CHAPTER XI 

 VEGETARIANS AND THEIR TEETH 



NO mistake, said Huxley, is more frequently made by 

 clever people than that of supposing that a cause or 

 an opinion is unsound because the arguments put forward 

 in its favour by its advocates are foolish or erroneous. 

 Some of the arguments put forward in favour of the 

 exclusive use by mankind of a vegetable diet can be shown 

 to be based on misconception and error, and I propose 

 now to mention one or two of these. But I wish to guard 

 against the supposition that I am convinced in consequence 

 that animal substances form the best possible diet for man, 

 or that an exclusively vegetable diet may not, if properly 

 selected, be advantageous for a large majority of mankind. 

 That question, as well as the question of the advantage of a 

 mixed diet of animal and vegetable substances, and the best 

 proportion and quantity of the substances so mixed, must be 

 settled, as also the question as to the harm or good in the 

 habitual use of small quantities of alcohol, by definite careful 

 experiment by competent physiologists, conducted on a scale 

 large enough to give conclusive results. The cogency of the 

 arguments in favour of vegetarianism which I am about to 

 discuss is another matter. 



In the first place it is very generally asserted by those 

 who advocate a purely vegetable diet that man's teeth are 

 of the shape and pattern which we find in fruit-eating or 

 in root-eating animals allied to him. This is true. The 



