HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF VEGETARIANISM. 457 



SOME HISTOEICAL ASPECTS OF VEGETARIANISM. 



By Dr. LAFAYETTE B. MENDEL, 



PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY IN THE SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF YALE 



UNIVERSITY. 



YEGETARIANISM, as the term is popularly understood at the 

 present time, is a system of living which teaches that the food 

 of man should be derived directly from the plant world. Considered 

 in the light of its history, however, vegetarianism involves something 

 more than a mere dietetic program. It teaches that the use of animal 

 food is morally wrong, as well as erroneous with respect to the processes 

 of nutrition. The modern critics of the vegetarian propaganda have 

 frequently overlooked the fact that this doctrine has repeatedly, if not 

 always, been the expression of an ethical movement among its ex- 

 pounders; and that its development and transformation ought to be 

 considered with reference to sociological, economic and ethical condi- 

 tions as well as from the standpoint of physiology. 



The use of fruits and vegetables as the appropriate food of man- 

 kind has found its advocates from earliest times. Pythagoras (500 

 B. C.) in particular has frequently been pointed out as the most emi- 

 nent teacher of vegetarianism among the ancients. It is obvious that 

 a philosophy of life which urged men to lead modest lives, to abstain 

 from indulgences of various kinds, and to seek simplicity in every 

 form, might readily and naturally proclaim the desirability of a 

 simple diet. Abstemiousness in the use of food and asceticism in 

 matters of conduct and religion were brought forth by the same atti- 

 tude toward the problems of the world, and found expression in vege- 

 tarianism as a simple mode of nutrition. For the vegetable foods are 

 as a rule easy to obtain and prepare for dietetic purposes. The praise 

 which the earlier moralists bestowed upon the vegetarian diet and mode 

 of living is merely an aspect of the reaction against the excesses of the 

 period. In Rousseau's 'Return to Nature' likewise we find the advo- 

 cacy of a simple vegetable diet incidental to the proposed change to 

 primitive conditions of living and the striving for moderation in every 

 feature of society. And even to-day vegetarianism is defended by 

 arguments derived from purely ethical and religious, as well as from 

 economic or hygienic considerations. This peculiar sentiment which 

 defends and prescribes the exclusive use of vegetable foods in the 

 struggle against immorality and the attempt to establish a more vir- 

 tuous community is expressed by Tolstoi in words illustrating how 



