HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF VEGETARIANISM. 461 



The conclusions to which Bell's study led him are worthy of brief 

 mention. He summarized as follows: 



1. A diet of both animal and vegetable food is adapted to the condition of 

 the New England laborer. 



2. No grand errors exist in his present system of diet, and no radical 

 change is demanded to ensure a greater amount of health and strength, though 

 many minor, but still important errors exist. 



3. The proportion of animal food usually customary is too great, and a 

 considerable reduction would be expedient and advantageous, though it is im- 

 practicable to make a precise statement of the extent to which this is required, 

 which must depend upon circumstances, as amount of labor performed, climate, 

 season, bodily constitution, habits of life, etc. A general statement of this fact 

 can alone be made. 



4. The amount of food in general, customarily used, is more than is neces- 

 sary for the maximum of health and strength, though a more specific state- 

 ment of this abuse is also impossible. It must be left for each individual to 

 attempt to reduce his quantity of food to that point at which he finds his 

 mental and bodily powers most energetic. In searching for this point the New 

 Englander may be almost certain that he must look for it in descending ratio. 



5. The great principle in regulating diet is to regard quantity rather than 

 kind. 



Most students of dietetics will, I think, readily admit the validity 

 of the majority of these statements, even in their application at the 

 present day. In contrasting the conditions during colonial days with 

 those prevailing in our own times it is entertaining, if nothing more, 

 to recall some ideas regarding the diet of the people of the United 

 States at the end of the eighteenth century which were published by 

 the French traveler Volney.* A grain of truth may doubtless be 

 gathered from his vivid observations, even though they can not be 

 taken too seriously. Thus he writes: 



I will venture to say that if a prize were proposed for the scheme of a 

 regimen most calculated to injure the stomach, the teeth, and the health in 

 general, no better could be invented than that of Americans. In the morning 

 at breakfast, they deluge their stomach with a quart of hot water, impregnated 

 with tea, or slightly so with coffee; that is, mere colored water, and they swal- 

 low, almost without chewing, hot bread, half baked toast soaked in butter, 

 cheese of the fattest kind, slices of salt or hung beef, ham, etc., all of which are 

 nearly insoluble. At dinner, they have boiled pastes under the name of pud- 

 dings, and the fattest are esteemed the most delicious; all their sauces, even 

 for roasted beef, are melted butter; their turnips and potatoes SAvim in lard, 

 butter or fat; under the name of pie or pvimpkin (pumpkin pie?) their pastry 

 is nothing but a greasy paste, never suiBciently baked; to digest these sub- 

 stances they take tea almost instantly after dinner, making it so strong that it 

 is absolutely bitter to the taste, in which state it affects the nerves so power- 

 fully that even the English find it brings on more obstinate restlessness than 

 coffee. Supper again introduces salt meats or oysters: as Chastelux says, the 

 whole day passes in heaping indigestions on one another; and to give tone to 

 the poor relaxed and wearied stomach, they drink Madeira rum, French 



* ' View of the climate and soil of the U. S. of America,' by C. F. Volney. 



