26 Vegetarianism : [January, 
in England — at eating-houses, hotels, and even in private 
families — is called “ cooked ” by an extravagant figure of 
speech. Raw oysters are never objected to by the daintiest 
epicure. Nor must it be forgotten, on the other hand, that 
much of our vegetable food is only rendered fit for use by 
the arts of the cook. Of the two evils, we should certainly 
prefer a raw beef-steak to a raw potato, and should find it 
much more digestible. 
We are further reminded that animal food exposes its 
consumers to a variety of dangers. The ox or the sheep 
may have been suffering from “ rinder-pest,” or pleuro- 
pneumonia ; the pork may be trichinised. Flesh of any 
kind may be passing into decomposition. Sausages may 
convey the germs of that ill-understood poison which has 
proved fatal to so many lovers of such questionable dainties. 
Mussels may, as it seems, capriciously poison one guest and 
leave ten others unhurt. Poisonous fishes exist in numbers, 
and we are as yet far from an exact knowledge of the dan- 
gerous species. We admit all this to the fullest extent ; 
but we reply that if the path of the flesh-eater is beset with 
snares, that of the vegetarian is undermined with pitfalls. 
Putrescent fruits and vegetables are no less common than 
tainted meat and game, and certainly not less injurious to 
the eater. Fruits and salads may introduce Entozoa into 
the system as decidedly as raw ham. Vegetables have their 
diseases, under whose influence they become decidedly un- 
wholesome. The fungus tribe, like the fishes and Mollusca, 
comprise both salutary and poisonous species, and exhibit 
much of the same capriciousness in their action which cha- 
racterises the latter. Nor must we forget that numbers of 
persons have perished from mistaking some deadly herb, 
root, or fruit for an esculent species. Fool’s-parsley has 
been confounded with parsley, the roots of monk’s-hood with 
horse-radish, and the very berries of deadly nightshade have 
been made into pies ! These facts prove not that we should 
abandon either vegetable or animal substances as a class, 
but that in the selection of both we should be prudent and 
wary. To eat raw ham, sausages of unknown origin and 
history, fishes of doubtful species, and the like, is certainly 
“ tempting Providence.” But equally foolhardy is the man 
who eats fruits “on the turn,” fungi gathered by inexpe- 
rienced persons, or salads and celery from a sewage-irriga- 
tion farm. 
The teeth and the digestive organs of man, it is said, are 
indeed in their structure intermediate between those of the 
Carnivora and of the Herbivora. But this, it seems, proves 
