels 
constipated,  his  abdomen  tumid,  and  perhaps 
tender.  The  digestive  apparatus  is,  in  fact, 
thoroughly  disordered.  Now,  if  under  these 
circumstances  we  oppress  the  irritable  organs 
of  digestion  by  stimulating,  concentrated 
food,  we  run  counter  to  the  dictates  of  com- 
mon sense.  Yet  such  is  the  ordinary  plan  of 
treatment.  To  a  child  in  the  condition  which 
I  have  described,  a  smart  purgative  is  exhi- 
bited, followed  by  an  alterative  course  of 
rhubarb,  and  some  mild  mercurial,  probably 
combined  with  columba  or  some  bitter  tonic, 
intended  to  produce  an  appetite.  Together 
with  this,  "  plenty  of  good  beef  and  mutton" 


is  strenuously  recommended.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  rational  physiologist  seeks  to 
improve  the  health  and  strength  by  simple, 
natural  measures,  and  until  the  disordered 
alimentary  canal  recovers  its  digestive  power, 
yields  to  the  child's  instinctive  inclination, 
and  puts  it  upon  a  plain  bread-and-milk  diet. 
Thus  he  is  enabled  to  dispense  with  the 
reiterated  druggery,  which  is  equally  nau- 
seous to  the  palate,  and  injurious  to  the 
economy. — Dr.  W.  Johnson,  Journal  of 
healthy  vol.  2,  No.  32,  Nexo  Series. 

THE   SWEDES   AND    SPIRIT   DRINKING. 

In  Sweden,  the  people  are  fast  rising  to  a 
fearful  conviction  of  the  self-entailed  mise- 
ries produced  by  spirit- drinking.  The  late 
allusion  to  this  vice,  in  the  king's  speech,  at 
the  opening  of  the  Diet,  seems  to  have  been 
more  the  reflex  of  incipient  public  opinion 
than  an  original  conception  of  his  own. 
Various  petitions  have  been  presented  of  late 
to  king  Oscar,  praying  him  to  take  such 
measures  as  shall  avert  the  misery  which 
threatens  the  nation  if  the  production  of 
spirits  be  allowed  to  continue  in  its  present 
extent.  The  last  of  these  petitions  had 
18,000  signatuves.  The  people  begin  now 
to  assemble  in  large  crowds,  and  to  call 
tumultuously  for  the  closing  of  the  distil- 
leries, "  that  they  may  be  secured  against 
death  before  next  harvest  comes  round."  In 
some  cases  the  mob  has  forcibly  entered  the 
distilleries,  and  with  the  cry,  "The  hell- 
drink  shall  not  be  made  any  more ! "  put 
out  the  fires.  Hitherto  no  more  violent  excess 
than  the  above  has  taken  place. — The 
Times. 

JAPANESE    GARDENS. 

The  gardeners  of  Japan  display  the  most 
astonishing  art.  The  plum  tree,  which  is  a 
great  favourite,  is  so  trained  and  cultivated 
that  the  blossoms  are  as  big  as  those  of 
dahlias.  Their  great  triumph,  however,  is 
to  bring  both  plants  and  trees  into  the 
compass  of  the  little  garden  attached  to  the 
houses  in  the  cities.  With  this  view,  they 
have  gradually  succeeded  in  dwarfing  the  fig, 
plum,  and  cherry  trees,  and  the  vine,  to  a 
stature  so  diminutive  as  scarcely  to  be 
credited  by  a  European ;  and  yet  these  dwarf 
trees  are  covered  with  blossoms  and  leaves. 
Some  of  the  gardens  resemble  pictures  in 
which  nature  is  skilfully  modelled  in  minia- 
ture—but it  is  living  nature!  Meylon, 
whose  work  on  Japan  was  published  at 
Amsterdam  in  1830,  states  that  in  1828,  the 
Dutch  agent  of  commerce  at  Nagansi,  was 
offered  a  snuff-box,  one  inch  in  thickness, 
and  three  inches  high,  in  which  grew  a  fig 
tree,  a  bamboo,  and  a  plum  tree  in  bloom. — 
Glasgow  Sentinel. 


EXPERIENCE   OF   A   CORNISH   MECHANIC. 


89 


EECENT    AND    APPROiCHIXa    MEETINGS. 


We  have  pleasure  in  calling  attention  to  the 
fact  that  a  large  meeting  was  held  in  the 
De  Grey  Rooms,  in  the  city  of  York,  on  the 
18th  ultimo,  whilst  we  have  to  regret  that 
the  pre-occupation  of  our  space  prevents  us 
giving  more  than  this  notice  of  the  pro- 
ceedings. The  Vegetarian  question,  it 
seems,  had  not  previously  been  raised  in 
York,  and  we  are  happy  that  the  announce- 
ments of  the  meeting  secured  the  presence 
of  a  large  and  most  respectable  audience. 
Mr.  Smith,  of  Malton,  the  well-known 
author  of  Fruits  and  Farinaoea  the  Froper 
Food  of  Man,  occupied  the  chair,  and  ably 
introduced  the  subject  of  the  evening  in  a 
speech  descriptive  of  the  Vegetarian  organi- 
zation and  principles.  Mr.  Simpson,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Society,  then  followed,  dealing 
with  the  details  of  the  arguments  and  prac- 
tice of  Vegetarianism,  as  well  as  with  the 
objections  urged  against  it,  and  presenting  a 
powerful  comparison  of   the  characteristic 


DISADVANTAGES    OE 

A  RECENT  leading  article  of  the  I>ailij  JSFeics* 
amply  attests  the  serious  mistake  of  attempt- 
ing to  write  about  what  is  not  more  than 
partially  apprehended.  It  is  unfortunate 
to  hazard  an  opinion  in  such  a  case,  worse 
still  to  speak,  but  especially  so  to  write  with 
the  tone  of  authority,  when  the  whole  con- 
ception of  the  subject  may  be  erroneous,  or 
even  false. 

The  writer  referred  to  has  obviously  been 
occupied  with  the  last  number  of  the  Mes- 
senger,  and,  apparently,  forming  his  opinions 
as  he  goes  along,  with  the  customary  admix- 

*  Impression  of  August  30  ;  referred  to  in  Con- 
troversialist  and  Correspondent,  p.  90. 


advantages  of  the  system  contended  for, 
with  the  pain  and  repugnance  incident  to 
the  mixed-diet  practice.  The  impression 
produced  appears  to  have  been  all  that  could 
be  desired,  and  we  trust  that  the  reports  of 
the  newspapers  will  have  still  further 
extended  the  influence  of  the  meeting. 

It  will  be  seen  from  our  advertising 
columns,  that  the  Glasgow  Annual  Meeting  is 
to  be  celebrated  by  a  Banquet  on  the  4th 
inst.,  and  we  learn  that  other  operations  in 
or  about  Glasgow,  will  be  brought  to  bear 
about  the  same  time.  Arrangements  are 
also,  we  are  informed,  being  made  for  a 
large  meeting  in  Edinburgh,  and  others  at 
Aberdeen,  Newcastle,  and  Carlisle.  It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  our  friends  in  the  north,  at 
least,  are  active,  and  we  doubt  not  that  much 
good  will  result  from  the  operations  proposed. 

The  Birmingham  Soiree,  though  not  yet 
announced,  is,  we  understand,  likely  to  take 
place  at  the  beginning  of  November. 


HUREIED    CEITICISM. 

ture  of  want  of  information  and  prejudice, 
comes  to  favourable  and  unfavourable  con- 
clusions of  the  people  referred  to,  as  he  is 
able  or  not  to  sympathise  with  what  he 
conceives  to  be  their  objects  and  opinions. 
We,  however,  do  not  blame  any  part  of 
this  process  in  itself,  but  merely  regard 
it  as  natural  enough,  and  such  as  a  little 
better  acquaintance,  in  the  observer,  with 
the  matters  pictured  to  his  mind,  would,  in  a 
great  measure,  correct ;  and  only,  as  we 
may  return  to  the  subject  in  the  meantime, 
repeat,  that  it  is  a  pity  he  wrote  about  what 
he  conceived  so  hurriedly,  as  not  to  have  had 
time  to  have  corrected  his  impressions. 


EXPERIENCE    OE    A 

Having  tested  Vegetarianism  in  almost  every 
possible  way  during  eight  years,  it  seems  to 
me  but  just  to  state  that  I  have  found  it  to 
be  all  that  was  promised  by  its  advocates.  I 
commenced  abstinence  from  flesh  before  I 
heard  anything  about  a  Vegetarian  Society. 
I  did  so  not  from  any  moral  or  religious 
motive,  but  from  a  conviction  that  it  was 
unnecessary  as  an  article  of  diet,  and  more, 


CORNISH    MECHANIC, 

that  it  was  injurious.  I  was  at  that  time, 
though  not  an  intemperate  eater  of  flesh, 
corpulent,  and  suffered  much  from  oppres- 
sion of  stomach,  from  indigestion,  and  from 
dulness,  sleepiness,  and  swimming  in  the 
head.  The  pain  I  then  felt  much  more  than 
counterbalanced  the  pleasure  derived  from 
the  eating  of  flesh. 

At  that  time  I  knew  little  of  the  chemistry 


10 


90 


THE  CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


of  food,  and  the  relative  amount  of  nutri- 
ment. My  dietetic  reform  was  consequently 
commenced  almost  in  the  dark,  and  without 
a  single  individual  as  a  companion.  When 
it  became  known,  which  was  soon  the  case, 
scorn,  contempt,  and  jest  were  incessantly 
poured  upon  me  ;  almost  every  ill  name  was 
applied  to  me  ;  children  and  adults  insulted 
me,  for  the  simple  reason  that  I  had  made 
an  inroad  on  a  very  popular  custom. 

I  grew  thin  in  person,  which  was  the  con- 
sequence, not  of  my  food  containing  an 
insufficient  amount  of  nutriment,  but  from 
having  abandoned  the  stimulants  of  flesh, 
fish,  tea,  and  coflfee,  and  not  substituting 
others  in  their  stead  ;  and  being  but  little  in 
the  open  air,  my  appetite  fell  off;  the  amount 
of  food  I  took  was  therefore  insufficient. 
The  difference  in  my  appearance  was  taken 
advantage  of,  and  commented  upon  freely. 
Doctors  themselves  gave  utterance  to  most 
absurd  statements,  statements  which  went  to 
show  that  they  knew  little  more  than  others 
on  the  subjects  of  physiology  and  dietetics. 
The  almost  universal  verdict  was  that  Vege- 
tarianism was  an  unnatural,  ridiculous,  and 
insane  practice.  Notwithstanding  this,  my 
perseverance  was  unabated.  I  applied  my- 
self at  the  same  time  to  the  study  of  physi- 
ology, and  the  properties  of  food ;  but 
although  my  progress  therein  was  not  very 
rapid,  I  was  soon  sufficiently  acquainted  with 
them  to  be  satisfied  that  the  knowledge  of 
medical  men  on  these  matters  was  very  small. 
Instead  of  returning  to  flesh,  etc.,  I  have 
gradually  advanced  to  greater  simplicity  in 
diet ;  bread  and  potatoes  are  now  the  foun- 
dation thereof,  with  other  vegetables,  and 
fruit  occasionally. 

In  reference  to  my  times  of  taking  food, 
I  find  it  best  not  to  be  confined  to  the  times 
called  breakfast,  dinner,  and  supper,  but  to 
listen  rather  to  the  calls  of  nature — in  other 
words,  to  eat  when  I  am  hungry  ;  by  doing 
this,  I  avoid  the  taking  of  a  large  quantity 
of  food  into  the  stomach,  which  is  one  of 
the  causes  of  indigestion  and  its  unpleasant 
attendants.     By  eating  as  often  as  hunger 


returns  T  not  only  take  food  in  smaller  quan- 
tities, but  can  take  a  sufficient  quantity  with- 
out stimulating  the  appetite  with  butter, 
eggs,  sugar,  salt,  etc.  These  stimulants,  I 
find,  render  more  difficult  the  work  of 
digestion,  produce  an  unnatural  craving, 
and  an  injurious  effect  upon  the  nervous 
system  generally.  The  enemies  of  dietetic 
reform,  on  seeing  the  change  which  had 
taken  place  in  my  person,  predicted  my 
speedy  demise,  and,  doubtless,  looked  for- 
ward to  that  event  as  an  effectual  extin- 
guisher of  an  attempt  to  interfere  with  a 
very  old  and  almost  universally  patronized 
usage,  at  least  in  this  locality. 

Since  I  have  adopted  the  practice  of 
taking  food  when  nature  asks  for  it,  I  have 
grown  stouter — not  corpulent  but  muscular — 
so  much  so  that  those  who  expected  soon 
to  hear  of  my  death,  are  so  surprised  that 
they  have  not  now  a  word  to  say  against 
Vegetarianism.  The  following  is  from  a 
person  who  met  me  a  few  weeks  since : 
"  You  are  looking  much  better  than  you 
did ;  I  believe  you  are  right :  this  acknow- 
ledgment condemns  myself." 

I  am  now  in  age,  forty-seven ;  in  health, 
everything  I  can  desire  ;  just  fit  to  enjoy 
life ;  full  of  energy  and  vigour ;  cati  rise 
with  the  lark,  and  sleep  in  five  minutes  after 
going  to  bed.  The  current  of  pleasure 
which  runs  through  me,  springing  from  the 
increased  capacity,  mental  and  moral,  derived 
from  a  course  of  living  approved  of  by 
reason  and  religion,  and  the  independence 
secured  by  Vegetarianism,  is  not  only  greater 
in  amount,  but  more  angelic  "in  nature  than 
that  enjoyed  by  me  in  former  life,  and 
greater  than  I  can  conceive  it  possible  for 
a  person  to  enjoy  who  is  addicted  to  the 
practice  of  causing  animals  to  be  slaughtered 
that  he  may  feed  on  their  bodies. 

Having  proved  the  truth  of  Vegetarianism, 
and  sustained  the  shock  consequent  on  its 
adoption,  not  only  without  injury  but  with 
advantage,  I  now  offer  myself  as  a  member 
of  the  Vegetarian  Society,  and  promise  you 
that  I  will  not  be  an  inactive  one. 


THE    CONTROVERSIALIST 

THE    "daily   news." 

D.  G.  —  Our  want  of  space  forbids  any 
lengthened  notice  of  the  recent  article  of 
the  Daily  News.  The  editor,  in  comment- 
ing upon  Vegetarians  and  their  objects, 
interlards  the  most  superficial  speculations 
with  some  very  great  errors  and  misap- 
prehensions. It  IS  always  dangerous  to 
commence  writing  before  a  little  correct 
observation  and  reflection  have  been  brought 
to  bear  on  the  subject  to  be  discussed ;  and 
this,  to  the  Vegetarian,  will  be  abundantly 


AND     CORRESPONDENT. 

illustrated  in  the  leading  article  of  the  journal 
re.^rred  to,  manifesting,  as  is  at  once  seen, 
a  first  acquaintance  with  the  subject  the 
writer  attempts  to  deal  with,  in  and  out  of 
the  facts  and  considerations  of  which  he  runs 
for  the  space  of  something  more  than  a 
column  of  leading  type.  We  shall  be  happy 
to  notice  this,  and  give  some  of  the  matter 
in  question,  in  our  next. 

AN   INCONSIDERATE  WRITEU. 

In  the  Monthly  Christian  Spectator^  for 
March,    there  is  an  article  entitled,   "  The 


TPIE  CONTEOVERSTALTST  AND  CORRESPONDENT. 


91 


Mission  of  Death,"  in  which  occur  the  fol- 
lowing remarks  : 

"But  if  death  had  not  been  in  the  world  before 
man,  it  is  quite  certain  that  man  could  not  have 
lived  without  causing  the  death  of  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  creatures.  The  question  of  an  animal 
and  vegetable  diet  by  no  means  interferes  with 
this  matter.  There  may  be  climates  where  a 
purely  vegetable  diet  is  best  suited  to  the  human 
frame;  but  place  the  Vegetarian  near  the  poles, 
and  let  him  plant  his  potatoes  in  an  iceberg,  and 
his  cabbages  in  a  snow-drift,  and  he  will  wait  a 
long  time  for  his  crops.  Neither,  indeed,  could 
any  man  eat  enough  to  keep  him  warm  if  he 
did  nothing  else.  The  most  expert  Irishman 
that  ever  devoured  a  potato  would  require  a 
steam  engine  to  assist  his  jaws,  or  he  would  perish 
of  cold  in  Nova  Zembla,  although  he  should  eat 
of  his  favourite  esculent  incessantly.  And  if  it 
were  possible  to  avoid  taking  life  in  eating,  we 
should  still  be  destroying  life  in  drinking,  for 
every  drop  of  water  is  a  world  of  animal  life, 
where  one  creature  devours  another,  as  the  lion 
eats  the  sheep.  We  trample  to  death  thousands 
of  living  beings  as  we  walk  the  earth;  and  to 
kindle  a  fire  is  to  burn  and  destroy  millions." 

We  do  not  often  meet  with  a  paragraph 
containing  so  many  gross  errors  and  miscon- 
ceptions in  such  a  short  space.  These  we 
need  only  briefly  to  point  out. 

1.  Even  though  practicable,  we  do  not  see 
the  necessity  for  anybody  living  "  near  the 
poles."  But  if  necessary,  for  a  season,  to  live 
there,  the  resources  of  other  climes  could  be 
made  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  civilized, 
without  being  dependent  upon  the  denizens 
of  the  air,  earth,  or  ocean,  for  food.  It 
should  be  remembered,  also,  that  vegetation 
sufficient  to  feed  the  reindeer  and  other 
animals  is  to  be  found,  and  that  the  severity 
of  the  cold  in  the  arctic  regions  is  not  alto- 
gether due  to  their  latitude.  The  currents 
of  the  ocean  render  some  islands  and  dis- 
tricts less  intense  in  the  midst  of  winter  than 
in  others  not  so  far  north. 

2.  The  statement  that  no  *'  man  could 
eat  enough  to  keep  himself  warm,  if  he  did 
nothing  else,"  is  simply  amusing,  ignoring, 
as  it  does,  the  fact  that  exercise  with  food 
always  conduces  to  the  warmth  of  the  body. 
As  to  the  composition  of  vegetable  food,  how- 
ever, as  grain  and  pulse,  we  need  only  remark 
that  the  experience  of  the  agents  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  in  the  use  of  Indian 
meal,  will  justify  a  very  different  conclusion. 
It  would  not  be  necessary  or  wise,  if  practi- 
cable, to  confine  one's  self  to  the  Irishman's 
"favourite  esculent,"  but  we  should  prefer 
such  a  diet  to  being  compelled  to  live  almost 
entirely  upon  salted  meat,  and  thus  run  the 
risk  of  encountering  the  scurvy,  and  other 
ailments  incident  to  the  eating  of  such  pro- 
visions. 

3.  "Every  drop  of  water"  does  not  con- 


tain "  a  world  of  animal  life."  The  drops  of 
water  magnified  by  the  oxy-hydrogen  micro- 
scope, are  obtained  from  fermented  vegetable 
matter,  or  stagnant  pools  and  ditches.  Pure 
spring  water  rarely  contains  any  living 
matter,  and  if  the  writer  in  the  Mo7ithly 
Christian  Spectator  will  not  admit  our 
statement,  we  advise  him  to  put  a  few  ques- 
tions to  the  exhibitor  of  the  oxy-hydrogen 
microscope,  who  shows  him  these  objects,  on 
his  next  visit  to  the  Polytechnic  Institution, 
in  the  Metropolis,  or  elsewhere,  when  he 
will  find  that  his  statement  is  a  mere  figment. 
It  is  always  useful,  when  those  who  are 
not  prepared  to  admit  the  truth  of  Vege- 
tarianism, candidly  state  their  views  and 
objections  ;  but  the  confident  and  dogmatical 
tone  which  the  writer  of  "  The  Mission  of 
Death  "  exhibits,  is  even  as  great  a  disad- 
vantage as  the  mistakes  into  which  he  has 
fallen. 

VIRULENCE   AND    PERVERSION. 

H.  J.  —  The  small  tract,  entitled  The 
Vegetarian  Humbug,  by  a  Beef-eater,  is 
beneath  the  notice  of  all  who  look  for 
honest  argument  in  opposition  to  the  prin- 
ciples and  practice  of  the  Vegetarian  system. 
There  is,  too,  a  want  of  truthfulness  in  some 
of  the  quotations  and  the  gratuitous  infer- 
ences drawn  from  them,  with  a  wilful  perver- 
sion of  facts  and  arguments,  which  cannot 
fail  at  once  to  be  discerned  by  any  one  ac- 
quainted with  the  works  and  opinions  re- 
ferred to,  and  the  organization  and  objects 
of  the  Vegetarian  movement.  We  cannot, 
indeed,  and  we  much  regret  it,  better  describe 
the  whole  than  as  a  vicious  attempt  to  detract 
from  and  injure  the  progress  of  Vegeta- 
rianism with  certain  people ;  but,  since  most 
who  will  take  the  trouble  to  read  this  effu- 
sion will  readily  discern  the  spirit  in  which 
it  is  produced,  and  will,  probably,  be  directed 
by  it  to  an  impartial  inquiry  into  the  Vegeta- 
rian system,  more  good  than  harm  may  still 
be  the  result  of  its  issue.  We  will  endea- 
vour, in  our  next,  to  comply  with  the  wishes 
of  our  correspondent  as  to  the  parts  re- 
ferred to. 

A   VALUABLE   TESTIMONY. 

We  have  great  pleasure  in  giving  insertion 
to  the  following  valuable  and  interesting 
communication. 

Sir — In  reply  to  a  circular  of  the  Vegetarian 
Society,  which  has  been  transmitted  to  me  by 
that  staunch  Vegetarian  advocate  and  philo-zoist, 
Mr.  Lewis  Gompertz,  I  beg  leave  to  offer  a 
few  observations  on  Vegetarian  diet,  founded 
chiefly  on  fifty-three  years  personal  experience, 
and  many  remarks  made  on  other  Vegetarians, 
my  companions  in  early  life ;  which  observations 
you  are  at  perfect  liberty  to  publish  if  you  please. 

From  birth  till  about  the  age  of  twelve  years 


I  was  not  a  strong  child,  and  probably  should 
have  been  a  very  weak  one,  had  not  my  father 
brought  his  children  up,  in  a  great  measure,  on 
fruits.  Five  of  us,  however,  escaped  the  small-pox, 
and  some  other  complaints,  notwithstanding  his 
aversion  to  inoculation,  in  consequence,  as  I 
believe,  of  our  natural  diet.  At  twelve  years  old, 
reading  some  account  of  the  Hindoos,  I  resolved 
to  adopt  a  Vegetarian  diet,  which,  being  a  fanci- 
ful child  and  always  fond  of  experiments,  I 
accomplished  in  spite  of  the  advice  and  ridicule 
of  my  friends  and  playmates.  On  this  regimen 
I  gained  strength,  and  laid  the  foundation  for 
that  healthy  constitution  I  have  since  enjoyed. 
Being  sometimes  forced  by  my  preceptor  to  eat 
meat,  it  was  always  attended  with  headache,  and 
injured  my  health,  till  about  the  year  181 1,  when  I 
was  fully  confirmed  in  Vegetarian  habits,  by  my 
early  companions  having  adopted  the  same  in  nocent 
food.  My  particular  friend,  the  late  Percy 
Bysshe  Shelley,  ate  only  of  the  productions 
of  the  garden,  and  abhorred  the  very  sight  of 
flesh-meat.  His  poetry  and  imaginative  talents 
testify  to  the  manner  in  which  this  diet  con- 
tributed to  the  perfection  of  his  mental  powers. 
Byron,  the  poet,  lived  a  large  portion  of  his 
life  on  vegetable  food,  and  he  used  to  say  that 
meat  made  him  both  ill  and  ferocious  in  disposi- 
tion. About  the  year  1813, 1  became  acquainted 
with  a  gentleman  who  had  brought  up  a  large 
and  fine  family  entirely  on  vegetable  productions  ; 
the  children  were  amongst  the  most  beautiful  I 
ever  saw,  and  were  remarkably  free  from  all  those 
epidemics  which  harass  the  existence  of  ordinary 
children.  Mr.  Lawrence,  whose  eminence  as  a 
surgeon  and  physiologist  is  already  too  well 
known  to  need  any  comment,  used  to  live  on 
vegetable  food  when  I  first  luiew  him ;  and  the 
personal  experience  and  practice  of  the  late  Dr. 
Lam  BE  confirmed  me  in  the  opinion  I  had 
formed,  of  the  slow  and  certain  injury  done  to  the 
human  frame  by  the  introduction  of  animal  food. 
When  I  went  to  college  in  1812,  the  difficulty 
of  finding  vegetables  enough  at  table  induced 
me  to  eat  some  meat,  but  always  with  manifest 
disadvantage.  I  once  made  the  experiment  of 
changing  my  diet,  and  the  consequence  was,  loss 
of  appetite  and  spirits,  and  very  bad  health, 
which  did  not  cease  till  I  had  returned  for  some 
time  to  ray  usual  Vegetarian  food.  It  is  now, 
and  has  been  for  many  years,  my  fixed  habit; 
and  nourished  only  by  vegetables  and  bread,  I 


have  travelled  in  both  hot  and  cold  countries 
with  renovated  and  almost  indefatigable  strength. 
In  medical  practice  it  is  extremely  difficult  to 
persuade  people  to  use  a  diet  to  which  they  are 
unaccustomed,  but  wherever  I  have  succeeded  iu 
establishing  the  use  of  vegetable  food,  it  has 
been  attended  with  extraordinary  success. 

The  extensive  ravages  of  disease,  in  almost 
every  affluent  family,  certainly  point  to  some 
grievous  error  in  diet  or  other  habits.  Now  I 
want  you  to  show  by  some  statistical  observations, 
that  the  Vegetarian  is  free  from  the  diseases  of 
the  feeder  on  flesh.  The  Statistical  Society  are 
about  to  meet  in  Paris.  Cannot  you  contribute 
some  very  valuable  facts  to  it?  You  ought  to 
have  a  representative  there  among  the  rest ! 

My  own  opinion  is  that  public  morals,  as  well 
as  health,  would  be  benefited  by  the  general 
adoption  of  Vegetarian  diet.  The  Animals' 
Friend  Societies,  of  which  there  are  many  all 
over  Europe,  ought  to  consider  this,  and  the 
Peace  Society  would  find  in  our  practice  of  diet 
a  much  more  solid  basis  for  a  pacific  edification 
than  in  five  hundred  religious  tracts  on  the  sub- 
ject. It  may  be  said  of  vegetable  food  that 
emollit  mores  nic  siuit  esse  feros !  This  was  the 
opinion  of  Hippocrates,  EscuLAPius,  Galen, 
Aristotle,  and  the  ancient  moralists  ;  and  it  is 
confirmed  by  all  we  have  seen  or  read  of  the 
tribes  of  India  who  live  on  rice  and  fruits,  and 
regard  it  as  a  sin  to  destroy  animal  life.  Ovid 
has  represented  the  opinions  of  Pythago- 
ras on  this  subject  in  one  of  the  finest  orations 
in  Latin  verse  that  I  ever  read  ;  and  the  works 
of  Dr.  Lambe,  Dr.  Graham,  Mr.  Ritson,  and 
many  others,  fully  confirm  the  doctrine  which 
I  have  endeavoured  to  lay  down  herein  :  viz. that 
Vegetarian  diet  is  the  Jo  hi/,  and  animal  food  the 
Jo  /M.Ti  ou  both  of  individual  health,  and  of  secure 
social  organization.  And  I  consider  the  subject 
to  be  of  such  importance,  when  we  consider  the 
demoralizing  tendency  of  cruelty  to  animals,  and 
particularly  of  the  slaughter-house,  that  no  apology 
is  necessary  on  my  part  for  thus  endeavouring, 
however  imperfectly,  to  bring  it  the  more  fully 
before  the  general  notice  of  the  public,  through 
the  instrumentality  of  your  most  excellent 
Society. 

I  have  the  honour  to  remain, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 
T.  FORSTER,  M.D.,  F.R.A.  &  L.S. 
Brussels,  llth  August,  1855. 


THE   DEMANDS    OF   THE    BODY 


THE    VEGETARIAN    TEEASURY. 

hours  of  sunshine  and  peace.  That  must  be 
no  small  sin  in  the  eye  of  God  which  he  so 
often  visits  with  an  early  death  or  premature 
old  age,  and  which  has  deprived  many  a 
family  of  its  most  precious  treasure,  and  the 
Church  of  its  brightest  hopes. — The  Earnest 
Student. 


Let  me  earnestly  press  it  upon  young  and 
ardent  students  that  it  is  a  very  mistaken 
manliness  to  despise  the  demands  of  the 
body ;  that  it  is  no  self-denial,  but  self- 
indulgence,  to  sacrifice  health  and  life  in  the 
pursuit  of  knowledge.  Let  me  remind  them 
that  God  will  make  them  responsible  for 
every  talent  committed  to  them,  and  for 
shortening  those  days  which  might  have 
been  many,  and  for  turning  those  days  into 
darkness  and  distress  which  might  have  been 


importance  of  tranquillity  in  nurses. 
In  woman  we  find  that  anything  that  tends 
to  annoy  her,  to  irritate  her  feelings,  or  pro- 
duce an  exhibition  of  anger,  occasions  at  the 
same  time  a  partial  destruction  of  the  valu- 


THE  YEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


93 


able  constituents  of  her  milk.  We  have  it 
in  our  power  to  observe  these  effects  in 
woman  with  more  accuracy  than  in  the 
lower  animals,  though,  doubtless,  similar 
feelings  will  produce  in  both  the  same 
change  in  the  composition  of  the  milk.  The 
milk  of  a  woman,  who  has  experienced  a 
violent  and  sudden  fit  of  anger,  is  found  to 
be  quite  sour,  hence  it  is  requisite  that  wet- 
nurses  should  be  kept  in  a  state  of  perfect 
tranquillity,  both  in  mind  and  body.* — 'Dr. 
Lyon  Playfair. 

vegetarianism  in  carrara. 
The  miners  [of  the  marble  quarries]  are  a 
fine  and  hardy  race,  remarkable  for  their 
robustness  of  constitution,  reckless  courage, 
and  unalterable  good  humour ;  nor  do  the 
fatal  consequences  which  occasionally  occur 
tend  to  lessen  their  gaiety  ;  and  many 
snatches  of  loud  and  melodious  song  may  be 
heard  amid  the  clanging  of  hammers,  the 
report  of  gunpowder,  and  the  crash  of  falling 
stone.  The  workmen  do  not  derive  their 
supplies  from  the  town  of  Cai-rara  (which  is 
only  about  fifteen  miles  distant)  ;  the  fru- 
gality by  which  they  are  distinguished 
enables  the  surrounding  villages,  where  they 
reside,  to  satisfy  all  their  wants.  Their 
hours  of  labour  are  from  eight  in  the  morn- 
ing to  two  in  the  afternoon,  all  extra  work 
being  remunerated  according  to  the  time 
employed  ;  and  thus  they  are  enabled  to  pass 
a  considerable  portion  of  their  time  with 
their  respective  families.  There  being  no 
spring  in  the  quarries,  and  the  difficulty  of 
ascending  rendering  it  essential  to  the  work- 
men to  avoid  all  unnecessary  burdens,  they 
are  reduced  to  drinking  rain  water,  which 
they  obtain  by  excavating  square  holes  as 
reservoirs ;  their  diet  consists  of  polenta,  or 
bread,  and  the  common  cheese  of  the  country, 
and  these  simple  aliments,  with  the  fruits  of 
the  season,  compose  their  whole  nourishment. 
In  wine  or  coffee  they  never  indulge,  and 
yet  the  amount  of  labour  of  which  they  are 
capable  exceeds  belief. — Illustrated  London 
Neivs. 

THE   DIETARY   OF    OMAR   PASHA'S    TROOPS. 

"  The  troops  who  arrived  with  Omar  Pasha 
stand  the  climate  well,  with  not  more  than 
the  average  sickness  which  must,  under  all 
circumstances,  be  expected  in  a  large  body 
of  men  collected  together.  I  am  not  sure 
whether  their  temperance,  bordering  on 
abstemiousness,  does  not  contribute  consider- 
ably to  this  result.     Meat  is  with  them  an 

*  The  sympathetic  irritation,  which  occasions  a 
change  in  the  nature  of  the  secreted  fluids,  is  con- 
veyed through  the  sympathetic  system  of  nerves, 
whose  branches  accompany  the  blood-vessels  to 
every  part  of  the  body,  and  are  furnished  to  the 
heart  and  viscera. 


exceptional  article  of  food,  and  biscuit,  rice, 
and  beans  are  their  daily  diet.  I  think  an 
approximation,  I  do  not  say  imitation,  but 
an  approximation  to  this  diet,  would  be  of 
considerable  advantage  to  troops  in  this 
climate."  —  Correspondent  of  the  Times, 
Aug.  2. 

VEGETARIAN   DIET   AND   THE   ENJOYMENT 
OF   LIFE. 

"We  will  begin  with  the  lowest  ground  of  all, 
though,  in  our  present  low  estate,  not  one  of 
the  least  effective,  namely,  the  mere  enjoy- 
ment of  life.  This,  of  course,  can  only  be  a 
matter  of  individual  experience ;  and  only 
those  who  have  fairly  tried  both  sides  are 
competent  to  appear  in  evidence.  The  testi- 
mony of  those  who  are  thus  duly  qualified, 
I  believe  to  be  universal  to  the  greatly 
increased  amount  of  the  enjoyment  of  food, 
I  mean  in  a  purely  sensual  and  epicurean 
sense,  through  the  refined  and  delicate  taste 
that  springs  from  the  rejection  of  all  the 
coarser  parts  of  a  mixed  diet.  The  true 
enjoyment  and  luxury  of  food,  and  the 
proper  and  delicious  flavours  of  fruits  and 
vegetables,  are  all  but  unknown  to  those  who 
deteriorate  and  benumb  their  palates  by  the 
habitual  use  of  stimulating  meats  and  dishes. 
It  was  to  gardens,  not  to  slaughter-houses, 
that  the  disciples  of  Epicurus  were  wont  to 
resort.  We  observe  a  parallel  analogy  in 
the  difference  of  habit,  and  in  the  apparent 
calm  enjoyment  of  life,  between  the  carni- 
vorous and  the  herbivorous  animals. —  What 
is   Vegetarianism  f 

DUTCH   BUTTER-MAKING. 

There  they  come — the  milk-maid  and  the 
boy.  The  boy  is  towing  a  little  boat  along 
the  canal,  and  the  maid,  with  her  full  blue 
petticoat  and  pink  jacket  or  bed-gown,  walks 
beside  him.  Now  they  stop ;  she  brings 
from  the  boat  her  copper  milk-pails,  as 
bright  as  gold,  and,  with  a  chooing  greeting 
to  her  dear  cows,  sets  down  her  little  stool 
upon  the  grass  and  begins  to  milk.  The 
boy,  having  moored  his  boat,  stands  beside 
her  with  the  special  pail,  which  is  to  hold 
the  last  pint  from  each  cow — the  creamy 
pint,  which  comes  last,  because  it  has  risen  to 
the  top  of  the  udder.  Not  a  drop  is  left  to 
turn  sour  and  fret  the  cow.  The  boy  fetches 
and  carries  the  pails,  and  moves  as  if  he  trod 
on  eggs  when  conveying  the  full  pails  to 
the  boat.  When  afloat  there  is  no  shaking 
at  all.  Smoothly  glide  the  cargo  of  pails 
up  to  the  very  entrance  of  the  dairy,  where 
the  deep  jars  appropriated  to  this  "meal" 
of  milk  are  ready,  cooled  with  cold  water 
if  it  is  summer,  and  warmed  with  hot  water 
if  the  weather  requires  it.  When  the 
time  for  churning  comes,  the  Dutch  woman 


94 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


takes  matters  as  quietly  as  hitherto.  She 
softly  tastes  the  milk  in  the  jars  till  she  finds 
therein  the  due  degree  of  acidity ;  and  then 
she  leisurely  pours  the  whole— cream  and 
milk  together — into  a  prodigiously  stout  and 
tall  upright  churn.  She  must  exert  herself, 
however,  if  she  is  to  work  that  plunger. 
She  work  it — not  she !  She  would  as  soon 
think  of  working  the  mill  on  the  dykes 
with  her  own  plump  hands.  No — she  has  a 
servant  under  her  to  do  it.  She  puts  her 
dog  into  a  wheel  which  is  connected  with  the 
plunger ;  and,  as  the  animal  runs  round, 
what  a  splashing,  woUoping,  and  frizzing 
is  heard  from  the  closed  churn.  The  quiet 
dairy-maid  knows  by  the  changes  of  the 
sound  how  the  formation  of  the  butter  pro- 
ceeds ;  when  she  is  quite  sure  that  there  are 
multitudes  of  flakes  floating  about  within, 
she  stops  the  wheel,  releases  the  dog,  turns 
down  the  churn  upon  a  large  sieve,  which  is 
laid  over  a  tub,  and  obtains  a  sieveful  of 
butter,  in  the  shape  of  yellow  kernels,  while 
the  butter-milk  runs  ofi",  for  the  benefit  of 
the  pigs,  or  of  the  household  cookery. — 
Dickens's  Household  JFords. 

THE     FRENCH     EMPEROR,     THE     COOK,     AND 
THE    PINE   APPLES. 

There  were,  however,  several  incidents 
worth  noticing  in  the  course  of  this  week 
of  military  festivities,  and  one,  not  the  least 
amusing,  relates  to  our  old  gastronomic 
friend  Soyer,  who  found  himself  suddenly  in 
what  the  Americans  would  call  an  awkward  fix. 
He  was  desirous  to  do  his  "  possible "  on 
such  an  auspicious  occasion  to  promote  the 
gratification  of  the  imperial  and  royal  palates, 
but  not  holding  the  position  of  culinary 
artiste  to  his  imperial  majesty,  he  succeeded 
in  procuring  two  gigantic  pine  apples, 
obtained  from  the  country  seat  of  his  Grace 
the  Duke  of  Sutherland,  at  Trentham,  in 
Somersetshire.  The  smaller  of  the  two 
weighed  upwards  of  8  lbs.,  and  measured 
more  than  3  ft.  from  the  stem  to  the  crown. 
Here  was  an  introduction  even  to  an  empe- 
ror, and  freighted  with  the  precious  treasure, 
our  friend  Soyer  arrived  at  Boulogne. 
Now,  as  we  have  already  informed  our 
readers.  Englishmen  may  do  in  France  what 
the  inhabitants  of  no  other  country  dare 
attempt.  From  his  long  residence  in 
England,  M.  Soyer  perhaps  thought  him- 
self  an  Englishman,  and  came  without  a 
passport.  At  all  events  he  received  a  sudden 
check  in  the  enthusiasm  of  his  loyalty,  for 
he  was  taken  into  custody  forthwith.  He 
sent  for  his  friends,  but  in  the  meantime 
cautioned  the  authorities  to  take  care  of  his 
box,  which  was  on  no  account  to  be  opened 
until  it  reached  the  palace,  or  rather  the 


hotel  of  the  emperor.  On  obtaining  his 
liberty,  some  hours  later,  he  found  his  box 
gone,  and  to  its  right  destination.  Thus  by 
a  singular  misadventure,  the  emperor  was 
luxuriating  over  Soyer's  delicious  present 
while .  detaining  the  donor  in  prison — one 
hand  bearing  the  pine  apple  to  his  lip,  the 
other  holding  fast  the  prison  doors  on  him 
who  sent  it.  It  will  be,  however,  perhaps 
gratifying  to  M.  Soyer  to  learn  that  all 
honour  was  paid  to  his  pine  apples,  for  they 
figured  conspicuously  at  the  royal  banquet. 
They  were  artistically  raised  on  pyramids  of 
fruits  and  flowers  by  the  head  confectioner  of 
the  royal  household,  and  produced  a  very 
charming  effect. — Correspondent  of  the  Morn- 
ing Herald. 

diseases  of  animals  communicated 

TO   man. 

Dr.  Alphonso  Lerzy,  of  Paris,  has  pub- 
lished an  essay  on  certain  diseases  of  men, 
which  he  traces  to  the  animals  on  which 
they  are  fed  ;  and  he  establishes  the  doctrine 
generally,  that  many  diseases  with  which 
mankind  are  afflicted  are  communicated  by 
eating  the  flesh  of  animals. — Monthly  Maga- 
zine, June,  1815,  p.  446. 

AUTUMN. 

Season  of  mists  and  mellow  fruitfulness  ! 

Close  bosom-friend  of  the  maturing  sun  ; 
Conspiring  with  him  how  to  load  and  bless 
With  fruit  the  vines  that  round  the  thatch- 
eaves  run ; 
To  bend  with  apples  the  mossed  cottage  trees. 
And  fill  all  fruit  with  ripeness  to  the  core  ; 
To  swell   the  gourd  and  plump    the 
hazel  shells 
With  a  sweet  kernel ;  to  set  budding  more, 
And  still  more,  later  flowers  for  the  bees. 
Until  they  think  warm  days  will  never  cease, 
For   summer    has  o'er-brimmed   their 
clammy  cells. 

*  *  *  * 

Where  are  the  songs  of  spring  ?     Ay,  where 
are  they ; 
Think  not  of  them,  thou  hast  thy  music, 
too. 
While  barred  clouds  bloom  the  soft  dying  day, 
And  touch  the  stubble-plains  with  rosy  hue ; 
Then  in  a  wailful  choir  the  small  gnats  mourn 
Among  the  river  sallows,  borne  aloft. 
Or  sinking  as  the  light  wind  lives  or  dies ; 
And  full-grown  lambs  loud  bleat  from  hilly 
bourn ; 
Hedge-crickets  sing ;  and  now  with  treble 

soft 
The  redbreast  whistles  from  a  garden  croft. 
And  gathering  swallows  twitter  from 
the  skies. 

Keats. 


THE  DIETETIC   CONSTITUTION   OF   MAN. 


95 


CURIOUS  SUBJECT  OF  DISCUSSION. 


Some  of  our  readers  may,  perhaps,  not  be 
aware,  that  a  grave  matter  for  the  cou- 
sideration  of  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen 
of  the  city  of  London  has  recently  been 
submitted  to  their  court,  and  is  thence 
carried  to  a  superior  court,  from  the 
obviously  doubtful  decision  of  the  presiding 
magistrate,  A  body  of  evidence  was  pre- 
sented in  support  of  the  charge  made,  and 
this  was  met  by  counter-statements,  the 
sum  of  the  whole  apparently  producing,  in 
the  minds  of  every  one,  more  than  an 
assurance  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  charge 
made;  but  with  the  singular  accompani- 
ment of  a  strong  sense  of  the  unfairness  or 
impropriety  of  the  accuser,  in  his  tolerating 
in  others  a  certain  measure  of  the  same 
objectionable  character  as  that  for  which, 
in  the  particular  case  referred  to,  the 
penalties  of  the  law  are  sought  to  be  applied. 

But  what  is  the  nature  of  the  case .»'  No 
more  nor  less  than  a  grave  dispute  *  between 
the  Christians  and  Jews  as  to  the  com- 
parative demerits  of  their  respective 
processes  of  slaughtering  certain  animals 
for  food.  Our  old  friends  the  Jews,  as  they 
have  long  done,  contend  for  the  slaughter 
of  the  ox  by  one  cut  of  the  knife  of  a  certain 
authorized  operator,  which,  sooner  or  later, 
is  expected  to  produce  the  death  of  the 
animal  by  exhaustion  from  the  loss  of  blood. 
A  second  cut,  or  any  other  operation,  even 
though  hastening  the  death  of  the  suffering 
animal,  would  be  considered  to  contaminate 
the  whole  carcass,  and  make  it  unclean 
for  the  food  of  the  true  Israelite. 
But  here  our  Christian  reformer  steps  in, 

*   Controversialist  and  Correspondent^  p.  100. 


in  the  person  of  the  representative  of  the 
Royal  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Animals,  and  with  the  laudable  object  of 
abridging,  if  not  preventing,  cruelty,  insists 
upon  the  process  of  cleaving  the  skull  of 
the  ox  with  a  pole-axe,  and  then  "stirring 
about  the  brains  with  a  stick,"  the  suffering 
preceding  the  death  of  the  animal,  it  is 
contended,  being  thus  much  less  than  by 
the  Jewish  process.  The  evidence  tendered 
was  from  both  ordinary  slaughtermen,  and 
physicians  who  professed  to  have  witnessed 
both  the  operations  under  notice ;  but  the 
sitting  magistrate  (Sir  Peter  Laurie)  recog- 
nizing the  cruelty  of  both  processes,  declined 
to  apply  the  law  to  a  case  of  degree  in 
cruelty,  which  was  "  a  matter  of  religion  " — 
a  curious  libel  this,  we  fear,  for  the  decision 
of  some  other  superior  court. 

For  our  own  parts,  we  look  upon  this 
curious  dispute  with  some  measure  of  con- 
scious advantage,  and  are  not  sorry  to  see 
it  attract  so  much  attention,  many  being, 
doubtless  led,  by  the  moment's  reflection 
secured,  in  the  voice  of  nature,  when  the 
truth  is  confessed,  boldly  to  question  the 
propriety  of  cruelty  and  death  in  either  case — 
of  the  slaughter  of  animals  for  food  at  all. 
Both  complainant  and  defendant  are  at 
disadvantage,  and  though  the  former  has 
a  measure  of  law  applicable  to  the  beating 
or  otherwise  maltreating  of  the  ox,  but  none 
for  the  cruelty  of  killing  him  outright,  we 
think  both  their  systems,  in  the  court  of 
reason  and  humanity,  will  be  seen  to  be 
indefensible,  and  especially  so  when  the 
old  fallacious  notions  which  support  the 
slaughter  of  animals  for  food  in  any  way 
whatever,  have  been  impartially  examined. 


APPKOACHING    BANQUET    IN    BIRMINGHAM. 


Our  columns  give  the  preliminary  notice 
of  this  approaching  meeting,  and  we  learn 
that  the  number  of  guests,  as  well  as 
the   whole   arrangement  comprised  in  the 


plan  of  operations,  will  most  likely  secure 
one  of  the  most  important  and  useful 
Vegetarian  gatherings  hitherto  witnessed  in 
the  progress  of  Vegetarianism. 


THE    DIETETIC    CONSTITUTION    OF    MAN. 

A  RECEKT  French  work,*  by  M.  Flourens,      Professor    of    Comparative  Physiology    in 

.^  ^         .,         ,  .,     ^         ^    ^  T-^  Paris,    affords    some  valuable    conclusions 

*  Human  Longevity  and  the  Amount  of  Life  *-u«    j-„*  a-„     i.         a         £  j   j.-u 

upon  the  G/oi6.    Translated  by    c.  Martel.   11.  «»,  t^^?  dietetic  character  of  man,  and  the 

Bailliere.  11  following  we  select  as  most  interesting,  m 


96 


THE   CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


relation  to  a  question,  much  more  completely 
settled,  however,  than  most  are  aware  or, 
if  the  history  of  diet,  and  the  opinions  of 
the  greatest  naturalists  that  have  written  on 
the  subject,  are  to  have  their  due  weight, 
instead  of  the  popular  influence  of  prevail- 
ing custom. 

"  A  question  that  has  much  occupied 
the  attention  of  physiologists,*  and  winch 
they  have  not  decided,  is,  what  could  have 
been  the  natural  food — the  primitive  diet  of 
man  ?  According  to  some,  it  is  herbivorous  ; 
according  to  others,  man  has  always  been 
what  we  now  see  him  :  that  is,  at  once 
herbivorous,  and  carnivorous,  or  omnivorous. 

"  By  comparative  anatomy,  we  very  well 
understand  the  condition  of  the  herbivorous 
and  of  the  carnivorous  diet ;  and  it  is  easy 
to  perceive  that  man,  primitively,  has  been 
neither  herbivorous  (at  least,  essentially 
herbivorous)  nor  carnivorous, 

"  The  carnivorous  animal  has  sharp 
molar  teeth,  a  simple  stomach  and  short 
intestines.  The  lion,  for  example,  has  all 
its  molar  teeth  cutting,  a  small  straight 
stomach,  almost  a  canal,  and  intestines  so 
short  that  they  are  only  three  times  the 
length  of  the  body. 

"  Man  has  no  sharp  molar  teeth ;  his 
stomach  is  simple,  but  large ;  and  his  intes- 
tines are  seven  or  eight  times  the  length 
of  his  body.  Man,  therefore,  is  not  natu- 
rally carnivorous.  In  every  animal,  the 
form  of  the  molar  teeth  indicates  the  food. 
The  lion,  which  has  only  sharp  molars, 
lives  exclusively  on  prey,  and  even  living 
prey  ;  the  dog,  which  has  two  tuberculous 
molars,  that  is,  with  blunt  point,  is  able 
to  mix  vegetables  with  his  food  ;  the  bear 
has  all  its  teeth  tuberculous,  and  can  live 
entirely  on  vegetables. f 

"  Man,  then,  is  not  carnivorous,  neither  is 
he  essentially  herbivorous.  He  does  not 
possess  for  example,  like  the  ruminating 
animal  (the  herbivorous  animal,  par  ex- 
cellence), molar  teeth,  with  crowns  alter- 
nately hollow  and  raised,  a  stomach  which 
is  composed  of  four  stomachs,  and  intestines 
even  twenty-eight  and  forty-eight  times 
longer  than  its  body.  The  intestines  of  the 
sheep  are  twenty-eight  times  longer  than 
its  body ;  those  of  the  buffalo,  thirty-two ; 
those  of  the  ox,  forty-eight,  etc. 

*  p.  97. 
+  A  bear  which  I  have  fed  nearly  five  years 
upon  brown  bread  and  carrots,  has  now  no  longer 
any  desire  to  touch  flesh. 


j  "By  his  stomach,  teeth,  and  intestines, 
I  man  is  naturally  and  -^x\m\t\vQ\j  frugivorous 
i  like  the  ape. 

"  But  the  frugivorous  diet  is,  of  all 
others,  the  most  unfavourable,  because  it 
constrains  animals  subjected  to  it,  never  to 
quit  the  country  where  fruit  is  constantly 
found,  that  is,  the  warm  countries.  All  the 
apes  inhabit  warm  countries. 

"But  man,  when  he  had  once  discovered 
fire,  when  he  had  once  prepared  and  made 
tender,  by  cooking,  animal  as  well  as  vege- 
table substances,  was  able  to  feed  upon  all 
living  creatures,  and  mix  together  every  diet. 
"  Man,  therefore,  has  two  diets :  one 
natural,  primitive,  instinctive,  by  which  he 
is  frugivorous ;  and  he  has  an  artificial 
diet,  due  entirely  to  his  intelligence,  by 
which  he  becomes  omnivorous.^' 

As  to  the  opinion  on  the  frugivorous  diet 
being  most  unfavourable,  we  have  to  dissent, 
knowing  well  the  abundant  resources  of  man 
to  raise  fruit  wherever  it  suits  him  to  dwell 
at  all  in  accordance  with  nature.  It  is  most 
erroneous  to  reason  from  the  far  off  and 
degraded  races  at  the  extremes  of  creation, 
back  to  man  in  more  normal  relations  ;  and 
when  we  cease  to  make  this  mistake  (as  great 
as  would  be  that  of  questioning  morals,  be- 
cause we  cannot  at  once  apply  them  to  the 
offscourings  of  society),  we  can  understand 
that  man  in  a  normal  condition  would  either 
never  inhabit  the  inclement  fruitless  re- 
gions of  the  earth,  or  would  carry  with 
him  there  the  resources  of  other  and 
more  genial  climes,  as,  indeed,  civilized 
man  ever  does  now,  in  degree,  wherever 
he  dwells. 

It  is,  of  course,  no  objection  to  the  in- 
terest of  M.  Flourens'  opinion  that  he 
points  out  that  man,  after  his  discovery  of 
fire,  could  live  on  the  flesh  of  animals,  as 
we  see  this  amply  proved.  Our  question  is 
rather  with  what  is  natural,  and  thus, 
what  is  best  worthy  of  attention,  as  most 
likely  to  be  productive  of  happiness.  And 
hence,  as  far  as  the  evidence  of  M.  Flou- 
rens affects  the  question,  we  have  another 
modern  physiologist  agreed  with  Linnjeus, 
CuviER,  Ray,  Daubenton,  and  others,  that 
the  natural  source  of  man's  food  is  the  vege- 
table kingdom,  whatever  he  may  come  to 
eat  "  by  acquired  habits,"  our  whole  argu- 
ments and  practice,  so  far  as  the  subject  re- 
lates to  anatomy  and  physiology,  being 
substantiated  in  this  fact. 


THE 


CONTROVERSIALIST 

THE    "  DAILY    NEWS  "    A>;j)   VEGETARIANS. 

As  promised  in  our  notice  of  last  month,  * 
advert    to    the    recent    article   in   the 
*  No.  72,  pp.  89,  90. 


we 


AND    CORRESPONDENT. 

columns  of  the  Daily  News,  halting  and 
stumbling  in  its  details,  but  still  only  mainly 
censurable  in  the  aspect  of  pretentiously 
treating  a  subject  obviously  not  understood, 


THE  CONTKOYERSIALIST  AND  CORRESPONDENT. 


97 


and  perhaps  even  only  superficially  con- 
sidered, concurrently  with  the  passage  of 
the  pen  over  the  paper  in  the  process  of 
reviewing  it. 

The  writer  in  question  refers  to  the 
recent  and  approaching  festivals  in  Man- 
chester, Glasgow,  and  Bii-mingham,  and 
then  remarks  that  the  juhilations  of  A^egc- 
tarians  are  such  as  to  lead  to  the  supposi- 
tion that  the  movement  is  much  greater 
than  it  really  is — "  a  few  working  men,"  to 
the  extent  of  several  hundreds  in  all,  having 
joined  the  organization — surprise  being  ex- 
pressed that  the  numbers  should  be  so 
small,  especially  after  the  hearing  of  festivals 
fifteen  years  ago,  and  organization  being 
now  eight  years  old. 

We  hardly  need  to  correct  the  error  of 
the  conception  that  our  festivals  date  even  fif- 
teen years  back,  or  again,  that  the  movement 
is  restricted  to  working  men,  because  the 
facts  of  nearly  all  public  occasions,  as  well 
as  the  statistics  of  Vegetarianism,  show 
that  the  movement  numbers  persons  of 
nearly  every  class  of  the  well-ordered  of 
society.  As  to  the  comparison  of  our 
organized  numbers  with  the  public  influence 
of  the  movement,  we  at  once  confess  that 
an  association  of  less  than  one  thousand 
members  is  far  less  than  might  be  expected ; 
but,  as  admitted,  considering  that  great 
numbers,  amounting  probably  to  thousands, 
are  certainly  affected,  and  have  their 
dietetic  practice  altered  or  modified  by  the 
promulgation  of  Vegetarian  theories  and 
arguments  (many,  adopting  the  Vegetarian 
system  altogether,  whilst  holding  themselves 
apart  from  the  organized  expression  of 
their  convictions,  whilst  the  rest  are  of  the 
"  all  but"  class  and  have  at  least  lost  their 
strong  faith  in  the  flesh  of  animals)  ;  it 
would  not  be  less  than  absurd  to  measure 
our  influence  by  the  present  number  of 
members  in  the  Society. 

The  numbers,  however,  we  are  told,  are 
of  no  great  consequence  : 

"Our  concern  with  the  Vegetarians  is  that 
they  bear  a  useful  relation,  as  far  as  they  go, 
to  certain  public  objects.  It  is  not  only  that 
they  discourage  drunkenness,  excess  in  eating, 
and  cast  their  weight,  such  as  it  is,  into  the 
scale  of  frugal  living,  but  they  directly  and 
fervently  advocate  the  purification  of  the  Thames, 
the  abolition  of  the  bad  old  practices  of  the 
shambles,  and  the  economy  of  the  sewage  of 
towns." 

We  are  obliged  for  the  compliment  to  our 
earnestness  in  acknowledged  good  things,  and, 
whilst  we  suggest  that  the  bad  practices  of 
the  shambles  are  by  no  means  antiquated,  if 
old— are  more  present  and  deformed  than  ever 
they  were  before  in  the  history  of  meat- 
eating  —  we    simply   ask  for   a  little  con- 


sideration of  our  less  understood  question 
of  Vegetarianism. 

It  often  happens  that,  in  writing,  as  in 
speaking,  when  hard  things  have  to  be 
advanced,  they  are  preceded  by  something 
as  much  as  may  be  approaching  to  com- 
pliment or  conciliation  ;  and  thus,  follow- 
ing the  above  matter,  we  are  told  that 
"  we  are  not  fair"  in  our  "statements  and 
appeals." 

"They  have  no  wish  or  intention  to  be  candid, 
and  they  make  no  pretence  to  it.  They  are 
people  of  one  idea — possessed  by  an  *  enthusiasm  ' 
— who  employ  themselves  in  presenting  a  case 
which  is,  in  their  own  eyes,  full  of  beauty  and 
goodness,  and  in  painting  all  other  sides  of  the 
great  food  question  in  the  most  disgusting  and 
shocking  colours.  They,  thus  far,  of  course,  in- 
jure their  own  case,  and  impair  their  influence ; 
but  they  are  so  earnest  and  active,  that  it  is  a 
good  to  society  when  they  get  hold  of  a  real 
mischief — like  the  cruelties  of  Siuithfield,  and  the 
gush  of  sewage  into  the  Thames." 

And  on  our  critic  goes,  to  censure  our 
many  pleas,  and  what,  to  him,  appears  con- 
flicting in  them,  in  which  even  Liebig  is, 
somehow  or  other,  involved,  and  his  "no- 
torious weakness "  referred  to ;  and,  next, 
he  suggests  that  our  "  British  Brahminism" 
produces  a  more  plentiful  supply  of 
butcher's  meat  for  those  who  want  it, 
with  references  to  long  periods  of  time  to 
prove  the  correctness  of  our  practice.  The 
boasted  health  and  spirits  of  Vegetarians  are, 
at  least,  suspect ;  and,  in  confirmation  of 
this,  we  are  told  : 

"We  have  known  rational  and  conscientious 
persons  who  have  tried  the  Vegetarian  experiment 
and  have  desisted  for  the  sake  of  tVieir  wits ;  and, 
perhaps,  our  physicians  could  tell  us  some  in- 
structive facts  about  the  proportion  of  their 
moping  patients  in  Vegetarian  districts  who  owe 
their  depression  to  their  diet." 

As  to  our  reputation  for  candour,  we  trust 
we  need  not  enter  on  our  defence  because 
we  are  mistaken  by  a  stranger.  Our  pur- 
pose being  to  benefit  others,  we  can  afford 
to  be  here  and  there  misrepresented.  But 
our  critic  forgets  that  we  could  not  succeed 
in  representing  both  sides  of  the  question 
with  the  force  we  do,  but  for  the  truthfulness 
of  our  appeals.  It  is,  truly,  because  the 
Vegetarian  system  is  beautiful  in  its  very 
details,  and  harmonizes  precisely  with  nature 
and  refinement,  whilst  the  corresponding 
features  of  meat-eating  are  as  much  in  anta- 
gonism with  nature,  that  we  have,  from  the 
first,  a  hold  on  public  attention,  and  the 
reflection  of  all  who  are  led  to  enter  into 
honest  inquiry  as  to  what  is  reasonable  and 
best,  and  the  moral  courage  to  deviate  from 

j  custom. 

I       We  are  always  inviting  attention  to  "  our 


pleas,"  and,  if  they  be  wrong,  we  shall  benefit, 
as  well  as  society,  by  their  exposure ;  but, 
hitherto,  we  cannot  admit  any  valid  reason- 
ing against  them,  and  believe  that  none  can 
be  fairly  produced.  It  is  by  the  force  of 
*'our  pleas"  that  we  alter  the  conviction, 
and  change  or  modify  the  practice  of  so  many 
who  hear  our  arguments  fully  stated,  and, 
if  not  sound,  the  eflPects  produced  could  not 
be  witnessed — the  convictions  of  individuals 
being  made  evidence,  in  large  numbers  of 
people  even,  against  the  errors  of  their  own 
dietetic  practice. 

As  to  the  time  required  for  experiment, 
it  is  forgotten  that  the  Vegetarian  system 
is  not  new,  but  a  fact  of  history  and  experi- 
ence in  all  time.  Races,  nations,  armies, 
individuals,  in  the  highest  civilization  of 
the  past,  have  practised  and  proved  it, 
Races  as  well  as  individual  experience  again 
prove  its  correctness  now,  and  as  regards 
society  here,  by  the  least  fallacious  of  com- 
parisons— that  of  a  man  with  his  former 
self,  whatever  that  might  happen  to  be. 
The  "boasted  health  and  spirits"  of  Vege- 
tarians are  but  a  popidar  expression  of  this, 
and  one  commanding  its  measure  of  respect 
too.  And  as  to  the  opinions  of  physicians, 
why,  they  can  form  few  just  ones  of  Ve- 
getarians, for  the  common  accident  of  Vege- 
tarians is  to  take  leave  of  them  in  getting 
into  their  improved  practice  ;  and  where  re- 
quired, the  experience  is  that  the  conserva- 
tive power  of  the  body  is  higher  than  on 
the  meat  diet,  and  that  less  care  and  less 
medicine  are  required  to  render  relief,  or 
effect  a  cure.  And  again,  if  some  have 
been  found  who  said  they  had  tried  Vege- 
tarianism, and  had  to  desist  for  their  wit's 
sake,  we  venture  to  say  the  experiments 
tried  were  curious  enough,  if  honestly  dis- 
closed. We  know  of  no  such  failures  where 
intelligence  and  reason  are  brought  to  bear  ; 
and  whilst  these  experiments  referred  to 
may  have  been  of  the  "  biscuit  and  water  " 
kind,  or  other  similar  ones  not  less  un- 
reasonable, commonly  to  be  associated  with 
what  are  called  "  failures,"  the  fact  is,  as 
even  meat-eaters  well  know,  the  mind  is 
clearer  and  readier  for  intellectual  occu- 
pation, as  the  body  is  for  labour,  under 
a  judicious  practice  of  abstinence  fi'om 
flesh. 

But  after  this  we  are  told, 

"  If  we  look  a  little  further — to  temper — there 
is  something  more  certain  before  us  ;  something 
quite  indubitable  to  observation.  The  Vege- 
tarians claim  for  themselves  unbounded  good 
humour ;  and  yet  their  publications  are  filled, 
from  end  to  end,  v;ith  the  coarsest  imputations 
against  the  eaters  of  meat.  All  eaters  of  meat 
are  called  gross,  coarse,  and  inhuman.  That 
they  are  so  is  taken  for  granted,  and  all  repre- 


sentations are  grounded  on  the  supposed  fact. 
Pretty  and  attractive  descriptions  of  fruits,  vege- 
table dainties,  and  confectionary,  and  of  arbours 
and  picnics  on  grassy  slopes,  and  of  limpid 
streams,  and  so  on,  are  contrasted  with  'huge 
masses  of  meat,'  '  bloody  flesh,'  and  the  like,  to 
support  the  accusation  of  grossness,  as  if  it  were 
not  possible,  if  their  adversaries  had  a  mind,  to 
describe  delicate  speckled  trout,  and  tender 
cutlets,  and  relishing  ham,  and  juicy  loins  of 
mutton,  and  in  the  same  breath,  the  swarms  of 
insect  life  which  are  devoured  with  raw  vege- 
tables, and  boiled  alive  with  cooked  ones.  The 
Vegetarians  should  remember  the  story  of  the 
Brahmin,  who,  when  shown  the  animalcule  life 
of  the  pure  water  he  drank,  broke  the  micro- 
scope." 

And  last,  are  remarks  about  the  cruelty 
to  animals  "  that  must  be  perpetrated  if  men 
left  off  eating  meat," — if  animals  were  not 
allowed  to  exist  in  such  numbers — ending 
by  remarking, 

"But  all  such  imputation  and  recrimination  is 
a  sad  pity.  What  Vegetarians  and  all  other  people 
have  to  do  is  to  eat  what  they  find  agrees  with 
them  best ;  and  '  Honi  soil  qui  mat  y  jpense.'  If 
they  will  be  satisfied  with  doing  this — or  whether, 
indeed,  they  are  so  satisfied  or  not — we  shall  be 
thankful  to  them  for  all  good  services  in  advocating 
a  reform  in  the  shambles,  a  purification  of  the 
Thames,  agricultural  improvement,  and  a  sober, 
frugal,  and  discreet  method  of  living  among  the 
working  men,  to  whom  they  are  now  particularly 
addressing  themselves." 

But,  really,  have  we  again  to  disclaim  raw 
and  unwashed  vegetables,  or  to  repeat,  once 
again,  that  the  story  of  animalcule  life  in 
pure  water  is,  like  the  hint  of  the  Brahmin, 
purely  a  story  of  the  least  reputable  kind — 
fermenting  vegetable  matter  in  water,  or 
stagnant  pond  or  ditch  water,  being  required 
to  produce  the  effects  referred  to ;  or  that, 
demand  falling  off,  the  supply  of  animals 
(created  in  obedience  to  the  dictates  of  a  taste 
for  flesh)  will  also  diminish  in  a  progressive 
and  insensible  way  } 

For  the  rest,  we  have  here  the  evidence 
presented  by  large  audiences,  that  there  is  a 
singular  and  convincing  effect  produced  by  a 
single  honest  exposition  of  our  principles; 
for  how  else  can  we  read  these  remarks,  ob- 
viously suggested  by  the  perusal  of  our  recent 
number  following  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
Society  ?  and  after  we  have  set  the  matter 
right  as  to  "temper,"  by  saying  that  a  great 
mistake  is  here  made,  and  that  while  coarse 
expressions,  as  regard  the  system  of  eating  the 
flesh  of  animals,  are  avoided  by  us,  and  no 
instance  of  reproach  to  individuals  is  offered, 
we  can  only  fairly  conclude  that  the  matter 
about  our  denunciation  is  rather  suggested 
by  the  conviction  and  imaginative  per- 
ceptions of  our  critic,  than  by  anything  found 
in  other  Vesretarian  writing.     "We  will  not 


THE   CONTROVERSIALIST  AND    CORRESPONDENT. 


99 


venture  into  the  comparison  suggested  by  the 
"  speckled  trout"  (beautiful,  truly,  in  a  state 
of  nature,  like  the  other  creatures  commonly 
destroyed  for  food),  "tender  cutlets,  and  re- 
lishing ham,"  for  this  would  be  attempting 
to  contrast  the  rude  rhyme  of  artificial  habit 
with  the  true  poetry  of  nature,  in  her  teeming 
stores  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  this, 
like  some  of  our  other  sayings,  might  be  by 
mistake  applied  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
individual,  rather  than  to  the  errors  of  the 
mixed  "diet  system. 

On  the  whole,  then,  whilst  we  apologize  to 
our  readers  for  the  length  of  this  notice,  we 
congratulate  them  upon  the  additional  evi- 
dence it  presents  of  the  soundness  and  im- 
portance of  the  arguments  "which  support  the 
V  egetarian  practice. 

RECENT    CONTROVERSIAL    ARTICLES. 

J.  B. — The  recent  articles  of  several  news- 
papers, provoked,  no  doubt,  by  the  influence 
of  the  recent  meetings  and  lectures  in  Scot- 
land and  Newcastle,  are  none  of  them, we  fear 
worthy  of  any  notice  in  our  limited  space. 
The  excellent  President  of  the  Society  might 
well  have  been  covered  with  proof  arguments, 
from  the  little  that  seems  to  have  been 
taken  exception  to,  and  which  a  moment's 
consideration  on  the  part  of  the  writer,  if  in 
candour  and  honesty,  would  not  have  dis- 
sipated. Our  space,  however,  having  already 
been  much  drawn  upon  in  this  direction,  we 
must  reserve  any  notice  of  the  correspondence 
referred  to,  and  merely  here  give  a  letter 
inserted  in  the  Edinburgh  News,  with  a  reply 
by  Mr.  Simpson,  a  copy  of  which  we  are 
favoured  with. 

DIETETIC    REFORM. 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Edinburgh  News." 

"  Sir — In  Mr.  Simpson's  address  on  dietetic 
reform,  as  reported  in  the  News  of  Saturday 
last,  the  following  passages  occur  : — '  Scripture 
was  supposed  to  sweep  away  all  their  arguments 
at  once.  Flesh-eating  had  been  permitted  since 
the  flood ;  but  it  would  be  admitted  that  a  per- 
missive system  was  inferior  to  a  direct  appoint- 
ment.' And,  farther  on — 'Christ  was  sup- 
posed to  have  eaten  fish.  Some  commentators, 
however,  doubted  what  was  meant  by  the  word 
rendered  'fish;'  and,  while  he  would  leave  all 
in  freedom,  he  begged  to  say  that  the  most  that 
could  be  said  was,  that  Christ  sat  at  table 
where  this  food  was  ;  that  he  partook  of  it  there 
was  no  direct  evidence.' 

"  'The  herb  bearing  seed  and  the  tree  bearing 
fruit '  were  certainly  given  in  the  beginning  to 
man  for  food,  but  at  the  same  time  there  was 
given  to  every  beast,  fowl,  and  creeping  thing, 
every  green  herb  for  meat ;  and  so,  according  to 
Mr.  Simpson's  mode  of  argument,  no  carnivo- 
rous animals  were  created  until  a  later  period. 
The  '  permissive  system '  introduced  after  the 
flood  may  or  may  not  have  been  the  commence- 
ment of   flesh-eating,    but  the  permission   was 


certainly  given  as  a  blessing ;  for  we  find  in 
Genesis  ix.  that  '  God  blessed  Noah  and  his 
sons,'  and  a  part  of  the  blessing  was  in  these 
words — 'Every  moving  thing  that  liveth  shall 
be  meat  for  you.'  In  the  institution  of  the 
feast  of  the  Passover,  this  positive  command  is 
given — '  They  shall  eat  the  flesh  (of  the  lamb 
appointed  to  be  slain  in  every  house)  in  that 
night  roast  with  fire.'  Again,  when  Elijah  the 
prophet  was  in  hiding  by  the  brook  Cherith,  he 
was  miraculously  fed  by  the  ravens  with  '  bread 
and  flesh  in  the  morning,  and  bread  and  flesh  in 
the  evening  ' — a  direct  sanction,  at  least,  of  the 
system. 

'"Christ  was  supposed  to  have  eaten  fish; 
but,'  says  Mr.  Simpson,  '  that  he  partook  of  it 
there  is  no  direct  evidence.'  But,  turning  to 
the  24th  chapter  of  St.  Luke,  we  find  that  the 
disciples  '  gave  him  a  piece  of  a  broiled  fish  and 
of  an  honeycomb ;  and  he  took  it,  and  did  eat 
before  them.'  And  on  many  occasions  he  gave 
this  food  to  others.  Whatever  doubts  learned 
commentators  may  entertain  as  to  the  meaning 
of  the  -word  rendered  '  fish,'  I  humbly 
think  that  very  little  difference  of  opinion  need 
exist  on  the  subject  :  for  we  read  of  the  disciples 
fishing  with  nets  in  the  Sea  of  Tiberias  and 
elsewhere,  and  I  think  it  most  probable  that  the 
fishes  caught  with  nets  in  those  days  were  at  all 
events  creatures  of  the  same  species  as  the  fish 
caught  now. 

'■'It  appears  to  me  that  Vegetarians,  in  enforcing 
their  views,  are  doing  their  utmost  to  inculcate 
error,  and  are  teaching  men  to  be  guilty  of  in- 
gratitude, by  rejecting  and  considering  as  little 
better  than  a  curse  that  which  has  been  given  to 
us  as  a  blessing.  There  is  a  passage  in  St.  Paul's 
First  Epistle  to  Timothy,  which  I  conceive  to 
have  a  very  direct  bearing  on  this  subject — '  In 
the  latter  times  some  shall  depart  from  the  faith, 
giving  heed  to  seducing  spirits,  and  doctrines  of 
devils  ;  speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy  ;  having  their 
conscience  seared  with  a  hot  iron  ;  forbidding  to 
marry,  and  commanding  to  abstain  from  meats, 
i  which  God  bath  created  to  be  received  with 
thanksgiving  of  them  which  believe  and  know 
the  truth.  For  every  creature  of  God  is  good, 
and  nothing  to  be  refused,  if  it  be  received  with 
thanksgiving."  "  I  am,  etc., 

"Udinburgh,  IGth  October,  1855."  "  T." 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Edinburgh  News" 
"  Sir — I  beg  to  address  a  few  remarks,  rather 
under  a  sense  of  duty  then  in  the  spirit  of  con- 
troversy, with  the  object  of  correcting  an  impres- 
sion into  which  some  of  your  readers  may  pro- 
bably have  fallen,  from  the  nature  and  obvious  sin- 
cerity of  the  communication  of  your  correspondent 
'  T,'  in  your  paper  of  Saturday  last.  In  the  ad- 
dress at  the  Queen  Street  Hall,  as  given  (though 
somewhat  at  disadvantage)  in  the  condensed 
report  of  the  Edinburgh  News  of  the  13th  inst.  it 
was  attempted  to  be  shown  that  the  Vegetarian 
practice  of  diet  is  established  in  the  natural  con- 
stitution of  man,  as  the  only  dietetic  system  in 
harmony  with  his  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  nature.  In  proof  of  this,  arguments  were 
presented  in  relation  to  the  special  instincts  of 
man,  to  anatomy,  physiology,  chemistry,  history, 


and  experience,  showing  that  man  was  not  recon-  , 
stituted  with  the  permission  to  eat  the  flesh  of 
animals  after  the  flood,  but  that  there  is  the 
same  wisdom  in  subsistence  upon  fruits,  roots, 
and  grain,  now,  as  there  doubtless  was  in  the 
original  appointment  of  the  '  herb  bearing  seed 
and  the  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit,'  in  the  primitive 
condition  of  man,  when  all  things  were  declared 
to  be  '  very  good.' 

"The  remarks  of  your  correspondent  '  T,' 
would,  however,  though  unintentionally,  lead  the 
reader  to  suppose  that  the  Vegetarian  system 
had  been  argued  on  scriptural  grounds,  and  had 
thus  a  moral  obligation  attached  to  it,  which  was 
not  the  case.  Scripture  only  being  referred  to  in 
refutation  of  the  statement  that  the  Bible  was 
opposed  to  Vegetarianism,  except  so  far  as  to 
point  out  the  history  of  the  appointment  of 
man's  food,  and  the  history  of  the  question  sub- 
sequent to  the  fall  of  man,  to  the  sanction  of 
which  your  correspondent  refers. 

"I  am  the  more  anxious  to  correct  this  erro- 
neous impression,  because  the  Vegetarian  Society 
is  an  organization  apart  from  any  code  of  opinions 
whatever,  and  merely  numbers  within  its  ranks  all 
who,  having  abjured  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food, 
are  desirous  of  spreading  a  knowledge  of  the  prac- 
tical benefit  thence  resulting. 

"  I  much  regret,  that  your  correspondent  should 
have  committed  the  mistake  of  cohcluding,.  'that 
Vegetarians,  in  enforcing  their  views,  are  doing 
their  utmost  to  inculcate  error,  and  are  teaching 
men  to  be  guilty  of  ingratitude,  by  rejecting  and 
considering  as  little  better  than  a  curse  that 
which  has  been  given  to  us  as  a  blessing.*  A 
little  consideration  and  a  better  acquaintance 
with  the  objects  of  the  Vegetarian  movement 
might,  doubtless,  have  prevented  this,  as  well  as 
the  offensive  reference  to  the  apostacy  referred  to 
by  St.  Paul  in  his  epistle  to  Timothy.  Vege- 
tarians, even  if  the  common  acceptation  of  the 
terra  '  meats'  be  permitted,  do  not  '  command ' 
to  abstain  at  all,  but  simply  invite  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  system,  as  more  in  accordance 
with  nature,  reason,  and  enlightened  civilization, 
than  preying  upon  the  animal  creation  for  what, 
iu  sober  fact,  is  vegetable  nutriment  after  all, 
and  if  philosophically  taken  from  the  orchard, 
the  garden,  and  the  farm,  might  be  had  simply, 
cheaply,  at  first  hand,  and  without  the  accidents 
of  disease. 

"  I  am.  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  JAMES  SIMPSON." 

''Foxhill  Bank,  Oct.  25th,  1855." 

"VVe  are  happy  to  see  that  the  object  of 
Mr.  Simpson  in  his  letter,  is  to  prevent 
misconception  as  to  the  object  of  the  Vege- 
tarian movement,  rather  than  to  enter  upon 
expositions  of  texts,  or  the  theories  of  Scrip- 
ture, though  much  might  doubtless  be  said 
upon  the  subject,  were  it  not  one  which  a 
little  careful  reading  will  readily  settle  in 
the  minds  of  all  who  look  beyond  the  mere 
letter  of  Scripture. 

THE    "vegetarian    HUMBUG  "    TRACT. 

H.  J. — We  withhold  any  further  brief  re- 


marks upon  the  tract  mentioned  in  our  last,* 
after  observing,  in  accordance  with  our 
promise,  that  the  gross  perversion  of  the 
chemical  statements,  made  by  Liebig  in 
speaking  of  the  brine  of  meat,  in  his  Letters 
on  Chemistry,  has  already  been  exposed  in 
the  3{essenger.f  Liebig  speaks  of  salt 
extracting  the  mineral  or  inorganic  matter 
of  meat  covered  with  it,  and  that  the  brine 
formed,  then  contains  nearly^all  the  nutritive 
parts  of  the  meat,  and  proceeds  to  call  this 
fluid  surrounding  the  meat,  "  not  common 
water,  but  soup,  with  all  its  constituents, 
organic  and  inorganic."  The  fallacy  of  the 
writer  of  the  Vegetarian  Humbug  tract, 
consists  in  speaking  of  the  63  4-lOths  of 
common  water  found  in  100  lbs.  of  butcher's 
meat,  as  containing  the  ingredients  of  the 
brine  above  referred  to,  which  is  not  the  case, 
the  whole  available  matter  in  the  100  lbs. 
of  butcher's  meat,  of  every  kind,  being  only 
36  6-lOthslbs. 

Parts  of  three  separate  sentences  of  a 
page  of  Liebig's  writing  have  to  be  joined 
together,  rejecting  all  intermediate  matter,  to 
make  up  this  garbled  statement,  "  that  the 
water  of  flesh  is  nutritive,"  and  thus  the 
absurdity  is  promulgated  with  the  influence 
of  a  great  name  falsely  attached  to  it. 

The  other  glaring  misrepresentation  con- 
sists in  conveying  to  the  minds  of  strangers 
that  there  is  some  religious  creed  attached  to 
Veo-etarianism.  The  Vesretarian  organiza- 
tion  having  neither  creed  or  moral  opinions 
to  be  subscribed  to,  but  simply  abstinence 
from  flesh,  and  co-operation  to  make  known 
its  benefits  to  others  "  as  a  bond  of  union," 
it  is  needless  to  say  it  embraces  every  one, 
however  varied  their  opinions,  and  thus  does 
practically  embrace  all  classes  of  religionists, 
without  the  Society  being  identified  with 
any.  The  effect  of  the  tract  is  thus,  here 
again,  to  pervert  and  mislead. 

We  fear  the  tract  in  question  is  not  worthy 
of  further  notice,  but  shall  be  glad  see  what 
H.  J.  can  offer  as  useful  in  connexion  with 
the  subject,  if  he  thinks  well  to  condense  his 
remarks  to  a  brief  space 

JEWISH    MODE    or    SLAUGHTERING    ANIMALS. 

S.  J. — We  give  some  comments  upon  the 
case  referred  to  in  our  present  number^, 
and  here  present  the  best  notice  we  have 
seen  of  the  case,  for  the  perusal  of  S.  J.  and 
our  other  readers,  from  the  Daily  News, 

Curious  Question-— Slaughtering  of 
Animals  for  Food. — A  momentous  ques- 
tion was  on  Tuesday  submitted  for  the  deci- 
sion of  the  Lord  Mayor's  Court  —  the  com- 
parative   humanity    of    Jewish   and    Christian 

*  Controversialist  and  Correspondent,'^.  Q\. 
+  Vol.  ill,  Controversialist  and  Correspondent,"^.  2. 
X  p.  95. 


THE  VEGETARIAN  TREASURY. 


101 


butchers.  The  Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Animals,  under  a  profound  con- 
viction that  the  former  are  in  the  habit  of 
inflicting  unnecessary  cruelty  upon  the  bullocks 
they  slaughter,  have  conceived  the  brilliant  idea 
of  converting  them  to  the  gentler  process  of  the 
latter,  by  exacting  from  them  the  penalties  of  the 
Act  of  Parliament  passed  in  1849.  It  appeared 
in  evidence,  that  the  Jewish  and  Christian  modes 
of  slaughtering  a  bullock — at  least  in  the  London 
slaughter-houses — areas  follow: — The  Jews  cut 
the  throat  of  the  aiiimal,  and  allow  him  to  bleed 
to  death.  The  Christiana  cleave  its  skull  with  a 
pole-axe,  and  thrust  a  cane  into  the  aperture, 
"to  stir  about  the  brains."  As  far  as  we  can 
judge  from  description,  we  should  be  disposed 
to  say  that  the  spectacle  presented  by  the  Chris- 
tian process  is  the  more  revolting  and  brutalising 
of  the  two.     It  is,  however,  possible  that  it  may 


subject  the  animal  to  less  suffering.  But  how  is 
this  to  be  ascertained  ?  It  is  said  that  the  animal 
is  longer  in  dying  by  the  Jewish  than  by  the 
Christian  process  ;  but  does  it  thence  follow  of 
necessity  that  the  pain  suffered  is  more  intense? 
Classical  readers  will  recal  the  story  of  the  old 
Romans  under  the  tyrant  Emperors,  who  chose 
death  by  bleeding  as  the  least  painful  mode. 
The  evidence  on  this  point  submitted  to  the 
Court  of  the  Lord  Mayor  was  in  a  great  measure 
hypothetical.  Such  being  the  state  of  the  case, 
the  decision  of  Sir  Peter  Laurie  was  sensible 
and  just — that  it  did  not  appear  that  the  mode  of 
slaughter  adopted  by  the  Jews,  inflicted  so  much 
more  pain  on  the  slaughtered  animal  as  to 
warrant  the  oft'ering  of  any  shock  to  their 
religious  opinions.  And,  consequently,  it  is  with 
regret  that  we  learn  the  determination  of  the  So- 
ciety to  carry  the  matter  before  a  higher  tribunal. 


THE   INFLUENCE    OF   WAR 


THK    VEGETARIAN    TREASURY. 

to  move.  A  small  amount  of  the  food 
being  now  expended  in  the  production  of 
motion,  the  pig  rapidly  increases  in  size.* 
This  experiment  forms  an  excellent  illustra- 
tion of  the  theory,  that  force  is  produced  by 
an  expenditure  of  matter.  —  Dr.  Lyon 
Playfair. 


War  suspends  the  rules  of  moral  obliga- 
tion, and  what  is  long  suspended  is  in  dan- 
ger of  being  totally  abrogated.  Civil  wars 
strike  deepest  of  all  into  the  manners  of  the 
people.  They  vitiate  their  politics ;  they 
corrupt  their  morals  ;  they  prevent  even  the 
natural  taste  and  relish  of  equity  and  justice. 
By  teaching  us  to  consider  our  fellow- 
creatures  in  an  hostile  light,  the  whole  body 
of  our  nation  becomes  gradually  less  dear  to 
us.  The  very  names  of  affection  and  kin- 
dred, which  were  the  bonds  of  charity 
whilst  we  agreed,  become  new  incentives  to 
hatred  and  rage  when  the  communion  of  our 
country  is  dissolved. — Burke. 

CRUELTIES     PRACTISED     IN     THE   FATTENING 
OF   ANIMALS. 

Probably  none  of  Liebig's  theories  may 
appear  so  problematical  as  that  which  asserts 
that  every  manifestation  of  force,  however 
trivial,  is  accompanied  by  a  change  of  matter 
in  the  body.  Yet  there  is  no  theory  which 
can  be  more  easily  proved  by  reference  to 
your  own  experience.  You  are  well  aware 
that  poultry  feeders  confine  their  poultry 
when  it  is  necessary  to  fatten  them  quickly. 
The  cruel  practice  of  nailing  the  feet  of 
geese  to  the  ground  during  fattening  is  owing 
to  the  anxiety  of  avaricious  feeders  to  pre- 
vent the  expenditure  of  a  particle  of  the 
food  by  the  motion  of  the  animal.  The 
greatest  part*  of  the  food  consumed  by  an 
animal  thus  deprived  of  the  means  of  motion 
goes  to  the  production  of  fat.  When  pigs 
are  put  up  to  be  fattened,  they  are  removed 
from  the  yard  in  which  exercise  is  permitted, 
and  placed  in  a  narrow  sty,  with  little  room 

*  Not  all,  because  the  involuntary  motions,  such 
as  those  of  the  heart  and  intestines,  still  proceed, 
and  the  heat  of  the  body  has  to  be  sustained  by  the 
combustion  of  a  portion  of  the  food. 


THE    CROAT   LABOURERS. 

The  Croat  labourers  astonish  all  who  see 
them,  by  the  enormous  loads  they  carry,  and 
by  their  great  physical  strength  and  en- 
durance.    Broad-chested,   flat-backed    men, 

*  An  excellent  proof  of  this  view  has  been  kindly 
pointed  out  to  me  by  Mr.  W.  Stage,  of  Berwick, 
near  Lewes,  The  experiment  was  performed  by 
Lord  Egremont,  about  the  end  of  the  last  century, 
and  is  described  in  Young's  Survey  of  Sussex,  in 
the  following  "words  ; — 

' '  As  there  were  some  hogs  that  we  wanted  to  keep 
over  the  summer,  seven  of  the  largest  were  put  up 
to  fat  on  the  25th  of  February ;  they  were  fatted 
U!  on  barley-meal,  of  which  they  had  as  much  as 
they  could  eat.  Some  days  after,  the  observation 
of  a  particular  circumstance  suggested  the  fol- 
lowing experiment: — A  hog,  nearly  of  the  same 
size  as  the  seven,  but  who  had  not  been  put  up  with 
them,  because  they  appeared  rather  larger,  but 
without  weighing  them,  was  confined  on  the  4th  of 
March  in  a  cage  made  of  planks,  of  which  one  side 
was  made  to  move  with  pegs,  so  as  to  fit  exactly  the 
size  of  the  hog,  with  small  holes  at  the  bottom,  to  al- 
low the  water  to  drain  from  him,  and  a  door  behind 
to  remove  the  soil.  The  cage  stood  upon  four  feet, 
about  one  foot  from  the  ground,  and  was  made  to 
confine  the  hog  so  closely,  that  he  could  only  stand 
up  to  feed,  and  lie  down  on  his  belly.  He  had 
only  two  bushels  of  barley  meal,  and  the  rest  of 
his  food  was  boiled  potatoes.  They  were  all  killed 
on  the  13th  of  April,  and  the  weights  were  as 
follows  (8  lbs.  to  the  stone); — 
The  hog  in  the  cage  .  .  .  13  st.  2  lbs. 
The  average  weight  of  the  other  hogs, 

all  of  the  same  breed        .         .         .     list.  3  lbs. 

The  hog  in  the  cage  was  weighed  before  he  was 
put  in  alive,  11  st,  1  lb. ;  he  was  kept  five  weeks,  and 
then  weighed  alive,  18  st.  3  lbs.  He  had  two 
bushels  of  barley-meal,  and  about  eight  bushels  of 
potatoes.  He  was  quite  sulky  for  the  first  two 
days,  and  would  eat  nothing." 


round-shouldered,  with  long  arms,  lean 
flanks,  thick  muscular  thighs,  and  their  calf- 
less  legs — feeding  simply,  and  living  quietly 
and  temperately — the  Croats  perform  daily 
an  amount  of  work  in  conveying  heavy 
articles  on  their  backs,  which  would  amaze 
any  one  who  has  not  seen  a  Constantinople 
hamal.  Their  camp,  outside  the  town,  is 
extremely  picturesque,  and,  I  am  bound  to 
add,  dirty.  A  rich  flavour  of  onions  impreg- 
nates the  air  for  a  considerable  distance 
around,  mingled  with  reminiscences  of  an- 
cient Parmesan,  and  the  messes  which  the 
nasty-handed  Phillises  dress  for  themselves 
do  not  look  very  inviting,  but  certainly  con- 
tain plenty  of  nutriment,  and  are  better,  I 
dare  say,  than  the  tough  pork  and  tougher 
biscuit  of  our  own  ration.  The  men  are  like 
Greeks  of  the  Isles  in  dress,  arms,  and  car- 
riage ;  but  they  have  an  expression  of  honest 
ferocity,  courage,  and  manliness  in  their 
faces,  which  at  once  distinguishes  them 
from  their  Hellenic  brethren.  "We  have  also 
a  number  of  strong  hamals  in  our  service, 
who  are  very  useful  as  beasts  of  burden  to 
the  commissariat.  —  Times^  Correspondent, 
March  2nd,  1855. 

AFRICAN   EPICURISM. 

African  epicures  esteem  as  one  of  their 
greatest  delicacies  a  tender  young  monkey, 
highly  seasoned  and  spiced,  and  baked  in  a 
jar  set  in  the  earth,  with  a  fire  over  it,  in 
gipsy  fashion. — A  Month  at  Algiers. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  CONSUMPTION  OF  TEA  AND 
COFFEE  ON  THE  POOR. 

The  poorest  and  humblest  amongst  us,  who 
has  his  own  little  earnings  to  spend,  devotes 
a  small  part  of  it  to  the  purchase  of  tea  or 
coffee.  He  can  barely  buy  bread  and  milk, 
or  potatoes  and  salt,  yet  the  cup  of  tea  or 
coffee  is  preferred  to  the  extra  potato  or  the 
somewhat  larger  loaf.  And  if  thereby  his 
stomach  is  less  filled,  his  hunger  is  equally 
stayed,  and  his  comfort,  both  bodily  and 
mental,  wonderfully  increased.  He  will 
probably  live  as  long  under  the  one  regimen 
as  the  other ;  and  while  he  does  live,  he 
will  both  be  less  miserable  in  mind,  and  will 
show  more  blood  and  spirit  in  the  face  of 
difficulties,  than  if  he  had  denied  himself 
his  trifling  indulgence.  Besides  the  mere 
brickwork  and  marble,  so  to  speak,  by  Avhich 
the  human  body  is  built  up  and  sustained, 
there  are  rarer  forms  of  matter  upon  which 
the  life  of  the  body  and  the  comfort  of  ani- 
mal existence  most  essentially  depend.  This 
truth  is  not  unworthy  the  consideration  of 
those  to  whom  the  arrangement  of  the 
dietaries  of  our  prisons,  and  other  public 
institutions,  has  been  intrusted.  So  many 
ounces  of  gluten,  and  so  many  of  starch  and 


fat,  are  assigned  by  these  food-providers  as 
an  ample  allowance  for  everyday  use.  From 
these  dietaries,  except  for  the  infirm  and  the 
invalid,  tea  and  coffee  are  for  the  most  part 
excluded.  And  in  this  they  follow  the 
counsel  of  those  who  have  hitherto  been  re- 
garded as  chief  authorities  on  the  chemistry 
of  nutrition.  But  it  is  worthy  of  trial 
whether  the  lessening  of  the  general  bodily 
waste  which  would  follow  the  consumption 
of  a  daily  allowance  of  coffee,  would  not 
cause  a  saving  of  gluten  and  starch  equal  to 
the  cost  of  the  coffee ;  and  should  this  not 
prove  the  case,  whether  the  increased  com- 
fort and  happiness  of  the  inmates,  and  the 
greater  consequent  facility  of  management, 
would  not  make  up  for  the  difference,  if  any . 
The  inquiry  is  an  interesting  one  in  physio- 
logical economics,  and  it  is  not  undeserving 
of  the  serious  attention  of  those  benevolent 
minds  which,  in  so  many  parts  of  our  islands, 
have  found  in  the  prisons  and  houses  of  cor- 
rection their  most  favourite  fields  of  exer- 
tion.— Johnston's  Chemistry  of  Common  Life. 

LENTILS. 

These  plants  are  rarely  grown  in  England, 
and  then  only  as  food  for  cattle.  In  most 
parts  of  the  Continent  they  are  cultivated 
for  the  use  of  man,  and  the  seeds  are  made 
into  soups,  or  become  an  ingredient  in  other 
culinary  preparations.  They  are  readily 
softened  by,  and  mixed  with  water,  forming 
with  it  a  pottage  of  a  chocolate  colour.  In 
Catholic  countries,  where  the  formulary 
enjoins  a  number  of  meagre  days,  such 
plants  as  the  kidney  bean,  and  the  lentil 
are  more  cultivated  than  they  are  in  coun- 
tries where  the  religion  of  the  people  does 
not  prescribe  the  same  observances.  In 
England  there  are  no  fasts  scattered  through 
the  year,  on  which  the  people  are  expected 
to  subsist  upon  pulse,  with  the  addition  of 
vegetable  oils.  The  use  of  haricots  and 
lentils  is  therefore  but  little  known  in  this 
country. 

According  to  the  analysis  of  Dr.  Play- 
fair,  the  lentil  contains  more  nitrogenous 
matter  than  any  of  the  leguminosse,  and 
consequently  is  more  nutritious  where 
digested  than  any  of  the  other  forms  of 
leguminous  seeds.*  The  lentil  is  con- 
sumed in  the  East  in  considerable  quanti- 
ties, and  a  curious  proof  of  its  value  as 
a  nutritious  diet  is  afforded  by  the  use 
which  is  made  of  it  amongst  the  Hindoos, 
who  always  have  recourse  to  lentils  in  addi- 
tion to  their  rice  when  engaged  in  laborious 
work,  such  as  rowing  on  the  Ganges,  etc.— 
H.  C.  in  Family  Friend. 

*  See  Vegetarian  Messenger,  vol.  iii.  Contro- 
versialist and  Correspondent,  p.  25. 


THE   FACTS   AT   OUR   DOORS. 


103 


THE    RECENT    BIRMINGHAM    BANQUET. 


The  whole  proceedings  in  connection  with 
the  recent  Festival  in  Birmingham,  have, 
we  learn,  proved  highly  satisfactory  to  all 
present,  whether  as  guests  or  as  Vegetarians, 
interested  in  the  success  of  the  undertaking. 
The  appearance  of  the  Town  Hall,  highly 
decorated  as  it  is,  with  its  nine  long  lines  of 
tables  decorated  with  bouquets  of  flowers 
and  evergreens,  was  at  once  striking  and 
beautiful,  and  when  the  seats  were  filled 
with  guests,  and  the  complete  provision  of 
the  entertainment  placed  before  them,  all 
doubt  as  to  the  practicability  of  the  Vege- 
tarian system  of  living,  seemed,  with  the 
merest  stranger,  for  the  time  at  least, 
most  effectually  removed. 

Nor   have  we   reason  to   say  less  of  the 


reception  of  the  intellectual  entertainment 
that  followed,  interspersed  with  brilliant 
pieces  of  music  by  a  large  and  most  effective 
orchestra,  and  received  with  the  liveliest 
interest  by  the  audience,  largely  increased 
after  the  Banquet  was  over,  by  the  admis- 
sion of  strangers  to  the  great  gallery,  and 
side  galleries  of  the  Hall. 

On  the  whole,  we  remember  no  entertain- 
ment so  complete  in  arrangements  as  this, 
and  with  the  able  assistance  rendered  from 
a  distance,  think  the  promise  of  a  festival, 
"on  a  scale  of  magnificence"  hitherto  un- 
surpassed, was  amply  redeemed  by  our 
Birmingham  friends,  and  that  its  influence 
must  tend  considerably  to  the  advancement 
of  Vegetarianism  in  the  midland  counties. 


THE    CLOSE    0 

We  have  little  to  intimate  to  our  subscribers 
and  friends,  in  relation  to  the  close  of 
another  period  of  our  labours  in  their  ser- 
vice, and  that  of  the  Vegetarian  cause, 
beyond  the  fact  that  we  hope  to  continue 
our  efforts  to  extend  the  knowledge  of  Ve- 
getarianism, as  usual,  with  the  commence- 
ment of  the  coming  year. 

In  reviewing  the  period  since  the  Annual 
Meeting,  it  is  encouraging  to  notice  the 
number  of  large  and  important  meetings 
that  have  taken  place  both  in  Scotland  and 
England,  as  well  as  the  Banquets  given 
in  Glasgow  and  Birmingham,  and  with  a 
proposed  visit  of  the  President  of  the  So- 
ciety to  Yorkshire,  Lincolnshire,  and  Essex, 
if  not  to  London  also,  during  the  course  of 
the  present  month,  we  think  there  is  encou- 
raging evidence  of  activity,  such  as  affords 
the  best  earnest  of  usefulness  during  the 
approaching  year. 

The  season,  however,  is  one  of  profitable 


F    THE    YEAR. 

reflection  for  all,  and  especially  so  if  the 
short  comings  of  each  during  the  past  year 
be  carefully  reviewed,  in  the  honest  purpose 
of  discharging  many  obligations  to  the 
world  in  the  coming  year,  which  have  been 
permitted  either  to  lie  over,  or  have  only 
received  a  very  limited  share  of  our  atten- 
tion during  the  present  year.  We  have, 
doubtless,  many  zealous  friends  and  earnest 
workers  in  the  spread  of  Vegetarianism,  and 
others  who  subscribe  liberally  of  their  means 
to  this  end ;  but  what  we  seek,  and  hope 
for,  is  a  still  more  extended  service  of  our 
cause,  both  in  money  and  advocacy,  than  we 
are  now  favoured  with,  and  such  as  shall 
bring  out  and  absorb  the  power  for  useful- 
ness of  many  who  are  not  now  active  co- 
workers with  us.  May  we  not  reasonably 
hope  that  the  year  1856  will  call  into  acti- 
vity this  comparatively  unproductive  capital, 
and  from  this  time  make  it  abundantly  pro- 
ductive in  the  service  of  humanity ! 


THE    EACTS    A 

It  is  singular  that  so  many  pertinent  facts, 
illustrating  the  sufficiency  and  complete- 
ness of  the  Vegetarian  practice  of  diet, 
should  so  constantly  present  themselves 
to  every  observer  in  every  country  of  the 
world,  including  those  the  most  flesh-eat- 
ing, without  these  appearing  to  have  their 


12 


T    OUR    DOORS. 

due  weight,  or,  indeed,  to  have  been  noticed. 
A  small  section  only  of  the  people  of  the 
earth,  amounting  only  to  from  a  fourth  to  a 
third  of  the  whole,  consume  flesh  habitually, 
whilst  the  remaining  two-thirds  to  three- 
fourths  subsist  upon  the  products  of  the  vege- 
table kingdom.     But  still  the  popular  con- 


104 


THE   CONTROVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


viction  is  anything  but  in  accordance  with 
this  ;  and  though  in  every  country  of  Europe 
most  advanced  in  arts  and  civilization,  the 
notion  prevails  that  *' everybody  eats  meat," 
we  find  that  these  even  are  no  exceptions, 
but  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  great  bulk  of 
the  hard  work  of  the  world  is  done  upon  a 
diet  ranging  between  the  various  articles  of 
vegetable  food,  the  flesh  of  animals  being 
rarely  used. 

An  interesting  incident  of  the  observations 
of  Professor  Cubi,  of  Barcelona,  a  distin- 
guished mental  philosopher,  amply  corro- 
borates these  conclusions  in  relation  to 
Spain. 

"  In  the  province  of  Spain,  called  Ya- 
lencia,  we  find  a  race  of  men  and  women, 
celebrated  for  strength  and  beauty  beyond 
those  of  other  parts  of  the  country  ;  this  is 
a  fact  so  well  known  that  I  need  make  no 
comment  upon  it.  These  people  live  en- 
tirely upon  rice  and  other  vegetable  products. 
In  Gallago,  also,  you  find  a  very  strong 
race  of  men.  If  you  wish  a  proof,  I  refer 
you  to  the  documents  of  "Wellington,  who 
speaks  of  them  as  the  finest  and  bravest  race 
in  Spain.  Ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred 
of  these  live  on  bread  made  of  Indian  corn  ; 
and,  if  they  eat  anything  else,  it  is  the  leaves 
of  turnips  boiled  with  this  bread.  In  the 
province  in  which  I  was  born,  again,  the 
people  live  upon  vegetables,  and  chiefly 
upon  Indian  corn,  not  made  into  bread,  but 
simply  boiled ;  and,  certainly,  I  never  saw  a 
race  of  men  finer,  gayer,  or  more  pleased 
with  their  work.  When  I  arrived  in  Eng- 
land, some  three  years  ago,  having  been  ac- 
customed to  hear  it  spoken  of  as  '  the  garden 
of  the  world,'  I  was  very  much  surprised 
to  see  the  greatest  portion  of  the  land  em- 
ployed for  raising  food  for   cattle.    Can  a 


nation  be  called  great  which  fills  its  fields 
with  food  for  animals  chiefly  ^  In  Spain 
you  will  find  scarcely  a  field  that  is  not  filled 
with  the  produce  of  grain  for  the  food  of 
man. 

"  Until  visiting  England,  I  had  no  know- 
ledge  of  a  higher  principle  of  living  than 
that  which  commonly  prevails  ;  but  now  I 
see  that  this  principle  was  held  by  men  of 
ancient  times.  It  is  not  a  question  of  to- 
day merely  ;  I  see  that  all  men,  and  animals 
too,  in  proportion  as  they  rise  in  morals  and 
excellence,  are  distinguished  by  adherence 
to  Vegetarian  diet.  AVhich  is  the  largest 
animal  in  the  brute  creation  .►>  Is  he  not  a 
Vegetarian  }  What  are  the  most  useful 
animals  ?  The  horse,  and  camel,  and  others 
of  that  kind.  These,  too,  are  Vegetarians. 
Which  are  the  most  destructive  and  merci- 
less ?  Are  they  not  the  carnivorous  tribes  ? 
This  is  right:  it  is  correct;  just  as  it 
ought  to  be." 

Another  striking  fact  overlooked,  is  the 
small  amount  of  the  flesh  of  animals  con- 
sumed, as  compared  with  the  bulk  of  other 
vegetable  matter*;  whilst,  notwithstanding, 
the  fiesh-meat  has  the  credit  of  doing  n'early 
everything  in  supplying  the  wants  of  the 
body. 

Professor  Cubi  remarks,  that  until  visiting 
this  country,  and  having  his  attention 
directed  to  the  subject,  "  the  higher  principle 
of  living"  had  not  engaged  his  attention; 
and  it  is  just  here,  no  doubt,  as  everywhere 
else,  the  force  of  habitual  thinking  and 
acting  has  to  be  arrested,  to  give  time  for 
new  perceptions  and  reflection,  before  the 
truths  which  prevail  around  us  can  be  dis- 
cerned, and  again  serve  as  guides  in  the 
paths  of  nature  and  of  happiness,  from 
which  we  have  wandered. 


THE    CONTROVERSIALIST 

CONTROVERSIAL   ARTICLES. 

J.  B. — The  newspapers  that  presented  con- 
troversial articles  after  the  visit  of  the  Pre- 
sident of  the  Society  to  Scotland  and  New- 
castle, were  the  Glasgow  Examiner^  the 
Edinburgh  Weekly  Herald,  the  Gateshead 
Observer,  and  the  Newcastle  Chronicle.  In 
each  of  the  three  first,  the  prominent  cha- 
racter of  the  leading  article  was  adopted, 
and,  in  the  last,  a  secondary  notice  similar 
to  what  was  adopted  in  the  leading  weekly 
communications  of  interest  and  novelty.  The 
writing  of  the  Glasgow  Examiner,  as  before- 
time,  was  an  attempt  at  severe  criticism,  espe- 
cially upon  the  address  of  Mr.  Pillsbury, 
under  the  assumption  of  false  conclusions  of 
its  own  invention.  The  other  three  articles 
are  best  characterized  as  "  harmless  attempts 
to  say  something,  without  knowing  precisely 


AND    CORRESPONDENT. 

what  to  be  at,"  much  of  which  would  pro- 
bably have  been  spared  if  the  writers  had 
only  either  not  felt  obliged  to  write,  or 
had  known  more  of  the  subject  in  question. 
We  give  one  of  the  articles  from  the  Weekly 
Herald,  the  most  respectable  of  the  three 
in  point  of  matter,  save  for  its  absurd  heading 
of  "  The  Modern  Nebuchadnezzar s,"  to  serve 
as  a  specimen  of  the  three  referred  to  : 

"  Societies  and  movements  have  been  organized 
in  our  day  for  every  conceivable  cause  under  the 
sun;  and,  of  course,  some  thorough  reform  is 
contemplated  in  every  cause.  What  formerly 
was  a  mere  idea,  obtruding  itself  as  an  oral  or 
written  advice  to  a  limited  circle  of  acquaint- 
ances, and  seeking  to  cure  some  foolish  or  per- 
nicious habit,  now  gets  consolidated  into  a 
palpable  and  bulky  association,  consisting  of  a 
staff  of  office-bearers,  a  code  of  laws,  and  as 
large  a  bag  of  funds  as  can  be  obtained  by  beg- 


THE   COKTEOVERSIALIST  AND   CORRESPONDENT. 


105 


ging.      The   number   of    such   societies  is  im- 
mense, and  you  can  scarcely  name  a  thing  to  be 
avoided  but  you  will  find  some  pompous  organi- 
zation expressly  framed  and  worked  to  put    it 
down.     Whilst  some  are  urgently  needed,  and 
admirably  and   successfully  conducted   for    the 
reduction  of   great  social  evils,   not  a  few  are 
ludicrously  trifling,   as  if    their   projectors   and 
supporters   meant  to  caricature  the  idea  of  all 
societies,  and   to   quiz   the   public.       Men    and 
women    are  banded    together    in  hundreds   of 
thousands,  pledging  themselves  to  abstain  from 
intoxicating  drinks,   and  striving   to  banish  in- 
temperance from    the  land ;     but   immediately 
alongside  there  is  a  company  of  highly  fastidious 
and  delicate  folks,  who  live  in  imitation  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar when  he  was  insane,  refuse  to   eat 
animal  food,  and  seek  to  convert  mankind  to  an 
exclusively  vegetable  diet.     In  an  age  when  so 
much  necessity  and  so  many  opportunities  exist 
for  assailing  the  overwhelming  mass  of  physical 
and  moral  evils  all  around,  when  there  are  ample 
scope  and  irresistible  motives  for  every  well-doer 
to  set  about  primary  reforms,  it  is  surely  worse 
than  ludicrous  to  see  earnest  apostles  of  Vegeta- 
rianism, and  sworn  enemies  of  animal  food,  the 
use  of  which  no  moralist  or  theologian  can  show 
to  be  in  the  least  improper,  nor  medical  men  to 
be  in  the  least  hurtful  to  health.     In  our  own 
city,  a  large  and  important  public   meeting  is 
held  one  day  to  consider  measures  bearing  upon 
the  reduction  of  our  crying  national   intempe- 
rance;  and   here,  too,  on  the  day  following,  a 
gathering  of  the  Edinburgh  Vegetarian  Associa- 
tion took  place  to  do  battle  against  a  diet  of 
fish,  flesh,  and  every  dish  got  by  slaughter.     The 
evil,  physical,  moral,    and  mental,  is    surely  so 
infinitesimal,  that,  in  the  presence  of  manifold 
and  palpable  wickedness,   it   may   well  be   left 
alone  until    the    Millennium ;    and    then,  in  a 
restored  paradisaic   state,  it    may  be    asked  if 
Adam  did  not  subsist  entirely  on  fruit,  and  if 
we  may  not  follow  his  example. 

"All the  speakers  at  the  Edinburgh  meeting 
expatiated  on  their  high  state  of  health  person- 
ally. They  were  in  a  splendid  sanitary  condition, 
for  which  Vegetarianism  got  all  the  praise. 
There  is  no  bore  like  the  person  who  is  ever 
talking  either  of  his  good  or  his  bad  health. 
He  carries  the  atmosphere  of  a  hospital  about 
with  him ;  and,  when  he  opens  his  hps,  you 
fancy  a  castor-oil  bottle  uncorked  and  brought 
under  your  nose  to  afflict  you  with  squeamish- 
ness.  His  conversation  is  nothing  but  a  lengthy 
medical  bulletin,  telling  of  headaches,  stomach- 
pains,  etc.  etc.,  either  endured  or  escaped.  The 
Vegetarian  is  such  a  bore  of  the  first  magnitude. 
If  he  talk  about  the  system  advocated,  it  is 
always  in  gross  and  morbid  connection  with  his 
own  system,  especially  in  the  abdominal  region. 
He  cannot  mention  apples,  and  still  more 
pleasant  fruit,  without  a  reference  to  his  bowels  ; 
and  the  branches  and  foliage  vanish  in  a  world 
of  'tripe.'  And  yet,  Vegetarians,  who  make 
everybody  near  them  so  squeamish,  pretend, 
like  Mr.  Simpson,  to  view '  raw-flesh  as  offen- 
sive to  the  sight  and  touch  of  man,'  and  the 
'odour  of  burned  flesh  [Mr.  Simpson's  would- 


be  sarcastic  phraseology  for  roast  beef]  as  " 
disgusting.'  Yet,  after  some  slight  experience, 
we  would  rather  pass  an  hour  in  a  butcher's 
shop,  or  in  the  close  neighbourhood  of  cooking, 
than  in  a  Vegetarian's  drawing-room,  especially 
if  he  were  present  to  descant  upon  his  health. 

"  Mr.  Simpson,  from  Lancashire,  was  one  of 
the  principal  speakers.  He  gave  statistics  and 
details  of  the  progress  of  the  cause.  Seventy- 
nine  members  of  the  Society  in  England  '  had 
been  Vegetarians  ail  their  lives  ! '  Save  us  from 
meeting,  either  in  public  or  in  private,  with  any 
of  that  number,  for  with  what  a  forty-horse 
power  would  they  speak  of  their  health,  with 
what  an  infectiously  vivid  disgust  would  they 
discourse  upon  'burned  flesh,'  and  with  what 
revolting  minuteness  would  they  show  how  every 
particle  of  their  own  sweet  and  pure  bodies  was 
composed  of  '  split  peas,  Spanish  beans,  and 
lentils  ! '  We  shall  not  follow  Mr.  Simpson 
into  his  proofs  that  a  vegetable  diet  is  the  more 
humane,  nutritive,  and  cheap.  He  cannot  annihi- 
late every  day  experience  that  the  use  of  animal 
food  does  not  infuriate  or  debase  heart  and  in- 
tellect, nor  poison  and  injure  the  body.  He 
states  that  no  Vegetarian  has  ever  died  of 
cliolera.  We  overlook  the  fact  that,  generally,  a 
free  use  of  vegetables  superinduces  tendencies  to 
cholera,  and  the  inference  that  an  exclusive  use 
should  give  more  decided  tendencies,  and  con- 
tent ourselves  with  hinting  that  the  very,  very 
small  number  of  Vegetarians  may  furnish  the 
true  reason  of  the  non-mortality.  We  daresay 
that,  if  a  society  were  formed  of  men  who  chose 
to  walk  on  their  heads,  it  would  be  found,  after  a 
general  visitation  of  cholera,  that  they  had  escaped. 
"  Another  speaker  was  Mr.  Nelson,  from 
Manchester,  who  sought  to  show,  by  actual 
instances,  that  a  vegetable  diet  is  favourable  to 
the  growth  and  cultivation  of  the  intellect. 
Pythagoras,  Swedenborg,  and  John 
Wesley,  were  adduced.  Why  was  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, as  both  a  scriptural  and  royal 
example,  omitted  ? 

"  The  meeting  was  then  favoured  with  addresses 
from  two  members  of  the  Society  in  our  own  city, 
giving  valuable  information- — as  we  formerly  re- 
marked that  all  Vegetarians  were  prone  to  do — 
about  their  own  physical  system  and  state  of 
health.  The  one  communicated  to  the  public 
what  his  exact  weight,  imperial  standard,  for  the 
last  twenty  years  had  been,  adding  the  cheering 
fact  that  his  adoption  of  Vegetarianism  had  not 
subtracted  a  single  ounce ;  and  the  other 
revealed  that,  by  becoming  a  Vegetarian,  he  had 
succeeded  in  getting  rid  of  a  *  pain  in  his  sto- 
mach," which  had  been  a  troublesome  lodger 
there  for  the  long  lease  of  twenty  years,  and 
that  now  'he  could  not  tell  in  what  part  of 
his  body  his  stomach  lay.'  His  squeamish 
hearers  would  have  thanked  him  had  he  kept 
them  in  ignorance  of  his  '  stomach '  altogether." 

Our  impression  on  reading  such  an  eiFu- 
sion  as  the  above,  is,  first,  one  of  regret  that 
any  one  should  feel  obliged  to  write  such 
matter  ;  and  next,  that  something  less  gratui- 
tous   and    inventive  should  not  have  been 


106 


THE  VEGETARIAN   TREASURY. 


■  dwelt  upon.  All  the  speakers  did  not  expa- 
tiate upon,  or  even  refer  to  personal  health, 
and  if  they  had  done  so,  the  reference 
would  have  been  by  no  means  out  of  place. 
We  need  hardly  say  that  the  remarks  about 
Vegetarians  boring  others  with  communica- 
tions and  conversations  about  their  health 
are  absurd,  and  that  they  no  more  rejoice  in 
the  reference  imputed  to  them,  than  in  the 
matter  suggested  by  it,  which,  unfortunately 
for  propriety,  in  more  respects  than  one,  is 
still  a  common  article  of  diet  amongst  more 
than  the  lowest  classes  in  Scotland. 

The  reference  to  the  history  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar will,  of  course,  be  good  only 
when  we  advocate  the  eating  of  grass,  and 
thus  can  be  left  in  its  absurdity.  The  evils 
of  error  in  diet  are  by  no  means  "  infini- 
tesimal," but,  we  argue,  are  at  the  root  of 


the  larger  social  evils  of  society.  Had  our 
critic  not  better,  therefore,  have  waited  and 
reflected  before  writing !  Temperance  cannot 
hold  her  own  without  our  system  ;  and 
before  the  "Millennium"  can  arrive,  the 
practice  of  men  must  harmonize  with  the 
state  so  typified — "  when  nothing  shall  hurt 
or  destroy," — with  the  practice  of  which 
the  slaughter  of  animals  and  preying  on 
their  flesh  is,  of  course,  incompatible. 

The  above  will  serve  as  a  comment  on  an 
article,  the  result,  we  incline  to  think,  rather 
of  the  error  of  writing  too  soon  than  of  any 
thing  less  favourable ;  and  we  trust  that  a 
future  time  may  prove  to  the  writer,  that 
the  principles  he  has  mistaken  are  essential, 
or  have  at  least  certainly  much  to  do  with 
the  removal  of  the  "great  social  evils"  of 
the  world,  for  which  attention  is  claimed. 


THE    VEGETAR 

ENMITIES   AND   DIFPEUENCES. 

"As  horses  start  aside  from  objects  they  see 
imperfectly,  so  do  men.  Enmities  are  ex- 
cited by  an  indistinct  view  ;  they  would  be 
allayed  by  conference.  Look  at  any  long 
avenue  of  trees,  by  which  the  traveller  ou  our 
principal  highways  is  protected  from  the 
sun.  Those  at  the  beginning  are  wide 
apart ;  but  those  at  the  end  almost  meet. 
Thus  happens  it  frequently  in  opinions.  Men 
who  were  far  asunder,  come  nearer  and 
nearer  in  the  course  of  life,  if  they  have 
strength  enough  to  quell,  or  good  sense 
enough  to  temper  and  assuage,  their  earlier 
animosities," 

CRUELTIES    IN  THE   FATTENING  OF  ANIMALS. 

In  addition  to  the  illustrations  presented  of 
the  LiEBiG  theory  of  the  production  of 
force,*  we  have  an  ample  and  most  forcible 
illustration  of  the  want  of  consideration  and 
cruelty  which  characterize  the  acts  of  man, 
when  once  he  has  resolved  to  have  the  bodies 
of  animals  to  meet  the  demands  of  appetite. 
In  the  abstract,  men  are  ready  to  claim  credit 
to  themselves  for  causing  temporary  periods 
of  satisfaction  to  numbers  of  animals,  that, 
without  the  demand  for  their  flesh  as  food, 
would  not  be  called  into  existence ;  and, 
whilst  the  abnormal  states  which  such  ani- 

*p.  101. 


IAN    TEEASURY. 

mals  have  to  encounter  in  one  period  or 
other  of  their  lives,  on  reasonable  considera- 
tion, amply  balances  these  accidental  plea- 
sures referred  to,  it  is  obvious  that  there 
is  no  calculation  or  consideration  for  them 
whatever,  as  the  above  experiments  amply 
attest,  beyond  what  the  direst  self-interest 
can  suggest.  The  argument  otherwise,  too, 
is  spurious,  it  being  no  part  of  the  object 
of  meat-eaters  to  produce  these  happy  re- 
sults ;  but,  as  above  seen,  to  have  the  de- 
mands of  an  artificial  appetite  satisfied, 
without  any  regard  to  considerations  in- 
volving the  sufi'ering  and  death  of  animals. 

J.  S.  J. 

CLEAR   THE    WAY. 

"  Men  of  thought !  be  up  and  stirring 

Night  and  day  : 
Sow  the  seed — withdraw  the  curtain— 

Clear  the  way ! 
Men  of  action,  aid  and  cheer  them. 

As  ye  may  ! 
Aid  the  dawning — tongue  and  pen  ; 
Aid  it,  hopes  of  honest  men  : 
Aid  it,  paper — aid  it,  type — 
Aid  it,  for  the  hour  is  ripe ; 
And  our  earnest  must  not  slacken 

Into  play. 
Men  of  thought,  and  men  of  action. 

Clear  the  way! " 


SUPPLEMENT 

TO   THE 

YEGETARIAN    MESSENGER. 


ACCRmGTON    VEGETARIAN    ASSOCIATION    LECTURE. 


On  Friday  evening,  December  Stli,  a  lecture 
on  Flesh  JSatinff,  Its  History,  Defenders,  and 
Defences,  was  given  by  Mr.  Wm.  Sandeman, 
Secretary  of  the  Association,  in  the  New 
Jerusalem  School  Room,  Accrington. 

James  Simpson,  Esq.,  President  of  the 
Association,  occupied  the  chair,  and  in  in- 
troducing the  subject  of  the  lecture,  said — 

He  feared  that  if  he  spoke  more  than  gene- 
rally, he  might  anticipate  some  feature  of  the 
lecture.  He  would  therefore  make  only  a  few 
brief  remarks,  and  then  they  would  proceed  to 
the  principal  feature  of  the  evening.  It  was  a 
very  strange  world  in  which  we  lived.  He  did 
not,  however,  believe  in  the  denunciations  of 
evil  sometimes  indulged  in  concerning  it.  Man- 
kind did  not  mean  to  be  in  error :  people  lived 
in  error  rather  through  a  species  of  blindness 
than  from  voluntary  wrong-doing.  He  liked  to 
regard  the  world  in  this  aspect,  since  he  be- 
lieved it  accounted  for  much  of  the  want  of 
obedience  to  moral  and  physical  laws  we  saw 
around  us,  but  which,  certainly,  loudly  pro- 
claimed the  world  to  be  in  error.  If,  then,  there 
was  so  much  error,  and  if  this,  again,  kept 
people  from  seeing  their  true  position,  we  must 
all  admit  that  questions  of  diet  might  be  in- 
volved in  this  disorder.  They  had,  therefore,  on 
that  occasion,  again  invited  attention  to  another 
feature  touching  dietetic  reform,  or  the  Vege- 
tarian question.  They  did  not  reproach  the  world 
for  wrong  doing  in  this  direction.  Nothing  could 
be  farther  from  his  mind  than  to  speak  of  flesh- 
eating  as  a  "  moral  otfence  "  ;  for,  since  nine- 
tenths  of  society  had  never  had  two  thoughts 
upon  the  subject,  and  had  been  brought  up  in 
the  custom  of  flesh-eating,  this  would  be  ob- 
viously wrong.  Supposing,  however,  for  the 
sake  of  argument,  that  the  meat-eating  system 
was  a  mistaken  one,  they  had  a  great  deal  to 
contend  with  before  they  could  enlighten  the 
world  upon  this  subject.  All  truth  had  to 
battle  with  error.  In  former  times,  the  world 
persecuted  men  for  stating  new  truths,  or  even 
put  them  out  of  the  world  altogether.  It  was  in 
this  way  that  Copernicus  was  near  being 
treated,  when  he  stated  that  the  earth  turned 
round  the  sun,  instead  of  the  sun  turning  round 
the  earth,  as  was  then  supposed — he  had  to 
leave  the  world  in  haste,  to  avoid  the  persecu- 
tion that  awaited  him.  We  saw,  indeed,  how 
he  would  have  been  treated,  had  his  life  been 
continued,  from  the  fate  of  his  successor  Gali- 
leo, who  was  brought  before  the  Inquisition, 
and  on  his  bended  knees  made  to  say  the 
truth  referred  to  was  a  lie,   and  that   the  sun 


did    really  move    round  the   earth.      We  had 
happily  got  beyond  these  follies  now ;  and  thus, 
now-a-days,  if  a  man  could  even  give  more  rea- 
sons  for   wearing   the  hair  on   the   face,  where 
nature   obviously  intended  it  to   grow,  than  for 
putting   a   lather   of  soap   upon  it    every  morn- 
ing, and  scraping    this    off    again    along    with 
the    fresh    growth    of  hair,    he    could    do    so, 
whilst  those  who  still  pleased  to    scrape,    were 
likewise    at    liberty    to   do    so.      The    illustra- 
tion served  to  show  that  there  was  thus  much 
more  personal    freedom  in  the  present  than  in 
former  times,  and  where  they  used  to  persecute 
we  now  contented  ourselves  with  merely  laugh- 
ing  a  little.     If,   then,    the   foolish   "cabbage- 
eating"  Vegetarian  system,  as  it  was  often  con- 
sidered, would    not    stand    a    laugh,  backed,   it 
might  be,  by  the  dictum  of  some  medical  man, 
who  could  not    reasonably  be  expected   to    un- 
derstand one  half   so  much  of   the  question  at 
issue  as  any  real  experimenter  in  Vegetarianism 
(not  having  examined  and  studied  it,  and,  above 
all,  practically  tested  it,  as  he  had),  it  would  be 
a  poor  system  indeed,  and  could  not  be  expected 
to  progress.      Let  them  not,  then,  be  deterred 
by  the  reception  of  new  truths,  since  the  Great 
Propounder  of  Christianity  itself  was  said  "  to 
be  mad,"  and  "  have  a  devil."     One  great  reason 
why  the  world  did  not    progress  faster  than  it 
did,  in   relation   to  morals,  as  well  as    physical 
well-being,  was,  that  people  did  not  like  to  take 
the  trouble  to  change  their  personal  habits.     A 
great    number    of   people  were  guided   in   their 
practices  by  the  "  I  like  it "  declaration,  which 
had  been  so  well  rebuked  by  Dean  Swift.     How 
few   persons,  on  being  convinced  of  an  erroneous 
practice,  had  the  honesty  and  the  resolution   to 
acknowledge  and  carefully  carry  out  a  different 
practice  !     How  many  months,  and  even  years  in 
some  cases,   were  allowed  to  elapse  before  the 
convictions  of  the  understanding  were  reduced  to 
practice  !     Who  would  dare  to  depart  from  pre- 
vailing  practice,   though    erroneous,   themselves 
embrace   the  truth,  and  lead  the  way  to  others  ? 
It  needed  a  little  moral  courage  to  enable  an  in- 
dividual in  this  way  to  depart  from  prevailing 
custom,  and  devote  himself  to  the   interests  of 
high  and  noble  truths ;    but,  at  the  same  time,  it 
was  seen  that  this  separation  from  the  ordinary 
thinking  and  acting  of  the  world,  was  an  essen- 
tial of  all  moral  progress.     He  thought,  thus,  it 
was  mistakes  that  led  to  error,  rather  than  the 
desire  to  do  wrong,  and  it  was  in  this  way  only 
that  he  believed  people  were  wrong  on  the  ques- 
tion of  diet.    They  all,  then,  required  forbearance 
in  dealing  with  each  other  on  these  questions,  and 
need  not  be  surprised  at  the  slow  progress  of  a 


given  truth,  since  eveu  Christianity,  in  185i,  had 
by  no  means  converted  the  earth,  and  after  more 
than  eighteen  hundred  years  had  been  spent  in 
teaching  its  principles,  how  far  was  even  the 
professedly  Christian  portion  of  it  from  its  high 
and  pure  spirit.  He  thought  the  errors  in  rela- 
tion to  eating  and  drinking,  and  their  associated 
practices,  had  much  to  do  in  maintaining  that 
broad  disparity  that  unfortunately  existed  be- 
tween the  high  professions  and  exceedingly  de- 
fective practices  of  men.  It  was  happy,  therefore, 
as  well  as  wise,  to  meet  to  hear  a  lecture  on  this 
subject  about  to  be  addressed  to  them,  in  order 
that  an  opportunity  might  be  given  for  inquiry 
in  this  direction,  and  with  a  view  to  ascertaining 
how  much  external  habits,  commonly  overlooked, 
had  to  do  with  this  serious  result.  (Applause.) 
Mr.  Simpson  then  called  upon  Mr.  Sandeman 
to  deliver  his  lecture,  who  spoke  as  follows  : — 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Friends  —  Before  pro- 
ceeding with  this  evening's  lecture  I  would 
make  one  or  two  preliminary  remarks.  In  the 
first  place,  it  will  be  observed  that  the  facts  and 
arguments  to  be  presented  to  your  notice,  are 
not  entirely  new,  but  that  they  have,  for  the 
most  part,  been  either  written  or  spoken  upon 
before.  The  apology  for  this,  it  appears  to  me, 
lies  in  the  fact,  that  seven  years  since  the  Vege- 
tarian Society  was  formed,  and  during  that  time 
many  lectures  have  been  delivered,  meetings  held, 
and  publications  issued  from  the  press,  upon  the 
subject  of  Vegetarianism.  If, however, I  am  not 
able  to  present  facts  entirely  new,  I  may,  perhaps, 
place  the  old  facts  in  a  new  light.  No  man 
occupies  precisely  the  same  spot  of  ground  that 
another  does  at  the  same  time,  and  hence,  a 
number  of  persons  will  view  the  same  object 
from  different  points  of  observation,  and  will 
each  give  different  descriptions  of  it,  yet  all  of 
them  correct :  so,  in  like  manner,  I  may  give  you 
fresh  descriptions  of  old  objects,  which  you  may 
have  often  heard  described  before.  You  will  also 
observe,  that  the  two  first  divisions  of  the  lecture 
are  chiefly  descriptive,  and  you  must  not,  there- 
fore, be  disappointed  should  you  not  find  an 
argument  in  every  sentence.  In  the  third  part  of 
the  lecture,  which  will  be  argumentative,  I  shall 
apply  the  facts  narrated  in  the  first  two  parts. 
You,  no  doubt,  have  remarked  that  the  title  of 
the  lecture  is  "Flesh-eating,"  and  not  "Vegeta- 
rianism." Though  to  superficial  observers  it  may 
appear  a  matter  of  indifference  which  term  is 
used,  it  is  not  really  so.  The  term  Vegeta- 
rianism, is  applied  to  the  practice  of  using 
vegetable  food,  and  Flesh-eating,  to  the  prac- 
tice of  eating  flesh.  To  consider  the  one,  then, 
is  not  necessarily  to  consider  the  other,  and  the 
word  Vegetarianism,  in  no  way  suggests  any 
thoughts  of  flesh-eating,  excepting  in  its  antago- 
nistic position  to  it.  It  is  no  part  of  my  inten- 
tion to  quarrel  with  the  name  of  the  Vegetarian 
Society,  but  I  may  remark  that  logically  it  is  not 
suggestive  of  its  object,  the  name  Vegetarian 
suggesting  only  the  idea  of  vegetable  food, 
whereas,  the  object  is,  really,  to  dissuade  from 
the  practice  of  flesh-eating.  It  appears  to  me 
that  it  would  be  well  if  the  object  of  the  Society 
were  more  kept  in  view.  It  is  officially  declared  to 


be  "  to  induce  habits  of  abstinence  from  the  flesh 
of  animals  as  food  " — all  other  objects,  such  as 
the  dissemination  of  information  upon  the  sub- 
ject, and  showing  the  advantages  of  a  Vegetarian 
diet,  are  only  subsidiary  to  it.     People  usually 
proceed   on  the  assumption   that   it   prescribes 
Vegetarian  food  alone,  because  the  name  of  the 
Society  is  Vegetarian,  whereas  it  prescribes  no 
food   whatever,  but  merely  forbids  the   use   of 
flesh  to  its  members.      Logically  stated,  then, 
the  name  of  the  Society  is  the  Anti  flesh-eating 
Society ;  in  other   words,  though   the  name   is 
Vegetarian,  its  object  is  to  induce  anti-flesh-eating 
habits.     This   simple  statement  completely  does 
away  with  many  objections  often  urged  to  the 
eating  of  eggs,  butter,  and  cheese,  and  the  use 
of  milk,  by  Vegetarians ;  and  in  order  to  pre- 
vent any   cbjections   of  the  kind  which   might 
have   been  urged  against  the  present  lecture,  I 
have  chosen  for  my  subject  that  which  it  is  the  ob- 
ject of  the  Society  to  discountenance,  rather  than 
the  mere  name  by  which  that  object  is  indicated. 
Without  further  occupying  your  time,  I  shall 
now  proceed  to  the  subject  of  the  lecture ;  that 
is,  as  you  are  aware,  Flesh-eating,  its  history,  its 
defenders  and  defences.    In  pursuing  the  inquiry 
into  the  history  of  flesh-eating,  I  shall  endeavour 
first  to  answer  the  question.  Who  are  the  flesh- 
eaters?     Amongst  the  lower  animals,  we  have 
lions,  tigers,  leopards,  etc.,  which  are  purely  car- 
nivorous, and  there  are  also  other  animals  that 
might  be  termed  mixed-diet  eaters,  such  as  the 
swine.     It  is  with  man,  however,  as  a  flesh-eater, 
that  we  have  chiefly  to  do.     Among  the  purely 
carnivorous  tribes  may  be  ranked   the   Patago- 
nians,  who  inhabit  a  country  at  the  most  southern 
point  of  South  America.    I  refer  to  them,  because 
we  have  been  often  told  that  they  are  the  tallest 
men  in  the  world.  Early  accounts  have  described 
them  as  tfen  or  eleven  feet  in  height,  but  later 
ones  reduced  this  to  seven  feet  six,  and  measure- 
ments later  still  have  reduced  them  to  six  feet 
four ;   some,  indeed,  say  that  five  feet  ten  inches 
is  about  the  average  height.     However  this  may 
be,  it  is  unquestionable  that  they  are  a  very  tall 
people,  and  also  strong  and  tolerably  well  made. 
The  chief  point  of  interest  to  us  is,  that  they 
live  chiefly  upon  flesh,  and   flesh-eaters  would 
have  us  believe  that  this  is  the  reason  of  their 
superior  height.     Now,  before  I  believe  this,  I 
want  to  see  the  reason  why  it  should  be  so.     If 
the  tendency  of  flesh  is  to  make  men  grow  tall, 
no  doubt  we  shall  find  it  so  in  the  case  of  others 
besides  the  Patagonians.     Before  attempting  to 
decide  this  question,  however,  it  will  be  well  to 
examine  into  the  condition  of  other  flesh-eating 
tribes.    To  the  south  of  Patagonia,  and  very  near 
to  it,  is  an  island  called  Terra  del  Fuego,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  live  almost  entirely  upon 
flesh  and  fish,  and  very  few  vegetables  are  grown 
upon  the  island.     These  men  present  a  perfect 
contrast  to  the  Patagonians ;   instead  of  being 
tall  they  are  short,  instead  of  being  well  developed 
they  are  almost  monsters  in  appearance.     Their 
shoulders  and  chests  are  large  and  bony,  while 
their  arms   and   legs   are  very  slender,  and   so 
disproportionate,  that  you  could  scarcely  believe 
they  belonged  to  their  bodies ;  their  heads  are 


ACCRINGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


very  large  and  their  mouth  and  nostrils  much 
dilated.  They  are  also  remarkably  dull  and 
stupid,  and  as  Captain  Cook  remarks,  "They  are 
a  little,  ugly,  half-starved  race."  Now  you  will 
observe  that  there  is  no  great  distance  between 
these  two  places,  yet  the  two  tribes  are  as  differ- 
ent in  physical  development  as  they  well  can  be. 
Amongst  flesh-eaters,  also,  we  have  the  Green- 
landers  and  Esquimaux,  who  live  chiefly  upon 
whales  and  seals ;  they  even  drink  the  blood  of 
the  seal  while  warm,  and  eat  dried  herrings  and 
whale  oil.  Captain  Ross  relates  that  "their 
breakfast  consists  of  from  five  to  six  pounds  of 
fish  " ;  and  in  another  place  he  says,  "  Each  man 
had  eaten  fourteen  pounds  of  raw  salmon  (given 
them  to  see  how  much  they  would  eat),  and  it 
was  probably  but  a  lunch  after  all,  or  a  super- 
fluous meal  for  the  sake  of  our  society."  Dr. 
LowNE  says  :  "  The  miserable  timid  inhabitants 
of  Northern  Europe  are  as  remarkable  for  their 
moral  as  well  as  physical  and  mental  debility." 
The  Laplanders  live  chiefly  on  the  flesh  of  the 
reindeer,  and  are  described  as  a  puny  race,  weak 
both  in  mind  and  body;  feeble,  awkward,  and 
helpless.  The  New  Zealanders  are  another  race 
of  flesh-eaters,  and  have  the  reputation  of  being 
cannibals :  whether  this  is  so  now  or  not  I 
cannot  say ;  but  some  of  you  no  doubt  remember 
the  story  of  the  missionary,  that  when  the  queen 
was  sick,  she  was  asked  if  there  was  anything 
she  could  fancy  to  eat,  and  that  she  replied,  she 
thought  she  could  suck  the  bones  of  a  white 
baby's  fingers.  Then  there  are  the  Hottentots 
and  Bushmen  of  South  Africa,  respecting  whom 
the  historian  Gibbon  says  that  they  are  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  rational  and  irrational 
creation,  so  degraded  and  sensualized  are  they  in 
every  respect.  Moffat,  in  his  Missionary 
Labours,  relates,  that  every  kind  of  living  creature 
is  devoured  by  them,  lizards,  locusts,  and  grass- 
hoppers not  excepted;  and  that._they  even  eat 
serpents,  first  cutting  off  the  heads  of  the 
poisonous  ones.  The  Bushmen  often  kill  their 
own  children  without  remorse,  and  sometimes 
throw  them  as  a  peace-olfering  to  the  hungry 
lion.  In  some  few  instances,  however,  you  meet 
with  a  spark  of  natural  affection,  such  as  only 
places  them  on  a  level  with  the  brute  creation. 
These  are  a  few  instances  of  tribes  whose  chief 
diet  is  flesh,  and  without  referring  to  others 
whose  history  would  only  be  a  repetition  of  what 
you  have  already  heard,  I  think  we  cannot  be  far 
from  the  truth  in  concluding,  that  the  flesh- 
eating  tribes  of  the  world  are  degraded,  sensual, 
cruel,  and  blood-thirsty,  while  their  physical  de- 
velopment is  generally  of  an  inferior  character. 
It  ought  also  to  be  noticed,  that  the  purely  car- 
nivorous tribes  are  only  tribes,  i\\txe  are  no  great 
nations  of  such  degraded  beings :  they  are  few 
in  number  and  must  necessarily  remain  so,  so 
long  as  they  live  upon  flesh,  because  the  animals 
upon  which  they  live  require  vegetable  suste- 
nance, and  it  requires  a  vast  extent  of  ground  to 
maintain  a  tribe  of  men  who  live  by  the  chase. 
As  an  illustration  of  this,  the  Patagonians,  before 
noticed,  form  a  case  in  point :  for,  although  they 
have  been  known  to  exist  as  a  distinct  race  for 
hundreds  of  years,  yet  one  part  of  Patagouia,  of 


which  observation  has  been  taken,  though  capable 
of  supporting  millions  of  inhabitants,  contains  a 
population  under  one  thousand. 

It  may  be,  however,  and  it  is  argued,  that  man 
is  intended  to  hve  upon  a  mixed  diet  of  flesh  and 
vegetable  food,  and  that  it  is  unfair  to  take  those 
tribes  who  live  upon  flesh  alone  as  a  sample  of 
flesh-eaters.  Without  discussing  what  force 
there  may  be  iu  this  remark,  I  shall  now  proceed 
to  notice  the  mixed  diet  nations.  To  save  time, 
I  shall  take  our  own  country  as  a  specimen  of 
other  flesh-eating  countries,  and  in  doing  so 
believe  that  no  complaint  of  unfairness  will  be 
made.  The  kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
is  made  up,  properly  speaking,  of  three  countries, 
which  at  one  time  were  under  three  distinct 
governments,  though  now  happily  united  under 
one.  Each  country,  however,  still  retains  many 
of  its  peculiar  habits.  In  England  there  is  more 
flesh  consumed  than  in  Scotland,  and  in  Scotland 
there  is  more  than  in  Ireland.  In  England  espe- 
cially is  the  opinion  grounded  of  the  superiority 
of  a  flesh  diet.  In  Scotland  this  opinion  is  not 
so  prevalent,  oatmeal  being  the  staple  article  of 
diet.  In  some  parts  of  the  Highlands,  however, 
potatoes  are  considered  essential  to  give  the 
necessary  support  in  hard  labour.  I  may  relate 
an  anecdote  as  an  illustration  of  this,  which  was 
related  to  me  by  a  relative  of  my  own.  A  party 
of  Forfarshire  gardeners  were  engaged  by  a 
Highland  gentleman  to  do  a  piece  of  work  on 
his  estate,  and  as  you  know  a  Scotchman  will 
generally  argue  if  he  has  a  chance,  these  men 
and  the  Highland  people  were  soon  engaged  in  a 
discussion  as  to  the  comparative  merits  of  oat- 
meal and  potatoes,  when,  after  each  had  tried  his 
prowess,  an  old  Highlander  exclaimed  as  a  finisher 
to  the  debate,  "  Ye  may  crack  aboot  parritch  and 
brose  as  ye  like,  but  there  is  nothing  a  man  can 
do  a  day's  work  aff  like  taties"  (potatoes).  In 
Ireland  the  same  opinion  holds  in  favour  of  po- 
tatoes. An  Irish  charwoman  working  at  ray 
house  one  day,  seeing  my  little  boy  eating  dry 
potatoes  with  great  gusto,  exclaimed  in  her  de- 
light, "  Why  he  is  a  little  Irishman,  you  should 
give  hira  plenty  of  roasted  potatoes  and  butter, 
they  are  so  strengthening."  You  see  people  have 
their  opinions  on  diet,  but  opinions  do  not  guide 
us  to  a  solution  of  the  question.  Let  us,  there- 
fore come  to  facts.  I  regret  that  I  have  not  so 
many  as  I  should  like,  but  I  have  selected  the  best  I 
could  get.  The  most  important  is  a  table  of 
Professor  Forbes,  of  Edinburgh,  who  instituted 
a  number  of  experiments  extending  over  a  series 
of  years,  as  to  the  comparative  height,  weight, 
and  strength  of  a  number  of  Englishmen,  Scotch- 
meti,  and  Irishmen.  He  compared  these  different 
people  at  the  same  age,  the  Irishman  at  twenty 
or  twenty-five,  with  the  Scotchman  and  English- 
man at  twenty  or  twenty-five.  According  to  the 
first  of  these  tables,  the  Irishman  is  the  tallest, 
the  Scotchman  next,  the  Englishman  least  of  all. 
Keep  in  mind  that  the  Irishman  eats  least  flesh, 
the  Scotchman  next,  the  Englishman  most  of  all. 
In  constructing  a  table  in  accordance  with  popu- 
lar opinion  upon  this  subject,  you  would  have 
made  the  Englishman  the  tallest,  because  he 
eats  the  most  beef;  and  the  Irishman  least,  be- 


ACORINGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


cause  he  eats  least  beef;  but  popular  opinion,  in 
this  case,   is  just  the  reverse   of  popular  facts. 
As  to  weight,  here  again  the   Irishman  is  first, 
the  Scotchman  next,  and   John  Bull,  with  all 
his  beef,  brings  up  the  rear.     I  must,  however, 
notice   that  up   to    seventeen   years  of  age  the 
Englishman  is   heavier  than  the   Scotchman,  but 
at  that  age  they  become  equal,  and  weigh  133|  lb., 
whilst    the   Irishman   at  the    same  age  weighs 
1361b.     The  third  table  relates  to  strength,  and 
is  perhaps  the  most  interesting  and  instructive 
of  the  three.      It  is   very   difficult   to   make  a 
popular    audience    understand    statistics,  or  at 
least  carry  these   away  with  them.  I  shall  try, 
however,  to  make  this  matter  as  clear  as  I  can. 
The    Englishman  at    twenty-five   was    able  to 
raise  a  weight  of  403  lb.,    the    Scotchman  423 
lb.,    the  Irishman   4321b.  ;     the    difference    in 
strength  between  the  Englishman  and  the  Irish- 
man being   equal  to  29  lb.     These  experiments 
were    carried    out    during  a   lengthened  period 
and   with   large  numbers  of  men,   as    many  as 
eighty  Scotchmen  and  thirty  Englishmen  being 
measured,  weighed,  and  tested,  at  one  time.     It 
was  not  a  comparison  of  individuals  but  of  num- 
bers, and  was  carried  on  with  strict  accuracy 
throughout.      Up   to  the  age   of  eighteen  the 
Scotchman  is  not   so  strong  as  the  Englishman, 
the  Englishman's   strength   at   that  age   being 
represented   by  352  lb.   and  the  Scotchman's  by 
340,   while   at   the    same   age    the  Irishman  is 
26  lb.    stronger  than  the  Scotchman,  or  14  lb. 
stronger  than  the  Englishman.     At  nineteen  the 
Englishman  and  the  Scotchman  are  both  alike, 
but  the  Irishman  is  still  ahead,  and  exceeds  them 
by  26  lb.     It  also   interesting  to   observe   the 
rate  at   which   each  progresses   in   strength    at 
different    ages.      Between   the    age   of    sixteen 
and    seventeen    the    Englishman  gains    16   lb. 
strength,  the   Scotchman   26,  and  the  Irishman 
26.     Between  the   age   of  seventeen  and  eigh- 
teen, the   Englishman  gains  12  lb.   of  strength, 
and  the  Scotchman   20,    and   the  Irishman   2'J. 
Between  the  age  of  eighteen  and  nineteen,  the 
Englishman  gains  14  lb.,  the  Scotchman  18,  and 
the  Irishman  15  :  and  it  is  remarkable  that  from 
this  age   up  to  twenty -five  (beyond   which   the 
table  does  not  extend)  the  Scotchman  gains  more 
strength  per  annum  than  either  the  Englishman 
or  Irishman ;    in  one  year   he   gains  nearly   as 
much  as  both,  in  two  others  exactly  the  same  as 
both,  and  in   one  other  twice  as  much  as  both : 
thus  from  the  age  of  twenty-one  to  twenty-two 
the   Englishman  gains   5  lb.   and  the  Irishman 
4,  while  during  the  same  year  the   Scotchman 
gains  8.     From  twenty-two  to  twenty-three  the 
Englishman   gains    4,  the  Irishman  3,  and  the 
Scotchman  7.  From  twenty-three  to  twenty-four, 
the  Englishman  gains  1  lb.,  the  Irishman  1,  and 
the    Scotchman    4;    and   from  twenty-four   to 
twenty-five,  the  Englishman  gains  1,  the  Irish- 
man 1,  and  the  Scotchman  2.     I  am  inclined  to 
think,  therefore,  that  as  the  Scotchman  continues 
to  add  to  his  strength  in  a  much  greater  ratio 
than  the  Englishman  or  Irishman,  after  he  has 
reached   the  age  of   twenty,  that  if  the  experi- 
ments were  continued  to   the  age  of  thirty   or 
thirty-five,  it  would  be  found  that  the  Scotchman 


is  not  only  stronger  than  the  Englishman,  hut 
also  stronger   than  the  Irishman,  and  this  supe- 
riority is  to  be  expected  from  the  superior  cha- 
racter of  the  oatmeal,  either  as  compared  with 
flesh  or  potatoes.     One  other  point  worthy  of 
notice  is,  that  the   strength  of  the  beef-eating 
Englishman   is    developed   more   rapidly   before 
the  age  of  sixteen   than  afterwards.     From  the 
age  of  sixteen  to  twenty-five,  the  total  number 
of  pounds  of  strength  gained  by  the  Englishman 
is    67  lb.  whereas   the    Scotchman,   during    the 
same  period,  gains   109  lb.,  and  the   Irishman 
89.     In  other  words,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  the 
Englishman  is  within  67  lb.  of  his  full  strength, 
while  the  Scotchman  is  not  so  mature,  but  has 
109  lb.    to   gain   before    reaching    that    point. 
These  figures,  then,  corroborate  the  fact  so  often 
referred  to  by  Vegetarians,  of  flesh-meat  being 
so  stimulating,  and  that  those  brought  up  with  it 
come  sooner  to  maturity  as  well  as  to  old  age  and 
death.     They  also   place  before  us  in  a  striking 
light,   the   decided  inferiority  of  the  flesh-diet, 
inasmuch   as   in   this  comparison   of   the   three 
countries,  strength,  height,  and  weight  decrease 
just  iu  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  flesh  con- 
sumed.     In  speaking   of    England   as   a   flesh- 
eating  country,  we  are  apt  to  suppose  that  every 
one  gets  flesh  as  a  regular  article  of  diet,  whereas 
many  families  use  it  very  rarely.  In  proof  of  this  I 
may  narrate  a  circumstance  which  occurred  in 
our  own  neighbourhood.  Some  time  ago  I  engaged 
a  number  of  men  to  do  some  hard  work  ;  it  was 
trenching  a  plot  of  ground  for  garden  purposes. 
One  of  these  men  brought  his  dinner  with  him 
because  he  came  from  a  distance,  and  I,  noticing 
this,  was  induced  to  ask  him  what  he  lived  upon, 
when  he   told   me   flour-porridge   and  "  butter- 
cake  "    (bread   and  butter).     In  pretended  sur- 
prise I  asked  him  if  he  could  do  this  hard  work 
without  flesh-meat.     He  laughed  in  ray  face  at 
my  supposed  ignorance  in  asking  this  question, 
and  told  me  that  he  did  not  see  flesh-meat  in  his 
house  above  two  or  three  times  in  the  year.     In 
agricultural  districts,  the  labourer's  wages  only 
amount  to  7s.  or  8s.,  or  10s.   at  most,  a  week. 
These  people  cannot  get  flesh-meat  often  ;  I  do 
not  say  they  would  not  like  it,  but  only  they  do 
not  get  it.     It    is  interesting   to  inquire,  then. 
Who  eats  most  flesh?     If  it  is  not  the  labouring 
class  it  must  be  the  middle  and  higher  classes  ; 
and  if  flesh  be  necessary,  and  intended  for  sup- 
porting  the  strength  of  the  labouring  man,  is  it 
not  strange  that  he  should  get  least  of  it,  for  we 
find  it  to  be  a  rule  in  nature  that  the  most  neces- 
sary things  are  the  most  plentiful,  the  cheapest, 
and    the   most  easily   attained;     but  regarding 
flesh  we  find  just  the  contrary ;  and  are  led  irre- 
sistibly to  the    conclusion,   that    since   Nature 
cannot  supply  flesh  plentifully  enough  and  cheap 
enough  for  the  labouring  man,  either  that  she  is 
mistaken  in  making  flesh  necessary,  or  man  is 
mistaken  in  thinking  it  so.  I  shall  not  detain  you 
at  this  time  with  any  comparison  of  the   intel- 
lectual   capabilities   of  the    three   nations  ;   the 
question  is  a  difficult  one,  and  I  do  not  think  I 
could  discuss   it  either  with   profit   to  you   or 
satisfaction  to  myself. 

Let  us  now  glance  at  the  second  topic  in  the 


ACCRINGTON  YEGETARTAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


syllabus — The  cause,  origin,  and  progress  of  ' 
flesh-eating.  Here,  again,  I  would  remark  that 
you  must  not  expect  to  find  an  argument  in 
every  sentence,  as  a  great  part  of  this  portion  of 
the  lecture  must,  like  the  preceding  one,  be 
necessarily  descriptive.  In  examining  this  part 
of  the  subject  it  is  necessary  to  go  to  the  earliest 
records  we  can  find,  and  this  leads  us  to  the 
Bible.  There  is  no  direct  evidence  as  to  the 
origin  of  flesh-eating,  but  I  can  present  you  with 
some  valuable  indirect  evidence.  We  find  that 
the  Creator,  in  appointing  man's  food,  said  : 
"  Behold,  I  have  given  you  every  herb  bearing 
seed,  which  is  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and 
every  tree,  in  the  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree 
yielding  seed ;  to  you  it  shall  be  for  meat." 
Now,  if  you  go  to  any  doctor  or  physiologist  in 
the  present  day,  and  ask  him  to  give  you  a 
dietary  table  of  the  best  food  for  keeping  up  the 
health  and  strength  of  the  body,  would  he  not 
give  you  flesh  as  the  article  most  fitted  to  do 
this?  Most  assuredly  he  would.  Yet,  in  the 
passage  I  have  read,  there  is  no  reference  to  flesh 
as  food,  only  to  the  vegetable.  Now,  is  it  not 
most  extraordinary,  if  what  doctors  and  physi- 
ologists say  of  flesh  is  true,  that  God  in  appoint- 
ing man's  food  takes  no  notice  of  it  whatever  ? 
Nor  is  it  an  omission  ;  for  in  the  subsequent  refe- 
rences to  man's  food  we  have  no  mention  of 
flesh.  Thus,  "  Out  of  the  ground,  made  the 
Lord  God  to  grow  every  tree  that  is  pleasant 
to  the  sight,  and  good  for  food."  "  Cursed  is 
the  ground  for  thy  sake  ;  in  sorrow  shalt  thou 
eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  thy  life.  Thorns  also  and 
thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to  thee ;  and  thou 
shalt  eat  the  herb  of  the  field ;  in  the  sweat  of 
thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread."  It  is  very  re- 
markable that  there  is  no  mention  of  flesh,  if 
man  ate  this  at  the  beginning.  We  do  not,  till 
the  time  of  Noah,  find  any  reference  to  flesh  as 
food ;  we  then  read  that  God  said  to  Noah  : 
"  Every  moving  thing  that  liveth  shall  be  meat 
for  yoa ;  even  as  the  green  herb  have  I  given 
you  all  things.  But  flesh  with  the  life  thereof, 
which  is  the  blood  thereof,  shall  ye  not  eat." 
We  shall  have  something  to  say  about  this  pas- 
sage before  the  close  of  the  lecture,  we  only 
quote  it  now  in  tracing  the  history  of  flesh- 
eating.  It  is  the  opinion  of  some  commentators 
that  flesh  was  permitted  by  God  to  shorten 
man's  life,  but  whether  it  was  so  or  not,  certain 
it  is  that  the  lives  of  men  became  rapidly  reduced 
after  the  flood.  There  is  nothing  further  on  this 
subject  worthy  of  notice  till  the  time  wlien 
Moses  led  the  people  of  Israel  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt.  When  they  had  gone  a  few  weeks' 
journey,  then  they  began  to  complain  of  the 
scarcity  of  provisions.  "Would  to  God,"  said 
they,  "we  had  died  by  the  hand  of  the  Lord 
in  the  land  of  Egypt,  when  we  sat  by  the 
flesh-pots,  and  when  we  did  eat  bread  to  the 
full;  for  ye  have  brought  us  forth  into  this 
wilderness  to  kUl  this  whole  assembly  with  hun- 
ger." It  seems  that  God  did  not  think  that 
flesh  was  necessary  for  them,  or  he  would  have 
given  it  to  them.  In  reply  to  their  murmurings 
he  sent  them  quails.  There  was  no  miracle  here, 
for  these   birds   were    abundant :    whether   the 


bringing  of  them  to  the  place  where  the  people 
were,  was  a  miracle,  I  cannot  pretend  to  deter- 
mine. But  not  only  were  quails  sent,  but 
manna  also,  and  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the 
manna  was  supplied  to  them  during  all  their 
wanderings  in  the  wilderness  for  forty  years, 
while  the  quails  seem  to  have  been  supplied  only 
fora  very  short  time.  Accordingly,  in  about  twelve 
months  after,  it  is  recorded,  "  And  the  childre  n 
of  Israel  wept  again, and  said.  Who  willgive  us  flesh 
to  eat?  We  remember  the  fish  we  did  eat  in 
Egypt  freely,  the  cucumbers  and  the  melons, 
and  the  leeks,  and  the  onions,  and  the  garlick. 
But  now  our  soul  is  dried  away,  there  is  nothing 
at  all  besides  this  manna  before  our  eyes."  Their 
murmuring  displeased  God,  who,  however, 
promised  Moses  to  give  them  flesh,  not  for  one 
day  or  two,  but  for  a  whole  month,  until  it  be- 
came loathsome  unto  them.  Moses  seems  to 
have  been  considerably  astonished  at  this  promise 
— and  he  began  to  number  the  people,  who 
amounted  to  600,000  footmen — and  to  wonder 
where  all  the  flesh  was  to  come  from,  to  feed 
such  a  multitude  for  a  whole  month  :  and  he 
said  unto  God,  "Thou  hast  said  I  will  give  them 
flesh  that  they  may  eat  a  whole  month.  Shall 
the  flocks  and  the  herds  be  slain  for  them  to 
suffice  them  ?  or  shall  all  the  fish  of  the  sea  be 
gathered  together  to  suffice  them?"  There  is 
something  very  instructive  in  these  questions  of 
Moses.  They  show  very  conclusively,  first, 
that  the  Israelites  had  flocks  and  herds,  without 
eatuig  them ;  and  second,  that  they  had  not 
supplies  of  flesh  from  any  other  quarter.  This 
last  is  indeed  obvious  from  the  question  of  the 
Israelites,  "  Who  shall  give  us  flesh  to  eat  ?  "  A 
short  time  before  Moses  died,  and  just  as  the  Is- 
raelites were  about  to  enter  the  promised  land,  he 
addressedhis  partingadviceto  them,  and  respecting 
flesh  he  thus  spoke  :  "  When  the  Lord  thy  God 
shall  enlarge  thy  border,  as  he  hath  promised 
thee,  and  thou  shalt  say  I  will  eat  flesh ;  be- 
cause thy  soul  longeth  to  eat  flesh,  thou  mayest 
eat  flesh,  whatsoever  thy  soul  lusteth  after  :  only 
be  sure  that  thou  eat  not  the  blood  :  for  the 
blood  is  the  life,  and  thou  mayest  not  eat  the 
life  with  the  flesh."  This  passage  reveals  to  us 
pretty  clearly  the  cause  of  people  eating  flesh. 
Whatever  other  reasons  they  may  give,  the  true 
one  is,  "I  will  eat  flesh,  because  my  soul  longeth 
to  eat  flesh."  The  Bible  is  a  wonderful  book 
for  telling  the  truth,  if  people  would  only  listen 
to  it.  Blood  in  this  passage  is  prohibited  to  the 
Jews,  and  we  have  seen  that  it  also  was  to 
Noah.  In  the  New  Testament,  likewise. 
Cliristians  are  enjoined  to  abstain  from  things 
strangled,  and  from  blood.  Most  Christians, 
however,  pay  no  attention  to  this  prohibition, 
but  obey  custom  and  appetite,  as  if  no  such 
prohibition  existed.  I  might  trace  the  custom 
of  flesh-eating  down  to  the  present  time,  and 
show  that  it  is  accompanied  by  a  vast  amount  of 
cruelty  even  in  our  own  country,  and  that  al- 
though much  of  this  is  unnecessary,  yet  that  it 
is  not  accidental  to  the  custom,  but  forms  part  of 
it,  and  invariably  accompanies  it ;  but  I  think 
enough  of  narrative  has  been  given  for  once,  and 
I    shall    therefore    pass  on  to   the  third   part 


6 


ACCRI^GTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


of  the  lecture — namely.  Its  Defenders  aud  De- 
fences. 

The  defenders  of  flesh-eating  are  of  course 
those  who  eat  flesh,  abstahiers  seldom  defend  it. 
One  of  their  most  favourite  strongholds  is  the 
Bible,  and  one  of  their  most  powerful  batteries  in 
that  stronghold  is  the  passage  I  have  already 
referred  to :  "  Every  moving  thing  that  liveth 
shall  be  meat  for  you,  even  as  the  green  herb 
have  I  given  you  all  things."  Now,  in  order  that 
we  may  understand  the  bearing  of  this  passage, 
and  find  out  where  the  balls  of  the  battery  hit,  it 
is  obviously  necessary  to  examine  the  positions 
occupied  by  the  Vegetarian  and  flesh-eater.  Does 
the  Vegetarian  say  that  flesh-  eating  is  a  sin,  that 
it  is  an  immorality  to  eat  flesh-meat  ?  I  do  not 
say  so,  and  I  do  not  know  any  Vegetarians  who 
do.  In  such  a  case  this  passage  would  be  con- 
clusive in  the  mouth  of  a  flesh-eater,  and  com- 
pletely destructive  of  the  Vegetarian  position. 
What,  then,  you  may  ask,  does  the  Vegetarian 
say  ?  It  amounts  to  this :  "  I  am  at  liberty  to 
choose  the  very  best  food,  the  same  as  I  am  at 
liberty  to  select  the  very  best  drink,  and  I  may 
lawfully  abstain  from  that  food  which  experience 
tells  me  is  injurious.  Experience  testifies  that  I 
am  in  much  better  health  without  flesh  than  with 
it ;  chemistry  informs  me  that  flesh  contains 
nothing  but  what  can  be  found  in  vegetable 
food ;  and  anatomy  and  physiology  testify  that 
vegetable  food  is  the  natural  food  of  man."  Now, 
allow  me  to  ask,  in  what  way  does  this  passage 
invalidate  any  of  these  propositions  ?  Does  it 
say  that  every  moving  thing  that  liveth  will  suit 
my  stomach  better  than  vegetable  food  ?  Does 
it  say  that  flesh  in  its  chemical  constituents  is 
more  perfect  than  vegetable  food  ?  or  that  man 
was  originally  intended  to  live  upon  flesh,  aud 
that  his  structure  is  iu  accordance  with  tliat  in- 
tention ?  Certainly  not,  it  says  none  of  these 
things,  and  consequently  fails  even  to  touch,  let 
alone  destroy,  the  Vegetarian  position.  Now 
examine  the  position  of  the  flesh-eater.  He  says, 
"  Man  is  omnivorous,  and  was  naturally  designed 
to  live  upon  flesh  and  blood  ;  the  composition 
of  flesh  and  blood,  and  the  teeth,  stomach 
and  intestines  of  man  prove  this  ;  and,  accord- 
ingly, I  eat  flesh  and  blood,  oxen,  sheep,  and 
pigs,  and  also  animals  that  are  killed  and  die  with 
the  blood  in  them."  Now  look  at  the  passage 
again,  and  see  how  it  affects  the  flesh-eater's  po- 
sition. I  like  to  take  a  passage  in  full,  and 
therefore  will  give  it  entire  :  "  Every  moving 
thing  that  liveth  shall  be  meat  for  you,  even  as 
the  green  herb  have  I  given  you  all  things. 
But  flesh,  with  the  life  thereof,  which  is  the  hlood 
thereof,  ye  shall  not  eat."  If  the  flesh-eater  will 
likewise  quote  the  entire  passage,  he  will  at  ouce 
destroy  one  half  of  his  own  position;  his  famous 
battery,  instead  of  knocking  down  the  Vegetarian, 
explodes  of  itself,  aud  at  once  renders  part  of  his 
own  position  untenable.  He  then  pretends  that 
he  had  good  reasons  for  eating  blood ;  that  the 
passage  is  no  authority  to  the  Christian  to  deny 
himself  the  use  of  blood,  that  what  was  forbidden 
to  Noah  was  not  forbidden  to  him  ;  he  lives 
under  a  difi'erent  dispensation,  and  so  on.  But 
in  answer  to  this,  it  is  enough  to  say,  that  if  the 


passage  is  no  authority  to  the  Christian  iu  for- 
bidding him  the  use  of  blood,  neither  can  it  be  any 
authority  in  permitting  him  to  eat  flesh;  for  if  what 
was  forbidden  to  Noah  is  not  forbidden  to  him, 
neither  is  that  which  was  permitted  to  Noah  per- 
mitted to  him.  Let  him  get  out  of  this  difficulty 
if  he  can.  Let  us,  however,  examine  what  this 
passage  amounts  to.  Some  have  called  it  a 
command,  but  seeing  that  the  thing  commanded 
is,  to  eat  every  moving  thing  that  liveth,  I  think 
he  must  be  a  bold  man  indeed  who  would  attempt 
to  carry  this  definition  into  practice.  Others 
say  it  is  a  gift,  quoting,  "  even  as  the  green  herb 
have  I  given  you  all  things."  Now,  I  contend 
that  God  would  never  make  a  gift  of  bad  food 
to  man,  and  that  every  gift  of  God  is  good  and 
to  be  received  with  thanksgiving.  Now,  besides 
sheep  and  oxen,  there  are  other  moving  things 
that  live,  yea  thousands  of  them,  too  numerous, 
and  some  too  loathsome  to  mention,  and  no  one 
in  his  senses  will  maintain  that  these  are  the 
gift  of  God  for  food.  O,  but  it  may  be  said,  it 
is  an  appointment.  What !  a  second  appoint- 
ment ?  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  when  God 
appointed  man's  food  at  first,  he  made  a  mistake, 
and  required  to  rectify  what  he  had  done?  Such 
a  supposition  is  at  once  condemned  by  the  state- 
ment which  follows  immediately  after  God's 
appointment  of  the  food  of  man.  "And  God 
saw  every  thing  that  he  had  made  (done)  and 
behold  it  was  very  good."  The  omniscience  of 
God  also  condemns  this  supposition,  for  he 
undoubtedly  knew  what  was  best  for  man  from 
the  beginning,  and  appointed  what  was  best  too. 
The  same  objection  also  occurs  to  this  being  an 
appointment,  as  to  its  being  a  command  or  a  gift, 
viz.,  that  there  are  many  "  moving  things  that 
live,"  that  are  wholly  unfit  for  food,  even  accord- 
ing to  flesh-eaters'  ideas.  But  if  it  is  neither  a 
command,  a  gift,  nor  an  appointment,  what  is  it? 
it  may  be  asked.  Having  already  seen  what  it 
is  not,  we  are  the  more  prepared  to  understand 
what  it  is,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming 
that  it  is  a  permission  to  eat  flesh,  and  a  per- 
mission only,  while  at  the  same  time  it  positively 
forbids  the  eating  of  blood.  It  ought  to  be 
remembered,  that  being  in  the  list  of  permissions, 
the  practice  of  flesh-eating  can  no  longer  be 
looked  upon  as  equal  to  that  which  has  been  ap- 
pointed. I  am  permitted  to  fight  the  Russians 
or  any  one  else  should  I  feel  justified  in  doing 
so,  but  then  it  was  never  intended  that  I  should 
fight  at  all.  I  am  permitted  to  be  a  slave-holder 
for  anything  to  the  contrary  you  can  point  out  in 
the  Word  of  God,  yet  God  never  appointed  me 
to  be  a  slave-holder.  Not  only  so,  but  the 
patriarchs  and  kings  of  old  were  permitted  to 
have  a  plurality  of  wives,  and  for  anything  you 
can  prove  to  the  contrary  this  permission  exists 
till  this  day.  Yet  no  one  dreams  that  God  ap- 
pointed men  to  act  so.  In  the  beginning  God 
appointed  peace,  liberty,  aud  Vegetarianism,  and 
gave  to  Adam  one  wife,  but  in  the  latter  days  he 
has  permitted  war,  slavery,  flesh-eating,  and  a 
pluraHty  of  wives.  No  one,  then,  can  be  mistaken 
as  to  the  character  of  permissions,  they  are 
things  to  be  avoided  as  much  as  possible,  and 
the  more  the  better.    Having  thus  combated  and. 


ACCRTNGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


as  I  believe,  annihilated  the  greatest  stronghold 
of  the  flesh-eaters  iu  the  Bible,  I  think  it  unne- 
cessary to  take  up  j'our  time  with  any  other 
passages. 

Amongst  the  other  defences  of  flesh-eaters,  we 
have  the  opinions  of  doctors,  physiologists,  and 
anatomists,  set  in  array  against  us.  As  to  the 
value  of  mere  opinions,  the  more  we  examine  them 
the  less  important  do  they  appear.  Opinions 
are  only  admissible  where  facts  are  unattainable. 
Allow  me  to  illustrate  this  in  a  familiar  way. 
Suppose  I  am  walking  out  with  a  friend  in  this 
neighbourhood,  and  when  at  a  particialar  plare, 
he  propounds  the  question  to  me,  Is  there  a  bed 
of  coal  under  our  feet  ?  As  to  the  positive  fact, 
you  will  observe,  I  am  ignorant,  and  I  therefore 
answer,  I  do  not  know,  but  as  there  are  coal 
pits  all  round,  it  is  my  opinion  there  are  coals 
beneath  our  feet.  An  opinion  you  perceive  is 
given,  when  the  individual  is  ignorant  of  the 
fact.  A  learned  geologist  may  give  his  opinion 
as  to  the  existence  of  coal  iu  a  district,  but  the 
knov;ledge  of  the  collier  who  has  been  iu  the 
pit  is  of  far  greater  value.  Keeping  these 
remarks  iu  view  then,  do  not  think  I  am  assum- 
ing too  much  importance  in  attacking  the 
opinions  of  men  greater  than  myself,  for  the 
knowledge  of  a  fool  is  superior  to  the  opinion  of 
a  wise  man. 

I  shall  first  refer  you  to  the  opinions  of  Dr. 
Pereira.  He  says  :  "  Man  obtains  his  food 
from  both  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms. 
This  is  almost  universally  the  case,  and  is  a 
strong  confirmation  of  the  correctness  of  the 
inference  drawn  by  the  anatomist  from  the  struc- 
ture of  the  entire  human  digestive  apparatus, 
that  man  is  omnivorous."  Now  I  have  no  objec- 
tion to  the  statement  he  makes  here,  that  man  is 
omnivorous,  if  you  take  the  words  as  they  stand, 
and  not  what  the  writer  means  by  them.  He 
means  to  say  that  anatomists  infer  from  man's 
structure  that  he  is  naturally  omnivorous.  He 
only  says,  however,  that  man  is  omnivorous,  of 
which  there  can  be  no  question,  as  man  does  eat 
both  the  flesh  of  animals  and  vegetable  food. 
There  is  a  great  difference,  however,  between 
saying  that  man  is  omnivorous  in  his  habits,  and 
that  he  is  naturally  omnivorous.  We  are  often 
deceived  by  words  upon  this  subject ;  for  when  it 
is  said  that  man  is  omnivorous,  and  facts  are 
quoted  to  prove  that  in  his  habits  he  is  so,  we 
are  apt  to  suppose  the  question  settled  ;  by  and 
by,  however,  we  shall  see  it  is  not  so. 

Dr.  LowNE  says :  "In  respect  to  food  man  is 
omnivorous,  even  cannibal  in  the  uncivilized 
state."  Tf  Dr.  Lowne  here  means  that  man  is 
naturally  omnivorous  and  cannibal,  he  makes  a 
statement  which  few  flesh-eaters  will  endorse, 
and  every  Vegetarian  deny ;  but  if  he  means 
that  man  is  omnivorous  and  cannibal  in  his 
habits  only,  he  utters  nothing  but  a  truism. 

Dr.  Pereira  again  says :  "  Animal  flesh  is  a 
plastic  element  of  nutrition."  By  this  he  means 
a  kind  of  food  that  can  be  converted  into  the  flesh 
of  our  bodies,  as  distinguished  from  vegetable 
food,  the  starch  of  which  does  not  become  flesh. 
He  then  adds  :  "  Flesh  being  identical  in  compo- 
sition with  our  own  flesh  and  blood,  it  requires 


neither  addition  nor  subtraction  to  render  it 
nourishing,  but  in  order  that  it  may  reach  the 
different  organs,  it  is  necessary  that  it  should  be 
reduced  to  a  liquid  form."  If,  then,  flesh  be 
what  he  says — "requires  neither  addition  nor 
subtraction,"  it  is  perfect,  and  a  man  requires 
nothing  else  for  supporting  the  strength  of  his 
body;  and  if  anything  else  be  required,  Dr. 
Pereira  ought  not  to  have  used  these  words. 
He  afterwards  says :  *•'  The  nutritive  principles 
of  animal  foods  are  intermixed  with  a  much 
smaller  proportion  of  non-nutritive  substances 
than  those  of  vegetable  foods.  Hence  animal  diet 
yields  a  much  larger  amount  of  nourishment  than 
vegetable  diet."  A  statement  to  the  same  effect 
is  made  by  Professor  Johnston:  "The  main 
differences  between  beef  and  bread  are,  first,  that 
the  flesh  does  not  contain  a  particle  of  starch, 
which  is  so  large  an  ingredient  in  plants ;  and, 
second,  that  the  proportion  of  fibrine  in  ordinary 
flesh  is  about  three  times  as  great  as  in  ordinary 
wheaten  bread,  or  a  pound  of  beef-steak  is 
as  nutritive  as  three  pounds  of  wheaten  bread 
in  so  far  as  the  nutritive  value  of  food 
depends  upon  this  one  ingredient."  Both 
Dr.  Pereira  and  Professor  Johnston  agree 
that  there  is  a  much  larger  amount  of  nutriment 
to  be  got  from  flesh  than  from  vegetable  food. 
Assuming  these  gentlemen  to  be  correct,  the  in- 
ference to  be  drawn  from  their  statements  evi- 
dently is  that  flesh  food  in  practice  will  go  three 
times  farther  than  vegetable  food ;  whereas  in 
practice,  the  reverse  is  just  the  case.  Flesh- 
eaters  who  live  on  flesh  alone,  consume  from  four 
to  six  times  the  weight  of  food  in  flesh  which 
is  necessary  on  a  vegetable  diet.  For  instance, 
a  man  at  Liverpool,  while  walking  a  thousand 
miles  in  a  thousand  half-hours  not  long  ago,  was 
said  to  consume  5  or  61b.  of  flesh  per  day,  be- 
sides a  portion  of  vegetable  food ;  and  in  every 
case  which  can  be  referred  to  of  the  purely  car- 
nivorous tribes,  8  lb.  a  day  is  a  very  moderate 
estimate  of  what  they  consume.  According  to 
this  a  Vegetarian  ought  to  eat  24  lb.  of  vegetable 
food  per  day,  if  Dr.  Pereira  and  Professor 
Johnston's  statements  are  to  be  taken  as  cor- 
rect. The  fact,  however,  is,  that  practically,  1  lb. 
of  wheat-meal,  oat-meal,  or  peas-meal  will  yield 
more  support  to  the  body  than  three  or  four 
times  that  weight  of  flesh.  Hence  we  find  men, 
all  over  this  country,  and  Scotland,  who  live 
principally  upon  vegetable  food,  require  no  more 
than  2  lb.  weight  per  day  to  maintain  them  in 
perfect  strength.  The  reason  of  this  is  supplied 
by  Dr.  Pereira  himself.  He  goes  on  to  say, 
"  Bulk  is  perhaps  nearly  as  necessary  to  the 
articles  of  diet  as  the  nutrient  principle.  They 
should  be  so  managed  that  one  shall  be  in  pro- 
portion to  the  other.  Two  highly  nutritive  a 
diet,  is,  probably,  as  fatal  to  the  prolongation  of 
life  and  health,  as  that  which  .contains  an  insuffi- 
cient quantity  of  nutriment."  Now,  the  fact  of 
the  matter  is  just  this,  he  means  to  say  that 
flesh  does  require  something  added  to  it,  or 
what  is  meant  by  his  saying  that  bulk  is  neces- 
sary. It  contains  three  times  more  gluten 
or  nutritious  matter  for  building  up  the  body 
than   some  kinds  of  vegetable   food,    and  thus 


ACCRIKGTON  VEaETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


flesh  is  too  nutritious,  as  Dr.  Perkira  ex- 
presses it,  or  ill  other  words,  the  nntriinent  in 
flesh  ought  to  be  mixed  with  a  certain  portion  of 
innutritious  matter,  and  if  it  is  not  thus  mixed, 
Dr.  Pereira  himself  says  that  it  will  probably 
prove  as  fatal  to  life  and  health  as  food  which 
contains  an  insuthcient  quantity  of  nutriment. 
What  then  becomes  of  the  former  statement 
that  flesh  requires  neither  addition  nor  subtrac- 
tion to  render  it  nourishing  ?  It  is  clear  that 
this  is  an  exaggeration.  The  term  "  too  nutri- 
tious "  appears  to  be  a  very  objectionable  one, 
and  apt  to  mislead,  for  most  people  will  regard 
it  as  synonymous  with  "  too  good,"  whereas  Dr. 
Pereira  admits  the  injurious  character  of  flesh 
under  the  term  "  too  nutritious  ;  "  and  its  unfit- 
ness for  sustaining  health  without  a  proportion 
of  innutritious  matter.  Vegetable  food,  he  him- 
self informs  us,  contains  a  much  larger  propor- 
tion of  non-nutritive  substances  than  flesh ; 
that  is,  it  possesses  the  bulk  requisite,  and  which 
the  flesh  wants ;  but  not  only  so,  it  possesses 
nutriment  also  along  with  its  bulk,  which  is  just 
the  condition  Dr.  Pereira  considers  necessary 
for  the  maintenance  of  health.  Had  he  spoken 
of  vegetable  food  as  requiring  neither  addition 
nor  subtraction,  then,  he  would  have  only  spoken 
the  truth,  which  he  himself  tacitly  admits.  Dr. 
Pereira's  statements  may  be  thus  summed 
up.  1.  Flesh  is  a  perfect  article  of  diet,  and  re- 
quires no  addition  or  subtraction.  2.  Flesh  is 
an  imperfect  article  of  diet,  and  requires  bulk 
added  to  its  nutriment.  3.  Flesh  is  too  nutri- 
tious. 4.  Too  nutritious  a  diet  is  fatal  to  the 
prolongation  of  life  and  health.  What  need  is 
there  then  for  Vegetarians  saying  any  more  as  to 
the  injurious  character  of  flesh  ?  Here  is  enough 
admitted  to  save  them  the  trouble  of  further 
argument.  Further  he  says.  6.  Bulk  as  well 
as  nutriment  is  necessary.  7.  Vegetable  food 
contains  both  bulk  and  nutriment ;  and  my  in- 
ference therefore,  is,  that,  according  to  Dr. 
Pereira's  own  showing,  it  is  the  most  perfect 
article  of  diet,  notwithstanding  all  his  efforts  to 
prove  the  contrary. 

Professor  Lawrence  says  :  "From  his  struc- 
ture, actions,  and  habits,  we  conclude  man  to 
be  naturally  omnivorous."  This  is  very  difi"erent 
from  simply  saying  that  man  is  omnivorous. 
We  shall  speak  presently  as  to  man's  structure, 
but  first  let  us  see  what  kind  of  evidence  his 
actions  and  habits  afi'ord,  from  which  to  judge  of 
what  is  natural  to  him.  Man's  habits  and 
actions  are  two-fold,  the  one  part  good,  the  other 
bad.  According  to  Professor  Lawrence's 
reasoning,  his  good  actions  denote  that  he 
was  naturally  formed  for  doing  good,  and 
bis  bad  actions  denote  that  he  was  natu- 
rally formed  for  doing  evil.  Man  would 
thus  appear  omnivorous,  morally  as  well  as 
physically.  Take  another  illustration  or  two 
of  this  mode  of  reasoning.  Everybody  admits 
that  man  is  a  sinner,  and  because  he  is  so,  ac- 
cording to  this  way  of  reasoning,  God  intended 
him  to  be  a  sinner,  and  he  was  naturally 
formed  for  committing  sin.  Again,  we  find  that 
a  particular  tribe  "  the  Ottoraaques,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Meta  and  Orinoco,  feed  on  a  fat 


unctuous  earth,  or  a  species  of  pipe  clay,  tinged 
with  a  little  oxide  of  iron.  They  collect  this 
clay  very  carefully,  distinguishing  it  by  the  taste; 
they  knead  it  into  balls  of  four  or  six  inches  iu 
diameter,  which  they  bake  slightly  before  a  slow 
fire.  These  clods  are  soaked  in  water  when  about 
to  be  used,  and  each  individual  eats  about  a  pound 
of  the  material  every  day."  Because  these  people 
live  in  this  way,  we  might  with  as  much  reason  say 
that  man  was  naturally  intended  to  eat  a  pound 
of  pipe  clay  per  day.  Now  for  man's  structure. 
We  shall  see  how  unsatisfactory  the  arguments 
in  favour  of  flesh-eating  are.  I  really  feel 
ashamed  at  having  to  meet  such  poor  defences, 
and  am  sure  I  could  say  something  better  in 
favour  of  it  myself.  I  like,  if  I  have  to  conduct 
an  argument,  to  meet  with  an  opponent  who  can 
say  something  for  himself.  But  let  us  hear 
Professor  Lawrence  again.  He  says:  "The 
teeth  of  man  have  not  the  slightest  resemblance 
to  those  of  the  carnivorous  animals,  except  that 
their  enamel  is  confined  to  the  surface.  He 
possesses,  indeed,  teeth  called  canine,  but  they 
do  not  exceed  the  level  of  the  others,  and  are 
obviously  unsuited  to  the  purposes  which  the 
corresponding  teeth  execute  in  carnivorous  ani- 
mals." In  other  words,  that  the  four  teeth 
that  are  called  canine,  do  not  answer  the 
same  purposes  in  man  that  these  teeth  do  in 
carnivorous  animals.  The  carnivorous  animal 
seizes  his  prey  with  his  claws,  and  tears 
it  with  his  canine  teeth.  But  man  does  not  do 
that,  his  mouth  is  not  fitted  for  such  a  process, 
and  when  he  eats  flesh,  he  cuts  it  with  a  knife, 
and  puts  it  into  his  mouth  with  a  fork,  and  passes 
it  by  these  so  called  canine  teeth  and  chews  it 
with  his  grinders  ;  so  that  he  not  only  does  not 
tear  flesh  with  his  canine  teeth,  but  does  not 
even  use  them  at  all  in  the  mastication  of  flesh. 
Professor  Lawrence  then  speaks  of  the  intes- 
tinal canal,  and  says,  "  When  the  legs  of  man 
are  not  measured  in,  man  will  be  placed,  by  the 
length  of  his  intestines,  nearly  in  the  same  line 
with  the  monkey  race,  and  will  be  removed  to  a 
considerable  distance  from  the  proper  carnivorous. 
The  form  of  the  stomach  and  coecum,  and  the 
structure  of  the  whole  alimentary  canal,  are  very 
much  alike  in  mau  and  the  monkey  kind.  Thus 
we  find,  that  whether  we  consider  the  teeth  and 
jaws,  or  the  immediate  instruments  of  digestion, 
the  human  structure  closely  resembles  that  of 
the  simise  ;  all  of  which  in  their  natural  state  are 
completely  herbivorous  Man  possesses  a  toler- 
ably large  coecum,  and  a  cellular  colon,  which  I 
believe  are  not  found  in  any  carnivorous  animal." 
Now  with  the  statement  of  facts  that  Professor 
Lawrence  has  made,  I  do  not  quarrel,  and 
I  do  not  need  to  tell  you  that  they  are  on  the 
side  of  Vegetarianism,  but  having  given  these 
excellent  Vegetarian  facts,  he  adds,  "  I  do  not 
infer  from  these  circumstances,  that  man  is  by 
nature  designed  to  feed  on  vegetables,  or  that  it 
would  be  more  advantageous  to  him  to  adopt 
that  diet."  We  do  not  want  his  inferences, 
however;  we  have  got  the  facts,  of  which  we 
will  make  a  right  good  use,  and  we  can  now 
afford  to  say  "  good  day  "  to  him.  Before 
doing   so,    however,    let  us   again     review    his 


ACCRIN'aTON    VEGETARIAN    ASSOCIATION    LEOTUJRE. 


9 


system  of  logic.  He  founds  his  opinion  that 
man  is  omnivorous  upon  man's  habits  and 
actions,  which  I  have  shown  to  be  the  most 
erroneous  method  of  reasoning  possible,  and 
leading  to  the  most  absurd  and  contradictory 
conclusions.  He  also  founds  this  opinion 
upon  man's  structure,  and  he  shows  us  that 
there  is  nothing  in  that  structure  which  proves 
man  to  be  a  fiesh-eating  animal,  but  that,  on 
the  contrary,  his  teeth  and  jaws,  his  stomach, 
his  ccecum,  and  his  cellulated  colon,  all  closely 
resemble  the  monkey  tribes,  all  of  which  he  ex- 
pressly says  are  strictly  herbivorous.  Having 
thus  shown  that  man  is  herbivorous  in  his  struc- 
ture, he  refuses  to  infer  that  he  is  herbivorous  in 
his  nature,  but  comes  to  the  marvellous  conclu- 
sion that  he  is  naturally  omnivorous  !  If  man 
is  herbivorous  in  the  structure  of  his  body,  and 
that  structure  is  given  him  by  nature,  then 
nature  has  made  him  herbivorous,  and  it  is  as 
plain  a  contradiction  of  facts  and  common  sense 
to  say  that  man  is  omnivorous,  as  it  is  to  say 
black  is  white.  How  necessary  does  it  appear, 
the  more  we  examine,  to  take  only  the  facts  of 
philosophers,  and  to  leave  their  opinions  to 
themselves. 

BuFFON  says  :  "  The  Pythagorean  (or  Vegeta- 
rian) diet,  though  extolled  by  ancient  and  modern 
philosophers,  and  even  recommended  by  certaui 
physicians,  was  never  indicated  by  nature.  If 
man  were  obliged  to  abstain  totally  from  flesh,  he 
would  not,  at  least  in  this  climate,  either  exist  or 
multiply."  "  An  entire  abstinence  from  flesh 
can  have  no  eff'ect  but  to  enfeeble  nature.  To 
preserve  himself  in  proper  plight,  man  requires 
not  only  the  use  of  this  solid  nourishment,  but 
even  to  vary  it."  Buffon,  and  others,  who 
remark  that  in  this  climate  men  could  not  exist 
and  multiply  on  vegetable  diet,  I  suppose  never 
knew  there  was  such  a  place  as  Ireland,  where  the 
people  subsist  mainly  on  the  potato,  and  within 
the  last  hundred  years  have  multiplied  themselves 
four  times  ;  which  is  a  most  remarkable  fact, 
and  a  complete  refutation  of  the  opinion  of  the 
learned  Buffon,  though  stated  by  a  humble 
man  like  myself. 

I  will  now  refer  you  to  another  point  which  I 
regard  as  of  considerable  interest.  We  find 
that  doctors  are  very  much  given  to  prescribe 
flesh-meats  to  their  patients  as  necessary  to 
restore  them  to  health  and  strength.  We  find 
in  cases  of  consumption  that  doctors  are  par- 
ticular in  recommending  the  best  of  beef,  for  it 
must  be  "good,"  as  they  call  it,  and  cooked  in 
a  particular  way.  On  this  subject  I  shall  take 
the  liberty  of  referring  you  to  a  fact  that  is  not, 
perhaps,  generally  known,  it  is  recorded  by  Dr. 
Pereira  himself.  "Mr.  Spalding,  a  diver, 
found  that  he  consumed  more  atmospheric 
oxygen  in  his  diving  bell,  when  he  had  used  a 
diet  of  animal  food,  or  drank  spirituous  liquors ; 
and  his  experience  therefore  had  taught  him 
that  vegetable  food,  and  water  for  drink,  were 
best  adapted  for  the  performance  of  the  duties 
of  his  business.  Dr.  F\fe  also  found  that  the 
consumption  of  oxygen  was  greatly  reduced  by 
the  employment  of  vegetable  diet."  If  this  had 
been  a  crowded  room,  then,  and  you  all  flesh- 


eaters,  the  air  would  have  become  foul  in  much 
less  time  than  it  would  have  done  had  you  been 
Vegetarians.  The  importance  of  this  matter,  as 
regards  workshops  where  large  numbers  of  work- 
people are  congregated  for  many  hours  at  a  time, 
and  where  the  supply  of  fresh  air  is  often  very 
deficient,  must  be  very  great.  Take  the  case  of 
a  man  with  diseased  lungs,  portions  of  which 
are  perhaps  destroyed,  and  are  thus  rendered  in- 
capable of  performing  that  complete  action  so 
necessary  to  perfect  health.  A  necessary  con- 
seqiience  of  this  is,  that  the  blood  has  not  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  oxygen  supplied  to  it ;  yet 
the  doctors  prescribe  for  him  a  diet  that  requires 
more  oxygen.  Under  the  influence  of  a  flesh- 
diet,  his  pulse  may  beat  faster,  but  it  is  only 
febrile  excitement ;  his  lungs  will  breathe  more 
laboriously,  but  they  could  not  overtake  their 
work  before,  and  are  less  likely  to  do  so  now. 
Injury  to  the  lungs,  and  impurity  of  blood,  will 
be  the  necessary  result  of  feeding  a  man  with 
flesh  under  such  circumstances,  and  how 
that  which  is  injurious  to  men  in  health  is  to 
promote  their  health  of  body  when  diseased,  is 
beyond  my  comprehension  to  understand.  Dr. 
Pereira,  you  will  recollect,  speaks  of  fatal  con- 
sequerrces  resulting  from  too  nutritive  food — 
that  is,  flesh  food — and  shows  the  necessity  of  a 
proper  proportion  of  non-nutritive  matter;  but 
doctors  generally  prescribe  the  so-called  too 
nutritive  food,  and  pay  no  attention  to  whether 
their  patients  get  a  supply  of  innutritions  matter 
or  not.  As  to  the  injurious  consequences  of  this, 
I  pray  you  to  consult  Dr.  Picreira. 

Having  now  occupied  a  considerable  portion  of 
time,  I  shall  come  to  a  conclusion  :  and  reviewing 
the  arguments  of  flesh-eaters,  that  flesh  is  neces- 
sary for  man's  food,  and  that  he  is  naturally  om- 
nivorous, let  us  compare  such  assertions  with 
the  facts  of  history  which  I  have  placed  before 
you.  God  acted  as  if  flesh  was  not  necessary, 
for  in  the  beginning  he  gave  him  only  vegetable 
food.  The  Israelites  only  had  flesh  when  they 
asked  for  it  during  their  long  juurney  of  forty 
years  in  the  wilderness,  which  makes  me  think  of 
children  who  are  often  asking  for  things  neither 
intended  nor  good  for  them.  To  contrast  these 
ancient  facts  with  the  modern  opinions  and 
practice  of  even  the  greatest  physiologists  and 
medical  men,  is  to  find  the  flattest  contradictions. 
The  former  says  flesh  is  unnecessary,  and  man 
shall  not  have  it ;  the  latter  say,  man  can 
neither  exist  nor  propagate  without  it,  and  would 
cram  it  down  your  throat  whether  you  want  it  or 
not.  I  thiidi  we  may  safely  conclude  from  the 
whole  subject  that  flesh  is  unnecessary  and  in- 
jwrious  to  health,  and  that  though  it  was  per- 
mitted as  food  to  man,  it  was  not  the  appointed 
food  of  man ;  man  lusted  for  flesh,  but  God 
appointed  the  vegetable  food,  that  is  all  we 
can  say  on  the  subject  in  relation  to  the 
Scriptures,  With  these  remarks  I  beg  to  con- 
clude.    (Applause.) 

After  some  remarks  from  the  Chairman  on 
the  principal  points  of  the  Lecture,  and 
replies  to  various  inquiries,  a  young  man, 
who  had  sought    information  at    previous 


10 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


meetings,  expressed  the  satisfaction  lie  had 
derived  from  two  months'  trial  of  the  Vegeta- 
rian system.  He  had  found  no  difficulty  in 
making  the '  change,    could    do    his    work 


equally  well  without  flesh,  and  went  home 
at  night  less  fatigued  than  formerly. 

A  vote   of  thanks  to   the  Lecturer  and 
Chairman  terminated  the  proceedings. 


LOCAL     OPERATIONS     AND    INTELLIGENCE. 


VEGETARIAN    SOCIETY. 

The  Glasgow  Association. — B.  J. — The  Glas- 
gova  Association  is  organized  and  conducted  on 
the  sarae  principles  as  the  other  active  Associa- 
tions. The  rules  for  its  government  will  be 
found  in  the  Supplement  to  the  fourth  volume 
of  the  Messenger,  p.  16.  They  seem  to  have 
been  formed  upon  the  model  of  the  rules  of  the 
Liverpool  Association,  but  have  been  further  im- 
proved, and  these  last  with  some  further  im-. 
provements,  again,  have  been  embodied  in  the 
rules  of  the  Accrington,  and  also  of  the  Darwen 
Association. 

The  great  advantage  seciired  to  the  Glasgow 
Association  by  the  publication  of  the  several 
papers  referred  to  is,  we  consider,  entirely  due 
to  the  intelligent  and  steady  procedure  of  the 
Association,  in  carefully  regarding  the  improve- 
ment of  its  members,  as  a  primary  consideration 
in  relation  to  public  usefulness.  It  will  be 
seen  from  their  reports,  that  "  a  paper  is  read 
each  month,"  as  "  a  suhject  of  conversation  or 
discussion."  The  arguments  of  Vegetarianism 
thus  come  to  be  studied  by  those  who  have 
subsequently  to  apply  them,  and  we  see  the 
fruits  of  this  in  the  able,  temperate,  and  con- 
vincing papers  recently  placed  before  the  public. 
John  Andrew,  Jun.,  Secretary. 

ACCRINGTON. 

Operations. — We  continue  to  hold  our  monthly 
meetings,  and  with  increasing  interest  to  those 
who  attend  them.  Many  are  inquiring  on  the 
subject,  and  some  are  carrying  out  practical 
experiments  in  our  way  of  living. 

Lectures. — We  have  had  two  lectures  since 
our  last  report,  one  at  Church  by  the  President 
of  the  Association,  on  the  Natural  and  Best  Food 
of  Man;  and  the  other  at  Accrington  by  the 
Secretary,  on  Flesh  Bating,  its  History,  Defen- 
ders, and  Defences.  A  report  of  this  last  will  be 
forwarded  for  insertion  in  the  Messenger.   W.  S. 

COLCHESTER. 

Distribution  of  Tracts,  Sfc. — Since  our  last  re- 
port, about  a  hundred  tracts  have  been  distri- 
buted. We  also  circulate  copies  of  Fruits  and 
Farinacea,  Science  of  Human  Life,  Messenger, 
and  Hydropathy  for  the  People,  which  are  silently 
producing  a  spirit  of  inquiry  amongst  their 
readers. 

Progress. — The  progress  of  Vegetarianism  in 
this  town  resembles  that  of  teetotalism  some 
years  ago.  There  is  great  reluctance  in  coming 
forward  and  encouraging  others  by  public  ex- 
ample, on  the  part  of  those  who  quietly  adopt 
our  views  and  practice.  At  the  same  time,  we 
are  not  without  under  currents  that  show  we  are 
moving.  I  am  grieved  each  month  that  I  cannot 
send  more  encouraging  reports ;  but  I  do  all  I 


can  in  the  way  of  example,  and  may  God  send 
his  blessing,  for  a  great  deal  depends  on  the  pro- 
gress of  our  movement !  One  person  here  is 
giving  up  the  use  of  flesh-meat  by  degrees.  J.  B. 

CRAWSHAWBOOTH. 

Operations. — A  number  of  tracts  have  been 
distributed.  We  feel  encouraged  by  the 
impression  already  produced,  and  hope  the 
lecture  recently  delivered  by  the  Presi- 
dent may  be  eminently  useful  in  estab- 
lishing those  who  have  begun  the  practice,  and 
also  in  inducing  others  to  make  a  trial.  The 
spirit  of  inquiry  set  on  foot  in  this  locality 
has  been  greatly  increased  since  the  visit  of 
Mr.  Simpson,  and  our  bookseller,  has  had 
applications  to  supply  several  copies  of  Fruits 
and  Farinacea.  Twenty-one  persons  are  trying 
the  system. 

Meeting. — On  Monday,  Dec.  11th,  a  meeting 
was  held,  at  which  addresses  were  delivered  by 
the  President  of  the  Vegetarian  Society,  Mr. 
John  Chalk,  Mr.  William  Hoyle,  and  Mr. 
Robert  Maden,  in  the  Holly  Mount  School, 
Rawtenstall.  J.  B.  Whitehead,  Esq.,  pre- 
sided, and  the  subject  evidently  excited  great 
attention  and  interest.  We  find  many  persons 
are  investigating  the  system,  and  believe  this 
is  all  that  is  needed  to  carry  conviction  to  the 
mind  of  the  careful  inquirer.  W.  H. 

methven. 
On  Wednesday,  October,  25th,  the  Rev. 
G.  B.  Watson  delivered  the  fourth  of  a 
course  of  lectures  on  Anthropology,  in  which  he 
sought  to  establish,  by  a  copious  induction  of 
argument,  the  fundamental  law  of  dietetics — 
that  the  constitutional  food  of  every  animal  is 
designed  and  adapted  by  God  to  nourish  and 
develop  the  respective  characteristics  of  their 
entire  being.  In  proof  and  illustration  of  this 
great  primordial  principle  of  nature,  the  lecturer 
drew  a  striking  contrast  between  those  nations, 
ancient  and  modern,  by  whom  farinaceous  food 
has  been  employed  as  an  article  of  diet,  and  those 
living  largely  on  flesh.  This  contrast  is  very 
conspicuous  when  the  comparison  is  instituted 
between  the  Egyptians  and  the  Hebrews,  be- 
tween the  Japanese  and  the  New  Zealander,  and 
between  the  Indian  and  the  Hindoo.  It  is, 
therefore,  not  for  a  moment  to  be  questioned, 
that  flesh-eating  nations  have  manifested  in  a  far 
greater  degree  the  lower  propensities  of  human 
nature,  than  those  nations  or  tribes  who  have 
subsisted  on  farinaceous  food,  and  that,  conse- 
quently, were  men  to  yield  compliance  with  the 
laws  of  their  constitution,  by  living  on  food 
derived  exclusively  from  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
they  would  never  fail  in  the  realization  of  a  most 
majestic  blessing — the  enjoyment  of  far  greater 
health — mentally,  morally,  and  bodily.  G.  B.  W. 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


11 


LONDON     VEGETARIAN     ASSOCIATION     MEETING. 


The  usual  monthly  meeting  was  held  at  the 
Burlington  Lecture  Hall,  21  b,  Saville-row, 
Regent  Street,  on  Thursday,  December  7th. 
A  repast  of  fruits  and  farinacea  was  provided, 
neatly  arranged,  thus  presenting  the  appear- 
ance of  abundance,  and  testifying  to  the 
minds  of  those  present  that  there  is  no  lack 
of  variety  and  nutrition,  without  having 
recourse  to  the  flesh  of  animals.  In  the 
course  of  the  evening  several  talented  musi- 
cians belonging  to  the  Humanistic  Society 
delighted  the  audience  with  specimens  of 
choicest  music. 

F.  TowGooD,  Esq.,  occupied  the  chair, 
and  opened  the  proceedings  with  a  brief  but 
comprehensive  and  appropriate  address. 

Several  members  and  friends  related  their 
personal  experience.  One  person  said  he  was  by 
trade  a  bell-founder,  and  subjected  to  the  severest 
labour  in  every  extreme  of  temperature ;  and 
since  he  had  left  off  eating  flesh,  he  felt  much 
better  able  to  do  his  work  than  ever  he  had  done 
before ;  he  was  a  teetotaler  as  well ;  and  instead 
of  his  teetotalism  or  Vegetarianism  in  any  way 
disagreeing  with  him,  he  felt  far  more  vigorous 
and  able  to  perform  his  labours  than  his  fellow - 
workmen  did,  who  used  alcoholic  liquors  and 
ate  flesh. 

Mr.  Garland  said  he  had  been  both  a  teeto- 
taler and  a  Vegetarian  for  nearly  twelve  years  ; 
and  he  appealed  to  the  audience  if  his  personal 
appearance  did  not  betoken  robust  good  health. 
He  was  a  boot-maker  by  trade,  and  he  believed 
there  was  no  one  in  London  laboured  harder  or 
more  uninterruptedly  than  he  had  done.  He  really 
felt  a  pleasure  in  doing  his  work  ;  he  had  never  ex- 
perienced a  day's  sickness  in  all  his  life ;  but  since 
he  had  become  a  teetotaler  and  a  Vegetarian,  he 
had  not  only  felt  a  happier  man,  but  his  strength 
and  agility  were  greatly  promoted.  He  would 
undertake  to  walk  twenty  miles  in  four  hours 
and  a-half,  and  had  done  so  many  a  time. 

The  Chairman  regretted  they  had  not  had 
a  more  numerous  audience.  Several  persons 
whom  he  expected  would  have  addressed  them 


were  not  present.  He  thought  it  likewise  well 
to  mention  that  they  thought  it  would  be  prefer- 
able for  all  parties,  in  future,  to  have  their  repast 
quarterly  instead  of  monthly  as  heretofore.  This 
would  be  more  convenient  for  many  friends  who 
lived  at  a  distance,  who  could  not  attend  every 
month.  The  ordinary  lectures  would  be  con- 
tinued as  before. 

Mr.  Houghton  had  been  seventeen  years  a 
Vegetarian,  and  during  that  long  period,  had  en- 
joyed uninterrupted  good  health.  He  worked 
very  hard,  but  his  constitution  was  so  vigorous 
that  he  really  felt  a  pleasure  in  labour.  He 
strongly  recommended  the  universal  adoption  of 
the  principles  of  Vegetarianism  and  Teetotalism, 

A  gentleman  whose  name  we  did  not  learn, 
bore  testimony  to  the  excellence  of  the  Tempe- 
rance and  Vegetarian  principles.  He  mentioned 
that  as  science  became  more  known,  the  most 
delicious  food  would  be  prepared  from  the  cereal 
productions  of  the  earth. 

Dr.  Viettinghoff  adverted  to  the  delightful 
music  to  which  they  had  just  listened.  The 
gentlemen  were  fellow  members  of  his  own  in 
the  Humanistic  Association,  founded  in  the  me- 
tropolis by  his  friend  Johannes  Ronge,  whose 
zeal  for  the  amelioration  of  the  social  and  reli- 
gious condition  of  his  own  countrymen  had  com- 
pelled him  to  leave  Germany.  He  was  now  per- 
severingly  engaged  in  his  labours  of  humanity  in 
London ;  and  his  friends,  believing  that  their 
labours  in  the  Vegetarian  cause  were  of  kindred 
tendency,  had  wilHngly  lent  them  their  assistance 
on  the  present  occasion.  He  (Dr.  Vietting- 
hoff) thought  there  was  much  identity  in  the 
purposes  of  both  associations.  Through  igno- 
rance men  went  astray  in  the  physical  as  well  as 
in  the  moral  world ;  and  no  law  either  physical 
or  moral  could  be  violated  with  impunity.  The 
Vegetarian,  as  well  as  the  Humanistic  Society, 
endeavoured  to  bring  men  back  to  nature  ;  thus, 
uniting  God  and  ISTature  to  reproduce  upon 
earth  the  paradise  which  the  Creator  intended 
it  should  be. 

Mr.  HoRSELL  also  delivered  a  short  and  ap- 
propriate concluding  address,  and  the  proceed- 
ings terminated  shortly  after  ten  o'clock. 


LOCAL     OPE  EAT  IONS 

VEGETARIAN    SOCIETY. 

The  Publication  of  the  New  List. — We  have  to 
thank  our  friends  for  the  communication  of  in- 
formation tending  to  improve  the  new  list,  and 
shall  be  still  further  obliged  to  any  who,  on  its 
issue,  will  continue  to  give  their  attention  to  this 
important  and  interesting  document,  by  forward- 
ing any  information  whatever,  of  which  they 
may  be  possessed,  tending  to  secure  the  correc- 
tion of  any  errors  it  may  be  found  unavoidably 
to  contain.       J.  Andrews,  Jun.,  Secretary. 

BIRMINGHAM. 

Lectures. — Three  lectures  on  Man  and  his 
Body  have  been  given  here  by  Mr.  W.  G.  Ward, 
the  last  of  these  being  delivered    on   Monday 


AND     INTELLIGENCE. 

evening,  January  8th.  The  subjects  treated  in 
the  first  lecture  were — Man  Anatomically  and 
Chemically  considered  :  How  is  his  Body  formed, 
and  what  are  the  Elements  of  its  Composition  ? 
The  second  took  up — Man  Physiologically  con- 
sidered: What  are  the  Organs,  and  what  do 
they  do  ?  The  third  considered — Man  in  relation 
to  Sanitary  Movements  :  How  to  keep  the  Body 
in  Health.  Air,  exercise,  diet,  vegetable  diet, 
and  cleanliness,  were  dwelt  upon  as  the  great 
means  in  man's  power  to  enable  him  to  keep 
his  body  in  health.  W.  G.  W. 

COLCHESTER. 

Public  Meeting. — We  are  glad,  at  length,  to  be 
able  to  report  some  public  effort  in  connection 


with  the  teaching  of  our  priuciples  here.  On 
Wednesday  evening,  December  27th,  a  Vege- 
tarian meeting  was  held  in  the  Public  Hall, 
Colchester,  when  addresses  on  the  Principle  and 
Experience  of  the  Vegetarian  Practice  of  Diet 
were  delivered  by  the  President  of  the  Society, 
and  Mr.  Nathaniel  Griffin,  of  Birmingham. 
There  was  a  very  numerous  and  respectable 
attendance,  and  a  most  useful  impression  has  been 
produced  in  the  town  generally,  as  well  as  upon 
those  who  were  present.  The  meeting  was  also 
noticed  at  length  in  the  local  and  neighbouring 
county  papers,  and  thus  the  influence  exerted  will 
be  extended  far  beyond  our  own  locality.  J.  B, 

HULL. 

Operations. — We  have  not  had  any  meetings 
lately.  Most  of  our  members  take  little  interest 
in  these  efforts  to  spread  our  principles.  Many 
working  men,  however,  have  been  induced  to  try 
some  of  the  receipts  for  the  preparation  of 
Vegetarian  dishes,  and  some  of  these  have  Vege- 
tarian dinners  two  or  three  times  a  week.  One 
man,  with  a  wife  and  four  children,  says  they 
can  now  live  better  than  before  and  on  from  four 
to  five  shillings  less  money.  The  children  never 
ask  for  bread  between  meals  now  they  have 
crowdie,  potato  pies,  barley  puddings,  etc. 

Distribution  of  Tracts. — We  continue  to  dis- 
tribute tracts,  and  find  them  productive  of  good, 
and  Fruits  and  Farinacea,  with  the  Messenger, 
and  the  Science  of  Human  Life,  are  frequently 
recommended,  and  lent  to  those  seeking  informa- 
tion on  the  system.  We  know  of  between  thirty 
and  forty  persons  trying  the  practice,  but  there 
is  great  difficulty  in  inducing  those  who  have 
practised  it  for  some  time  and  fully  approve  of  it, 
to  take  the  declaration  of  the  Society. 

Soiree. — We  think  some  further  demonstration 
is  required  to  rouse  the  parties  practising  the 
system,  who  approve  of  our  principles,  but  with- 
out connecting  themselves  with  the  movement. 
Perhaps  a  soiree  would  be  the  best  for  this  pur- 
pose, for  the  cry  is,  "  Why !  what  do  you  live 
upon?"  and  although  we  frequently  describe 
the  kind  of  food  used  by  Vegetarians,  and  in- 
vite such  persons  to  a  Vegetarian  repast,  this 
is  not  so  effective  as  a  simple,  cheap  Soiree 
might  be.  T.  D.  H. 

LIVERPOOL. 

Annual  Meeting. — Our  Annual  Meeting  for 
the  election  of  officers  was  held  on  the  20th  of 
October,  when  the  election  of  our  committee 
and  officers  was  made.  Their  names  will  be 
found  on  the  cover  of  the  Messenger.       G.  B. 

LONDON, 

Agency. — We  have  much  pleasure  in  furnish- 
ing a  brief  notice  of  a  series  of  lectures  by  Mr. 
BoRMOND,  in  connection  with  our  Association, 
and  to  state  that  there  is  a  growing  disposition 
on  the  part  of  the  public  to  listen  to  the  ques- 
tion of  mercy  and  truth  we  teach. 

Vegetarian  Meetings. — On  Monday,  'Jan.  1st, 
a  lecture  was  given  in  the  Temperance  Hall, 
Tottenham,  by  Mr.  Bormond,  on  Temperance 
in  regard  to  drinks,  which  will,  we  trust,  open 


up  the  way  for  a  hearing  of  the  question  of  tem- 
perance in  eating.,  so  far  as  this  relates  to  the 
kind  of  food  we  consume.  The  people  here  are 
anxious  to  hear  this  subject  treated,  aud  we 
hope  shortly  to  report  a  series  of  lectures  given 
in  this  neighbourhood. 

Tuesday,  Jan.  2nd. — Mr.  Bormond  delivered 
a  lecture  in  Ebenezer  Chapel,  Shoreditch.  The 
subject  was  Man.,  his  Capabilities  and  Tenden- 
cies, Physical,  Mental,  and  Emotional :  the  Effect 
of  Flesh  Meat  on  his  Entire  Nature.  The  audi- 
ence were  deeply  interested  by  the  address, 
which  occupied  two  hours  in  the  delivery. 

Thursday,  Jan.  4:th. — Another  interesting 
lecture  was  given  at  Ebenezer  Chapel,  when  a 
much  larger  audience  assembled  than  on  the 
previous  occasion.  This  is  one  feature  of  our 
movement,  that  the  extent  and  interest  of  the 
audience  ever  increase  as  they  become  acquainted 
M'ith  the  arguments  of  the  system.  The  lecture 
this  evening  was  devoted  to  a  notice  of  some  of 
the  popular  delusions  that  prevail  respecting  the 
superiority  of  flesh  food,  and  to  nutrition,  aud 
stimulation. 

Friday,  Jan.  5th. — Mr.  Bormond  was  favored 
with  a  large  audience,  at  the  same  place,  to  hear 
his  concluding  lecture.  The  subjects  treated 
were,  Human  Food  considered  in  relation  to 
Chemical  Facts  and  Comparative  Anatomy.  This 
was  decidedly  the  most  impressive  and  useful 
lecture ;  several  important  questions  were  put 
and  answered  at  the  close  of  the  address,  which 
rendered  the  proceedings  more  interesting  and 
instructive.  Before  separating,  several  persons 
of  the  audience  spontaneously  rose  to  propose  a 
vote  of  thanks  for  the  important  lectures  they  had 
heard,  which  was  promptly  seconded  and  carried. 

Monday,  Jan.  8th. — The  first  of  a  series  of 
four  lectures  was  given  in  the  Good  Samaritan 
Hall,  Saffron  Hill.  This  is  a  place  numerously 
attended  by  the  working  classes,  and  a  large  and 
enthusiastic  audience  listened,  with  great  ear- 
nestness and  undiminished  attention,  to  Mr. 
Bormond  during  an  address  of  more  than  two 
hours.  At  the  close  several  working  men  stated 
that  they  had  adopted  Vegetarian  habits  of  diet 
some  months  ago.  When  men  get  to  know  that 
the  flesh  of  animals  can  be  done  without  as  food, 
they  are  freed  from  much  anxiety  which  they 
were  subject  to  before  becoming  acquainted  with 
the  true  nature  of  human  diet. 

Tuesday,  Wednesday,  Thursday,  and  Friday, 
Jan.  9th,  lOth,  11th,  and  12th. — Besides  the  above, 
a  series  of  four  lectures  was  given  in  the  large 
and  commodious  ^Temperance  Hall,  Woolwich. 
The  audience  on  each  occasion  was  large  and 
thoughtful.  At  the  close  of  the  last  lecture 
several  questions  were  sent  up  to  the  speaker,  the 
replies  to  which  excited  much  interest.     B.  J. 

MANCHESTER. 

Secretary. — It  is  with  much  regret  we  report 
the  loss  of  our  late  Secretary's  valuable  assist- 
ance, he  having  been  compelled,  by  the  pressure 
of  business  engagements  and  other  circumstances, 
to  retire  from  the  office.  Mr.  J.  W.  Betteney 
has  been  appointed  his  successor.       J.  W.  B. 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


13 


VEGETARIAN    MEETING    AT     MIDDLETON. 


A  MEETING  Avas  held  in  the  Temperance 
Hall,  Middleton,  on  Saturday,  the  17th  of 
Fehruary,  for  the  purpose  of  advocating 
Dietetic  Reform.  Mr.  James  Gaskill, 
Mr.  J.  W.  Betteney,  and  Mr.  J.  Hall,  of 
Manchester,  attended  as  a  Deputation  from 
the  Manchester  and  Salford  Vegetarian 
Association.  The  audience  was  not  nume- 
rous, but,  despite  the  chilling  influence  of 
the  weather,  manifested  considerable  and 
encouraging  interest  in  the  question. 

Mr.  Holt,  of  Middleton,  was  called  to 
the  chair. 

Mr.  J.  W.  Betteney,  in  a  lucid  and  eloquent 
manner,  showed  that  the  instincts  of  our  nature 
were  entirely  opposed  to  the  killing  and  eating 
of  the  animal  creation. 

Mr.  Jas.  Gaskill  said,  he  had  been  a  Vege- 
tarian upwards  of  forty  years,  and  had,  in  his 
own  experience,  fully  proved  the  advantages  re- 
sulting from  correct  habits  of  diet.  Habit  too 
frequently  led  to  indifference  in  reference  to  diet, 
and  erroneous  practices  were  thus  perpetuated, 
even  when  contrary  to  the  instincts  of  nature, 
and  the  recognized  facts  of  science.  The  ques- 
tion raised  by  dietetic  reformers  was  not,  what 
man  could  exist  upon,  but  what  was  the  hest 
food  to  sustain  the  body  in  the  most  perfect 
health.  Facts  proved  the  advantages  of  absti- 
nence from  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food,  and  the 
opinions  of  the  most  celebrated  of  scientific  men 
(some  of  which  Mr.  Gaskill  quoted),  based 
upon  a  variety  of  data,  all  harmonized  with  the 
practical    results    attendant    upon    Vegetarian 


habits  of  diet.  Flesh  contained  no  elements  in 
any  way  superior  to  vegetable  food,  and  in  form, 
even,  possessed  no  advantage.  Where,  then,  was 
the  reason  of  obtaining  nourishment  through 
the  secondary  medium  of  an  animal,  subject  to 
the  known  contingencies  of  prevalent  disease? 
It  was  time,  he  argued,  that  the  working-classes 
of  this  country  paid  that  attention  to  their 
dietetic  habits  which  the  importance  of  the 
subject  required.  Working-men  should  remem- 
ber that  these  were  not  the  times  for  useless 
expenditure,  and  he  could  not  call  that  good 
management  which  led  so  many  people  to  give 
sevenpence  and  eightpence  per  pound  for  nutri- 
ment from  flesh,  when  this  was  obtainable  at 
much  less  cost,  and  in  a  superior  and  more  direct 
form,  from  the  vegetable  kingdom.  It  seemed, 
for  instance,  to  him,  bad  policy  to  give  "  sixpence 
per  pound  for  bones  one  day,  and  the  next  day 
to  exchange  them  for  sand  and  rubbing-stones." 
It  was  of  vast  importance  to  the  working-classes 
to  lay  out  their  means  to  the  best  advantage. 
The  speaker,  who  was  listened  to  throughout  his 
address  with  the  greatest  attention,  then  con- 
eluded  by  hoping  that  the  important  subject  of 
dietetic  reform  would  meet  with  the  considera- 
tion its  benefits  merited. 

Mr.  J.  Hall  then  briefly  addressed  the 
meeting,  after  which  several  questions  were 
asked,  Avhich  were  answered  by  Mr.  Gas- 
kill apparently  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
meeting.  Mr.  Ogden  Clegg  proposed  a 
vote  of  thanks  to  the  Chairman  and  speakers, 
which  being  carried,  the  meeting  separated 
a  little  before  ten  o'clock. 


LOCAL     OPEKATIONS 

VEGETARIAN    SOCIETY. 

The  List  of  Members. — If  members  will  kindly 
criticize  the  new  List  of  Members  recently  issued, 
and  give  information  respecting  any  errors  or 
omissions  that  may  be  discovered,  they  will  con- 
fer a  benefit,  not  merely  upon  themselves,  but 
on  others,  who  are  all  interested  in  such  cor- 
rections being  made  in  future  issues  of  the  List. 
With  a  view  to  the  most  efficient  rendering 
of  the  assistance  solicited,  we  would  suggest, 
first,  that  each  member  should  check  the  entry 
of  his  or  her  name  and  address  in  both  the 
general  alphabetical  and  geographical  lists ; 
next  the  entries  of  the  subscription  department ; 
then  the  same  particulars  in  relation  to  their 
families  or  circle  of  acquaintance,  so  far  as  these 
may  be  known  to  them ;  and,  lastly,  that  they 
should  put  the  Secretary  in  possession  of  any 
information  arrived  at,  otherwise  tending  to 
secure  correctness,  and  add  to  the  general  value 
of  the  List  as  an  important  document  of  the  Society. 
John  Andrew,  Jun.,  Secretary. 

BIRMINGHAM. 

Change  of  Secretary. — The  local  secretary  here 
is  contemplating  resigning  his  office,  as  he  is 
about  to  leave  the  town.     With  a  Uttle  delay,  we 


AND     INTELLIGENCE. 

have  fouud  some  one  to  recommend  for  appoint- 
ment to  his  place  ;  the  reluctance  to  accept  the 
office  not  proceeding  from  want  of  sympathy 
with  the  movement,  but  from  the  fact  of  our 
being  such  an  inactive  set  of  people  in  Birming- 
ham in  all  that  belongs  to  strict  organization. 
When  I  read  the  Messenger,  and  see  what  is 
being  done  in  other  quarters,  I,  for  one,  certainly 
feel  ashamed  that  we  have  not  a  more  acknow- 
ledged existence.  R.  R.  C. 

Social  Advocacy. — Though  we  cannot  point  to 
any  public  labours  systematically  carried  on  in 
our  town,  perhaps  few  other  places  come  up  to 
Birmingham  in  the  extent  of  the  private  advocacy 
of  our  views.  Numbers  are  constantly  becoming 
acquainted  with  our  principles  in  this  way,  and 
many  are  led  to  try,  approve  of,  and  permanently 
to  adopt  our  system  of  living.  The  effect  of  an 
Annual  Meeting  and  Banquet  in  Birmingham 
would,  no  doubt,  be  to  assemble  all  those  adhe- 
rents of  the  system,  and  to  add  their  strength  to 
that  of  the  public  movement.  G.  N. 

CRAWSHAWBOOTH. 

Operations. — The  cause  of  Vegetarianism  in 
this  neighbourhood  still  continues  to  progress. 
We  are  now  placing  the  Association  on  a  proper 


14 


LOCAL   OPERATIONS   AND   INTELLIGENCE. 


basis,  and  establishing'  more  complete  organiza- 
tion, which  will  doublless  add  to  its  stability. 
About  twenty-four  persons  are  practising  the 
system. 

Meetings.-^We  have  had  three  meetings  since 
I  wrote  last,  all  of  them  private  ;  the  first  was 
addressed  by  Mr.  W.  Hoyle,  on  The  Evidence 
of  Analogy  in  favour  of  a  Vegetarian  Diet ;  the 
second  by  Mr.  T.  Nowell,  on  The  Use  of  Vege- 
tables in  Medicine;  and  the  last  by  Mr.  W. 
Chalk,  on  The  Influence  of  a  Vegetarian  Diet 
upon  the  Mental  Powers.  W.  H. 

DARWEN. 

Operations. — Our  proceedings  for  a  long  pe- 
riod have  been  very  quiet,  the  continued  absence 
of  Mr.  R.  HiNDLE,  the  active  Secretary  of  our 
Association,  having  paralyzed  o\xr  efforts,  whilst, 
I  regret  to  say,  my  numerous  and  growing 
duties  prevent  me  from  giving  that  attention  to 
the  affairs  of  the  Association  which  I  could 
desire.  I  pen  this  brief  notice  in  my  sick  room, 
to  which  T  have  been  confined  for  a  few  days,  by 
what  my  medical  attendant  describes  as  sympto- 
matic fever,  but  I  am  happy  to  say  that  I  am 
now  almost  well.  W.  T.  A. 

HULL. 

Operations. — We  continue  to  lend  the  Mes- 
senger, Fruits  and  Farinacea,  and  Science  of 
Human  Life;  and  between  thirty  and  forty 
persons  are  trying  the  system. 

Return  to  the  Practice. — One  man  who  had 
been  trying  the  practice  for  three  years,  discon- 
tinued it  by  the  advice  of  his  medical  attendant. 
He  was  suffering  from  drowsiness,  but  on  taking 
to  flesh,  he  became  much  worse,  and  was  very 
ill.  He  has  now  returned  to  our  system,  and 
his  health  is  improving.  T.  D.  H. 

LEEDS. 

Operations. — We  have  had  no  meetings  since 
my  last.  Several  persons  are  trying  the  system 
in  Woodhouse  and  Leeds,  and  about  a  dozen 
copies  of  the  Messenger  are  lent  for  reading. 
One  of  our  members  has  given  up  the  practice 
through  opposition  at  home.  We  are  contem- 
plating some  more  active  proceedings.  There 
is  considerable  inquiry  as  to  the  merits  and 
advantages  of  Vegetarianism,  but  it  requires 
much  effort  and  reading  to  bring  many  to  a 
decision.  J.  A.  J. 

LONDON. 

Vegetarian  Lectures. — Mr.  Bormond's  lec- 
tures, in  and  about  London,  continue  to  draw 
inquiring,  and,  in  some  instances,  large  audiences, 
several  series  having  been  given  in  various 
districts  of  the  city. 

Saffron  Hill. — A  series  of  four  lectures  has 
been  given  here,  and  much  interest  has  been 
excited,  and  earnest  inquiries  called  forth.  At 
the  close  of  the  last  lecture  a  number  of  questions 
were  sent  up  to  the  platform, couched  in  courteous 
language,  and  dictated  mainly  by  a  kindly  spirit, 
when  much  useful  information  was  elicited.  The 
assembly  spontaneously  tendered  a  vote  of  thanks 
to  the  lecturer,  and  at  the  same  time  expressed 


their  satisfaction  with  the  manner  in  which  the 
questions  had  been  met. 

Chelsea. — A  course  of  three  lectures  was 
given  at  Chelsea,  in  the  very  elegant  and 
commodious  Temperance  Hall.  These  lectures 
were  highly  appreciated  by  large  and  attentive 
audiences,  and.  many  minds  doubtless  quickened 
in  reference  to  this  and  other  kindred  subjects. 

Little  Portland  Street. — Two  lectures  were 
delivered  in  the  Fitzroy  Hall,  on  Thursday, 
January  25th,  and  Thursday,  February  15th, 
before  intelligent  and  thoughtful  audiences.  The 
subject  of  the  first  lecture  was,  Man,  his  capabi- 
lities and  tendencies,  physical,  mental,  and 
spiritual — The  effects  of  food  and  drink  on  the 
entire  nature.  The  second  treated  of  the  lan- 
guage of  the  special  senses  as  to  the  originally 
constituted  food  of  man — The  products  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom  versus  the  flesh  of  animals  as 
food.  These  subjects  were  listened  to  with  candour 
and  earnestness,  and  doubtless  left  the  people 
less  disposed  to  carp  at  the  Vegetarian  system, 
than  when  they  viewed  its  claims  from  a  distance, 
through  their  prejudices  and  artificial  habits. 

Aldersgate  Street. — A  series  of  three  lectures 
has  been  given  in  the  Educational  Institute,  to 
increasingly  large  audiences. 

Greenwich. — Three  lectures  have  been  given 
here,  the  first  on  February  1st,  in  the  Girls' 
British  School,  adjoining  Lewisham  Road  Chapel, 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Timpson  of  Lewisham  pre- 
siding ;  the  second  and  third  lectures  were  given 
in  the  Temperance  Hall,  Roan  Street,  on  the  8th 
and  9th  of  February,  when  the  chair  was  taken 
by  W.  Sturton,  Esq.,  M.D.  These  lectures 
have  elicited  candid  inquiry,  and  earnest  thought, 
on  the  part  of  those  who  seek  to  be  right  in  their 
day-by-day  practice,  in  reference  to  the  sustaining 
of  the  body,  and  "  keeping  it  in  subjection," 

Bethnal  Green  Road. — Four  lectures  have  been 
delivered  at  Zion  Chapel,  on  February  6th,  13th, 
20th,  27th,  the  Rev.  T.  G.  Williams  presiding  on 
each  occasion.  In  the  first  lecture  the  human 
body  in  its  connection  with  the  spirit,  the  brain, 
its  machinery  and  furniture,  the  mind,  its  facul- 
ties and  wisdom,  and  the  results  of  food  on 
both,  were  ably  treated.  The  second  included 
the  balance-power  of  food,  stimulative  and  nu- 
tritive, the  character  of  true  health,  the  influence 
of  fruits  in  time  of  cholera,  and  the  philosophy 
of  prescribing  a  fruit  diet.  The  third  treated  of 
the  food  of  man,  viewed  through  the  medium  of 
the  special  senses  and  comparative  anatomy.  In 
the  last,  man's  original  and  proper  food  was 
demonstrated  to  be  fruits,  roots,  and  grain,  from 
an  examination  of  the  facts  of  nature,  and  the 
deductions   of   chemistry. 

Vegetarian  Soiree. — We  anticipate  holding  a 
Soiree  on  the  28th  of  February,  when  we  hope 
to  have  a  good  gathering  of  the  Vegetarian 
friends  in  and  about  London,  to  hear  Mr. 
BoRMOND,  many  of  these  not  having  had  an 
opportunity  of  hearing  him  during  his  recent 
labours,  through  the  great  distance  preventing 
many  from  attending  the  lectures.  B.  J. 


ACCEINGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  MEETING. 


15 


ACCRINGTON    VEGETARIAN    ASSOCIATION    MEETING. 


On  Thursday  evening,  March  8th,  a  Vege- 
tarian Meeting  was  held  in  the  New  Jeru- 
salem School  Room,  Accrington,  when  ad- 
dresses in  support  of  the  Vegetarian  system 
Avere  delivered  by  James  Simpson,  Esq.,  of 
Fox-hill  Bank,  Mr.  George  Clarke,  of 
Rishton,  Mr.  G.  Pollard,  of  Padiham,  and 
Mr.  "W.  Sandeman.  The  audience  was 
not  very  numerous,  probably  through  the 
announcements  of  the  meeting  not  having 
been  issued  sufficiently  early,  but  those  who 
were  present  manifested  the  greatest  interest, 
and  the  proceedings  were  continued  to  a  late 
hour.  At  the  close  of  the  addresses  several 
objections  were  submitted  by  one  of  the 
audience,  to  which  replies  were  offered  by 
the  Chairman  and  others. 

James  Simtson,  Esq.,  occupied  the  chair, 
and,  after  some  preliminary  remarks,  said,  that 
it  would  be  well  if  more  persons  were  interested 
in  such  an  inquiry  as  that  proposed  for  their 
attention  that  evening ;  but,  unfortunately,  the 
great  mass  of  people  did  not  inquire  into  the 
reasons,  real  or  supposed,  for  their  daily  habits, 
but  were  content  to  follow  what  they  liked.  It 
was,  however,  true  that  the  world  was  ruled  by 
a  minority  of  those  who  thought  more  for  them- 
selves on  all  matters  than  people  generally  were 
inclined  to  do.  There  was  thus  no  need  to  be 
discouraged  in  relation  to  any  subject  that  was 
worth  anything,  by  the  small  number  of  its 
adherents  to  begin  with ;  for  there  was  once  a 
time,  as  all  would  remember,  when  the  Gospel 
itself  had  but  the  Saviour  and  a  few  fishermen  to 
proclaim  it  to  the  world.  All  would  probably 
admit  the  force  of  habit;  but  if  any  doubted 
the  difficulty  of  changing  long-established  habits, 
let  them  set  to  work  by  beginning  upon  the  smaller 
matters  first,  and  they  would  find  it  a  difficult 
task  to  overcome  even  slight  peculiarities  of  speech 
or  action.  And  when  to  this  was  added  the 
influence  of  prevailing  custom,  and  especially  if 
the  practice  were  not  a  correct  one,  it  exerted  a 
blinding  influence  upon  the  perceptions  of  those 
who  were  in  the  practice.  People  had,  therefore, 
a  great  difficulty  in  estimating  the  errors  of  pre- 
vailing custom,  and  especially  if  they  happened 
to  have  been  trained  in  them  for  generations. 
The  Creator  had  given  us  power  to  attain  to 
truths,  if  we  would  only  have  them ;  all  spiritual 
philosophy  went  to  prove  that,  if  men  were 
active,  they  could,  by  earnestly  striving,  become 
converted  from  those  practices  that  were  erro- 
neous; but  if,  liie  the  carter  in  the  fable 
(who,  when  the  cart  got  into  the  ruts  and  stuck 
fast,  fell  on  his  knees,  and  merely  prayed  to 
Jupiter  to  lift  the  cart  out,  without  "putting 
his  shoulder  to  the  wheel"),  they  did  not 
exert  their  own  moral  and  human  strength, — 
pray  in  act  as  well  as  word — they  must  necessa- 
rily fail  to  raise  themselves  out  of  evil,  though 
with  these  efforts  they  could,  as  things  were  con- 
stituted, secure  progression  in  what  was  good  in 


relation  to  time,  as  well  as  to  the  great  interests 
of  eternity.  The  process  was  a  slow  one,  but  it  was 
safe,  and  certain  to  result  in  increased  usefulness 
and  consequent  happiness.  Being  in  an  evil 
course  darkened  the  mind,  and  led  to  mistakes, 
because  the  Creator  had  established  everything 
in  relation  to  principles  of  truth,  and  if  we 
were  in  complete  truth,  we  should  the  more 
readily  see  the  evil.  It  was  not  necessary  to 
be  in  the  evil  to  see  it;  but  if  in  an  evil 
practice,  it  was  not  easy  to  see  out  of  the  bad 
into  the  good,  for  people  were  blinded  by  the  bad 
habit,  whilst  in  truthful  courses  they  could  see 
the  deformity  of  the  evil  without  needing  to  go 
into  it.  This  was  true  of  greater  things  as  well 
as  the  smaller  ones,  just  as  some  who  were  now 
teetotallers,  before  becoming  such  upon  the  total 
abstinence  question,  looked  upon  that  practice 
unfavourably,  and  despised  it.  Some  present 
were  teetotallers,  and  others  were  not,  and  this 
reference  might  serve  as  a  simple  illustration  of 
what  he  meant.  Whilst  people  were  in  drinking 
habits  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  see  the 
beauty  of  teetotalism  ;  but  they  got  into  trouble 
by  drinking,  and  were  induced  to  become  total 
abstainers,  and  they  could  now  see  the  evil  and 
mischief  of  the  drinking  customs  far  more  clearly 
than  they  ever  saw  these  before.  The  teetotaller 
after  five  years'  abstinence  saw  this  evil  quite 
distinctly ;  but  after  twenty  years'  abstinence, 
supposing  he  had  progressed  otherwise  in  good 
practices,  he  would  see  this  question  more  clearly 
than  after  five  years'  abstinence.  But  he  con- 
tended that  the  person  who  had  never  been  in 
the  habit  of  drinking  at  all,  saw  its  evil  clearest  of 
all.  For  the  sake  of  illustration,  they  would 
see,  that,  he  was  begging  the  question  that  the 
drinking  system  was  an  evil  one.  The  history 
of  the  world  showed,  that  the  higher  the  truth, 
the  more  bitter  was  the  hostility  of  those  who 
were  opposed  to  it.  When  Christ  propounded 
his  system  of  truths,  the  Pharisees  said  he  was 
mad  and  had  a  devil,  and  gnashed  their  teeth  at 
him ;  and  who  could  be  further  removed  from 
the  truth  than  these  people  were,  in  their  pride 
and  hypocrisy,  saying,  "  I  thank  thee  that  I  am 
not  as  other  men  "  ?  The  world  had  in  this  way 
taken  hold  of  the  men  who  propounded  new 
truths,  and  the  man  who  first  said  the  earth 
turned  round  the  sun,  instead  of  the  sun  round 
the  earth,  as  was  then  supposed,  happened  to 
sicken  and  die  immediately,  or  he  would  have 
been  persecuted.  For  we  find,  vrhen  the  man 
who  followed  him  said,  "  Copernicus  was 
quite  right,  the  earth  does  go  round  the  sun," 
they  got  hold  of  him,  and  made  him  go  down  on 
his  knees  before  the  Inquisition,  and  say  that 
this  was  a  lie,  and  that  the  earth  did  not  turn 
round  the  sun  ;  but  he  got  up  again,  and  said, 
"but  it  doth  turn,  though."  This  was  the 
philosopher  Galileo.  There  had  been  many 
martyrs  to  truth  in  this  way  in  the  past,  but 
they  did  not  now  thus  treat  those  who  taught 
new  truths ;  the  most  they  did  was  to  laugh  a 
little  at  them  ;  and  this  they  could  stand,  for  if  a 


16 


ACCRINGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  MEETING. 


system  would  not  bear  a  little  laughing  at,  it 
must  be  a  poor  one,  and  the  sooner  it  was  put  an 
end  to,  the  better.  They  could  not  take  a  step 
heavenward  without  departing  from  the  great 
mass  around  them,  but  they  need  never  feel 
ashamed  at  this,  and  if  they  could  give  a  good 
reason  for  their  practice,  need  not  be  afraid  of  a 
little  laughter.  Philosophy  declared  that  we 
came  into  the  world  for  useful  ends — to  receive 
truth  —  to  help  others  —  what  a  thing  it 
was  then  to  be  afraid  of  a  little  laughter  !  It 
was  a  counterfeit  sort  of  happiness  they  would 
obtain  if  they  were  seeking  happiness  for  itself; 
they  would  thus  miss  their  way,  but  if 
diligently  engaged  in  carrying  out  the  great 
purposes  of  existence,  they  would  incidentally 
secure  real  happiness  at  the  same  time.  The 
question  of  diet  was  one  of  difficulty,  because 
people  have  got  "meat"  in  their  stomachs,  and 
in  their  heads,  and  eyes  even.  The  goodness  of 
the  Vegetarian  system,  or  what  was  called  Dietetic 
Reform,  could  well  support  this  misfortune,  how- 
ever, and  he  did  not  think  any  man  could  hear 
its  arguments  without  getting  good  impressions, 
and  especially  if  he  would  only  inquire  into  it. 
There  was  a  class,  however,  who  were  chiefly 
guided  by  the  "  I  like  it  "  feeling ;  and  these  were 
the  most  unfortunate  of  all,  since  they  were  con- 
tent, without  inquiry,  to  follow  prevailing  customs 
and  acquired  tastes.  People  sometimes  said, 
"  What  fools  these  Vegetarians  must  be,  not  to 
touch  a  bit  of  butcher's  meat ;  "  and  they  said 
many  other  such  things  upon  the  subject;  but 
though  people  had  to  judge  of  this  question 
somewhat  at  disadvantage,  they  could  all  get  out 
of  that  disadvantage  in  a  little  time,  if  they  would 
only  undertake  to  examine  and  reason  upon  the 
subject.  The  subject  of  eating  and  drinking  was 
one  of  so  much  interest  to  most  persons,  that  any 
one  might  talk  as  long  as  he  pleased  upon  it, 
touching  upon  the  various  parts  of  the  ox, 
from  the  tips  of  its  horns  to  its  tail,  and  others 
would  listen  with  the  greatest  pleasure  to  remarks 
in  relation  to  the  best  mode  of  cooking  and 
stewing.  He  contended  that,  however  absurd  the 
question  of  Vegetarianism  might  appear  at  first 
sight,  an  examination  of  its  claims  would  demon- 
strate its  importance  to  all  classes.  Whilst 
addressing  a  large  meeting  at  Birmingham,  the 
other  day — not  on  Vegetarianism,  however,  but 
on  the  drinking  system — there  was  a  Vegetarian 
standing  by  his  side,  and  either  himself  or  his 
friend  was  greeted  with  the  cry  of  "  Cabbage !  " 
for  people  thought  Vegetarians  lived  upon  this 
article,  though  they  ate  less  of  it,  probably,  than 
flesh-eaters,  and  lived  chiefly  upon  fruits,  roots,  and 
grain.  When  people  made  use  of  snch  remarks 
as  the  one  he  just  alluded  to,  he  knew  at  once 
they  had  not  examined  the  question.  The  object 
of  the  Vegetarian  movement  .was,  to  lead  to  the 
examination  of  the  dietetic  question  ;  and,  if  on 
inquiry,  it  was  found  to  be  better  than  the  mixed 
diet  system,  people  might  adopt  it  if  they  pleased, 
or  continue  their  old  practice,  if  this  appeared  the 
wisest  course.  It  was  a  great  thing  in  this  world 
to  be  left  in  freedom,  on  this  and  other  questions, 
to  follow  that  which,  on  examination,  presented 
the  greatest  amount  of  evidence  in  its  favour. 


People  were  at  liberty,  if  they  pleased,  to  eat 
donkeys  and  horses,  and  he  had  heard  that  there 
was  now  a  Frenchman  recommending  the  use  of 
horse-flesh  for  food,  as  had  been  done  in  Berlin. 
And  why  not ;  if  they  ate  other  animals  ?  Cus- 
tom was  varied  in  this  respect ;  they  saw  the 
Frenchman  eat  frogs,  and  huge  snails ;  at  par- 
ticular seasons  they  would  see  large  numbers  of 
these  last  in  the  windows  of  the  cafes  and 
restaurants.  He  had  known  an  Englishman  who, 
in  his  morning's  walk,  could  swallow  a  fat  snail; 
but  they  would  most  likely  regard  that  as  a  very 
peculiar  taste  for  an  Englishman.  They  were 
met  to  inquire  into  this  question  of  diet.  The 
Vegetarian's  was  a  benevolent  mission ;  in  short, 
— to  use  the  words  of  a  friend  of  his  who  had 
written  a  beautiful  essay  on  the  subject,  most 
aptly  entitled.  What  is  Vegetarianism  ? — "  the 
mission  of  Vegetarianism  has  reference  to  a 
principle  and  practice,  which  emphatically  pro- 
tests against  the  necessity  of  taking  away 
the  life  of  any  animal  for  the  purposes  of 
human  sustenance.  It  is  a  positive,  not  a 
negative  principle.  *  *  It  says.  We  can  not 
only  do  without  flesh-diet,  but  we  can  do 
much  better  without.  It  offers,  for  everything 
others  bring  forward  in  point  of  theory  or  fact, 
to  produce  a  higher  law,  a  deeper  and  more 
universal  fact,  and  a  superior  result  at  last." 
It  might  be  said,  that  the  teaching  of  the  doc- 
trines of  Vegetarianism  was  unnecessary,  since 
nobody  could  change  the  practice  of  people ;  but 
their  object  was  to  convince  others,  and  then 
leave  them-  to  change  and  alter  their  practice,  if 
they  saw  it  good  to  do  this,  for  themselves.  What 
was  to  decide  the  question  as  to  what  constituted 
the  natural  and  best  diet  of  man?  He  had 
referred  to  the  power  of  reasoning  on  this  sub- 
ject earlier  on,  and  the  decision  must  be  arrived 
at  by  inquiry  and  the  examination  of  evidence. 
In  doing  this,it  would  be  necessaryat  once  to  resort 
to  history.  What,  then,  did  history  say  upon  this 
question  of  diet  ?  The  time  would  only  allow  of 
a  rapid  glance  at  a  few  points,  and  he  must  leave 
those  gentlemen  who  were  to  follow  him  to  speak 
to  the  rest.  When  man  was  at  first  placed  in 
the  very  circumstances  in  which  God  intended 
him  to  live,  he  had  given  him,  in  the  "  herb  bear- 
ing seed,  and  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit,"  the  very 
character  of  diet  for  which  they  were  now  con- 
tending in  1855.  After  continuing  in  this  state 
for  a  certain  period,  man  fell  into  disorder,  and 
some  time  later  again,  he  appears  to  have  fallen 
into  the  practice  of  flesh-eatnig.  People  took  it 
for  granted  that  this  practice  was  permitted  from 
that  time,  and  no  doubt  it  was  permitted  now  in 
our  time  too  ;  but  that  was  not  the  inquiry. 
There  seemed  to  be  another  question  to  be 
decided,  and  that  was,  whether  the  system  in 
which  man  was  at  first  placed,  or  that  into  which 
he  had  subsequently  fallen,  was  the  best?  In- 
stances were  observed  where  the  Jews,  as  indi- 
viduals, had  been  abstainers.  St.  John,  in  the 
wilderness,  fed  on  locusts  and  wild  honey ;  but 
some  people,  in  their  flesh-eating  practices, 
thought  that  this  was  the  animal  locust ;  but  if 
they  went  to  Manchester,  and  other  places,  they 
would  see   the  vegetable  locusts  for  sale — rich, 


ACCEINGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION   MEETING. 


17 


delicious  fruit,  resemhlini^  t!ie  fig  iu  its  nature. 
If  St.  John  had  fed  upon  the  animal  locusts,  he 
would  have  wanted  a  pair  of  wings  to  fly  after 
them,  for  they  came  down  in  great  numbers  upon 
a  tract  of  land,  and  destroyed  all  the  herbage,  and 
then  moved  to  another  place,  and  this  would  have 
left  him  no  leisure  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
multitudes  who  flocked  to  hear  him.  Commen- 
tators, now,  generally  inclined  to  this  interpreta- 
tion of  the  word.  The  Bible  was  a  grand  and 
beautiful  book,  and  all  drew  views  of  truth  from 
it ;  but  it  was  treated  so  strangely  at  times — this 
section  of  professing  Christians  finding  authority 
for  quarrelling  with  that — that  we  could  hardly 
think  they  got  their  authority  for  what  they  did 
from  that  book.  It  was  indeed  a  wonderful  book, 
but  men  perverted  its  truths,  and  sought  to  beat 
the  Vegetarians  from  the  Bible ;  but  there  was 
nothing  in  its  teachings  on  dietetics  really 
opposed  to  their  system.  It  no  doubt  recorded 
instances  of  flesh-eating,  and  other  inferior  prac- 
tices ;  but  these  were  permitted,  not  appointed,  in 
a  fallen  condition,  just  as  the  exaction  of  "  an 
eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,"  and  the 
putting  away  of  wives  was  ;  but  the  real  inquiry  was 
What  prevailed  "in  the  beginning?"  If  they  went 
to  history  without  the  Bible,  they  would  find 
that  the  great  mass  of  mankind  were  not  living 
on  flesh,  but  that  from  two-thirds  to  three- 
fourths  subisted  on  vegetable  products  as  the 
main  feature  of  their  diet,  and  only  on  flesh  as 
the  great  accident  of  the  time,  some  races  living 
from  generation  to  generation  entirely  without  it. 
Some  of  the  greatest  works  of  antiquity  had 
been  carried  out  in  Vegetarian  practice.  Cyrus 
and  his  followers  lived  in  this  way  ;  and  Greece 
and  Rome  in  their  happiest  days  were  supported 
on  simple  vegetable  products.  Rye  was  used  in 
large  quantities  by  these  people,  aud  an  admi- 
rable article  of  diet  it  is.  The  men  of  most 
muscular  frames,  and  who  carry  the  greatest 
weights,  amounting  to  700  or  800  pounds,  upon 
their  heads  and  shoulders,  never  taste  flesh,  but 
live  on  this  black 'bread,  and  fruit,  and  drink  only 
water.  Mr.  Fairbairn,  the  celebrated  engineer 
of  Manchester,  was  over  in  the  east  a  few  years 
ago,  and  he  was  quite  struck  with  this  fact  ;  our 
beef-fed  porters  never  dreamed  of  lifting  the  bur- 
dens these  men  carry.  In  short,  history,  wher- 
ever they  might  go,  was  in  favour  of  this  system. 
Look  at  the  two  American  tribes  living  almost 
side  by  side  in  South  America  ;  the  Carib  of 
Venezuela,  the  most  savage  creature  in  the  world, 
he  even  ate  human  flesh,  and  thought  that  all 
other  races  were  made  to  be  eaten  by  him.  Not 
far  distant  from  this  tribe,  they  would  find  a 
moral  and  well-conducted  race  of  men,  the 
Araucanian  Indians,  and  any  person  who  had  paid 
attention  to  mental  philosophy,  as  made  known 
in  the  teachings  of  phrenology,  would  find  that 
these  people  had  a  grand  development  of  benevo- 
lence, and  ought  to  be  civilized  men.  These 
people,  indeed,  in  some  respects  acted  in  a  man- 
ner worthy  of  imitation  by  civilized  people,  and 
they  would  have  no  money  amongst  them  since 
they  saw  the  the  cheating  and  dishonest  conduct 
of  the  Spaniards  who  visited  them ;  they  con- 
ducted all  their  exchanges  by  barter.     Contrast 


these  people  with  the  Carihs,  and  they  would  see 
these  last  with  a  low  receding  forehead,  and 
heads  almost  overhatiging  their  shoulders.  The 
question  of  diet  was  a  very  interesting  one,  and 
worthy  of  the  attention  of  every  one ;  and  they 
would  find  that  they  had  something  to  inquire 
into,  and  perhaps  to  alter,  in  their  personal 
habits.  The  facts  of  history  were  very  impor- 
tant, but  God  spoke  to  them  in  other  ways,  and 
one  of  these  was  iu  science,  or  the  interpretation 
of  the  laws  of  nature.  Look  at  the  teeth  of 
man,  for  example,  those  teeth  that,  as  people  said, 
"  showed  he  was  intended  to  eat  meat,"  but  with 
which  he  really  never  ate  meat  at  all.  Other 
animals  had  got  these  teeth  longer  than  man ; 
the  monkey  tribes,  which  came  nearest  to 
man  in  physiological  structure.  He  did  not 
mean  the  monkeys  we  saw  in  this  country,  but 
those  of  Africa  and  India,  which  approached 
man  in  stature,  such  as  the  ourang-outang ;  ajid 
yet  these  animals  lived  on  fruits  and  vegetable 
products,  aud  did  not  eat  flesh  at  all.  These  had 
got  the  "  eye-tooth,"  or  "  dog  tooth,"  longer  than 
man  had.  The  greatest  naturalists  that  ever 
lived  had  declared,  that  the  natural  food  of  man 
was  fruits,  roots,  and  grain  ;  but  those  who  tried 
to  please  the  people  said,  that  man  was  intended 
to  eat  meat.  Those  persons  who  said  this,  had 
never  examined  the  question  thoroughly,  and  did 
not  know  what  the  real  authorities  upon  the 
question  had  long  since  declared.  It  was  very 
foolish  to  be  eating  the  flesh  of  animals,  since 
this  was  only  eating  vegetable  substances  at  second 
hand.  And  then  how  much  of  this  flesh  was 
diseased — they  knew  how  to  judge  of  that  in 
Accrington.  He  had  lately  elicited  from  the 
butchers  of  Accrington,  in  a  case  that  came 
before  him,  that  the  best  way  to  tell  whether 
meat  was  diseased  was,  that  diseased  raeiit 
did  not  look  bright  when  it  was  cut,  whilst 
"good  meat,"  though  old  and  dark  looking, 
would  look  bright  inside.  It  might  also 
be  detected  by  its  low  price,  and  the  absence  of 
the  usual  qsiantity  of  fat ;  aud  some  of  the  most 
skilful  market  inspectors  in  London  declared, 
that  they  could  only  judge  of  it  iu  this  way. 
When  they  came  to  look  into  the  question,  they 
would  see  it  was  foolish  to  eat  meat,  since  they 
gave  a  shilling  for  what  they  could  have  for  two- 
pence or  threepence  in  some  other  way,  and  more 
digestible  and  healthful  at  the  same  time.  He 
did  not,  then,  see  the  wisdom  of  poor  men  with 
hard-earned  money,  giving  6d.,  7d.,  or  8d.,  per 
pound  for  meat  and  bone,  and  then  selling  the 
bone,  which  was  often  a  large  part  of  their  pur- 
chase, a  few  days  after,  in  exchange  for  sand  aud 
other  things,  at  Id.  per  pound.  Providence  never 
intended  man  to  eat  meat,  or  it  would  not  have 
been  made  so  dear.  If  they  were  workmen,  they 
would  find  they  could  live  cheaper  without  flesh- 
meat,  and  when  they  came  to  individual  expe- 
rience, they  would  maintain  their  health  better, 
and  their  lives  happier,  on  the  Vegetarian  system 
than  the  other.  He  was  obliged  to  draw  upon 
their  credence  upon  this  subject,  but  he  appealed 
to  those  who  knew  both  sides,  having  tried  both 
systems,  and  in  this  way  the  question  commended 
itself  to  all  inquirers.     Why  did  the  Vegetarians 


18 


ACCRINGTON  VEGETAEIAN   ASSOCIATION   MEETING. 


live  in  this  way  but  because  they  had  found  a 
better  system, — the  best  system,  in  short,  for  in 
the  meat-eating  system  they  went  roundabout 
for  their  food,  and  only  got  vegetable  principles 
at  last.  He  would  say,  therefore,  "just  get  these 
first  principles  at  once,  and  let  the  flesh  of 
animals  go."  He  might  appeal  to  their  benevo- 
lence, since  there  was  not  one  who  was  not 
disgusted  by  the  scenes  incident  to  the  slaughter 
of  animals  for  food.  The  tiger  and  other  animals 
of  prey  did  not  feel  this  in  relation  to  procuring 
their  food ;  all  was  natural  to  them,  and  they 
were  delighted  in  seizing  their  prey,  and  expe- 
rienced a  gush  of  saliva  that  showed  all  »vas  in 
harmony  with  their  natures.  The  smell  of  cooked 
flesh  was  associated  with  our  meals,  and  thus 
became  grateful  to  us ;  but  let  any  abstaiu  from 
flesh  for  a  time,  and  the  odour  would  become 
off"ensive  to  them.  The  flesh  of  our  own  bodies, 
if  burned,  would  smell  just  the  same ;  and  a 
gentleman  had  told  him,  in  relation  to  this  point, 
he  was  quite  right,  for  when  he  was  living  in 
India,  and  riding  out  early  in  the  morning  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  some  large  city,  he  sometimes 
came  upon  men  burning  the  dead,  and  the  smell 
was  just  the  same.  They  got  accustomed  to  these 
odours,  however,  and  other  modes  of  preparing 
flesh,  and  called  all  acceptable — "  the  smell  of 
their  dinner  " ;  but  this  was  merely  the  result  of 
acquired  habit,  and  in  the  same  way  the  sheep 
had  been  educated  to  eat  mutton  until  it  refused 
grass.  When  they  came  to  inquire  further  into 
this  subject,  they  felt  compunction  at  getting 
their  food  in  this  way  ;  and  this  was,  again,  to  his 
mind,  a  strong  proof  that  the  flesh-eating  practice 
was  not  a  natural  one.  In  these  few  remarks,  he 
could  only  present  a  few  thhigs  for  their  con- 
sideration ;  others  would  follow  him,  and  in  this 
way  be  hoped  the  inquiry  would  lead  to  some- 
thing, even  on  a  first  hearing  of  the  question. 
There  were,  however,  he  thought,  many  in  Accring- 
ton  who  had  had  more  than  a  first  hearing  of 
the  subject,  and  these  persons  ought  to  take  up 
the  system  and  join  the  Society,  and  in  this 
way  do  their  duty  to  the  public.     (Applause.) 

Mr.  J.  Clarke  said  he  felt  rather  diffident  at 
rising  to  speak  on  Vegetarianism,  for  this  would 
be  his  maiden  speech  on  the  subject ;  but  as  he 
had  been  invited  to  state  his  experience,  he  could 
not  refuse  to  do  this.  In  June  next,  if  spared 
till  then,  he  would  have  been  a  Vegetarian  four 
years,  or  perhaps  rather  longer,  for  when  he  first 
commenced  the  practice  he  was  from  home,  and 
lived  without  flesh-meat  during  the  week,  but  on 
going  home  to  his  family  on  the  Sunday,  he  took 
meat  along  with  them.  This  went  on  for  a  few 
weeks,  and  he  then  said  he  did  not  care  about 
the  meat,  and  his  family  ate  their  meat,  and  he 
did  without.  He  was  then,  and  had  been  for 
some  time,  in  a  bad  state  of  health,  though  up 
to  the  age  of  thirty  he  had  never  known  anything 
of  a  sense  of  pain  or  weariness  from  ordinary 
labour.  He  had  followed  the  brick-making  busi- 
ness up  to  the  age  of  thirty-six,  though  he  had 
not  now  worked  at  this  for  some  time,  and 
twelve  years  ago,  he  became  a  teetotaller.  Some 
time  afterwards,  he  had  read  an  excellent  sermon 
on  Redeeming  the  Time,  by  John  Wesley  ;  in 


which  he  stated  that  he  regularly  rose  at  four  in 
the  morning,  and  had  thus  repaired  his  health, 
and  as  he  (Mr.  Clarke)  was  anxious  to  find 
time  for  self-improvement,  he  adopted  this  prac- 
tice of  early  rising,  and  with  advantage  for  some 
time.  After  a  while,  however,  his  health  again 
failed  him,  and  a  friend  told  him  that  if  he  were 
made  of  iron,  he  might  stand  this  wear  and  tear, 
but  that,  unless  he  gave  up,  he  would  soon  wear 
himself  out.  This  medical  man  recommended 
him  to  take  porter,  a  little  at  first,  and  gradually 
increase  this  as  he  could  take  more.  He  also 
advised  him  to  take  meat  again,  to  eat  it  for 
breakfast  and  dinner,  and  again  at  supper,  and 
also  to  rest  from  mental  exertion  of  all  kinds. 
He  tried  this  for  a  time,  with  great  reluctance, 
however,  and  at  length  he  was  directed  to  another 
medical  man,  who  had  been  staying  for  some 
time  in  his  neighborhood,  and  who  was  recom- 
mended as  a  clever  man,  and  also  a  teetotaller. 
He  waited  upon  him,  and  though  the  doctor  at 
first  refused  to  give  him  advice,  he  was  afterwards 
induced  to  do  so.  The  doctor  gave  him  such 
directions  as  he  required,  and  he  went  home  with 
a  lighter  heart  than  he  had  had  for  some  time. 
This  medical  man  said  he  could  hardly  bear  the 
name  of  flesh-meat,  but  if  he  would  eat  any,  it 
should  be  a  little  mutton,  and  he  was  to  take 
cocoa.  He  thought  if  he  could  live  cheaper  and 
better  without  meat,  he  would  do  so.  He  was 
ordered  to  follow  the  water-cure  treatment,  and 
had  found  so  much  advantage  from  this,  that  he 
continued  to  wash  in  cold  water  every  morning 
since,  the  first  thing  on  getting  out  of  bed.  He 
did  not  jump  into  the  Vegetarian  practice  at 
once.  He  heard  of  Mr.  Simpson,  of  Fox-hill 
Bank,  and  as  he  did  not  feel  quite  sure  about 
this  Vegetarian  practice,  he  went  over  to  see 
Mr.  Simpson  ;  he  was  kindly  received,  and  had 
Smith's  Fruits  and  Farinacea  lent  him  to  read. 
He  then  saw  his  way  clear,  went  to  Manchester, 
bought  the  book,  and  lent  it  to  a  lady  to 
read.  He  now  commenced  eating  a  few  raisins 
at  his  meals,  giving  up  the  use  of  butter,  and 
tea  and  cotfee,  and  using  milk  and  raisins 
instead,  the  bread  he  used,  he  would  remark, 
was  the  brown  bread  A  person  said  to  him 
one  day  that  if  he  knew  what  the  miller  put 
in  the  brown  flour  he  would  not  use  it.  He  told 
the  person  that  he  did  not  trust  to  the  miller, 
but  prepared  this  himself.  A  friend  on  the 
platform  had  bought  a  mill,  and  that  was  an 
excellent  plan  to  grind  their  own  corn,  and  thus 
avoid  any  mixture  with  the  flour  they  used. 
Since  resuming  his  Vegetarian  practice  he  had 
gradually  improved  in  health,  and  had  now 
for  some  time  been  as  well  as  ever  he  was  in  his 
life.  He  could  work  as  well  as  he  ever  could ; 
preach  twice  or  thrice  on  the  Sabbath  day ;  and 
rise  every  morning,  when  the  little  alarum  awoke 
him,  without  any  unpleasant  feeling  or  disagree- 
able taste  in  the  mouth,  as  used  to  be  the  case 
before  becoming  a  Vegetarian.  He  might  be 
asked  how  he  lived,  and  would  just  state  that  he 
had  the  wheat  ground,  and  then  made  into  bread, 
without  barm,  or  salt,  or  anything,  but  mixed 
with  cold  water.  [Mr.  Clarke  presented  a 
piece    of  this   bread,  for  the   inspection   of  the 


ACCRINGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  MEETING. 


19 


audience  after  the  meeting;,  which  was  found  to 
be  of  excellent  flavour  and  quahty.]  This  was 
then  taken  out  of  the  oven  and  put  to  cool,  and 
half  a  pint  of  milk  and  oatmeal  porridge,  and  a 
piece  of  this  bread,  served  him  for  breakfast. 
This  porridge  was  prepared  over  night,  and  set 
in  the  coolest  part  of  the  house  till  the  morning. 
In  the  morning  he  rose  at  a  quarter  past  four, 
washed  all  over  from  head  to  foot  in  cold  water ; 
he  then  went  to  work  at  his  books,  or  employed 
his  time  otherwise  till  breakfast,  when  he  had  the 
porridge  and  milk,  and  a  piece  of  the  bread,  with 
a  few  raisins,  perhaps.  He  was  lately  told  by  a 
gentleman,  that  if  he  did  not  eat  flesh-meat  he 
ate  eggs,  or  something  of  the  kind  to  keep  him 
up.  He  told  the  gentleman  that  he  had  not 
eaten  twelve  eggs  since  he  had  been  a  Vegetarian, 
and  he  could  do  without  them.  For  dinner  he 
had  cold  rice-pudding,  some  potatoes,  a  piece  of 
bread,  and  a  lump  of  raisins.  And  on  this  diet 
he  could  walk  twenty  or  even  forty  miles  a  day. 
Mr.  Clarke  then  related  the  way  in  which  he 
had  cured  a  young  woman  who  was  supposed  to 
be  dying  of  consumption,  by  simple  water-cure 
applications  and  Vegetarian  diet,  and  concluded 
by  stating  that  he  left  the  audience  to  eat  and 
drink  as  they  pleased,  as  he  thought  he  had  said 
enough  to  show  that  Vegetarianism  did  well  for 
him.     (Applause.) 

Mr.  PoLLAKD  spoke  for  some  time  on  the 
importance  of  using  brown  bread,  and  said  that 
to  meet  the  demands  of  his  neighbours  for  the 
flour,  he  had  to  work  his  hand-mill  almost  day 
and  night,  but  he  hoped  soon  to  have  an  engine 
to  relieve  him  of  his  labour.  He  then  urged  the 
importance  of  cleanliness  in  the  house,  cleanliness 
of  person  and  linen,  end  explained  some  plans  he 
was  about  carrying  out,  to  facilitate  the  washing 
of  clothes  by  a  machine,  without  the  necessity  of 
manual  labour.  After  contrasting  the  ofl'ensive  cir- 
cumstances in  connection  with  flesh-eating  with 
the  beauty  and  purity  of  Vegetarian  diet,  he  con- 
cluded with  some  remarks  on  the  economy  of  the 
latter  system,  audits  sufficiency  to  sustain  health 
under  severe  toil. 

Mr.  James  Randles  had  been  a  Vegetarian 
since  1846,  wken  he  was  led  to  reason  on  the 
question  of  diet.  He  had  found  that  a  Vegeta- 
rian diet  was  not  only  cheaper,  but  that  he  could 
live  better  upon  it,  and  build  up  the  body  in 
greater  strength  than  on  the  mixed-diet  system. 
He  concluded  by  recommending  the  reading  of 
the  Messenger,  Fruits  and  Farinacea,  and  other 
Vegetarian  publications,  which  had  directed  him 
to  a  far  more  healthful  and  happy  mode  of  life  than 
the  common  one. 

Mr.  Sandeman  considered  it  would  be  un- 
wise in  him  to  detain  the  meeting,  as  it  was 
already  late.  He  would,  therefore,  only  dwell 
for  a  few  minutes  upon  one  or  two  subjects 
presented  in  a  letter  he  had  received  from  a 
friend  in  Scotland.  The  first  point  urged  by 
this  friend  was,  that  it  was  not  morally  wrong 
to  eat  flesh,  and  thus  it  was  useless  to  abstain 
from  it.  He  remembered  once  hearing  a  tem- 
perance advocate  use  this  argument  in  relation  to 
intoxicating  drinks,  that  drinking  was  either  right 
or  wrong — if  right,  then  to  abstain  was  a  sin  ;  if 


wrong,  then  abstinence  was  right,  and  drinking 
a  sin.  When  at  school,  his  master  would  some- 
times say,  "  William,  that  sum  is  wrong."  Now 
there  were  many  things  that  we  did  that  were 
wrong,  that  could  not  be  called  sins.  We  might 
make  a  wrong  sum,  or  take  a  wrong  position, 
and  say  the  sun  revolved  round  the  earth,  but 
neither  of  these  would  be  morally  wrong.  It 
was  only  in  moral  questions  that  we  were  morally 
wrong.  If  by  eating  flesh  he  injured  his  body, 
this  was  not  morally  wrong,  it  was  dietetically 
wrong,  but  that  was  another  matter  altogether. 
He  considered  this  was  a  point  worth  attending 
to.  He  could  not  say  it  was  morally  wrong  to 
eat  flesh,  but  he  would  say  it  was  dietetically 
wrong,  just  as  he  might  say  it  was  mathema- 
tically wrong  to  say  that  two  and  two  made 
six.  His  friend  said  again :  "  You  appear 
satisfied  with  the  good  results  received  from  the 
adoption  of  Vegetarian  principles,  and  your  good 
health  confirms  you  more  and  more."  He  had 
told  his  friend  that  he  had  experimented  upon 
the  system  :  he  had  not  fixed  the  opinion  in  his 
head,  and  taken  up  the  idea  that  it  was  a  fine 
thing  to  be  a  Vegetarian,  but  practically  tested 
it.  He  adopted  Vegetarianism  because  he  found 
it  good  for  him.  He  was  ill,  and  gave  up  flesh, 
and  got  well  without  making  any  other  change. 
His  friend,  therefore,  naturally  thought  his  faith 
in  Vegetarianism  would  not  be  easily  shaken. 
The  next  argument  he  had  to  meet  was  this, 
that  "  the  English  are  the  greatest  flesh-eating 
people  in  the  world,  and  yet  they  are  the 
strongest,  healthiest,  and  longest  livers."  It 
was  very  easy  to  draw  general  results  from 
general  facts  in  this  way,  but  he  liked  to  take 
things  by  piece-meal,  and  in  this  way  they 
could  more  easily  be  examined.  How  often 
did  they  hear  of  the  piety  of  the  Scotch,  and 
yet  that  they  were  the  greatest  whisky  drink- 
ers in  the  world ;  or  it  might  be  reversed, 
and  the  statement  made,  that  they  were  the 
greatest  whisky  drinkers  in  the  world,  and 
yet  how  pious  they  were  ;  as  if  the  piety  was  the 
result  of  the  drinking.  They  thus  saw  how  easy 
it  was  to  make  arguments  for  the  purpose,  to 
take  general  facts,  and  draw  general  conclusions. 
Some  present  might  remember  he  had  shown,  in 
a  lecture  he  delivered  lately,  that  the  English 
were  not  the  strongest  people  in  the  world. 
Whether  they  did  eat  more  flesh  than  any  other 
people,  he  did  not  know  ;  but,  admitting  that 
this  was  the  case,  and  that  they  were  the  strong- 
est also,  it  did  not  follow  that  this  was  the  result 
of  flesh-eating.  The  Scotch  were  said  to  be  the 
most  pious  people  in  the  world,  and  also  the 
greatest  whisky  drinkers :  admitting  that  this 
was  so,  were  those  who  drank  the  most  whisky 
the  most  pious  ?  So  he  said,  granting  that  we 
had  the  strongest  people  in  the  world  in  Eng- 
land, was  it  those  who  ate  the  most  flesh  ?  That 
was  the  point,  for  there  were  many  people  in 
England  who  ate  very  little  meat,  and  perhaps 
it  was  amongst  these  that  the  strongest  men 
might  be  found.  His  friend  went  on  to  say : 
"  What  is  the  ox  but  a  huge  machine  for 
converting  grass  into  food  for  man  ?"  He  might 
as   well   say,    "Man   was  a    huge   machine  for 


20 


ACCRINGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  MEETING. 


converting  oxen  (if  man  ate  these)  into  food  for 
worms."  This  argument  was  just  as  good  as 
that  of  his  friend.  It  was  next  said,  that  "  in 
cold  countries  it  is  necessary  to  eat  fat  to  main- 
tain the  heat  of  the  body."  This  was  not  the 
case.  How  did  tlie  Vegetarians  manage  to 
maintain  their  heat  during  the  late  severe  wea- 
ther ?  They  bore  the  cold  as  well  as  the  flesh- 
eaters.  His  friend  said  again,  that  the  Vegeta- 
rian question  would  not  gain  anything  by  going 
to  the  Bible,  and  that  the  only  good  the  Society 
would  do  would  lie  in  England,  and  not  in  Scot- 
land, by  lessening  the  enormous  consumption  of 
flesh  in  the  former  country,  and  to  show  to  the 
working  classes  that  it  was  possible  to  live  with- 
out flesh,  and  yet  be  cheerful.  His  friend,  in 
this,  supposed  it  would  make  progress  only  in 
England,  for  he  saw  that  every  Scotchman 
brought  up  in  his  native  country,  was  able  to, 
and  did,  live  without  flesh  as  food.  But  he  took 
it  for  granted  that  the  English  people  were  igno- 
rant of  this.  If  he  (Mr.  Sandeman)  had  been 
told,  when  he  first  came  to  England,  that  he 
could  live  without  flesh,  he  would  have  laughed 
at  the  idea,  for  he  had  lived  without  it  for 
months  at  a  time,  as  most  of  the  Scotch  people 
did,  at  least  in  the  agricultural  districts.  Whether 
it  was  better  to  live  in  this  way,  without  the  use 
of  flesh,  was  another  matter,  and  to  be  settled 
afterwards.  He  would  not,  however,  detain 
them  by  any  further  remarks,  but  reserve  these 
for  some  future  occasion.     (Applause.) 

Mr.  Parkinson  wished  to  ask  a  few  questions. 
Was  it  a  sin  to  slaughter  animals  ?  If  man  was 
not  intended  to  live  upon  animal  food,  because 
this  was  injurious,  and  the  Word  declared  "Thou 
shalt  not  kill,"  how  was  it  that  Christ  gave 
fish  to  his  disciples  ?  might  he  not  have  provided 
them  a  better  food?  If  Vegetarianism  prevailed 
to  a  great  extent,  would  it  be  right  to  cease  to 
prey  ?  Would  man  be  justified  in  destroying 
animals  if  they  were  too  many  ? 

The  Chairman  replied,  that  in  regard  to  the 
first  inquiry.  Vegetarians  did  not  apply  the 
sixth  commandment  in  the  way  supposed.  As 
to  the  sinfulness  of  eating  flesh,  it  might  be 
answered,  "He  that  knoweth  to  do  well,  and 
doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin."  To  the  great 
mass  of  people,  however,  who  had  never  inquired 
into  the  matter,  there  could  not  be  this  sense  of 
wrong.  Mr.  Sandeman  had  already  partly 
illustrated  this.  For  himself,  with  his  knowledge 
upon  the  question,  he  should  consider  it  a  physio- 
logical wrong.  The  Creator  set  up  a  difi'erent 
system,  and  man  fell  from  it,  though  he  should 
be  the  last  in  the  world  to  say  that  men  live  in 
sin  in  this  respect ;  what  they  said  was,  that  the 
eating  of  flesh  was  against  the  dietetic  laws  of 
man's  nature,  his  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral 
nature  being  most  in  harmony  with  the  Vege- 
tarian system.  In  regard  to  Christ's  practice, 
there  was  some  doubt  and  uncertainty  as  to 
what  he  did  in  this  matter  of  diet.  The  utmost 
that  could  be  said  was,  that  he  sat  at  table  where 
broiled  fish  and  honey-comb,  or  bread  and  fish, 
formed  part  of  the  provision.  There  was  also 
some  doubt  as  to  what  was  meant  by  the  word 
rendered    "fish."       One    commentator   (not    a 


Vegetarian)  saying  that  it  meant  something  else. 
Christ  took  men  as  he  found  them;  but  he  left 
on  record  the  notable  saying,  '  I  have  many  things 
to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now." 
And,  no  doubt,  this  included  many  principles 
which  were  to  come  upon  the  world  in  its  after 
progress,  and,  among  the  rest,  perhaps,  this 
question  of  dietetics.  If  any,  however,  thought 
Christ  did  eat  fish,  and  that  his  example  was 
binding  upon  them,  they  were  at  liberty  to  adopt 
this  interpretation  ;  but  if  inclintd  to  take  up 
Vegetarianism  practically  on  other  grounds,  this 
would  not  prevent  them,  any  more  than  the  tee- 
totallers were  prevented  adopting  that  practice, 
by  the  supposed  fact  that  Christ  made  fermented 
wine  at  the  marriage  in  Cana  of  Galilee.  They 
bad  thus  a  right  to  suppose  that  Christ,  who 
created  man's  nature,  did  not  make  fermented 
wine,  because  this  would  injure  his  own  work.  In 
the  same  way  at  least,  it  might  be  doubtful  whether 
Christ  ate  flesh-meat  at  all ;  but  if  it  were 
supposed  he  did,  it  might  still  be  said  he  took 
men  as  they  were,  in  subordination  to  the  great 
end  of  the  Gospel  redemption,  and  left  this  and 
other  questions  to  be  settled  afterwards.  As  to 
the  questiou,  what  was  to  be  done  with  the  num- 
bers of  animals  ?  this  arose  from  the  misconcep- 
tion that  people  were  all  to  become  Vegetarians 
in  a  little  time,  or  at  once.  This  was  not  likely 
to  occur,  since  all  reforms  were  slow  in  their 
progress,  and  as  the  demand  for  animals  fell  off, 
the  supply  would  fall  off  in  proportion,  the  graz- 
ing lands  being  progressively  converted  into  corn 
lands,  and  in  this  way  no  inconvenience  would  be 
felt.  In  a  natural  state,  these  animals  did  not 
exist  in  such  large  numbers  ;  their  excess  was  the 
result  of  the  demand  for  their  flesh  as  food,  and 
in  this  way  all  kinds  of  means  were  resorted  to 
to  increase  the  supply.  The  matter  was  thus  a 
mere  commercial  question,  and  could  well  be  left 
to  be  settled  as  such  questions  always  were. 
As  to  the  increase  of  animals  making  the  slaugh- 
ter of  these  necessary  for  the  preservation  of 
man,  if  this  should  ever  occur,  man  had  un- 
doubtedly a  paramount  right  over  animals.  All 
he  need  say,  however^  on  this  question  was,  as  he 
had  sometimes  said  when  asked  what  Vegeta- 
rians would  do  with  bugs  and  fleas  (though  he 
thought  cleanliness  was  the  best  means  of  avoid- 
ing this  last  difficulty),  that  if  they  found  it 
necessary  to  destroy  animals,  they  need  not  eat 
them.     (Laughter  and  Applause.) 

Mr.  Parkinson  explained,  that  in  asking  the 
questions  just  answered,  he  was  not  opposed  to 
Vegetarianism.  He  did  this  for  the  benefit 
of  others,  who  did  not  possess  the  Vegetarian 
Messenger,  and  Smith's  Fruits  and  Farinacea. 
These  difficulties  occurred  to  many  persons,  and 
he  thought  it  desirable  that  they  should  be 
explained  from  the  platform,  and  satisfactorily 
cleared  up.  He  was  a  Vegetarian  in  principle, 
and  had  practised  the  system  six  months,  and 
would  probably  now  be  a  practical  Vegetarian, 
but  for  circumstances  which  need  not  be  ex- 
plained to  the  meeting.     (Applause.) 

Mr,  Clarke,  wished  to  remark,  in  further 
illustration  of  what  had  been  said,  that  though 
God  rained  the  manna  from  heaven  to  feed  the 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


21 


Israelites  (in  which  they  at  first  delighted,  and 
sought  to  gather  two  days'  supply  at  once),  in 
a  little  time,  when  they  loathed  it  and  murmured 
for  flesh,  God  gave  them  this,  though  it 
was  followed  with  a  curse.  The  same  reason 
might  apply  to  Christ's  feeding  the  multitude 
with  fish,  if  this  were  really  the  case ;  he  saw 
they  would  seek  it,  he  tlius  dealt  with  them 
as  they  were,  just  as  was  the  case  with  the  Jews, 
who  were  allowed  to  put  away  their  wives  : 
it  might  be  said,  it  was  better  they  should  do 
this  than  to  make  the  unwelcome  woman  misera- 
ble; but,  as  Christ  remarked  in  explaining 
this,  these  things  were  "  not  so  in  the  begin- 
ning." 

Mr.  Sandeman  suggested,  that,  supposing 
flesh-meat  did  him  a  bodily  injury,  and  he  knew 
it,  if  he  looked  to  Christ's  example,  supposing 
him  to  have  eaten  fish  and  flesh  of  all  kinds, 
this  presented  no  argument,  whatever,  why  he 
should  eat  these  things,  knowing  them  to  be 
injurious  to  himself. 

The  Chairman  remarked,  that  there  were 
certain  questions  in  philosophy  and  Scripture 
that  were  not  quite  cleared  up  in  relation  to 
facts.  He  thought  the  meeting  was  indebted  to 
the  gentleman  who  had  put  these  queries  for  the 
sake  of  others.  A  Scotchman  once  said  to  him, 
he  was  held  in  difficulty  about  adopting  Vege- 
tarianism, seeing  that  Christ  created  "fish" 
with  the  "  barley  loaves  "  ;  and  on  his  replying 
that  he   was  not   quite  sure  that  Christ  par- 


took of  the  latter,  this  gentleman  said,  "Well, 
if  you  get  over  the  difficulty  on  this  subject,  you 
will  perhaps  let  me  know."  He,  of  course,  at 
once  explained  that  he  had  no  difficulty  about 
the  matter,  and  asked  the  objector  if  the  sup- 
posed fact  of  Christ  converting  water  into  fer- 
mented wine,  had  prevented  his  being  a  teeto- 
taler. He  said,  "  No"  ;  and  he  then  begged  to 
tell  him,  that  difficulties  of  this  kind  never  pre- 
vented any  from  practically  adopting  any  system, 
of  the  truth  of  which  they  were  otherwise  con- 
vinced ;  and,  in  proof  of  the  correctness  of  this, 
this  objector  was  now  a  Vegetarian.  At  a  future 
period,  they  would,  perhaps,  have  a  wiser  way 
of  looking  at  things,  distinguishing  between  ap- 
pointments and  permissions,  and  not  being  so 
ready  finally  to  settle  everything  at  the  moment, 
but  leaving  anything  of  difficulty,  real  or  appa- 
rent, that  could  be  drawn  from  the  authority  of 
Christ,  to  a  future  and  wiser  period. 

The  Chairman  then  directed  attention  to 
the  excellent  specimens  of  whole-meal  bread  sub- 
mitted to  their  notice  by  Mr.  Clarke  and  Mr. 
Pollaijd.  Its  value  in  relation  to  health  was 
far  beyond  the  white  bread,  which  should  only 
be  used  to  a  small  extent,  and  that  rather  for  a 
medicinal  purpose  than  anything  else. 

Mr.  Pollard  tlien  sang  two  Vegetarian 
melodies,  the  audience  joining  in  the  cho- 
ruses, and  the  meeting  Avas  then  concluded, 
about  a  quarter  to  eleven. 


LOCAL     OPE  RATIONS 

vegetarian  society. 

Joining  the  Society. — We  have  many  adherents 
who  do  not  yet  consider  tliemselves  called  upon 
to  make  their  declarations,  and  join  the  Society, 
and  thus  best  of  all  tend  to  help  on  the  public 
influence  of  Vegetarianism.  This  is  no  doubt 
due,  first,  to  the  apathy  of  Vegetarians  who 
arc  members  of  the  Society  themselves,  but 
omit  to  explain  the  advantages  of  membership 
to  others  ;  and  next,  to  the  isolated,  if  not  selfish, 
consideration  which  leads  people  to  forget  that 
each  person  has  public  as  well  as  private  duties  to 
perform,  in  promulgating  and  supporting  the 
truth.  Once  satisfied  of  the  goodness  of  the  Vege- 
tarian system,  our  regard  for  the  well-being  of 
others  should  lead  us  to  adopt  all  means  reason- 
ably within  our  power  of  drawing  the  attention  of 
others  to  it,  and  these  will  be  found  to  consist 
in  the  influence  of  private  example  and  discus- 
sion, and  aid  in  securing  a  complete  public  im- 
pression of  its  importance,  through  an  extensive 
organization  of  its  adherents,  in  which  the  influ- 
ence of  numbers  is  extensively  felt.  Some  of  the 
most  earnest  and  useful  of  the  present  members 
of  the  Society  were  formerly  apathetic  adherents 
of  their  dietetic  practices,  but  membership,  and 
the  awakening  of  their  sympathies  in  contact 
with  others,  have  had  the  happy  efl'ect  of 
making  them  extensively  useful  in  spreading 
their  principles  for  the  benefit  of  others.  They 
thus  acknowledge  it  to  have  been  most  happy  to 
have  "Joined  the  Society." 

Vegetarian  Bands  of  Hope. — It  has  frequently 


AND     INTELLIGENCE. 

been  inquired,  whether  Bands  of  Hope  could  not 
well  be  formed,  so  as  to  add  materially  to  the 
growing  strength  of  the  Vegetarian  Movement. 
In  prescribing  the  time  of  fourteen  years  of  age 
as  the  earliest  period  when  young  people  can 
join  the  Vegetarian  organization,  it  was  con- 
sidered that  there  was  a  great  diff"erence  between 
the  working  of  the  Temperance  and  the  Vege- 
tarian movements.  In  the  adoption  of  Tempe- 
I'ance  principles,  the  question  is  made  one 
depending  on  the  will,  and,  where  this  is  in 
favour,  there  is  rarely  difficulty  experienced  in 
carrying  it  out.  Intimately  associated,  however, 
as  the  consumption  of  the  flesh  of  animals  is 
with  the  ordinary  routine  of  cookery,  the  adop- 
tion of  Vegetarianism  necessarily  suggests  diffi- 
culties of  a  more  comprehensive  and  serious 
aspect,  involving  a  considerable  amount  of  moral 
courage,  necessary  to  procure  a  change  in  the 
routine  of  domestic  avocations,  which  cannot 
fairly  be  looked  for  in  young  people  under  the 
age  above  referred  to. 

J.  Andrew  Jun.,  Secretary. 

accrington. 
Operations. — Our  meetings  and  lectures  here 
have  been  suspended  for  a  time,  from  anti- 
cipations of  our  services  being  required  in 
raising  the  Vegetarian  question  in  some 
neighbouring  localities.  We,  however,  see 
from  matters  as  they  have  fallen  out,  that 
the  proverb  of  the  "  two  stools "  is  verified  at 
our  expense  and  that  of  the  public,  since  our 
friends  failing  to   make  the  arrangements  pro- 


posed,  further  discussion  and  consideration  of 
our  views  have  been  lost  to  both  districts.  It  is 
obvious  that  it  is  best  to  regard  neighbouring 
efiforts  of  all  kinds,  at  least  generally  speaking, 
as  supplementary  works,  and  thus,  by  adhering 
to  the  monthly  meeting  'plan,  the  question  will 
not  decline  for  want  of  the  due  application  of 
organization.  It  will,  however,  be  seen  from  the 
report  in  the  present  number  of  the  Messenger, 
that  we  have  again  resumed  our  activities  in  the 
public  teaching  of  our  principles,  and  trust  that 
these  will  now  be  more  regularly  carried  out, 
either  here  or  in  the  neighbourhood.     J.  S.  J. 

COLCHESTER. 

The  Recent  Meeting. — Again  and  again  do  the 
effects  of  the  recent  meeting  show  themselves. 
Many  who  least  expected  to  be  favourably  im- 
pressed with  the  subject  brought  before  their  at- 
tention, now  acknowledge  not  only  the  surprise, 
but  the  pleasure  and  profit  experienced  in  being 
present ;  and  others  will,  no  doubt,  have 
their  dietetic  habits  influenced  by  what  they 
heard,  and  the  reading  and  reflection  to  which 
this  will  lead.  Mr.  Simpson,  if  ever  he  should 
visit  Colchester  again,  cannot  fail  to  have 
ample  support,  in  the  character  and  influence  of 
both  chairman  and  gentlemen  to  accompany  him 
to  the  platform.  We  were  shown,  however,  that, 
in  case  of  emergency,  all  these  could  be  dispensed 
with,  and  thus,  from  the  real  intrinsic  value 
of  the  subject  introduced,  and  the  way  in  which 
it  was  handled,  the  success  of  the  meeting  was, 
no  doubt,  the  more  surprising.  C.  S. 

Domestic  Difficulties. — One  of  our  members 
has  judged  it  best,  after  persevering  for  about 
seven  years  in  attempts  to  induce  his  wife  to 
follow  his  example  in  regard  to  diet,  to  yield 
to  her  wishes  that  he  should  partake  of  flesh 
when  he  returns  home,  but  says  that  he  shall 
not  taste  any  when  from  home,  and  that  his 
convictions  of  the  truth  of  our  principle  are  as 
firm  as  ever.  J.  B. 

CRAWSHAWBOOTH. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — A  lecture  has  been  de- 
livered here,  by  Mr.  Thos.  Taylor,  on  Reasons 
for  being  a  Vegetarian. 

Proposed  Public  Meeting. — ^We  hope  to  have 
a  public  meeting  in  the  Wesleyan  Chapel,  which 
has  been  kindly  promised,  before  the  end  of 
March,  and  will  forward  a  notice  for  insertion 
in  the  Messenger.  The  Vegetarian  cause  daily 
becomes  more  interesting  and  important,  in  the 
estimation  of  those  who  carry  out  the  practice. 

W.  H. 

GLASGOW. 

Monthly  Meetings. — We  have  had  the  attend- 
ance of  several  influential  persons  at  our  meetings 
lately,  and  the  numbers  have  been  maintained 
far  beyond  our  expectations.  The  meetings  have 
been  very  lively,  and  we  have  generally  been 
short  of  time,  or  the  conversation  has  been 
kept  up  longer,  perhaps,  than  the  keepers  of 
the  hotels  where  we  meet  would  have  desired. 

R.J. 


KIRKCALDY. 

Individual  Effort. — No  public  meetings  have 
been  held  here,  but  I  take  advantage  of  occasional 
interviews  with  parties  to  speak  of  our  princi- 
ples, and  hope  in  this  way  to  produce  favourable 
impressions  in  some  minds.  The  tract  matter  on 
the  cover  of  the  Messenger  is  also  freely  distri- 
buted by  me,  both  in  this  neighbonrhood  and  also 
when  travelling,  and  the  Messenger,  Fruits  and 
Farinacea,  and  Vegetarian  Cookery,  lent  for 
perusal. 

Experimenters  in  the  Practice. — Eight  or  nine 
persons  with  whom  I  am  acquainted,  are  trying 
the  system,  and  others  are  so  favourably  im- 
pressed with  its  arguments,  that  they  will 
probably  submit  to  this  practical  test  before 
long. 

Return  to  the  Practice — I  am  happy  to  be  able 
to  report  that  two  members,  who  some  time  since 
abandoned  our  practice  through  domestic  incon- 
veniences, have  now  resumed  their  Vegetarian 
habits,  and  trust  that  they  will  by  and  bye  see  it 
good  again  to  join  the  Society,  and  thus  aid  in 
extending  its  influence.  H.  M. 

LEEDS. 

Social  Meeting. — The  Committee  of  our  Asso- 
ciation, and  a  few  others  not  members  of  our 
organization,  met  a  fortnight  ago  at  a  delightful 
social  repast,  after  which  a  valuable  and  interest- 
ing paper  was  read  by  Mr.  G.  Perkins,  one  of 
our  Vice-Presidents.  This  led  to  conversation 
and  discussion  for  about  two  hours,  and  a  more 
agreeable  and  profitable  meeting  could  not  have 
been  desired.  Such  meetings  are  calculated  to 
do  much  good,  and  tend  to  promote  the  stabihty 
of  the  members,  as  well  as  to  secure  new  ad- 
herents. We  hope  to  hold  them  more  frequently 
during  the  next  winter.  J.  A.  J. 

*  LONDON. 

Operations. — The  agency  of  Mr.  Bormond 
has  been  made  exceedingly  useful,  and  termi- 
nated with  a  soiree  given  at  the  Hall  of  the 
Humanistic  Society,  on  the  28th  of  February, 
Mr.  Bormond  being  the  principal  speaker. 

D.J. 

MANCHESTER. 

Proposed  Operations. — Since  the  meeting  at 
Middleton,  our  members  have  made  no  arrange- 
ments for  operations  in  Manchester  and  Salford, 
though  the  renewal  of  our  activities  has  for  some 
time  been  proposed.  Want  of  time,  and  close 
engagement  in  connection  with  the  Alliance  and 
other  active  philanthropic  movements,  with 
change  of  some  of  our  officers,  have  been  the 
principal  causes  of  our  inactivity  during  the  past 
months.  R.  M. 

NEWTON-LE-\VILLOWS. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — ^We  are  expecting  to  be 
favoured  with  a  lecture  on  the  Vegetarian  system 
here  during  the  present  month,  and  trust  it  will 
be  the  means  of  usefully  drawing  public  attention 
to  our  principles.  I  hope  to  see  some  notice  of 
this  effort  in  a  future  number  of  the  Messenger. 

W.  J. 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


23 


CRAWSHAWBOOTH  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION   MEETING. 


A  PUBLIC  meeting  in  connection  with  the 
Rawtenstall  and  Crawshawbooth  Vegetarian 
Association  was  held  in  the  Wesleyan  Chapel, 
Crawshawbooth,  on  Thursday  evening,  the 
29th  of  March.  The  audience  was  highly 
respectable,  though  not  very  numerous,  and 
many  persons  have  been  favourably  impressed 
by  the  arguments  then  advanced  in  support  of 
the  principle  and  practice  of  Vegetarianism. 

Mr.  Robert  Maden  was  called  to  the 
chair,  and  opened  the  proceedings  in  a  few 
appropriate  remarks. 

Mr,  Chalk  argued  that,  when  man  was  in  his 
primeval  and  happiest  state,  the  food  appointed 
for  him  by  his  Creator,  was  derived  solely  from 
the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  therefore  must  have 
been  best  for  him,  and  if  best  then,  must  be  so 
now,  since  there  had  been  no  change  in  his 
physical  structure.  He  then  went  ou  to  show 
that  the  slaughter  of  animals  was  a  violation  of 
man's  feelings,  and  therefore  this  could  not  be 
the  way  in  which  nature  designed  him  to  procure 
his  food.  The  opinion  that  hard  work  could  not 
be  done  without  resorting  to  the  use  of  flesh  as 
food,  and  that  the  structure  of  man's  teeth  indi- 
cated his  being  intended  to  eat  flesh,  were  shown 
to  be  mistaken.  Mr.  Chalk  contended  from 
his  own  experience  and  that  of  others  who  were 
living  upon  an  exclusively  Vegetarian  diet,  that 
both  health  and  strength  could  be  better  sus- 
tained in  this  way  than  on  a  mixed  diet,  and, 
after  other  observations,  tending  to  prove  the 
siiperiority  of  the  practice,  concluded  by  urging 
all  present  to  make  a  trial  for  themselves. 


Mr.  W.  HoYLE  (the  Secretary  of  the  Associa- 
tion) remarked,  that  truth  was  not  always  "with 
the  multitude,  and  drew  attention  to  the  rapid 
progress  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  the  slow 
progress  made  in  reference  to  a  general  knowledge 
of  the  laws  of  health,  arguing  that  if  man  had 
been  in  the  right  path,  he  must  have  progressed 
in  this  as  well  as  other  branches  of  knowledge. 
Every  disease  was  the  result  of  a  violation  of 
Nature's  laws  ;  and  the  prevalence  of  a  large 
amount  of  disease  in  our  own,  as  well  as  other 
countries,  showed  that  the  habits  of  society  were 
far  removed  from  harmony  with  the  laws  of 
health.  One  of  the  violations  of  Nature's  laws, 
and  a  fertile  source  of  disease,  was  the  use  of  the 
flesh  of  animals  as  food.  Different  conditions 
and  avocations  of  life  required  food  containing  a 
larger  or  smaller  amount  of  nutritive  principle 
in  relation  to  the  expenditure  of  the  vital  powers. 
In  a  Vegetarian  diet,  wisely  selected,  there  was 
sufficient  to  meet  all  the  wants  of  man  in  the 
different  extremes  of  labour.  It  was  also  best 
adapted  to  maintain  the  heat  of  the  body,  and  in 
other  respects  was  f^  superior  to  flesh-meat,  as 
well  as  tending  to  preserve  the  system  from  the 
attacks  of  disease.  After  showing  the  fallacy  of  the 
notion  that  consumption  was  induced  by  a  Vege- 
tarian diet,  he  concluded  a  somewhat  lengthened 
address,  by  urging  a  personal  trial  of  the  practice, 
as  by  far  the  most  satisfactory  way  of  testing  its 
advantages. 

The  proceedings  then  terminated,  all 
present  being  obviously  much  interested  by 
the  facts  and  arguments  to  which  their  at- 
tention had  been  directed. 


BIRMINGHAM    VEGETARTA 

On  Tuesday  Evening,  the  3rd  of  April,  an 
interesting  lecture,  on  Fruits  and  Farinacea, 
not  the  Flesh  of  Animals,  the  Froper  Food 
for  3fan,  was  delivered  by  Mr,  C.  R.  King, 
Secretary  of  the  Birmingham  Vegetarian 
Association,  in  the  Temperance  Hall,  Ann 
Street.  The  Hall,  which  will  accommodate 
between  three  and  four  hundred,  was  com- 
pletely filled,  whilst  many  others  were 
unable  to  gain  admission,  and  the  lecture, 
which  occupied  about  an  hour  and  a  quarter 
in  the  delivery,  was  listened  to  with  the 
deepest  attention ;  the  audience,  for  the  most 
part,  consisting  of  respectable  mechanics, 
with  a  few  ladies  and  gentlemen.  Mr.  W. 
G.  "Ward,  Mr.  J,  Palmer,  Mr.  J.  Whvte, 
and  Mr.  A.  J.  Sutton,  members  of  the  Bir- 
mingham Association,  were  present. 

Mr.  "Ward  presided,  and  introduced  the 
lecturer,  who  spoke  as  follows  : — 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen — As 
there  cannot  be  any  great  amount  of  knowledge 
communicated  in  one  lecture,  it  will  be  well  for 
my  hearers  to  remember,  that  the  principal 
object  of  lecturing  is  to  call  attention  to  im- 


N    ASSOCIATION    LECTURE. 

portant  subjects,  and  thus,  if  possible,  to  lead  to 
serious  thought  and  study  ;  but  above  all,  to 
correct  action.  How  diflicult  a  matter  it  is  to 
get  men — aye !  and  women  too — to  think  beyond 
their  preconceived  notions,  especially  in  matters 
which  appear  to  upset  their  early  teachings  and 
prejudices.  What  I  shall  advance  to-night  will 
be  spoken  with  a  desire  that  you  may  receive 
with  kindliness  of  spirit  that  which  you  may  not 
agree  with ;  and  should  you  have  an  objection 
which  you  deem  important  to  make  to  my 
opinions  on  the  subject  of  human  food,  I  shall 
take  it  as  a  favour  if  you  will  set  me  right.  It 
is  my  opinion, — and  I  am  supported  in  this  by 
some  of  the  best  authorities  that  have  ever 
written  on  the  food  of  man, — that  the  consump- 
tion of  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food  is  one  of  the 
most  fruitful  sources  of  disease  and  premature 
death  that  has  ever  been  known  to  man,  and  the 
best  that  can  be  said  of  the  flesh-eating  habit  is, 
that  it "  is  a  remnant  of  savage  life,"  or  man  in  his 
degraded  and  depraved  state ;  for  I  believe  that 
man  has  fallen.  There  can  be  little  doubt, 
according  to  the  earliest  record  we  have  of  man's 
history,  as  given  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  that  he 
was  then  in  a  more  perfect  state  of  being  and 
happiness,  and  that  not  flesh,  but  the  fruits  and 


24 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


herbs  of  the  earth,  were  the  resources  of  his 
manly  strength  and  pristine  beauty.  It  is 
recorded  (Gen.  i.  29)  that  God  said  to  man 
— "  Behold,  I  have  given  you  every  herh  hearing 
seed,  which  is  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and 
every  tree,  in  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yielding 
seed  ;  to  you  it  shall  be  for  meat."  "  It  seems 
from  this,"  says  an  eminent  philosopher,  "  that 
man  was  originally  intended  to  live  upon  vege- 
tables only;  and  as  no  charge  was  made  in  the 
structure  of  men's  bodies  after  the  flood,  it  is 
not  probable  that  any  change  was  made  in  the 
articles  of  their  food."  We  thus  see  that,  though 
man  had  dominion  given  him  over  all  creatures, 
he  was  confined  to  the  green  herbs  for  food. 
Dr.  Cheyne  supposes  that  animal  food  and 
strong  liquors  were  permitted  to  man  to  shorten 
life,  in  order  to  prevent  the  excessive  growth  of 
wickedness.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  this 
idea,  certain  it  is,  man's  life  became  gradually 
shortened  with  the  introduction  of  the  flesh  of 
animals  as  food,  of  the  consumption  of  which  we 
have  no  account  till  after  the  deluge,  a  period  of 
two  thousand  years.  The  prohibiting  of  the 
Jews  from  eating  pork,  was  certainly  a  wise  in- 
junction, for,  in  the  language  of  a  recent  writer 
on  Vegetarianism :  "  Pigs  are,  certainly,  most 
filthy,  ferocious,  foul-feeding  animals ;  they  are 
the  most  subject  to  cutaneous  diseases  and  putre- 
faction of  any  creature,  insomuch  that  in  the 
time  of  a  plague  they  are  universally  destroyed 
by  all  wise  nations,  as  we  do  mad  dogs."  The 
same  author  gives  a  most  amusing  anecdote 
of  Dr.  Adam  Clarke's  strong  antipathy  to 
the  use  of  pork  as  food.  He  says  that  the  Doctor 
was  well  known  to  have  entertained  strong  pre- 
judices against  swine's  flesh  and  tobacco,  and  is 
reported  to  have  said  on  one  occasion,  "  If  1  were 
to  offer  a  sacrifice  to  the  Devil,  it  should  be  a 
roasted  pig  stuffed  with  tobacco ; "  and  at 
another  time,  being  called  upon  to  ask  a  blessing 
at  dinner,  where  there  was  a  roaster  smoking 
before  him,  he  very  solemnly  said,  "O  Lord,. if 
thou  canst  bless  under  the  gospel  what  thou 
didst  curse  under  the  law,  bless  the  pig !  " 
Pork  certainly  is  one  of  the  most  heavy  kinds  of 
meat  in  the  flesh-eater's  catalogue,  for  it  lies  on 
the  stomach  like  so  many  ounces  of  lead,  and  the 
unpleasant  feeling  after  a  dinner  of  pork,  more 
than  counterbalances  any  amount  of  pleasure 
and  benefit  to  be  got  from  the  eating  of  it.  I 
do  not  remember,  in  my  flesh-eating  days,  ever 
indulging  in  a  meal  of  roast  pork  without  having 
to  suffer,  and  that  violently,  from  indigestion  and 
constipation,  and  this  sometimes  for  days  together. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  can  say,  and  that  with 
confidence,  that  on  a  well-selected  diet  of  fruits 
and  farinacea,  snch  unhappy  consequences  can 
never  arise,  simply  from  the  fact  that  fruits,  roots, 
and  grain  are  the  original  and  proper  food  of 
man,  upon  which  he  may — all  other  habits  and 
circumstances  being  eqiial — arrive  at  the  highest 
amount  of  vigour,  health,  beauty,  happiness,  and 
longevity.  How  fearfully  man's  life  is  shortened  by 
the  artificial  habits  and  customs  of  these  our  latter 
days  !  It  is  said  that  man's  average  length  of  life 
ill  this  country,  at  the  present  day,  is  little  over 
thirty-one   years.       If  his   dietetic  habits   were 


improved,  there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not 
live  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  his  faculties  until  a 
hundred  years  of  age  and  upwards. 

But  to  return  to  our  Scripture  authority,  you 
will  remember  that  when  King  Nebuchad- 
nezzar besieged  Jerusalem,  he  desired  to  take 
back  with  him  certain  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
"in  whom  was  no  blemish,  but  well-favoured; 
and  skilful  in  all  wisdom,  and  cunning  in  know- 
ledge and  understanding  science,  and  such  as 
had  ability  in  them  to  stand  in  the  king's 
palace,  and  whom  they  might  teach  the  learning 
and  tongue  of  the  Chaldeans.  And  the  king 
appointed  them  a  daily  provision  of  the  king's 
meat  and  of  the  wine  which  he  drank :  so 
nourishing  them  three  years,  that  at  the  end 
thereof  they  might  stand  before  the  king."  * 
It  is  said  among  the  chosen  ones  were  Daniel, 
Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego,  of  the 
children  of  Judah.  "But  Daniel  purposed  in 
his  heart  that  he  would  not  defile  himself  with 
the  portion  of  the  king's  meat,  nor  with  the 
wine  which  he  drank :  therefore  he  requested 
of  the  prince  of  the  eunuchs  that  he  might  not 
defile  himself."  "And  the  prince  of  the 
eunuchs  said  unto  Daniel,  I  fear  my  lord  the 
king,  who  hath  appointed  you  this  meat  and 
drink:  for  why  should  he  see  your  faces  worse 
liking  than  the  children  which  are  of  your  sort  ? 
Then  shall  ye  make  me  endanger  my  head  to  the 
king.  Then  said  Daniel  to  Melzar,  whom 
the  prince  of  the  eunuchs  had  set  over  them — 
Prove  thy  servants,  I  beseech  thee,  ten  days ; 
and  let  them  give  us  pulse  (which  means  peas, 
lentils,  and  similar  food)  to  eat,  and  water  to 
drink.  So  he  consented  to  them  in  this  matter, 
and  proved  them  ten  days.  And  at  the  end  of 
ten  days  their  countenances  appeared  fairer  and 
fatter  in  flesh  than  all  the  children  which  did  eat 
Ihe  portion  of  the  king's  meat."  f  You  know- 
now  the  narrative  goes  on  to  say,  that  God  gave 
Daniel  and  the  three  that  were  chosen  with 
him  "  knowledge  and  skill  in  all  learning  and 
wisdom " ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Daniel  was  one  of  the  most  wise  and  holy  men 
of  his  day,  as  appears  in  his  after  history,  being 
able  to  answer  all  the  most  abstruse  questions 
that  the  king  asked  him,  even  better  than  all 
the  magicians  and  astrologers  that  were  in  his 
realm.  John  the  Baptist,  the  fore-runner  of 
Jesus  Christ,  had  his  raiment  of  camel's  hair, 
and  his  food  was  locusts  and  wild  honey.  The 
locust  here  spoken  of  is  not,  as  some  erroneously 
suppose,  an  insect  or  small  animal  of  that  name, 
but  the  fruit  of  the  locust-tree.  Locusts  have 
lately  been  advertised  in  Liverpool  for  sale, 
as  a  kind  of  fruit  from  the  Holy  Land,  which 
corroborates  this  statement.  We  thus  see  from 
Scripture,  that  a  diet  of  fruits  and  farinacea  was 
the  originally  appointed  food  of  man,  and  in  the 
examples  quoted,  the  use  of  such  diet  was  asso- 
ciated with  the  highest  physical,  mental,  and 
moral  development,  as  well  as  the  communication 
of  special  spiritual  gifts. 

"  Man,  who  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  and 
while  he  was  content  to  live  upon  vegetables, 
was  seen  to  spare  the  lives  of  animals,  has 
•  Daniel  i,  4,  5.        +  Daniel  i,  8—15. 


BIRMINGHAM  YEGETAEIAN  ASSOCIATION   LECTURE. 


25 


gradually  accustomed  himself  to  slaughter,  until 
he  no  longer  spares  the  lives  of  his  fellow-men. 
If  the  Source  of  all  life  intended  man  should 
be  an  animal  of  prey,  how  is  it  that  he  has  im- 
planted within  him  an  instinctive  abhorrence  of 
animal  torture,  and  to  the  shedding  of  blood  ? 
Should  not  this  be  man's  guide  ?  Some  seek  to 
evade  the  force  of  this  principle,  by  saying, 
'  Animals  eat  one  another,  and  why  may  we  not 
eat  them?'  What!  if  a  wolf  worried  a  lamb, 
does  that  justify  us  in  doing  the  same  ?  But  it 
is  still  objected  :  Nature  has  furnished  us  with 
'dog-teeth,'  for  what  purpose?  Surely  you  are 
not  justified  in  doing  all  you  have  the  means  of 
doing!  'But  what  is  to  become  of  the  cattle? 
We  should  be  eaten  up  if  we  were  not  to  destroy 
them.'  I  say,  Breed  less ;  and  you  need  not 
fear  the  consequence.  There  is  land  sufficient 
for  a  large  increase  of  men  and  animals.  Eng- 
land alone,  which  now  contains  only  about 
fifteen  millions  of  inhabitants,  is  capable  of  pro- 
ducing, by  spade  husbandry,  a  sufficiency  of 
nutritive  vegetables  for  the  support  of  a  hundred 
and  twenty  miUions  of  human  beings  ;  but  if 
every  one  must  consume  a  pound  of  flesh  a-day, 
there  is  scarcely  enough  land  for  the  existing 
population.  If  tigers,  wolves,  and  vultures 
praise  flesh-eating,  am  I  to  admit  that  they 
speak  the  truth  ?  Ask  a  child,  even  one  who 
has  been  used  to  animal  food,  and  is  rather  fond 
of  it,  whether  she  will  go  with  you  into  the  garden 
to  gather  some  cherries,  or  to  the  slaughter- 
house to  see  a  poor  calf  hung  up  by  its  heels, 
bleeding  to  death  to  provide  its  mamma  with 
nice  white  veal  for  the  next  day's  dinner !  " 

What  numbers  of  volumes  have  been  written 
on  health  by  the  members  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession, and  what  rubbish  in  the  main.  We 
sometimes  meet  with  a  book  written  with  some 
degree  of  honesty,  giving  advice  with  dis- 
interested motives.  But  the  majority  of  these 
latter-day  pamphlets,  advertised  in  every  weekly 
journal,  are  full  of  arrant  nonsense  from  be- 
ginning to  end,  and  you  always  find  that  they 
end  with  a  strong  recommendation  of  some 
cordial  balm  for  the  cure  of  each  and  all  of  the 
diseases  by  which  humanity  has  been  afflicted ; 
but  above  all,  personal  advice  is  essential — the 
asking  of  which  must  be  accompanied  by  the  usual 
professional  consultation  fee  of  one  guinea ! 
Now,  if  man  would  make  life  a  study,  and  live 
upon  proper  food  and  drink,  there  would  be 
little  to  fear  from  disease,  but  so  long  as  he  eats 
food  already  diseased,  and  drinks  liquors  which 
inflame  the  body  and  distract  the  mind,  so  long 
will  he,  in  his  weakness,  be  duped  by  those 
Barnums  of  physic,  and  led  irresistibly  to 
swallow  their  infallible  potions.  If  you  are  ill, 
do  not  make  yourselves  worse  by  swallowing  un- 
limited quantities  of  Parr's  Life  Pills,  Morri- 
son's Vegetable  Pills,  or  Kaye's  Worsdell's 
Pills,  all  of.  which  are  the  vilest  compounds; 
but  ask  advice  of  a  respectable  medical  pro- 
fessor— if  such  is  to  be  found.  The  mass  of 
patented  medicines  are  of  the  vilest  sort,  and 
instead  of  being  sanctioned  in  this  seemuig  en- 
lightened age  by  "  Royal  Letters  Patent,"  the 
efi'ects  produced  by  them  ought  to  be  made  a 


matter  of  serious  inquiry,  and  if  government  will 
not  undertake  to  expose  such  nefarious  quackery, 
men  of  sense  and  understanding,  who  have 
suffered  thereby,  will  be  obliged  to  do  so.  I 
from  my  very  soul  do  loathe  the  sight  of  so 
many  advertisements  lauding  to  the  skies  the 
pernicious  mixtures,  got  up  regardless  of  the 
health  of  the  people,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  funds  sufficient  to  drive  a  brougham,  and 
keep  a  house  in  one  of  the  "west  end"  squares. 
Yet  in  the  medical  world  we  have  ample  testi- 
mony to  the  truth,  that  if  man  would  live  on 
proper  food,  selected  from  the  vegetable  king- 
dom, and  be  temperate  in  all  things,  with  fresh 
air,  pure  water,  exercise — and,  what  is  very 
essential  to  health  and  happiness,  as  much  free- 
dom as  possible  from  excess  of  sorrow  and 
anxiety — he  might  live  and  enjoy  a  long,  useful, 
and  happy  life.  I  have  little  sympathy  with 
those  who  are  continually  wishing  that  their  time 
here  was  over,  and  who  see  only  in  this  world  a 
barren  waste  ;  there  is  a  morbid  religious  feeling 
of  this  kind,  which  I  feel  thankful  I  do  not 
possess.  I  have  felt  many  sorrows,  and  no  little 
disappointment,  yet  there  is  much  in  the  world 
to  make  me  love  it  and  cling  to  it  still.  One 
sometimes  meets  with  a  choice  friend  amid  this 
everlasting  whirl  of  business  and  selfishness, 
that  makes  one  feel  that  it  is  a  joy  to  live.  Then 
there  are  those  dear  associations  about  the  old 
house  which  sheltered  us  in  our  childhood,  and 
the  many  pleasant  recollections  of  one's  early 
friends,  so  that  I,  for  one,  feel  very  desirous  to 
live  to  a  ripe  old  age,  yes,  \intil  every  hair  grows 
grey.  Lewis  Cornaro,  a  gentleman  of  Padua, 
who,  from  some  unknown  cause,  was  banished 
from  his  friends,  and  deprived  of  the  dignity  of 
a  noble  Venetian,  was  in  early  life  very  infirm, 
being  passionate  and  hasty  in  temper.  At 
thirty-five  years  of  age  he  commenced  a  regular 
mode  of  diet  and  correct  life,  by  which  means  he 
lived  more  than  a  hundred  years,  healthful  in 
body  and  sound  in  mind.  In  writing  to  the 
Patriarch  elect  of  Aquielia,  at  the  age  of  91 
years,  he  says  :  "  Now,  my  lord,  to  begin,  I  must 
tell  you,  that  within  these  few  days  past,  1  have 
been  visited  by  many  of  the  learned  doctors  of 
this  university,  as  well  physicians  as  philoso- 
phers, who  were  well  acquainted  with  ray  age, 
ray  life,  and  manners ;  knowing  how  stout, 
hearty,  and  gay  I  was ;  and  in  what  perfection 
all  my  senses  still  continued ;  likewise  my 
memory,  spirits,  and  understanding;  and  even 
ray  voice  and  teeth.  They  knew,  besides,  that  I 
constantly  employed  eight  hours  every  day  in 
writing  treatises,  with  my  own  hand,  on  subjects 
useful  to  mankind,  and  spent  many  more  in 
walking  and  singing.  O,  ray  lord,  howraelodious 
my  voice  has  grown  !  were  you  to  hear  me  chant 
my  prayers  ;  and  that  to  my  lyre,  after  the  ex- 
ample of  David,  I  am  certain  it  would  give 
you  great  pleasure,  my  voice  is  so  musical." 

Now  I  have  a  great  desire  to  live  to  a  good, 
happy  old  age,  by  my  mode  of  life,  and  though, 
perhaps,  ray  foundation  is  not  so  good  to  build 
upon  as  that  of  Cornaro,  and  I  do  not  antici- 
pate reaching  so  great  an  age  as  he  did,  still  I 
hope,  in  no  small  degree,  to  realize  my  desire. 


26 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN   ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


Dr.  Che\ne,  in  an  Essay  on  Health  and  Long 
Life,  written  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago, 
says,  that  "  The  great  rule  for  eating  and  drinking, 
for  health,  is  to  adjust  the  quality  and  quantity 
of  our  food  to  our  digestive  powers,"  and  that 
"  All  crammed  poultry  and  stall-fed  cattle,  and 
even  vegetables  forced  by  hot-beds,  tend  more  to 
putrefaction,  and,  consequently,  are  more  unfit 
for  human  food,  than  those  brought  up  in  the 
natural  manner.  *  *  *  i  have  sometimes 
also,  indulged  a  conjecture  that  animal  food,  and 
made  or  artificial  liquors,  iu  the  original  frame  of 
our  nature  and  design  of  our  creation,  were  not 
intended  for  human  creatures.  They  seem  to  me 
neither  to  have  those  strong  and  fit  organs  for 
digesting  them  (at  least,  such  as  birds  and  beasts 
of  prey  have,  who  live  on  flesh),  nor  naturally  to 
have  those  voracious  and  brutish  appetites,  that 
require  animal  food  and  strong  liquors  to  satisfy 
them  ;  nor  those  cruel  and  hard  hearts,  or  those 
diabolical  passions,  which  could  easily  suffer 
them  to  tear  and  destroy  their  fellow  creatures." 
In  speaking  of  the  scurvy,  as  produced  by  the 
free  use  of  flesh  and  fermented  liquors,  he  says  : 
"  There  is  no  chronical  distemper  whatsoever 
more  universal,  more  obstinate,  and  more  fatal 
in  Britain,  than  the  scurvy,  taken  in  its  general 
extent.  Scarce  any  one  distemper  but  owes  its 
origin  to  this  scorbutic  state.  To  it  we  owe 
all  the  dropsies  that  happen  after  the  meridian  of 
life;  all  asthmas,  consumptions  of  several  kinds, 
many  sorts  of  colics  and  diarrhoeas,  some  kinds 
of  gouts  and  rheumatisms,  all  palsies,  various 
kinds  of  ulcers,  and,  possibly,  the  cancer  itself, 
and  almost  all  nervous  distempers  whatsoever. 
The  reason  why  the  scurvy  is  so  prevalent  in  this 
country,  and  so  fruitful  of  miseries,  is,  that  it  is 
produced  by  causes  most  special  and  particular  to 
this  country,  to  wit,  the  indulging  so  much  in 
animal  food  and  strong  fermented  liquors,  in 
contemplative  studies  and  sedentary  professions 
and  employments."  Again,  he  says  that  "No- 
thing less  than  a  very  moderate  use  of  animal 
food,  and  that  of  the  kind  that  abounds  least  in 
urinous  salts,  and  a  more  moderate  use  of  spirituous 
liquors,  due  labour,  and  exercise,  and  a  careful 
guarding  against  the  inconstancy  and  inclemency 
of  the  seasons,  can  keep  this  hydra  (the  scurvy) 
under.  And  nothing  else  than  a  total  abstinence 
from  animal  foods  and  strong  fermented  liquors, 
can  totally  extirpate  it.  And  that,  too,  must 
be  begun  early,  before,  or  soon  after,  the 
meridian  of  life." 

It  is  said,  that  in  the  early  part  of  Dr. 
Cheyne's  life  he  lived  freely,  and  became  so 
enormously  stout,  that  he  weighed  thirty-two 
stones,  and  was  obliged  to  have  the  whole  side  of 
his  chariot  taken  out  to  receive  him.  He  became 
short-breathed,  lethargic,  nervous,  and  scorbutic ; 
he  tried  the  power  of  medicine  in  vain,  and  was 
only  cured  by  resorting  to  a  vegetable  and  milk 
diet.  In  this  way  it  is  said  that  he  reduced  him- 
self to  the  weight  of  ten  stone. 

Sylvester  Graham,  M.  D.,  of  Boston, 
United  States,  after  forty  years'  study  of  the 
physiology  of  the  human  frame,  and  human  diet 
in  relation  thereto,  has  produced  decidedly  the 
best  work  on  the  subject  extant,  in  which  he 


proves  that  man  was  intended  to  live  on  the 
products  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  that  the 
use  of  flesh  is  injurious.  I  think  that  all  who 
regard  good  health  and  happiness  as  the  best 
gifts  to  man  for  obedience  to  the  highest  laws  of 
his  nature  and  development,  should  purchase 
Graham's  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Human 
Life.  In  recommending  this  book  to  your  notice, 
I  would  not  forget  to  mention  that  there  is 
another  work,  written  by  Mr.  J.  Smith,  of 
Malton,  entitled.  Fruits  and  Farinacea  the  Proper 
Food  of  Man,  in  which  he  attempts  to  prove, 
from  history,  anatomy,  and  physiology,  that  the 
original,  natural,  and  best  diet  of  man  is  derived 
from  the  vegetable  kingdom ;  and  I  feel  quite 
satisfied,  that  with  a  careful  and  candid  perusal 
of  that  book,  you  cannot  come  to  any  other 
conclusion. 

As  to  follow  truth  to  the  furthest  extent  of 
which  our  minds  are  capable,  is  the  duty  and  the 
privilege  of  every  lover  of  truth,  and  that  which 
is  highest  and  noblest  in  our  nature,  I  would  ask 
you  to  give  this  subject  your  calm  and  earnest 
attention,  and  I  feel  sure  that  if  you  do  but 
practise  the  simple  mode  of  life  which  I  advo- 
cate, you  will,  after  a  little  perseverance,  find 
yourself  in  better  health  and  spirits,  than  you 
possibly  can  be  on  a  mixed  diet  of  flesh  and 
vegetable  food.  It  may  require  some  determina- 
tion, and  not  a  little  self-denial,  to  commence 
this.  Some  good  folks,  no  doubt,  will  be  con- 
cerned about  you,  and  may  insinuate  that  there 
are  manifest  signs  of  your  ultimate  insanity ;  but 
never  mind  what  they  say :  you  have  to  be  but 
"  intelligent  and  earnest,"  and  you  will  overcome 
the  world  and  all  its  difficulties. 

To  give  you  some  idea  of  the  importance  of 
the  Vegetarian  movement,  and  the  attention  it 
is  attracting,  I  will  read  some  extracts  from  an 
able  article  which  appeared  a  little  time  ago 
in  the  Westminster  Review.  "We  have  never 
done  going  to  and  fro  upon  the  earth,  seeking 
whom  we  may  review ;  and  we  have  of  late  come 
upon  a  new  and  out-of-the-way  sign  of  the  times 
we  live  in.  The  sign  we  mean  is  Vegetarianism, 
(which)  claims  the  possession  of  a  distinct  exist- 
ence as  a  physiological  heresy,  among  the 
militant  ideas  and  practices  of  the  present  cen- 
tury. Not  only  sesthetical  young  men,  with 
their  hair  divided  down  the  middle,  and  derai- 
pique  beards  upon  their  chins,  but  sturdy  men 
of  action — men  of  the  people — have  here  and 
there  begun  to  take  it  up.  It  likewise  has  its 
votaries  among  the  intellectual  classes.  Within 
our  own  limited  circle  of  acquaintance,  it  counts 
a  physician,  an  astronomer,  an  electritian,  a  bar- 
rister, an  independent  gentleman  addicted  to 
radical  reforms,  a  lady-farmer,  and  an  authoress. 
Our  native  root-fruit-and-grain  eaters,  have 
already  formed  themselves  into  a  banded  society. 
This  fraternity  held  its  first  meeting  at  Rams- 
gate,  in  September,  1847,  under  the  presidency  of 
Joseph  Brotherton,  Esq.,  M.P. ;  no  feather- 
head  of  a  parliamentarian,  but  once  a  horny- 
handed  man  of  the  people,  and  now  an  industrial 
chief.  It  started  with  122  mechanics,  110 
ladies,  12  professional  men,  9  physicians  and 
surgeons,  6  merchants,  3  ministers  of  religion,  3 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


27 


farmers,  2  authors,  2  county  magistrates,  and 
(will  it  be  believed?)  2  aldermen;  of  these  1 
had  abstained  from  the  flesh  of  animals  for  40 
years ;  71  of  them  had  done  so  for  30  years ;  58 
for  20  years  ;  44  for  10  years ;  and  64  for  1  year, 
not  to  mention  other  27  who  had  abstained  a 
month.  They  held  their  next  meeting  at  Man- 
chester in  July,  1848  "  [By  January,  1852,  the 
membership  of  this  Society  amounted  to  740 ; 
and  82  of  them  had  never  used  animal  food  all 
their  lives.]  "  What  with  these  confederated  ene- 
mies of  orthodoxy  in  diet,  and  what  with  the 
unregistered  reformers,  sprinkled  all  through 
society,  and  what  with  nobody  knows  how  many 
thousand  considerers,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted 
that  Smithfield  and  all  butchers.  Billingsgate 
and  the  fishmongers,  stand  in  jeopardy  of  their 
very  existence — as  such.  In  one  word,  and 
speaking  seriously,  it  can  no  longer  be  concealed 
that  Vegetarianism  is  an  embodied  power,  be  it 
for  good  or  for  evil,  among  the  elements  of 
British  and  American  civilization.  It  may  look 
fantastical,  it  may  be  feeble,  but  it  is  certainly 
alive.  If  it  is  but  a  puny  supernumerary  sort  of 
thing,  it  is  also  very  young,  and  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  it  is  able  to  boast  of  as  ancient  and 
honourable  an  ancestry  as  any  in  the  world. 

"The  Vegetarians  of  these  times  lay  a  world 
of  stress  upon  the  beauty  and  liveliness  of  the 
potato-fed  Irish  in  their  better  days,  the  solidity 
and  intelligence  of  the  porridge-fed  Scotch,  the 
size  and  endurance  of  the  Russians  with  their 
black  bread  and  garlic,  the  peasantries  of  almost 
all  Europe ;  in  short,  the  fine  figures  of  the 
abstemious  Persians,  and  the  strength  of  pro- 
fessed Vegetarians,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Spartan 
heroes,  and  the  corn-grinding  cohorts  of  Rome. 
They  cite  Old  Parrs  by  the  dozen,  and  show 
that  they  were  all  Vegetarians,  or  something 
nearly  as  good.  Vegetarian  writers  have  tri- 
umphantly proved  that  physical  horse-like 
strength  is  not  only  compatible  with,  but  also 
favoured  by,  a  well-chosen  diet  from  the  vege- 
table kingdom ;  and  likewise  that  such  a  table  is 
conducive  to  length  of  days.  A  well-read  mem- 
ber of  the  Society  will  point  in  triumph  to 
Newton,  who  took  to  Vegetarianism  during  a 
period  of  close  application ;  to  Howard  the 
philanthropist ;  to  John  Wesley,  to  Dr. 
Cheyne,  to  Lam  BE,  and  to  a  score  of  other 
notables  who  were  neither  horses  nor  walk- 
ing vegetables,  but  men  of  human  energy  and 
intellect."  "  In  Chili,  the  people  are  fed  chiefly 
on  dried  beans,  with  a  portion  of  bread.  Their 
temperament  is  hilarious,  their  faces  round, 
their  figure  plump.  In  La  Plata,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  everlasting  food  is  animal — chiefly 
beef — and  the  men  are  savage-looking  and  lank- 
loined.  Chili  overflows  with  population ;  La 
Plata  is  scant."  "  All  the  animal  food  artificially 
bred  by  farmers  or  others  is,  with  little  excep- 
tion, unwholesome.  Consumption,  measles, 
dropsy,  liver  complaints,  and  other  diseases, 
abound  in  the  animals  we  eat,  and  have  a  ten- 
dency to  produce  those  diseases  in  our  own 
bodies.  The  poison  we  take  in  by  the  lungs  in  the 
gaseous  form,  is  not  the  only  poison  we  imbibe. 
We  make  an  outcry  about  cleansing  the  sewers  of 


our  cities,  and  yet  make  sewers  of  our  own  bodies. 
The  practice  of  feeding  on  the  flesh  of  animals — 
entombing  their  bodies  within  our  own — has 
something  in  it  repugnant  to  refinement.  The 
great  majority  of  mankind  abhor  killing,  save 
under  the  pressure  of  passion  or  hunger ;  while 
even  the  cannibal  mothers  of  the  Feejee  islands 
will  exchange  children  in  order  not  to  devour 
their  own.  They  who  hunger  for  animal  food  in 
civilized  life,  rarely  like  to  kill  the  creatures  they 
eat ;  and  when  killed,  none  like  to  eat  the  flesh  of 
pet  animals  they  have  themselves  domesticated. 
To  get  rid  of  the  distasteful  operation  of  killing,  we 
employ  butchers — helots  of  the  modern  world, 
whose  very  name  \fe  employ  as  a  term  of  vitupe- 
ration. This  is  not  Christian,  to  say  the  least  of 
it.  We  have  no  right  to  degrade  any  human 
being,  or  regard  as  inferiors,  those  who  prepare 
the  materials  that  enter  into  the  most  intimate 
coinbiuatiou  with  our  own  persons.  There  is 
something  humiliating  in  the  idea  of  a  delicate 
person  who  faints  at  the  sight  of  blood  or  a 
butcher's  shop,  and  then  sits  down  to  eat  of  the 
carcasses  that  have  there  been  cut  up.  If  the 
employment  of  a  butcher  be  of  necessity,  the 
butcher  is  entitled  to  honour  as  well  as  the 
physician." 

"  We  think  we  have  made  clear  our  conviction 
that  this  new  Puritanism,  as  we  have  ventured 
to  denominate  it,  is  no  trivial  fact,  when  con- 
sidered as  a  whole,  and  viewed  in  relation  to  the 
prospects  of  society."  "  We  believe  that  the  still 
obtaining  consumption  of  animal  food,  is  simply 
a  remnant  of  savage  life,  a  custom  doomed  to 
vanish  under  the  light  of  human  reason."  "The 
three-headed  anti-poison  league  ;  the  huge  protest 
against  alcohol  in  all  its  guises  and  disguises ; 
the  sanitary  outcry  about  filth  and  foul  air ; 
and  this  Vegetarian  summons  of  the  lieges  to  a 
still  purer  physical  hfe  than  was  ever  dreamed 
of  by  Mesmer,  Hahnemann,  Priessnitz, 
Combe,  or  Father  Mathew — are  all  wanted  by 
the  age,  else  they  would  never  have  arisen  upon 
us,  suddenly  and  simultaneously,  like  the  insur- 
rection of  citizens  against  a  tyranny  grown 
beyond  endurance." 

I  may  here  mention,  that  the  Vegetarian 
Society  now  numbers  about  900  members ;  it 
issues  a  monthly  magazine,  called  the  Vegetarian 
Messenger,  which  contains  reports  of  meetings, 
speeches,  and  other  matter  of  the  highest  import 
to  persons  desirous  of  inquiring  into  this  subject. 
James  Simpson,  Esq.,  of  Foxhill  Bank,  near 
Accrington,  the  President  of  the  Society,  is  a 
gentleman  most  indefatigable  in  his  labours  to 
promote  the  public  good.  I  would  that  men  of 
wealth  and  influence  could  find  their  happiness 
in  promoting  the  welfare  of  humanity  as  he  has 
done,  I  believe,  the  whole  of  his  life ;  we  then 
might  sing,  most  heartily,  with  the  Boatman's 
son, 

"  This  world  is  full  of  beauty, 
As  other  worlds  above, 
And  if  we  did  our  duty, 
It  might  be  full  of  love." 

If  ever  Christian  virtue,  and  uprightness  of 
conduct,  are  to  "  cover  the  earth,  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea,"  the  cruel  barbarities  practised  in 


28 


BIRMINGHAM   VEGETAEIAN   ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


rearing  animals  for  food,  and  slaughtering  them 
in  our  large  towns  and  villages,  must  cease.  I 
could  tell  you  of  facts  connected  with  this 
matter  that  would  make  you  blush  that  such 
things  should  be  perpetrated,  to  obtain  for  you 
flesh,  on  which  to  feed  your  bodies  ;  suffice  it  to 
say,  that  all  animals  fed  for  your  use  are  either 
cruelly  treated  for  the  purpose,  or  they  are  tied 
up  to  the  stake,  or  couhned  in  the  sty,  until  they 
become  bloated  and  diseased,  which  renders 
them  entirely  unfit  for  human  food.  How  much 
of  the  mutton  sold  is  brought  to  market  that 
the  farmer  may  not  lose  his  property.  This  I 
know  to  be  a  fact,  for  I  have  personally  witnessed 
it,  having  had  somewhat  to  do  with  farming 
matters  myself.  I  have  known  farmers  who 
were  obliged  to  kill  their  sheep  successively, 
almost  the  entire  flock,  to  prevent  their  dying  of 
a  most  loathsome  disease,  called  the  rot.  Some- 
times the  farmer  is  obliged  to  plunge  the  knife 
into  their  throats  whilst  lying  in  the  field,  for 
fear  of  their  dying  before  they  cau  be  removed. 
If  the  mutton  be  found  very  bad,  and  much  dis- 
coloured, it  is  usually  sold  at  a  lower  price,  and 
then,  of  course,  it  is  purchased  by  the  ignorant 
poor.  Cattle,  also,  are  subject  to  many  diseases, 
of  which  murrain  is  one  of  the  most  destri.ctive 
to  their  life ;  and  when  such  cattle  are  too  far 
gone  in  disease  to  be  curable,  it  is  very  common 
for  the  farmer  to  send  for  his  butcher  to  kill 
them,  to  send  to  market,  that  he  may  not  have 
to  sacrifice  too  much  of  his  property.  But  who 
are  the  sufi'erers  ?  Yourselves,  to  be  sure,  and 
all  who  live  in  such  towns  as  Birmingham,  and 
practise  flesh-eating.  Then  the  horribly  bar- 
barous manner  in  which  the  animals  are  put  to 
death,  is  destructive  of  all  those  fine  feelings 
that  attend  a  truly  noble  and  intelligent  man  ; 
who  cau  witness  the  knocking  down  of  a  bullock 
in  a  slaughter-house,  previous  to  having  its 
throat  cut,  or  see  the  innocent  lamb  go  to  have  its 
little  neck  pierced,  without  feeling  that  the 
flesh-eating  system  is  destructive  to  all  pure  and 
humane  feeling?  If  educated  people  will  eat 
beef  and  mutton,  they  ought  to  be  made  to 
provide  it  for  their  own  table,  and  then  they 
would  feel  how  barbarous  the  system  is,  and 
how  fearfully  destructive  to  all  that  is  good 
and  true. 

"  The  flesh  of  animals  cannot  be  best  adapted 
to  our  constitution,  if  to  obtain  it  a  single  feeling 
is  violated,  kindness  hindered  in  its  propagation, 
suffering  to  any  creature  wilfully  inflicted,  or  a 
law  of  nature  broken.  Otherwise,  nature  would 
contradict  herself,  and  men  would  doubt  the 
existence  of  Supreme  Benevolence."* 

Sir  Richard  Phillips,  the  compiler  of  the 
Cyclopcedia  of  Arts,  at  twelve  years  of  age  was 
struck  with  such  horror  at  accidentally  seeing 
the  barbarities  of  a  London  slaughter-house,  that 
from  that  hour  he  never  ate  anything  but  vege- 
table food.  He  persevered  in  spite  of  vulgar 
forebodings,  with  unabated  vigorous  health,  and 
at  sixty-six  found  himself  more  able  to  endure 
labour,  and  undergo  any  fatigue  of  mind  and 
body,  than  any  person  of  his  age. 

The  most  correct  opinions  that  I  have  met  with 
*  Mission  of  Vegetarianism. 


on  this  subject,  are  given  by  the  poet  Shelley, 
in  his  notes  on  Queen  Mah.  He  must  have  been 
a  Vegetarian  very  early  in  life,  for  I  believe  he 
wrote  this  poem  before  he  was  eighteen  years  of 
age.  He  says :  "  Man,  and  the  animals  whom 
he  has  infected  with  his  society,  are  alone  dis- 
eased. The  wild  hog,  the  mouflou,  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  variety  of  distempers ;  and,  like  the 
corrupters  of  their  nature,  have  physicians  who 
thrive  upon  their  miseries.  The  super-eminence 
of  man  is,  like  Satan's,  the  super-eminence  of 
pain ;  and  the  majority  of  his  species,  doomed 
to  penury,  disease,  and  crime,  have  reason  to 
curse  the  untoward  event,  that,  by  enabling  him 
to  communicate  his  sensations,  raised  him  above 
the  level  of  his  fellow-animals.  But  the  steps 
that  have  been  taken  are  irrevocable.  The  whole 
of  human  science  is  comprised  in  one  question  : 
How  cau  the  advantages  of  intellect  and  civiliza- 
tion be  reconciled  with  the  liberty  and  pure 
pleasures  of  natural  life  ?  How  can  we  take  the 
benefits,  and  reject  the  evils,  of  the  system  which 
is  interwoven  with  all  the  fibres  of  our  being? 
I  believe  that  abstinence  from  animal  food  and 
spirituous  liquors  would,  in  a  great  measure, 
capacitate  us  for  the  solution  of  this  important 
question. 

"  Comparative  anatomy  teaches  us,  that  man 
resembles  frugivorous  animals  in  everything,  and 
carnivorous  in  nothing;  he  has  neither  claws 
wherewith  to  seize  his  prey,  nor  distinct  and 
pointed  teeth  to  tear  the  living  fibre.  A  man- 
darin '  of  the  first  class,'  with  nails  two  inches 
long,  would  probably  find  them  alone  inefficient 
to  hold  even  a  hare.  After  every  subterfuge  of 
gluttony,  the  bull  must  be  degraded  into  the  ox, 
and  the  ram  into  the  wether,  by  an  unnatural 
and  inhuman  operation,  that  the  flaccid  fibre  may 
offer  a  fainter  resistance  to  rebellious  nature. 
It  is  only  by  softening  and  disguising  dead 
flesh  by  culinary  preparation,  that  it  is  rendered 
susceptible  of  mastication  or  digestion  ;  and  that 
the  sight  of  its  bloody  juices  and  raw  horror 
does  not  excite  intolerable  loathing  and  disgust. 
Let  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  plunge  his  head  into  its  vitals, 
slake  his  thirst  with  its  steaming  blood ;  when 
fresh  from  the  deed  of  horror,  let  him  revert  to 
the  irresistible  instinct  of  nature,  that  would  rise 
in  judgment  against  it,  and  say.  Nature  formed 
me  for  such  work  as  this.  Then,  and  only  then, 
would  he  be  consistent. 

"  There  is  no  disease,  bodily  or  mental,  which 
adoption  of  vegetable  diet  and  pure  water  has 
not  infallibly  mitigated,  wherever  the  experiment 
has  been  fairly  tried.  Debility  is  gradually  con- 
verted into  strength,  disease  into  healthfuluess, 
madness,  in  all  its  hideous  variety,  from  the 
ravings  of  the  fettered  maniac  to  the  unaccount- 
able irrationalities  of  ill  temper,  that  make  a  hell 
of  domestic  life,  into  a  calm  and  considerate 
evenness  of  temper,  that   alone   might   offer  a 


BIEMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


29 


certain  pledge  of  the  future  moral  reformatiou  of 
society.  Oii  a  natural  system  of  diet,  old  aife 
would  be  our  last  and  only  malady  ;  the  term  of 
our  existence  would  be  protracted;  we  should 
enjoy  life,  and  no  longer  preclude  others  from 
enjoying  it ;  all  sensational  delights  would  be 
infinitely  more  exquisite  and  perfect ;  the  very 
sense  of  being  would  then  be  a  continued 
pleasure,  such  as  we  now  feel  it  in  some  few  and 
favoured  moments  of  our  youth.  By  all  that  is 
sacred  in  our  hopes  for  the  human  race,  I  conjure 
those  who  love  happiness  and  truth  to  give  a  fair 
trial  to  the  vegetable  system.  Reasoning  is 
surely  superfluous  on  a  subject  whose  merits  a 
six  month's  trial  would  for  ever  set  at  rest.  But 
it  is  only  among  the  enlightened  and  benevolent 
that  so  great  a  sacrifice  of  appetite  and  prejudice 
can  be  expected,  even  though  its  ultimate  excel- 
lence should  not  admit  of  dispute.  It  is  found 
easier,  by  the  short-sighted  victims  of  disease,  to 
palliate  their  torments  by  medicine,  than  to  pre- 
vent them  by  regimen. 

"  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  anniiiilate  the  propensities 
by  which  they  are  produced,  is  to  suppose  that, 
by  taking  away  the  effect,  the  cause  will  cease  to 
operate.  But  the  efficacy  of  this  system  depends 
entirely  on  the  proselytism  of  individuals,  and 
grounds  its  merits,  as  a  benefit  to  the  community, 
upon  the  total  change  of  the  dietetic  habits  in 
its  members.  It  proceeds  securely  from  a  number 
of  particular  cases,  to  one  that  is  universal,  and 
has  this  advantage  over  the  contrary  mode,  that 
one  error  does  not  invalidate  all  that  has  gone 
before. 

"  I  address  myself  not  only  to  the  young  enthu- 
siast, the  ardent  devotee  of  truth  and  virtue, 
the  pure  and  passionate  moralist,  yet  unvitiated 
by  the  contagion  of  the  world.  He  will  em- 
brace a  pure  system,  from  its  abstracted  truth, 
its  beauty,  its  simplicity,  and  its  promise  of 
wide  extended  benefit ;  unless  custom  has  turned 
poison  into  food,  he  will  hate  the  brutal  pleasures 
of  the  chase  by  instinct ;  it  will  be  a  contempla- 
tion full  of  horror  and  disappointment  to  his 
mind,  that  beings  capable  of  the  gentlest  and 
most  admirable  sympathies,  should  take  delight 
in  the  death-pangs  and  last  convulsions  of  dying 
animals.  The  elderly  man,  whose  youth  has 
been  poisoned  by  intemperance,  or  who  has  lived 
with  apparent  moderation,  and  is  afflicted  with 
a  variety  of  painful  maladies,  would  find  his 
account  in  a  beneficial  change  produced  without 
the  risk  of  poisonous  medicines.  The  mother 
to  whom  the  perpetual  restlessness  of  disease, 
and  unaccountable  deaths  incident  to  her 
children,  are  the  causes  of  incurable  unhappi- 
ness,  would  on  this  diet  experience  the  satisfac- 
tion of  beholding  their  perpetual  health  and 
natural  playfulness.  The  most  valuable  lives  are 
daily  destroyed  by  diseases  that  it  is  dangerous 
to  palliate,  and  impossible  to  cure  by  medicine." 

Shelley  further  says,  "That  man  is  not  by 
nature  destined  to  devour  animal  food,  is  evident 
from  the  construction  of  the  human  frame, 
which  bears  no  resemblance  to  wild  beasts  or 


birds  of  prey.  Man  is  not  provided  with  claws 
or  talons,  with  sharpness  of  fang  or  tusk,  so 
well  adapted  to  tear  and  lacerate  ;  nor  is  his 
stomach  so  well  braced  or  muscular,  nor  his 
animal  spirits  so  warm,  as  to  enable  him  to  digest 
the  solid  mass  of  animal  flesh.  On  the  con- 
trary, nature  has  made  his  teeth  smooth,  his 
mouth  narrow,  and  his  tongue  soft ;  and  has 
contrived,  by  the  slowness  of  his  digestion,  to 
divert  him  from  devouring  a  species  of  food  so 
ill  adapted  to  his  frame  and  constitution. 

"  We  carry  our  luxury  still  further,by  the  variety 
of  sauces  and  seasonings  which  we  add  to  our 
banquets,  mixing  together  oil,  wine,  honey,  pickles, 
vinegar,  and  Syrian  and  Arabian  ointments  and 
perfumes,  as  if  we  intended  to  bury  and  embalm 
the  carcasses  on  which  we  feed.  The  difficulty 
of  digesting  such  a  mass  of  matter,  reduced  in 
our  stomachs  to  a  state  of  liquefaction  and 
putrefaction,  is  the  source  of  endless  disorders 
in  the  human  frame.  First  of  all,  the  wild  mis- 
chievous animals  were  selected  for  food,  and 
tiien  the  birds  and  fishes  were  dragged  to  the 
slaughter ;  next  the  human  appetite  directed 
itself  against  the  laborious  ox,  the  useful  and 
fleece-bearing  sheep,  and  the  cock,  the  guardian 
of  the  house.  At  last,  by  this  preparatory  dis- 
cipline, man  became  matured  for  human  mas- 
sacres, slaughters,  and  wars." 

I  think  I  have  clearly  shown  you,  from  the 
earliest  known  record  of  man's  history,  that  he 
originally  derived  his  sustenance  from  the  fruits 
and  herbs  of  the  earth,  and  that  flesh-eating 
is  a  false  custom  that  prevails  more  particularly 
amongst  English  people  than  any  other,  and  that, 
were  men  to  return  to  the  primitive  and  natural 
mode  of  living,  much  of  the  disease  and  misery 
that  prevails  amongst  mankind  might  be  eradi- 
cated, that  life  would  be  much  more  agreeable, 
whilst,  all  other  circumstances  being  equal,  we 
might  live  to  a  happy  old  age,  and  die  without 
pain.  Several  persons  in  Birmingham  have 
abstained  from  flesh-eating  for  a  considerable 
length  of  time ;  one  old  friend,  Mr.  Lee,  has 
arrived  at  between  sixty  and  seventy  years  of 
age,  and,  by  a  proper  diet  of  fruits  and  farinacea, 
has  cured  himself  of  gout  and  asthma.  He  is 
now  in  better  health  than  he  has  been  for  years, 
and  generally  walks  sixteen  miles  before  break- 
fast to  keep  in  proper  exercise.  In  conjunction 
with  his  Vegetarian  diet,  he  practises  cold  bathing 
every  morning,  to  which  he  attributes  no  small 
share  of  his  success.  Mr.  Griffin  has  not 
used  more  than  six  pounds  of  flesh  in  his  whole 
life,  and  it  is  well  known  that  he  works  at  as 
laborious  an  employment  as  any  that  can  be 
found,  and  is  generally  in  as  robust  health  as  it 
is  possible  to  be.  This  question  of  abstinence 
from  flesh  is  closely  connected  with  all  other 
reforms  ;  with  everything  that  is  calculated  to 
advance  the  highest  interests  of  humanity;  to 
hasten  the  time  when  "  right  shall  dance  on  the 
grave  of  might,"  and  when  humanity  shall  be 
universally  free. 

"  Yea,  what  privilege  and  gladness, 

Dwell  with  modern  men  and  things  ; 
Vainly  waited  for  in  sadness 
By  old  prophets  and  old  kings ! 


30 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


Children  see  what  sages  doubted, 
Peasants  know  what  patriarch  guess'd, 

And  the  sword  of  truth  has  routed 
Every  lie  from  east  to  west. 

•'  Ancient  wrongs  are  being  righted, 
Ancient  rights  lift  up  the  head ; 

Savage  realms,  and  tribes  benighted 
Rise  to  life  as  from  the  dead  ; 

Ignorance  is  out  of  season, 
"Wickedness  is  glad  to  hide — 


LOCAL     OPEEATIONS 

VEGETARIAN    SOCIETY. 

Loan  Libraries. — B.  J. — Members  of  the  So- 
ciety desirous  of  procuring  Vegetarian  works 
for  lending,  are  requested  to  communicate  with 
the  Secretary,  as  copies  of  the  standard  works 
on  use  are  from  time  to  time  supplied  gratui- 
tously in  this  way,  one  member  alone  having 
provided  numerous  copies  of  Smith's  Fruits 
and  Farinacea.     J.  Andrew,  Jun.,  Secretary. 

BIRMINGHAM.. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — A  valuable  lecture  on  the 
proper  food  of  man,  iu  furtherance  of  our  move- 
ment, was  delivered  in  the  Temperance  Hall, 
Ann  Street,  on  Tuesday  evening,  April  3rd, 
by  Mr.  C.  R.  King,  the  Secretary  of  the  Asso- 
ciation. We  forward  a  report  for  the  Messenger, 
which  we  hope  will  be  inserted  in  the  present 
number.  Opportunity  was  afforded  at  the  close 
of  the  lecture  for  the  making  of  inquiries,  and 
back  numbers  of  the  Messenger  and  Vegetarian 
tracts  distributed  to  the  audience.  Three  per- 
sons are  known  to  have  begun  to  try  the  practice 
since  hearing  the  lecture.  Another  lecture  will 
probably  be  delivered  early  in  May,  which  will 
doubtless  tend  to  deepen  the  convictions  already 
produced  as  to  the  goodness  of  our  system. 

C.  R.  K. 

BOSTON. 

Vegetarian  Discussion. — A  discussion  on  Vege- 
tarian Diet  has  recently  taken  place,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Young  Men's  Mutual  Improvement 
Society,  which  extended  over  three  nights  :  con- 
siderable interest  was  excited  on  the  question. 

J.  N.  J. 

COECHESTER. 

Operations.  —  Our  efforts  during  the  past 
month  have  been  limited  to  the  distribution  of 
tracts  and  the  lending  of  Vegetarian  works, 
which  will,  no  doubt,  tend  to  maintain  the  inter- 
est in  our  movement,  excited  by  the  recent  public 
meeting.  J.  B. 

GLASGOW. 

Operations. — We  continue  to  hold  our  usual 
monthly  meetings,  and  with  sustained  interest, 
and  also  take  opportunities  of  bringing  our 
principles  before  the  public,  as  will  be  seen  by 
the  following  notice  of  a  social  meeting  held  by 
us  on  the  3rd  of  April,  which  we  extract  from  a 
local  paper.  It  is  in  this  way,  we  think,  that 
our  practice  can  be  most  successfully  presented 
to  the  attention  of  strangers. 

Vegetarian  Dinner  Party. — "On  Tuesday,  a 
large    and   respectable  company  of   ladies   and 


Nothing  stands  but  truth  and  Reason, 
Nothing  faHs  but  sin  and  pride." 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  lecture,  a  number 
of  inquiries  were  submitted  by  the  audience, 
to  which  satisfactory  replies  were  offered  by 
the  Chairman. 

A  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Lecturer  was 
unanimously  offered,  which  terminated  the 
proceedings  at  about  a  quarter  past  ten. 


AND     INTELLIGENCE. 

gentlemen,  members  and  friends  of  the  Glasgow 
Vegetarian  Association,  "sat  down  to  dinner  at 
five  o'clock,  in  Milner's  Temperance  Hotel, 
Buchanan  Street.  James  Couper,  Esq.,  the 
Vice-President  of  the  Association,  occupied  the 
chair.  The  special  purpose  of  the  occasion  was 
to  show  that  an  elegant,  substantial,  and  palata- 
ble repast  can  be  provided  from  the  products  of 
the  vegetable  kingdom,  without  recourse  to  the 
flesh  of  animals,  and,  from  the  evident  satisfac- 
tion with  all  the  good  things  provided  which 
appeared  to  prevail,  and  which  was  freely  ex- 
pressed by  many  of  the  guests — the  object  of 
the  meeting  seemed  to  be  completely  realized. 
The  bill  of  fare  consisted  of  a  variety  of  soups, 
savoury  pies,  savoury  omelets,  minced  savoury 
fritters,  plum,  rice,  custard,  and  other  puddings, 
with  moulds  of  Irish  moss,  etc.,  and  a  dessert  of 
oranges,  apples,  etc.,  tea  and  chocolate  being 
served  up  during  the  evening.  Letters  of 
apology  were  read  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Watson 
of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  Methven, 
and  several  other  friends  of  the  Association  at  a 
distance,  who  had  been  invited,  but  who  were 
unable  to  attend.  Mr.  Parker  Pillsbury, 
the  distinguished  anti-slavery  advocate  from 
America,  Mr,  J.  Davie,  of  Dunfermline,  Mr. 
Allan  of  Leeds,  and  other  friends  from  a  dis- 
tance, were  present,  and  took  part  in  the  pro- 
ceedings, which  were  all  of  the  most  interesting 
and  delightful  character.  The  company  retired 
at  a  late  hour  in  the  evening,  a  general  wish 
being  expressed  that  the  Association  would 
undertake  a  meeting  of  a  similar  kind  periodi- 
cally, as  one  of  the  best  ways  of  presenting  to 
the  public  both  the  theory  and  practice  of  the 
Vegetarian  system  of  living."  J.  S. 

methven. 

Operations. — Since  my  notice  of  the  lectures 
delivered  here,  our  efforts  have  been  limited  to 
the  circulation  of  Vegetarian  tracts,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  example.  The  cause  is  unpopular  in 
the  extreme,  and  the  only  adherents,  so  far 
as  I  know,  are  myself  and  members  of  my  family. 
Could  not  something  be  done  for  the  young  ?  I 
have  formed  a  Band  of  Hope  of  250,  on  the 
Temperance  principle,  and  have  thought  that 
possibly  something  of  this  kind  could  be  done 
amongst  the  same  class,  for  a  no  less  important 
movement — the  Vegetarian.  I  suppose,  how- 
ever, the  constitution  of  our  Society  does  not 
warrant  such  an  idea.  If  it  did,  I  feel  certain 
something  might  be  done  among  the  young  here. 

G.  B.  W. 


LOCAL   OPERATIONS  AND    TNTELLIGENCi^]. 


31 


LOCAL     OPERATIONS     AND     INTELLIGENCE. 


VEGETARIAN    SOCIETY. 

The  Annual  Meeting. — The  advantajres  of 
an  early  communication  of  the  determination  of 
those  who  intend  to  be  present  at  the  Annual 
Meeting  and  Conference,  are  various.  No  doubt, 
in  the  first  instance,  the  announcements  by  mem- 
bers of  their  intention  to  be  present,  will  again 
influence  others,  who  mii^ht,  but  for  this  promise 
of  meetins;  so  much  of  kindred  feeliiio:,  have  been 
less  carefnl  to  add  to  the  influence  of  the  gather- 
ing. There  has,  however,  always  been  the 
greatest  benefit  resulting  from  the  meetings 
hitherto  held,  at  wliich  the  greatest  mimber  of  Ve- 
getarians M-ere  present,  in  relation  to  the  after 
activities  of  the  year,  the  Annual  Meeting  being 
thus  a  pretty  accurate  guide  to  the  character  and 
influence  of  after  operations.  Our  friends  in  the 
towns  of  Birmingham,  Glasgow,  Leeds,  Hull,  aiid 
other  places  where  it  is  proposed  to  have  Ban- 
quets or  Soirees  on  a  large  scale,  will  also,  no 
doubt,  derive  sympathy,  as  well  as  other  benefits, 
from  having  first  been  present  at  the  Conference, 
thus  personally  enlisting  others  in  supporting 
their  after  efl'orts. 

We  are  already  forming  lists  of  those  friends 
who  have  declared  their  intention  of  being  pre- 
sent, and  shall  be  happy  to  give  information,  and 
to  forward  cards  of  admission,  as  early  as  pos- 
sible, to  all  who  make  application  to  us. 

Revision  of  the  Memhers'  List. — Each  member 
is  earnestly  requested  to  give  attention  to  the 
List  of  Members,  and  to  communicate,  as  early  as 
convenient  during  the  month,  all  alterations 
necessary  to  be  made,  in  relation  to  the 
entries  of  their  own  names,  or  those  of  friends, 
in  connection  with  which  inaccuracies  of  any  kind 
have  been  detected.  Especial  attention  is  also 
called  to  the  column  presenting  the  term  of  absti- 
nence, as  it  is  very  desirable  that  each  meniDer 
should  verify  the  correctness  of  the  respective 
entry  made,  even  to  the  number  of  months,  where 
this  is  practicable.  At  present,  the  entries  have 
been  made  from  the  Register,  aiul  are  doubtless, 
in  nearly  every  case,  thus  far  correct ;  hut  what  is 
desirable,  is,  that  each  member  should,  as  far  as 
possible,  add  to  the  entry  the  addilional  months 
which  may  be  found  necessary  to  complete  his  or 
iier  precise  term  of  Vegetarian  experience,  ft 
will  be  understood  that  all  entries  of  new  names 
should  be  made,  and  tliese  particulars  above 
referred  to  forwarded  to  the  Secretary,  previous 
to  the  beginning  of  July,  from  which  time  the 
new  List  of  Members  will  Ije  fnrmed. 

J.  Andrew  Jun.,  Secretary. 

accrington. 
Operations. — We  are  looking  forward  to  a 
lecture  from  Mr.  Cunliffe,  of  Bolton,  on  some 
early  occasion  during  the  month  of  June,  and 
hope  to  be  less  interrupted  in  our  meetings  from 
this  time  to  the  close  of  the  year  ;  the  absence 
of  some  of  our  most  active  members  being  the 
principal  cause  of  our  not  regularly  continuing 
to  hold  some  kind  of  meetings  in  the  locality. 

W.  S. 


BIRMINGHAM. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — On  Thursday,  the  1st  of 
May,  a  lectnre  on  the  Chemical,  Economical,  and 
Physiological  Reasons  for  Vegetarianism.,  was 
given  by  Mr.  G.  W.  Ward,  of  Handsworth,  in 
the  Temperance  Hall,  Ann  Street.  Dr.  G. 
Fearon,  a  homeopathic  physician,  presided, 
and  the  audience,  which  was  very  respectable, 
and  included  many  ladies,  numbered  upwards  of 
three  hundred  persons.  The  occasion  was  a  very 
exciting  one.  Indeed,  more  questions  were  asked 
than  could  possibly  be  answered  in  the  time, 
which  cansed  a  great  deal  of  confusion ;  but 
Mr.  Ward  replied  to  many  of  them  in  a 
masterly  style.  C.  R. 

COLCHESTER. 

Progress. — Although  the  tracts  distributed, 
and  the  publications  lent,  are  failures  at  present, 
in  regard  to  bringing  persons  to  identify  them- 
selves as  members  of  the  Society,  still,  the  claims 
of  our  principles  are  more  fairly  acknowledged, 
and  a  Vegetarian  is  now  looked  upon  with 
becoming  respect,  not  otdy  because  his  principles 
are  based  upon  scientific  facts,  but  because  of 
his  courage  and  perseverance  in  urging  and 
adopting  a  practice  which  his  reason  declares  to 
be  right.  I  recollect  a  time,  when,  if  a  Vege- 
tarian ventured  to  give  public  utterance  to  his 
views,  he  was  put  down  with  uncourteous 
clamour  and  contempt ;  but  it  is  not  so  non'. 

J.  B. 

CRAWSHAWBOOTH. 

Vegetarian  Meetings. — 'We  have  held  two 
meetings  since  our  last  report,  both  of  them  the 
regular  meetings  of  members.  At  the  first 
of  these  an  interesting  address  was  given  by 
Mr.  Robert  Maden,  on  The  Claims  of  Vegeta- 
rianism upon  the  Christian  and  the  Philanthropist. 
The  second  meeting  was  conversational  in  its 
character,  such  social  occasions  always  proving 
very  interesting  to  all  present. 

Public  Operations. — In  consequence  of  the 
depressed  condition  of  the  trade  of  this  locality, 
we  have  been  unable  to  prosecnte  the  good  work 
of  disseminating  a  knowledge  of  our  system  as 
we  have  desired,  but  we  keep  wotking,  and  when 
things  are  again  restored  to  their  proper  equili- 
brium, we  intend  to  vigorously  agitate  the 
question,  believing  it  calculated  greatly  to  en- 
hance the  happiness  of  society.  W.  H. 

EDINBURGH. 

Formation  of  Association. — We  have  now 
succeeded  in  forming  a  Vegetarian  Association, 
having  held  a  Meeting  for  this  purpose  at 
Sinclair's  Temperance  Hotel,  on  Saturday 
evening,  the  21st  of  April.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J. 
Colter,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  Smith,  came 
from  Glasijow  on  the  occasion,  and  encouraged 
us  by  their  attendance  and  valuable  suggestions. 
We  send  a  list  of  our  officers  for  the  cover  of  the 
Messenger.  R.    J. 

Vegetarian  Association  Sleeting. — I  went  into 
Edinburgh  last  night,  to  the  second  meeting  of 


32 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


the  Association,  and  had  a  very  pleasant  con- 
versation with  those  assembled.  There  were 
only  about  ten  persons  present,  but  most  of 
them  very  enthusiastic  in  the  cause.  They  have 
got  six  members,  and  have  begun  in  a  very 
business-like  way.  One  or  two  of  them  can 
speak,  and  Mr.  Palmer  read  a  very  good  song 
on  the  subject,  which  I  wished  very  much  to  get 
a  copy  of  to  send  to  the  Messenger ;  but  he  said 
he  would  improve  it,  and  then  he  might  give  it 
me.  I  think  they  are  likely  to  get  on  now,  and 
as  I  have  circulated  a  good  many  books  amongst 
them,  both  this  time  and  at  my  last  visit,  they 
are  in  a  fair  way  of  informing  themselves  and 
others  on  the  subject.  I  may  perhaps  go  in 
again  next  month,  and  help  to  keep  them 
going.  C.  J. 

GLASGOM^. 

Vegetarian  Discussion. — A  discussion,  extend- 
ing over  several  weeks,  has  been  kept  up  in  our 
local  journals,  arising  out  of  the  remarks  made 
on  our  movement  and  the  objects  of  the  Society, 
by  one  of  the  speakers  at  the  Second  Annual 
Soiree  of  the  Glasgow  Fleshers.  Public  atten- 
tion has  thus  again  been  usefully  directed  to  the 
consideration  of  the  facts  and  arguments  sup- 
porting our  system. 

Publication  of  Discussion. — Some  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Association,  ever  ready  to  implant 
improved  thoughts  upon  diet  in  the  minds  of  the 
community,  have  had  a  small  tract  of  twelve 
pages  issued,  entitled  Vegetarianism  Attacked  and 
Defended,  comprising  the  matter  of  the  contro- 
versy above  referred  to.  Advantage  has  been 
taken  of  the  issue  of  the  matter  in  the  news- 
paper, to  have  the  type  re-formed  for  a  tract,  and 
thus  our  friends  have  set  an  example,  and  point 
the  way  to  what  can  be  done  promptly,  economi- 
cally, and  usefully,  to  spread  the  knowledge  of 
their  principles. 

Increase  of  Members. — Our  progress  with  the 
public  bears  no  just  relation  to  the  adherents  of 
Vegetarianism  who  become  members  of  the 
Society.  The  adherents  are  found  wherever  the 
question  of  diet  has  been  raised  and  fully 
discussed;  but  there  are  many  lookers  on,  who, 
as  often  as  not,  without  a  reason  to  give  for  it, 
have  not  joined  the  public  movement.  Glasgow, 
with  other  places  we  could  name,  thus  holds 
back  much  from  the  strength  and  public 
influence  of  the  movement,  that  would  naturally 
follow  through  organization.  No  doubt,  the 
time  to  become  a  member  of  the  Society  is  the 
time  when  each,  after  due  consideration  and 
experience,  has  .  fully  decided  upon  contimiivg 
the  Vegetarian  practice  as  a  habit  of  life.  How 
soon  will  our  friends — some  of  them  almost  old 
friends  in  these  arrears  of  organization — join  us 
in  the  full  sympathies  and  usefulness  of  mem- 
bership? J.  S.  J. 

HULL. 

Operations. — We  continue  to  lend  copies  of 
Vegetarian  works,  and  to  distribute  tracts,  and 
know  of  more  than  thirty  persons  who  are  try- 
ing the  practice.  T.  D.  H. 


KIRKCALDY. 

Social  Vegetarian  Meeting. — I  held  a  very 
interesting  conference  here  on  Friday,  the  30th  of 
March,  with  four  individuals  who  had  expressed 
a  wish  to  have  conversation  with  me  upon  the 
Vegetarian  mode  of  living.  I  provided  a  few 
simple  dishes  for  a  repast  on  the  occasion,  which 
had  the  effect  of  bringing  that  part  of  the  system 
before  them  in  a  more  practical  manner  than 
mere  words  could  do.  After  our  repast,  we  had 
a  very  agreeable  conversation,  during  which  I 
had  an  opportunity  of  answering  their  inquiries, 
in  such  a  way  as  seemed  to  satisfy  them.  All 
expressed  themselves  very  much  pleased  with  the 
interview,  and  said  that  they  would  give  the 
system  a  trial.  Since  then  I  have  had  occasion 
to  be  a  good  deal  from  home,  and  have  not  had 
an  opportunity  of  seeing  them  all,  but  have 
ascertained  that  at  least  two  of  them  are  acting 
strictly  upon  the  system,  and,  as  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  ascertain,  the  others  are  acting 
favourably  also.  H.  M. 

LEEDS. 

Operations. — We  are  quite  stationary  here,  so 
far  as  regards  public  efforts  ;  but  it  is,  at  least, 
a  matter  of  satisfaction  that  there  has  been  no 
going  backward  daring  the  present  month,  and 
that  many  persons  are  making  a  trial  of  the 
system.  J.  A.  J. 

LONDON. 

Weekly  Meetings, — We  continue  to  hold  our 
weekly  meetings  at  Vegetarian  Cottage,  since 
we  find  it  convenient  for  the  sake  of  inquirers, 
and  beginners,  in  trying  the  system.  Con- 
stantly one  or  the  other  is  dropping  in  to  make 
inquiries,  and  we  deem  it  too  important  to 
neglect  such  opportunities  of  gaining  to  our 
cause  those  that  are  any  way  inclined  to  join  us. 
It  is  well  that  the  public  should  know  that  at 
any  proper  time  they  can  obtain  information  on 
the  subject  of  Vegetarian  diet. 

Vegetarian  Publications. — It  may  be  well  to 
mention  that  I  keep  a  copy  of  Fruits  and 
Farinacea  in  almost  constant  circulation, 
amongst  those  who  are  beginning  to  try  the 
system,  and  find  that  much  good  is  done  in  this 
way.  It  is  desirable  that  every  Local  Secretary 
should  keep  a  selection  of  Vegetarian  works  to 
lend  to  those  who  are  seeking  information  as  to 
our  principles  and  practice.  G.  D. 

NEWCASTLE. 

Suggestions. — We  have  had  no  meetings  here. 
The  subject  wants  bringing  before  the  public  by 
lectures  or  public  meetings.  I  have  had  inquiries 
from  Sunderland  with  reference  to  a  public 
meeting,  and  think  that  an  efficient  advocate 
would  do  much  good  both  in  this  town,  Sunder- 
land, and  Shields. 

Personal  Experience. — I  am  still  more  than 
ever  satisfied  with  the  system,  though,  not  having 
been  well  of  late,  my  friends  have  used  all  their 
efforts  to  induce  me  to  take  a  little  "  meat "  for 
my  "  stomach's  sake."  J.  M. 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


33 


BIRMINaHAM    VEGETARIAN    ASSOCIATION    LECTURE. 


On  Tuesday  evening,  June  5th,  the  third  of 
a  course  of  Six  Lectures,  in  connection  with 
the  Birmingham  Vegetarian  Association,  was 
given  by  Mr.  W.  G.  Ward  of  Handsworth, 
on  the  Moral,  Intellecttml,  and  Scriptural 
Claims  of  Vegetarianism,  in  the  Temperance 
Hall,  Ann  Street.  The  hall  was  crowded, 
and  the  audience  the  most  respectable  that 
has  hitherto  attended  this  course  of  lectures. 
We  noticed,  amongst  others  present,  Dr. 
Fearon,  Dr.  Russell,  W.  Christian,  Esq. 
of  Edgbaston,  H.  Morgan,  Esq.,  Solicitor, 
Birmingham,  etc. 

The  chair  was  occupied  by  the  Rev. 
Charles  Vince,  who  opened  the  proceed- 
ings with  a  short  but  very  appropriate  address. 

Mr.  Ward  commenced  by  a  recapitulation 
of  his  former  lecture,  showing  that  in  that  he  had 
given  the  whole  of  the  physical  and  material 
claims  of  the  question.  But  he  confessed  that, 
however  others  might  be  affected  by  the  mere 
debtor  and  creditor  view  of  the  qxiestion,  he  was 
more  influenced  by  the  claims  of  Vegetarianism 
as  bearing  upon  our  instincts,  our  intellect,  and 
our  moral  and  spiritual  relations,  and  went 
on  to  show,  by  a  new  and  imaginary  Adam 
introduced  into  this  world  of  ours,  how  incon- 
sistent flesh-eating  would  be  to  his  tastes.  He 
then  adduced  the  instances  of  Milton, 
Newton,  and  Wesley,  with  apt  quotations 
from  Shakespeare  and  others,  coupled  with 
the  well-known  instances  of  Irish  wit,  and  its 
connexion  with  a  milk  and  potato  fare,  to  show 
the  advantages  of  Vegetarian  diet  in  producing 
a  clear  intellect  and  supporting  prolonged  mental 
exertion.  Mr.  Ward  then  proceeded  to  the 
moral  part  of  the  subject,  giving  as  his  definition 
of  a  moral  man,  one  who  kept  under  control  his 
animal   appetites    in    due  subordination   to  his 


higher  faculties.  After  explaining  that  sympathy 
was  the  true  bond  of  civilization,  and  that  society 
could  only  be  elevated  as  far  as  it  extended  its 
benevolent  and  generous  sympathies,  he  showed 
that  man  could  have  no  true  moral  sympathy  for 
his  fellows,  so  long  as  he  had  no  sympathy  with 
the  sufferings  of  the  lower  animals.  Various 
historic  facts  were  adduced  in  support  of  the 
proposition.  He  then  went  on  to  the  scriptural 
part  of  the  subject,  clearly  showing  how  its  various 
statements  were  to  be  received,  and  in  explaining 
the  connexion  between  science  and  Scripture,  at 
once  drove  the  mere  text-hunter  from  the  field. 
He  clearly  showed,  as  a  principle  none  could 
object  to,  that  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  was, 
that  we  should  seek  to  supplant  our  will  by 
the  will  of  God,  shutting  out  of  court,  at  once, 
the  petty  quibblers  who  have  nothing  to  bring 
forward  but  the  demands  of  appetite  as  ex- 
pressed in  the  phrase,  "  I  like  it."  He  then 
quoted  text  after  text,  from  Genesis  to  Corin- 
thians, in  support  of  his  own  views,  and 
afterwards  reviewed  and  commented  upon  the 
texts  commonly  adduced  in  support  of  flesh- 
eating,  and  concluded  an  interesting  and 
powerful  lecture,  by  making  an  appeal  to  the 
ladies,  on  their  omnipotence  in  moral  questions, 
their  power  over  the  child,  from  the  cradle  to  the 
threshhold  of  daily  life,  their  influence  over 
rising  manhood,  and  their  power  as  the  pre- 
siding deities  over  our  domestic  affairs,  remind- 
ing them  that  in  that  poor  country — the  battle- 
field  of  contending  nations — Wallachia,  woman 
is  not  allowed,  by  ancient  law  and  custom,  to 
take  away  the  life  of  any  animal,  that  the  gentle 
sympathies  of  her  nature  may  not  be  obliterated 
by  the  daily  cruelties  of  kitchen  routine. 

An  exciting  and  lengthened  discussion 
then  took  place,  and  the  various  speakers 
were  admirably  replied  to  by  the  lecturer. 


LOCAL     OPERATIONS     AND     INTELLIGENCE. 


vegetarian  society. 
Early  Application  for  Cards. — Our  friends  will 
remember  the  advantages  of  an  early  appli- 
cation for  cards,  as  materially  assisting  the 
Committee  of  Management  in  connection  with 
the  arrangement  of  the  Hall  for  the  Confe- 
rence and  Entertainment.  There  is  also  great 
advantage  in  the  early  communication  to  the 
Secretary,  of  the  names  of  members  intend- 
ing to  be  present,  as  influencing  the  attendance 
of  others,  and  the  more  so,  when  our  more 
distant  friends  intend  to  join  the  Conference,  as 
many  doubtless  do. 

Trip  of  Pleasure. — A.  C. — It  is  proposed  that 
there  should  be  a  Pic-nic  party  to  Alderly,  on  the 
day  following  the  Conference,  and  it  is  possible 
another  meeting  may  be  arranged  for  the  evening, 
but  these  arrangements  are  properly  left  open  till 
circumstances  shall  direct  what  is  most  desirable 
as  the  26th  approaches. 

Association  Meetings. — W.  B. — We  understand 
that  meetings  are  being  held  for  the  purpose  of 


organizing  attendance  at  the  Annual  Meeting, 
and  would  suggest  that' not  merely  each  Associa- 
tion call  its  members  together  for  this  desirable 
purpose,  but  that  others,  not  having  the  advan- 
tage of  local  organization,  also  meet  and  discuss 
the  practibility  of  sending  deputations  to  the 
Conference.  Past  experience  has  amply  proved 
the  great  advantage  of  large  numbers  of  Vege- 
tarians meeting  together,  and  the  Annual  Meet- 
ings, where  one  half  the  guests  at  the  Banquets 
generally  given  have  been  Vegetarians,  have 
been  noticed  as  the  most  interesting  of  all.  We 
especially  commend  the  Conference  to  our  friends 
who  have  not  had  the  advantage  of  meeting  many 
Vegetarians,  and  doubt  not  that  it  will  be  found 
of  great  interest  and  benefit  to  such. 

Hotels  and  Lodging  Houses.  —  J.  W. — Early 
communication  with  the  Secretary  will  secure  the 
bespeaking  of  rooms  for  our  friends,  either  in 
private  lodging-houses  or  hotels ;  such  applica- 
tions, however,  should  be  made  by  the  24th  inst. 
J.  Andrew,  Jun.,  Secretary. 


ACCRINGTON. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — The  contemplated  lecture 
of  Mr.  J  CuNLiFFE,  in  connexion  with  our  Asso- 
ciation, has  had  to  be  postponed,  through  a 
public  meeting  of  local  interest  falling  on  the 
same  evening.  It  is  now,  however,  fixed  for  the 
28th  of  June,  and  we  trust  no  further  disappoint- 
ment may  attend  us,  but  that  its  delivery  may  be 
made  eminently  useful  to  the  numerous  inquirers 
in  this  locality.  W.  S. 

BIRMINGHAM. 

Vegetarian  Lectures. — A  course  of  six  lectures 
on  Vegetarianism,  by  Members  of  our  Associa- 
tion, is  in  progress,  the  third  of  these  being 
delivered  by  Mr.  W.  G.  Ward,  of  Handsworth, 
on  Tuesday  evening,  June  5th.  A  brief  notice 
of  his  lecture  will  be  found  in  the  present  number 
of  the  Messenger.  The  fourth  lecture  will  be 
given  early  in  July,  by  Mr.  Jos.  Palmer, 
on  The  Comparative  Anatomy  of  the  Teeth  of 
Men  and  Animals  in  Relation  to  Food. 

The  Approaching  Conference. — We  are  intend- 
ing to  hold  a  meeting  of  our  Association,  to 
ascertain  how  many  of  our  members  are  likely  to 
attend  the  Vegetarian  Conference  in  Manchester. 
The  desirability  of  securing  as  large  an  attendance 
as  possible,  is  obvious ;  but  most  of  our  Vegetarian 
friends  here  are  in  humble  circumstances,  and  can- 
not, therefore,  be  expected  to  put  themselves  to 
the  expense  of  travelling,  and  the  loss  of  two  days' 
employment  in  addition,  but  as  many  as  possible  of 
us  will  be  sure  to  be  at  the  Conference.    C.  R.  K. 

COLCHESTER. 

Hindrances  to  Progress. — I  still  continue  to 
lend  Vegetarian  publications,  but  war  and  sol- 
diers are  the  topics  of  the  day  in  Colchester. 
We  have  already  the  Essex  Rifles,  and  prepara- 
tions are  being  made  for  a  camp  of  5,000  men,  so 
that  our  peaceful  progress  for  a  time  will  be  at  a 
discount;  but,  with  faith  and  confidence,  I  will 
still  persevere,  knowing,  from  nearly  eight  years' 
experience,  that  our  system  of  abstinence  from 
the  flesh  of  animals  is  a  right  system,  founded 
upon  truth  incontrovertible.  May  Gor»  speed 
the  time  when  men's  eyes  will  be  opened  to  their 
ignorance  and  folly  in  killing  men  and  animals, 
and  when  this  unlovely  propensity  for  blood  will 
cease  to  have  a  controlling  power  in  the  soul. 

Working  Men  and  Vegetarianism. — O  that 
every  hard-working  man  was  in  possession  of  the 
knowledge  of  Vegetarianism  1  for,  of  all  men,  he 
it  is  who  should  be  most  concerned  for  its 
adoption,  inasmuch  as  his  hard-earned  income 
might  then  be  expended  in  purchasing  that  kind  of 
food  which  will  keep  him  for  a  longer  period  in 
health  and  working  vigour,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
far  better  enable  him  to  regulate  and  modify  his 
conduct,  so  as  to  keep  within  the  bounds  of 
becoming  propriety.  I  have  just  received  a 
letter  from  a  friend  who  has  abstained  from  the 
use  of  flesh  as  food,  with  one  exception,  for  nine 
days.  A  mighty  performance  this  for  some,  who 
have  not  been  initiated  into  Vegetarian  truth  1 

J.  B. 

EDINBURGH. 

Monthly  Vegetarian   Meeting. — Our    monthly 


meeting  for  June,  was  most  gratifying.  An 
interesting  paper  was  read  by  Mr.  J.  Palmer, 
which  was  well  calculated  to  strengthen  believ- 
ers in  Vegetarianism,  and  to  give  inquiring 
minds  matter  for  reflection.  Mr.  Couper,  of 
Glasgow,  was  again  with  us,  with  his  well-selected 
stock  of  books,  a  good  number  of  which  were 
disposed  of. 

Joining  the  Society.. — We  are  feeling  our  way 
cautiously,  and  are  more  successful  in  securing 
attention  than  we  anticipated.  Whilst  we  hear 
of  one  after  another  who  are  all  but  Vegetarians, 
two  of  our  number  have  joined  the  General 
Society  this  month,  and  we  hope  to  report  more 
next.  J,  R. 

hull. 

Operations. — We  have  no  meeting,  to  report 
this  month,  but  have  distributed  about  a  h^mdred 
tracts,  and  three  Vegetarian  publications  have 
been  lent  to  persons  seeking  information  as  to 
our  principles  and  practice.  As  many  as  thirty 
or  forty  individuals  are  known  to  be  trying  the 
system,  some  of  whom  will,  doubtless,  see  it 
well  to  connect  themselves  with  the  Society. 

T.  d'  H. 

KIRKCALDY. 

Dissemination  of  Information — We  lend,  to 
those  seeking  information  as  to  our  principles 
and  practice,  copies  of  Fruits  and  Farinacea,  the 
Vegetarian  Cookery,  and  the  Messenger,  and  in 
this  way  seek  to  prepare  the  mind  for  a  practical 
adoption  of  the  system.  There  are,  at  present, 
nine  or  ten  experimenters  in  our  way  of  living, 
and  hope  some  of  these  will,  ere  long,  see  it  well 
to  connect  themselves  with  the  Society.  The 
gratuitous  tract  matter  is  also  well  circulated, 
both  here  and  when  I  am  from  home,  as  well  as 
by  enclosure  in  letters  to  correspondents. 

H.  M. 

LEEDS. 

The  Approaching  Conference. — We  are  looking 
forward  to  the  approaching  Vegetarian  Con- 
ference and  Meeting  in  Manchester  with  much 
interest  and  hope.  It  is  evident  that  the 
greatest  requisite  to  success,  and  the  more  rapid 
spread  of  dietetic  reform,  is  an  infusion  of  fresh 
zeal  into  our  own  members.  We  think  that  the 
proposed  arrangements  for  this  month,  and  the 
soirees  to  succeed  the  annual  meeting,  are  calcu- 
lated, with  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  to  do  much 
good,  and  give  new  vigour  to  our  movement. 

J.  A.  J. 

METHVEN. 

Vegetarian  Meeting. — We  have  held  one  meet- 
ing since  our  last  report,  when  a  short  address 
was  given  by  the  Rev.  G.  B.  Watson,  to  a 
small  audience.  The  subject  is  unpopular  here, 
but  tracts  are  distributed,  and  four  persons  are 
trying  the  system.  G.  B,  W. 

PAD  stow. 

Operations. — We  have  distributed  about  a 
hundred  Vegetarian  tracts  since  my  last  report, 
and  have  lent  ten  publications  on  our  principles 
to  those  seeking  information.  Two  persons  are 
making  a  trial  of  the  practice.  R.  P.  G. 


ACCRINGTON    VEGETARIAN    ASSOCIATION    LECTURE. 


On  Thursday  evening,  June  26th,  a  lecture 
on  Vegetarianism  in  Relation  to  the  Pleasures 
of  Life,  was  delivered  by  Mr.  J.  Cunliffe,  of 
Bolton,  in  the  New  Jerusalem  School  Room, 
Accrington.  The  audience,  though  some- 
what small,  was  deeply  interested,  and 
manifested  a  thoughtful,  inquiring  spirit. 

Jambs  Simpson,  Esq.,  President  of  the 
Association,  occupied  the  chair,  aud  opened  the 
proceedings  in  a  brief  address,  iu  which  he 
observed,  that,  on  the  30th  of  September,  it 
would  be  eight  years  since  the  Vegetarian 
movement  was  originated  in  this  country.  This 
was  the  first  association  of  the  kind  here, 
though  a  somewhat  similar  organization  had 
been  attempted  in  America.  Its  adherents 
were  called  Vegetarians,  as  a  brief  term  indi- 
cating their  living  principally  upon  the  products 
of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  without  the  use 
of  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food.  Many  such 
persons  were  living  in  England  before  this,  and 
they  occasionally  met  for  conference ;  but  at  the 
period  referred  to,  they  determined  to  form  a 
Society  for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  each 
other,  and,  at  the  same  time,  extending  a  know- 
ledge of  their  principles  and  practice,  which 
they  considered  would  contribute  very  much  to 
the  happiness  of  society.  In  this  way  the  Vege- 
tarian Society  originated,  and  it  had  igone  on 
slowly  advancing  ever  since.  There  was  also  a 
re-organized  Society  in  America,  going  on  in  its 
course  of  usefulness.  These  were  the  only 
movements  of  a  public  character,  in  relation  to 
diet,  with  which  he  was  acquainted ;  and  many 
people,  on  first  hearing  of  Vegetarianism,  re- 
garded it  as  something  new,  whereas  it  was  one 
of  the  oldest  things  in  the  world,  from  two- 
thirds  to  three-fourths  of  the  population  of  the 
world,  in  the  main  features  of  their  diet,  living 
without  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food,  and  having 
always  done  so.  The  strongest  men  of  to-day, 
just  as  iu  all  past  times,  were  those  who  sub- 
sisted on  vegetable  products,  and  also  the  finest 
developed  forms  of  physical  beauty,  as  the 
Greek  boatmen  and  others,  were  found  amongst 
the  people  living  on  fruits,  and  grain,  and  rarely 
partaking  of  flesh.  Various  travellers  had  drawn 
attention  to  these  facts,  in  visiting  the  East,  aud 
described  the  boatmen,  and  water  carriers  of 
Constantinople,  and  others,  as  living  on  bread, 
fruits,  cucumbers,  and  other  simple  food,  and 
drinking  only  water.  They  thus  saw  the  practice 
was  different  to  what  was  generally  supposed. 
Instead  of  being  new,  it  was  as  ancient  as  the 
appointment  of  man's  food  in  Paradise,  when 
God  said,  "  Behold,  I  have  given  you  every  herb 
bearing  seed,  which  is  upon  the  face  of  all  the 
earth,  and  every  tree  iu  the  which  is  the  fruit 
of  a  tree  yielding  seed,  to  you  it  shall  be  for 
meat."  People  had  since  lived  otherwise,  but 
this  was  no  argument  against  the  goodness  or 
wisdom  of  the  practice,  any  more  than  the  mis- 
taken courses  of  people  in  relation  to  morals  and 
religion,  was  an  argument  against  Christianity 
itself.     What  the   Creator  appointed  must  be 


good  and  sound  in  its  principles,  though  man  in 
his  wanderings  had  come  to  live  otherwise ;  the 
Creator,  in  his  desire  to  guard  humanity,  aud 
preserve  the  human  species,  permitting  man  to 
meet  the  exigencies  of  his  position,  and  to  live 
upou  various  kinds  of  food  other  than  that 
appointed  iu  Paradise,  though  this  last  was  still 
found  to  be  the  best,  when  the  question  was 
properly  inquired  into.  There  was  no  occasion, 
therefore,  to  say  that  this  was  a  new  and  strange 
system  ;  it  had  been  known  and  practised  all 
over  the  world,  and  had  been  known  in  all  times 
of  man's  history.  All  persons  knew  that  when 
they  were  in  erroneous  courses  of  any  kind,  it 
seemed  exceedingly  difficult  to  get  out  of  these 
into  a  better  and  happier  way  of  life,  just  as  some 
imagined  it  was  hardly  possible,  in  this  busy 
stirring  world  of  ours,  to  live  iu  Christian  prin- 
ciples, though  these  were  practical  enough  to  all 
who  really  desired  to  carry  them  out.  It  was 
sometimes  objected,  that,  though  a  Vegetarian 
diet  was  first  appointed,  a  different  diet  succeeded 
this,  as  now  extensively  practised.  But  a  very 
natural  question  arose  iu  all  reflective  minds  : 
Which  of  these  systems  is  the  most  natural,  the 
happiest  and  the  best  ?  When  man  lived  in 
order,  he  was  in  harmony  with  the  creation 
around  him,  but  when  he  departed  from  the 
order  of  his  being,  there  was  evidence  of  conflict 
and  disquiet.  They  thought,  therefore,  that  as 
the  Vegetarian  system  was  in  harmony  with 
man's  nature,  and  the  world  around  him,  to  begin 
with,  its  adoption  would  make  all  good  things 
easier  to  attain  now.  When  he  looked  at  society, 
he  felt  for  its  struggles  and  disorders.  People 
suffered  from  erroneous  habits  in  relation  to 
eating  aud  drinking,  and  other  causes,  and  when 
they  lived  in  harmony  with  their  natures  as  to 
diet  and  drink  (for  the  drinking  was  included 
iu  the  eating  question,  since  those  who  gave  up 
the  eating  of  flesh  could  not  long  continue  to 
take  intoxicating  drinks),  one  of  its  first  effects 
was  to  make  every  good  thing  easier  to  the 
world.  He  would  not  go  further  into  these 
questions  then,  since  Mr.  Cunliffe  had  come 
to  give  a  lecture  on  the  subject,  aud  he  would 
therefore  only  add,  that  he  was  much  pleased 
with  the  choice  of  the  subject  for  the  lecture, 
because  people  generally  regarded  the  Vege- 
tarian practice  as  one  of  self-denial. 

The  Chairman  then  called  upon  Mr. 
Cunliffe  to  commence  his  lecture,  of  which 
the  following  is  an  abstract :  ^ 

In  discussing  a  subject  like  the  present,  we 
may  be  challenged  by  some  persons  to  give  a 
definition  of  pleasure.  We  are  aware  that  in 
nothing  do  men's  opinions  vary  more,  than  as  to 
what  constitutes  the  condition  of  mind  indicated 
by  this  word.  To  the  question,  What  is  pleasure  ? 
we  should  have  a  reply  in  accordance  with  the 
peculiar  tastes  and  pursuits  of  the  person  ques- 
tioned. The  "  thirsty  soul "  could  see  nothing 
better  than  abundance  of  "brown  stout,"  and 
the  denizen  of  St.  Giles  would  luxuriate  in  drams 
of   gin.    One   man  would  be  at  the  height   of 


36 


ACCRTNGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


gratification  with  a  dog  and  a  gun,  while  another 
would  be  at  the  climax  of  enjoyment  with  a 
fishing  rod.  Other  methods  of  purchasing  what 
some  men  call  pleasure,  might  be  cited,  but  these 
would  suffice  to  illustrate  the  diversified  ideas  of 
men  on  this  subject.  Our  own  idea  of  pleasure 
is,  that  condition  of  body  and  mind  which  is 
induced  by  a  consciousness  that  our  habits  and 
opinions  are  in  conformity  with  the  physical  and 
moral  laws  of  our  being,  and  which  intelligence 
sanctions,  and  religion  approves.  Pleasures  of  a 
pure  and  durable  character  arise  principally  from 
mental  and  moral  sources,  and  questions  having 
a  tendency  to  develope  the  higher  attributes  of 
man's  being,  and  consequently  to  increase  his 
susceptibility  to  refined  enjoyments,  are  those 
which  ought  to  secure  the  practical  approbation 
of  the  wise  and  virtuous.  It  may  be  true  that 
mankind  generally  do  not  recognize  the  truth  of 
these  sentiments;  and  that  institutions  formed  to 
propagate  them  are  viewed  with  distrust,  and 
mistaken  in  their  character  and  aims.  Hence, 
those  who  exclude  the  flesh  of  animals  from 
their  diet,  are  regarded  by  some  as  stoical  and 
cynical  in  their  natures,  and  looked  upon  as 
disciples  of  Diogenes,  and  as  fit  companions  of 
hermits  and  monks.  With  a  view  to  dispel  some 
of  these  mistaken  opinions,  the  subject  before  us 
has  been  chosen  for  a  few  remarks.  In  order  to 
aid  in  a  clear  understanding  of  the  question,  we 
propose  to  discuss  it  in  the  following  order. 

1.  The  pleasure  arising  from  the  fewness  of 
our  wants.  One  of  the  prominent  tendencies  of 
Vegetarianism,  is  that  of  leading  to  simplicity  of 
diet.  This,  in  all  ages,  has  been  admitted  to  be 
conducive  to  health.  Men  should  eat  to  live, 
and  not  live  to  eat.  Without  dispensing  with 
the  culinary  art,  either  in  its  plainest  or  most 
refined  operations,  the  Vegetarian  disdains  to  be 
in  bondage  to  it.  He  is  not  everlastingly 
quarrelling  with  the  cook  and  the  butcher,  and 
his  happiness  is  not  so  frequently  disturbed  by 
the  one  or  the  other  He  realizes  more  of  true 
liberty  and  independence  than  the  eaters  of  flesh  ; 
and  hence  the  source  of  some  of  his  most  happy 
thoughts.  This  is,  therefore,  one  aspect  of 
Vegetarianism  in  relation  to  the  pleasures  of 
life. 

2.  As  the  natural  sequence  to  the  preceding 
position,  there  comes  the  pleasure  arising  from 
the  sraallness  of  our  personal  expenses.  We  do 
not  regard  this  from  the  niggardly  point  of  view, 
but  from  the  ground  of  obligation,  which  all 
reasonable  men  acknowledge,  to  avoid  unnecessary 
extravagance.  This  holds  good  both  upon  the 
man  of  abundant,  as  well  as  the  man  of  scanty, 
means.  Wastefulness  may  be  less  defensible  m 
the  latter,  but  it  cannot  be  justified  in  the  for- 
mer. The  cost  of  providing  for  some  men's 
stomachic  cravings  is  almost  beyond  belief,  and 
this  is  mainly  occasioned  by  their  flesh-eating 
practices.  To  a  reflecting  man  this  must  be 
painful  and  humiliating,  and  throw  many  dark 
shadows  across  the  path  of  life.  We  venture, 
therefore,  to  affirm  as  a  rule.  Vegetarians  live 
more  cheaply  than  those  who  by  turns  devour 
ish,  flesh,  and  fowl,  for  their  bodily  sustenance, 
and  that  the  former  have  the  pleasing  conscious- 


ness  of  approaching    nearer  the  rule    of    true 
economy  than  the  latter. 

3.  There  is  a  pleasure  arising  from  the  Vege- 
tarian practice,  when  regarded  as  tending  to 
promote  bodily  health.  We  are  quite  aware  that 
the  contrary  is  the  prevalent  opinion.  It  is 
granted  that  it  may  suit  very  peculiar  constitu- 
tions, aud  especially  people  who  do  not  follow 
laborious  employments  ;  but  is  believed  to  be 
altogether  unsafe  for  general  adoption.  The 
idea  of  strength  aud  nourishment  has  been  so 
long  associated  with  the  flesh  of  animals  as  diet, 
and  the  teachings  of  medical  men  have  so  univer- 
sally favoured  the  mistaken  notion,  that  it  is  no 
wonder  the  delusion  should  be  as  complete  as  it 
is.  It  has  been  taken  for  granted,  both  by  the 
ignorant  and  the  professedly  learned,  that  the 
flesh  of  animals  contained  some  elements  of 
nutrition  of  which  vegetable  and  farinaceous 
food  was  destitute.  It  has  been  assumed,  that 
the  cow,  and  the  sheep,  in  eating  the  grass,  or 
other  vegetable  products  favourable  to  the  fat- 
tening process,  were  endowed  with  the  power,  in 
their  physical  laboratory,  of  evolving  some  new 
elements  of  strength,  and  that,  therefore,  it  was 
necessary,  in  order  to  prevent  mankind  from 
deteriorating  in  bodily  vigour,  that  this  cruel 
and  roundabout  method  of  coming  at  the  best 
food  should  be  perpetuated.  This  was  certainly 
the  evident  opinion  of  a  respectable  medical  man 
with  whom  we  were  recently  conversing,  and 
when  we  stated  our  belief  that  nothing  new  was 
obtained  by  vegetables  being  elaborated  into  the 
bodies  of  animals,  he  was  struck  with  all  the 
force  of  a  new  discovery.  We  have  not  time  to 
reason  out  the  position,  but  we  ask  all  candid 
persons  to  look  at  the  facts  which  are  presented 
by  millions  of  the  world's  population,  shewing, 
on  the  one  hand,  health  and  vigour  in  connection 
with  diet  from  which  the  flesh  of  animals  is 
excluded;  and  on  the  other,  dyspepsia,  with  its 
feebleness  and  long  train  of  evils,  afflicting  the 
eaters  of  flesh.  Without  health,  life  is  a  dull 
and  dreary  thing ;  with  good  health,  it  is  a  gift 
of  a  joyous  and  blessed  character,  and  although 
our  means  be  limited,  our  pleasures  need  not 
be  few. 

4.  Vegetarianism  must  yield  a  high  measure 
of  satisfaction,  from  the  aid  which  it  gives  to 
physical  and  moral  discipline,  and  in  clearing  the 
way  for  man's  progress  in  good  things.  The 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  laboured  to  keep  his 
body  under  proper  control,  and  no  doubt  he  was 
fully  aware  that  eating  aud  drinking  had  much  to 
do  with  this.  It  will  not  be  denied  that  flesh- 
eating  has  a  sensualizing  tendency,  and  is  there- 
fore unfavourable  to  the  highest  moral  develop- 
ments. We  do  not  claim  for  Vegetarianism  any 
positive  or  inherent  power  to  create  holier  and 
better  dispositions  in  men ;  but  simply  assert 
that  the  condition  of  body  which  it  produces,  is 
favourable  and  conducive  to  purer  habits  of 
thought  and  feeling.  The  best  and  most  useful 
men  in  all  sects,  have  approached  nearly  to  Vege- 
tarianism in  their  diet,  aud  they  have  felt  and 
expressed  themselves  in  anything  but  an  approv- 
ing manner  with  regard  to  flesh-eating.  Whoever 
then  would  succeed  to  the  highest  point  in  self- 


ACCRINGTON  VEGETAEIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


37 


discipline,  must  eschew  flesh-eating  practices, 
and  be  content  to  satisfy  liis  animal  "wants  on 
the  fruits,  roots,  and  grains  of  the  earth. 

5.  Vegetarianism  likewise  yields  a  high  mea- 
sure of  satisfaction,  from  the  fact  that  it  places 
its  advocates  in  a  good  relationship  to  the  pro- 
gressive questions  of  the  age.  This  position 
must  be  apparent  to  all,  and  we  shall  probably 
best  illustrate  it  by  putting  two  or  three  ques- 
tions. We  may  first  of  all  remark,  that  a  man 
best  serves  any  good  cause  when  he  is  known  to 
be  consistent  with  its  claims  and  obligations. 
Does  a  Vegetarian  practice  of  diet  weaken  a 
man's  influence  as  a  friend  of  education,  as  a 
temperance  or  sanatory  reformer,  or  as  an  advo- 
cate of  peace  ?  In  publicly  advocating  the  claims 
of  one  or  all  of  these  movements,  would  anybody 
think  of  charging  him  with  inconsistency  because 
he  abstained  from  the  flesh  of  animals?  Not 
only  would  this  not  be  the  case,  but  an  audience 
would  feel  and  testify  in  their  hearts  that  the 
speaker  had  acquired  an  increase  of  moral  power, 
from  the  circumstance  that  his  mode  of  living 
rendered  the  killing  and  slaying  of  God's  inno- 
cent creatures  unnecessary,  as  regarded  the 
satisfying  of  his  bodily  wants.  In  this  age  of 
activity  and  progress,  when  all  good  men  are 
called  upon  to  take  part  in  the  enterprises  which 
are  leading  us  on  to  a  higher  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  to  a  condition  of  society  more  in 
harmony  with  all  truths,  it  afl'ords  more  than  an 
ordinary  degree  of  pleasure  to  know  that  you 
have  adopted  a  practice  in  relation  to  your  food, 
which  places  you  in  an  improved  position  for 
aiding  these  benevolent  efforts.  We  therefore 
come  to  the  conclusion,  that  our  movement  is 
obstructive  of  no  one  of  the  progressive  questions 
of  our  time,  but  is  in  harmony  with,  and  helpful 
to,  them  all ;  and  the  members  of  our  Society 
have  the  pleasurable  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
their  usefulness  is  increased  by  the  cause  which 
they  have  espoused,  and  the  principles  of  which 
they  are  seeking  to  propagate  among  the  popula- 
tion. 

6.  There  is  also  a  pleasure  arising  from  the 
relation  in  which  Vegetarians  stand  to  the  brute 
creation.  As  an  associated  body,  they  form  the 
truest  and  best  society  for  preventing  cruelty  to 
animals.  Our  regards  for  them  go  further  than 
the  mere  maltreatment  of  naughty  boys  and 
hard-hearted  owners — they  extend  to  averting  the 
murderous  blow  and  knife  of  the  butcher.  Some 
people  say,  that  "  if  we  did  not  eat  animals,  they 
would  eat  us."  We  have  no  such  fears,  nor  are 
we  disposed  to  resort  to  the  doubtful  and  strange 
expedient,  of  preventing  an  apprehended  calamity 
by  devouring  our  supposed  enemy.  We  are  the 
true  friends  of  the  brute  creation,  and  "  pet " 
lambs,  or  "  favourite  "  ewes,  may  live  and  enjoy 
life,  and  continue  to  yield  delight  to  their  re- 
spective owners  until  age  ends  their  being. 
There  has  been  much  rejoicing — in  which  we  sin- 
cerely participate — about  the  removal  of  Smith- 
field  Market,  and  the  less  cruelty  which  will 
necessarily  be  practised  upon  the  poor  beasts,  by 
the  ample  space  and  complete  arrangements  of 
the  New  Market  in  Copenhagen  Fields ;  but  still, 
lives  must  be  taken  by  thousands  each  week  to 


meet  the  demands  of  London's  population.  We 
admire  the  humanity  which  seeks  for  an  abate- 
ment of  the  sufferings  of  the  dumb  creation  ;  but 
we  reverence  the  kindness  and  convictions  which 
induce  a  man  to  adopt  a  practice,  which  destroys 
the  necessity  of  such  wholesale  murders  as  take 
place  every  week. 

7.  There  is  a  satisfaction  arising  from  the 
fact,  that  the  position  of  Vegetarians  is  a  sinless 
one.  We  are  not  commanded  under  penalty  to 
eat  the  flesh  of  animals.  Our  abstinence  is  no 
violation  of  any  law,  human  or  divine.  We  are 
quite  free  to  limit  our  food  to  such  things  as  are 
suitable,  without  inflicting  pain  on  sentient 
beings.  Those  who  differ  from  us  may  offer  long 
and  laboured  defences  of  their  flesh-eating  cus- 
tom, and  they  may  quote  Scripture  example  in 
support  of  the  same,  but  that  does  not  make  us 
wrong.  It  is  for  them  to  be  sure  that  they  are 
quite  right ;  for  ourselves,  we  have  no  doubt 
whatever.  We  recently  met  a  Christian  minister 
at  a  party  where  the  flesh  of  animals  formed  part 
of  the  provisions,  who  entered  into  a  warm 
defence  of  flesh-eating,  but  who  was  so  exces- 
sively anxious  to  prove  that  he  was  right,  that  it 
created  the  suspicion  in  those  who  heard  him, 
that  he  had  some  misgivings  he  was  wrong. 
Vegetarians  may  rest  satisfied  in  the  assurance, 
that  no  law,  human  or  divine,  condemns  their 
practice. 

8.  There  is  also  the  pleasant  conviction,  that 
our  doctrines  are  in  harmony  with  the  best  and 
most  reliable  teachings  of  chemistry  and  physi- 
ology. We  might  have  made  the  remarks  we 
purpose  offering  now  under  a  former  head,  but, 
for  the  sake  of  clearness,  we  prefer  to  submit 
them  here.  Up  to  a  recent  period,  the  opinions 
published  by  this  class  of  writers  were,  to  a  great 
extent,  traditional,  and  a  mere  echo  of  writers 
who  had  preceded  them.  The  method  of  analysis 
and  discovery  pursued  by  Liebig  in  ascertaining 
the  elements  of  food,  has  tended  to  correct  many 
errors,  and  when  th6  force  of  old  habits  and 
prejudices  has  somewhat  more  abated,  the 
truth  and  beauty  of  the  Vegetarian  system  will 
become  more  apparent.  The  future  revelations 
of  chemistry  and  physiology  will  do  much  more 
for  it  than  the  past  has  done,  and  its  adherents 
have  nothing  to  fear,  but  much  to  hope  for,  from 
coming  generations.  Vegetarianism  has  never 
yet  been  assailed  by  any  competent  authority  in 
its  chemical  and  physiological  aspects,  and  it  is 
reasonable  to  assume  that  such  would  have  been 
the  case,  had  there  been  any  chance  of  success. 

9.  We  also  venture  to  affirm,  that  Vegetarianism 
is  in  harmony  with  the  highest  and  purest 
teachings  of  religion.  We  have  taken  credit 
before  for  its  being  a  sinless  practice,  and  we 
wish  now  to  assert  its  perfect  agreement  with 
the  precepts,  requirements,  and  moral  and  spi- 
ritual duties  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures.  Eaters 
of  flesh  claim  the  permissions  of  Scripture  for 
their  practice,  but  this  is  not  the  most  defensible 
ground.  It  is  too  much  the  case  that  men  ask 
how  low  they  can  come  without  losing  heaven, 
instead  of  inquiring,  how  high  they  can  ascend 
in  the  scale  of  purity  and  self-denial.  Men  are 
commanded  not  to  "  minister  to  the  flesh,"  and 


38 


ACCRINGTON  VEGETAllIAN  ASSOCIATION   LECTURE. 


yet  we  surmise  that  flesh-eating  has  largely  that 
tendency.  We  do  not  see  how  it  can  be  much 
for  the  glory  of  God  to  kill  innocent  beasts,  and 
afterwards  eat  them.  The  self-denial,  the  self- 
government,  the  purity  of  life  enjoined  in  the 
Bible,  brings  us  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  sacred 
book  does  not  only  not  condemn  us,  but  that  our 
dietary  practice  is  in  perfect  concord  with  its 
best  and  purest  teachings.  We  are  no  more 
disposed  to  put  Vegetarianism  in  the  place  of 
religion,  than  we  are  to  substitute  a  cookery  book 
for  the  Bible,  but  we  think  that  we  are  justified 
in  asserting  its  claims  to  the  extent  we  have  done 
in  this  address.  If  we  have  not  exceeded  the 
bounds  of  truth  and  fact — and  we  have  no  mis- 
givings on  that  head — we  think  it  must  be  evident 
that  the  real  and  satisfying  pleasures  of  life  are 
in  no  wise  diminished  by  confining  ourselves  in 
the  matter  of  food  to  the  productions  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  in  our 
view,  these  are  greatly  multiplied  and  enhanced  in 
value.  Life  to  the  Vegetarian  is  not  that  dry, 
ascetic  discipline  which  the  eaters  of  flesh 
imagine,  nor  is  it  his  wish  to  divest  it  of  any  of 
its  sweetness  and  beauty.  In  ceasing  to  encou- 
rage the  killing  and  slaying  of  animals  for  his 
food,  existence  becomes  more  buoyant  and  cheer- 
ful, and  the  visible  creation  more  sunny  and 
radiant.  In  yielding  the  mind  and  heart  to  the 
teachings  of  Vegetarian  literature,  the  moral 
perceptions  become  more  refined,  and  the  sym- 
pathies more  alive  to  the  pleadings  of  suffering. 
"  The  feast  of  reason,  and  the  flow  of  soul,"  about 
which  much  more  has  been  sung  and  written 
than  experienced,  is,  to  the  Vegetarian,  an  agree- 
able reality ;  and  his  earthly  pilgrimage  is  passed 
in  a  much  more  cheerful  spirit  than  the  world 
gives  him  credit  for.  We  cannot  extend  these 
remarks,  but  must  apologise  for  their  imperfec- 
tions and  brevity  in  relation  to  the  extent  of 
ground  they  cover,  and  the  important  topics  on 
which  they  treat.  If  they  should  be  suggestive 
to  wiser  heads  and  more  cultivated  minds,  they 
will  not  have  been  delivered  in  vain. 

Vegetarianism  has  ma»y  difllculties  to  en- 
counter, and  many  sins,  not  its  own,  to  answer 
for.  The  false  standards  of  health  and  strength 
erected  by  the  world,  by  which  obesity  is  ac- 
counted a  blessing,  and  mere  animal  develop- 
ments are  regarded  with  complacency,  form 
some  of  the  barriers  to  the  progress  of  its 
truths.  The  weakness,  the  indiscretions,  and 
the  misfortunes  of  its  disciples,  are  all  indis- 
criminately charged  to  the  account  of  the  system 
we  advocate.  The  sickness  and  feeble  health 
of  many  ought  to  be  put  down  to  the  side  of 
flesh-eating,  inasmuch  as  these  misfortunes  have 
been  left  as  a  legacy  by  their  former  habits  of 
life.  It  may  require  courage  and  firmness  to 
carry  out  our  principles  in  the  present  day,  but 
their  faithful  and  earnest  adoption  will  meet  with 
a  rich  reward.     (Applause  ) 

The  Chairman  remarked,  that  he  was  sure 
all  present  were  much  obliged  to  Mr,  Cunliffe 
for  the  lecture  he  had  just  delivered,  and  the 
thoughts  he  had  thrown  out  on  the  various 
aspects  of  the  subject.    It  had  been  remarked. 


that  the  flesh  of  animals  caused  a  degree  of  ex- 
citement  and  irritation   in   those   who  ate  it. 
Working  men  did  not  generally  eat  much  meat 
— they  bought  it  on  Saturday  night,  and  ate  it 
on  Sunday,  the  day  they  did  not  work,  and  on 
Monday  there  was  left  little  more  than  bone ; 
but  he  ventured  to  assert,  that  if  they  noticed 
their  pulse  on  the  Sunday,  they  would  find  it 
beat  faster  than  on  the  days  when  they  ate  less 
meat,  and  they  would  always  find  the  people  who 
ate  most  meat  the  most  restless  and  excitable. 
They   all  knew  that  the  way   to  make    a  dog 
savage  was  to  give  him  plenty  of  flesh-meat  to 
eat,  and  large  quantities  of  it  had  undoubtedly 
a  like   effect  on  the   human  subject.     A  man 
ought  to  feel  calm  and  steady,  and  able  at  all 
times  to  fix  his  mind  upon  study,  or  to  work,  if 
it  was  his  business  to  work,  and,  all  along,  his 
body   should    be    maintained    in    health,   with 
the  endurance  at  the  highest  point ;  he  could  do 
this,  and  he  could  get  every  thing  required  for 
this  purpose,  from  the  products  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom,    without    resorting    to    the    flesh   of 
animals  at  all.     Mr.  Cunliffe  had  also  spoken 
of  the  cruel  practice   of  dropping  sheep   down 
the  cellar  steps — he  (the  Chairman)  had  seen  this 
done    when    he    passed   along   Warwick  Lane, 
near  Sraithfield ;  the  sheep  were  dropped  down 
a    sloping  plank    from    the  open  window,  and 
sometimes  with  no  plank  at  all,  their  legs  broken 
in    the    fall,  and    then     seized,    as    Dickens 
described  them,  by  fellows  with  wooden  clogs, 
blood-boltered  arms,  and  greasy  red  night-caps, 
and  placed  upon  the  dripping  bench,   and  then, 
says  he,  the  "meek  and  patient  eye  looks  up,  and 
is  understood."     To  witness  scenes  of  this  kind 
— which  were  only  the  beginning  of  slaughter — 
was  painful  to  all  whose    sensibilities  had  not 
been  blunted  and  hardened  by  participation  in 
deeds  of  cruelty  and  bloodshed.     The  butcher 
was  driven  into  his  employment  by  the  demands 
of  society  for    flesh   as   food,  but  the    general 
adoption   of   Vegetarian    habits    of   diet  would 
benefit  him,  by  releasing  him  from  an  occupation 
offensive  to  many  engaged  in  it.     At  the  last 
Vegetarian  meeting  in  Leeds,  some  speeches  had 
been  made  to  show  that  the  processes  of  slaughter 
were  revolting  to  the  feelings  of  man,  and  three 
or  four  persons  resolved  to  visit  the  slaughter- 
house, and  see  if  this  were  so.     They  witnessed 
the  proceedings  there  for  something  like  half  an 
hour,  and  one  or  two    of  them  felt  a    sickly 
sensation  for  some  hours  after ;  though  they  were 
all    meat-eaters,  they    abstained  from  flesh  for 
three  or  four  days,  some  perhaps  longer,  and  he 
was  not  sure  that  one  had  partaken  of  it  since ; 
and  all  this  from  a  simple  inspection  of  these 
scenes.    The  Vegetarian  system,  on  the  contrary, 
was  in  harmony  with  all  the  laws  that  God  had 
enstamped  on  our  nature ;  would  bear  examina- 
tion  throughout,   whether  in    the  relations   of 
physical,  intellectual,  or  moral  existence. 

Mr.  Sandeman  proposed  a  vote  of  thanks    / 
to  the  lecturer,  which  being  seconded  by- 
Mr.  T.   Slater,  and  acknowledged  by  Mr. 
Cunliffe,  terminated  the  proceedings. 


THE  EIGHTH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE   VEaETARIAN  SOCIETY.     39 


THE    EIGHTH    ANNIVERSARY    OF    THE    VEGETARIAN    SOCIETY. 


The  proceedings  in  connection  with  the  \ 
Eighth  Anniversary  of  the  Vegetarian  So-  I 
ciety  commenced  with  a  Meeting  of  the  j 
Members  of  the  Society  in  Conference,  on  j 
Thursday,  July  26th,  in  the  Town  Hall,  i 
Salford,  at  ten  o'clock,  the  President  occu-  ' 
pying  the  chair,  and  Messrs.  Andrew  and 
Hunt  acting  as  Secretaries.  As  a  report  of 
the  deliberations  of  the  Conference  will 
be  found  appended  to  the  List  of  Members 
about  being  published,  we  need  here  only  re- 
mark, that  the  greatest  interest  and  unanimity 
prevailed  throughout,  and  that  subjects  most 
important  in  their  bearing  on  the  future 
well-being  of  the  Society  were  discussed. 
The  Conference  adjourned  at  one  o'clock,  to 
partake  of  an  elegant  Vegetarian  entertain- 
ment provided  for  the  friends  present,  re- 
suming their  sitting  at  half-past  two,  which 
was  closed  at  five,  this  being  followed  by  a 
tea  party  at  six,  preceding  a  public  meeting 
at  eight  in  the  evening.  The  room,  as  on  pre- 
vious occasions,  was  decorated  with  flowers, 
festoons,  evergreens,  busts,  and  large  screens 
containing  extracts  from  the  writings  of 
distinguished  naturalists,  physiologists, 
chemists,  and  others,  favourable  to  the  Vege- 
tarian system.  The  provision  of  the  tables 
comprised  savoury  and  mushroom  pies,  frit- 
ters, various  farinaceous  preparations,  and  an 
abundant  supply  of  fruit,  with  the  usual 
accompaniments  of  the  tea  table  in  the 
evening.  During  the  repast  and  tea-party, 
and  subsequently  at  intervals  during  the 
evening,  the  scene  was  enlivened  by  the 
performances  of  a  well  selected  orchestra. 

James  Simpson,  Esq.,  of  FoxhillBank,the 
President  of  the  Society,  occupied  the  chair, 
and  was  accompanied  on  the  platform  by 
Mrs.  Simpson,  and  Mrs.  J.  SMiTH,of  Glasgow ; 
F.  TowGooD,  Esq.,  of  London;  Mr.  J.  G. 
Palmer,  Mr.  W.  G.  "Ward,  Mr.  N.  Grif- 
fin, of  Birmingham';  J.  Noble,  Jun.,  Esq., 
of  Boston;  Mr.  Alderman  Harvey;  and 
Mr.  J.  Wyth,  of  Warrington  ;  and  amongst 
the  company  present  were  Mrs.  Rostron 
and  Mr.  S.  Rostron  (Bowdon)  ;  Mr.  G. 
DoRNBUscH  and  Mr.  Viesseux  (London) ; 
Mr.  King,  and  Mr.  W.  G.  Ward  (Birming- 
ham) ;  Mr.  Crawford  and  Mr.  Holding 
(Glasgow) ;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Milner,  Mr.  J. 
Gaskill,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Collier,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Clarke,  Mrs.'HoLCROFT,  Miss  Stret- 
TLES,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Foxcroft,  Miss  Hor- 
DERN,  Miss  S.  HoRDERN,  Mr.  Andrew 
(Leeds) ;  Mr.  Cunliffe  and  Mr.  Crosland 
(Bolton) ;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pope,  J.  E.  Nelson, 
Esq.,  Mrs.  Broomhead,  Mrs.  Beals,  Miss 
Dickson  and  Miss  E.  Simpson,  Mr.  Mc 
GowAN  and    Mr.  Bell   (Liverpool) ;   Mr. 

96 


Thomases  (Ormskirk),  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Barnesley,  Miss  Macdotjgal,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Barker,  Mr.  J.  Hall,  and  others. 

The  President,  in  opening  the  proceedings 
of  the  evening,  observed  that  it  would  be  well 
to  refer  to  the  circumstances  which  had  origi- 
nated that  meeting.  It  was  the  anniversary  of 
the  eighth  year  of  the  existence  of  the  Vege- 
tarian Society,  and  in  the  earlier  parts  of  the  day 
in  that  Hall  there  had  been  held  a  Conference  of 
Vegetarians  in  relation  to  the  interests  of  the 
movement.  The  existence  of  the  Society  during 
the  past  eight  years  had  been  associated  with 
public  subjects  of  interest  which  everybody 
acknowledged.  Everybody,  somewhere  or  other, 
professed  to  dine  six  or  seven  times  a  week,  and 
the  principle  and  character  of  diet  was  thus  a 
matter  of  interest,  and  when,  as  on  that  and 
other  occasions,  they  called  attention  to  dietetic 
reform,  the  subject  became  one  of  interest  to  all 
classes  of  society.  He  might  state  that  the 
objects  of  the  Vegetarian  Society  were  very 
much  misunderstood,  to  begin  with.  It  was 
thought  that  they  sought  to  abridge  the  pleasures 
of  life,  whereas  the  true  object  of  the  Society 
was  to  add  to  the  happiness  of  society,  to  add 
to  the  sum  of  social  comfort,  to  enable  a  man 
to  feel  at  ease  with  himself,  and  better  in  every 
relation  of  life.  The  importance  of  the  Society 
was  established  in  the  fact,  that  it  numbered 
upwards  of  800  or  more  members  in  this 
country,  with  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  others 
who  had  not  organized  themselves  into  a  society, 
besides  another  kindred  organization  in  America, 
with  numerous  practisers  of  the  system  there, 
and  all  of  whom,  after  a  longer  or  shorter  trial  of 
the  system,  had  arrived  at  the  practical  con- 
clusion that  it  was  better  than  the  other  system 
of  living,  and  they  therefore  remained  in  it,  and 
carried  it  out  as  a  habit  of  life.  It  was  not  a 
system  of  self-denial ;  there  was  no  denial  con- 
nected with  it,  but  an  increase  of  happiness,  and 
an  increase  of  gustatory  enjoyment,  and  the  im- 
pression of  those  who  were  led  to  practise  it 
was,  that  it  was  better  every  way  than  the  sys- 
tem they  had  left.  They  believed,  also,  that  the 
more  civilized  society  became,  the  more  ready 
would  it  be  to  accept  this  system  of  diet,  and  to 
discontinue  the  unnatural  practice  of  slaughter- 
ing and  preying  upon  animals.  The  impression 
of  one  born  in  the  Vegetarian  system, — one  who 
had  not  had  the  disadvantage  of  being  a  disciple 
of  the  mixed-diet  system  at  all — was  one  of 
astonishment  that  society  should  think  it  neces- 
sary to  burrow  into  the  bodies  of  animals  to 
feed  the  human  frame.  They  saw  at  once  there 
was  repugnance  to  the  flesh-eating  practice  in 
every  relation  of  the  subject.  They  found,  on 
inquiry,  that  a  diet  of  fruits,  roots,  and  grain, 
with  the  succulent  parts  of  vegetables,  har- 
monized admirably  with  the  wants  of  the  sys- 
tem, whilst  the  concomitants  of  the  meat-eating 
system  were  utterly  repulsive,  and  would  not  bear 
examination.  He  contended  that  the  meat- 
eating  world  did  not  know  what  it  did  in  eating 


40      THE  EIGHTH  ANNIVEESARY  OF  THE  VEGETARIAN   SOCIETY. 


the  flesh  of  animals.  It  was  true  that  from 
father  to  son  many  things  continued  to  be  done 
upon  which  people  did  not  reason.  Social  prac- 
tices were  thus  carried  out  in  relation  to  diet ; 
but  whoever  examined  the  meat-eating  system, 
and  traced  the  animal  from  its  natural  and  beau- 
tiful condition  in  the  field,  step  by  step  to  the 
market  and  slaiighter-house,  where  it  was  put  to 
a  painful  death,  and  then  saw  it  cut  to  pieces 
for  the  butcher's  stall,  and  watched  the  pro- 
cesses undergone  in  the  kitchen  in  preparing  it 
for  the  table,  would,  after  viewing  this  long  line 
of  suffering,  be  very  apt  to  lose  all  relish  for 
this  kind  of  food.  He  would  recommend  a  visit 
to  Smithfield  Market,  and  then  put  the  inquiry, 
whether  what  the  spectator  there  beholds  is  any- 
thing like  as  agreeable  as  a  visit  to  Covent- 
Garden  Market.  He  would  recommend  a  visit 
to  the  scenes  of  the  slaughter-house,  and  then 
contrasting  the  throbbing  and  pain  felt  for  hours 
after,  which  almost  all  experienced  on  such  occa- 
sions, with  the  absence  of  all  this  in  gathering 
the  fruit  of  the  orchard,  or  coming,  however  sud- 
denly, upon  a  field  of  reapers  gathering  in  the 
produce  of  the  field.  The  processes  of  slaughter, 
and  the  after  preparation  of  the  flesh  for  food, 
had  to  be  kept  out  of  sight,  because  it  was  an 
unnatural  system,  whilst  they  could  look  at  the 
fruit  and  corn  with  pleasure,  and  whilst  they 
looked,  raise  their  hearts  in  thankfulness  and 
gratitude  to  the  Author  of  all  good,  who  filled 
the  fruitful  bosom  of  nature  in  this  way.  He 
contended,  again,  that  the  tastes  of  society  were 
not  to  be  taken  as  a  standard  upon  this  sub- 
ject, because  an  abnormal  meat-eating  taste  had 
been  formed,  and  thus  people  came  to  like  this 
kind  of  food.  Society  had  adopted  other  un- 
natural practices  :  did  they  not  see  people  chew 
tobacco,  and  smoke  tobacco,  and  sometimes  spend 
a  little  fortune  in  the  purchase  of  the  cigar 
and  snuff?  But  the  tobacco  made  the  youth 
sick  to  begin  with,  and  if  they  looked  at  these 
cases,  they  saw  it  was  no  more  natural  than  it 
was  to  see  the  sheep,  mentioned  as  actually 
taught  to  eat  meat  and  refuse  grass.  Thus,  cus- 
tom and  habit  could  not  be  admitted  as  proofs 
of  the  truth  or  wisdom  of  a  practice  ;  if  it  did, 
they  had  the  Vegetarian  case  proved  at  once, 
for  from  two-thirds  to  three-fourths  of  the 
world's  inhabitants  were  not  meat-eaters,  but 
subsisted  mainly  on  vegetable  products,  and  only 
partaking  of  flesh  as  the  exception.  It  was  not 
a  new  system  they  were  introducing  to  the 
attention  of  the  public,  but  that  which  man 
practised  when  he  came  first  from  the  hands  of 
his  Creator,  as  enjoined  in  the  appointment  of 
"  every  herb  bearing  seed,"  and  "  every  tree  in 
which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yielding  seed,"  as 
food.  He  admitted  that  man  fell  into  other 
practices,  but  which  all  agreed  were  not  the 
wisest ;  so  he  contended  that  his  living  on  other 
food  was  a  departure  from  the  original  dietetic 
practice  enstamped  upon  him,  that  it  was  not  the 
best  or  happiest  way  of  living,  though  he  might 
still  live  comparatively  well  in  it  if  he  pleased. 
There  was  a  great  difference  between  adaptability 
and  adaptation,  but  this  was  often  overlooked ; 
the  Creator,  in  his  desire  to  preserve  human  life. 


had  given  man  the  power,  when  he  would  not 
live  in  the  order  of  his  being,  of  adaptability,  by 
which  he  could  live  otherwise,  though  less  hap-, 
pily  and  perfectly  than  when  he  lived  in  accord- 
ance with  adaptation.  There  were  certain 
prominent  fallacies  upon  this  question  which 
very  much  impeded  this  movement  for  dietetic 
reform.  It  was  supposed  there  were  certain 
special  principles,  essential  in  food,  to  be  found 
in  the  flesh  of  animals,  which  could  not  be  had 
from  vegetable  products.  "  They  say,"  however, 
was  a  very  uncertain  guide  upon  this  subject, 
and  chemistry,  especially  in  its  more  recent 
discoveries,  had  clearly  demonstrated  that  this 
was  not  the  case,  but  that  all  the  principles 
required  in  food,  were  all  certainly  vegetable  in 
their  origin,  and  if  obtained  from  the  bodies  of 
animals,  were  still  unchanged  in  their  principles. 
The  doctor  sometimes  told  people,  in  their  want 
of  information  on  the  subject,  that  they  had  not 
a  sufficient  amount  of  nitrogenized  matter  in 
vegetables ;  when,  however,  a  man  talked  in  this 
way  of  a  question  he  did  not  understand,  the 
very  first  question  convicted  him  of  folly,  when 
he  was  asked,  supposing  that  mutton  contains 
precisely  the  right  amount  of  this  matter,  where 
the  sheep,  of  which  mutton  was  made,  obtained 
this  matter,  and  whether  man  could  not  take 
vegetable  products  suited  to  his  food,  and  out  of 
these  make  all  the  different  parts  of  his  body, 
the  same  as  the  grass  and  water  made  the  flesh 
and  wool,  and  every  other  part  of  the  body  of 
the  sheep  ?  When  they  came  to  inquire  into  the 
result  of  the  great  German  chemist's  analyses — 
Liebig's — they  found  him  saying,  "  The  carni- 
vora,  in  consuming  the  blood  and  flesh  of  the  gra- 
minivora,  consume,  strictly  speaking,  only  the 
vegetable  principles  which  have  served  for  the 
nutrition  of  the  latter."  It  was  a  great  mistake, 
then,  however  popular  it  might  be,  to  suppose 
that  something  could  be  got  out  of  flesh-meat 
that  could  not  be  had  from  the  vegetable  king- 
dom, because  this,  after  all,  was  only  a  vege- 
table principle  transferred  through  the  carcass  of 
an  animal  at  a  great  expense,  and  with  the  great 
disadvantage  of  the  accidents  of  disease,  often 
to  a  most  serious  extent.  There  was  another 
popular  impression  upon  this  subject ;  it  was  said, 
"  I  like  it,  and  therefore  I  take  this  kind  of  food." 
He  never  stopped  to  reason  with  persons  of  this 
kind,  because  it  was  clear  that  the  persons ^who 
ruled  the  world  would  never  be  found  amongst 
this  class,  who  followed  blind,  sensual  custom, 
without  being  able  to  give  a  reason  for  it.  The 
smoker  liked  his  pipe,  and  the  gin  drinker  liked 
his  gin,  and  thus  each  followed  out  his  artificial 
habit,  without  caring  whether  it  was  natural  or 
not.  It  was  said,  again,  that  flesh-meat  was 
more  nutritive ;  he  would,  however,  remark  that 
the  most  nutritive  food  w|is  not  necessarily  the 
best,  since  the  diet  ought  to  be  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  the  body  and  nature  of  the  employment. 
Thus,  the  man  who  worked  at  the  anvil  might 
take  four  parts  of  that  which  made  the  warmth 
of  the  body  to  one  of  that  which  made  the 
blood  of  the  body,  whilst  the  man  who  sat  at  a 
desk  all  day  could  take  six  of  the  former  to  one 
of  the  latter.     Now,  where  did  they  find  the 


THE  EIGHTH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  VEGETARIAN   SOCIETY.       41 


oest  combination  of  these  two  principles, 
with  mineral  salts  for  turning  the  food  into 
blood  in  most  abundance  ?  Most  certainly  this 
could  be  found  best  in  the  products  of  the  vege- 
table kingdom,  since  these  contained  the  necessary 
principles  which  others  attempted  to  get  from  the 
flesh  of  animals,  but  could  hardly  secure  without 
eking  out  the  meal  by  potatoes,  bread,  or  other 
vegetable  substance.  In  vegetable  products,  such 
as  bread,  barley,  oatmeal,  and  other  food  of  this 
kind,  they  got  as  much  as  70  to  90  per  cent,  of 
solid  matter,  whilst  in  flesh-meat  they  only  had 
36  6-lOths  of  solid  matter,  and  63  4-lOths  water. 
It  was  perfectly  easy  to  feed  the  body  on  these 
philosophical  principles,  but  we  must  go  for  them 
to  the  vegetable  kingdom.  If,  however,  people 
wanted  the  most  nutritive  food,  they  must  still 
go  for  this  to  the  vegetable  products,  for  peas, 
beans,  and  lentils  contained  more  of  the  blood- 
forming  principlethan  flesh-meat,  21^1bs.  per  cent, 
only  of  this  principle  being  contained  in  butcher's 
meat,  whilst  29,  31,  and  33  lbs.  per  cent.,  re- 
spectively, could  be  had  from  the  above  mentioned 
articles  of  vegetable  food ;  and  whilst  they  only  got 
14  3-lOths  percent.of  that  which  made  the  warmth 
of  the  body  from  flesh-meat,  they  could  have  as 
much  as  51^,  51^,  and  48  per  cent.,  respectively, 
from  the  three  vegetable  products  he  had  enu- 
merated. Another  popular  impression  claimed 
flesh  as  superior  because  it  was  more  stimulating 
than  vegetable  substances,  it  being  supposed  that 
the  latter  would  not  keep  a  man  in  full  health 
and  vigour.  He  begged  to  say,  however,  that 
every  man,  when  he  had  anything  extra  to  do 
requiring  more  than  ordinary  mental  power, 
whether  as  a  writer  or  author,  did  not  resort  to 
flesh-meat,  but,  on  the  contrary,  abstained  from 
it.  He  might  point  out  at  the  same  time  that 
this  stimulation  was  a  great  disadvantage;  the 
pulse  beat  faster  in  those  who  lived  on  flesh  than 
it  did  in  Vegetarian  habits  of  diet,  and  we  thus 
came  sooner  to  advanced  life,  and  sooner,  neces- 
sarily, to  death.  If  they  noticed  the  children  of 
Vegetarians,  and  the  children  of  flesh-eating 
families,  they  would  find  the  former  looked 
younger  than  the  latter.  There  was  a  calmness 
and  endurance  on  the  Vegetarian  system,  which 
very  strikingly  contrasted  with  the  excitement 
and  filliping  of  the  system,  and  urging  on  the 
circulation  of  the  blood,  consequent  upon  the 
stimulating  and  febrile  action  of  flesh-meat.  The 
principle  in  flesh,  that  thus  stimulated,  was  called 
kreatinine,  a  crystallizable  substance  answering 
to  that  found  in  tea  and  coff'ee,  so  that,  if  this 
were  desired,  it  could  be  had  from  these  vegetable 
productions,  without  resorting  to  the  flesh  of 
animals.  Another  popular  prejudice  was  that  a 
certain  portion  of  flesh-meat  was  necessary  to 
preserve  the  health  of  the  body.  The  experience 
of  all  meat-eaters  coming  into  the  Vegetarian 
movement  was  just  the  reverse  of  this,  for,  com- 
mencing the  Vegetarian  practice  as  dyspeptics,  and 
continuing  it  for  a  time,  they  found  their  health 
improved ;  and,  to  secure  the  continuance  of  this 
improved  health,  many  of  them  remained  perma- 
nently in  the  practice  of  Vegetarianism.  Those 
who  came  into  the  Vegetarian  ranks  in  bad  health 
improved  this  if  they  lived  judiciously,  and  those 


who  came  in  good  health  made  this  better.  If 
they  would  have  a  test  of  strength  they  ought 
not  to  look  at  the  man  who  worked  with  his  head 
and  expect  great  physical  development ;  they 
must  look  for  this  to  the  blacksmith,  and  for 
cerebral  development  to  those  who  were  working 
with  their  heads.  Let  them  not  make  the  mis- 
take of  supposing,  when  they  saw  a  man  with 
his  body  overhanging  his  feet,  and  carrying  his 
waistcoat  several  inches  in  advance  of  him 
(laughter)  that  they  had  seen  a  picture  of  health. 
There  never  was  a  man  in  health,  who  worked 
out  of  doors  with  the  spade,  convicted  of  such 
proportions ;  but  the  man  of  natural  form  and 
vigour  blessed  God  for  the  enjoyment  of  his 
mere  physical  existence.  Another  popular  fallacy 
he  would  notice,  was  the  impression  that  we 
should  eat  the  flesh  of  animals  because  it  was 
recommended  by  medical  men.  He  would  ask, 
why,  if  the  canine  tooth,  possessed  by  man,  indi- 
cated that  he  should  eat  flesh  of  animals,  he  did 
not  eat  flesh  with  it  ?  Let  them  tell  the  medical 
man  who  would  force  flesh-meat  upon  them,  on 
this  ground,  that  there  are  other  animals  who 
have  this  tooth  much  more  developed  than  man, 
which  never  eat  flesh,  but  subsist  upon  fruits, 
grain,  and  vegetable  substances.  This  was  the 
case  with  such  animals  as  the  horse,  the  camel, 
and  especially  the  monkey  tribes.  Again,  people 
said  the  meat-eating  system  was  the  natural  one, 
after  all :  they  admitted  that  man  was  at  first  fed 
on  the  products  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and 
that  this  was  then  the  natural  system,  but  that 
afterwards  the  flesh  of  animals  was  made  the 
natural  food  of  man.  But  the  facts  of  science 
showed  that  what  was  natural  in  Paradise  to  begin 
with,  was  natural  now,  in  Manchester  and  every- 
where else.  (Applause.)  What  was  the  opinion 
of  all  the  greatest  naturalists  and  physiologists 
who  figured  on  the  page  of  history?  Their 
opinion  was  very  diff"erent  to  popular  notions, 
since  they  all  declared  that  fruits,  roots,  and  the 
succulent  parts  of  vegetables  was  the  natural 
food  of  man,  whatever  might  be  his  food  from 
acquired  habit  and  the  artificial  customs  of 
society.  What  then,  they  might  ask,  was  the 
basis  of  the  Vegetarian  system  considered  in  its 
length  and  breadth?  He  maintained  that  it 
was  the  natural  system,  and  thus  they  had  a 
right  to  contend  for  it,  as  a  system,  the  happiest, 
and  best,  and  most  important  for  society.  This 
system  of  Vegetarianism,  when  examined,  was 
found  admirably  to  harmonize  with  nature  in 
every  aspect.  By  nature  he  did  not  mean  the 
savage  stage,  which  people  sometimes  confounded 
with  a  natural  state,  but  what  Pope  described 
when  he  said  : — 

"  Nor  think  in  Nature's  state  they  blindly  trod ; 
The  state  of  Nature  was  the  reign  of  God." 

Had  man,  therefore,  continued  to  obey  the 
laws  enstamped  on  his  nature,  he  would  thereby 
have  promoted  his  happiness.  Man  had  a  be- 
nevolent nature  as  well  as  a  physical,  intellectual, 
and  spiritual  nature,  and  the  meat-eating  system 
shocked  all  these,  whilst  the  Vegetarian  system 
admirably  and  completely  harmonized  them.  The 
man  who  received  this  system  could  not  see 
beauty  in  legs  of  mutton  and  sirloins  of  beef; 


42      THE  EIGHTH  ANNIVERSARY   OF    THE   VEGETARIAN  SOCIETY. 


there  was  no  glory  in  huge  pieces  of  meat  in 
relation  to  his  sense  of  sight ;  he  could  not  bear 
to  touch  them  until  he  had  been  trained  in  the 
habit;    he  could  not  bear   the  taste   or  smell 
either,  and  this  was  demonstrated  by  experience 
after  he  had  abstained  a  certain  length  of  time 
from  it.      To  those  who   had  abstained  from 
flesh-meat  for  a  time,  the  smell  of  burnt  flesh, 
whether  of  man  or  animals,  was  the  same,  and 
excited  no  desire  to  partake  of  it.    There  were 
persons  who  never  heard  the  name  of  Vegeta- 
rianism, who,  having  unavoidably  abstained  from 
flesh  for  a  time,  could  never  bear  the  taste  or 
smell  of  the  "  roast  beef  of  Old  England."     The 
man  who  inquired  into  this  system  could  not  feel 
any  relation  between  the  animal,  as  it  passed  him 
weary  and  foot-sore  in  the  street,  and  his  stomach, 
but  he  did  feel  this  relation  in  the  produce  of  the 
garden  and  the  orchard,  and  it  required  far  more 
preaching  of  morality  to  keep  the  youth  of  our 
country  in  check  from  appropriating  the  treasures 
of  the  garden  and  orchard  than  it  did  to  keep 
them  from  purloining  from  the  butcher's  stall,  as 
everybody  would  admit.     It  was  impossible  to 
eat  the  flesh  of  pet  animals,  whilst   they  could 
partake  of  the  fruit  of  a  "  pet  tree "  with  in- 
creased pleasure  and  satisfaction;    and  in  this 
way  human  nature  spoke  out  on  this  question, 
notwithstanding  the  influence  of  prevailing  cus- 
tom.     If  they  stepped  out  of  the   province   of 
physiology   and    chemistry,    and    examined  the 
beautiful    science    of    economy,  they    found    a 
further  confirmation  of  the  truth  of  the  Vegeta- 
rian system,  since  it  was  an  egregious  blunder 
to  take  the  vegetable  principles  of  food  through 
the  bodies  of  animals,  instead  of  direct  from  the 
bosom  of  nature  herself,  whilst  this,  at  the  same 
time,  entailed  the  disadvantage  of  dearness,  scar- 
city, and  the  accidents  of  disease.     The  examina- 
tion of  the  flesh-eating  system  thus  showed  it  to 
be  abnormal  from  first  to  last,  for  they  could  find 
nothing  in  nature  that  was  not  cheap,  simple, 
and  direct.     The  air  we  breathe  cost  us  nothing, 
light  did  not,  water  was  abundantly  supplied,  and 
so  was  food,  if  man  would  not  blind  his  sight 
with  the  flesh  of  animals,  through  which  it  could 
hardly  be  expected  he  could  see  the  real  aspects 
of  the  question.     There  was   a  want  of  fitness 
and  economy  in  the  meat-eating  system  which 
proved  it   unnatural.     The   same   plot   of  land 
which  would  feed  a  number  of  individuals  would 
only  feed  one  ox.  There  was  no  relation  between 
the  characteristics   of    the    system    and    man's 
moral  nature  at  all  answering  to  that  which  the 
tiger  felt  when  he  saw  and  seized  his  prey  ;    his 
whole  body  was  in  a  state  of  delighted  excitement 
with  the  anticipation  of  his  food,  and  there  was 
a  flow  of  saliva  as  he  bounded  upon  his   prey, 
that  showed  all  this  to  be  natural  to  him.     If 
man,  however,  ever  made  a  demonstration  of  this 
kind,  it  was  for  something  like  that  which  led 
the  poor  fellows  in  the  Crimea,  after  they  had 
been  fed  on  salt  meat  for  many  days,  to  make 
that  tremendous  charge  through  the  river  to  get 
at  the  beautiful  grapes  in  the  vineyards  beyond. 
(Applause.)     If  flesh-eating  were  a  natural  sys- 
tem, why  could  he  not  eat  the  flesh  of  a  pet 
animal,  whilst  he  could  eat  the  fruit  of  a  pet 


tree?  They  did  not  regard  Vegetarianism  as 
anything  more  than  a  means  to  an  end,  but  he 
thought  it  was  easier  to  live  in  spiritual  and 
moral  conditions  upon  this  system  of  diet.  If  it 
were  generally  adopted  they  could  not  have  man 
preying  upon  his  fellow  man,  and  destroying 
animals  for  food.  They  found  society  acknow- 
ledging the  beauty  of  the  principles  of  benevo- 
lence and  Christianism,  and  declaring,  at  the  same 
time,  that  they  could  not  carry  them  out  in 
actual  practice.  The  fact  was,  that  there  were 
great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  carrying  out  high 
and  sound  principles,  the  greatest  of  these  being 
found  in  the  fact  that  many  persons  made  them 
more  difficult  than  need  be,  by  living  in  erroneous 
and  degrading  practices  of  external  life.  It  was 
easier  to  live  in  a  high  moral  state  on  this 
system  than  the  other.  The  Vegetarian  mission 
absorbed  the  Peace  Society,  and  formed  one 
broader  than  that  of  the  Society  of  Friends, 
embracing  animals  as  well  as  men.  Vegetarians 
were  found  active  in  every  good  cause  whatever, 
and  he  recommended  the  practice  to  all,  as  one 
of  happiness  and  benefit  to  the  individual;  a 
system  which  made  the  abstract  much  easier  to 
be  reduced  to  practice ;  a  system  appointed  at 
the  creation  of  the  world,  embracing  all  time, 
and  which  must  be  practised  again  generally,  in 
a  more  civilized  state  of  society  than  that  which 
now  prevailed,     (Loud  applause.) 

Mr.  W.  G.  Ward  said,  he  spoke  with  some 
confidence  upon  this  question,  having  now  for 
seven  years  been  a  Vegetarian,  and,  in  his  jour- 
neyings  to  and  fro,  and  up  and  down  the  country, 
never  found  his  Vegetarian  diet  fail  him  upon  any 
occasion.  He  had  not  only  seen  questions  of 
diet  tried  in  actual  practice  and  argued  from  the 
platform,  but  had  never  yet  found  any  one  able 
to  give  a  good  and  ready  reason  for  the  eating  of 
the  flesh  of  animals  as  food.  He  felt  satisfied 
the  Vegetarian  was  the  only  diet  fitted  for  the 
use  of  mankind ;  the  only  one  that  nature 
intended  us  to  follow ;  the  one  for  which  our 
natures  were  created  and  made  wholly  subser- 
vient. He  looked  at  the  practice  in  the  light  of 
physiology  and  in  relation  to  our  teeth,  which 
instead  of  satisfying  him,  as  it  did  some  flesh- 
eaters,  that  man  was  intended  to  eat  flesh,  con- 
vinced him  of  the  very  opposite ;  for  he  could 
not  find  any  animal  that  could  chew  meat.  Every 
animal  that  can  chew  appeared  at  once  to  have 
God's  written  law  upon  its  jaw,  "Thou  shalt  not 
eat  meat."  The  length  of  the  intestines,  and  the 
make  of  the  colon,  and  other  parts  of  the  body, 
established  the  position  that  man  was  not  in- 
tended to  eat  flesh-meat  at  all.  Vegetarians 
did  not  start  their  system  as  an  untried  theory ; 
they  asserted  it  as  a  universal  fact,  and  whether 
they  referred  to  the  practice  of  those  now  living 
upon  the  earth,  or  inquired.  What  did  God  origi- 
nally give  to  man  ?  they  saw  that  it  was  the  great 
principle  by  which  man  was  intended  to  feed  and 
maintain  his  body  in  health  and  strength.  He 
did  not,  however,  come  before  the  audience 
merely  to  defend  himself;  he  came  forward 
rather  to  cause  reflection  in  others,  and  had 
to  accuse  society  of  containing  one  drunkard  in 
every  seventy  of  the  population,  and  many  other- 


THE  EIGHTH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  VEGETARIAN  SOCIETY.       43 


wise  so  degraded  as  to  come  under  the  censure 
of  Scripture  as  "riotous  eaters  of  flesli."  He 
accused  flesh-eaters,  society  might  indeed  accuse 
itself,  of  courting  temporary  insanity  for  tem- 
porary diversion,  courting  disease  by  their  diet, 
and  courting  premature  death,  so  that  instead  of 
individuals  dying  as  they  should  of  old  age,  out 
of  the  350,000  deaths  annually  occurring  in  this 
island,  not  more  than  30,000  could  be  put  down 
as  natural  deaths — those  resulting  from  old  age. 
How  often  was  Scripture  quoted  and  erroneously 
interpreted  to  prove  that  the  limit  of  man's  life 
was  "  threescore  years  and  ten  !  "  They  had  had 
two  persons  present  in  the  early  part  of  the  day, 
and  one  was  on  the  platform  whilst  he  spoke, 
wfio  had  gone  long  past  this  limit,  though  they 
manifested  nothing  of  the  decay  of  old  age. 
(Hear,  hear.)  He  contended  that  the  general 
adoption  of  Vegetarianism  was  calculated  to 
remove  three-fourths  of  the  disease  and  a  large 
proportion  of  the  intemperance  that  now  existed, 
and  though  he  was  a  member  of  the  Alliance  for  the 
Suppression  of  the  Sale  of  Intoxicating  Drinks,  and 
had  been  a  temperance  advocate  for  years,  he  liked 
best  to  include  this  question  in  the  broader  one  of 
Vegetarianism.  It  was  the  fact  that  persons  who 
adopted  the  Vegetarian  practice,  though  they 
might  not  on  first  commencing  it  be  teetotallers, 
usually  became  such,  further  on,  for  they  could 
not  relish  strong  drink  on  a  Vegetarian  diet.  A 
person,  who  was  about  joining  the  Society,  once 
came  to  him  and  said,  he  should  not  give  up  his 
beer,  and  he  was  told  that  the  Society  did  not 
require  this,  all  that  was  necessary  for  member- 
ship being  abstinence  from  the  use  of  flesh  as 
food.  However,  this  person  came  again  and 
said  he  had  lost  all  relish  for  the  beer  after 
carrying  out  the  Vegetarian  practice  for  a  little 
time.  Vegetarians  sought  by  their  practice  to 
set  aside  ali  destructive,  unnatural  habits  ;  and 
the  desire  for  stimulants  was  removed,  whilst  the 
mere  abstainer  from  intoxicating  drinks  was  still 
exposed  to  the  craving  for  his  former  beverages. 
There  were  some  present  on  that  occasion  who 
could  give  their  personal  testimony  in  favour  of 
the  system,  men  who  got  their  living  by  muscular 
strength,  and,  as  was  generally  supposed,  in  a 
more  trying  way  than  others.  He  could  assert, 
without  fear  of  contradiction,  that,  in  every  cir- 
cumstance of  life,  whether  working  at  the  anvil 
or  with  the  pen,  this  diet  would  be  found  best 
calculated  to  support  man  in  health  and  strength. 
Giving  the  meeting  these  few  imperfect  remarks, 
and  leaving  the  time  to  others  to  dwell  more 
fully  on  the  merits  of  Vegetarianism,  he  would 
only  ask  for  it  a  fair  and  impartial  trial  of  six 
months,  thinking  that  those  who  did  this  would 
continue  the  practice  through  the  remainder  of 
their  lives.     (Applause.) 

Mr.  N.  Griffin,  after  some  preliminary  ob- 
servations, remarked  that  after  the  elaborate 
speech  of  the  President,  and  the  scientific  speech 
of  Mr,  Ward,  little  more  than  a  brief  testimony 
as  to  the  important  benefits  to  be  derived  from 
the  system,  would  be  expected  at  his  hands.  He 
noticed  two  classes  of  people  in  the  room,  those 
who  (to  use  a  common  expression)  had  got  their 
"  bread  and  cheese  "  earned  for  them,  and  those 


who  had  got  their  "  bread  and  cheese  "  to  earn 
for  themselves,  and  it  was  to  this  last  class  he 
more  especially  wished  to  speak.  Notwith- 
standing the  modest  way  in  which  the  doings  of 
the  Birmingham  Association  had  been  mentioned 
at  the  Conference,  he  could  assure  them  there 
was  hardly  another  subject,  except  the  war,  and 
important  political  questions,  that  was  receiving 
so  much  attention  in  Birmingham  as  this  was. 
He  was  almost  constantly  speaking  of  it,  not 
because  he  wished  to  do  this,  but  people  came  to 
him  and  began  to  talk  about  it,  both  as  he 
walked  along  the  street  and  at  his  own  house. 
A  strong  desire  was  felt  by  the  people  of  Bir- 
mingham to  have  a  large  banquet  meeting, 
and  some  disappointment  had  been  experienced 
that  the  present  meeting  could  not  be  held  in 
Birmingham.  They  had,  however,  been  promised 
a  soiree,  or  banquet,  or  something  of  the  kind, 
before  long,  and  this  had  contented  them  for  the 
time.  It  had  struck  him,  whilst  the  President 
and  Mr.  Ward  had  been  speakmg,  that  these 
gentlemen  were  not  so  well  able  to  sympathize 
with  working  men,  never  having  been  called 
upon  to  endure  the  requisite  amount  of  physical 
toil,  so  as  to  feel  all  their  physical  energy  ex- 
hausted, for  a  time  at  least,  as  was  the  case  with 
many  working  men.  For  himself,  he  could 
readily  imagine,  that  a  number  of  working  men, 
hearing  of  Vegetarianism  for  the  first  time, 
would  regard  it  as  oue  of  the  wildest  things  that 
could  be  brought  before  them.  He  could  assure 
them,  however,  that  he  had  eaten  scarcely  any 
meat  in  his  whole  life,  that  he  had  never  bought 
an  ounce  of  it,  that  fowl  and  fish  he  had  never 
tasted,  and  at  the  same  time  he  did  not  think 
any  one  did  harder  work  than  he  did,  or  did 
more  of  it.  The  President  had  introduced  him 
to  the  meeting  as  a  blacksmith ;  he  begged  to 
correct  this,  as  it  might  lead  to  a  wrong  impres- 
sion. It  was  true  he  worked  at  the  anvil,  but 
his  employment  was  making  edge-tools,  what  was 
known  in  Birmingham  as  the  "  heavy  edge-tool 
trade,"  and  the  men  engaged  in  this  trade 
worked  far  harder  and  more  continuously  than 
blacksmiths  did.  He  would  not  say  there  was 
not  as  hard  work  done  as  in  his  own  trade,  but 
he  did  say  that  there  was  no  harder  work  done, 
and  that  there  was  no  man  in  England  who  did 
more  hard  work  than  he  did.  There  might  be 
some  blacksmiths  present ;  if  so,  they  knew  what 
it  was  to  work  one  "  heat  "  at  a  time,  and  they 
also  worked  by  the  day,  and  "  let  down "  so 
many  hours  in  the  day.  At  his  trade,  however, 
they  always  had  two  "  heats  "  in  the  fire  and  one 
on  the  anvil;  they  also  worked  by  the  "  piece," and 
after  working  for  an  hour  and  a  half  in  this  way, 
their  strength  seemed  completely  taken  out  of 
them,  and  they  were  obliged  to  rest  for  a  short 
time,  whilst  their  fires  were  raked.  If  any  one 
went  to  the  blacksmith's  shop,  they  would  see 
the  blacksmith  working  with  his  waistcoat  on, 
and  his  neckerchief  on  ;  but  in  the  edge-tool  trade 
the  workmen  were  obliged  to  strip,  and  even 
take  off  their  shirts,  and  the  perspiration  poured 
out  of  them  like  water.  The  meeting  would  see 
from  this  that  his  work  was  very  different  to  a 
blacksmith's.    He  knew  that  the  men  employed 


44      THE  EIGHTH  ANNIVERSARY   OF   THE  VEGETARIAN   SOCIETY. 


in  his  trade  felt  that  they  needed  a  stimulant, 
they  flew  to  the  "  sixpenny,"  or  the  "  fourpenny," 
and  when  dinner-time  came  they  flew  to  the  flesh- 
meat  ;  but  he  flew  to  neither  of  these.     The  best 
thing  with  which  he  could  keep  up  his  strength 
(and  he  had  never  been  beaten  yet),  was  cold 
water,  with  a  little   Scotch    oatmeal    in  it,  as 
a  drink.      The  advantage  of  a  Vegetarian  diet 
in    these     circumstances,    would    appear    from 
the     fact     that,     whilst      a     younger    brother 
of  his,   stouter  and   somewhat   more   muscular 
than  himself,  who  was   employed  at  the  same 
work,  could  not  work  more  than  three  or  four 
hours  before  he  was  thoroughly  exhausted,  he 
(the  speaker)  could  work  for  seven  or  eight  hours. 
After  working  this  period  he  was  completely  ex- 
hausted; but  after  he  had  theroughly  washed 
himself,  and  changed  his  clothes,  and  had  had  his 
tea,  he  was  all  right  again,  and  almost  as  fresh  as 
ever.     He   had   great  faith  in  cold  water,   and 
feared  the  working  men  of  Manchester  did  not 
make  a  sufficient  use  of  it,   either  externally  or 
internally.      Living  in   Vegetarian   habits,   and 
abstaining  from  all  alcoholic  beverages,  he  found 
that  he  could  enjoy   life   more,  and  work  with 
greater  ease  than  others  upon  flesh-meat  and  a 
liberal    use    of  "  fourpenny "  and    "  sixpenny." 
He  felt  some  reluctance  to  say  so  much  of  him- 
self, but  having  been  asked  to  describe  his  em- 
ployment and  how  he  lived,  he  felt  he  might  be 
excused,  if  in  his  love  to  truth  and  the  interests 
of  Vegetarianism,  he  fearlessly  presented  his  own 
experience  to  the  meeting,  in  the  hope  that  the 
facts  it  exhibited  might  be  of  use  to  others,  as 
he  felt  assured  that,  if  the  working  men  would 
give  the  Vegetarian  system  a  full  and  complete 
trial,  it  would  not  disappoint  them.  Sympathizing 
with  the   working  classes,  he  was  anxious  that 
their  erroneous  personal  habits  should  be  cor- 
rected.    They  had  been  led  to  suppose  that  flesh- 
meat  and  beer  were  indispensably  necessary  to 
enable   them  to  go  through   their   hard   work, 
and   to   develope  their  muscular  power.      The 
working  men  in  Birmingham  said  hat  this  was  a 
"  peculiar  case,"  and  when  he  asked  them  what 
they  meant,  they  said  he   had  a  "good   consti- 
tution."    He   generally   told  them  that  if  this 
were  so,  he  had  made  his  constitution  what  it 
was ;  for  when  he  was  twenty-three  years  of  age, 
three   physicians    said  he  was    going  off   in  a 
rapid  consumption.     One  of  these  told  him  to 
give  up  the  use  of  all  intoxicating  drinks  and  the 
use  of  flesh-meat,  and,  on  being  informed  that 
he  was  already  an  abstainer  from  both  of  these, 
the  doctor  said  it  was  all  in  his  favour,  but  he 
could  not  do  anything  more  for  him,  and  he  had 
better  go  home  and  prepare  for  his  approaching 
end.     He  thought  all  who  now  saw  and  heard 
him  would  admit  that  he  did  not  now  appear  very 
likely  to  go  off  in  a  "  galloping  consumption." 
As  to  his  diet,  he  took  only  good  brown  bread 
and  other  simple  food.     He  was  obliged  to  be 
careful  not    to   partake   of  too    many    of  the 
delicacies  that  had  been  provided  at  the  enter- 
tainment that  day,  or  these  would  have  made 
him  ill,  being  so  different  to  his  ordinary  simple 
food.    Brown  bread  and  cold  water  had  served 
him  for  many  months  at  a  time — he  was  not 


advising  that  working  men  should  live   in  this 
way — nothing  of  the  kind  ;  but,  whilst  he  carried 
out  this  experiment,  he  never  found  his  health  or 
strength  to  fail  in  the  least.     He  could  thank 
God  that  he  lived  and  did  not   know   what  it 
was  to  have  a  pain.     When,  however,  he  lived 
out  of  his  usual  way,  he  was  made  ill ;  he  loved, 
therefore,  to   live  simply.     So  that,  when  indi- 
viduals asked  him  to  describe  how  he  lived,  he 
was  always  ready  to  do  so,  and  had,  probably, 
done  this   some  thousands   of  times.      People 
seemed  to  suppose  that,  if  they  gave  up  meat, 
they  must  have  sometliing  special  in  its  place  that 
they  never  heard  of  beiore.     He  simply  ate  such 
vegetables  as   he  could    procure,  that   were   in 
season,    and    brown  bread,    and,  in  the  winter 
months,  he   had  frequently,  for  three  or   four 
months  together,  nothing  birt   a   rice  pudding, 
and,  he  might  add,  that  he  could  do  jnore  work 
upon  a  rice  pudding  dinner  than  any  other  dinner 
he  could  get.    Many  a  man  went  to  the  cook-shop, 
and  gave  sixpence  for  a  mutton-cbop  dinner,  and 
would  not  think  this  at  all  out  of  the  way,  but 
this  sum  would  serve  him  (Mr.  Griffin)  for  six 
dinners.     He    had    sometimes,    however,    been 
accused  of  extravagance  because  he  used  cheese, 
of  which  he  was  very  fond,   whilst   none  would 
object  to  a  vrorking  man  using  a  beef-steak  or 
mutton-chop,    which    would      cost   eightpence, 
whilst  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  pound  of  cheese, 
which   did   not  cost   him    three-halfpence,   was 
reckoned    extravagance.      How   often   did  they 
see  mothers  spreading  the  butter  upon  the  chil- 
dren's bread  so  thin,  that  it  was  scarcely  visible, 
whilst  they  would  not  restrain  them  from  eating 
as   much  flesh-meat   as   they  pleased,  and  even 
urged  them  to   eat    more    than    they    desired. 
These  familiar  instances  would  show  the  absur- 
dity  of  many  customs   which  were   carried   on 
from  generation  to  generation  through  the  want 
of  inquiry.     He  would  look  at  the  system  a  little 
in  relation  to  economy,  for  this  was  an  important 
and  interesting  aspect  of  the  question,  especially 
so  to  working  men.     Supposing  a  working  man 
could  live  as  well,  or  better,  for  five  shillings  a 
week  upon  a  Vegetarian  diet,  as   he  could  for 
eight  shillings  or  ten  shillings  on  the  mixed-diet 
practice — were  not  the  working   classes  largely 
interested    in    this   practice  of  Vegetarianism  ? 
Ought  not  those  who  expended  this  larger  sum 
chiefly  for  the  sustenance  of  their  bodies,  to  be 
able  to  show  that  they  could  do  something  moral 
or  physical  that  those  who  lived  in  a  less  expen- 
sive way  could  not  do  ?     He  thought  this  was 
only  a  natural  and  fair  requirement,  if  the  Vege- 
tarian could  carry  out  all  the  duties  of  life,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  live  for  about  one  half  the  sum 
the  flesh-eater  expended.     There  was  great  ad- 
vantage, too,  in  the  freedom  from  unnecessary  cares 
as  to  food  :  a  short  time  ago  he  met  a  gentleman 
in  a  Temperance  Hotel  at  Birmingham,  who  was 
much  annoyed  because  he  could  not  get  a  beef- 
steak or  mutton-chop  to  dinner,  but  was  obliged 
to  content  himself  with  a  plate  of  bread  and  butter 
and  a  couple  of  eggs.    On  remarking  to  the  gentle- 
man that  he  presumed  he  was  not  a  Vegetarian, 
the  gentleman  said  he  was  not,  nor  did  he  (Mr. 
Griffin)   look  much  like  one  either.      Being 


THE  EIGHTH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  VEGETARIAN   SOCIETY.       45 


assured  such  was  indeed  the  case,  he  at  once 
said,  that  if  all  the  working  men  were  Vegeta- 
rians, it  would  not  cost  them  half  as  much  to 
live,  but  this  would  lead  to  the  employer's  re- 
ducing their  wages.  Mr.  Griffin  could  not  see 
that  this  would  be  the  result,  so  he  gave  the 
gentleman  the  result  of  his  .experience  in  con- 
nection with  Trade  Associations,  and  a  long  and 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  working  classes, 
to  show  that,  through  their  extravagant  habits, 
workmen  were  not  generally  in  a  position  to 
resist  the  unjust  demands  of  their  employers. 
In  the  yard  where  he  worked  there  were  only  about 
two  men  with  whom  the  master  would  dare  to 
make  any  attempt  to  lower  wages,  and  these  were 
neither  teetotallers  nor  Vegetarians.  All  who  had 
paid  attention  to  the  wages'  question  knew  that 
it  was  simply  a  matter  of  barter  or  agreement, 
and  that  it  was  affected  by  supply  and  demand. 
The  employer  had  capital,  the  workman  muscular 
strength  and  skill,  and  both  were  necessary ; 
each  tried  to  make  the  best  bargain  he  could, 
and  then  all  went  on  smoothly  and  evenly.  His 
employer  never  said  to  him,  "  Do  such  a  thing  ;" 
he  said,  "  Griffin,  will  you  do  such  a  thing  ?  " 
Simplicity  of  diet,  and  other  kindred  habits, 
promoted  the  independence  of  the  workmen,  and 
thus  tended  to  raise  rather  than  lower  wages. 
He  would,  therefore,  commend  the  Vegetarian 
system  to  the  working  men  of  Manchester,  and 
ask  them  to  give  it  a  fair  and  impartial  trial ;  if 
they  did,  he  thought  they  would  not  soon  give  it 
up,  they  would  find  they  could  work  quite  as 
well,  and  enjoy  greater  tranquillity  of  mind.  The 
mind  had  great  influence  upon  the  body,  and  it 
would  be  foimd  that  Vegetarians  were  generally 
better  tempered  than  others,  and  if  they  looked 
round  upon  the  company,  and  noticed  the  smiling 
faces  of  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  before  him, 
they  might  see  an  illustration  of  this.  They 
made  better  husbands  and  wives  than  men  and 
women  who  were  not  Vegetarians.  It  was  essen- 
tial that  a  working  man  should  have  tranquillity, 
for  when  a  mau  went  to  work  in  the  morning 
wishing  it  were  evening,  he  did  his  work  twice 
over ;  for  himself,  as  a  general  rule,  he  felt  it  a 
pleasure  to  work,  and  if  he  was  compelled  to  give 
up  work  from  accidental  circumstances  or  con- 
tingencies over  which  he  had  no  control,  he 
usually  was  less  happy  and  less  healthy  than 
when  employed.  The  great  object  he  had  in 
view  in  presenting  this  question  was,  to  lead 
others  to  try  the  experiment,  believing  they 
would  realize  similar  advantages  to  those  he  had 
found  in  Vegetarianism,  and  he  could,  perhaps, 
best  express  his  feelings  on  the  importance  of 
the  subject  in  the  words  of  his  favourite  Pope  : — 

**  Friend,  parent,  neighbour,  first  it  will  embrace ; 
His  country  next,  and  next  all  human  race  ; 
Wide  and  more  wide,  the  o'erflowings  of  the  mind 
Take  every  creature  in,  of  every  kind ; 
Each  smiles  around  with  boundless  bounty  blest, 
And  Heaven  beholds  its  image  in  his  breast." 

Vegetarianism  was  a  practical  system  that 
could  only  be  fully  known  by  being  practically 
carried  out ;  again,  therefore,  would  he  ask  the 
working  men  who  heard  him  to  adopt  this 
system,  and  they  would  find  it  aid  them  in  many 


ways.  Perhaps  some  present  had  other  objects 
in  view — the  Maine  Law  Alliance,  or  the  Peace 
Movement ;  still,  if  they  would  take  Vegetarian- 
ism in  its  true  reasons,  as  based  on  facts  and 
experience,  it  would  lead  them  on  to  the  delight- 
ful future  of  blessedness  that  awaited  the  man 
that  did  right.  Perhaps  there  were  some  present 
who  unfortunately  knew  nothing  of  these  aspi- 
rations ;  to  these  he  would  say,  in  the  language  of 
the  poet  he  had  previously  quoted — 

"  Yet  not  the  less  for  thee  or  thou 
The  eternal  step  of  progress  beats 
To  that  great  anthem,  calm  and  slow. 
Which  God  repeats ! 

'•  God  works  in  all  things,  all  obey 

His  first  propulsion  from  the  night ; 
Oh,  wake  and  watch  !  the  world  is  grey 
With  morning  light." 

(Loud  applause.) 

Mr.  Noble  remarked  that  it  might,  perhaps, 
be  objected  to  him,  that  he  was  no  credit  to 
Vegetarianism  as  regarded  his  personal  appear- 
ance ;  he,  however,  thought  he  had  improved 
upon  this  diet,  for  his  face  was  now  free  from  the 
blotches  it  formerly  presented.  The  last  speaker, 
all  must  admit,  was  a  credit  to  Vegetarianism. 
He  (Mr.  Noble)  came  from  a  part  of  the  country 
where  they  raised  beasts  as  big  as  elephants,  and 
sheep  almost  as  big  as  oxcq,  and  where  the 
farmers  used,  when  the  Temperance  question  was 
in  its  infancy,  to  pull  long  faces  when  it  was 
mentioned,  and  look  the  Temperance  man  steadily 
in  the  face,  and  ask  what  was  to  be  done  with 
the  barley?  The  Temperance  people  of  those 
days  used  to  say  it  would  do  to  feed  the  pigs  ; 
they  had,  however,  got  a  step  further,  and  they 
now  took  the  barley  themselves.  He  was  happy 
to  state  that  in  the  town  where  he  lived,  they 
had  banished  the  pigs,  and  did  not  allow  any  one 
to  keep  them  in  the  town.  Vegetarians  took 
this  excellent  article  of  food  (barley),  and  did 
not  put  it  into  the  body  of  a  pig  at  all.  They 
had  graziers  in  their  part  of  the  county  who  were 
men  of  large  bodies,  if  they  did  not  possess  very 
large  or  cultivated  minds.  They  put  the  question 
as  to  what  was  to  be  done  with  the  oxen  and 
sheep,  and  appeared  to  think  that  the  whole 
existence  of  the  nation  was  bound  up  in  their 
continuing  to  raise  oxen  and  sheep.  But  a  new 
light  had  broken  upon  them,  since  Mr.  Mechi, 
who  had  been  experimenting  largely  in  stock 
breeding,  said  it  did  not  pay,  that  it  was  a  losing 
business,  and  were  it  not  for  the  manure  fur- 
nished by  the  animals,  they  could  not  continue 
it.  But  at  the  very  time  animals  were  being 
kept  for  the  sake  of  their  manure,  the  sewage 
and  drainage  of  our  towns  was  allowed  to  run  to 
waste  and  pollute  our  rivers ;  and  worse  than 
this,  we  were  sending  out  ships  to  the  Pacific  at 
a  great  expense  to  bring  home  Peruvian  guano, 
and  neglecting  the  ample  supplies  of  manure 
allowed  to  accumulate  and  pollute  our  cities  and 
rivers.  They  might,  therefore,  depend  upon  it, 
if  agriculturists  found  that  stock-feeding  did  not 
pay,  they  would  be  quite  ready  to  give  it  up  when 
the  demand  ceased.  We  were  not  all  going  to 
turn  Vegetarians  in  a  day,  as  people  sometimes 
supposed.  Some  time  since,  when  the  Temperance 


46      THE  EIGHTH  ANNIVERSARY   OF  THE  VEGETARIAN   SOCIETY. 


movement  was  receiving  a  good  deal  of  at- 
tention, people  thought  that  every  body  would 
become  teetotallers,  or,  at  least,  all  ministers  and 
religious  men  would ;  but  they  had  been  deceived 
in  this  respect,  and  must  not  have  any  extrava- 
gant expectations  of  the  success  of  the  Vegetarian 
movement.  People  who  were  accustomed  to  sit 
down  to  fish  or  soup,  and  then  had  fowl  or  flesh- 
meat  when  these  had  been  removed,  and  their 
table,  being  again  cleared,  covered  afresh  with 
puddings,  pies,  and  pastry,  and  these  being  re- 
moved cheese  and  bread  brought  in,  and  these 
again  beiug  removed  wine  and  spirits  introduced, 
were  astonished  when  they  heard  of  Vegetarians, 
and  said  to  them,  "  How  do  you  live  ?  "  He 
would  reply, "  Simply  enough."  How  did  they  live? 
Why,  just  now,  peas  were  in  season,  and  this 
was  a  dish  of  which  he  was  very  fond,  and  these 
and  potatoes  he  could  get  up  to  September,  and 
this  and  a  little  salt,  and  pies  or  puddings,  he 
considered  the  best  of  food,  and  found  quite 
agreeable.  He  often  told  his  flesh-eating  ac- 
quaintances that  Vegetarians  had  more  enjoy- 
ment in  partaking  of  food  than  they  had.  He 
was  astonished  to  find,  twelve  months  ago,  that 
he  could  enjoy  fruit  with  far  more  relish  than  he 
could  before  becoming  a  Vegetarian;  and  if 
people  wished  to  secure  the  most  perfect  and  real 
enjoyment  in  eating,  they  might  depend  upon  it 
they  must  eat  that  food  which  the  Creator  had 
ordained  for  the  support  of  their  existence. 
Most  people  had  most  mistaken  notions  as  to  the 
comforts  of  life,  and  some  of  the  frequenters  of 
the  clubs  at  the  west-end  could  scarcely  find  all 
they  needed  for  their  wants,  for  they  surrounded 
themselves  with  a  number  of  things  they  re- 
garded as  necessaries  of  life,  which  were  no  more 
necessaries  than  a  journey  to  the  moon  was 
necessary  to  get  from  Boston  to  Manchester. 
Life  could  be  more  fully  enjoyed,  all  the  purposes 
of  life  more  thoroughly  accomplished,  and  old 
age  secured — that  calm  and  dignified  enjoyment 
of  old  age  which  ever  gladdened  his  heart  when 
he  saw  it — more  certainly  without  the  flesh 
of  animals  as  food  than  with  it.  But  then 
they  had  the  doctor  question  brought  in;  the 
doctor  said,  "  I  should  die  if  I  did  not  eat  meat 
during  that  serious  illness."  This  was  very 
likely,  but  then  it  must  be  remembered  that  it 
was  not  the  doctor's  business  to  instruct  his 
patient  in  physiology,  it  was  not  made  his  busi- 
ness to  teach  people  the  best  way  of  living. 
People  made  it  the  interest  and  business  of  the 
doctor  to  let  them  live  in  such  a  way  as  was 
least  calculated  to  produce  health  ;  they  lived  in 
such  a  way  that  the  doctor  feared  apoplexy  was 
coming,  and  that  he  would  lose  his  patient  alto- 
gether, and  then  he  reduced  him,  brought  him 
down,  perhaps  put  him  upon  vegetable  diet,  so 
that  it  was  made  the  interest  of  the  doctor  to 
keep  his  patient  as  long  as  he  could  under  his 
hands.  He  thought  we  should  pay  the  medical 
man  whilst  we  were  well,  and  stop  the  pay  when 
ill,  and  in  this  way  the  patient  would  in  most 
cases  soon  get  well.  The  medicine  sent  by  the 
doctor  did  not  always  cure,  it  sometimes  happened 
that  it  was  taken  at  the  time  of  the  patient's 
getting  well ;  but  the  recovery  was  not  in  con- 


sequence of  taking  the  medicine.  Vegetarian 
diet  was  sometimes  charged  with  making  people 
weak  and  effeminate  ;  he  thought  no  one  would 
charge  the  last  speaker  with  being  either  weak 
or  elferainate,  and  it  was  evident  from  the  history 
of  nations,  that  their  decay  and  extermination 
did  not  arise  from  simple  diet,  but  from  luxurious 
diet.  How  did  the  Roman  empire  conquer  the 
world?  By  men  who  fed  upon  barley.  And 
how  did  it  fall?  By  men  living  in  luxurious 
habits  that  debased  them  from  the  dignity  of 
men,  and  degraded  them  to  a  mere  animal  ex- 
istence. One  of  the  ancients  gave  a  sound 
maxim  which  we  should  do  well  to  remember, 
and  seek  to  realize ; — "  A  sound  mind  in  a  sound 
body."  This  was  an  object  too  much  neglected. 
It  was  impossible  to  have  healthy  action  of  the 
mind  in  a  body  that  was  diseased,  since  a  dis- 
eased body  produced  a  diseased  mind.  There 
was  one  characteristic  of  the  Vegetarian  system 
that  was  of  great  importance  to  the  working 
man,  and  he  felt  a  deep  interest  in  the  working 
classes,  though  he  might  not  be  considered  to 
belong  to  them.  He  was,  however,  a  working 
man,  though  he  did  not  work  with  his  hands  and 
arms  in  laborious  exercise,  but  he  might  be  con- 
sidered to  belong  to  this  class,  since  his  living 
depended  upon  the  exercise  of  his  physical  and 
mental  powers.  His  father  was  a  working  man, 
and  his  grandfather  was  a  working  man  also. 
The  characteristic  of  Vegetarianism  to  which 
he  referred,  was  its  tendency  to  make  the 
working  man  independent ;  he  did  not  mean  a 
forced  independence,  but  real  and  genuine  inde- 
pendence. The  man  who  could  live  upon  5s.  a 
week  was  far  more  independent  than  the  man 
who  lived  upon  lOs.  a  week.  V/orkmen  were 
usually  too  dependent  upon  those  who  em- 
ployed them  ;  they  might  depend  upon  it  it  was 
only  by  clearing  themselves  from  every  oppres- 
sion of  the  body  and  mind,  that  they  could 
work  out  their  salvation.  Moral  and  political 
regeneration  was  not  to  come  from  public-house 
assembhes,  nor  could  it  be  secured  at  all  till 
there  had  been  a  personal  and  social  regenera- 
tion, a  purging  of  themselves  from  the  influ- 
ences of  beef  and  beer  :  not  till  they  had  cleared 
these  from  their  houses,  and  realized  their  birth- 
right, could  working  men  expect  to  have  that 
position  accorded  them  in  the  commonwealth, 
which  was  certaiidy  their  right.  It  was  often 
said  that  Vegetarianism  was  all  very  well,  if  they 
would  be  content  to  carry  it  out  in  their  own 
practice,  but  they  held  meetings,  and  made 
speeches  about  it,  and  boasted  so  much  of  it. 
The  fact  was,  they  were  compelled  to  take  these 
steps,  because  they  believed  in  the  brotherhood 
of  humanity,  and  that  no  man  lived  to  himself. 
He  was  exerting  an  influence,  the  audience  were 
exerting  an  influence,  every  man  was  exerting  an 
influence.  This  it  was  that  raised  man  above  the 
brute  creation,  and  could  only  be  realized  as  they 
realized  the  brotherhood  of  humanity.  Hence 
they  felt  they  were  bound  up  with  the  interests 
of  others,  and,  if  they  neglected  their  brother, 
if  they  neglected  to  agitate  for  the  removal  of 
the  evils  that  afflicted  humanity,  they  would  be 
neglecting  an  imperative  duty,  and  then  a  day 


of  certain  and  just  retribution  would  come.     If 
sanitary  improvement  were  neglected,  the  cholera 
would  come,  and  visit  not  only  the  mud  hovel 
and  the  cottage,  but  the  mansion  and  the  palace 
would  also  be  its  victims.     If  they  allowed  the 
seeds  of  disease  and  death  to  be  sown,  they  would 
assuredly  reap  the  harvest ;  if  they  sought  their 
own  profit  and  gratification  merely,  in  carrying 
out  their  Vegetarian  practice,  then  their  selfish- 
ness would  become  their  curse,  and  would  cer- 
tainly receive  a  retribution  at  the  hands  of  Pro- 
vidence.    Providence  was,  however,  often  charged 
with  evils  which  arose  from  man's  own  conduct;  • 
it  was  ordained  that  man  should  earn  his  bread 
by  the  sweat  of  his  brow ;  but  this  was  no  curse 
to  us.     Labour,  rightly  used,   rightly   enjoyed, 
was  to  man  a  blessing  and  not  a  curse.     There 
was  no  man  whose   position  was  more  hopeless, 
more  to  be  pitied,  than  the  man  who  had  never 
laboured,  and  never  felt  the  necessity  of  labour 
laid  upon  him ;  his  existence  was  ruinous.     To 
labour  in  any  cause  made  that  cause  more  dear 
to  the  labourer,  and  it  was  by  labouring  in  the 
Vegetarian   movement   that  it  became  so  dear 
to   them.     The  man  who  carefully  pruned  his 
trees,  whose  garden  was  the  picture  of  perfect 
neatness,  had  more  enjoyment,  besides  producing 
more  perfect  fruit,  a  finer  bed  of  strawberries,  and 
a  better  crop  of  potatoes,  than  the  man  who  so 
neglected   his  garden   that    it    contained    more 
weeds  than  potatoes.     If  they  laboured  in  tliis 
cause  they  would  look  for  results,  and  the  labour 
would  not  be  lost ;  for  honest,  diligent  labour 
was  never  spent  in  vain.     If  they  laboured  in 
faith,   they  would  at  length  see  the  cause  tri- 
umphant; if  they   sowed   the   seeds,   the  time 
should  come  when  the  reapers  should  gather  the 
sheaves,  and  he  that  went  forth,  as  the  Bible  said, 
"  weeping,  bearing   precious  seed,  should  come 
again    rejoicing,     bringing    his     sheaves     with 
him."     Some  men  lived  in  the  present,  others  in 
the  future  ;  if  it  were  not  for  these  last  antici- 
pating and   pointing  out  a  better  and  happier 
state,  the  world  would  never  progress  in  truth, 
righteousness,  and  mercy,  to  the  point  it   was 
destined  to   reach.    The  day  would  come  when 
Vegetarianism  would  prevail;  when  men  should 
no  longer  "hurt  or  destroy  in  all  God's  holy 
mountain  ;  "  when  the  whole  earth  should  rejoice, 
war  should  cease,  and  slaughter  be  at  an  end,  and 
"  God,  even  our  own  God,  should  bless  us  ;  and 
all   the  ends  o4  the    earth  should   fear   him." 
(Applause.) 

Mr.  CuNLlFFEsaidjhisfirst  impression  was  that 
there  was  some  mistake  in  his  being  called  upon  ; 
for  he  had  been  wandering  about  the  room  in 
a  state  of  innocence,  and  unaware  that  he  should 
be  called  upon  for  a  speech.  As  it  was,  however, 
he  thought  his  best  course  might  be  to  move  a  vote 
of  thanks  to  the  President,  as  a  preliminary  to  the 
people  goiug  home,  it  being  then  past  ten  o'clock. 
He  had  been  trying  to  find  out  the  effect  pro- 
duced by  the  meeting,  and  the  speeches  to  which 
they  had  listened,  upon  the  people  at  the  other 
end  of  the  room,  and,  he  feared  that,  as  it  so 
happened  that  all  the  speakers  had  got  a  hirsute 
appendage,  they  might,  possibly,  suppose  this 
movement  had  some  connection  with  the  "  beard 


movement,"  and  was  a  movement  of  eccentric 
men,  and  that  a  number  of  queer  and  crotchety 
folks  had  adopted  a  crotchety  system.  The 
Vegetarian  system,  however,  he  begged  to  say, 
was  neither  queer  nor  crotchety;  it  was  plain, 
and  as  common  as  the  air  they  breathed,  or  their 
every-day  food  of  porridge  and  milk,  or  potatoes. 
The  movement  was  just  as  plain,  and  simple,  and 
common-sense  as  any  of  these  things,  and  had 
no  more  to  do  with  queerness,  and  oddness,  and 
eccentricity,  or  the  "beard  movement,"  than 
these  things  had.  If  they  looked  into  the  system, 
and  judged  it  on  its  own  merits,  he  was  sure 
they  would  find  it  a  thing  to  live  by,  and  enjoy 
life  with,  and  thus  they  could  not  fail  to  rejoice 
in  Vegetarianism. 

Mr.  F.  TowGOOD  observed,  that  every  pre- 
ceding speaker  had  travelled  his  own  road,  and 
perhaps  he  might  be  allowed  to  travel  his,  and 
show  how  he  came  to  be  there.  It  was  obvious 
to  all  that  he  had  not  the  amount  of  physical 
strength  in  him  that  his  friend  from  Birmingham 
had ;  he  could  do  something,  however,  on  the 
Vegetarian  practice  that  he  could  not  on  the 
meat-eating  system.  He  walked  twenty-four 
miles  after  the  last  Annual  Meeting,  and  then 
went  to  London,  without  feeling  much  fatigue, 
a  feat  he  could  not  have  accomplished  when  a 
flesh-eater.  Then  as  to  mental  strength,  before 
becoming  a  Vegetarian  he  could  not  have  stood 
up,  as  he  was  now  doing,  to  address  an  audience 
without  fear  and  trembling.  Much  of  the  dys- 
pepsia and  other  afflictive  symptoms  to  which 
people  were  subject,  were  brought  upon  them  by 
their  flesh-eating  and  other  wrong  habits.  People 
thought  flesh-eating  necessary  to  support  them 
in  vigour,  and  enable  them  to  live  to  old  a^je. 
He  did  not  think  we  got  a  proper  idea  of  life, 
unless  we  could  live  to  a  hundred  years  at  least. 
There  was  a  common  error  in  quoting  Scripture, 
so  as  to  make  it  appear  that  man's  limit  of  life 
was  "  fourscore  and  ten,"  and  also  in  supposing 
that  the  passage  mentioning  a  hundred  and 
twenty  years  in  connection  with  man's  life  was  a 
limitation  of  its  duration,  this  last,  according  to 
high  theological  authority,  meaning  that  man 
should  live  for  this  period  before  he  was  destroyed. 
There  was  no  precise  limit,  he  contended ;  men 
lived  according  to  their  health  and  the  measure 
of  vitality  given  to  them  by  their  parents,  who, 
if  they  possessed  great  life-power,  would  have  chil- 
dren also  having  great  life-power.  He  was  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  of  Vegetarianism  from  its 
science  and  history,  and  he  had  generally  found, 
that  when  people  had  been  thoroughly  convinced 
of  the  truth  of  the  arguments  in  relaEion  to 
science  and  history,  but  did  not  wish  to  adopt 
the  practice,  if  they  were  believers  in  the  Bible 
they  resorted  to  the  Bible,  and  said,  this  was 
against  the  Vegetarians.  Men  still  obstinately 
resorted  to  the  Bible,  as  an  authority  on  all  ques- 
tions, and  to  keep  themselves  in  countenance  in 
erroneous  systems,  by  mis-quoting  or  mis- 
interpreting its  language.  He  thought  the 
question  of  Vegetarianism  a  very  simple  one  : 
there  was  an  appointment  that  had  never  been 
taken  away,  as  to  man's  food,  and  the  only 
authority  that  could  be  found  for  the  contrary 


48 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


system  was  a  permission  to  eat  flesh.  But  how 
was  this  given  ?  It  was  coupled  with  the  pro- 
hibition :  "  But  flesh  with  the  life  thereof,  which  is 
the  blood  thereof,  shall  ye  not  eat."  This  latter 
part  was  usually  omitted  iu  quoting  the  permis- 
sion. It  was  recorded  that  the  earth  was  full  of 
violence,  and  that  "all  flesh  had  corrupted  his 
way  before  God,"  before  the  flood,  and  it  was 
corrupted,  no  doubt,  by  the  use  of  flesh  as  food, 
permission  to  use  this  not  being  given  till  after- 
wards. They  saw  it  afterwards  allowed  to  be 
eaten,  but  only  without  the  blood,  and  in  the 
account  of  the  early  Christians,  after  Christ's 
ascension,  it  was  stated  that  the  apostles  assem- 
bled together  and  made  a  decree  that  the  disci- 
ples who  were  converted  from  among  the  Gentiles 
should  "abstain  from  blood  and  from  things 
strangled."  This  regulation  was  attended  to  iu 
the  early  ages  of  the  church,  but  when  people 
had  tasted  flesh-meat,  and  acquired  a  liking  for  it, 
they  said  this  injunction  was  set  aside  with  the 
Jewish  observances,  but  he  contended  it  was  still 
binding  on  the  Christian  world  that  they  should 
"abstain  from  blood,"  which  people  who  ate 
flesh  did  not  do.  They  ought  to  return  to  the 
practice  of  the  early  Christians  on  this  and  some 
other  questions.  He  thought  these  were  clear 
views,  and  such  as  should  be  taught  and  followed, 
but  mankind,  in  trying  to  establish  that  which 
they  liked,  had  set  aside  Scripture  in  many  in- 
stances. This  was  his  view  of  the  Scripture 
question,  and  as  the  arguments  from  science  and 
practical  experience  had  been  given  in  so  clear 


and  able  a  manner,  he  w  ould  not  detain  them 
longer  than  to  remark,  that  as  the  Bible  so 
plainly  pointed  out  that  in  the  future  there 
would  be  no  more  kiUing  upon  the  earth.  Vege- 
tarians had  faith  to  look  forward  to  the  ultimate 
success  of  their  cause,  and  to  see  the  spread  of 
their  principles  all  over  the  world.  As  God  ap- 
pointed his  agents  to  do  his  work,  he  trusted 
Vegetarians  would  be  agents  iu  producing  this 
happy  result,  and  in  making  their  views  known ; 
these  led  to  reflection  and  inquiry  where  they 
were  not  immediately  embraced,  and  to  any  who 
were  seeking  further  information  on  the  ques- 
tion he  would  say,  that  books  on  the  system 
could  be  had  from  the  Manchester  publisher, 
and  concluded  by  seconding  the  proposition  of 
the  preceding  speaker.     (Applause.) 

The  motion  was  then  submitted  to  the 
meeting  by  Mr.  Harvey,  and  carried 
unanimously,  after  which  a  vote  of  thanks 
to  the  speakers  from  a  distance  was  pro- 
posed by  Mr.  Harvey,  and  seconded  by  Mr. 
W.  H.  Barnesley,  which  being  acknow- 
ledged by  Mr.  "Ward,  on  behalf  of  himself 
and  the  other  speakers,  the  President,  in  a 
few  appropriate  words,  acknowledged  the 
compliment  paid  to  himself,  and  after  an- 
nouncing a  pic-nic  excursion  to  Alderley  for 
the  following  morning,  declared  the  pro- 
ceedings at  an  end,  and  the  company  sepa- 
rated about  eleven  o'clock. 


LOCAL    OPEKATIONS    AND     INTELLIGENCE. 


ACCRINGTON. 

Vegetarian  Lecture.  —  We  have  again  resumed 
our  activities,  and  after  one  or  two  disappoint- 
ments, through  unavoidable  circumstances,  were 
favoured  by  the  delivery  of  Mr.  Cunliffe's 
lecture  on  Thursday,  the  28th  of  June.  The 
subject  was  Vegetarianism,  in  Relation  to  the 
Pleasures  of  Life,  and  was  presented  in  a  very 
interesting  and  convincing  manner,  and  will 
doubtless  aid  in  removing  some  of  the  popular 
misconceptions  of  our  system,  by  showing  that, 
far  from  lessening  real  enjoyment,  it  tends  to 
enhance  the  pleasures  of  life.  W.  S. 

BIRMINGHAM. 

Vegetarian  Association  Lecture. — The  fourth  of 
our  course  of  lectures  has  been  delivered  by  Mr. 
J.  G.  Palmer,  to  an  audience  numbering  about 
300.  The  subject  was  The  Comparative  Anato- 
my of  the  Teeth  of  Men  and  Animals,  in  Relation 
to  Dief,  and  was  illustrated  by  two  large  diagrams, 
one  representing  the  human  teeth,  and  the  other 
the  skull  and  teeth  of  a  dog.  Some  discussion  on 
Vegetarianism  followed  the  dehvery  of  the 
lecture,  but  no  objection  was  offered  to  any  one 
of  the  facts  and  arguments  it  presented.  Ad- 
vantage was  taken  of  the  occasion  to  distribute 
back  numbers  of  the  Messenger,  and  the  Bir- 
mingham Association  papers.  C.  R.  K. 

BOSTON. 

Formation  of  Vegetarian  Association. — We  have 


at  length  carried  out  our  long-cherished  purpose 
of  organizing  an  Association  here,  to  co-operate 
with  the  General  Society  in  the  advancement  of 
our  views  and  practice  in  relation  to  diet,  and  to 
assist  new  beginners  by  advice  and  encouragement 
in  any  of  the  difficulties  that  occasionally  occur  in 
making  the  transition  from  the  mixed  diet  to  Vege- 
tarian practice.  Our  meeting  for  this  purpose 
was  held  in  the  Temperance  Hall,  on  Wednesday 
evening,  July  11th,  and  the  Rev.  P.  W.  Clay- 
den  was  called  to  the  chair,  when  resolutions 
constituting  the  Association,  defining  its  objects, 
and  appointing  its  officers  and  time  of  meeting, 
were  agreed  upon.  We  propose  holding  regular 
Monthly  Meetings  on  the  second  Wednesday  of 
each  month,  to  which  member^  of  the  Associa- 
tion, and  those  experimenting  in  the  practice,  or 
seeking  information,  wHl  he  invited.     J.  N.  J. 

DARWEN. 

Vegetarian  Controversy. — Much  interest  has 
been  excited,  and  attention  directed  to  our  practice 
through  the  recent  controversy,  originated  by  the 
strictures  of  "W.  G.  B."  in  our  local  newspaper. 
These  have,  however,  been  ably  met  by  "  Scru- 
tator," and  others,  and  have  been  republished 
in  the  controversial  department  of  the  last  two 
numbers  of  the  Messenger;  the  concluding 
portion  of  the  discussion  being  also  re- 
printed separately,  and  largely  circulated  as  a 
tract.  W.  T.  A. 


ACCRINGTON  VEGETARIAN   ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


49 


ACCRINGTON    VEGETARIAN    ASSOCIATION    LECTURE. 


On  Monday  evening,  September  10th,  an 
interesting  lecture  on  The  Teeth  of  Man,  as 
demonstrating  that  the  Vegetarian  Practice  is 
in  strict  accordance  with  Nature,  was  de- 
livered in  tlie  New  Jerusalem  School  Room, 
Accringtou,  by  J.  G.  Palmer,  Esq.,  of  Bir- 
mingham, the  Treasurer  of  the  Vegetarian 
Society,  The  lecture  was  illustrated  by 
diagrams  of  the  human  and  canine  teeth, 
and  was  listened  to  with  deep  attention, 
opportunity  being  afforded  at  its  close  for  the 
making  of  inquiries,  or  the  statement  of 
objections. 

James  Simpson,  Esq.,  the  President  of 
the  Association,  occupied  the  chair,  and  in- 
troduced the  lecturer  in  a  brief  address. 

Mr.  Simpson  remarked,  that  whatever  related 
to  the  welfare  of  man  was  worthy  of  very  grave 
consideration,  because  the  Deity,  in  his  great 
kindness  to  the  human  species,  was  ever  seeking 
to  raise  them  from  what  is  inferior  or  low,  to 
what  is  high  and  happy,  ever  doing  the  best 
even  for  the  lowest  of  men.  They  were  thus 
bound  to  attend  to  what  relates  to  human  hap- 
piness, and  this  he  contended  would  be 
promoted  by  obedience  to  the  appointment  of 
man's  food  in  Paradise,  "  the  herb  bearing  seed," 
and  "  the  fruit  tree  bearing  fruit,"  and  though 
man  might  have  permission  to  live  otherwise 
wlien  he  departed  from  the  order  of  his  being, 
philosophy  confirmed  the  opinion  that  what  was 
appointed  would  ever  be  the  best  and  happiest. 
Though  God  thus  permitted  man  to  live  in 
departure  from  truth,  and  the  laws  he  had  en- 
stamped  upon  his  constitution,  the  most  com- 
plete health  of  body  and  happiness  could  best 
be  promoted  by  the  finding  out  what  these  laws 
were,  and  in  obedience  to  them.  Man  was  a 
threefold  being ;  he  had  a  physical,  intellectual, 
and  moral  nature.  The  world  around  appealed 
to  his  intellectual  nature,  and  he  saw  beauty 
around  him,  and,  if  he  inquired  at  all,  he  must 
see  that  he  had  intimate  relations  to  the  world 
around  him,  where  he  must  eat  and  drink,  and 
breathe  pure  air,  and  if  the  last  were  wholly  im- 
pure, life  would  at  once  be  put  an  end  to.  The 
laws,  therefore,  relating  to  his  physical  structure 
must  be  obeyed,  just  as  those  other  spiritual 
laws  which  regulated  his  connection  with  the 
future  world  must  be  observed,  if  he  would 
live  as  happily  as  might  be,  and  not  in  an  un- 
natural way.  The  question  about  to  be  brought 
before  them,  had  special  reference  to  this  subject 
in  relation  to  a  law  enstamped  upou  mau  by 
nature.  He  had  already  referred  to  what  man 
could  do  under  the  permission,  when  he  would 
not  live  in  accordance  with  the  appointment. 
They  might  see  people  living  on  extraordinary 
kinds  of  food  in  some  parts  of  the  world,  and 
our  own  countrymen  so  led  by  example,  in  one 
case,  in  the  island  of  Looe  in  Cornwall,  as  to  eat 
rats — the  people  lived  on  rats,  and  counted  them 
a  somewhat  luxurious  article  of  diet.     In  this 


way,  looking  into  eating  customs,  they  saw 
almost  every  kind  of  animal  eaten,  and  amongst 
some  savage  races,  human  flesh  even  was  in- 
cluded in  the  dietary.  They  saw  other  people 
living  on  vegetable  productions,  and  in  all  time 
many  had  lived  in  this  way,  and  a  much  larger 
number  even  than  those  subsisting  on  the  flesh 
of  animals.  In  all  these  varied  practices  they 
might  find  a  precedent  for  doing  almost  any- 
thing they  pleased.  Custom  was  thus  no  sanc- 
tion for  any  line  of  conduct,  and  they  ought 
therefore  to  be  able  to  give  a  reason  for 
their  practices,  or  these  would  never  stand  the 
result  of  inquiry.  The  question  was,  therefore, 
pressed  upon  their  attention,  and  if,  as  most 
people  did  on  first  hearing  of  Vegetarianism, 
they  went  straight  to  the  sacred  page,  they 
would  see  in  Genesis  i.  29,  that  the  very  system 
that  they,  as  dietetic  reformers,  advocated  to-day, 
was  that  appointed  as  man's  food  to  begin  with. 
This  was  his  food  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world  ; 
then  came  a  w  audering  from  divine  appointments, 
and  in  the  period  following  the  fall  of  man, 
they  had  a  different  practice  in  connection 
with  preying  upon  the  bodies  of  animals, 
and  people  now  never  expressed  any  surprise 
about  it,  many  never  thinking  of  a  better  way 
of  living  than  on  the  flesh  of  the  bodies  of 
animals,  with  grain  and  other  vegetable  products 
along  with  it.  If  God  gave  this  original  ap- 
pointment of  food  at  first,  they  would  naturally 
suppose  that  there  was  an  alteration  after  the 
flood,  and  many  people  were  Very  fond  of  con- 
sidering that  then  there  had  been  a  reconstitu- 
tion  of  human  nature,  and  that  the  Creator  had 
actually  seen  it  necessary  to  mend  his  work, 
and  alter  man's  body  to  make  him  fit  for  eating 
flesh.  But  reason  did  not  show  this  to  be  pro- 
bable, but  rather  that  man  was  permitted  to  live 
in  an  inferior  condition  when  he  would  not  re- 
main in  the  appointment,  and,  in  this  way,  they 
found  that  other  practices  were  permitted,  such 
as  the  putting  away  of  wives,  and  the  principle 
of  retaliation — "  An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth 
for  a  tooth."  There  were  arguments  drawn 
from  comparative  anatomy ;  upon  these  subjects, 
however,  he  would  not  enter,  lest  he  should 
trench  upon  the  subject  of  the  lecture.  Che- 
mistry and  economy  too,  both  spoke  out  on  this 
question ;  chemistry  showiug  that  all  food  was 
of  vegetable  origin,  and  that  flesh  contained 
nothing  peculiar,  but  simply  the  vegetable  prin- 
ciples contained  in  the  food  upon  which  the 
animal  fed  ;  economy  decided  that  it  was  unneces- 
sarily dear  to  live  on  the  flesh  of  animals,  and 
to  pay  a  shilling  for  the  nutriment  they  might 
obtain  for  twopence  from  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
and  which,  well  selected,  was  more  efficient  in 
building  up  the  flesh,  blood,  and  bone  of  the 
body.  Then,  again,  living  on  the  flesh  of  animals 
induced  a  large  amount  of  disease,  and  intro- 
duced into  the  system  that  which  had  to  be  got 
rid  of  again.  If  God  intended  man  to  live  on 
the  flesh  of  animals,  there  was,  in  this,  a  great 
exception  to  his  laws  and  order  otherwise  ;  for 


50 


ACCRINGTON  VEGETARIAN   ASSOCIATION   LECTURE. 


nature  was  simple  and  economical  in  all  her 
ways  ;  air,  light,  and  water — the  great  essentials — 
were  to  be  had  freely  and  abundantly  by  all. 
Man  might  exist,  for  a  time,  upon  bad  food,  or 
go  without  for  several  days ;  but,  without  pure 
air,  and  good  water,  the  last  of  which  composed 
no  less  than  70  to  76  parts  of  man's  body,  he 
could  not  exist  for  any  length  of  time.  These 
great  essentials  were  given  to  man  without 
money  and  without  price.  If  he  were  asked  if 
food  could  be  had  as  cheaply  as  air  or  water,  he  had 
but  to  reply  that,  when  obtained  from  the  vege- 
table kingdom,  this  might  almost  be  placed  in 
the  same  category  ;  but,  taken  from  the  flesh  of 
animals,  it  was  ever  unprofitable  and  dear.  All 
nature's  operations  were  simple  and  direct,  and 
accomplished  in  the  cheapest  possible  way. 
There  were  other  facts  in  relation  to  physiology 
claiming  attention,  but  he  would  not  touch  upon 
these,  as  the  lecture  would  most  probably  present 
this  part  of  the  question  as  well  as  that  of  com- 
parative anatomy.  He  would  observer,  however, 
that  man  had  a  moral  as  well  as  a  physical  and 
intellectual  nature,  and  this  proved  that  man  was 
not  intended  to  live  by  the  slaughter  of  animals 
for  food  ;  though  permitted  to  live  in  inferior  condi- 
tions, yet  his  moral  nature  opposed  the  practice  of 
living  on  the  flesh  of  animals.  If  he  were  asked 
bow  this  was  proved,  he  would  say  that  no  one, 
though  living  on  the  flesh-eating  practice,  could 
trace  the  processes  carried  out  in  preparing  flesh 
for  the  table  without  being  shocked,  and  their 
appetite  for  flesh-meat  impaired  or  destroyed .  He 
admitted  that  persons  might  be  trained  to  do 
these  things,  and  not  suffer  much  ;  but  he  was 
not  speaking  of  such  cases  as  these,  but  of  the 
effect  upon  man's  normal  moral  nature.  Mr. 
Simpson  then  referred  to  the  pain  and  com- 
punction felt  by  a  young  soldier  who  shot  a 
Russian  at  Haugo  Bay — the  first  man  he  had 
ever  killed — and  contrasted  this  with  the  indif- 
ference manifested  by  another  after  a  few  months' 
training  in  the  engagements  in  the  Crimea,  as 
showing  how  easily  man's  natural  benevolence 
was  blunted  by  familiarity  with  scenes  of  violence 
and  bloodshed.  If  this  was  the  case  with  regard 
to  human  beings,  they  might  rest  assured  that 
man  could  readily  be  trained  to  feel  and  act  in 
this  way  towards  the  lower  animals.  Man  had 
got  into  unnatural  habits  in  this  respect ;  but 
the  object  of  the  facts  and  arguments  of  the 
lecture  was  to  lead  man  back  to  his  original 
state  as  regarded  his  practice  of  diet.  Besides 
economy  showing  the  truth  of  the  system,  he 
trusted  they  would  see  that  comparative  anatomy 
agreed  with  chemistry  and  physiology,  and  de- 
monstrated that  the  teeth  of  man  are  in  strict 
accordance  with  his  natural,  best,  and  happiest 
system  of  living.  He  might  go  on  at  greater 
length  in  introducing  this  lecture,  but  it  was  un- 
necessary to  do  this,  and  would,  therefore,  beg  to 
call  on  Mr.  Palmer,  who  had  taken  advantage 
of  a  brief  visit  to  Lancashire  to  give  a  lecture 
during  his  staj\ 

Mr.  Palmer,  after  explaining  the  object  of 
the  lecture  to  be  that  of  directing  attention  to 
the  form  and  structure  of  human  teeth,  and 
comparing  them  with  the  teeth  of  other  animals. 


in  order,  by  analogy,  to  show  or  to  infer  what  is 
the  most  suitable  food  for  mankind,  and  stating 
that  he  should  glance  at  some  other  points  of 
comparative  anatomy,  and  introduce  and  affirm 
some  general  pririciples  respecting  the  health, 
the  development,  and  the  glorious  capability  for 
progress  of  mankind,  without,  he  trusted,  devi- 
ating too  widely  from  his  allotted  task,  con- 
tinued as  follows  : 

Every  organized  being  in  nature  commences 
its  existence  as  a  seed,  a  germ,  or  a  cell ;  and  is 
adapted  for,  or  capable  of,  a  certain  degi-ee  of 
growth,  expansion,  or  development,  till  it  arrives 
at  maturity,  or  the  full  measure  of  its  capacity. 
This  may  apply  to  all  animals  below  mankind . 
The  human  being  is  inspired  with  the  animating 
faith  and  hope  of  endless  progression  in  love, 
light,  truth,  knowledge,  wisdom,  goodness,  and 
consequent  happiness. 

Some  external  conditions,  circumstances,  and 
relations,  are  much  more  favourable  to  the  full 
and  complete  development  and  manifestation  of 
internal  capability  and  power  than  others.  For 
instance,  if  we  take  a  few  seeds,  say  of  wheat, 
all  alike,  or  equally  good,  and  plant  some  in  clay, 
some  in  sand,  some  in  loam  or  fine  garden 
mould,  others  among  stones,  some  in  different 
climates,  cold  and  moist,  or  dry  and  warm,  or 
even  some  on  the  north  side,  and  others  on  the 
south  side  of  a  brick  wall,  we  shall  find  the 
health  and  strength,  the  growth  and  produce  of 
those  seeds  very  different  indeed.  So  with 
animals.  Let  us  take  a  few  young  animals,  say 
horses,  place  them  in  various  conditions  and 
circumstances,  in  different  climates  and  pastures, 
feed  them  on  different  food,  give  them  water  of 
different  degrees  of  impurity  or  purity  ;  let  them 
be  well  or  carelessly  tended,  as  to  food,  cleanli- 
ness, shelter;  let  them  labour  moderately  or 
immoderately.  We  shall  find  the  result  as  to 
health,  strength,  beauty,  length  of  life,  very 
different  indeed.  So  it  is  with  mankind.  Ttiese 
are  common-place  truisms,  but  not  sufficiently 
thought  of.  Let  that  be  my  excuse  for  intro- 
ducing them. 

Those  conditions  and  circumstances  most 
favourable  to  the  health,  continued  well-being, 
and  complete  development  of  any  organized 
structure,  must  also  be  conducive  to  the  happi- 
ness of  every  conscious  being  in  all  its  phases  or 
relations.  The  instinctive  tendency  of  all 
sentient  beings  is  to  seek  happiness,  and  avoid 
pain.  This  seems  to  be  the  first  impulse  to 
action  in  every  grade  of  human  nature.  But 
the  experience  of  all  leads  to  the  conviction  that 
the  more  eagerly  and  ignorantly  we  pursue  hap- 
piness in  the  animal,  the  sensual,  the  external, 
the  fluctuating,  the  greater  is  our  pain  and  dis- 
appointment.    Still 

"  Hope  sprinpfs  eternal  in  the  human  breast, 
Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest." 

The  nearest  approach  towards  actualizing  the 
ideal  which  is  continually  urging  us,  appears  to 
be  to  look  for  the  supreme  good,  in  the 
sovereignty  of  mind,  in  true  wisdom,  the  legiti- 
mate offspring  of  knowledge  and  love,  in  recti- 
tude of  conduct,  in  just  selecting  and  rejecting. 
We   must   bring   ourselves  into   harmony  with 


ACCRTNGTO:^  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION   LECTURE. 


51 


nature  by  cultivatinsf  our  wliole  being,  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  laws  of  constitution  and  relation  ex- 
isting in  nature.  "  Man  is  more  diseased  than 
any  other  animal  formation  God  hath  created, 
merely  because  he  has  power  to,  and  does  in- 
fringe upon,  the  harmonious  arrangements  of 
his  own  nature.  Man  groans  in  bondage, 
because  ignorance,  error,  and  self-indulgence 
have  filled  his  flesh  with  corruption.  Disease 
mars  his  earthly  life,  and  retards  him  in  his 
future  career."  We  suffer  more  from  the  tyranny 
of  bad  habits  over  ourselves,  than  from  the 
tyranny  of  others  over  us.  Let  us  conquer  the 
first  tyranny,  and  the  second  would  soon  follow 
it.  Knowledge,  love,  justice,  universal  brother- 
hood, peace,  health,  and  happiness  might  cover 
the  earth.  But  how  is  this  to  be  accomplished? 
By  what  clue  can  we  extricate  ourselves  from  the 
maze  of  error  in  which  we  are  entangled  ?  We 
have  vitiated  and  blunted  our  simple  natural 
instincts,  and  now  our  depraved  tastes  mislead 
us.  We  must  appeal  to  our  reason ;  we  must 
observe,  reflect,  and  compare ;  we  must  return 
to  the  simplicity  of  the  shepherd  in  the  fable, 
who  taught  the  philosopher  the  lessons  of  wis- 
dom he  had  learnt  from  nature.  We  must  obey 
her  teachings. 

The  first  necessities  of  our  animal  nature  are 
air  and  food.  By  these  our  existence  is  sup- 
ported and  continued.  Our  lungs  and  our 
stomach  have  a  certain  conformation  and  con- 
stitution. Air  and  food  bear  a  very  strict  and  de- 
finate  relationship  to  that  conformation  and  con- 
stitution. It  is  of  great  importance  that  air  and 
food  should  be  pure  and  congenial,  of  that  kind  and 
quality  that  bears  the  most  harmonious  relation- 
ship to  the  structure  and  constitution  of  our 
organs,  because  they  not  only  affect  our  bodily 
health  and  strength,  but  also  influence  our  feelings 
and  propensities.  The  temporary  derangement  of 
the  mind,  when  a  person  is  under  the  influence  of 
alcoholic  drinks,  proves  that  the  mind  is  influ- 
enced by  substances  taken  into  the  system. 

So  that  all  substances  or  phe^iomona,  such 
as  air,  water,  food,  light,  heat,  electricity, 
magnetism,  etc.,  that  come  in  contact,  or  have 
intercourse  with  the  organism,  bear  a  definite 
relationship  to  its  well  or  ill-being  ;  to  the  per- 
fect or  imperfect  performance  of  its  functions ; 
to  the  length  of  time  of  its  duration.  Some  are 
much  more  congenial  than  others,  and  the  de- 
grees of  this  relationship,  like  the  laws  of 
chemical  affinity  and  repulsion,  are  perhaps  in- 
numerable between  the  most  salubrious  food, 
and  the  most  destructive  poison. 

It  is  with  reference  to  these  vital,  organic 
laws,  that  I  propose  to  show,  from  the  structure 
of  the  human  teeth,  that  this  true  relationship 
is  to  be  found  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  only ; 
and  that  fruits,  grain,  pulse,  roots,  and  some 
other  vegetables,  are  the  most  natural  and  best 
food  for  mankind.  From  the  nature  and  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case,  we  are  under  the  neces- 
sity of  drawing  our  evidence  from  comparative 
anatomy  and  physiology  ;  and  if  we  can  find  an 
order  of  animals,  whose  alimentary  organs  cor- 
respond with  those  of  man,  and  can  ascertaiii 
the  natural  habits  and  character  of  that  order  of 


animals,  then  we  have  learned,  so  far  as  we  can 
learn  from  comparative  anatomy,  the  true  natural 
dietetic  character  of  mankind. 

Those  natural  philosophers,  called  comparative 
anatomists,  who  have  studied  the  human  body 
altogether,  and  have  examined  tlie  stomach  and 
teeth  in  relation  to  diet,  and  have  made  extensive 
comparisons  between  man  ond  other  animals, 
have  said,  that  there  is  always  a  conformity  be- 
tween the  structure  of  all  animals  and  the  food 
they  should  take,  and  that  this  is  a  circumstance 
most  favourable  to  their  existence.  They  also 
affirm  that  there  is  not  only  this  agreement  be- 
tween the  conformation  of  an  animal  and  its 
natural  food,  but  there  is  also  harmony  between 
all  the  parts  of  that  structure,  so  that  if  they 
are  shown  a  single  fossil  bone  dug  up  from  the 
earth,  where  it  may  have  been  buried  for 
thousands  of  years,  they  can  portray  the  entire 
animal,  describe  its  food,  and  the  circumstances 
most  favourable  to  its  existence.  This  rule  is  so 
uniform  that  I  cannot  admit  any  exception  ;  some, 
however,  claim  it  for  man,  because  he  has  the 
power  to  seek  out  many  inventions,  some  of  these 
very  good,  and  others  very  injurious.  I,  how- 
ever, am  not  willing  to  admit  that  there  is  any 
exception  to  the  general  rule,  that  there  is  per- 
fect agreement  between  the  structure  of  an 
animal  and  the  nature  of  its  food. 

I  shall,  therefore,  proceed  to  examine  the 
general  outlines  of  the  anatomical  and  physiolo- 
gical evidence. 

The  difference  between  a  perfect  set  of  human 
teeth,  and  those  of  a  carnivorous  animal,  is 
great  and  striking.  Of  all  the  various  types 
of  animal  teeth,  these  may  be  considered  the 
two  opposite  extremes.  I  intend,  therefore, 
principally  to  confine  my  observations  to  them. 

In  the  adult  human  head  there  are  thirty-two 
teeth,  i.  e.,  sixteen  in  the  upper,  and  sixteen  in 
the  lower  jaw.  In  each  row  there  are  four  inci- 
sors, or  cutting  teeth,  in  front,  which  shut  over 
each  other  like  the  blades  of  shears.  On  each 
side  of  these  incisors  there  is  a  cuspid,  or  eye- 
tooth,  two  bicuspids,  or  small  cheek  teeth  ;  and 
in  a  perfectly  normal  state,  these  form  an  iinin- 
terrupted  series,  in  close  contact,  and  all  of  nearly 
equal  length.  In  this  particular  man  differs  from 
all  other  anirrals.  For  even  in  the  species  nearest 
to  man,  there  is  a  space  between  the  front  and 
the  corner  teeth. 

Carnivorous  animals  have  in  each  jaw  six  in- 
cisors, or  front  teeth,  two  cuspids,  and  from  eight 
to  twelve  cheek  teeth.  In  carnivorous  and  fru- 
~ivorous  animals  the  body  of  the  tooth  consists 
of  dense  bone,  covered  with  a  sheath  of  hard 
enamel.  The  cheek  teeth  of  herbivorous  animals 
are  composed  of  intermixed  plates  of  bone  and 
enamel,  arranged  vertically,  which  is  more  suit- 
able for  chewing  grass  and  herbs. 

The  front  teeth  of  the  human  head  are  broad, 
flat,  and  chisel-shaped,  designed  to  cut  the  food 
in  convenient  masses  for  the  action  of  the  cheek 
teeth.  The  front  teeth  of  carnivorous  animals 
are  more  rounded  and  pointed,  and  stand  further 
apart,  and  bear  no  resemblance  to  those  of  man. 

The  cuspids,  or  eye-teeth,  or,  as  some  call 
them,  the  canine  teeth,  in  the  human  head,  are 


52 


ACCRTNGTON   VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION   LECTURE. 


usually  of  the  same  length  as  the  other  teeth, 
and  stand  close  to  them  ;  they  approach  more  to 
a  pomt  than  the  front  teeth,  and  are  the  first 
step  in  the  transition  to  the  grinding  teeth  in 
the  back  part. 

The  cuspids,  or  tusks,  of  carnivorous  animals 
are  round  and  pointed,  and  much  longer  and 
stronger  than  the  front  teeth,  and  are  separated 
by  a  considerable  space  from  the  other  teeth. 
In  some  species  they  are  very  long,  sharp- 
pointed,  and  powerful,  and  fitted  to  serve  as 
weapons  of  offence  and  defence,  and  to  seize, 
hold,  and  tear  the  prey.  Some  of  the  herbivorous 
animals,  as  the  horse,  the  camel,  and  the  stag, 
have  the  cuspids  proportionably  longer,  more 
pointed  and  powerful  than  the  corner  teeth  of 
man,  and  are  separated  from  the  other  teeth  by 
a  large  space. 

Between  the  cuspids  of  carnivorous  animals, 
and  those  of  the  human  head,  there  is  not  the 
slightest  resemblance,  and  yet  the  assumed  re- 
semblance is  the  principal  evidence  urged  to 
prove  the  natural  flesh-eating  character  of  man. 
But  this  would  also  prove  that  the  horse,  camel, 
and  stag,  naturally  require  a  still  larger  pro- 
portion of  flesh-meat  in  their  diet.  According 
to  this  evidence,  the  camel  of  the  desert  is 
naturally  as  carnivorous  as  the  dog. 

The  small  and  large  cheek  teeth  of  man  have 
small  blunt  prominences,  that  fit  into  the  cor- 
responding hollows  of  the  opposite  row ;  and 
with  broad,  mashing,  and  grinding  surfaces, 
with  lateral  or  horizontal,  as  well  as  vertical 
motion,  increase  the  triturating  power  of  the 
teeth.  The  cheek  teeth  in  the  lower  jaw  of 
man  meet  those  of  the  upper  jaw,  so  as  to  bring 
the  surfaces  of  the  two  together  in  opposition. 
In  this  respect,  man  resembles  herbivorous  and 
frugivorous  animals.  But  the  cheek  teeth  in 
the  lower  jaw  of  carnivorous  animals,  pass  and 
shut  within  those  of  the  upper  jaw,  so  that,  if 
we  take  a  pair  of  shears,  and  file  the  two  cutting 
edges  into  teeth  like  a  saw,  and  then  cut 
with  them,  we  shall  get  a  good  idea  of  the  ap- 
pearance and  operation  of  the  cheek  teeth  of 
carnivorous  animals,  as,  unlike  the  broad  and 
blunt  surface  of  human  teeth,  they  rise  into 
high  and  sharp  points,  the  middle  point  above 
the  others  like  a  spear ;  they  are  fitted  for  tear- 
ing and  piercing,  but  cannot  admit  of  the 
grinding  or  lateral  motion,  such  as  man,  and  the 
frugivorous  and  herbivorous  animals,  use  in 
mastication. 

The  articulation  of  the  joints  and  muscles 
of  the  jaws,  also,  corresponds  to  the  motions  to 
which  the  teeth  are  fitted.  This  formation  and 
action  of  the  cheek  teeth  appears  a  most  striking 
and  conclusive  distinction. 

Nothing  can  be  more  true  than  that,  so  far  as 
the  teeth  are  concerned,  comparative  anatomy 
does  not  afford  the  slightest  evidence  that  man 
is  in  any  measure  a  carnivorous  animal. 

It  is  true,  however,  that  there  is  a  great  capa- 
city in  the  human  organism,  with  the  assistance 
of  its  mental  faculties,  for  a  very  wide  range  of 
adaptability  to  different  substances,  conditions, 
and  circumstances,  resulting,  nevertheless,  in 
various    degrees  of  health,  strength,    and  lon- 


gevity. There  is,  therefore,  no  reason  to  doubt, 
that  physiological  science  is  correct  in  the  asser- 
tion, that  there  are  the  most  fixed  and  precise 
constitutional  laws  of  relation  between  the 
alimentary  organs,  and  the  particular  tissues  of 
the  human  body,  and  those  substances  which 
the  Creator  designed  for  human  food ;  or  that 
there  are  particular  kinds,  qualities,  and  condi- 
tions of  food,  which  are  best  adapted  to  sustain 
the  highest  and  best  condition  of  human  nature. 

Other  animals  besides  man  may  be  trained  to 
live  upon  substances  different  to  what  their 
natural  instincts  lead  them  to  select.  Herbi- 
vorous and  frugivorous  animals  may  be  trained 
to  feed  upon  flesh.  Carnivorous  animals  among 
beasts  and  birds  can  be  trained  to  a  vegetable 
diet.  But  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  such  a 
change  to  them  produces  less  inconvenience, 
greater  safety  to  life  and  health,  and  less  injury 
to  the  constitution,  as  a  permanent  effect,  than 
for  herbivorous  or  frugivorous  animals  to  be 
trained  to  live  upon  animal  food.  The  keeper  of 
a  menagerie  has  said,  that  feeding  monkeys  on 
flesh  renders  them  gross,  and  shortens  their  lives, 
from  which  practice  he  had  therefore  desisted. 

Neither  can  we  infer  that  man  is  naturally  a 
grass-eating  or  herbivorous  animal,  for  reasons 
drawn  from  comparative  anatomy. 

With  respect  to  the  teeth.  The  surfaces 
of  the  molar  or  cheek  teeth  of  grass-eating 
animals  are  formed  with  sharp  ridges  for  cutting. 
If  we  take  half  a  dozen  chisels,  and  bind  them 
tightly  together,  the  sharp  edges  will  show 
notches  between.  This  will  nearly  represent  the 
surface  of  the  cheek  teeth  of  a  grass-eating,  or 
herbivorous  animal.  These  teeth  meet  face  to 
face,  exactly  as  the  side  teeth  of  all  vegetable- 
eating  animals  do.  The  sharp  edges  of  the 
upper  row  falling  into  the  notches  of  the  lower 
row,  cut  and  chop  the  grass  or  herbs — a  curious 
chopping  machine.  Whereas,  the  cheek  teeth 
of  man,  and  all  frugivorous  animals,  as  I  have 
already  said,  have  blunt  knobs  on  the  surfaces, 
the  upper  row  meeting  in  the  hollows  of  the 
lower  row,  and  thereby  producing  a  crushing  or 
pounding  action,  more  suitable  for  grains,  seeds, 
fruits,  or  roots,  which  are  sufficiently  cut  by  the 
front  teeth,  called  incisors,  or  cutting  teeth,  and 
their  action  biting. 

Some  persons  who  are  unwilling  to  relinquish 
their  old  habit  of  flesh-eating,  or  to  be  convinced 
by  the  evidence  of  comparative  anatomy,  say, 
tliat  as  the  formation  of  man's  teeth,  stomach, 
and  intestines  are,  in  some  respects,  intermediate 
between  carnivorous  and  grass-eating  animals, 
he  ought  to  live  upon  a  mixture  of  the  food  of 
both.  Let  them  show  their  sincerity  by  trying 
the  grass-eating  mixture. 

Now,  their  inference  is  far  from  being  a 
rational  or  a  logical  one.  The  most  correct  con- 
clusion would  have  been,  that  his  diet  should  be 
of  a  different  kind  from  either,  and  for  tvi^o 
most  especial  and  triumphant  reasons  : 

1st.  The  cheek  teeth  of  man  are  not  sharp- 
pointed  like  the  teeth  of  a  saw,  and  tliey  do  not 
pass  beside  each  other  like  the  blades  of  a  pair  of 
shears,  as  those  of  all  carnivorous  animals  are, 
and  do.  Let  us  never  forget  that  grand  distinction. 


ACCEINGTON  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  LECTURE. 


53 


2nd.  The  gastric  juice  of  the  carnivorous 
animal  is  diflfereiit  in  its  quality  and  property 
from  that  of  the  vegetable-eating  animal,  so 
that,  putting  a  mixture  of  both  kinds  of  food 
into  the  stomach,  causes  a  contest  there  as  to 
which  shall  be  served  first,  and,  whichever  it  is, 
the  other  is  likely  to  come  off  with  "  short  com- 
mons," thereby  rendering  digestion  incomplete. 
"  It  (gastric  juice)  cannot  be  equally  well-qualified 
to  digest  both  animal  and  vegetable.  In  propor- 
tion as  animal  food  predominates,  the  power  of 
the  stomach  to  digest  vegetable  food  generally 
diminishes."  The  quality  and  property  of  the 
gastric  juice  become  altered,  and,  in  many  persons, 
weakened,  so  that  frequent  or  permanent  indi- 
gestion ensues,  for  which  medical  men  prescribe 
a  lean  mutton  chop,  a  hard  biscuit,  or  stale-bread, 
with  a  glass  of  sherry,  or  weak  brandy  and  water. 
No  fruit  or  vegetables.  Any  departure  from  this 
regimen,  in  some  persons,  is  sure  to  be  followed 
by  a  bilious  attack,  or  diarrhoea,  or  something 
else,  not  more  agreeable. 

It  is  well-known  to  Vegetarians  that  most  per- 
sons, who  partake  of  a  mixed  diet,  are  obliged 
to  be  cautious  in  taking  fruit  or  vegetables, 
because  they  are  more  liable  to  attacks  of  diseases 
of  various  kinds,  than  those  who  live  upon  a  diet 
of  wheat-meal,  bread,  fruit,  potatoes,  and  other 
vegetables,  diversified  occasionally  with  rice,  sago, 
Scotch  barley,  oat  meal,  etc. 

If,  to  a  mixed  diet,  be  added  even  what  is 
called  a  moderate  portion  of  alcoholic  drink,  the 
necessity  for  caution  as  to  the  use  of  fruit  and 
vegetables  is  increased. 

The  prevailing  opinion  upon  this  subject  is, 
that  man  is  an  omnivorous  animal.  Custom  is 
the  only  authority  for  this  opinion  with  those  who 
entertain  it.  Mankind,  in  all  countries  have  beeu 
influenced  by  climate,  circumstances,  love  of  ex- 
citement, etc.,  to  their  different  practices.  They 
seem  to  have  tried  rather  how  much  indulgence 
the  human  constitution  is  capable  of  sustaining 
without  sudden  destruction,  than  to  have  been 
guided  by  conscious  knowledge,  upon  clear  and 
well-ascertained  principles,  in  full  accordance 
with  the  constitutional  laws  of  our  nature,  either 
as  to  quality,  quantity,  or  condition  of  food.  So 
that  the  purely  natural  dietetic  habits  of  man 
are  unknown,  except  as  a  matter  of  ancient 
history  and  tradition. 

The  animals  which  approach  the  nearest  to  the 
character  of  omnivorous,  or  feeding  on  a  mixed 
diet,  without  preference  for  either  animal  or 
vegetable  substances,  are  the  dog,  the  bear,  and 
opossum  ;  yet  these,  when  in  a  perfectly  natural 
state,  and  when  food  is  abundant,  invariably  prefer 
fruits,  roots,  grain,  and  other  vegetable  produce. 

There  is  little  resemblance  between  the  front 
teeth  of  these  animals  and  those  of  the  human 
head,  and  still  less  between  the  eye-teeth,  or  cus- 
pids, of  man  and  the  tusks  of  the  hog. 

The  digestive  organs  of  the  hog  more  strongly 
resemble  those  of  man ;  but,  when  these  organs 
are  taken  in  connection  with  the  masticatory 
organs,  which  are  the  principal  anatomical  index 
of  the  dietetic  character,  and,  also,  in  connection 
with  the  fact  that,  in  a  free  state  of  nature,  the  hog 
prefers  vegetable  food,  and  requires  no  animal  food. 


for  the  fullest  and  most  perfect  development  and 
sustenance  of  its  animal  structure  and  physiolo- 
gical powers,  the  whole  force  of  evidence  still 
goes  to  prove  that  man  is  not  naturally,  in  any 
measure,  a  flesh-eating  animal. 

In  the  order  next  below  man  we  find  several 
species  of  animals,  whose  teeth,  and  other  alimen- 
tary organs,  in  all  respects  very  nearly  resemble 
those  of  the  human  body ;  and  in  the  species 
which  comes  nearest  to  man  in  general  organiza- 
tion and  appearance,  the  alimentary  organs,  in 
almost  every  particular,  so  nearly  resemble  the 
human,  that  they  are  easily  mistaken  for  them. 
The  number  and  order  of  teeth  in  the  orang- 
outang are  the  same  as  in  man.  I  have  seen 
whole  jaws  of  their  teeth,  which  a  dentist  could 
not  have  decided  were  not  human  teeth.  The 
front  teeth  are  precisely  like  those  of  the  human 
head.  The  cuspids,  or  corner  teeth,  are  gene- 
rally rather  longer,  and  more  pointed,  and  are 
separated  from  the  other  teeth  by  small  spaces, 
and  approach  more  to  the  appearance  of  the  cus- 
pids of  carnivorous  animals  than  those  of  man 
do.  In  some  other  species  of  monkeys  the 
cuspids  are  of  a  more  carnivorous  character. 

The  form  of  the  stomach,  the  comparative 
length  of  the  alimentary  canal,  its  relative  capa- 
city, the  cellular  arrangement  of  the  colon,  in  the 
orang-outang,  all  likewise  correspond  with  those 
of  the  human  body.  As  a  general  statement, 
however,  the  comparative  length  of  the  alimen- 
tary canal  is  somewhat  greater  in  man  than  in 
the  orang-outang. 

In  accordance  with  the  principles  of  compara- 
tive anatomy,  then,  the  alimentary  organs  of  the 
orang-outang  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  true  type 
for  comparison,  to  ascertain  the  natural  dietetic 
character  of  man. 

But  it  appears  that  in  all  that  the  organs  of 
the  orang  difl'er  from  those  of  man,  they  have 
rather  more  of  a  carnivorous  character.  Yet  it 
is  well  known  that  not  only  the  orang-outang, 
but  all  the  other  species  of  monkeys,  are,  in  a 
perfectly  pure  state  of  nature,  when  left  free  to 
choose  their  own  nourishment,  and  follow  their 
undepraved  instincts,  wholly  frugivorous,  sub- 
sisting exclusively  on  fruit,  nuts,  and  other 
esculent  farinaceous  vegetables.  And  they  never, 
in  such  a  state,  feed  on  animal  food,  except  in 
circumstances  in  which  even  the  cow  and  the 
sheep  become  carnivorous,  i.  e.,  when  suffering 
from  extreme  famine,  and  goaded  on  by  excessive 
and  tormenting  hunger. 

Now  it  is  important  to  reflect  that  the  lower 
animals  have  neither  the  mental  nor  voluntary 
powers  to  deprave  their  natural  instincts  to  any 
considerable  extent.  In  a  state  of  nature,  when 
food  is  abundant,  there  is  always  harmony  between 
their  organizations,  their  instincts,  and  their 
habits.  But  man's  superior  intellectual  and 
voluntary  powers  not  only  increase  his  ability  to 
supply  his  bodily  wants  in  all  the  varying  cir- 
cumstances of  seasons  and  conditions,  but  also 
increase  his  power  of  multiplying  those  wants  by 
his  artificial  modes  of  supplying  them,  by  com- 
plicated cookery,  and  by  the  circumstances  of 
social  and  civic  life. 

But  in  thus  violatiujr  the  constitutional  laws  of 


54 


ACCRINGTON   VEGETARIAN   ASSOCIATION   LECTURE. 


his  nature,  man  necessarily  not  only  depraves  the 
natural  instincts,  propensities,  and  sensibilities  of 
his  body,  and  increases  the  force  and  despotism  of 
his  wants  upon  his  intellectual  and  voluntary 
powers,  but  he  also  impairs  his  mental  faculties, 
blunts  his  moral  perceptions,  deteriorates  his 
whole  nature,  and  that  of  his  race,  and  tends  to 
the  destruction  of  body  and  mind. 

Nothing  is  more  erroneous  than  the  claims 
that  are  set  up  for  the  dietetic  aberrations  of 
man  on  the  score  of  his  reason.  That  can- 
not nullify  any  physiological  or  other  natural 
law ;  and  unless  exercised  in  subordination 
to  the  physical  and  moral  laws,  would  only 
be  a  superior  ability  to  make  himself  miserable, 
because  his  animal  nature  appeals  to  his  intel- 
lectual and  voluntary  faculties  to  assist  in  pro- 
curing' present  enjoyment. 

Having  concluded  my  observations  on  the 
teeth,  I  may  just  glance  at  some  other  parts  of 
structure  in  which  mankind  differs  from  carnivo- 
rous animals,  and  resembles  the  herbivora. 

The  salivary  glands  of  herbivorous  animals 
are  comparatively  larger  than  those  of  carnivo- 
rous animals.  Herbivorous  animals  have  a 
much  longer  alimentary  canal.  The  calibre  or 
diameter  of  the  whole  alimentary  canal  is  re- 
latively much  greater  in  man  than  in  carnivoroxis 
animals,  and,  moreover,  the  numerous  folds  or 
wrinkles  in  the  mucous  membrane  very  con- 
siderably increase  its  length  of  surface.  In  the 
earn  iora  the  colon  is  never  cellulated,  but 
always  cylindrical,  and  comparatively  much 
smaller.  The  stomach  of  the  carnivora  is 
simple,  and  not  fitted  to  retain  the  food  for  a 
long  time.  The  herbivorous  animals  and  man 
have  a  stomach  which  is  manifestly  formed  to 
retain  the  food  for  a  considerable  time.  The 
herbivora  and  man  have  an  immense  number  of 
perspiratory  glands  and  pores  in  the  skin,  by 
which  the  superfluous  heat  escapes  :  perspiration 
in  the  carnivora  being  principally  given  off  by 
the  tongue,  the  surface  of  which  is  different 
from  that  of  the  herbivora  and  man.  There  is 
also  another  circumstance  that  is  worthy  of  con- 
sideration. I  have  observed  before  that  there  is 
always  harmony  between  the  structure  of  an 
animal  and  its  habits.  There  is  a  habit  in  rela- 
tion to  carnivorous  animals  that  is  not  generally 
noticed,  but  is  worthy  of  notice.  You  all  know 
that  dogs  and  cats,  and  all  other  carnivorous 
animals,  lap  up  the  water  with  their  tongu?. 
You  never  saw  an  herbivorous  animal  do  this, 
they  suck  or  drink  it  up  as  man  does.  This  is  a 
habit  resulting  from  structure  or  natural  in- 
stinct, and  is  a  proof  to  the  many  others  that 
man  is  naturally  a  frugivorous  animal. 

I  think  it  is,  therefore,  certain  that  the  whole 
evidence  of  comparative  anatomy,  when  cor- 
rectly estimated,  goes  to  prove  that  man  is 
naturally  a  frugivorous  animal.  The  names  of 
many  men  eminent  in  science,  as  anatomists  and 
physiologists,  naturalists  and  physicians,  both 
foreign  and  English,  might  be  brought  to  con- 
firm this  opinion.  The  mighty  minds,  who 
scrutinize  the  forms  and  properties,  and  laws  of 
things,  and  move  the  intellectual  and  moral  uni- 
verse, are  not  sustained  and  excited  by  flesh  and 


wine.  The  grandest  performance  of  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  was  made  whilst  his  body  was 
nourished  only  bv  bread  and  water.  Howard, 
Swedenborg,Wesley,  Shillitoe,  and  a  long 
list  of  abstainers  might  be  added. 

"The  human  system  may  be  considered  a 
piece  of  mechanism,  capable  of  yielding  a  varia- 
ble amount  of  available  force,  that  may  be 
economized  in  proportion  as  intelligence  is  em- 
ployed in  its  management.  It  is,  therefore,  not 
unreasonable  to  conclude  that  the  two  conditions 
of  the  quality  of  the  aliment,  and  the  expense 
of  vitality  by  which  its  use  is  attained,  are  most 
important  matters  in  relation  to  human  welfare." 

All  proper  alimentary  substances  are  the 
natural  and  appropriate  stimuli  of  the  stomach 
and  nerves  of  organic  life.  All  stimulation, 
whether  by  proper  or  improper  means,  causes 
some  exhaustion  to  the  vital  powers  of  the  tissues 
on  which  it  acts.  The  immediate  feeling  of 
strength  produced  by  stimulants  is  no  proof, 
either  that  the  stimulating  substance  is  nourish- 
ing or  salutary,  nor  even  that  it  is  not  baneful. 
Yet  how  many  are  deceived  by  the  temporary 
sensation  thus  produced  !  Strength  apparently 
imparted  by  undue  stimulation,  induces  pre- 
mature and  permanent  weakness.  It  is,  there- 
fore, one  of  the  most  important  laws  of  the 
animal  economy,  that  that  aliment  which  is 
most  perfectly  assimilated  and  incorporated  by 
the  vital  functions,  with  the  least  expense  of 
vital  power,  is  best  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the 
system,  and  most  conducive  to  health  and  long 
life. 

These,  then,  are  truths  which  defy  all  con- 
troversy— truths  established  in  the  constitutional 
nature  of  things,  aiid  confirmed  by  human  ex- 
perience— that  flesh-meat  is  not  necessary  to 
nourish  and  sustain  the  human  body  in  the 
healthiest  and  best  manner,  when  proper  vege- 
table food  can  be  obtained ;  that  it  is  much 
more  stimulating  to  the  system,  in  proportion  to 
the  nourishment  which  it  actually  affords,  than  a 
pure  and  proper  vegetable  diet ;  that  it  renders 
the  general  action  of  the  system  more  rapid  gind 
intense,  accelerates  all  the  vital  functions,  in- 
creases the  expenditure  of  the  vital  properties  of 
the  tissues  and  functional  powers  of  the  organs, 
and  more  rapidly  wears  out  the  vital  constitution 
of  the  body ;  and  it  is  almost  equally  certain 
that  it  renders  all  the  vital  processes  of  assimi- 
lation and  nutrition  less  complete  and  perfect. 
Under  a  correct  vegetable  diet  and  regimen, 
there  is  no  organ  of  the  body,  or  faculty  of  the 
mind,  which  does  not  receive  an  increase  of 
normal  sensibility,  or  of  that  power  which  is 
thought  to  be  imparted  to  it  by  the  nervous 
system. 

Every  taste  that  is  truly  exquisite  is  afforded 
by  the  vegetable  kingdom.  In  our  own  climate, 
with  the  assistance  of  known  science  and  art, 
an  immense  variety  and  profusion  of  fruit  and 
grain,  may  be  brought  to  great  perfection. 
Providence  is  very  bountiful  to  us,  an-1  if  all 
cannot  partake  of  these  bounties,  the  hindrances 
are  artificial,  the  obstructions  are  man-made,  and 
may  be  removed  by  improved  social  arrangements, 
upon  the  foundation  of  justice  to  each  other. 


ACCRINGTOX  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION   LECTUEE. 


55 


Various  motives  lead  to  the  giving  up  of 
animal  substances  as  human  food.  Some  per- 
sons have  been  influenced  by  considerations  of 
health,  agility,  and  strength  ;  others  by  economy ; 
some  have  adopted  a  vegetable  diet  for  intel- 
lectual benefit;  and  many  have  been  induced 
primarily,  and  previous  to  any  knowledge  or  ex- 
perience on  the  subject,  on  the  ground  of 
humanity  alone,  from  an  aversion  to  cruelty,  and 
the  destruction  of  life,  and  a  feeling  of  benevo- 
lence, and  kindness  to  the  susceptibilities  of  the 
animal  world. 

John  Oswald,  John  Nicholson,  Sir 
Richard  Phillips,  three  writers  on  the  sub- 
ject, many  years  ago  renounced  the  use  of  flesh 
early  iu  life,  from  the  recoil  and  horror  ex- 
perienced in  their  feelings  at  the  sight  of  a 
slaughter-house.  Many  others  have  obeyed  a 
similar  impulse.  Without  reasoning  or  ex- 
perience, or  doubt  of  results,  they  commenced 
abstinence  on  the  moral  or  religious  ground 
alone,  and  they  lived  to  write,  and  plead  in 
favour  of  it,  not  only  on  that  ground,  but  on 
account  of  the  physiological,  intellectual,  and 
moral  benefits  of  it.  And  how  could  it  be 
otherwise?  Truth  is  always  consistent  with 
itself  in  all  respects.  We  have  already  seen  that 
the  organization  of  man  is  strictly  adapted  to 
a  Vegetarian  diet.  In  harmony  therewith,  there 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  his  primitive  unsophis- 
ticated instincts  would  all  point  to  the  fruit 
trees  as  pleasant  to  the  sight  and  smell,  and 
good  for  food.  At  peace  with  the  whole 
animated  creation,  the  very  thoughts  of  killing 
or  of  cruelty  could  find  no  place  in  him. 

It  was,  probably,  famine  that  first  urged  man 
to  depart  from  the  pure  instincts  of  his  nature, 
and  to  deprive  an  animal  of  life  to  support  his 
own.  This  act  and  its  results  within  him 
would  make  him  more  selfish  and  ferocious. 
The  animal  nature  would  reign,  and  force  and 
violence  be  its  ministers.  Can,  then,  a  practice 
be  conformable  to  reason  and  truth  which  stifles 
the  best  feelings  of  the  human  heart  ?  Can  the 
persons  who  are  employed  to  commit  these  acts, 
by  and  for  others,  fail  of  being  degraded  and 
blunted  by  such  an  occupation ;  and  can  we  be 
free  of  the  responsibility  of  causing  that 
degradation  ? 

Man  cannot  become  aware  of  the  nobility, 
beauty,  height,  and  capacity  of  his  existence 
while  an  erroneous  diet  influences  his  stomach, 
his  nerves,  and  his  brain,  and  pervades  his 
body,  his  feelings,  and  his  thoughts.  As  there 
are  intellectual  facts,  and  mental  being,  into 
which  the  inebriate  can  never  enter,  and  delights 
which  he  can  never  enjoy,  so  there  are  moral 
facts  and  moral  being,  which  can  never  be  revealed, 
and  degrees  of  moral  happiness  that  cannot  be 
enjoyed,  till  all  the  laws  of  harmonious  relation- 
ship are  fully  obeyed. 

The  truly  reflective  mind,  sincerely  aspiring 
to  know,  and  to  exemplify  in  his  own  being, 
whatsoever  is  true  and  good,  will  always  be 
actuated  by  the  highest  and  purest  motives. 
He  will  seek  to  know  himself,  his  entire  nature 
and  capabilities.  He  will  seek  to  cultivate  every 
phase  of  his  being,  physical,  intellectual,  moral. 


social,  spiritual.  He  will  seek  to  exemplify 
in  the  atmosphere  of  love,  light,  and  truth, 
whatsoever  his  wondrous  faculties  were  de- 
signed to  become,  and  to  illustrate.  He 
hath  greater  latent  power  than  he  hath  ever 
imagined.  He  will  believe  that  Infinite  Wisdom 
has  not  made  a  blunder,  and  that  the  organiza- 
tion and  constitution  contain  the  indication  and 
the  germ  of  what  the  being  was  designed 
to  become  and  to  fulfil.  He  will  believe  that 
God  never  sows  dead  seed.  The  seed  he 
sows  he  intends  to  germinate,  to  grow,  to  pro- 
duce fruit.  If  it  remain  inert,  it  is  because  our 
indolence,  our  ignorance,  our  selfishness,  our 
self-wilfulness,  our  want  of  faith,  interpose 
the  obstructions.  Truth  is  as  ready  to  be 
unfolded  as  ever.  Like  the  sun,  it  shines  on 
the  moon,  or  man,  with  unchanging  fidelity,  but 
we  let  sensual  obtusenejs,  like  the  earth,  pass 
between  and  eclipse  its  rays.  The  true  man  will 
endeavour  to  remove  every  obstruction,  that  all 
the  benign  influences  of  truth  may  grow  and 
fructify  within  him.  We  may  then  enjoy  life's 
greatest  blessings  —  a  healthy  body,  a  sound 
understanding,  a  benevolent  heart,  and  a  truth- 
loving  and  truth-seeking  spirit,  ever  progressive 
iu  all  good.    (Applause.) 

Tiie  Chairman  observed  that  all  would,  he 
was  sure,  be  much  obliged  to  Mr.  Palmer  for 
his  lecture,  delivered  originally  on  a  recent  occa- 
sion before  a  large  audience  in  Birmingham. 
For  his  own  part  he  had  had  much  pleasure  in 
listening  to  it.  One  thought  arising  in  the 
minds  of  persons  after  hearing  the  treatment  of 
the  Vegetarian  question  was,  "Is  it  sinful  to  eat 
meat  ?  "  Everybody,  almost,  ate  meat,  and  they 
did  this  without  any  thought  upon  the  matter; 
it  could  not,  therefore,  be  considered  as  a  moral 
offence  or  sin,  though  he  regarded  it  as  a  mis- 
taken practice,  and  thought  a  little  inquiry  upon 
the  subject  would  lead  people  to  give  it  up  for  a 
better  and  happier  one.  Another  common 
thought  was  that  Vegetarians  starved  and  morti- 
fied themselves ;  this,  however,  was  just  as 
false  as  anything  could  be.  The  great  majority 
of  Vegetarians  were  meat-eaters  to  begin  with, 
and  this  was  a  strong  argument  in  favour  of 
Vegetarianism,  since  these  people  had  to  resist 
prevailing  customs,  and  the  opposition  of  their 
friends,  and  the  influence  of  home,  for  women 
were  usually  very  wrong  on  this  system,  as  they 
were  on  the  temperance  question.  They  were 
very  conservative,  and  clung  to  the  wisdom 
of  old  customs,  and  this  was  very  important  in 
relation  to  their  duties  as  mothers  and  nurses ; 
but  once  convince  them  that  Vegetarianism  is 
safe,  right,  and  true,  and  they  would  become  as 
good  Vegetarians  as  any  others.  People  had  thus 
great  objections  and  opposition  to  beat  down  in 
carrying  out  their  practice,  and  they  would  not, 
certainly,  continue  the  struggle  if  they  were  not 
convinced  that  it  was  a  better,  wiser,  and  happier 
system  of  living  than  the  other.  He  did  not,  there- 
fore, think  that  there  was  any  moral  offence  in 
living  in  the  ordinary  dietetic  practices  of  the 
world,  but  thought  it  much  better  and  happier  to 
live  in  the  other  way ;  for  though  the  Creator 
permitted  man  to  live  in  violation  of  his  laws,  in 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


various  waj's,  this  was  obviously  less  happy  than 
living  as  he  had  intended  his  creattires  to  live. 
Mr.  Palmer  had  stated  that  the  carael,  horse, 
stag,  and  some  other  animals,  had  the  cuspid,  or 
"  canine  tooth,"  more  developed  than  man,  and 
that  if  this  proved  anything,  of  course  it  went 
to  show  that  these  animals  were  more  flesh- 
eating  than  man,  whilst  every  one  knew  that 
these  animals  never  eat  flesh  at  all.  When  he 
heard  people  insisting  on  the  "canine  tooth" 
proving  that  man  was  intended  to  eat  flesh,  he 
always  felt  inclined  to  ask,  "  Why  they  did  not  eat 
meat  with  it  ? "  for  the  fact  was,  they  always 
pushed  the  meat  past  it,  and  ate  it  with  the 
cheek-teeth,  or  grinders.  These  teeth,  again, 
were  considered  by  some  to  be  like  some  other 
parts  of  animals,  that  were  called  rudimentary, 
and  were  not  needed  by  man  to  answer  the  pur- 
pose they  served  in  carnivorous  animals — that  of 
seizing  and  tearing  their  food.  Mr,  Palmer 
had  spoken  of  the  stimulation  of  flesh-meat,  and 
this  circumstance  led  people  to  suppose  they  got 
something  different  to  what  they  could  have  from 
vegetable  substances.  This  stimulation,  bowever, 
was  not  strength,  it  was,  in  some  degree,  like  taking 
a  glass  of  brandy  ;  it  produced  a  febrile  excite- 
ment, like  putting  the  spur  to  tbe  horse,  which 
merely  brought  out  tbe  latent  principle  which 
was  there  before ;  the  stimulation  of  flesh-meat 
only  quickened  the  circulation,  and  caused  men 
to  live  faster ;  but  this  fast  living  was  a  disad- 
vantage, and  children  fed  on  the  mixed-diet 
system  looked  older  sooner  than  those  living  in 
the  Vegetarian  practice.  If  they  did  not  entirely 
escape  such  diseases  as  small-pox  and  measles, 
these  had  quite  a  diff"erent  hold  upon  them  to 
what  they  had  in  flesh-eating  families,  and  gave 
little  or  no  concern.  Mr.  Simpson  then 
referred  to  the  want  of  information  on  these 
subjects  amongst  all  classes,  and  he  thus  feared 
that  some  might  not  have  been  so  much  inte- 
rested in  the  lecture,  as  of  a  highly  intellectual 
character,  as  might  otherwise  have  been  the  case. 


He  wished  there  were  greater  facilities  for 
reading,  and  acquiring  a  taste  for  reading,  and  if 
any  present  knew  of  any  libraries  in  Accrington 
where  bonks  on  tbe  subject  of  diet  could  be 
placed,  and  be  well  read,  he  hoped  they  would  let 
him  know,  and  he  would  take  care  the  books 
were  supplied.  Working  men  often  deceived 
themselves,  and  supposed  they  were  meat-eaters, 
and  could  not  do  without  it,  when  in  fact  they 
only  partook  of  it  occasionally,  and  usually  ou 
the  Sunday,  the  day  they  did  not  work,  going 
through  their  ordinary  labour  almost  without 
using  it  at  all.  He  commended  the  snbject  to 
all,  as  one  of  importance,  and  assured  them  that 
the  opinion  of  all  the  greatest  naturalists — such 
as  LiNN^us,  CuviER,  MoNBODDO — was,  that 
man  was  naturally  a  fruit-eating,  grain-eating, 
and  vegetable-eating  animal,  whatever  be  might 
have  become  by  acquired  habit.  Man  might  live 
in  other  ways  than  what  were  natural,  just  as  the 
sheep  had  been  taught  to  live  on  mutton  and  to 
refuse  grass.  They  saw  people  taught  to  smoke 
and  chew  tobacco,  to  take  snuflF,  to  chew  opium, 
and  even  to  eat  arsenic  (as  they  did  in  some 
districts  of  Austria) ;  but  all  these  were  un- 
natural and  artificial  habits,  and  the  stomach 
rebelled  against  them  until  it  became  trained  to 
their  use.  The  Vegetarian  system,  on  the  con- 
trary, was  natural,  and  harmonized  with  man's 
nature ;  it  was  appointed,  at  first,  when  all 
things  were  pronounced  to  be  "  very  good,"  and 
science — God's  spoken  voice  in  creation — as  well 
as  experience,  proved  that  it  was  still  the  happiest 
and  best.     (Applause.) 

Several  objections  and  inquiries  were  then 
submitted  by  one  or  other  of  the  audience, 
in  relation  to  the  gastric  fluid,  animals 
preying  on  other  animals,  what  is  to  be 
done  with  the  animals  ?  etc.,  and  these 
being  replied  to  by  the  Chairman  and  the 
Lecturer,  the  audience  separated  at  about 
ten  o'clock. 


LOCAL    OPEEATIONS 

VEGETARIAN    SOCIETY. 

New  List  of  Members. — During  the  progress  of 
the  New  List  of  Members  of  the  Society,  now 
in  the  printer's  hands,  opportunity  is  still  afforded 
for  correcting  and  supplying  some  of  the  addresses 
which  may  have  been  omitted  to  be  forwarded. 
With  the  issue  of  the  List,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
exertions  will  be  made  to  supply  every  information 
necessary  to  secure  the  correction  of  any  errors  or 
omissions  at  present  without  the  control  of  the 
compilers. 

W.  G. — Prize  Essays. — Information  respecting 
the  prize  essays  will  shortly  be  given.  One  will 
be  on  the  subject  of  tbe  domestic  application  of 
our  system,  and  another  on  the  more  general 
interests  of  the  movement.  These  two  subjects 
are  put  forward  as  suggestions  adopted  at  the 
Conference  of  the  Annual  Meeting;  but  it  is 
probable  that  another  prize  will  be  offered  by  a 
gentleman,  for  the  assemblage  of  the  most  prac- 
tical objections  to  the  Vegetarian  system,  con- 
sidering, from  the  fewness  of  the  arguments  to 


AND    -INTELLIGENCE. 

I  be  adduced  in  this  direction,  there  will  be  con- 
siderable advantage  in  having  them  presented 
for  consideration.  The  Glasgow  Association, 
also,  we  are  told,  is  likely  to  offer  a  prize  for  an 
essay  on  some  particular  subject  shortly  to  be 
fixed  upon. 

John  Andrew,  Jun.,  Secretary. 

ACCRINGTON. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — We  have  resumed  our 
public  teaching  in  this  locality,  by  the  delivery  of 
an  interesting  lecture  on  the  The  Teeth  of  Man 
as  demonstrating  that  the  Vegetarian  Practice  of 
Diet  is  in  strict  accordance  with  Nature,  by  Mr.  J, 
G.  Palmer,  of  Birmingham,  on  Monday  Even- 
ing, September  10th,  at  Accrington,  and  on  the 
following  evening  the  lecture  was  repeated  in  the 
New  Jerusalem  School  Room,  Oswaldtwistle, 
James  Simpson,  Esq.,  the  President  of  the 
Association,  presiding  on  both  occasions.  W.  S. 

barnsley. 
Vegetarian  Lecture. — A  lecture  on  the  Teeth 


LOCAL   OPEEATTONS   AND   mTELLIGENCE. 


57 


of  Man,  illustrated  by  diagrams  of  the  human 
and  canine  teeth,  was  delivered  in  the  Mechanics' 
Hall,  on  Thursday  Evening,  Sep.,  6th,  by  J.  G. 
Palmer,  Esq.  of  Birmingham.  Mr.  J.  Andrew 
JuN.,  of  Leeds,  the  Secretary  of  the  Vegetarian 
Society,  presided,  and  introduced  the  lecturer 
in  an  appropriate  address.  We  anticipate  much 
useful  inquiry  as  the  result  of  the  lecture. 

E.  M. 

BIRMINGHAM. 

Vegetarian  Soiree. — We  are  anticipating  some 
public  effort  in  relation  to  a  Soiree  on  a  large 
scale  very  shortly,  but  our  arrangements  are  not 
sufficiently  matured  to  enable  us  to  give  further 
particulars  at  present.  J.  G.  P. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — On  Tuesday  evening,  Sep- 
tember 4th,  Mr.  W.  G.  Ward  of  Handsworth, 
President  of  the  Birmingham  Vegetarian  Associa- 
tion, delivered  a  lecture  in  the  Temperance  Hall, 
Ann  Street,  Birmingham,  being  the  last  of  a  series 
of  lectures  in  connection  with  the  Association.  The 
subject  of  the  lecture  was  The  Vegetarian  Larder 
and  Cookery,  and  was  ably  treated  under  the  fol- 
lowing heads.  1st.  A  survey  of  the  vegetable 
prodiicts  of  the  world.  2nd.  Our  natural  Vege- 
tarian resources.  3rd.  Cookery  of  various  dishes. 
Under  this  last  division  the  lecturer  gave  a  quo- 
tation from  a  French  writer,  who  says,  tliat  he 
who  invents  a  new  dish  is  greater  than  he  who 
discovered  a  star,  as  we  have  enough  of  stars  but 
can  never  have  too  many  dishes.  The  peroration 
was  eloquent  indeed,  and  elicited  the  applause 
and  admiration  of  all  present.  This  concluded 
our  course  of  six  lectures,  which  we  think  have 
produced  good  effects  in  many  quarters,  in  a 
quiet  way,  as  we  every  now  and  then  hear  of  one 
or  two  individuals  practising  Vegetarianism.  We 
hope  after  the  Soiree  in  the  Town  Hall,  which  is 
proposed  to  take  place  about  the  first  week  in 
November,  to  get  out  a  new  programme  of  Lec- 
tures for  the  winter  months,  so  as  to  keep  the 
Vegetarian  question  before  the  minds  of  the 
people,  that  truth  and  simplicity  may  be  helped 
and  advanced  so  as  to  meet  aud  expose  the  errors 
of  the  false  customs  of  society.  C.  R.  K. 

COLCHESTER. 

Influence. — T  cannot  report  any  new  adherents 
to  our  ranks  this  month,  but  frequently  hear  of 
persons  trying  our  practice  and  of  others  who 
now  eat  but  little  meat,  who  before  the  operations 
of  our  Society  looked  upon  their  daily  allowance 
of  flesh-meat  as  almost  indispensable,  but  now  re- 
gard it  as  a  secondary  consideration.  A  person 
came  into  ray  shop  this  afternoon,  and  told  me 
that  he  had  four  children  who  had  not  tasted  in- 
toxicating drink.  I  informed  him  that  I  had  not 
only  four  children  who  had  not  tasted  intoxicating 
drink,  but  who  had  never  tasted  flesh-meat,  also, 
and  two  others  who  had  forgotten  the  taste  of  it 
altogether,  and  the  elder  one  coming  in  at  the 
time,  evidently  proved  to  his  satisfaction  the 
sufficiency  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  to  supply 
all  our  food.  J.  B. 

CRAWSHAWBOOTH. 

Annual  Meeting  and  Entertainment. — Our 
operations  have  been  continued ;  we  have  held 
one  meeting  of  a  conversational   character,  on 


the  27th  of  July,  when  an  address  was  given  by 
Mr.  John  Chalk,  on  The  Duties  of  Vegetarians. 
Our  Annual  Meeting  was  held  on  the  4th  of 
August,  on  which  occasion,  the  committee 
decided  upon  fixing  an  entertainment  on  a 
limited  scale,  intending  it  principally  for  their 
friends,  and  accordingly  about  fifty  persons  sat 
down  to  an  abundant  Vegetarian  provision,  at 
four  o'clock.  The  repast  being  over,  the  officers 
for  the  following  year  were  elected,  and  Mr.  J. 
Chalk  being  re-elected  President  of  the  Associ- 
ation, took  the  chair  for  the  evening.  The 
report  was  then  read,  and  the  meeting  addressed 
by  nearly  all  the  male  members  present,  all  of 
them  testifying  to  the  superior  benefits  they 
derived  from  the  adoption  of  a  Vegetarian  diet. 
The  proceedings,  which  gave  great  satisfaction, 
were  kept  up  till  about  ten  o'clock.  We  regret 
that  we  have  not  been  able  to  furnish  a  more 
detailed  account  of  the  meeting.  W.  H. 

DUNFERMLINE. 

Operations. — We  have  little  to  record  in  the 
way  of  public  efforts  in  this  district,  but  have 
continued  to  circulate  tracts.  Messengers,  and 
Cookery  books,  apparently  to  little  purpose, 
though  one  day  the  fruit  may  appear  and  show 
that  these  have  not  been  useless.  J.  D. 

EDINBURGH. 

Monthly  Meetings. — We  have  had  two  meetings 
since  our  last  report  in  the  Messenger.  The 
first  on  July  11th,  when  Robert  Shiels,  Esq., 
presided,  for  discussion  and  conversation,  at 
which  about  fifteen  persons  were  present.  The 
other  was  held  on  Wednesday  evening,  Aug.  8th, 
at  Buchanan's  Temperance  Hotel,  Mr.  Shiels 
again  presiding,  when,  probably  owing  to  the 
very  unfavourable  weather,  there  were  only  ten 
persons  present.  Mr.  J.  C.  Gates  read  the 
introduction  to  the  Vegetarian  Cookery,  which, 
as  presenting  a  comprehensive  digest  of  the 
arguments  of  our  system,  afforded  a  subject  for 
conversation  during  the  evening. 

Distribution  of  Tracts. — We  have  distributed 
about  250  tracts,  and  lend  copies  of  Fruits  and 
Farinacea  to  those  seeking  information,  and 
some  are  experimenting  in  our  practice  of  diet, 
one  at  least  having  made  the  declaration  required 
by  the  Society. 

Public  Operations. — Since  the  above  commu- 
nication, we  are  hopeful  of  having  a  meeting  or 
lecture  in  Queen  Street  Hall,  from  the  President 
of  the  Society,  similar  to  what  served  to  draw 
attention  to  the  Vegetarian  question  last  year. 

J.  R. 

GLASGOW. 

Monthly  Meetings. — We  continue  our  monthly 
meetings,  and  are  still  circulating  a  considerable 
qiiantity  of  Vegetarian  literature.  A  meeting 
was  held  on  the  7th  of  August,  on  which 
occasion  Mr.  Cunliffe's  excellent  lecture  on 
Vegetarianism  in  relation  to  the  Pleasures  of 
Life,  as  reported  in  the  Messenger,  was  read  to 
the  meeting  by  Mr.  James  Henderson,  with 
comments,  and  formed  the  subject  of  discussion 
for  the  evening.  At  the  close  of  the  proceed- 
ings, Mr.  Holding,  by  request  of  the  meeting. 


58 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND   INTELLIGENCE. 


gave  an  interesting  account  of  the  late  Vege- 
tarian Conference  and  Meeting  in  Manchester, 
and  three  new  members  were  enrolled.  It  is  in- 
tended to  discuss  the  pamphlet  recently  issued 
in  Manchester,  under  the  title  of  The  Vegetarian 
Humbug,  by  a  Beef  Eater,  at  our  next  monthly 
meeting. 

Annual  Meeting  of  the  Association. — We  are 
looki  ng  forward  to  the  Annual  Meeting  of  ou 
Association,  which  is  now  fixed  for  October  4th, 
when  we  hope  to  celebrate  the  occasion  with  a 
Vegetarian  Banquet,  the  arrangements  for 
which  will  exceed  those  of  our  previous  festi- 
vals. There  is  a  growing  interest  in  our  views, 
and  our  faith  in  the  progress  of  Vegetarianism 
continues  unabated.  J.  S. 

HULL. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — On  "Wednesday  evening 
Sep.  5th,  a  most  interesting  lecture  on  the  Teeth 
of  Man,  was  delivered  in  the  Odd  Fellows'  Hall, 
Lowgate,  by  J.  G.  Palmer,  Esq.,  of  Birming- 
ham, illustrated  by  diagrams  of  the  human  and 
canine  teeth.  The  body  of  the  hall  was  filled. 
Mr.  Ward,  of  London,  occupied  the  chair,  and 
in  a  few  brief  remarks  introduced  the  lecturer. 
After  the  lecture,  an  opportunity  was  given  for 
any  question  to  be  put  to  the  lecturer  on  the 
subject.  Several  individuals,  among  whom  were 
two  or  three  professional  dentists,  took  part  in 
a  discussion  which  followed,  and  were  replied 
to  in  a  calm  and  friendly  spirit.  The  lecture 
was  listened  to  with  much  attention,  and  a  vote 
of  thanks  was  unanimously  accorded  to  Mr. 
Palmer  at  the  close  of  the  proceedings. 

Diseased  Cattle. — A  homoeopathic  chemist, 
who  is  also  a  veterinary  surgeon,  has  given  up 
eating  meat,  along  with  the  whole  of  his  family, 
through  seeing  the  diseased  animals  prepared  for 
market.  T.  D.  H. 

LEEDS. 

Vegetarian  Lectures. — Mr.  J.  G.  Palmer,  of 
Birmingham,  delivered  his  excellent  lecture  on 
the  Teeth  of  Man,  as  demonstrating  that  the 
Vegetarian  Practice  of  Diet  is  in  strict  accordance 
with  Nature,  at  Woodhouse,  and  also  in  Call 
Lane  Chapel,  Leeds.  The  attendance  at  the 
latter  place  was  very  good,  considering  the  fine 
weather  and  the  circumstance  of  two  other 
meetings  of  an  attractive  nature  being  held  the 
same  evening.  Mr.  J.  Andrew,  Jun.,  of  Leeds, 
presided  on  both  occasions,  conversation  and 
discussion  being  allowed  at  the  close  of  the 
lectures,  and  a  very  favourable  impression  was 
produced.  J.  A.  J. 

LONDON. 

Vegetarian  Discussion. — A  discussion  on  Vege- 
tarianism was  held  at  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  Aldersgate  Street,  on  the  10th  of 
July.  The  subject  attracted  considerable  inter- 
est. Those  who  have  examined  the  subject  had 
an  opportunity  of  giving  a  reason  for  their  faith ; 
and  those  who  had  not  examined  it,  expressed 
various  doubts  and  many  prejudices.  Health 
ought  to  be  an  object  with  the  young,  and  we 
shall  be  glad  to  find  that  custom  and  fashion 


are  more  often  questioned,  and  science  ap- 
pealed to,  in  reference  to  what  we  eat  and 
drink.  F.  T. 

Contemplated  Operations. — No  public  meeting 
has  been  held  in  London  lately,  but  we  are  in- 
tending to  hold  one  ere  long.  We  are  also  pre- 
paring to  offer  lectures  to  Literary  Institutions, 
as  we  did  last  year. 

Dissemination  of  Information. — The  Vegetarian 
Messenger  is  being  somewhat  largely  distributed 
here,  and  brief  reports  of  the  recent  Public 
Meeting,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Annual  Meeting 
of  the  Society  in  Manchester,  have  been  secured 
in  the  Daily  News,  Patriot,  Daily  Telegraph,  and 
Empire  newspapers,  which  will  doubtless  extend 
the  knowledge  of  our  movements  in  new  quarters. 

G.  D. 

MANCHESTER. 

Public  Lecture. — For  the  first  time  since  the 
proceedings  of  the  Annual  Meeting,  we  have 
had  a  meeting  of  our  Vegetarian  friends,  on  the 
occasion  of  having  a  lecture  on  the  teeth  and 
physiological  structure  of  man.  The  lecture  was 
delivered  in  the  School  Room  of  Christ  Church, 
Hulme,  by  Mr.  Palmer,  of  Birmingham,  Trea- 
surer to  the  Society,  and  was  well  attended,  Mr. 
Alderman  Harvey,  of  Salford,  in  the  chair. 

J.  S.  J. 

METHVEN. 

Vegetarian  Meeting. — Our  operations  since 
our  last  have  been  restricted  to  the  distribution 
of  tracts,  and  the  holding  of  a  meeting,  at  which 
an  address  on  our  principles  was  given  to  a  small 
audience.  We  also  lend  the  Messenger  to  those 
seeking  information  respecting  Vegetarianism. 
There  appears  to  be,  in  this  northern  clime,  an 
absolute  ingrained  antipathy  to  man's  normal 
food.     A  few,  however,  are  beginning  to  inquire. 

G.  B.  W. 

NEWCASTLE. 

Personal  Influence. — The  subject  of  Vegetarian 
diet  is  nearly  every  day  discussed  with  me  by 
various  parties  I  meet  with  at  eating-houses, 
which  I  am  now  compelled  to  frequent.  My 
Vegetarian  dinner  is  a  standing  joke  among  the 
eaters  of  beef-steaks  and  mutton-chops,  though 
they  generally  approve  of  my  plan. 

Public  Meeting. — We  are  looking  forward  to  a 
meeting  here,  which  will  no  doubt  open  the  eyes 
as  well  as  the  ears  of  many  who  now  think  the 
wisdom  is  all  on  their  side.  At  the  close  of  this 
month,  or  early  in  next  (most  probably  the 
latter  time)  we  expect  to  have  the  President  of 
the  Society  here,  to  hold  a  meeting  such  as  we 
have  long  hoped  for.  J.  M. 

salford. 

Lecture  on  the  Teeth  of  Man. — Mr.  Palmer 
kindly  favoured  us  by  repeating  his  lecture  on 
the  Teeth  of  Man,  at  the  School  Room,  King 
Street,  Salford,  to  a  small  audience,  Mr.  Harvey 
presiding.  We  are  happy  to  have  "  broken 
ground,"  once  again,  in  old  quarters,  and  hope 
that  more  peaceful  results  will  follow,  than  those 
usually  associated  with  this  term.  S.  J. 


BANQUET   OF  THE   GLASGOW  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION. 


59 


BANQUET  OF  THE  GLASGOW  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION 


The  third  Annual  Festival  of  the  Glasgow 
Vegetarian  Association  was  held  on  the  4th 
of  October,  in  the  Merchants'  Hall,  the  occa- 
sion being  celebrated  by  a  Vegetarian  Ban- 
quet on  an  extended  scale,  tables  being 
placed  along  the  whole  Hall  so  as  to  afford 
accommodation  to  about  340  guests.  The 
company  assembled  was  most  respectable, 
and  numbered  representatives  of  every 
influential  class  of  the  social  community. 
The  provision  of  the  tables  comprised 
savoury  pies,  mushroom  pies,  savoury  frit- 
ters, savoury  sandwiches,  moulded  rice,  se- 
molina, tous-les-mois,  cheesecakes,  fresh  and 
preserved  fruits,  tea,  and  the  minor  articles 
of  the  tea-table  ;  these  being  tastefully  ar- 
ranged, and  the  tables  decorated  with  bou- 
quets of  flowers  and  evergreens.  During 
the  Banquet  an  excellent  band  performed 
various  popular  airs,  and  at  the  conclusion 
the  company  joined  in  singing  two  verses  from 
Goisdsmitk's  Hermit.  James  Simpsox,  Esq., 
of  Foxhill  Bank,  Lancashire,  President  of  the 
Association,  occupied  the  chair,  and  on  the 
platform,  amongst  others,  were  Mr.  Parker 
PiLLSBURY,  of  America  ;  Mr.  Palmer,  Mr. 
Shiels,  of  Edinburgh  ;  Mr.  J .  G.  Crav^- 
FORD,  Mr.  Holding,  Mr.  Russell,  Mr. 
Menzies,  Mr.  Couper,  Mr.  Burns,  and 
Mr.  John  Smith  ;  Mrs.  Simpson,  Mrs. 
Couper,  and  Mrs.  Smith  ;  whilst,  in  the 
body  of  the  Hall  Ave  noticed,  John  Ronald, 
Esq.,  Robert  Wylie,  Esq.,  Andrew  Pa- 
ton,  Esq.,  W.  Boyd,  Esq.,  Rev.  Henry 
Crosskey,  Mrs.  Cros^key,  Mrs.  S.  Brown, 
Miss  ScHWABE,  Mrs.  Fergus  Ferguson, 
Mrs.  Lang,  Mrs.  Alexander  Hutcheson, 
J.  L.  Lang,  Esq.,  J.  Jackson,  Esq.,  Lach- 
LAN  Mackay,  Esq.,  Mrs.  Mackay,  R. 
Kaye,  Esq.,  Dr.  Buchanan,  Mrs.  Bucha- 
nan, T.  French,  Esq.,  Mrs.  Torrens,  Mrs. 
Sharp,  Mrs.  Barclay,  Neil  Mc  Neil, 
Esq.,  President  of  the  Abstainer's  Union, 
Mr.  R.  Davidson,  Miss  Davidson,  Mr.  J. 
Mitchell,  Superintendent  of  the  Temper- 
ance Mission,  Mr.Mc  Kinnell,  of  the  Athe- 
naeum, Mrs.  Mc  Kinnell,  Mr.  A.  Glendin- 
ning,  Port-Glasgow  ;  Mr.  M.  Templeton, 
Beith ;  Messrs.  Caldwell,  Andrew,  and 
Motherwell,  of  Paisley,  etc.,  etc. 
At  a  little  before  eight  o'clock. 

The  Chairman  rose  and  addressed  the 
meeting  at  considerable  length.  He  commenced 
by  guarding  the  strangers  present  from  sup- 
posing that  an  entertainment  like  that  which 
had  been  served  up  was  the  most  that  could  be 
provided  on  the  Vegetarian  system  of  diet.  It 
was  a  very  small  instance  of  the  provision  of 
Vegetarians,  and  amongst  several  obvious 
reasons,  one  was,  that  in  Glasgow  there  were,  as 
yet,  few  Vegetarian  cooks.     It  was  in  the  pro- 


vision of  the  social  circle  they  could  best  judge 
of  the  Vegetarian  system  of  diet.  It  was  not 
iu  "cabbage,"  Vegetarians  rejoiced  even  so  much 
as  the  meat-eaters ;  but  it  was  in  the  roots, 
fruits,  grain,  and  other  products  of  the  earth, 
which  formed  the  bases  of  numerous  dishes,  and 
when  combined  with  milk,  butter,  and  eggs, 
(which  most  Vegetarians  partook  of,  at  least  in 
a  transition  period  of  their  practice),  embraced 
the  whole  range  of  soups,  principal  dishes, 
vegetables,  farinaceous  dishes,  and  an  abundance 
of  fruit,  so  as  to  afford  every  enjoyment  in 
partaking  of  these,  and  abundantly  to  satisfy 
even  the  most  scrupulous  on  the  question  of 
diet.  The  objects  of  the  Vegetarian  move- 
ment were  those  of  benevolence — the  aim  of  its 
adherents  was  to  do  good  in  the  world.  Eight 
years  had  elapsed  since  the  Vegetarian  Society 
was  first  organized,  of  which  the  Glasgow 
Association  was  a  branch,  and  during  that  time 
they  had  taken  every  occasion  to  promulgate 
their  principles  in  lectures,  meetings,  and  enter- 
tainments of  the  present  description.  Their 
simple  bond  of  union  was,  abstinence  from  the 
flesh  of  animals  as  food,  and  combining  to  pro- 
mulgate the  advantages  of  subsisting  on  fruits, 
roots,  grain,  and  other  products  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom,  instead.  Their  advocacy  had  hitherto 
been  "  without  money  and  without  price  "  to  the 
p\iblic,  as  all  good  things  should  be ;  but  though, 
when  entertainments  similar  to  that  had  had  to 
be  addressed  to  the  reasoning  and  reflective,  and 
they  had  been  compelled  to  seek  anything  in 
return,  they  had  generally  proceeded  upon  the 
uncommercial  calculation  of  expending  £100  to 
receive  £50  in  return,  they  did  certainly  find,  in 
the  increasing  demands  of  their  movement,  that 
they  were  now  open  to  bequests  from  the  benevo- 
lent, similar  to  that  recently  left  to  the  Society 
by  the  late  excellent  Mr.  Wilson  of  Bradford, 
as  well  as  to  the  benevolence  of  others  approving 
of  their  principles,  even  though  not  fully  adopt- 
ing them,  of  which  there  were  numerous 
instances.  The  practice  and  motives  of  Vege- 
tarians had,  however,  been  much  misunderstood 
by  some.  He  made  special  reference  to  a 
leading  article  which  had  recently  appeared  in 
the  Daily  News.  The  Vegetarians  were  certainly 
very  good  people,  in  some  respects,  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  writer  of  that  article ; — zealous 
people  for  sanitary  reform — downright  teetotallers 
— great  peace  men — but,  here  and  there,  he  fell 
into  misconceptions  concerning  them,  as  being 
very  intolerant  towards  other  individuals  in 
connection  with  their  practice  of  eating  the  flesh 
of  animals  as  food,  obviously  mistaking  what 
was  said  of  the  system,  and  applying  it  to  indi- 
viduals, a  blunder  which  he  considered  to  be 
quite  inexcusable.  It  was  affirmed  of  Vege- 
tarians that  they  went  "too far;"  but  the  same 
had  been  at  first  said  respecting  all  other  move- 
ments. The  railway  system  was  denounced  as  a  mad 
project  to  begin  with,  and  all  civilizing  institutions 
were  received  in  like  manner.  Nay,  in  remote 
times,  the  reception  of  the  truths  of  Christianisra 
was  a  notable  instance  of  this ;  and,  if  persecu- 


60 


BANQUET   OF  THE  GLASGOW  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION. 


tioii  awaited  the   promulgation  of  truth  in  ages 
gone  by,  and  ridicule  beset  them  now,  they  would 
not  take  exception  to  people,  or  turn  from  their 
mission  for  that.     The  peace  party  considered 
they  went  "too  far";  and  he  admitted  that  Vege- 
tarians did  go  further  than  them,  for  they  held 
the  brief,  not  merely  for  the  defence  of  mankind 
in  the  abolition  of  war,  but  for  the  putting  down 
of  cruelty  and  evil,  as  far  as  possible,  in  all  suf- 
fering creation,  and  believed  with  the  poet  that 
the   sword  was  never  forged  for  the  purposes  of 
war  till  after  man  had  first   become  accustomed 
to  prey  upon  the  flesh  of  animals.     The  temper- 
ance party  considered  they  went  "too  far,"  but 
the  same  had  been  said  by  the  moderation  party 
when  the  total   abstinence  movement  was  first 
started.      However,   to  their   brethren    of   the 
temperance  world,  he  admitted  that  they  must, 
also,  at    first,   seem   somewhat    presumptuous. 
They  said  their  system  included  that  of  temper 
ance.     They  could  prove  that  there  was  a  physical 
and  chemical  seesaw  kept  up  between  the  con- 
sumption of  flesh  and  alcoholic  beverages,   and 
many  instances  could  be  produced  in  which  par- 
ties, who  had  never  intended  to  become  teeto- 
tallers, but  had  taken  up  the  practice  of  Vege- 
tarianism, became  established  teetotallers.  Again, 
it  could  be  shown,  on  the  other  hand,  that  Vege- 
tarians who,  from  social  influences  or  experiment, 
persisted  in  using  alcohol,  were  driven  back  upon 
a  craving  for  flesh.     The  great  difference  of  the 
two  systems  was,  that  while  teetotalism  merely 
removed   the    alcoholic  drink.  Vegetarianism,  at 
the  same  time,  removed  the  appetite  for  it.  (Hear, 
hear.)    This  was  an  important  fact  to  be  known, 
and,  as  it  was  admitted  that  teetotalism,  in  cer- 
tain cases,  could  hardly  hold  her  own,  he  com- 
mended these  considerations  to  the  attention  of 
those  most  interested  in  them.     To  both  these 
classes   of  philanthropists,  with   whom  Vegeta- 
rians laboured   heartily,   they  said,  "  Come  up 
hither,  and  see  what  more  can  be  done  to  make  the 
world  happier,    by   having    less    slaughter    and 
bloodshed,  fewer  things  repugnant  to  refinement, 
life  more  in  harmony  with  high  principles,  and 
good  things  easier  to  everybody."  Mr.  Simpson 
then   proceeded   to   notice   the   sources  whence 
Vegetarians  drew  authority  for  their  convictions. 
Vegetarians  regarded  man   as  a  physical,  intel- 
lectual,  moral,    and  spiritual  being,   and   their 
belief  was  that  no  system  of  happiness  could  be 
carried  out  on  earth  unless  the  great  attributes  of 
man  were  made  to  harmonize  together.   He  refer- 
red to  history,  from  w  hich  it  was  learned  that  man 
first  lived  on  "the  herb  bearing  seed,  and  the  fruit- 
tree  yielding  fruit,"  proving  that  the  system  advo- 
cated by  Vegetarians  was  not  a  new  one,  but  that 
they  were  merely  advocating  a  return  to  the  oldest 
system  of  all,  and  the  very  system  to  which  the 
prophecy  in  relation  to  a  future  period  referred, 
when    "  nothing  shall  hurt  or  destroy."     Two- 
thirds    to    three-fourths   of   the  people  of  the 
earth  lived   on   the   products   of  the  vegetable 
kingdom,   and   only  a  section  ate   the   flesh   of 
animals.     The  greatest  nations  of  ancient  times 
— the    Greeks,  Eoraans,    and    Persians, — and 
almost  all  the  ancients — subsisted  on  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  if  we  looked 


to  the  periods  of  their  fall  only,  we  should  find 
them  identified  with  the  consumption  of  the 
flesh  of  animals  as  food,  and  the  shameful  luxu- 
i  ries  which  disgraced  the  latter  period  of  their 
histories.  The  men  of  greatest  strength — those 
who  could  lift  the  heaviest  weights  and  those  who 
possessed  the  most  beautiful  forms — were  found, 
now,  as  in  times  past,  to  subsist  on  vegetable 
products.  He  referred  in  this  to  the  porters  of 
the  east,  the  Greek  boatmen,  and  others.  Coming 
down  to  modern  times,  and  viewing  both  sides  of 
the  question,  there  were  hundreds  besides  those 
connected  with  the  Vegetarian  Association,  he 
might  say  thousands,  who  declared  that  to  live 
on  the  fruits  of  the  earth  was  a  more  natural, 
better,  and  happier  system  than  the  other.  But 
what  was  to  be  said  of  the  consumption  of  flesh 
as  a  matter  of  history?  It  was  said  by  some 
that  since  the  fall,  man  had  received  permission 
to  eat  the  flesh  of  animals.  Vegetarians  would 
not  dispute  that,  but  they  considered  the  ap- 
pointment of  man's  food  was  higher  than  the 
permission  to  deviate  from  it.  However,  when 
people  went  to  Scripture,  they  should  mind  what 
part  of  it  they  took  for  exemplars,  lest  by  the 
ground  they  took  they  should  find  themselves 
ranked  among  the  supporters  of  slavery,  capital 
punishments,  the  putting  away  of  wives,  and 
other  practices  existing  in  the  inferior  state  of 
the  Jews,  and  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Christi- 
anity— such  as  the  exacting  of  an  eye  for  an  eye, 
and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  It  was  better  and  safer 
to  adhere  to  the  principles  of  Scripture,  as  it 
was  obvious  many  things  were  permitted,  which, 
as  the  Saviour  said  in  relation  to  the  putting 
away  of  wives,  was, "  for  the  hardness  of  the  heart, 
and  was  not  so  in  the  beginning ; "  any  more 
than  was  the  practice,  he  might  add,  of  con- 
suming flesh.  He  therefore  thought  that  the 
eating  of  animals,  if  regarded  as  a  matter  of 
permission,  did  not  necessarily  involve  the  re- 
constitution  of  man's  nature  after  the  flood, 
there  being  no  reason  to  suppose  the  Creator 
needed  to  re-form  his  "noblest  work."  Human 
nature  was  one,  and,  in  popular  language,  "  the 
voice  of  nature  was  the  voice  of  God,"  and  he 
doubted  not,  that  accepting  the  teaching  of 
human  nature,  and  the  facts  of  science, 
"the  hand-maid  of  religion"  —  the  voice  of 
the  Deity  in  creation — there  was  abundant 
evidence  to  show  that  the  appointed  and 
primitive  food  of  man  was  still  the  most  na- 
tural and  best  for  every  want.  Studying  man  as 
a  physical  being,  with  instincts  like  other  ani- 
mals, we  became  aware  that  his  senses  of  sight 
and  touch  showed  him  no  relation  between  him- 
self and  animals  as  food,  nor  was  there  anything 
but  what  was  repulsive  in  flesh,  and  the  processes 
required  to  prepare  it  for  the  table.  The  tiger, 
however,  manifested  an  unequivocal  relation  to 
his  food  when  he  beheld  it,  in  the  dilated  eye, 
tremulous  pleasure,  and  gush  of  saliva.  There 
was,  however,  certainly  a  corresponding  relation 
between  man  and  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  which 
were  in  all  respects  delightful  to  him.  If 
objected  that  man's  senses  of  taste  and  smell 
identified  the  flesh  of  animals  with  the  "good 
cheer  "  of  the  table,  he  had  simply  to  reply  that 


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61 


the  senses  of  taste  and  smell  were  depraved  by 
acquired  habit,  and  that  abstinence  from  flesh 
for  a  time,  and  the  experience  of  those  who  had 
never  partaken  of  it,  proved  that  both  the  taste 
and  the  smell  were  repugnant  to  the  natural 
instincts  of  man.  The  history  of  the  South  Sea 
missionaries  presented  an  ample  proof  of  this 
disgust  for  flesh,  after  ten  years'  subsistence  on 
fruits  instead.  The  taste  for  flesh-meat  was  thus, 
he  contended,  an  acquired  taste,  such  as  that 
which  man,  "in  his  many  inventions,"  formed  for 
alcoholic  beverages,  smoking,  stuffing  the  nose 
with  tobacco  dust,  chewing  tobacco,  eating  opium, 
and  even  arsenic,  as  practised  in  a  certain  part  of 
Austria.  Man  as  an  intelligent  being  arrived  at 
the  same  conclusions,  attained  by  the  study  of 
his  animal  instincts.  The  teeth,  and  natural 
structure  of  man  otherwise,  approximated  him 
to  the  frugivorous  and  granivorous  animals  ;  and 
from  his  porous  skin,  and  the  lateral  motion  of 
the  jaw,  it  became  evident  to  the  unprejudiced 
inquirer,  not  reasoning  from"  prevailing  custom, 
but  taking  nature  as  a  standard,  that  Linn^us, 
CuviER,  and  the  other  great  naturalists,  were 
right  in  declaring  the  natural  food  of  man  to  be 
"  fruits,  roots,  grain,  and  the  succulent  parts  of 
vegetables,"  whatever  else  he  might  come  to  eat 
"by  acquired  habit."  As  to  the  objection  that 
the  cheek  or  canine  tooth  of  man  was  an  evi- 
dence of  the  Creator's  intention  that  man 
should  eat  flesh,  he  feared,  if  so,  it  only 
proved  man's  great  disobedience,  since  man 
forgot  that  he  never  used  that  tooth  to  eat  flesh 
with  at  all,  but  invariably  passed  the  flesh  to 
the  molar  teeth.  The  objection  went  too  far, 
for,  if  the  eye-tooth  indicated  flesh-eating,  the 
horse,  camel,  reindeer,  and  monkey  tribes  (the 
last  being  the  closest  of  all  animals  to  man), 
were  just  as  much,  or  more,  flesh-eating  than  he, 
though  obviously  graminivorous  or  frugivorous 
in  their  habits.  Chemistry  was  an  aid  to  the 
study  of  this  question,  and  from  it  they  learned 
the  composition  of  food,  and  were  able  to  study 
the  requirements  of  the  body,  four  to  six  parts 
of  heat-producing  elements  being  required  to  one 
part  forming  flesh  in  the  body,  mineral  salts  being 
also  required.  All  these  elements,  however,  were 
most  abundant  in  the  vegetable  kingdom.  It 
was  not  philosophical  to  buy  butcher's  meat  at 
seven-pence  the  pound,  and  pay  that  price  for 
one-fifth  or  one-sixth  the  amount  of  bone,  and  at 
the  same  rate  for  63  4-lOths  lbs.  of  water,  only 
getting  36  6-lOths  of  solid  matter  out  of  the 
100  lbs.  of  flesh,  whilst  oatmeal  had  only  9  lbs. 
water  out  of  the  100  lbs.  of  meal,  and  all  the 
rest  was  available  matter.  Mr.  Simpson  then 
referred  to  the  composition  of  rice,  barley,  wheat- 
meal,  peas,  beans,  lentils,  etc.,  and  showed  that 
whilst  flesh  contained  21  5-iOths  per  cent,  of 
blood-forming  principle,  some  of  these  contained 
respectively  7,  9,  and  11  per  cent,  more  of  this 
principle  ;  47,  53,  62,  and  even  67  per  cent, 
more  animal-heat  principle;  and  four  to  five 
times  the  amount  of  ashes  or  salts,  to  turn  the 
food  into  blood.  All  nature  was  cheap  and 
direct  in  her  economy,  and  to  suppose  that  flesh- 
eating  was  natural  to  man,  was  to  develope  a 
glaring  anomaly;    for  it  would  cost  £13  Is.  7d. 


to  form  100  lbs.  of  blood  from  butcher's  meat, 
whilst  the  very  same  amount  could  be  produced 
from  peas  for  £4  6s.  2^d,  This  was  taking  the 
flesh  at  7d.,  and  the  peas  at  3d.  ;  and,  besides 
this  difference  as  to  forming  blood,  whilst  the 
flesh  had  only  the  14  3-10th3  per  cent,  of  heat- 
forming  principle,  the  peas  afforded  57  S-lOths 
per  cent.  It  was  objected  that  the  nutriment  of 
flesh  was  different  to  that  of  vegetable  products. 
On  the  contrary,  all  nutriment  originated  in  the 
protein  compounds  of  vegetables,  was  vegetable 
in  its  origin,  so  that  the  effect  of  eating  an 
animal  was  merely  to  get  in  a  round-about  way, 
and  with  the  chances  of  disease,  what  could  be 
had  simply  and  directly  from  the  bosom  of 
nature.  The  amount  of  diseased  flesh  sold  was 
immense.  They  had  heard  of  Sharp's  Alley, 
London,  where  the  licensed  "  horse  slaughterer 
to  her  Majesty  "  plied  his  business  next  door  to 
the  largest  sausage  manufacturer  to  be  found,  and 
were,  Dickens  said,  brothers,  or  brothers-in-law. 
(Laughter.)  They  had,  perhaps,  read  of  a  cer- 
tain soup  and  heef  a-la-mode  house  in  London, 
which  was  said  to  expend  enormous  sums  per 
week  in  diseased  flesh — of  the  sensation  produced 
recently  in  Liverpool,  on  finding  the  carcass  of  a 
donkey  on  a  sausage-maker's  stall.  (Laughter.) 
And  perhaps  it  was  easy,  in  Glasgow  even,  to 
raise  more  than  the  salaries  of  an  increased  num- 
ber of  inspectors  from  the  fines  inflicted  for  ex- 
posing diseased  flesh  for  sale.  (Hear,  hear.)  But 
man  was  amoral  being,  and  examining  the  flesh- 
eating  system  in  this  connection,  it  became  cer- 
tain that  it  was  nothing  less  than  repulsive  to 
him.  Amongst  the  proofs  of  this,  it  might  be 
seen  that  the  animal  slaughtered  and  eaten 
could  not  be  traced  from  its  peaceful  condition  in 
the  field,  through  the  cruelties  of  railway 
transit,  the  brutal  beatings  and  miseries  of 
the  market,  thence  through  the  processes  of  the 
slaughter-house,  with  its  pools  of  smoking 
blood  and  many  revolting  acts,  and,  lastly,  from 
the  butcher's  stall  and  the  kitchen,  to  the 
table,  without  benevolence  being  pained  and 
ofi'ended  in  the  recollection  that  a  sentient  being, 
highly  organized  like  the  human  frame,  should 
thus  have  been  submitted  to  cruelty  and  a  violent 
death,  and  that  before  us  lies  the  part  of  its 
body  selected  for  food,  whilst  all  nature  teems 
with  her  bounteous  stores,  ever  to  be  received, 
not  merely  without  compunction,  but  with 
gratitude  and  pleasure.  (Applause.)  The  deeds 
of  the  slaughter-house  were  our  own  deeds  done 
by  proxy.  What  was  nati^ral  was  made  agree- 
able, and  this  offence  to  man's  moral  nature  was, 
to  all  who  reflected  on  the  question,  a  proof  that 
nature  was  here  violated  in  her  laws.  If  this 
were  not  so,  there  would  not  be  that  pain  and 
perturbation  consequent  upon  the  chance  view 
of  the  acts  of  the  slaughter-house.  The  painful 
recollection  of  the  slaughtering  processes 
accidentally  witnessed,  thus  remained  for  hours  ; 
but  no  such  impression  was  produced  by  the 
operation  of  the  reapers,  or  the  collection  of  the 
fruits  of  the  earth.  It  was  thus  that  they  con- 
tended that  "  the  flesh  of  animals  cannot  be  best 
adapted  to  our  constitution,  if  to  obtain  it  a 
single  feeling   is  violated,  kindness  hindered  in 


62 


BANQUET   OF   THE  GLASGOW  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION. 


its  propagation,  suffering  to  any  creature  wilfully 
inflicted,  or  a  law  of  nature  broken ;  otherwise 
nature  would  contradict  herself,  and  men  would 
doubt  the  existence  of  Supreme  Benevolence." 
It  was  thus  they  advocated  their  dietetic  reform 
as  a  return  to  the  original,  natural,  and  best  food 
of  raan ;  and  as  long  as  the  body  was  the  temple 
of  the  spirit,  and  the  manifestations  of  mind 
were  modified  by  the  medium  through  which 
they  were  exercised,  it  was  of  great  importance 
that  it  should  be  carefully  considered  and  prac- 
tically adopted.  The  system  was  essential  to 
enable  raan  to  live  in  harmony  with  himself  and 
with  nature  around  him,  and  in  the  facilities  it 
offered  for  securing  the  realization  of  high  prin- 
ciples of  conduct,  would  be  one  of  the  greatest 
helps  to  the  civilization  and  progress  of  the 
world.     (Prolonged  applause.) 

After  an  interval  of  instrumental  and 
vocal  music,  the  President,  after  apolo- 
gising for  the  absence  of  Mr.  Noble, 
introduced  Mr.  Parker  Pillsbury,  of 
America,  a  distinguished  advocate  of  the 
Anti-slavery  cause. 

Mr.  Parker  Pillsbury  said  he  felt  some 
little  embarrassment  in  taking  part  in  the  pro- 
ceedings, as  he  could  not  boast  of  being  an  ad- 
herent of  the  Vegetarian  system,  or  of  being 
practically  connected  with  the  Association  whose 
festival  they  had  met  to  celebrate.  Yet  such 
were  his  convictions  in  relation  to  the  subject, 
that  he  almost  felt  it  would  become  him  to  put 
off  his  shoes  from  his  feet,  since  he  apprehended 
that  the  ground  upon  which  he  stood  was  some- 
what holy,  viewed  in  relation  to  the  principles 
which  had  been  presented  so  eloquently  and  ap- 
propriately in  the  remarks  of  the  Chairman.  He 
regretted  he  had  to  make  the  confession  that 
he  was  not  practically  one  with  them  on  this 
question  ;  and  yet,  perhaps,  his  testimony  might 
be  of  some  weight,  when  he  stated  that  he  had 
been  accustomed  to  look  at  it,  not  only  by  itself, 
but  as  part  of  a  grand  system  of  doctrines  or 
principles,  which,  together,  composed  the  system 
in  which  they  were  to  find  their  happiness  both 
here  and  hereafter.  There  was  advantage  in 
thus  looking  at  a  great  question,  as  one  of  a 
system  of  questions  moving  harmoniously,  like 
the  planets  in  the  solar  system,  or  like  all  the 
great  component  parts  of  which  the  universe  was 
composed.  It  seemed  to  him  there  was  no  need 
of  argument  to  prove  the  sufficiency  of  the  Vege- 
tarian practice  as  a  dietetic  system  for  the  sus- 
tenance of  man.  He  remembered  when  the 
monument  erected  on  Bunker  Hill  was  conse- 
crated, that  one  of  the  great  men  present  was 
called  upon  for  an  oration,  but  declined  the 
honour,  urging  that  the  monument  itself,  in  all 
its  beautiful  symmetry  and  proportion  —  230 
feet  in  height,  and  composed  of  the  most  solid 
granite — was  the  oration  of  the  occasion.  So, 
it  seemed  to  him,  the  banquet  which  had  been 
so  luxuriously  and  so  tastefully  spread  before 
them  was  itself  the  grand  argument  in  support 
of  the  doctrines  they  had  heard  so  forcibly  ad- 
vocated. If  any  were  disposed  to  inquire  with 
great  solicitude,  "What  shall  we  eat  and  what 


shall  we  drink?  "  he  fancied  they  must  have  mis- 
taken the  age,  or  the  planet  into  which  they  had 
wandered,  and  did  not  belong  to  it.  And  in  this 
high  latitude  to  see  such  profusion,  convinced 
him  that  in  America,  and  especially  in  that  part 
of  it  where  he  had  his  home,  they  had  no  argu- 
ment whatever  for  the  flesh-eating  system,  and 
could  not  need  any  addition  to  God's  bounty,  in 
the  shape  of  animal  food,  for  he  would  be  indeed 
a  glutton  who  could  not  satisfy  himself  with  the 
luxurious  fruits  with  which  nature  had  covered 
the  whole  surface  of  the  country  in  that  lati- 
tude. The  Vegetarian  question  seemed  to  him 
most  important,  as  part  of  a  great  system  of  in- 
quiries, and  it  was  only  in  relation  to  this  aspect 
that  he  would  speak  of  it  on  that  occasion.  He 
would  not  for  one  moment  stand  before  them  as 
its  advocate,  because  he  would  then  feel  that  his 
first  business  would  be  with  himself,  and  then, 
having  got  right,  to  beckon  them  to  come  and 
occupy  the  same  position.  It  was  some  fifteen 
years  since  he  began  to  look  at  nature  ;  before 
that  time  he  did  not  know  there  was  any  nature ; 
he  had  attended  religious  and  political  gatherings, 
and  had  gone  to  school  a  little,  but  no  one  had 
ever  taught  him  that  there  was  instruction  to  be 
had  from  nature.  He  was  about  twenty-five  be- 
fore he  found  out  he  had  a  mother  in  nature,  and 
that  she  was  a  stranger  to  him  and  he  to  her,  and 
between  them  had  made  sad  work  of  it.  How- 
ever, he  began  to  inquire,  and  influences  of  a 
purer  and  higher  order,  and  which  he  doubted 
not  came  from  on  high,  began  to  operate  upon 
his  soul.  About  this  time  the  temperance  cause 
began,  and  then  followed  the  anti-slavery  cause, 
and  next  the  cause  of  peace,  and  then  the  cause  of 
woman  in  her  condition,  and  then  the  cause  of 
physiology  and  Vegetarian  reform.  All  these  to- 
gether made  up  his  present  system  of  ethics,  and 
although  not  perfect  in  any  of  them,  he  had 
studied  them  all  sufficiently  to  know,  and  be  per- 
suaded in  his  own  mind,  that  the  happiness  and 
well-being  of  the  human  race,  both  for  the  present 
and  the  future,  was  included  in  a  right  appreci- 
ation of  these  doctrines.  It  was  because  he  had 
looked  at  them  in  their  relations  with  each  other, 
that  he  was  willing  to  give  his  experience  and 
observation  upon  the  particular  branch  of  reform 
to  which  their  attention  was  now  directed.  He 
was  glad  the  Chairman  had  directed  attention  to 
the  fact  that  man  had  a  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  nature.  He  loved  that  beautiful  passage 
of  Scripture  which  spoke  of  the  body  as  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  to  look  upon 
man  as  the  image  of  God.  They  were  accustomed 
to  associate  with  God  all  that  was  beautiful  as 
well  as  all  that  was  pure  ;  to  associate  with  him 
all  that  was  spiritual,  ethereal,  divine, — and  the 
body  and  the  spirit  together  must  make  up  the 
idea  and  conception  of  God  himself ;  and  man, 
viewed  as  God's  own  image  and  likeness,  was  a 
beautiful  daguerreotype  of  the  divine  in  flesh, 
like  the  light  striking  the  image  of  the  "  human 
face  divine"  upon  the  mirror  or  upon  the  plate. 
It  was  in  this  way  that  they  got  their  best  and 
purest  and  highest  conceptions  of  the  nature  of 
God,  and  their  perception  of  the  purity  of  God 
would  be  in  proportion  to  the  purity  of  their 


BANQUET   OF   THE   GLASGOW  VEGETARIAN   ASSOCIATION. 


63 


owu  character.  A  sacred  trust  committed  to 
their  charge  was  to  train  these  bodies  and  culti- 
vate these  spirits,  so  that  they  should  be  more 
like  the  great  Creator  and  Preserver  of  them ; 
and  the  diet,  vphether  for  body  or  spirit,  that 
was  designed  for  them,  they  should  use,  and  no 
other.  They  kuew  the  effect  of  scenes  of  blood 
upon  their  own  natures,  and  it  was  often  re- 
marked that  if  they  had  to  butcher  the  animals 
they  ate,  very  few  animals  would  be  eaten.  In 
going  back  and  questioning  nature  upon  this 
subject  he  preferred  to  go  clean  back  and  ask  the 
child,  for  older  persons — old  soldiers  in  the  battle 
of  life,  maimed,  bruised,  and  battered — were  not 
in  a  condition  to  decide  upon  such  a  subject.  Bat 
go  back,  and  ask  the  little  child  as  it  lies  in  its 
mother's  arms,  or  goes  out  into  the  fields  to  ad- 
mire the  birds,  lambs,  and  flowers ;  and  let  the 
child  be  itself,  and  it  was  as  innocent  as  the  lambs 
around  it,  it  was  in  nature's  eyes  one  of  nature's 
lambs.  Let  each  of  them  become  acquainted  and 
form  attachments,  as  they  must,  the  child  would 
make  a  pet  of  the  lamb,  and  the  lamb  make 
a  pet  of  the  child  ;  for  the  feeling  was  reciprocal, 
and  the  testimony  thus  presented  unmistakeable. 
What  mother  would  be  willing  to  take  her  child 
thus  far  and  no  further?  No  mother  would 
wish  her  child  to  be  so  far  transformed  that  he 
could  look  calmly  and  serenely  on,  and  see  the 
putting  to  death,  the  gashing  and  mangling  of 
the  animal  it  had  fondled,  to  be  at  last  brought 
upon  the  table  as  part  of  the  food  of  the  child. 
He  thought  there  was  no  mother  who  would  not 
almost  as  soon  have  the  child  the  victim  as  the 
lamb,  for  the  child  was  much  wronged  when  its 
nature  was  thus  transformed — for  it  was  not 
until  we  had  hardened  the  child,  and,  so  to 
speak,  betrayed  its  nature,  that  it  could  look  on 
such  scenes — and  they  v/ould  almost  as  soon 
their  little  son  was  dead  as  that  he  should  grow 
up  the  butcher  of  animals.  He  loved  to  go 
back,  and  thus  question  nature  in  her  sympathies, 
before  example  and  other  influences  had  spoiled 
that  testimony,  and  then  he  got  it  simple  and 
pure.  Nothing  could  be  so  pure,  as  an  article 
of  diet,  as  the  vegetation  with  which  nature  had 
clothed  the  earth  ;  for  animals  must  be  more  or 
less  diseased  before  they  were  considered  fit  for 
food.  He  believed  that  physicians  always  pre- 
ferred that  the  flesh-meat  given  to  the  convales- 
cent should  be  from  wild  animals,  brought  in 
fresh  from  their  natural  condition,  because  it  was 
well  known  to  scientific  men,  that  what  was 
called  "  fattening "  animals  was  merely  piling 
upon  their  bones  disease  and  death.  If  they 
ate  only  the  flesh  of  wild  animals  this  might  be 
less  injurious;  but  sure  he  was  that  a  true  and 
pure  nature  would  reject  even  this ;  that  they 
must  learn  to  eat  flesh  before  they  could  relish  it 
as  food.  The  Scripture  objection  to  which 
reference  had  been  made  was,  he  thought,  much 
misapprehended.  What  did  Scripture  teach  ? 
Why,  that  the  death  of  animals  was  in  conse- 
quence of  sin  :  that  while  man  was  pure,  and 
his  nature  uncorrupt,  there  was  no  death  among 
animals.  After  man  disobeyed,  for  the  hardness 
of  his  heart,  plurality  of  wives,  divorce,  and 
other  departures  from   nature   were  permitted. 


and  along  with  these  the  practice  of  flesh-eating 
seemed  to  have  come  in.  But  man,  before  the 
fall  (he  was  speaking  now  on  the  supposition 
that  the  Scripture  objection  was  true),  did  not 
prey  upon  the  flesh  of  animals,  and  this  must  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  consequences  of  the  fall. 
The  argument  with  which  they  were  sometimes 
met,  that  animals  prey  upon  one  another,  and  that 
death  was  thus  constantly  going  on,  seemed  to 
him  an  admission  of  weakness  and  imperfection, 
rather  than  anything  else.  That  unthinking 
animals  did  this  was  a  reason  why  thinking  and 
reasoning  man  should  not ;  and  yet  they  were 
told  that  because  tigers  eat  deer,  and  foxes  eat 
hares,  that  man  must  be  a  combination  of  the 
tiger  and  the  fox,  and  eat  both.  (Laughter  and 
applause.)  Now  it  seemed  to  him  that  man, 
with  a  superabundance  of  "  angel's  food,"  so  to 
speak,  had  no  need  to  partake  of  the  food  of 
four-footed  beasts,  and  that  the  presumptive 
evidence  would  be  on  the  other  side.  This  came 
to  him  as  one  of  nature's  teachings,  and  he  con- 
fessed he  was  not  much  acquainted  with  books 
upon  the  subject,  or  the  arguments  of  men ;  but, 
looking  at  the  relations  of  man,  he  saw  that  just 
in  proportion  as  he  attained  to  spiritual  culture 
and  purity,  he  sought  to  be  unlike  the  beasts  of 
the  field ;  and  that  just  in  proportion  as  he  did 
not  eat  of  the  same  food,  while  a  better  was 
before  him,  just  in  that  degree  would  he  pro- 
gress towards  that  higher  degree  of  purity  and 
perfection,  Mr.  Pillsbury  then  reverted  to 
various  phases  of  flesh-eating ;  to  the  cannibal 
who  ate  his  fellow  man ;  to  the  Indian  who  ate 
the  flesh  of  beasts  and  fishes,  but  without  fatten- 
ing them,  to  the  inhabitants  of  civilized  lands, 
who  fattened  animals  before  eating  them,  re- 
marking that  the  more  fattening  secured,  the 
move  the  animal  was  prized,  and  the  higher  price 
it  fetched,  and  that  in  this  way  scrofula  and  kine- 
pox  were  brought  upon  the  poor  animal ;  and  to 
the  French  king,  who  kept  the  flesh  of  the 
animals  to  be  used  for  food  until  piatrefaction  had 
so  far  advanced,  that  the  cooks  had  to  go  about 
their  work  with  their  faces  muffled  in  cloths 
dipped  in  vinegar,  to  preserve  themselves  from 
its  pestilential  odour ;  and  contended  that,  as 
extremes  meet,  this  last  practice  required  to  be 
carried  but  one  stage  further — that  the  king 
should  kill  his  cooks  and  then  eat  them — to 
make  the  circle  complete.  (Great  laughter.) 
These  might  seem  absurd  conclusions,  but  they 
had  not  been  taken  up  without  close  inquiry  and 
questioning  of  nature,  and  though  he  was  not  in 
a  position  to  carry  out  his  convictions  on  this 
question,  he  was  quite  convinced  of  their  truth. 
He  knew,  from  his  own  experience,  that 
there  was  no  necessity  for  any  man  to  resort  to 
a  flesh  diet ;  and  if  they  looked  down  deep  into 
their  ov.n  nature,  they  would  find  that  it  was 
more  the  appetite  than  any  real  want  in  their 
system  that  induced  the  use  of  flesh  as  food. 
He  had  lived  and  laboured  too  at  the  hardest 
labours  in  the  open  fields  of  the  United  States, 
with  the  mercury  at  90  and  97  in  the  shade,  and 
he  knew,  from  very  careful  experiment,  that  the 
diet  best  suited  to  such  a  climate,  and  upon 
which  the  most  labour  could  be  done  with  the 


6-1 


BANQUET  OF   THE   GLASGOW   VEGETAKIAN    ASSOCIATION. 


least  wear  and  tear  of  the  system,  was  a  cool 
Vegetarian  diet,  with  no  butcher's  flesh  or  any- 
thing that  was  cousin-gerraau  to  it.  The  same 
thing  held  good  in  relation  to  cold  climates,  and 
he  was  assured  by  an  engineer  employing  a  num- 
ber of  Swiss  labourers  in  making  roads  amongst 
the  Alps,  that  no  better  labourers  could  be  found, 
and  that  they  subsisted  entirely  upon  dry  bread 
alone  (some  of  which  he  had  seen),  as  hard  as 
the  back  of  tortoises.  And  having  this  addi- 
tional testimony  from  the  facts  of  experience, 
added  to  the  voice  of  nature,  he  thought  it  ought 
to  be  satisfactory.  He  was  told  that  numbers 
of  people  in  Scotland,  and  the  hardest  working 
people,  lived  almost  entirely  upon  a  vegetable 
diet,  and  he  could  believe  it,  because,  as  he  had 
travelled  about  in  England,  he  found  the  best 
workers  were  Scotch.  Dr.  Johnson  might 
sneer  at  them  for  eating  the  food  of  horses,  but 
he  thought  if  they  all  ate  the  food  of  horses  they 
would  be  in  less  danger  of  eating  the  flesh  of 
horses.  (Laughter.)  It  appeared  that,  whether 
they  examined  the  experience  of  men  or  the 
teachings  of  nature,  they  must  come  to  the  same 
result.  There  was  another  light  in  which  the 
question  might  be  examined — the  effect  of  the 
diet  upon  sedentary  men.  Why  was  it  that  there 
was  so  much  gout  and  apoplexy  among  that 
class — that  most  important  class  of  the  com- 
munity ?  He  had  seen  many  of  this  class,  both 
in  this  country  and  in  his  own,  strong  minds  in 
both  men  and  women,  who  lived  on  a  Vegetarian 
diet  alone  ;  and,  what  was  most  beautiful  and 
interesting  to  him,  he  never  saw  any  of  them 
who  had  to  walk  upon  two  crutches,  or  wear  any 
laced  stockings  to  keep  their  systems  together. 
He  could  assure  them  that  the  more  they  looked 
into  the  question  the  more  they  would  be  con- 
vinced that  a  cool  vegetable  diet,  above  all  other 
people,  was  the  one  for  the  sedentary.  No  one 
worked  harder,  mentally,  than  Justinian,  who 
drank  only  water,  and  his  food  vegetables  of  the 
simplest  kind ;  and  though  he  performed  more 
mental  labour  than  any  man  of  his  time,  and, 
perhaps,  more  than  any  since  his  time — (hear, 
hear) — he  only  required  four  hours'  sleep,  and, 
undoubtedly,  slept  more  in  that  four  hours  than 
many  persons  do  who  think  they  sleep  twice  that 
number.  And  so  in  other  instances.  They  were 
told  of  the  old  philosophers  who  died  as  martyrs, 
that  such  was  the  simplicity  of  their  diet  and 
their  lives,  that,  when  compelled  to  take  poison, 
this  would  not  destroy  them,  and  he  sometimes 
thought  that  when  men  lived  again  close  to 
nature,  that  nothing  of  this  kind  would  hurt 
them.  There  was  the  "pestilence  that  walketh 
in  darkness,  and  the  destruction  that  wasteth  at 
noon-day,"  and  vaccination  was  then  a  system  of 
benefit  to  mankind,  but  only  a  choice  of  two 
evils  after  all.  It  was  only  taking  disease  from 
an  animal  to  keep  a  worse  disease  out,  and  the 
very  fact  that  disease  brought  from  an  animal, 
and  introduced  into  our  systems,  reproduced 
disease,  was  a  sufficient  argument  why  we  should 
not  eat  such  animals.  Whether  they  looked  at 
the  little  child  and  his  little  lamb,  and  saw  the 
cue  mourning  the  death  of  the  other,  or  at  the 
feeding  of  the  body  on  Vegetarian  diet,  and  thus 


keeping  it  free  from  disease ;  or  its  effect  in 
making  the  strong  man  stronger,  and  the  seden- 
tary man  more  healthy;  in  whatever  way  the 
question  was  looked  at,  the  conclusion  must  be 
the  same,  that  there  was  not  one  sound  and  un- 
answerable argument  in  favour  of  preying  upon 
the  bodies  of  animals  for  food.  It  was  sometimes 
urged  in  favour  of  flesh-eating,  that  by  partaking 
of  flesh  as  food,  animal  life  was  rendered  neces- 
sary, and  thus  a  large  araoiuit  of  happiness  pro- 
duced. This  might  be  so,  for  it  was  true  now  as 
in  the  time  of  the  old  English  poet,  that  "  the 
lamb,  doomed  to  die,  licked  the  hand  just  raised 
to  shed  its  blood."  He  thought,  however,  that 
all  would  admit  that  human  happiness  was  of 
more  importance  than  animal  happiness — that 
one  happy  man  or  woman  was  of  more  value 
than  two  happy  lambs  or  sheep.  It  was  wisely 
said,  "  Ye  are  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows." 
How  much  useful  grain  was  required  to  produce 
100  lbs.  of  flesh  meat!  He  could  tell  them 
that  when  they  had  transformed  grain  into  the 
body  of  an  animal  for  food,  to  the  weight  of 
100  lbs.,  they  had  used  as  much  in  feeding  the 
animal  as  would  feed  ten  times  the  number  of 
men  and  women,  and  had  starved  and  prevented 
human  life  to  that  extent,  merely  to  give  life  for 
a  brief  period  to  a  few  sheep,  and  cattle,  and 
then  ended  their  joys  by  the  butcher,  themselves 
becoming  their  tomb,  their  sepulchre.  (Laughter 
and  applause.)  If  happiness  be  a  design  of  God 
(and  he  believed  it  was  the  design  of  God  in 
creating  the  universe — happiness  to  himself  and 
all  who  were  capable  of  happiness) — what  a  mis- 
take man  had  made.  The  land  that  now  sus- 
tains these  animals,  would  feed  many  men  and 
women,  and  surely  they  were  of  more  value  than 
many  oxen;  therefore,  to  waste  these  bounties 
of  nature  upon  these  animals,  when  it  cost  so 
much  and  produced  so  little,  was  an  entire  per- 
version of  the  argument  that  it  promoted  happi- 
ness. He  thought  the  existence  of  Vegetarians 
— 160  lbs.  of  Vegetarianism  upon  the  body  of  a 
man,  forty-five  years  of  age,  was  a  strong  argu- 
ment in  favour  of  the  system,  and  especially  if 
he  were  a  hard-working  man.  In  relation  to  the 
question,  "  What  shall  we  eat  ?  "  he  asked.  What 
they  were  ?  Had  they  nothing  to  do  but  to  eat  ? 
He  thought  the  banquet  that  had  been  provided 
on  the  occasion  was,  from  its  very  luxuriousness, 
the  Jewish  dispensation  of  Vegetarianism,  and 
had  to  be  spiritualized  still  more  ;  though,  whilst 
people  were  fearing  that  the  system  would  bring 
starvation,  it  was  well  to  demonstrate  its  re- 
sources and  variety  :  that  it  was  possible  to  live, 
and  live  luxuriously,  without  the  use  of  flesh- 
meat  at  all.  His  idea  of  Vegetarianism  was, 
that  among  its  higher  and  more  important  con- 
siderations was  its  tendency  to  simplify  the 
wants  of  the  physical  part  of  man's  nature,  that 
the  mental  and  moral  might  receive  more  atten- 
tive consideration.  After  alluding  to  the  dis- 
comfort produced  in  many  families  by  the  cooking 
of  flesh-meat,  Mr.  Pillsbury  stated  that  he 
always  felt  pleasure  in  giving  his  testimony  upon 
any  question  of  human  progress ;  and  this 
question  of  dietetic  reform  he  regarded  as 
lying      very      near     to     the     foundation     of 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


6-5 


human  happiness,  for  it  was  impossible 
to  build  up  healthy,  hearty  human  souls 
in  impure  bodies.  Before  the  Spirit  of  God 
could  fully  carry  out  his  work  in  man,  these 
bodies  must  be  so  nourished  and  cherished  that 
the  divine  beauty  and  perfection  would  again 
shine  forth  in  them.  The  very  circumstance  of 
inquiring  after  each  other's  health  so  constantly 
when  they  met  was  a  strikii^g  evidence  that  there 
was  something  wrong.  Wliat  right,  he  asked, 
had  we  to  be  such  a  hospital  of  sickly  men  and 
women  ?  We  ought  to  be  in  such  a  condition 
that  our  very  image  and  countenance  should  be 
an  index  to  this  question,  and  when  man  lived 
true  to  nature  there  would  be  no  need  for  such 
questions.  What  beauty  there  was  in  the 
flower ;  but  he  contended  that  "  the  human  face 
divine,"  and  the  human  frame,  rivalled  all  other 
beauties,  and  not  until  this  beauty  was  restored 
would  the  work  of  redemption  be  done ;  and  in 
bringing  about  that  restoration,  no  question 
surely  could  be  so  vital  as,  Upon  what  shall  the 
body  be  fed  and  nourished  ?  and  in  attention  to 
that  he  had  no  doubt  the  image  of  God  would 
be  restored  in  the  true  man,  and  that  this  would 
be  the  beginning  of  the  restoration  of  the 
divine  image  in  that  which  lies  within.  (Loud 
applause.) 

Mr.  Palmer,  of  Edinburgh,  in  proposing  a 
vote  of  thanks  to  the  speakers,  said  it  was  now 
twelve  months  since  he  had  the  happiness  of 
hearing  Mr.  Simpson  advocate  this  system  in 
Edinburgh,  on  which  occasion  the  arguments 
advanced  convinced  him  of  its  truth,  and  of  the 
errors  of  his  own  system  of  diet.  Mr.  Simpson 
was  followed  by  a  stout,  hearty  Englishman,  who 
wrought  at  a  most  laborious  employment,  and 
whose  appearance  and  spaech  together  deepened 
the  impression  already  produced,  and  decided 
him  (Mr.  P.)  to  adopt  the  practice  himself.  On 
informing  his  wife  of  his  intention,  she  assured 
him  it  would  never  do.  However,  he  made  the 
attempt.  The  first  day  he  ate  only  bread  and 
potatoes ;  the  next  day  he  went  to  market  and 
bought  a  good  supply  of  vegetables.  But  after 
procuring  the  Penny  Vegetarian  Cookery  he 
found  there  were  other  things  that  could  be 
used  besides  vegetables,  and  he  thus  obtained  an 
abundant   variety,    sufficient    to    satisfy    every 


palate.  He  was  conversing  with  the  keeper  of  a 
prison  lately,  who  assured  him  tha{>the  prisoners 
uader  confinement  in  the  metropolitan  prison 
had  only  1^  ounce  of  flesh-meat  per  day, 
and  this  from  the  shin-bones  of  animals,  and 
yet  were  well  and  happy,  and  left  the  prison 
much  improved  in  health  and  appearance. 
Mr.  Palmer  then  enumerated  the  articles 
comprised  in  his  dietary,  which  he  estimated 
would,  with  the  various  ways  in  which 
they  could  be  prepared,  afford  a  diff'erent  dinner 
every  day  for  ten  years.  He  was  often  joked 
and  laughed  at  on  account  of  his  diet,  but,  if 
ever  a  man  had  occasion  to  speak  well  of  Vege- 
tarianism, he  was  the  man ;  for  before  adopting 
this  practice,  he  was  suffering  almost  constantly 
from  affections  of  the  stomach ;  now  he  hardly 
knew  in  what  part  of  his  body  his  stomach  lay. 
He  was  not  able  to  walk  ranch  formerly,  but 
now  he  could  walk  long  distances ;  his  memory, 
too,  was  growing  fresher,  though  he  had  grey 
hairs  upon  him,  and  he  could  recall  what  he 
had  learned  at  school  with  the  greatest  facility, 
though  it  had  long  been  forgotten.  Formerly, 
he  was  perhaps  never  a  month  without  going  to 
the  apothecary's,  but  since  he  had  been  a  Vegeta- 
rian he  had  never  taken  as  much  medicine  as 
would  lie  on  his  little  finger  nail,  and  if  any  per- 
sons enjoyed  life  as  much  as  he  did,  they  would 
bless  God  every  day  of  their  lives.  They  had 
formed  a  Vegetarian  Association  in  Edinburgh, 
a!id  though  they  were  not  numerous,  they  were 
very  zealous,  and  perhaps  in  1856  they  might 
send  word  to  their  Glasgow  friends  that  they 
were  about  to  give  a  banquet  there,  as  well  as 
they.  Temperance  was  good,  total  abstinence 
better,  but  Vegetarianism  was  best  of  all  the 
three,  Vegetarianism,  he  thought,  included  the 
Maine  Law,  for,  if  a  man  did  not  want  to  drink, 
they  might  have  as  many  public-houses  as  they 
liked,  they  would  do  no  harm.     (Applause.) 

Mr.  Menzies  then  seconded  the  vote  of 
thanks  to  the  Chairman  and  Mr.  Pillskury, 
in  which,  on  the  suggestion  of  the  Chairman, 
the  ladies  who  provided  the  hanquet  were 
included,  and  the  proceedings  terminated  by 
the  singing  of  some  appropriate  verses 
adapted  to  the  National  Anthem. 


LOCAL    OPEEATI.ONS 

vegetarian  society. 

Prize  Essays. — J.  H.  and  W.  B.  The  an- 
nouncement of  the  subject  of  the  Prize  Essays 
is  again  deferred,  till  the  subject  of  the  one  in 
connection  with  the  Glasgow  Association  can  be 
announced  with  the  other  two. 

J.  Andrew,  Jun.,  Secretary. 

BIRMINGHAM. 

Vegetarian  Festival. — We  have  only  to  re- 
port that  our  Festival  is  to  be  given  in  the 
spacious  Town  Hall,  on  Friday,  the  9th  of  No- 
vember^  when  we  expect  a  large  gathering  of  the 
friends  of  reform  in  diet.  Mr.  Simpson,  the 
excellent  President  of  the  Society,  will  occupy 
the  chair,  and  Mr.  J.  G.  Palmer,  Mr.  W.  G. 


AND     OTELLIGENCE. 

Ward,  and  other  well-known  Vegetarians,  will 
take  part  in  the  proceedings.  We  hope  to  do 
credit  to  our  profession,  and  to  show  the  people 
of  Birmingham  that  we  do  not  lack  either  energy 
or  good  taste,  by  preparing  them  a  rational 
feast,  not  from  the  slaughter-house  or  the 
poultry-yard,  but  from  the  garden  and  the 
field.  '        C.  R.  K. 

COLCHESTER. 

Operations. — We  have  recently  distributed  a 
number  of  copies  of  the  Messenger  to  persons 
likely  to  be  benefited  by  the  reading  of  the 
report  of  the  Banquet  in  Manchester,  and  have 
lent  other  Vegetarian  publications  to  those  seek- 
ing information  as  to  our  principles.  We  know 
eleven  persons  making  trial  of  the  practice,  and 


66 


LOCAL  OPEEATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


doubtless  others,   unkiiowu  to  us,  are  carrj'iug 
out  similar  experiments.  J.  B. 

CRAWSHAWBOOTH. 

Vegetarian  Association  Meetings. — Since  my 
last,  two  conversational  meetings  have  been  held 
here.  The  first  of  these  was  held  ou  Monday, 
September  17th,  when  the  question  discussed 
was — Can  the  requisite  amount  of  heat  he  derived 
from  a  vegetable  diet  ?  At  the  other  meeting, 
held  Monday,  October  8th,  the  following  question 
was  treated :  If  flesh  he  injurious,  would  God 
have  enjoined  its  use  in  the  Mosaic  economy,  and 
have  sanctioned  its  use  by  feeding  the  multitude 
uponfishes  ?  The  discussion  of  the  above  subjects 
was  of  an  interesting  character,  and  satisfactory 
replies  to  them  were  given  by  the  members 
present. 

Public  Meetings. — We  are  making  arrange- 
ments for  holding  Public  Meetings  during  the 
coming  winter,  and  expect  to  commence  with  a 
large  meeting  at  Rawteustall,  early  in  November, 
and  trust  these  public  gatherings  will  result  in  an 
accession  to  our  numbers.  W.  H. 

DUNFERMLINE. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — The  first  lecture  on  Vege- 
tarianism ever  given  here  was  delivered  by 
James  Simpson,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Vege- 
tarian Society,  in  the  Independent  Chapel,  on 
Wednesday,  October  17th,  to  a  highly  respect- 
able audience,  numbering  about  250.  Mr.  J. 
Davie,  Local  Secretary  of  the  Society,  presided. 
At  the  close  of  the  lecture  a  vote  of  thanks  to 
Mr.  Simpson  was  proposed  by  the  Rev.  David 
Russell,  and  seconded  by  Peter  Taylor, 
Esq.,  also,  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  deacons  for  the 
use  of  the  chapel,  moved  by  Mr.  George  Clark, 
and  seconded  by  Mr.  Simpson,  this  being 
followed  by  the  thanks  of  the  meeting  to  the 
Chairman,  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Smith,  of 
Glasgow.  A  very  useful  impression  has  been 
produced,  and  inquiries  for  additional  informa- 
tion have  been  made.  Vegetarian  tracts,  and 
copies  of  the  Messenger  and  Penny  Vegetarian 
Cookery,  have  been  given  away  since  the  meeting. 

J.  D. 

EDINBURGH. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — On  Wednesday  evening, 
October  10th,  a  lecture  on  The  Natural  and  Best 
Food  of  Man  was  delivered  in  the  Queen  Street 
Hall,  by  James  Simpson,  Esq.,  President  of 
the  Vegetarian  Society,  and,  also.  President  of  the 
Edinburgh  Vegetarian  Association.  Arthur 
Trevelyan,  Esq.,  of  Tyneholme,  occupied  the 
chair.  The  lecture  was  listened  to  with  the 
greatest  attention,  by  a  numerous  and  intelligent 
audience,  who  expressed  their  approval  of  the 
principles  advocated,  by  frequent  applause.  Mr. 
Simpson  was  followed  by  J.  E.  Nelson,  Esq , 
of  Manchester,  who  directed  attention  to  the 
advantages  resulting  from  the  adoption  of  Vege- 
tarian habits  of  diet,  and  cited  instances  of  adhe- 
rence to  the  practice  amongst  celebrated  men, 
both  ancient  and  modern.  Mr.  Shiels,  and 
Mr.  Palmer,  of  Edinburgh,  gave  their  prac- 
tical testimony  in  favour  of  the  system  advocated, 


from  which  they  had  derived  essential  benefit, 
and  the  proceedings  terminated  with  votes  of 
thanks  to  the  Chairman,  Mr.  Simpson,  and 
Mr.  Nelson.  J.  H. 

GLASGOW. 

Vegetarian  Association  Festival. — The  third 
Annual  Festival  of  our  Association  was  held  in 
the  Merchant's  Hall,  on  Thursday  evening, 
October  4th,  when  an  abundant  provision  of 
articles  of  Vegetarian  diet,  together  with  tea  and 
coffee,  etc.,  was  provided.  About  340  guests 
assembled  on  the  occasion,  and  were  gratified 
by  the  beautiful  appearance  of  the  hall,  as  well 
as  the  repast  supplied  to  them,  this  being 
accompanied  by  the  performance  of  excellent 
music,  and  followed  by  excellent  addresses 
from  Mr.  Simpson,  the  President  of  the  Asso- 
ciation, Mr.  Parker  Pillsbury,  of  America, 
and  Mr.  Palmer,  of  Edinburgh,  which  were 
listened  to  with  great  interest ;  but,  as  we  hope 
to  secure  a  good  report  of  the  proceedings  in  the 
Messenger,  we  need  not  enter  into  further  details 
here.  J.  S, 

NEWCASTLE. 

Public  Meeting. — On  Friday,  the  12th  of 
October,  we  had  a  visit  from  the  President  of 
the  Society,  and  Mr.  J.  E.  Nelson,  of  Man- 
chester, who  addressed  a  large  meeting  in  the 
Lecture  Room,  Nelson  street,  Mr.  J.  Mawson 
presiding.  The  meeting  commenced  at  eight 
o'clock,  and  did  not  close  till  near  half-past 
eleven,  a  large  part  of  the  audience  remaining 
till  that  late  hour,  and  thus  evidencing  their  in- 
terest in  the  subject.  Mr.  T.  P.  Barkas,  in 
proposing  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  speakers, 
offered  some  criticisms  on  the  speeches  of  Mr. 
Simpson  and  Mr.  Nelson,  which  were  briefly 
but  forcibly  replied  to  by  Mr.  G.  Lucas,  of 
Gateshead,  Mr.  Simpson,  and  Mr.  H.  Ridley. 

J.  M. 
paisley. 

Vegetarian  Lecture. — A  lecture  on  the  prin- 
ciples and  practice  of  the  Vegetarian  system  of 
diet  was  delivered  in  the  Exchange  Rooms,  on 
Tuesday,  October  2nd,  by  James  Simpson,  Esq., 
President  of  the  Vegetarian  Society.  The  large 
hall  was  densely  filled  by  an  intelligent  and 
attentive  audience,  principally  composed  of 
working  men,  but  including  representatives  of 
all  classes  of  society,  and  graced  by  a  sprinkling 
of  ladies.  Mr.  J.  Couper,  Vice  President  of 
the  Glasgow  Vegetarian  Association,  occupied 
the  chair,  and  introduced  the  lecturer  to  the 
meeting  amidst  general  applause.  The  lecturer 
presented  the  leading  facts  and  arguments  of  the 
Vegetarian  system,  as  drawn  from  history,  com- 
parative anatomy,  physiology,  chemistry,  the 
special  senses,  moral  feelings,  and  experience, 
in  a  clear  and  eloquent  style,  and  was  frequently 
applauded  in  the  course  of  his  address.  On  the 
motion  of  Mr.  Malcolm,  Temperance  Mis- 
sionary, a  vote  of  thanks  was  unanimously 
accorded  to  Mr.  Simpson  for  his  instructive 
lecture;  and,  after  a  few  concluding  remarks 
from  the  Chairman,  the  meeting  separated.    J.  S. 


BIRMmGHAM  VEGETAPaAN   ASSOCIATION   BANQUET. 


67 


BIEMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  BANQUET. 


On  Fi'iday,  November  9tb,  the  Vegetarian 
Association,  in  Birmingham,  gave  a  Vegeta- 
rian Banquet  on  the  most  extended  scale 
hitherto  witnessed,  whether  as  regards  the 
completeness  of  the  arrangements,  the  "  bill 
of  fare,"  or  the  number  of  the  guests,  in 
the  Town  Hall,  Birmingham.  In  describing 
the  character  of  the  entertainment,  and 
the  decorations  of  the  Hall,  we  cannot  do 
better  than  avail  ourselves  of  the  remarks 
of  a  contemporary*  who  speaks  as  follows  : 
"  Those  who  understand  little  or  nothing 
of  Vegetarian  doctrines  or  dishes,  and 
who  are,  without  reasonable  motive,  pre- 
judiced against  its  principles,  should  have 
been  present  in  the  Town  Hall  last  evening, 
at  the  festival  of  the  Association,  when 
more  than  five  hundred  ladies  and  gentle- 
men sat  down  to  a  banquet  unsurpassed  in 
the  annals  of  Vegetarian  history.  A  most 
pleasing  spectacle  presented  itself  upon  en- 
tering the  Hall.  The  tables,  artistically 
arranged,  and  profusely  decorated  with  arti- 
ficial flowers  and  choice  evergreens,  were 
laden  with  every  conceivable  dish  suited  to 
the  taste  and  palate  of  the  most  fastidious 
epicure.  All  appeared  to  enjoy  themselves 
thoroughly,  and  if  any  did  not  do  so,  the 
fault  lay  with,  themselves.  The  bill  of  fare 
was  well  drawn  up.  Of  savoury  things 
there  were  many;  omelets  of  the  most 
varied  description,  fritters  innumerable, 
soups,  sauces,  and  farinse,  tarts  and  pies, 
coff'ee,  and  an  ample  dessert,  which  would 
have  done  honour  to  the  civic  banquets  of 
the  metropolis.  Nor  did  the  company  look 
any  the  worse  for  their  Vegetarian  life :  health 
and  heartiness  were  pictured  in  every  face. 
Some  three  hundred  spectators,  the  majo- 
rity of  whom  were  ladies,  graced  the  side 
and  great  galleries,  the  orchestra  being 
appropriated  to  the  band  and  the  gentlemen 
announced  to  address  the  meeting.  The 
banquet  having  been  partaken  of,  the  com- 
pany rose  to  join  in  singing,  not  the  '  Roast 
Beef  of  Old  England,'  but  a  couplet  com- 
mencing with  the  touching  words, 

*  No  flocks  that  range  the  valley  free, 

To  slaughter  we  condemn  ; 
Taught  by  the  Power  that  pities  us, 

We  learn  to  pity  them,' 

and  aided  by  Harvey  and  Synyer's  quad- 
rille band,  who  throughout  the  evening 
acquitted  themselves  well,  these  words  were 
rendered  very  efi'ectiveiy.  The  Chairman, 
James  Simpson,  Esq.,  then  toasted  'the 
Queen,'  in  bumpers  of  iced  water,  but  this 
did  not  render  its  reception    any  the  less 

*  The  Birmingham  Journal,  November  \Oth. 


enthusiastic.  Shortly  after  seven  o'clock, 
the  formal  proceedings  of  the  evening  com- 
menced. Amongst  those  supporting  the 
Chairman  were — the  Rev.  W.  Metcalfe,  of 
Philadelphia ;  the  Rev.  Professor  Broadley, 
LL.D.,  of  London ;  the  Rev.  Joseph  "Wood, 
the  Rev.  W.  Paton,  Mr.  Alderman  Harvey, 
of  Salford;  W.  G,  Ward,  Esq.;  Dr. 
Laurie,  of  Dunstable;  J.  G.  Palmer,  Esq., 
J,  E.  Nelson,  Esq,,  Manchester ;  Joseph 
Hall,  Esq.,  Mr.  J.  Wyth,  of  Warrington  ; 
Mr.  Joseph  Bormond,  of  Halifax :  Mr. 
J.  J.  Bates,  Handsworth  ;  Mr.  A.  Willing- 
ton,  Mr.  J.  FuNBRiDGE,  Mr.  A.  Morgan, 
Mr.  W.  Morgan,  Mr.  J.  A.  Langford,  Mr. 
S.  TiMMiNS,  Mr.  J.  S.  Wright,  Mr.  W. 
Whitehouse,  Mr.  M.  Murphy,  Mr. 
Walter,  Mr.  Willis,  Mr.  Edridge,  and 
many  others."  Besides  the  guests  above 
enumerated  were  Vegetarians  of  the  locality, 
and  others  from  a  distance,  whose  names  we 
regret  we  are  unable  to  give.  Mrs.  Simpson, 
of  Foxhill  Bank,  Lancashire,  Mrs.  Rostron, 
Mrs.  Holcroft,  Mrs.  Foxcroft,  of  Man- 
chester, and  Mrs.  John  Smith,  of  Glasgow, 
formed  a  Committee  of  General  Manage- 
ment in  charge  of  the  provisions  of  the 
entertainment,  and  in  co-operation  with  the 
gentlemen  taking  the  responsibility  of  the 
Festival,  Mr.  R,  C.  King  being  chief  steward. 
At  about  a  quarter  past  seven,  thanks 
having  been  sung  by  the  choir  and  company, 
the  addresses  on  the  Vegetarian  sj'^stem, 
announced  for  the  occasion,  were  commenced 
by  the  President,  who,  on  rising,  was 
received  with  applause. 

Mr,  Simpson  said  he  begged  heartily  to  con- 
gratulate those  present  on  their  meeting 
together  on  that  occasion,  and  would  address 
himself,  in  jfche  remarks  he  was  about  to  offer,  to 
the  inquiries  of  those  who  wished  to  know  what 
Vegetarianism  was,  though  these  inquiries  would 
be  far  more  completely  met  by  reading  such 
works  as  Smith' S-FVitifs  and  Farinacea,  theProper 
Food  of  Man,  than  by  any  brief  and  general 
remarks  such  as  the  question  to  be  presented 
to  their  attention  might  receive  that  evening. 
His  first  duty  was,  however,  to  apologize  for  the 
absence  of  several  gentlemen  announced  to  take 
part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  evening.  Mr. 
Noble,  of  Boston,  had  been  prevented  being 
present ;  also  the  Rev.  W.  Forster,  of  London. 
Mr.  Brotherton,  M.P,  for  Salford,  who  had 
also  been  invited,  was  unable  to  attend  ;  and,  at 
the  last  moment,  he  had  received  intelligence 
that  Mr.  Beck,  of  Grantham,  was  unavoidably 
detained  by  business  engagements.  He  could 
not  allude  to  the  entertainment  that  had  been 
set  before  them,  without  expressing  the  opinion 
that  it  had  suffered  a  slight  depreciation  in  pubhc 
estimation  from  the  very  cheapness  with  which  it 


68 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION   BANQUET. 


had  been  presented  to  the  public.  They  liked, 
however,  to  make  good  things  as  cheap  to  the 
world  as  possible,  rather  than  expensive,  and  he 
was  glad  that  they  met  in  such  large  arrange- 
ments with  a  very  small  figure  attached  to  them. 
In  relation  to  some  pecuhar  difficulties  in  the 
entertainment  that  had  been  presented,  he  would 
remark,  that  the  people  of  Birmingham  had 
built  a  grand  hall,  but  intended  for  music  rather 
than  objects  associated  with  cookery,  and  thus  it 
did  not  afford  a  range  of  kitchens.  Another 
difficulty  was,  that  they  had  to  bring  their  cooks 
120  to  150  miles  to  prepare  the  entertainment  of 
that  evening.  They  were  indebted  to  ladies 
in  Birmingham  for  assistance  in  taking  charge  of 
the  tables  ;  but  in  this  way,  they  were  still 
further  indebted  to  the  charity  of  ladies  who 
lived  as  far  distant  as  Glasgow  and  Manchester, 
for  ministering  to  the  supervision,  so  as  to  secure 
the  completeness  and  beauty  of  the  entertain- 
ment. If  they  appeared  uncommercial  in  their 
speculation,  in  spending  £100  to  receive  the  £50 
in  return,  he  could  only  set  this  down  to  the  credit 
of  the  charity  and  benevolence  of  their  system  ; 
but  if  any  should  be  troubled  at  receiving  more 
than  an  equivalent  for  his  money  on  that  occasion, 
he  could  relieve  his  conscience  by  a  bequest  of 
money  to  the  Society,  either  at  present,  or  in  his 
will,  like  the  excellent  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Bradford, 
had  done,  some  time  ago.  In  Great  Britain,  for  the 
last  eight  years,  there  had  been  what  was  called 
the  Vegetarian  Society.  There  were  also  Asso- 
ciations in  a  number  of  places,  and  they  had 
one  of  these  in  Birmingham,  in  connection  with 
which  the  entertainment  had  been  given.  In  the 
Vegetarian  Society  were  great  varieties  as  to  the 
character  of  the  occupation  of  its  members,  some 
carrying  out  the  most  laborious  duties,  some 
merely  following  the  more  leisurely  pursuits; 
these  being  all  banded  together  by  the  simple 
negative  principle  of  abstinence  from  the  flesh  of 
animals,  and  the  positive  principle  of  co-opera- 
tion in  making  known  to  the  world  the  advantages 
of  this,  and  subsistence  upon  fruits,  grains, 
and  the  succulent  parts  of  vegetables.  The 
members  of  this  Society  were  of  various  condi- 
tions in  society,  and  of  various  ages,  and  he  might 
remark  that  four  of  the  persons  on  the  platform 
presented  a  total  of  life  amounting  to  263  years, 
and  of  178  years  of  Vegetarian  experience. 
(Applause.)  The  fact  was,  when  persons  had 
tried  this  system  for  from  forty  to  fifty  years,  as 
some  upon  the  platform  had  done,  they  had 
proof,  in  the  limited  number  of  Vegetarians 
before  them,  that  it  was  quite  possible  to  subsist 
in  health  and  activity  without  the  use  of  flesh 
as  food.  A  natural  inquiry,  however,  was,  what 
can  be  the  reason  for  adopting  a  practice  of  diet 
like  this  ?  He  begged  to  say,  that  they  came 
before  the  public  with  a  desire  to  increase  the 
happiness  of  society.  They  left  the  world  in 
freedom,  and  cast  no  reproach  at  any  class  of 
persons,  but  merely  iuvited  attention  to  pre- 
vailing dietetic  practices,  and  asked  the  world 
whether  it  could  not  Uve  in  a  little  less  bloodshed 
and  slaughter,  and  whether  this  would  not  be 
more  in  agreement  with  morals  and  refinement  ? 
They  called  attention  to  their  system  as  a  natural 


and  wise  one,  and  so  many  reasons  could  be 
advanced  in  its  support,  that  he  could  only 
glance  at  a  few  of  these  during  his  brief  address. 
He  contended  that  this  system  was  essential  to 
the  complete  development  of  the  physical,  moral, 
and  intellectual  nature  of  man,  looking  at  him 
in  this  threefold  capacity.  Man's  physical 
nature  was  in  harmony  with  this  system  ;  it  also 
accorded  admirably  with  the  perceptions  of 
intellect,  and  the  moral  feelings  of  man — he 
felt  it  to  be  at  one  with  him  at  every  step, 
whilst  in  every  step  they  were  shocked  by  the 
meat-eating  system.  They  had  to  go  back  to 
the  earliest  history  of  mankind  for  the  origin 
of  their  system,  and  found  it  associated  with 
man  as  he  came  forth  from  the  hands  of  the 
Creator,  in  the  appointment  of  the  "  herb 
bearing  seed  and  the  fruit  tree  yielding  fruit," 
as  his  food ;  and  the  history  of  the  world,  since, 
had  demonstrated  the  completeness  of  the  sys- 
tem, the  great  majority  of  its  inhabitants  having 
ever  lived  in  this  way,  as  regarded  the  main  features 
of  their  diet.  He  admitted,  that  since  the  fall 
of  man,  and  the  destruction  of  the  world,  as  the 
world  commonly  understood  this  fact,  a  different 
state  of  things  had  come  in,  and  that  many 
practices  were  permitted,  widely  different  from 
the  normal  and  happiest  condition  in  which  we 
could  live,  such  as  were  exemplified  in  the 
history  of  the  Jews,  resulting  in  the  exaction 
of  "  an  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth ;  " 
but  the  Saviour  had  explained  that  these  instances 
of  departure  from  high  principle  were  permitted 
"  for  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts,"  and  were 
"  not  so  in  the  beginning."  Vegetarians,  he 
would  repeat,  reproached  no  man  for  eating 
flesh-meat,  but  merely  asked  him  to  inquire,  and 
see  whether  a  system  that  was  proved  in  the 
teachings  of  history  and  of  science,  was  not 
still  the  most  natural,  and  thus  the  best.  They 
ought  to  examine  nature,  and  be  guided  by  her 
facts,  and  not  be  ruled  by  popular  custom. 
It  was  singular  enough  to  find,  that  if  people 
professed  to  examine  the  dietetic  question,  they 
usually  sought  to  establish  themselves  in  their 
own  particular  practice  of  diet  as  the  best. 
The  dietetic  customs  of  the  world  were,  however, 
so  varied  that  no  rule  could  be  deduced  from 
them,  since  they  saw  that  man  ate  nearly 
everything,  from  the  elephant  to  the  ant ;  but 
they  must  examine  nature  herself,  if  they  would 
discover  the  natural  and  best  food  of  man.  In 
referring  to  nature,  he  did  not  speak  of  man  in 
the  savage  state,  but  would  say  with  Pope, 

"Nor  think  in  nature's  ways  they  blindly  trod, 
The  state  of  nature  was  the  reign  of  Gou." 
The  proof  of  organization,  and  the  laws  of  nature 
upon  this  matter,  was  most  interesting  in  every 
individual,  because  man  had  got  animal  instincts 
which  pointed  out  the  most  natural  food  for  him, 
in  a  similar  way  to  that  in  which  the  lower 
animals  were  directed  to  their  appropriate  food. 
The  sense  of  sight  did  not  indicate  that  the 
animal  grazins:  in  the  field  was  intended  as  food 
for  man.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  senses  in 
man  were  often  beclouded,  if  not  perverted,  by 
established  practice.  The  animal  in  the  railway 
truck  or  cattle-market,  as  graphically  described 


BIRMINGHAM   VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION   BANQUET. 


69 


by  Dickens,  in  his  Cattle  Road  to  Ruin,  and 
Heart  of  Mid-London,  presented  nothing  in 
its  appearance  to  indicate  that  it  was  intended 
for  our  food,  and  the  man  who  visited  the 
slaughter-house,  and  saw  the  skull  of  the  patient 
ox  beaten  in,  and  the  knife  plunged  into  its 
vitals,  came  away  with  his  sense  of  sight  dis- 
gusted and  pained,  and  his  appetite  for  flesh- 
meat,  if  he  ever  had  this  at  all,  weakened  or 
destroyed.  There  was  nothing  beautiful  in  the 
sight  of  joints  of  meat  on  the  butcher's  stall,  or 
ill. the  processes  to  which  these  were  subjected  in 
the  kitchen,  to  prepare  them  for  the  table.  The 
tiger,  however,  had  no  sort  of  conflict  between 
his  natural  desires  for  his  food  and  the  means 
used  to  obtain  it ;  on  the  contrary,  he  felt  a 
delightful  tremor,  and  a  gush  of  saliva  accompa- 
nying the  sight  of  his  prey  and  his  eflforts  to 
secure  it,  showing  that  all  was  in  agreement  with 
his  constitution  and  instincts.  If  we  ever 
experienced  this  gush  of  saliva,  it  was  in 
beholding  beautiful  fruit,  and  all  knew  how  much 
more  difl[icult  it  was  to  teach  morality  in  relation 
to  the  fruits  of  the  orchard  than  the  contents  of 
the  butcher's  stall.  The  slaughter  of  animals 
was  repugnant  to  our  nature,  and  we  could  not 
think  of  the  dying  calf,  put  to  death,  as  Dickens 
had  said,  with  a  cruelty  worthy  of  the  Grand 
Inquisitor,  without  being  pained,  and  asking  if 
such  things  were  necessary;  or  of  the  sobbing 
of  the  dying  lamb,  which,  as  the  butcher  re- 
marked, continues  as  long  as  life  remains.  Again, 
if  the  senses  of  taste  and  smell  were  examined, 
they  saw  it  was  found  to  be  a  mistake  to  suppose 
that  the  taste  or  odour  of  cooked  flesh  was  agree- 
able to  man  in  a  normal  condition.  They  had  ac- 
quired habits  and  artificial  tastes  in  this  respect, 
just  as  many  persons  had  in  relation  to  snuffing, 
smoking,  and  chewing  tobacco,  or,  as  was  the  case 
in  some  parts  of  Austria,  for  eating  arsenic,  and 
even  for  giving  this  to  cattle.  He  contended 
that  man  might  come  to  loathe  the  flesh  of 
animals  as  food  after  several  years'  abstinence 
from  it,  and  the  experience  of  those  who  had 
made  the  trial  often  proved  this  to  be  the  case, 
and  that  it  became  nothing  less  than  disgusting. 
A  familiar  and  striking  instance  of  this  kind  was 
afforded  by  the  experience  of  a  number  of  mis- 
sionaries in  the  South  Seas,  who  lived  for  ten 
years  on  fruits  and  vegetable  products,  and  in 
abstinence  from  flesh.  At  the  end  of  that  time 
they  roasted  an  ox,  and  "What,"  said  one  of 
them,  "  was  our  astonishment  to  find  we  could 
not  bear  either  the  taste  or  smell  of  it."  And 
one  poor  missionary's  wife  actually  burst  into 
tears,  to  think  she  had  become  so  barbarous  as  to 
lose  her  relish  for  roast  beef!  (Laughter  and 
applause.)  Physiology  was  supposed  to  oppose 
their  system,  and  many  writers  on  this  subject 
had  followed  each  other  in  erroneous  conclusions 
and  teaching,  like  a  flock  of  sheep,  who  all 
imitated  their  leader  in  taking  a  leap  over  some 
particular  obstruction  in  their  way,  purely 
imaginary  though  it  might  be.  In  this  he 
referred  to  the  popular  conception  of  the  struc- 
ture of  the  teeth  being  supposed  to  indicate  that 
man  was  intended  to  eat  flesh.  If  this  were  so, 
the  world   was    strangely   disobedient    in    this 


particular ;  for,  instead  of  eating  meat  with  the 
canine,  or  "  eye  tooth,"  as  it  was  called,  they  put 
the  meat  past  it,  and  ate  it  with  the  molars,  just 
as  they  did  other  food.  Besides  this,  other 
animals  had  got  this  tooth  more  prominent  than 
man,  as  the  horse,  reindeer,  camel,  and  especially 
the  monkey  tribes,  and  ought,  therefore,  to  be 
more  flesh-eating  than  he,  though  we  knew  they 
lived  upon  fruits,  grain,  and  other  vegetable 
products,  and  never  consumed  the  flesh  of 
animals  in  a  natural  condition.  This  could, 
however,  be  produced  by  training  and  acquired 
habit,  for  Bufpon  mentioned  the  case  of  a  sheep 
that  had  been  taught  to  eat  mutton  until  it 
actually  refused  grass.  The  objection  to  Vegeta- 
rianism drawn  from  the  canine  tooth,  was  to  him 
an  instance  of  reasoning  from  prevailing'custom, 
rather  than  taking  nature  as  a  standard.  He 
wished  that  minor  physiologists  had  been  content 
to  follow  such  men  as  Linn^us,  Cuvier,  Ray, 
Daubbnton,  and  others,  down  to  Professor 
Owen,  the  greatest  authority  on  odontography 
of  modern  times,  who  all  agreed  in  stating  that 
fruits,  grain,  and  the  succulent  parts  of  vege- 
tables are  the  natural  food  of  man,  whatever  he 
might  come  to  eat  by  acquired  habit.  Looking 
at  man  as  an  intellectual  being,  we  had  to  con- 
sider what  were  the  principles  that  should  be 
found  in  his  food,  and  recent  researches  of 
chemists  had  shown  that  three  great  priociples 
were  needed,  one  to  form  the  blood  of  the  body, 
another  to  produce  the  warmth  of  the  body,  and 
ashes  or  mineral  salts  to  assist  in  turning  the 
food  into  blood ;  and  it  was  also  proved  that  more 
of  each  of  these  principles  could  be  obtained 
from  vegetable  products  than  from  the  flesh  of 
animals.  Liebig  had  stated  that  for  a  man 
carrying  out  much  physical  exertion  the  best  pro- 
portion of  these  principles  was  four  of  that 
which  made  warmth,  to  one  of  that  which  made 
blood;  and  it  was  found  that  the  vegetable  king- 
dom was  richer  in  both  these  essentials  than  the 
flesh  of  animals  ;  for  100  lbs.  of  flesh-meat  con- 
tained only  36  6-10th3  of  solid  matter,  and  the 
remaining  63  4-lOths  were  simply  water.  But 
if  we  bought  peas-meal,  or  barley-meal,  we 
should  get  85^  lbs.  out  of  the  100  lbs.  solid  mat- 
ter, and  if  we  took  that  excellent  article  of  food, 
oat-meal  (which  he  regretted  was  not  better  ap- 
preciated in  that  part  of  the  country),  it  con- 
tained 91  lbs.  out  of  the  100  lbs.  soUd  matter, 
and  only  9  lbs.  water.  (Applause.)  Why,  then,  did 
people  go  to  flesh-meat  at  all,  if  the  vegetable 
kingdom  was  so  much  richer  in  these  great 
essentials  of  food?  People  said  they  went  to 
flesh-meat  because  the  nutriment  they  got  was 
superior  to  what  they  could  get  from  the  vege- 
table kingdom — that  there  was  more  nutriment 
in  it.  He  would  meet  this  popular  feeling  as  a 
friend  of  his  met  a  similar  argument  from  a 
medical  man,  who  was  recommending  flesh-meat 
to  him  as  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  his 
health,  because  it  contained  more  nitrogen  than 
vegetable  food.  "  Well  then,"  asked  his  friend, 
"  does  beef  and  mutton  contain  the  due  proportion 
of  nitrogenous  matter?  "  "  Certainly  it  does,"  was 
the  reply.  Then  retorted  his  friend,  "Will  you 
have  the  kindness  to  tell  me  where  the   sheep 


70 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  BANQUET. 


and  oxen  get  this  nitrogen  from,  for  they  are  vege- 
table feeders."  "I  did  not  think  of  that,  before," 
said  the  doctor  (laughter  and  applause) ;  and  so  he 
(Mr.  Simpson)  had  no  doubt  that  the  world, 
who  fancied  that  flesh  contained  more  nutri- 
ment than  vegetable  substances,  had  never 
thought  before  where  the  animal  obtained  that 
nutriment  from.  The  theories  and  analyses  of 
LiEBiG  pointed  out  these  facts,  and  demon- 
strated that  vegetable  products  were  richer  in 
salts,  much  richer  in  that  which  made  warmth  in 
the  body,  and  that  they  contained  as  much  as  7, 
9,  and  11  per  cent,  more  blood  principle,  in  peas, 
beans,  and  lentils,  than  butcher's  meat,  and 
36  per  cent,  more  of  that  which  made  the  heat 
of  the  body.  Then  they  were  told  by  people  that 
flesh-meat  contained  a  peculiar  kind  of  nutriment. 
He  begged  again  to  reply,  on  the  authority  of 
LiEBiG,  that  all  nutriment  whatever  was  derived 
from  the  vegetable  kingdom,  originating  in  protein 
compounds,  and  when  these  were  transmitted 
through  the  body  of  an  animal  we  did  not  get 
anything  peculiar,  but  merely  ate  the  vegetable 
principles  that  had  served  for  the  nutrition  of 
that  animal.  Why  not,  then,  as  common  sense 
would  suggest,  go  direct  to  the  vegetable  king- 
dom ?  Especially  when  they  considered  the  impor- 
tant fact  that  economy  taught  upon  this  question, 
in  relation  to  the  greater  number  of  persons  that 
could  be  supported  on  a  given  plot  of  ground 
on  the  Vegetarian  than  on  the  meat-eating 
system.  Look  at  the  effect  of  the  demand  for 
mutton  in  the  south,  in  leading  to  the  depopula- 
tion of  extensive  districts  in  Scotland,  to  the 
disgrace  of  its  landed  proprietors,  that  the  lands 
formerly  used  to  raise  food  for  man  might  be 
converted  into  sheep  walks ;  in  this  way  large 
numbers  of  industrious  people  had  been  expa- 
triated, and  driven  from  their  homes  and  lands  to 
foreign  climes.  (Applause.)  Let  them  look 
again  at  the  fact  that  twelve  to  fifteen  Vegeta- 
rians could  be  supported  upon  the  same  plot  of 
ground  that  it  would  take  to  raise  food  for  one 
person  fed  on  flesh-meat  exclusively.  By  the 
adoption  of  this  system,  they  would  have  the 
towns  in  great  measure  converted  into  the 
country  by  the  increase  of  garden  cultivation, 
and  an  improved  condition  in  raising  abundant 
supplies  of  fruit  along  the  sides  of  our  railways, 
and  otherwise  supplying  all  that  was  necessary 
on  lands  now  used  exclusively  for  raising  food  for 
a  limited  number  of  cattle.  It  would  occur 
that  the  same  amount  of  food  could  be  obtained 
for  2d.  from  the  vegetable  kingdom  that  we 
were  compelled  to  pay  a  shilling  for  from  the  flesh 
of  animals,  though  Cobbett  had  most  mistakenly 
recommended  the  keeping  of  pigs  as  an  impor- 
tant feature  of  economy  in  relation  to  the 
working  man.  He  (Mr.  Simpson)  could  not  but 
regard  it  as  a  mistake  to  make  200  lbs.  of  pork 
from  15  bushels  of  Indian  meal,  the  quantity  found 
necessary  to  produce  this  result  in  raising  pigs  in 
the  city  of  Cincinnati,  and  for  the  following 
reason.  The  Indians  and  others  found  that  they 
could  live  on  2  lbs.  of  fat  pork  per  day,  and  it  had 
also  been  ascertained  that  1  qt.  of  Indian  corn 
per  day,  would  suffice  for  the  support  of  a  man  in 
health  and  strength.     How  long  then  could  he 


have  lived  on  the  15  bushels  he  put  into  the 
body  of  the  pig?  480  days,  whilst  after  tending 
the  pig  for  a  long  time,  and  treating  it  in  a  very 
ugly  way  at  last,  he  only  got  pork  upon  which 
he  could  live  100  days.  (Applause.)  Was  that 
dietetic  philosophy?  There  was  an  interesting 
discussion  going  on  between  the  Christians  and 
the  Jews,  as  to  which  of  their  modes  of  slaughter 
was  the  most  humane,  and  a  case  had  recently 
been  tried  before  the  Lord  Mayor's  Court, 
charging  cruelty  on  Jewish  butchers.  He  had 
seen  this  with  much  interest,  because  many  per- 
sons would  read  the  evidence  given,  and  have  a 
far  more  distinct  impression  of  the  cruelties 
perpetrated  in  the  slaughtering  of  animals  than 
they  had  ever  had  before.  It  was  contended  by 
certain  witnesses  that  putting  an  iron  ring 
round  the  jaw  of  the  animal,  throwing  it  on  the 
pavement,  and  giving  one  heavy  cut  low  down 
in  the  throat  (the  Jewish  mode),  after  which  the 
animal  continued  to  writhe  and  live  from  eight 
to  ten  minutes,  was  "less  merciful"  than  the 
course  usually  pursued  by  Christian  butchers,  of 
beating  in  the  skull  with  the  pole-axe,  and  then 
inserting  a  cane  into  the  opening,  and  "  stirring 
about  the  brains"  until  the  spinal  cord  was 
reached  and  death  ensued.  Medical  men  had 
been  examined  on  both  sides  of  the  question,  and 
had  given  evidence  in  support  of  each  process. 
Whoever  had  read  these  reports,  however  (and 
this  was  the  gist  of  the  matter),  must  have  been 
shocked  at  the  details ;  because,  he  contended,  it 
was  against  nature  to  see  men  engaged  in  such 
operations  as  killing  animals,  and  no  one  could 
associate  the  meat  upon  his  table  with  such  pro- 
cesses without  having  a  feeling  of  loathing  and 
disgust,  instead  of  a  desire  to  partake  of  food  so 
obtained.  On  the  other  hand,  nature  had  taken 
care  to  make  food  derived  from  the  vegetable 
kingdom  agreeable  to  us  in  all  its  stages  of  de- 
velopment, as  well  as  when  it  was  matured  and 
ready  for  our  use.  The  one  system  was  in  har- 
mony with  our  feelings  and  better  nature,  the 
other  revolted  and  outraged  them.  If  we  re- 
ferred to  experience,  we  found  that  all  the  great 
works  of  the  world,  in  ancient  times,  had  been 
carried  out  upon  the  Vegetarian  and  not  upon 
the  meat-eating  system.  If  we  looked  to  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  in  their  palmiest  days,  we 
found  them  subsisting  upon  simple  vegetable 
products,  and  drinking  only  water,  and  only 
identified  with  the  eating  of  the  flesh  of  animals 
when  luxury  came  amongst  them  in  the  periods 
preceding  their  decline  and  fall.  The  strongest 
men  of  the  earth  had  lived  in  this  way,  and  the 
porters  of  Smyrna,  who  were  able  to  carry  loads 
of  800  lbs.  weight  upon  the  head  and  shoulders, 
lived  on  black  bread  and  fruit,  and  drank  water. 
The  finest  models  of  the  sculptors  of  ancient 
times  were  obtained  amongst  people  living  in 
dietetic  practices  of  this  kind,  and  if  we  would 
emulate  these  productions  of  high  art  now,  we 
must  go  to  the  same  sources.  The  hard  work  of  the 
world  was  still  done,  mainly,  in  subsistence  upon 
the  products  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  and  in 
abstinence  from  the  flesh  of  animals.  What 
was  the  experience  of  the  system,  not  in  this 
country  alone  but  in  America  too,  where  there 


BIEMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  BANQUET. 


71 


were  thousands  of  Vegetarians,  but  that  those 
who  adopted  it  (comparing  themselves  with 
themselves,  and  not  adopting  the  fallacious 
estimate  of  judging  of  themselves  by  other 
people),  commonly  found  this  system  a  better 
system  than  the  other.  The  general  experience  of 
such  persons  was,  that  the  man  who  came  into  it 
in  good  health  made  that  better  health,  whilst  the 
man  who  came  in  the  absence  of  health,  secured 
this  great  blessing.  The  general  experience  of 
those  who  had  tried  "  both  sides  of  the  question  " 
was,  that  it  was  better  to  live  upon  vegetable  pro- 
ducts than  upon  the  flesh  of  animals  as  food.  The 
time  would  not  allow  of  his  entering  upon  all 
the  evidence  in  favour  of  the  system,  and  it 
could  only  be  tested  by  experience.  "  He  that 
doeth  truth,  cometh  to  the  light."  When  we 
recognized  the  beauty  of  this  system  we  were 
at  one  with  nature  in  all  her  works.  It  was 
in  harmony  with  the  facts  of  natural  science, — 
God's  voice  in  creation — as  well  as  our  moral 
nature,  and  all  high  and  holy  principles  that  had 
ever  been  showered  down  from  a  higher  and 
greater  world  upon  this.  It  was  allied  to  all 
systems  that  were  complete  and  good;  if  we 
wanted  a  complete  temperance  system,  it  must  be 
in  connection  with  this  practice,  for  those  who 
entered  upon  it  with  a  liking  for  alcoholic  beve- 
rages lost  the  desire  for  these,  in  their  further 
experience,  altogether  ;  and  thus  it  became  easy, 
however  difficult  it  might  be  to  follow  the  teeto- 
tal system  apart  from  Vegetarianism.  If  a  com- 
plete peace  system  were  wanted,  it  would  be 
found  closely  associated  with  Vegetarianism  ;  for 
our  brethren  of  the  peace  movement  would  never 
realize  their  object  so  long  as  they  overlooked 
or  sanctioned  the  slaughter  and  violence  per- 
petrated on  the  lower  animals  in  preparing 
their  flesh  as  food,  and  thus  training  men  for  the 
slaughter  of  their  fellow  creatures.  Undoubt- 
edly, the  system  was  admirably  adapted  to  aid  in 
bringing  about  everything  that  was  highest  and 
best  for  the  world.  Did  not  the  world  acknow- 
ledge high  and  holy  principles  in  many  ways, 
and  yet  professed  inability  to  reduce  these  to 
practice  ?  and  he  held  that  as  it  was  impossible  to 
manifest  the  highest  life  and  power  through  a 
shrivelled  limb,  so,  as  long  as  the  body  was 
the  "temple  of  the  spirit,"  the  highest  and 
purest  principles  of  Ghristianism  could  not  be 
exhibited  by  those  living  in  an  erroneous  practice 
of  diet.  The  system  was  a  very  important  one, 
because  it  would  be  found  that  those  adopting  it 
could  be  a  law  to  themselves,  far  beyond  what 
they  could  in  feeding  upon  the  flesh  of  animals 
as  food,  and  drinking  alcoholic  beverages,  the 
mental  manifestations  being  greatly  influenced  by 
the  kind  of  food  used.  The  physical  condition, 
also,  was  in  a  more  favourable  state,  and  there 
was  a  harmony  between  the  high  principles  he 
had  referred  to  and  their  practical  realization, 
most  required  by  the  world.  He  would  urge  all 
to  look  at  this  question,  as  one  simple,  and 
easily  applicable  to  the  wants  of  the  world,  in 
facilitating  the  realization  of  abstract  principles, 
and  in  harmony  with  which  they  would  have  the 
period  foretold  in  prophecy,  when  "  nothing 
should  hurt  or  destroy,"  and  the  advent  of  which 


he  urged  his  hearers  to  hasten  a  little,  by  taking 
up  this  system  of  abstinence  from  flesh  as 
food.  Mr.  Simpson  then  apologized  for  the 
rapid  manner  in  which  he  had  presented  his 
arguments,  and  concluded  by  commending  the 
Vegetarian  system  as  a  thoroughly  practical 
system  of  diet — as  a  reform  worthy  of  the 
gravest  attention.  It  would  be  found  to  be  the 
same  system  of  feeding  the  body  that  God 
appointed  in  Paradise,  and  which  had  never  been 
recalled.  It  would  be  found  that  man's  dietetic 
constitution  had  not  been  re-constituted, — that 
that  which  was  best  in  the  beginning  was  best 
now — that  God,  as  beheld  in  creation,  in  the 
facts  of  science,  declared  fully  and  completely 
that  fruits,  roots,  grain,  and  the  succulent  parts 
of  vegetables  were  still  the  best  food  of  man. 
And  if  the  system  were  thus  established  in 
nature,  though  it  might  have  its  difficulties  to 
beset  its  progress,  what  good  system,  he  would 
ask,  had  not  to  contend  with  these  ?  This 
might,  indeed,  be  regarded  as  a  proof  of  its 
worth;  for,  if  it  cost  a  little  eff"ort  to  depart 
from  prevailing  custom,  it  was  only  here  as  in 
every  step  we  took  in  what  was  good  :  our  course 
heavenward  was  attended  by  similar  difficulties, 
from  the  established  customs  and  influences  of 
society.  He  would  then  conclude  his  remarks, 
earnestly,  though  hurriedly  presented,  by  urging 
all,  in  the  words  of  Pythagoras,  to  "  Fix  upon 
that  course  of  life  which  is  best,"  and  he  pro- 
mised they  should  find  that  "  custom  would  render 
it  the  most  delightful."     (Applause.) 

Dr.  Laurie  said,  he  had  tried  the  Vegetarian 
practice  in  the  most  careful  manner,  for  four 
years,  and  would  state  briefly  the  reasons  which 
had  led  him  to  adopt  and  carry  it  out.  The 
main  cause  of  his  adopting  a  Vegetarian  habit  of 
diet,  was  his  declining  health.  He  had  pre- 
viously lost  a  sister,  of  consumption,  who  was 
in  the  first  instance  a  martyr  to  tic-doloreux, 
and  whilst  himself  similarly  affected  by  the 
latter  of  these  complaints,  his  agonies  were 
often  so  intense  that  he  used  to  roll  for  hours  upon 
the  ground.  He  was  thus  led  to  adopt  Vege- 
tarianism, as  everything  else  had  failed  to  afford 
relief.  He  went  from  an  extreme  animal  diet 
to  a  simple  vegetable  diet,  but  found  the  sudden 
change  too  extreme,  and  was  compelled  to  return 
to  the  use  of  flesh  meat.  He  was  not,  however, 
satisfied,  and  though  he  encountered  great  oppo- 
sition from  his  wife  and  friends,  as  might  be 
supposed,  from  their  fear  that  he  would  injure 
if  not  destroy  himself,  he  resolved  to  make  another 
attempt  to  carry  out  the  Vegetarian  practice. 
He  began  by  restricting  himself  to  flesh-meat 
twice  a  week,  then  abandoning  it  altogether,  but 
found  he  could  not  maintain  a  robust  state  of 
health  without  the  xise  of  peas  and  beans.  With 
these  articles  of  food,  however,  he  found  no 
difficulty  whatever,  and  coujd  now  do  without 
these  except  in  cold  weather,  when  they  assisted  in 
maintaining  the  natural  warmth  of  the  body. 
After  adopting  the  system,  he  improved  in  health, 
as  did  his  children — for  he  had  nine  children,  all  of 
whom  had  similarly  improved.  (Applause.)  One 
of  these,  he  at  one  time  much  feared  would  be 
paralysed,  but  he  had  so  improved  by  the  change 


72 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN   ASSOCIATION  BANQUET. 


of  diet,  that  this  tendency  had  completely  left 
hira.  This  child  was  the  first  he  put  upon  a  Vege- 
tarian diet.  There  was  also  a  great  improvement 
in  the  intellectual  and  physical  activity  of  his 
children.  He  found  the  same  result  in  his  own 
case,  and  from  being  unable  to  walk  any  distance, 
he  was  now  able  to  walk  eight  miles  before 
breakfast.  When  a  child,  he  had  been  very 
anxious  to  give  up  the  use  of  meat,  and  fre- 
quently endeavoured  to  persuade  his  parents  to 
allow  him  to  do  so ;  but  he  could  not  succeed, 
as  they  were  afraid  of  its  injuring  his  health. 
He  had  a  severe  attack  of  gasttritis  when  eight 
years  old,  and  had  twenty-nine  leeches  applied 
at  one  time,  besides  being  bled  in  both  arms, 
and  having  to  take  calomel  and  opium,  and  was 
then  given  up  as  a  bad  case.  Nature,  however, 
did  more  for  him  than  the  doctors,  though  he 
had,  subsequently,  two  similar  severe  attacks  of 
the  disease  from  exposure  to  east  winds.  To 
show  the  amount  of  tainted  meat  occasionally 
eaten,  he  might  mention  a  circumstance  that 
came  under  the  notice  of  himself  and  a  friend  at 
Banbury,  in  Oxfordshire.  On  examining  the 
"  lights  "  of  the  London  sheep,  they  found  they 
were  full  of  tuberculous  matter,  and  it  was 
impossible  for  this  state  of  things  to  exist 
without  the  muscles  of  the  sheep — the  shoulders 
and  limbs — being  diseased.  When  tuberculous 
matter  was  present  in  the  lungs  of  an  animal, 
the  whole  of  the  body  must  be  affected,  and 
could  not  be  used  as  food  without  injury  to  the 
human  frame.  Not  long  ago,  a  lady  had  told 
him  that  she  had  discovered  a  large  abscess  in  a 
shoulder  of  veal,  and  it  was  impossible  that 
people  could  eat  such  food  frequently  or  con- 
stantly, without  its  being  injurious.  Dr. 
Laurie  then  observed  that  he  had  occasionally 
met  with  opposition  from  persons  who  supposed 
that  by  living  upon  a  Vegetarian  diet  they  would 
lose  not  only  their  health  but  their  energy, 
but  he  had  found  it  quite  the  opposite.  He  had 
lived  entirely  without  flesh-meat  for  the  last  year 
or  two,  and  had  given  up  the  use  of  tea  and 
coffee  four  years  ago,  and  was  now  in  better 
health  than  he  had  been  for  many  years  past,  and 
concluded  by  repeating  that  this  system  of  diet 
had  suited  himself  and  family  well,  and  that  he 
had  also  found  it  exceedingly  efficacious  in  the 
treatment  of  cases  of  consumption.  (Applause.) 
Mr.  W.  G.  Ward  remarked  that  he  felt  some 
difficulty  in  addressing  a  Birmingham  audience  ; 
he  had  spoken  of  the  subject  so  often  that  he 
appeared  to  have  very  little  left  to  say.  He  had 
one  advantage,  however ;  he  need  not  say  much 
about  himself,  for  it  was  confessed  on  all  hands 
that  the  system  suited  him,  and  there  had  been 
a  sufficient  number  of  Vegetarians  present  on 
that  occasion  to  show  that  they  could  maintain 
themselves  in  health  and  energy  without  re- 
sorting to  flesh  as  food ;  there  being  several 
gentlemen  around  him  who  had  maintained  their 
vigour  to  old  age.  He  felt  it  as  the  proudest 
moment  of  his  life,  to  stand  up  in  the  finest 
and  most  noble  building  of  his  native  town,  not 
to  speak  ori  some  paltry  question  of  party 
politics,  or  on  warring  religious  opinions,  but  to 
show  on  those  tables  what  they  could  do  to  bring 


about  "  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  towards 
men."  (Hear,  hear.)  The  object  of  their  meetings 
and  lectures  was  to  remove  the  prejudice  against 
the  system,  to  overturn  the  errors  of  eating  and 
drinking,  and  to  cleanse  the  people  from  the  cruel- 
ties of  the  slaughter-house,  to  civilize  and  elevate 
to  heaven,  in  this  Christian  England  of  ours.  He 
said,  at  once,  he  was  a  Vegetarian  because  God 
willed  it ;  he  had  simply  to  turn  to  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  to  prove  that.  They  had 
given  several  lectures  on  the  physiological  part 
of  the  question,  and  as  there  were  so  many  to 
speak  on  the  subject  on  that  occasion,  it  was 
not  possible  to  go  through  every  important  part 
of  the  argument,  but  all  would  find,  on  exami- 
nation, that  there  was  no  human  subject  they 
could  take  up  that  admitted  of  such  infallible 
proof.  They  would  no  doubt  remember  those 
lines  of  the  poet — 

"A  time  there  was,  ere  England's  woes  began, 
When  every  rood  of  land  maintained  its  man." 

And  there  was  more  philosophy  in  this  than 
poetry  was  usually  guilty  of,  for  this  was  just 
the  extent  of  land  required  to  support  a  Vegeta- 
rian, whilst  five  to  eight  acres  were  required  to 
support  a  meat-eater.  Vegetarianism  would 
also  free  them  from  disease ;  their  children  would 
never  have  been  afflicted  with  measles  if  they 
or  their  parents,  and  their  progenitors,  had  not 
eateu  measled  pork  before  them.  (Applause.) 
It  should  be  understood  by  all  that  the  three- 
score years  and  ten,  usually  supposed  to  be  the 
limit  of  man's  life,  under  a  natural  diet,  could 
be  very  far  extended,  and  not  merely  the  life 
extended,  but  the  years  of  man's  \iseful  existence. 
A  recent  instance,  tending  to  illustrate  this,  he 
would  allude  to  for  a  moment.  They  had  seen  a 
young  man  giving  himself  to  study — unfortu- 
nately not  of  his  whole  nature — and  living  to 
accumulate  stores  of  knowledge,  and  though  of 
aristocratic  birth,  intent  ever  on  the  good  of  his 
country.  He  alluded  to  Sir  W.  MoiLes worth. 
(Applause.)  No  one  who  was  acquainted  with 
the  course  of  study  that  man  had  pursued,  but 
would  admit  that  they  had  lost  a  man  of  great 
service  to  the  country,  and  at  the  unnaturally 
early  age  of  forty-five,  and  that,  from  the  nature 
of  the  disease,  it  must  have  arisen  from  his 
aristocratic  habits.  (Applause.)  In  speaking  of 
this  subject,  it  had  been  remarked  how  ditficult 
it  was  to  decide,  from  national  habits  of  diet, 
what  was  the  natural  food  of  man.  They  had  to 
request  that  their  audience  would  begin  to 
inquire  whether  they  would  eat  dogs  and  cats 
with  the  Chinese,  or  frogs  with  the  French,  or 
sit  down  to  glorify  "the  roast  beef  of  Old 
England."  No  less  than  1700  works  had  been 
published  on  diet  and  digestion ; — a  pretty  fair 
number  to  go  through — but  they  put  aside 
these,  and  went  back  to  nature,  and  saw  what 
nature  had  provided  for  them,  as  in  these  last 
days  of  the  world  best  calculated  to  give  them 
longevity  and  health  to  the  end  of  their  days. 
Foreigners  were  astonished,  amongst  other  things, 
at  the  extraordinary  number  of  druggists'  shops 
in  this  country.  And,  certainly,  turn  which  way 
you  would  the  big  blue  bottles  met  you  every 
way,  with  all  their  accompaniments,  as  if  castor 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN    ASSOCIATION   BANQUET. 


oil  and  Epsom  salts  were  a  part  of  man's  daily 
diet.  What  with  drugs  and  doctors,  surgeons 
and  dentists,  poor  humanity  seemed  to  require 
constant  assistance  to  prop  it  for  a  few  poor 
suffering  years  !  He  had  read  in  an  American 
publication  that  people's  teeth  were  being  often 
worn  out  before  the  body  had  arrived  at  maturity. 
Was  not  this  a  sufficient  proof  that  a  complete 
dietetic  reform  was  necessary  ?  They  even  fre- 
quently saw  announcements  of  "  cheap  teeth  ;  " 
"teeth  3s.  each,"  was  now  placarded  on  the 
walls  of  Dudley.  It  was  very  strange  and  un- 
natural that  people  should  be,  often  just  as  they 
were  fitted  to  commence  the  world,  compelled  to 
resort  to  mechanical  means  to  compensate  for  a 
partly  worn-out  body.  Before  people  went  away 
satisfied  with  the  present  system  of  feeding  on 
the  mangled  remains  of  animals,  he  asked  them 
to  go  for  a  moment  to  the  East,  he  did  not  mean 
to  survey  the  battle-field,  but  to  see  the  conduct 
of  Englishmen  there  —  their  drunkenness  and 
violence  was  a  disgrace  to  humanity.  The 
Times  newspaper  of  the  preceding  day,  gave 
them  a  teetotal  lecture  in  its  first  leader,  and 
humanity  in  England  must  be  very  low  for  a 
paper  like  the  Times  to  give  great  prominence  to 
a  question  of  that  sort.  It  was  not,  however, 
necessary  to  go  to  the  East ;  we  had  only  to  take 
up  a  number  of  the  Times  to  see  that  brutality 
and  wife-beating  were  becoming  quite  chronic 
among  us.  If  we  wanted  to  get  up  a  meeting 
to  subscribe  for  some  benevolent  object,  we  must 
begin  with  a  dinner,  just  as  if  John  Bull 
could  only  be  benevolent  when  his  stomach  was 
full,  and  the  national  character  had  become  so 
far  degraded,  that  this  custom  seemed  bound 
up  with  the  very  existence  of  society.  As 
Vegetarians,  they  inquired  if  these  thiugs  need 
be? 

"  This  world  is  full  of  beauty,  like  other  worlds 

above ! 
And  if  we  did  our  duty,  it  might  be  full  of  love." 

(Applause.)  These  were  not  evils  of  nature, 
but  evils  produced  by  our  own  conduct,  evils 
removable  by  ourselves.  We  must  at  once 
cleanse  ourselves  from  violence  and  bloodshed, 
not  be  led  by  stomach  rule,  but  rule  of  reason 
and  the  light  of  human  thought.  He  felt  that 
to  enter  upon  the  sad  features  of  the  question — 
the  horrors  of  the  slaughter-house — was  to  dare 
the  laugh  of  the  vulgar  and  the  stupid.  Let 
them,  however,  go  to  their  own  slaughter-house, 
and  see  the  blood-boltered  wretch,  standing  axe 
in  hand  before  the  patient  ox,  to  knock  out 
its  brains,  that  humanity  may  feed — to  the 
poulterer's  shop,  and  see  them  feathering  fowls 
half  alive  —  inflicting  the  greatest  amount 
of  suflFering  to  save  the  smallest  amount  of 
human  time.  Or  let  them  go  to  the  dwellings 
of  the  people,  and  see  the  wife  trying  to  pacify 
her  helpless  children  crying  for  bread,  while  the 
brute  that  should  be  a  husband  was  spending 
his  wages  at  the  gin  palace.  Or  go  up  their 
fetid  alleys  where  there  is  nothing  green  but 
putrefaction,  and  listen  to  the  throbs  of  the 
dying  drunkard,  and  see  for  themselves  the  mix- 
ture of  poverty  and  sensuality,  the  debasement 
of  appetite,  and  fury  of  passion,  and  then  say 


if  no  dietetic  reform  was  necessary.  These  were 
not  fancy  scenes,  but  every  day  occurrences,  as 
they  had  proved  by  their  daily  newspapers.  If 
they  wanted  to  see  the  fruits  of  the  other  side, 
let  them  contemplate  a  Vegetarian  city,  for 
as  there  was  no  violence,  there  could  be  no 
soldier,  and  no  policeman ;  and  therefore  no 
taxation ;  for  gaols  would  be  unnecessary. 
There  would  be  peace  at  every  man's  fireside, 
love  everywhere  would  reign ;  there  might  be  no 
poverty,  for  the  earth  would  produce  enough  for 
all,  and  each  would  live  "  under  his  own  vine  and 
fig  tree,"  and  heaven  would  smile  upon  us  again. 
All  would  be  healthy,  for  the  great  source  of 
disease  was  the  animal  food  people  ate,  and  the 
alcoholic  beverages  they  drank ;  it  would  be  life 
in  health,  not  dying  off  as  three-fourths  of  the 
people  now  did  before  their  time.  Vegetarians 
were  seeking  to  bring  this  about.  He  would  say 
to  the  Vegetarians,  with  the  poet : — 

"My  brethren,  we  are  free  !  the  fruits  are  glowing 
Beneath  the    stars,   and    the  night  winds   are 
flowing 
O'er  the  ripening  corn  ;  the  birds  and  beasts 
are  dreaming. 
Never  again  may  blood  of  bird  or  beast 
Stain  with  its  venomous  stream  a  human  feast. 

To  the  pure  skies  in  accusation  steaming ; 
Avenging  poisons  shall  have  ceased 

To  feed  disease,  and  fear,  and  madness  ; 

The  dwellers  of  the  earth  and  air 
Shall  throng  around  our  steps  in  gladness, 
Seeking  their  food  or  refuge  there. 
Our  toil  from  thought  all  glorious  forms  shall 

cull, 
To  make  this  earth,  our  home,  more  beautiful ; 
And  science,  and  her  sister  poesy, 
Shall  clothe  with  light  the  fields  and  cities  of 
the  free!  " 

(Applause.)  Before  sitting  down,  he  must  say 
a  few  words  to  the  ladies,  for  he  had  been  much 
pleased  by  seeing  so  many  present.  We  all 
knew  that  without  them  we  were  powerless  for 
good.  They  were  the  sweet  modest  daisies  upon 
the  greensward  of  humanity — the  acanthus 
leaf  and  blossom  on  the  pillar  of  society.  And 
they  did  not  merely  adorn  our  meetings,  but  were 
the  sinews  of  our  moral  strength,  and  the  great 
means  of  our  ultimate  success.  It  was  into  their 
arms  that  the  Lord  God  placed  the  little  chil- 
dren that  were  to  rise  up  to  be  the  men  and 
women  of  the  next  generation ;  it  was  for  them  to 
say  whether  these  should  be  sensual  or  spiritual, 
and  take  their  places  in  civilized  society.  That 
was  for  the  ladies  to  say,  for  it  was  the  smile  of 
woman  that  could  make  the  hero  out  of  the 
coward,  that  could  light  up  with  the  glow  of 
enthusiasm  the  dying  embers  of  age.  If  woman 
would  resolve  that  the  next  generation  should 
not  be  slaves  of  appetite,  the  thing  could  easily 
be  accomplished,  and  in  doing  this  for  the  bene- 
fit of  posterity  she  would  be  doing  something 
for  herself;  a  gentle,  calm  old  age  being 
hers,  from  good  influences  reflected  upon 
herself;  and  thus  he  would  address  her,  and 
say,  that 

"  The  waving  corn,  and  fruitful  tree. 
Bear  gracious  nourishment  for  thee; 
Live  fair  one,  as  a  lady  should. 
And  being  beautiful — be  good ! 


74 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETAEIAN  ASSOCIATION  BANQUET. 


Though  lions,  tigers,  vultures  prey, 
Be  thou  more  merciful  than  they  : 
Thy  health  will  last,  thy  life  be  long  ! " 
— (Loud  applause.) 

Rev.  W.  Metcalfe  spoke  as  follows  : 
After  the  very  eloquent  manner  in  which  you 
have  been  addressed  upon  this  very  interesting 
subject,  I  will  not  take  up  your  time  with  any 
further  exposition  of  its  principles,  but  rather 
refer  to  some  of  the  practical  results  which  have 
followed  the  adoption  of  the  principles  you  have 
heard  so  eloquently  explained  this  evening.  For 
forty-six  years  I  have  been  strictly  a  Vegetarian. 
AVhen  I  first  adopted  the  system,  in  my  twenty- 
first  year,  all  my  friends  assured  me  that  I  should 
die  if  I  persevered;  that  nothing  was  more 
certain  than  that  I  should  be  carried  to  the 
churchyard  in  six  months — ^I  should  go  into  a 
state  of  consumption — and  that  without  any 
doubt  whatever.  I  persevered,  however,  not- 
withstanding all  this  opposition,  and  the  ridicule 
that  was  brought  against  me ;  and  instead  of 
going  into  a  state  of  consumption,  I  went  into 
the  state  of  matrimony.  (Laughter  and  ap- 
plause.) I  became  a  housekeeper,  and  have  been 
a  housekeeper  forty-six  years  without  ever 
having  a  pound  of  flesh,  fish,  or  fowl  in  my 
house.  I  lived  in  this  ray  native  country  for 
seven  years  after  I  became  a  Vegetarian,  and 
afterwards  emigrated  to  America.  The  passage 
across  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  at  the  best  of  times, 
and  under  the  most  favourable  circumstances,  is 
one  to  try  men's  faith.  It  is  perhaps  one  of  the 
most  disagreeable  positions  in  which  a  Vege- 
tarian can  be  placed ;  however,  though  the  pas- 
sage was  long  when  I  first  went  to  America, 
though  I  was  eleven  weeks  upon  the  water,  I 
still  adhered  to  the  practice  of  Vegetarianism. 
On  landing  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  a  friend 
came  to  me,  and  his  first  advice  was :  "  I  do 
advise  you  to  give  up  your  foolish  notions  of 
eating  and  living ;  it  is  impossible  for  you  to 
follow  these  in  this  very  trying  climate ;  it  is 
very  necessary  for  you  to  eat  animal  food."  I 
informed  my  friend,  that  if  I  found  it  as  he  had 
said,  I  would  follow  his  advice,  but  that  I  must 
first  be  convinced  that  I  could  not  live  without 
in  the  climate  of  Pennsylvania.  In  the  year  1819, 
the  city  of  Philadelphia  was  visited  with  the 
yellow  fever.  This  drove  many  of  the  inhabi- 
tants from  their  residences  ;  but  though  the 
fever  commenced  in  the  neighbourhood  of  my 
residence,  and  as  a  minister,  I  was  called  upon 
to  visit  the  sick  and  dying,  I  never  experienced 
any  inconvenience  from  thus  entering  within  the 
sphere  of  the  disease.  My  children  were  not 
subject  to  any  of  those  diseases  to  which  chil- 
dren are  commonly  liable — no  scarlatina,  no 
cholera  infantum — none  of  those  eruptions  so 
common  to  childhood,  with  the  exception  only  of 
measles — these  were  experienced  slightly.  They 
have  grown  up  under  the  diet  of  Vegetarianism, 
never  having  tasted  any  kind  of  animal  food 
whatever ;  they  could  not  have  been  induced  to 
take  it.  They  had  grown  up  to  a  state  of  matu- 
rity ;  they  have  married — Vegetarians  themselves 
they  have  married  Vegetarians — they  have  Ve- 
getarian families,  who    have    never  tasted  the 


flesh  of  animals.  I  have  a  grandson  married  who 
has  two  children.  This  is  my  experience,  then, 
as  one  instance  of  adherence  to  Vegetarian 
practice.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  As  I  have 
stated,  I  have  lived  forty-six  years  upon  this 
system  of  diet,  and  during  the  whole  of  that 
time  I  have  never  had  occasion  to  spend  a  penny 
for  medicine  for  myself.  My  health  has  been 
generally  good,  and,  though  I  am  aware  I  do  not 
carry  about  with  me  that  load  of  flesh  that  is 
common  to  many,  I  have  never  been  unable  to 
walk  out,  with  the  exception  of  being  confined 
for  a  few  days  with  the  lumbago.  In  every 
other  respect  I  have  maintained  a  good  state  of 
health,  and  I  have  attributed  this  to  the  mode  of 
diet  which  I  have  adopted,  and  carried  out  in  my 
family.  If  facts  like  these  are  proofs  of  the 
goodness  of  the  system,  if  a  family  can  thus 
enjoy  health  without  partaking  of  flesh-meat,  or 
anything  of  the  kind,  is  it  not  a  subject  worthy 
of  being  investigated  and  tried?  I  would  ob- 
serve, that  in  adopting  this  system,  I  did  so  from 
a  conviction  of  its  efi'ects,  not  merely  physiological, 
or  from  its  reference  to  the  physical,  but  that  it 
would  also  be  beneficial  to  the  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  powers  of  man's  nature.  I  have 
experienced  the  truth  of  the  conviction  in  every 
step  of  the  progress  of  ray  life ;  and  I  can  tes- 
tify, in  the  presence  of  this  audience,  that  I  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  this  practice  has  a 
tendency  to  enable  us  to  overcome  our  passions, 
to  keep  our  feelings  within  proper  bounds,  and 
to  give  energy  and  vigour  to  every  humane  and 
benevolent  feeling  of  our  nature.  I  will  not 
further  take  up  your  time,  as  I  understand 
others  are  to  address  you,  but  commend  these 
few  facts  to  your  attention,  and  if  you  think  it 
worth  your  while  to  imitate  that  which  has  been 
stated,  try  the  experiment,  and  you  will  not 
repent.     (Loud  applause.) 

Mr.  Joseph  Bormond  commenced  his  ad- 
dress by  expressing  the  opinion,  that  in  the  pre- 
ceding addresses  the  man  of  the  understanding 
had  been  fully  met,  and  amply  supplied  with  the 
materials  for  thinking,  and  that  the  sweet  singing 
address  of  their  father  Metcalfe  had  amply 
met  the  emotional  nature  of  each  individual.  It 
should  be  his  province  to  enforce  some  of  the 
thoughts  that  had  been  presented  that  evening. 
One  thing  had  been  playing  about  his  brain  all 
night,  right  and  left,  and  in  front.  Vegetarianism 
had  been  fully  presented  and  set  before  them. 
To  the  wondering,  thoughtful  portion  of  the 
audience,  it  must  have  been  a  treat  to  see  living 
men,  moving  men,  thinking  men,  men  presenting 
the  human  form,  the  lineaments  of  the  human 
face,  and,  he  thought,  the  human  voice  too,  and 
all  that  independent  of  the  mangled  remains  of 
other  once  living  creatures.  This  was  to  Vege- 
tarians no  matter  of  wonderment — no  bugbear — 
it  was  as  easy  as  breathing.  It  was,  however,  a 
matter  of  wonder  to  many,  that  men  and  women 
may  live,  can,  and  do  live,  according  to  divine 
appointment ;  and  if  they  had  done  nought  else, 
they  had  given  a  specimen  of  a  pure  repast,  and 
they  thought,  void  of  any  boasting,  they  had 
also  given  those  present  an  opportunity  of  seeing 
and  hearing  living  men,  wearing  the  physical 


BIEMINGHAM  VEaETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  BANQUET. 


75 


attributes  of  men,  and,  he  might  add,  some  of 
the  social  and  mental  also.     He  had  now  lived 
for  about  a  dozen  years  in  the  clean,  wholesome, 
and  peaceful  practice  of  this  system.     He  had 
noticed  its  progress.      In  all  ages  all  kinds  of 
attempts  had  been  made  to  kill  the  truth ;  but 
the   truth  lived.     Who  could  kill  it?     Every 
infamous  plan  had  been  tried — the  thumbscrew, 
the    rack,   and    the   faggot— but     Truth     still 
exists.     She  was  not  like  the  fait  ones  of  earth, 
weak  and  frail,  but  majestic,  and  needed  not  our 
support.     Truths   usually  passed  through  three 
forms  of  opposition  before  being  acknowledged 
and  adopted.     First  they  were  treated  with  con- 
temptuous silence,  then  received  with  mockery, 
and  next  came  that  which  ought  to  have  been 
tirst,  reason  and  argument.     Vegetarianism  had 
passed  through  the  two  earlier  stages,  and  was 
now  thought  worthy  of  inquiry.     Its    disciples 
were  spoken  of  as  good  prophets,  but  not  matter- 
of-fact  people.     He  contended  they  were  both  ; 
and  though  neither  prophets,   nor   the  sons  of 
prophets,  they  knew  the  world  should  be  able  to 
live    in    their  system.      Punch  had    frequently 
taken  notice  of  Vegetarianism.     He  had   done 
good,  and  was  doing  good  in  the  world.     Some 
things  were  so  bad,  that  sheer  ridicule  was  the 
only  way  to  get  rid  of  them,  and  Punch,  by  his 
wit   and   sarcasm,  was   doing  this   good   work. 
Punch    had  sometimes  made  himself  merry  at 
their  expense.     He  once  asked,  if  the   Vegeta- 
rians knew  that  a  cabbage  felt  pain  when  it  was 
cut?     For,   granting  it  did   not  bleed,    still   it 
must  be  admitted  it  had  a  heart.     (Laughter.) 
It   was    seldom    that    Punch    committed    him- 
self, by   touching    upon   ununportant    subjects, 
though  he  sometimes  erred  for  want  of  informa- 
tion   on    those    he   selected,    as,  for   instance, 
when   he   said,  "  Vegetarians   cannot    say  grace 
before  meat."    If  it  were  not  almost  approach- 
ing to  profanation,  he  (Mr.  Bormond)  would 
have  been  tempted  to  confront  Punch  with  the 
Scripture  in  the  very  Genesis,  where  every  tree 
bearing  fruit,   and  herb  bearing  seed,  is  given 
as   "meat"  to  man,  and  therefore  the  Vegeta- 
rians could   say  grace  before   meat.      As   Mr. 
Metcalfe  had  very   sweetly  observed,   it  was 
very  well  to  observe  the  practical  effects  of  their 
practice.     In  his  experience  in  actual  life  at  the 
dinner  table,  he  was  frequently  instructed  as  to 
the  moral  state  of  people  by  the  remarks  made 
upon   their   system.      He   was   sometimes   told 
that  it  might  suit  him  very  well  to  live  on  Vege- 
tarian diet,  but  it  would  not  suit  all ;  what  "  was 
one   man's   meat   was   another  man's  poison." 
He  was  often  struck  by  this  remark,  and  led  to 
feel  that  there   must   be    something    strangely 
unnatural  in  man's  habits,  for  they  found  that 
one   sheep's   meat  was   all   sheep's   meat !     He 
contended,  therefore,  that  if  man  had  been  faith- 
ful to  instinct  and  reason,  there  would  not  have 
been   this   diversity  of   food,    and    in    this    he 
thought  there  was  an  indirect  testimony  to  the 
truth  of  their   system ;  the   fault   was    not   in 
nature,  but  in  man's  unnatural   practices.      In 
speaking  of  the  progress  of  the  movement,  he 
thought  one  of  the  principal  elements  in  their 
success  would  prove  to  be  patience.    Indeed,  the 


state  of  men's  affections  was  so  varied  that  he 
had  seen  it  necessary   of  late  to  exercise  more 
patience  than  he  had  been  wont  to  do.     Much 
depended  on  the  "  stand-point  "  men  took,  as  to 
their  estimate   of  a   subject.      As    Emerson 
had  said,  with  much  truth  and  beauty,  the  uni- 
verse took  its    colouring  from  the  spirit  within 
the  observer.     The  man  dark  and  moody  saw  all 
things  as  of  dark  and    sombre   hue,   whilst  he 
who  was  bright  and  hopeful   looked  on   bright 
and  joyous   scenes :    every   object  was   affected 
by  the  state  out   of  which  it  was  seen.      The 
strange  blunders  made  by   some   people    about 
the  teeth  of  man   proving  that  he  was  intended 
to  eat  meat,  had  already  been   dwelt  upon ;  he 
would,  however,  add  one  remark.     When  people 
took    up  this    argument,    and    urged  it    as  an 
objection    to    Vegetarianism,     they    overlooked 
the  fact  that  man  was  the  connecting  link  be- 
tween  different  classes   of  animals,  and  that  he 
was    adapted   for   subsistence  upon    fruits    and 
grain,  all  of  which  required  cutting,  tearing,  or 
grinding,  and  man's  teeth  were  all  of  them  pre- 
cisely adapted   for  this  task.     It  was    admitted 
that  man  was  a  medium,  as  to  his  food,  between 
the  ox  and  tiger  ;  but  there  was  a  food  which 
was  also  intermediate  between  grass   and  flesh. 
He  was  afraid  that  they  might  be  supposed  to 
be  trying  to  bring  about  a  sort  of  millennium  by 
their  system,  making  it  a  kind  of  larder   gospel. 
But  their  friend  Mr.  Metcalfe  made  the  prin- 
ciple of  Scripture,  that  the  children  should   bear 
the  sins  of  the  fathers  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation,   very  striking  to   his    mind.      They 
saw  from  the   experience    of    his   children   and 
children's  children,  in  this  system,  the  operation 
of    the   principle    in    the   other    direction — the 
curse  completely  reversed — that  the  excellencies 
and  blessings  of  the  father  had  descended  even 
to  the   third   and   fourth   generation.     In    this 
case  they   saw  the   beneficial  results    of   their 
system   strikingly  developed ;    they   could    not 
only  live,  but  live  well,  with  all  the  distinguishing 
physical    attributes   of    humanity,     and    might 
claim  at  least  an  ordinary  share  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual.     In  speaking  of  progress,  he  had  said 
that  patience  on  their  part  would  prove  to  be  a 
very  essential  element  of  their   success.      They 
could  not  make  men  suddenly  adopt  a  new  prin- 
ciple and  practice,  whatever  this  might  be.     For 
about  twenty  years,  he  had  never  drunk  except 
when  he   was   thirsty,  and  then   his  drink  was 
always  cheap  and  clean.     The  drink  of  the  tee- 
totaler was  always  cheap  and  clean,  whilst  that 
of  the  drinking  man  was  always  dear  and  dirty. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)     His  drink  was  always 
ready  ;  it  gave  life  and  strength. 

"  Sparkling  and  bright, 
In  its  liquid  light. 
Is  the  water  in  our  glasses, 
It  will  give  you  health, 
It  will  give  you  wealth, 
Ye  lads  and  rosy  lasses. 
Oh  then  resign  your  ruby  wine, 
Each  smiling  son  and  daughter. 
There's  nothing  so  good 
For  the  youthful  blood. 
As  the  clear  translucent  water." 

(Applause.)     The  caution  he  wanted  to  give  his 


76 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  BANQUET. 


brother  teetotaler  was  this,  that  the  teetotal 
question  was  getting  rather  "  seedy "  now,  and 
there  was  one  little  secret  they  ought  to  know — 
that  a  great  deal  of  the  wrong  drinking  arose 
from  wrong  eating.  The  temperance  question 
would  never  progress  as  it  ought,  until  that  fact 
was  acknowledged  and  acted  upon.  If,  then, 
their  temperance  friends  wished  to  see  the 
glorious  top  stone  of  that  reformation  set  up, 
they  must  pay  attention  to  this  system  of  diet, 
and  at  least,  as  early  as  they  could,  adopt  the 
same  principles  the  Vegetarians  had  taken  up 
before  them.  He  would  mention  what  he 
thought  was  a  great  impediment  to  that  question, 
they  were  everlastingly  appealing  to  the  intel- 
lectual rather  than  the  emotional  part  of  man's 
nature.  Religious  education,  it  was  sometimes 
supposed,  would  prevent  the  evil  of  drinking; 
this  he  admitted,  but  then  arose  the  question. 
What  was  meant  by  a  religious  education  ?  That 
education  that  made  an  impression  upon  the 
young  mind  that  strong  drinks  were  necessary  to 
a  living  creature  in  his  threefold  nature,  was 
not  a  religious  education.  They  must  be  taught 
to  believe  that  the  destruction  of  God's  creatures 
was  a  great  wrong,  and  to  feel  their  connection 
with  all  other  living  beings.  Man  talked  of  en- 
lightening the  mind  and  then  softening  the  heart, 
but  Christ  proceeded  in  a  different  course  ;  he 
softened  the  heart  and  then  enlightened  the  mind. 
If  his  hearers  had  got  a  loving  nature,  the  argu- 
ments presented  to  their  attention  would  hardly 
be  needed  by  them ;  they  would  make  haste  to 
deliver  themselves  from  their  way  of  preying 
upon  once  living  creatures. 

"What  might  be  done  if  men  were  wise! 

What  glorious  deeds,  my  suffering  brother, 
Did  they  unite,  in  love  and  right. 

And  cease  their  scorn  of  one  another 
Oppression's  heart  might  be  imbued 

With  kindling  drops  of  lovingkindness. 
And  knowledge  pour,  from  shore  to  shore, 

Light  on  the  eyes  of  mental  blindness. 
All  slavery,  warfares,  lies,  and  wrongs, 

All  vice  and  crime  might  die  together, 
And  fruit  and  corn  to  each  man  born 

Be  free  as  warmth  in  summer  weather. 

The  meanest  wretch  that  ever  trod, 
The  deepest  sunk  in  guilt  and  sorrow. 

Might  stand  erect,  in  self  respect, 
And  share  God's  teeming  world  to-morrow. 

What  might  be  done  ?    This  might  be  done, 
And  more  than  this,  my  suffering  brother  ; 

More  than  the  tongue  ever  said  or  sung, 
If  men  were  wise  and  loved  each  other." 

If  any  had  not  love  enough,  however,  to  lead 
them  to  adopt  the  pure  principles  of  Vegeta- 
rianism, he  dared  not  compel  them,  he  dared  not 
blame  them  ;  pity  them  he  might,  they  might 
account  that  pity  gratuitous,  but  he  and  his 
friends  felt  it  working  in  their  hearts  ;  they  were 
sorry  for  the  man  who  was  content  with  such 
low,  sensual,  and  animal  enjoyments,  and  thus 
checking  the  high  moral  feehngs  of  his  better 
nature,  and  closing  his  eyes  against  a  more  excel- 
lent way.  As  had  already  been  said,  the  Vege- 
tarians could  trace  their  food  from  its  very 
commencement  to  its  close,  not  only  without 
pain,  but  with   complete   satisfaction.      It   was 


pleasant  to  behold  it  as  it  first  peeped  from  the 
soil ;  it  was  pleasant  to  watch  the  falling  of  the 
early  and  latter  rain ;  it  was  pleasant  at  last  to 
gather  in  the  golden  grain,  sweet  to  listen  to  the 
song  of  the  merry  reapers.  But  he  would  say  to 
his  meat-eating  brother — his  kind  brother — that 
he  dare  not  thus  trace  out  and  watch  the  progress 
of  his  Sunday  dinner ;  point  out  the  sufferings 
of  the  dying  animal,  the  pools  of  blood,  disgust- 
ing entrails,  all  iittending  the  making  ready  of 
his  meal.  He  could  endorse  the  remarks  of  a 
preceding  speaker,  when  he  portrayed  the  better 
feelings  of  our  nature,  the  nobler  sentiments,  as 
revolting  from  the  processes  of  slaughter  asso- 
ciated with  the  system  of  preying  upon  animals. 
These  had  to  be  suppressed,  the  eyes  must  be 
closed,  and  the  mental  eyes  too.  Now  all  this 
was  calm  reason  ;  they  would  not  take  advantage 
of  any  by  appealing  to  their  feelings  alone.  The 
question  had  been  amply  met.  He  urged  them 
to  move  forward,  and  act  up  to  their  convictions . 

"  Standing  still  is  childish  folly, 

Going  backward  is  a  crime. 
None  should  patiently  endure 
Any  ill  that  he  can  cure. 

Onward  !  keep  the  march  of  time. 
Onward  !  while  a  wrong  remains 

To  be  conquer'd  by  the  right ; 
While  oppression  lifts  a  finger 

To  affront  us  by  his  might ; 
While  an  error  clouds  the  reason. 

Or  a  sorrow  gnaws  the  heart. 
Or  a  slave  awaits  his  freedom, 

Action  is  the  wise  man's  part." 

He  would  leave  those  views  with  them,  as  he 
thought  more  than  enough  had  been  said  upon 
the  subject.  They  had  sown  the  seed,  they  had 
faith  in  God  and  hope  in  man.  If  they  could 
only  get  their  dear  countrymen  and  country- 
women to  inquire  into  their  system,  and  make  a 
trial  of  it,  it  would  be  seen  to  be  fraught  with 
temperance,  and  Godlike  in  its  benevolence — free 
from  the  slightest  degree  of  pain  to  any  senti- 
ent living  thing.  It  was  a  grand  principle  to 
live  and  let  other  creatures  live.  Mr.  Bormond 
then  referred  to  the  great  expense,  confusion,  and 
disorder  connected  with  the  use  of  flesh  and 
alcoholic  beverages,  and  inquired  what  those  who 
used  these  articles  did  more  than  was  accom- 
plished by  Vegetarians  and  teetotalers.  He  ob- 
served that  there  was  one  thing  a  man  could  do 
far  better  with  the  drink  than  without  it — a  man 
corld  thrash  his  wife  better.  (Laughter  and 
applause.)  A  man  sober  was  too  much  a  man 
to  lift  his  hand  in  this  way.  He  then  concluded 
by  asking  all  present  to  take  the  thoughts 
that  had  been  thrown  out  by  the  various 
speakers,  to  turn  them  over,  and  contrast  their 
system,  so  fair  and  GodHke,  with  the  other, 
barbarous,  and  associated  with  what  was  offensive  : 
they  merely  sought  for  calm  and  dispassionate 
inquiry  and  had  no  fear  for  the  result.  (Loud 
applause.) 

Mr.  Harvev  spoke  of  the  progress  made  in 
art  and  science  during  the  last  forty  years,  refer- 
ring to  the  manufacture  of  a  cheap  substitute 
for  ultramarine,  to  ocean  steam-navigation,  and 
the  magnetic  telegraph,  as  proofs  of  this.  He 
also  described  the  construction  of  an  apparatus 


BIRMINGHAM  VEGETARIAN  ASSOCIATION  BANQUET. 


77 


used  in  the  French  Exhibition,  generating  steara 
without  fire,  used  there  for  supplying  its  visitors 
with  cups  of  coflfee,  heated  by  the  rapid  revolu- 
tions of  a  cylinder  within  an  immense  urn,  which 
was  made  exceedingly  useful.  If  a  similar  amount 
of  attention  were  brought  to  bear  in  relation  to 
food,  he  had  no  doubt  it  would  be  further  de- 
monstrated that  there  was  a  greater  amount  of 
nutriment  and  other  advantages  in  vegetable 
products,  in  fruits,  and  farinaceous  food,  than 
could  possibly  be  extracted  from  the  flesh  of 
animals.  In  fact,  Liebig,  Playfair,  and 
others,  had  already  demonstrated  that  this  was 
so.  Too  much  attention  was  bestowed  on  the 
appetite,  and  on  fashionable  life,  and  too  little 
on  the  moral  and  intellectual  requirements  of 
man,  which  ought  to  govern  and  control  the 
rest  of  his  nature.  Examination  of  the  system 
advocated  in  the  addresses  of  that  occasion, 
would,  he  believed,  lead  many  to  concur  with 
him,  that  the  mode  of  life  recommended  was  in 
accordance  with  the  provision  made  by  the  Al- 
mighty for  the  food  of  man.  He  had  been  an 
abstainer  from  flesh-meat  and  alcoholic  beve- 
rages for  many  years  ;  he  had  lived  in  both  ways, 
and  could  therefore  confidently  recommend  the 
Vegetarian  practice  as  the  best,  and  having  ad- 
hered to  it  so  long,  he  was  not  likely,  at  seventy 
years  of  age,  to  depart  from  it.  He  therefore 
recommended  all  to  try  if  it  were  not  the  best 
kind  of  food  they  could  subsist  upon,  and  if 
they  could  not  thus  secure  a  greater  amount  of 
happiness.  In  speaking  of  the  Paris  Exhibition, 
he  had  omitted  to  mention,  that  there  was  a 
section  devoted  to  preserved  vegetables  and  fruits, 
and  in  this,  as  he  understood,  there  were  cauli- 
flowers that  had  been  kept  three  years,  and 
looked  as  fresh  as  when  they  were  first  gathered. 
He  mentioned  this  circumstance  to  show  that 
they  might  be  aristocratic  if  they  pleased,  and 
have  cauliflower  and  green  peas  in  the  depth 
of  winter,  as  well  as  the  nobles  of  the  land. 
(Laughter  and  applause.) 

Mr.  J.  G.  Palmer  moved  a  vote  of  thanks 
to  the  ladies  who  had  contributed,  by  their  skill 
and  taste,  to  the  elegance  of  the  entertainment, 
both  as  regarded  the  dishes  presented,  and  the 
decorations  of  the  tables,  and  begged  to  include, 
also,  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  gentlemen  who  had 
favoured  the  meeting  with  addresses  on  the 
occasion.  He  had  been  an  abstainer  from  the 
flesh  of  animals  as  food  for  about  a  dozen  years, 
and,  as  he  believed,  with  very  great  benefit  to  his 
health.  It  was  of  importance  to  build  up  the 
body  in  the  best  possible  way,  and  persons 
living  in  the  Vegetarian  practice  had  their  bodies 
kept  in  the  best  possible  state  to  resist  the 
attacks  of  disease.  Many  persons  living  in  the 
mixed-diet  practice,  and  the  use  of  alcoholic 
beverages,  though  considered  in  robust  health, 
and  fine  specimens  of  humanity,  were  really  on 
the  very  brink  of  disease,  and  if  attacked  with 
inflammation  and  fever,  and  treated  in  the  usual 
way  by  medical  men,  almost  always  sunk  under 
it.  Vegetarians  were  not  usually  exposed  to 
such  attacks,  but  if  they  should  be,  they  much 
more  readily  recovered.  The  greater  purity  of 
the  blood  maintained  on  Vegetarian    diet  was 


showu  from  the  circumstance  that  if  a  vegetable- 
feeder  and  flesh-eater  were  shot  on  the  field  of 
battle,  under  precisely  similar  circumstances,  the 
body  of  the  latter  would  become  offensive  and 
corrupt  long  before  the  other.  Mr.  Palmer 
concluded  by  moving  the  resolution. 

Mr.  J.  E.  Nelson-,  of  Manchester,  briefly- 
seconded  the  resolution,  which  "was  submitted 
to  the  meeting,  and  carried  unanimously. 

Mr.  C.  R.  King,  in  submitting  a  vote  of 
thanks  to  their  respected  President,  observed 
that  Vegetarians  usually  lived  much  more  simply 
than  might  be  supposed,  from  an  inspection  of 
the  tables  that  had  been  spread  on  that  occasion. 
On  public  occasions  it  was  necessary  to  show 
that  their  system  had  abundant  resources,  as 
many  persons  regarded  it  as  one  of  self-denial. 
After  stating  that  there  was  a  Vegetarian  Asso- 
ciation in  Birmingham,  of  which  he  was  Secre- 
tary, and  that  he  would  be  glad  to  receive  the 
names  of  any  wishing  further  information  on  the 
subject,  or  to  commence  the  practice,  he  said 
their  object  on  that  occasion  was  not  display, 
but  to  better  mankind.  They  presented  their 
arguments,  end  urged  the  adoption  of  their 
practice,  believing  that  this  would  tend  to  raise 
many  from  a  state  of  disease  to  health,  along 
with  other  proper  ways  of  living.  They  desired 
to  produce  a  large  amount  of  health  and  happi- 
ness ;  they  believed  that  great  numbers  of  people 
did  not  live  as  they  ought  to  live,  and  that  the 
Vegetarians,  having  studied  this  question  of  diet, 
knew  a  little  better  than  those  who  had  not  so 
studied  it,  some  of  the  causes  of  disease,  and 
the  best  means  of  removing  these.  Much  of 
the  flesh-meat  consumed  was  in  a  state  of  dis- 
ease, and  could  not  be  eaten  without  unfavour- 
able results.  They  therefore  wished  to  lead  to 
the  disuse  of  such  food,  and  to  bring  about 
a  better  state  of  things,  by  the  adoption  of  their 
own  simple  habits  of  diet,  thus  promoting  a 
higher  state  of  manhood,  and  greater  happiness 
at  home  and  through  the  world.  He  had  great 
pleasure  in  proposing  the  vote  of  thanks  en- 
trusted to  hira  as  Local  Secretary,  knowing  as 
he  did,  that  without  the  kind  aid  of  the  Presi- 
dent, that  entertainment  could  not  have  been 
furnished  at  anything  near  the  price  it  was 
offered,  and  he  felt  sure  all  would  agree  with 
him,  that  they  were  much  indebted  to  that 
gentleman  on  that  account ;  and  especially 
when  they  knew  that  he  expended  a  great  deal 
of  money  in  the  support  of  other  associations  in 
connection  with  the  Vegetarian  Society. 

Mr.  J.  S.  Wright  seconded  the  vote  of 
thanks,  remarking,  that  he  felt  assured  that  all, 
whether  Vegetarians  or  not,  would  concur  in 
passing  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Chairman  for  the 
money  he  had  expended  in  getting  up  the 
Banquet,  and  also  for  his  excellent  speech,  and 
the  able  manner  in  which  he  had  presided  on  the 
occasion.  He  was  one  of  those  unfortunate 
nine-tenths  who  were  not  Vegetarians  in  practice, 
but  only  in  principle ;  he  was,  however,  trying  to 
bring  up  his  children  without  the  use  of  flesh, 
and,  perhaps,  at  some  future  day,  he  might  be 
able  to  act  out  his  convictious.     He  begged  to 


78 


LOCAL  OPERATIONS  AND  INTELLIGENCE. 


conclude  by  seconding  the  vote  of  thanks  to  Mr. 
Simpson,  for  the  part  he  had  taken  in  the  enter- 
tainment. 

Mr.  Simpson  having  previously  left  the 
chair,  Mr.  Harvey  submitted  the  proposi- 
tion to  the  meeting,  which  was  carried 
unanimously. 

The  President,  in  acknowledging  the  hon- 
our done  hira,  expressed  the  pleasure  he  had 
felt  in  coming  to  Birmingham,  a  pleasure  which 
had  increased  with  every  step  taken  in  the 
preparation  for,  and  arrangements  of,  that  even- 
iug.      It  was   not  in  relation  to  themselves  he 


felt  this  pleasure,  so  much  as  in  reference  to 
others  who  might  be  present,  and  led  by  the 
arguments  presented  to  enter  upon  the  inquiry, 
as  to  which  system  was  best  for  themselves.  He 
trusted  this  would  be  the  case  with  many  in  the 
town  of  Birmingham,  and  that  the  result  would 
be  satisfactory  in  their  experience  as  practical 
men.  (Applause.) 

The  procedings  then  terminated  by  the 
orchestra  performing  "  God  save  the 
Queen,"  the  company  standing,  and  join- 
ing in  the  singing  of  several  concluding 
verses. 


LOCAL    OPEEATIONS    AXD     INTELLIGENCE. 


VEGETARIAN    SOCIETY. 

New  List  of  Members. — The  difficulties  attending 
the  issue  of  the  List  of  Members  have  been 
considerable,  and  we  are  still  obliged  to  claim  the 
assistance  of  our  friends  in  its  revision,  and  cor- 
rection, so  far  as  each  can  render  it,  immediately 
the  List  reaches  them.  Each  examining  the 
List  in  connection  with  his  locality  and  Associ- 
ations, can  then  readily  observe  any  errors  it 
may  contain,  and  these  will,  of  course,  be  most 
certainly  corrected  by  communication  to  the 
Secretary,  at  the  time  they  are  observed.  Our 
etforts  to  keep  the  List  correct,  will  thus  be 
successful.  The  work  is  about  issuing  from  the 
hands  of  the  printer,  and  will  shortly  be  ready 
for  our  members,  along  with  other  documents  in 
relation  to  the  commencement  of  the  year. 

J.  Andrew,  Jun.,  Secretary. 

BIRMINGHAM. 

Vegetarian  Banquet. — We  had  a  large  and 
successful  gathering  of  our  friends  and  the 
public  in  the  Town  Hall,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Banquet  and  Meeting  held  on  Friday,  the  9th 
of  November.  A  most  excellent  impression  has 
been  produced  on  the  public,  and  several  persons 
present  on  the  occasion  have  commenced  the 
practice.  We  hope  to  sustain  the  good  influence 
exerted  by  regular  monthly  meetings  of  the 
Association,  which  all  inquirers  are  invited  to 
attend.  We  expect  that  a  complete  report  of 
the  Festival,  and  the  addresses  delivered  on  the 
occasion,  will  be  given  in  the  Messenger  for 
December.  R.  C.  K. 

GLASGOW. 

Recent  Vegetarian  Meetings  and  the  Press. — 
The  recent  visit  of  our  respected  and  indefati- 
gable President  has  been  the  occasion  of  au  ex- 


tensive diffusion  of  our  views  over  "  braid  Scot- 
land." The  meetings  held  by  Mr.  Simpson  in 
the  various  towns  visited  by  him  were  of  the 
most  successful  description.  Large  and  intelli- 
gent audiences  honoured  him  with  their  presence, 
and  the  marked  attention  and  evident  interest 
with  which  they  listened  to  his  eloquent  plead- 
ings for  dietetic  reform,  encourage  us  to  hope 
for  the  best  results  from  the  late  operations  in 
this  part  of  the  country.  The  Banquet  meeting 
in  Glasgow  gave  great  satisfaction.  The  pro- 
ceedings were  extensively  reported  by  the  local 
press,  a  report  of  upwards  of  three  columns 
having  appeared  in  one  of  our  most  popular 
newspapers,  most  of  the  other  papers  devoting 
from  half  a  column  to  a  column  and  a  half 
to  their  notices  of  the  Banquet.  The  meet- 
ing in  Edinburgh  was  also  very  extensively 
reported  by  the  newspapers  there,  and  gave  rise 
to  a  good  deal  of  criticism  and  discussion  on 
the  part  of  the  press,  and  their  correspondents. 
The  same  remarks  apply  to  the  meetmgs  held  in 
Paisley  and  Kirkcaldy,  which  were  amply 
reported  by  the  press.  In  addition  to  the  pub- 
licity thus  given  to  our  views,  the  liberality  of 
the  President  has  enabled  us  to  circulate,  very 
extensively,  copies  of  the  report  of  the  speeches 
delivered  at  the  Banquet  Meeting  in  Glasgow,  in 
a  pamphlet  form,  all  which  publicity  cannot  fail 
to  be  useful  to  the  movement  in  Scotland.  We 
trust  that  the  stimulus  which  Mr.  Simpson's 
visit  has  communicated  to  the  Associations  in 
Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  will  be  sustained,  and 
that  the  formation  of  kindred  associations  in 
Paisley,  Kirkcaldy,  Dumfermline,  and  the  other 
places  which  have  had  the  benefit  of  his  labours 
of  love,  will  shortly  follow,  and  thus  tend  still 
further  to  maintain  and  extend  the  useful  in- 
fluence produced.  J.  S. 


end  of   vol.    VI. 


J.   M.   BURTON   AND   CO.,    PRINTERS,   IPSWICH. 


J 


j;;^^  JACKS  oisr 

\       City  Road.