1883.] Dietetic Reforms. 713 
We have long ago heard it maintained that especially in 
a cold, moist climate, like that of Britain, thirst is so far an 
artificial appetite that a man does not require to drink if his 
food is properly selected. To some extent we can confirm 
this view from our own experience. But the meals at which 
drink was thus felt to be unnecessary were not built on the 
above-quoted lines of “ plain meat, with bread and one 
vegetable,” and included at least six kinds of vegetable 
matter, most of them very juicy. 
But the dietetic innovators with whom we have so far had 
to deal, however much they may seek to abridge our repasts 
in quantity and variety, do not prescribe animal food. This 
undertaking is left for a body of men who are known as 
vegetarians, and whose experiments on a superficial ex- 
amination seem to be based upon scientific truths. On 
closer and impartial investigation they are found, however, 
to be mainly fallacious. 
We may survey these arguments as summed up in the 
“ Science Monthly ” by Dr. T. L. Nichols, who seems to us 
to expound rather than to advocate the vegetarian creed. 
He writes : — “ If it were a question of economy of feeding, 
that would be easily settled. There is no doubt that any 
given territory will sustain from six to ten men on fruits, 
grains, and vegetables, to one on flesh. The oatmeal which, 
converted into pig, will feed one man, will give a purer and 
more sustaining diet to fourteen in its original condition. 
Dense populations must of necessity live mainly on the un- 
changed products of the vegetable kingdom. In tropical 
climates it has been found by experiment that an acre of 
land planted with the banana would feed twenty-five — 
Humboldt says thirty — persons. In England we think each 
mouth must have its acre.” 
The fallacy here lurks in the words which we have 
italicised — “ any given territory.” Take a plot of fruitful 
ground, in a genial climate, capable of being fairly drained, 
and liable neither to prolonged drought nor to capricious 
inundations, and the Vegetarian contention is true. Such 
land will doubtless support from six to ten times as many 
men if devoted to agriculture as it could if given up to 
grazing purposes. But unfortunately there is abundance of 
land which will grow grass, though it will not produce 
fruits, corn, or vegetables. Hence it can only be utilised as 
grazing ground, and under a Vegetarian regime it would have 
to be abandoned. 
Such, in Britain, are the moorlands and mountain-pastures 
of Wales, Cumberland, and the North of England. The 
VOL. V. (third series). 3 a 
