712 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
nor are his digestive organs naturally adapted for assimilating 
grain in such a condition, even if it were reduced to pulp by 
mastication at first. Vegetarianism has much to be said in its 
favour for persons of adequate digestive capabilities; but certain 
objections must be raised against its adoption unreservedly 
when the digestive powers are feeble, and the measure of 
food at meals limited of necessity by personal incapacities. 
There are fundamental principles connected with the system 
in question which closely underlie the main issue. One of 
these is embodied in the important fact that the cell walls 
which enclose the proteids, or nitrogenous nourishment, consist 
in vegetables of cellulose, a tough membrane which makes 
the extraction of such proteids more difficult from within 
the cells than it is from animal flesh; and this cellulose is 
characterized by an extraordinary insolubility. ‘‘ The vegetarian 
question,” writes Dr. R. Hutchison, “is really a question of 
nitrogen, and of that alone, which can be obtained in a concen- 
trated form only from animal sources. Moreover, energy is 
not to be confused with muscular strength. A grass-fed cart- 
horse is strong; a corn-fed hunter is energetic. Such energy 
is a property of the nervous system; strength is an endowment 
of the muscles, and these are chiefly nourished by the carbo- 
hydrates which vegetables can supply; but the brain needs 
nitrogenous proteids.”” Dr. Kuttner, of Berlin, having made 
an impartial investigation into the respective merits of vege- 
tarianism, and mixed diet, has come to the conclusion that a 
mixed diet, including meat, is most suitable for man, because 
exclusive vegetable nourishment is too bulky, promoting 
discomforts of digestion, and being assimilable only to a certain 
extent ; moreover, animal stuffs engender fuller bodily warmth. 
It is true that, given a judicious choice, and a proper preparation 
of vegetables, they will prove not only sufficient to maintain 
the bodily condition, but even to increase bodily weight. But 
the subjects who practice this dietary do not compare favourably 
with mixed eaters as to their powers of solid weight, endurance, 
and ability to resist disease. Nevertheless, a modified vegetarian 
diet, supplemented, that is, by such animal products as milk, 
butter, cheese, honey, and eggs, is admirably well suited for 
corpulent persons whose intestinal energies are sluggish, and 
who are disposed to costiveness ; likewise such a diet is attended 
_ with brilliant results in nervous dyspepsia, especially for gouty 
