94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



VEGETABLE DIET. 



Br LADY WALB. PAGET. 



I DO not write this paper with the intention of converting or 

 even convincing anybody, for nobody is more impressed with 

 the great truth that what is good for one person is not good for 

 all. The infinite individuality of the human race is what distin- 

 guishes it from animals. A certain kind of food will be liked and 

 digested by all animals belonging to the same species, while, as 

 an eminent doctor remarked the other day, there is not one article 

 of food in the whole world which is eaten with pleasure by every 

 human being alike. All I wish to do is to put my experiences 

 before those to whom they may be useful, and who may profit by 

 them without making the disagreeable mistakes my ignorance 

 led me into. 



I have all my life thought that meat-eating was objectionable 

 from the aesthetic point of view. Even as a child the fashion of 

 handing around a huge grosse piece on an enormous dish revolted 

 my sense of beauty ; and I was delighted when, on my first visit 

 to England, a small and thin slice of beef was unobtrusively 

 shown to me behind my left shoulder, to be accepted or rejected 

 ad libitum. I quite agree with Lord Byron, who said he would 

 not marry a pretty girl because she had asked for two helps of 

 lobster salad, though if beefsteak had been substituted I should 

 understand it better still. The biftek a I'anglaise, which seems to 

 be the only idea a foreign waiter ever has when he is asked to 

 suggest something to eat to English-speaking travelers, is simply 

 a piece of hot raw meat, far more fit for the Zoological Gardens 

 than for human food ; for, despite of constant and sometimes in- 

 dignant disclaimers, it is generally believed on the Continent that 

 it forms the staple food of the British nation that the strong 

 limbs of the young men, the lovely complexions of the girls, and 

 the bright eyes of the children are entirely due to this nourish- 

 ment, and anxious mothers of families abroad are constantly im- 

 pressing upon their offspring and everybody else about them the 

 utility and necessity of this panacea, if they wish to be in good 

 health and feel fit and strong. It is a curious fact that in places 

 where this regimen of viande saignante is followed anaemia is 

 very frequent. 



I have been told, though I have not read it myself, that some- 

 body has written a description of a town where the whole popula- 

 tion was vegetarian. The change this would make in all the 

 sights and smells is far greater than we at first imagine. The 

 ghastly butchers' shops which meet one at every turn appear to 

 me an incongruity, not to say more, in this civilized age ; they 



