222 MORE POT-POURRI 



the request of the poor drunkard, who wildly cries for 

 more of the very poison that is killing him. The imme- 

 diate relief is actual and visible ; the after -reaction in 

 both cases being the cause of fresh suffering. 



My object as a propagandist in the cause of non- 

 meat-eating is merely to give others my experience, with 

 the ordinary human desire that they may try a cure 

 which has been so beneficial to myself. When, some 

 years ago, chronic rheumatism was gaining upon me, I 

 resorted to the usual solaces of the well-to-do. I con- 

 sulted doctors, I took drugs, I left off wine — which be- 

 fore the age of forty I had rarely taken, and after forty 

 only in small quantities. I went to Aix-les-Bains. I 

 got momentary relief from all these cures, but on the 

 whole the malady gained upon me, and I looked forward 

 to a cripply old age with great dread, knowing full well 

 that it would prevent my enjoying my favourite occupa- 

 tion of gardening. My family physician summed up the 

 case with : 'Well, JMrs. Barle, at your age this rheuma- 

 tism which has settled in the hips is extremely difQcult 

 of cure.' I repeated this to a vegetarian friend, who 

 lent me a book, called ' The Science of Healing,' by L. 

 Kuehne, a German non- medical man who practises a 

 strict vegetarian water-cure at Leipzig. In consequence 

 of reading this book, I undertook to try and cure myself. 

 The results have been simply wonderful, and I find the 

 kind of food I eat, now that I am used to it, entails no 

 self-denial at all. I carried out the cure strictly for 

 many months — almost as strictly as Kuehne recom- 

 mends, only breaking his rule by a small amount of milk 

 and butter, and I was greatly the better for it. I took 

 absolutely no animal food, and neither cheese nor eggs. 

 If ever I relapsed into ordinary diet, after a very little 

 time the old pains reasserted themselves. My friends 

 declared I looked old and ugly, and most of my family 



