Review of Reviews, 1/11/06, 



The Noti'Flesh Diet. 



451 



Dr. Milner Fothergill, a great authority on foods, 

 declares that beef-tea is an impostor. At one time 

 Liebig held a high opinion of the food value of 

 meat extract ; but the eminent English food expert, 

 Dr. Edward Smith, F.R.S., after a spirited contro- 

 versy, compelled Liebig to acknowledge that ex- 

 tract of meat is no more a food than tea is. It 

 should be classed with tea and coffee as a nervous 

 stimulant. 



With regard to the risks and dangers of fiesh 

 food. Dr. Alex. Haig, quoted above, states that he 

 had been all his life a sufferer from severe head- 

 aches, and had tried a great variety of alterations 

 in diet. The non-meat diet produced at once a 

 change, till eventually eighteen months elapsed with- 

 out an attack. Further study led to the conclusion 

 that the cause of the headaches was uric acid, and 

 that meat produced it by introducing into the body 

 and blood uric acid, plus substances of the Xan- 

 thine group. He devotes fifteen chapters of the 

 book to the study of gout, rheumatism, Bright's dis- 

 ease, etc. 



That a vegetarian diet is sufficient for the produc- 

 tion and maintenance of great bodily vigour is at- 

 tested by the following: — 



The British soldiers, who fought the battles of 

 Xorman, Plantagenet, Tudor, Stuart, and later 

 times, w^ere bred on vegetarian food. Scotch oat- 

 meal and Irish potatoes have had as much effect as 

 English beef. O'Connell was probably right when 

 he said that the Irish peasantry, reared on potatoes 

 and butter-milk, was the finest in the world. Of the 

 Cumberland p)easantry. Smiles, in his " Life of 

 George Moore," says that, though occasionally they 

 got a slice of meat in winter, " stalwart sons and 

 comelv maidens were brought up on porridge, oat- 

 cakes and milk : in fact, there could be no better 

 food." Brindley, the engineer, testified that his 

 piece-workers from the North of England, who lived 

 on porridge and hasty pudding, did more work and 

 earned more wages than the labourers of the south, 

 who lived on bacon, beer, and cheese. Even fur- 

 ther north, in the coldest of climates, the Nor- 

 wegians, Swedes and Finns, who live on rye bread. 



milk and cheese, are finer men than the Laplanders 

 and Esquimaux, who live oa flesh. 



In spite of the poor physique of the Bengalis, and 

 of some other of the Hindu races, there are many 

 illustrations in India of how powerful and enduring 

 men may be on a diet of corn, pulse and fruit. 

 Among millions of the coolies of the North-west 

 Provinces, Punjaub, Rajputana, Central Provinces, 

 Bombay and Hyderabad, the work done daily on 

 very low pay, often in much exposure to fierce sun 

 or heavy rains swamping the country for weeks at a 

 time, or very cold weather, is toilsome and pro- 

 tracted. Their rule is to work from sunrise to sun- 

 set, with short rests for sleep or food. The Sikhs, 

 who fought so well against us in the Punjaub, and 

 who are now our best and most trustworthy sepo\s, 

 are, by religion and immemorial custom, vegetarians. 

 Thev are the finest race in India, being as a rule ex- 

 ceptionally powerful men. Seventy per cent, are 

 purely vegetarian. Others get meat on the occasion 

 of a feast or a hunt, say once in three or four 

 months. Those who enter British military or police 

 service have meat supplied to them, but compara- 

 tively few PTt it. 



Professor NeuTnan writes: — 



■' Dr. Edward Smith, who reported to the Privv 

 Council on the food of the three Kingdoms, came to 

 the conclusion that the Irish are the strongest, next 

 to them the Scotch, next the Northern English, 

 lowest of all the townsmen, observe ; their vege- 

 tarianism is graduted in the same way, the strongest 

 being the most vegetarian, and the townsfolk, who 

 are weakest, being the greatest eaters of flesh. I 

 do not mean to assert that diet is the only cause of 

 strength or weakness: it is sufficient to insist that 

 vegetarianism is compatible with the highest 

 strength. The old Greek athlete was a vegetarian. 

 Hercules, according to their comic poets, hved 

 chiefly on pease pudding." 



To this brief outline of the scientific justification 

 Df vegetarianism we shall add, in a future article, 

 if permitted, a review of the moral and aesthetic 

 aspects of the question. 



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