402 Transactions of tee American Institute. 



ference ? The opinion was expressed that we all consume too much 

 meat. Once a day is enough. Of all the kinds that come to the 

 table, mutton, lamb, wild game and poultry are the safest, because 

 they are rarely diseased. In addition to these, eggs, milk and fish 

 afford ample materials for building up strong bodies, sound teeth, fair 

 complexions and vital force. They carry with them into the stomach 

 fewer disturbing elements, which injure and actually destroy life by 

 indirect means, than much of the beef, pork, hams and tainted veni- 

 son, presumed to be of a wholesome quality. Fresh fish, and the 

 dried and smoked, are excellent human food. They all contain an 

 amount of phosphoric material, which is admitted on high authority 

 to be necessary for perfect mental development. Pork becomes less 

 fit for human food the older it is, because it carries with it more 

 dangerous properties, tainting the blood of a family through several 

 generations. Poultry comes to maturity in a single season, and there- 

 fore it is free from objections that appertain to animals whose prepa- 

 ration for market actually develops some form of disease that would 

 eventuate unfavorably for them if the slaughtering is too long delayed. 

 A mixed diet of animal and vegetable food is necessary for man. All 

 meat makes him irritable, intractable, domineering, and, in a rude state 

 of society, ferocious. This whole matter, concluded Dr. Smith, may 

 be reduced to a very few simple propositions : 



1. The consumption of meats should be very moderate in this lati- 

 tude. Once a day is quite as much as can be naturally disposed of 

 without producing disturbance in vital processes. 



2. Excesses in drinking are recognized as positive sources of disease 

 and premature death, since only a few of the many have vital force 

 enough to sustain them to old age in a career of habitual intemperance. 

 It is quite unnecessary to dwell minutely on the injury produced in 

 the organs of digestion by daily overloading them with more than 

 can be appropriated. The first destroys the nervous system, the 

 latter the complicated apparatus of alimentation. 



3. To maintain the best standard of moral health, avoid, if one has 

 the moral resolution, the flesh of old animals, fattened to meet the 

 morbid taste of those who are perhaps ignorant of the fact that old 

 oxen and old cows become diseased by the operation of being hastily 

 prepared for market. If fattened a little while longer, a large per 

 centage of them would die of chronic maladies. ' Supply the table 

 abundantly with fruits. They are of incalculable value in a family. 

 Where most freely used, fresh and cooked, there will be healthy chil- 

 dren, vigorous in body and mind. Fruits cost less than almost any 



