7^4 
Dietetic Reforms , 
[December, 
shallowness of the soil, the difficulty of access, and the 
severity of climate consequent upon the height above the 
sea-level, render these tracts utterly incapable of cultivation. 
But for grazing purposes they are not without value. We 
may take, again, low-lying districts, marshes, and the like, 
liable to be overflown. No one cares to plant crops which 
he may lose by a sudden rising of the waters. But they are 
available for grazing, as cattle may be driven for safety to 
higher grounds in case of a flood. Or let us take the cele- 
brated Vale of Aylesbury, with its rich, deep soil, — unfor- 
tunately, from the scanty slope of the soil, difficult to drain. 
Here you may march for mile after mile and see nothing but 
grass ; grass, everlasting, monotonous grass. The natives 
will tell you that crops do not pay as well as grazing. In- 
deed, since the present fit of cold, wet summers set in, 
landowners and farmers, England over, are being advised to 
convert their available lands into permanent pasture. 
In warmer and drier climates, such as the Cape, Australia, 
&c., the possibility of severe and prolonged drought dis- 
courages farming, properly so called, and encourages sheep- 
breeding. Thus the world over we shall find, on taking a 
fair average, that if we should by adopting the Vegetarian 
system gain on one acre of land, we should lose on 
another. 
But there is another item in the account which Vegeta- 
rians overlook. So long as man consumes a mixed regime 
he derives no trifling part of his sustenance from the sea, 
and this portion it is generally considered is capable of in- 
definite increase. Are we to sacrifice the Fisheries in 
deference to Vegetarian scruples ? If so, the question of 
“ economy of feeding ” will soon be settled, though in a 
different way, from what dietetic reformers fancy. 
Elsewhere we read — ' “ Vegetarians point to the striking 
faft that the animals most nearly resembling man, anato- 
mically and physiologically, and to which he is supposed to 
be most nearly related by descent, live on fruits and other 
vegetable substances. Anatomists and naturalists declare 
that man is frugivorous. Primitive man is supposed to have 
lived on fruits and nuts.” 
Here also is a strong admixture of error. The monkey 
tribe undoubtedly form the closest approach to man, both 
morphologically and physiologically. -But along with fruits 
they feed upon inserts, eggs, and probably small birds. 
Modern anatomists and naturalists know that the habits 
of an animal cannot always be deduced with unerring accu- 
racy from its structure. How close, e.g. f is the resemblance 
