234 MORE POT-POURRI 



interesting walking -match took place in Berlin wnich, 

 the papers said, attracted the attention of the Minister 

 of War. The course was over seventy English miles. 

 There were twenty-two starters, amongst them eight 

 vegetarians, and the distance had to be covered within 

 eighteen hours. The interesting result was that the first 

 six to arrive at the goal were vegetarians, the first fin- 

 ishing in fourteen and a quarter hours. The two other 

 vegetarians missed their way and walked five miles more. 

 All reached the goal in splendid condition. Not till an 

 hour after the last vegetarian arrived did the first meat- 

 eater appear, and he was then completely exhausted. 

 He, moreover, was the only one, the others having 

 dropped off after thirty -five miles. This does not look 

 as if power of endurance were necessarily diminished by 

 non-meat-eating, and a great many people who have 

 tried non- stimulating food find, as I do, that their brains 

 are immensely clearer, their capacity for work restored 

 and increased, they are much less affected by changes of 

 temperature, and their general powers of endurance are 

 much greater than before. In short, my belief that 

 wrong diet, in some form or other, is the cause of all the 

 hundred and one complaints which are called by different 

 names, and that they do not originate from external 

 germs, is as great, and some will say of the same nature, 

 as that of Mrs. Crow, the ghost-seer in the old story. 

 This lady had unbounded faith that certain acts would 

 make her invisible, and so went out into the streets of 

 Edinburgh, with nothing on and a prayer book in one 

 hand. A policeman rushed at her with his cape. She 

 was not disconcerted, but said : ' What, you see me ? 

 Then I must have put the book into the wrong hand.' 



I have noticed before the fact of the extraordinary 

 economy brought about by reduction in food, wine, etc. ; 

 but this is not necessarily an argument in favour of a 



