DECEMBER 303 



comfortable, methought, as his merits entitled him to, 

 for he was dipping dry toast in it. Now if there is one 

 substance in which the catering department of the House 

 of Commons excels it is butter. I ventured to suggest 

 some. ' Butter ! ' exclaimed the medico-legislator, ' I never 

 touch it. It is most pernicious.' 



Now whither shall the plain citizen turn for guidance ? 

 Where doctors differ so widely and shift their ground with 

 such bewildering rapidity, the temptation to exercise 

 private judgment is very great. 



Meanwhile vegetarianism seems to be on the up grade. 

 The Roast Beef of Old England is not in it. The con- 

 sumption of lentils and greengrocery, succotash and sweet 

 corn, is going up by leaps and bounds. The favourite 

 quack food is no longer bovril but grape-nuts, which, by 

 the by, contain neither grapes nor nuts in their composi- 

 tion. ' Any nuts or apples, gentlemen ? ' cried a vendor 

 of these fruits to the people on a coach at a race-meeting. 

 ' No/ was the coarse reply ; ' d' ye take me for a bloomin' 

 monkey?' Well, but that is just what you are, argues 

 the vegetarian. Look at your teeth : are they teeth of a 

 tiger or a polecat ? No, they are the teeth of apes, and 

 you should feed accordingly. He points exultingly to the 

 most gigantic terrestrial mammals elephant, hippopo- 

 tamus, giraffe, rhinoceros all reared on herbs. And 

 here, by grace of Mr. Carnegie, comes to clinch the argu- 

 ment the skeleton of the most enormous four-footed 

 creature known the fossil Diplodoccus measuring 

 seventy feet from end to end, yet with weak jaws and 

 grinding teeth betokening a vegetable diet. True, but to 

 balance these the meat-eaters may weigh in with the 

 marine mammals. Hitherto we have read in class-books 



