Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages

"Physiologists have usually represented that our species holds a middle rank, in the masticatory and digestive apparatus, between the flesh-eating and herbivorous animals – a statement which seems rather to have been deduced from what we have learned by experience on the subject, than to result from an actual comparison of men and animals.

"The teeth and jaws of men are, in all respects, much more similar to those of monkeys than of any other animal. The number is the same as in man, and the form so closely similar, that they might easily be mistaken for human. In most of them, except the ourang-outang, the canine teeth are much larger and stronger than in us; and so far, these animals have a more carnivorous character than man.

"Thus we find, that whether we consider the teeth and jaws, or the immediate instruments of digestion, the human structure closely resembles that of the simiæ (monkey race), all of which, in their natural state, are completely herbivorous. Man possesses a tolerably large cœcum, and a cellular colon; which I believe are not found in any herbivorous animal."

The ourang-outang naturally prefers fruits and nuts, as the professor himself shows by extracts from the statements of travelers and naturalists. He is also fond of bread. On board a ship or elsewhere, in confinement, he may, however, be taught, like men, to eat almost any thing; – not only to eat milk and suck eggs, but even to eat raw flesh.

It is true, indeed, after all these foregoing statements and concessions in regard to man's native character and the wholesomeness of a diet exclusively vegetable – and after admitting that the human body and mind can be fully and perfectly nourished and developed on it, this distinguished writer goes on to say that it is still doubtful which diet – animal, vegetable, or mixed – is on the whole most conducive to health, and strength – which is best calculated to avert or remove disease – whether errors in quantity or quality are most pernicious, etc. He says the solution of these and other analogous questions, can only be expected from experimental investigation. He proceeds to say —

"Mankind are so averse to relinquish their favorite indulgences, and to desert established habits, that we cannot entertain very sanguine expectations of any important discovery in this department. We must add to this, that there are many other causes affecting human health, besides diet. Before venturing to draw any inferences on a subject beset with so many obstacles, it would be necessary to observe the effects of a purely animal and a purely vegetable diet on several individuals of different habits, pursuits, and modes of life; to note their state, both bodily and mental; and to learn the condition of two or three generations fed in the same manner."

Now, the only difference between this opinion and what I conceive to be the truth in the case is, that just such experimental investigations as those to which he refers have, to all intents and purposes, been already made; as, I trust, will be distinctly shown in the sequel of this work.

DR. SALGUES

Dr. Salgues, Physician, and Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, etc., etc., to the Institute of France, some years ago wrote a book, entitled "Rules for Preserving the Health of the Aged," which contained many very judicious remarks on diet. There is nothing in the volume, however, which is decidedly in favor of a diet exclusively vegetable, unless it is a few anecdotes; and I have introduced his name chiefly as a sort of authority for those anecdotes. They are the following:

"Josephus informs us that the Essenes were very long lived; many lived upward of one hundred years, solely from their simple habits and sobriety. Aristotle and Plato speak of Herodicus the philosopher, who, although of a feeble and consumptive habit, lived, in consequence of his sobriety, upward of one hundred years. Phabrinus, mentioned by Athenius, lived more than one hundred years, drinking milk only. Zoroaster, according to Pliny, remained twenty years in a desert, living on a small quantity of cheese only."

THE AUTHOR OF "SURE METHODS," ETC

The British author of "Sure Methods of Improving Health and Prolonging Life," supposed by many to be the distinguished Dr. Johnson, speaks thus:

"It must be confessed that, in temperate climates, at least, an animal diet is, in one respect, more wasting than a vegetable, because it excites, by its stimulating qualities, a temporary fever after every meal, by which the springs of life are urged into constant, preternatural, and weakening exertions. Again; persons who live chiefly on animal food are subject to various acute and fatal disorders, as the scurvy, malignant ulcers, inflammatory fevers, etc., and are likewise liable to corpulency, more especially when united to inordinate quantities of liquid aliment. There appears to be also a tendency in an animal diet to promote the formation of many chronic diseases; and we seldom find those who indulge much in this diet to be remarkable for longevity.

"In favor of vegetables, it may be justly said, that man could hardly live entirely on animal food, but we know he may on vegetable. Vegetable aliment has likewise no tendency to produce those constitutional disorders which animal food so frequently occasions. And this is a great advantage, more especially in our country (he means in Great Britain), where the general sedentary mode of living so powerfully contributes to the formation and establishment of numerous severe chronic maladies. Any unfavorable effects vegetable food may have on the body, are almost wholly confined to the stomach and bowels, and rarely injure the system at large. This food has also a beneficial influence on the powers of the mind, and tends to preserve a delicacy of feeling, and liveliness of imagination, and acuteness of judgment, seldom enjoyed by those who live principally on meat. It should also be added, that a vegetable diet, when it consists of articles easily digested, as potatoes, turnips, bread, biscuit, oatmeal, etc., is certainly favorable to long life."

BARON CUVIER. ¹⁰

Perhaps it is not generally known that Baron Cuvier, the prince of naturalists, in the progress of his researches came to the most decisive conclusion, that, so far as any thing can be ascertained or proved by the investigation of science in regard to the natural dietetic character of man, he is a fruit and vegetable eater. I have not seen his own views; but the following are said, by an intelligent writer, to be a tolerably faithful transcript of them, and to be derived from his Comparative Anatomy.

"Man resembles no carnivorous animal. There is no exception, unless man be one, to the rule of herbivorous animals having cellulated colons.

"The ourang-outang perfectly resembles man, both in the order and number of his teeth. The ourang-outang is the most anthropomorphous of the ape tribe, all of which are strictly frugivorous. There is no other species of animals, which live on different food, in which this analogy exists. In many frugivorous animals, the canine teeth are more pointed and distinct than those of man. The resemblance also of the human stomach to that of the ourang-outang, is greater than to that of any other animal.

"The intestines are also identical with those of herbivorous animals, which present a large surface for absorption, and have ample and cellulated colons. The cœcum also, though short, is larger than that of carnivorous animals; and even here the ourang-outang retains its accustomed similarity.

"The structure of the human frame, then, is that of one fitted to a pure vegetable diet, in every essential particular. It is true, that the reluctance to abstain from animal food, in those who have been long accustomed to its stimulus, is so great in some persons of weak minds, as to be scarcely overcome; but this is far from being any argument in its favor. A lamb, which was fed for some time on flesh by a ship's crew, refused its natural diet at the end of the voyage. There are numerous instances of horses, sheep, oxen, and even wood-pigeons, having been taught to live upon flesh, until they have loathed their natural aliment."

No one will deny that Baron Cuvier was in favor of flesh eating; but it was not because he ever believed, for one moment, that man was naturally a flesh-eating animal. Man is a reasoning animal (he argues), and intended to be so. If left to the guidance of his instincts, the same yielding to the law of his structure which would exclude flesh meats, should also exclude cookery. Or, in other words, if he is not permitted to depart from the line of life which his structure indicates, he must no more cook his vegetables than eat animal food. Besides, he is made, as Cuvier supposes, for artificial society, and the Creator designed him to improve his food; and, if I understand his reasoning, he is better able, with his present structure of teeth, jaws, stomach, intestines, etc., to make this improvement, and rise above his nature, and yield to the force and indications of reason and experience, than if he possessed any other known living structure.

To this structure, however, as well as to the same power of adaptation, the monkey race, and especially the ourang-outang, closely typo approximates. Cuvier's reasoning, in my view, applies only to the adaptability (if I may be allowed the expression) of the human animal, without deciding how far he should avail himself of his power to make changes.

DR. LUTHER V. BELL

I have alluded, in another part of this work, to the prize essay of Dr. Bell, awarded to him by the Boylston Medical Committee on the subject of the diet of laborers in New England. Dr. Bell is a physician of respectable talents, and is at present the Physician to an Insane Hospital in Charlestown, near this city.

Dr. Bell admits, with the most distinguished naturalists and physiologists of Europe, – Cuvier, Lawrence, Blumenbach, Bell of London, Richerand, Marc, etc., – that the structure of man resembles closely that of the monkey race; and hence objects to the conclusion to which some of these men have arrived (by jumping over, as it were), that man is an omnivorous animal. He freely allows – I use his own words – "that man does approximate more closely to the frugivorous animals than to any others, in physical organization." But then he insists that the conclusion which ought to be drawn from this similarity "is, that he is designed to have his food in about the same state of mechanical cohesion, requiring about the same energy of masticatory organs, as if it consisted of fruits, etc., alone."

But, wherefore should we draw even this conclusion, if structure and instinct prove nothing, and if we are to be governed solely by reason, without regard to structure and instinct? For my own part, I believe reason is never true reason, when it turns wholly out of doors either instinct or the indications of organization. In other words, an enlightened reason would look both to the structure and organization of man, and to a large and broad experience, for the solution of a question so important as what diet is, on the whole, best for man. And the experience of the world, both in the present and all former ages, leads me to a conclusion entirely different from that to which Dr. Bell, and those who entertain the same views with him, seem to have arrived – a conclusion which is indicated by structure, and confirmed by facts and universal experience. But this subject will be further discussed and developed in another place. It is sufficient for my present purpose, to bring testimony in favor of the safety of vegetable eating, and of the doctrine that man is naturally a vegetable and fruit-eating animal; and especially if I produce, to this end, the testimony of flesh-eaters themselves.

DR. WILLIAM BUCHAN, AUTHOR OF "DOMESTIC MEDICINE."

"Indulgence in animal food, renders men dull and unfit for the pursuits of science, especially when it is accompanied with the free use of strong liquors. I am inclined to think that consumptions, so common in England, are, in part, owing to the great use of animal food. But the disease most common to this country is the scurvy. One finds a dash of it in almost every family, and in some the taint is very deep. A disease so general must have a general cause, and there is none so obvious as the great quantity of animal food which is devoured. As a proof that scurvy arises from this cause, we are in possession of no remedy for that disease equal to the free use of fresh vegetables. By the uninterrupted use of animal food, a putrid diathesis is induced in the system, which predisposes to a variety of disorders. I am fully convinced that many of those obstinate complaints for which we are at a loss to account, and which we find it still more difficult to cure, are the effects of a scorbutic taint, lurking in the habit.

"The choleric disposition of the English is almost proverbial. Were I to assign a cause, it would be, their living so much on animal food. There is no doubt but this induces a ferocity of temper unknown to men whose food is taken chiefly from the vegetable kingdom.¹¹

"Experience proves that not a few of the diseases incident to the inhabitants of this country, are owing to their mode of living. The vegetable productions they consume, fall considerably short of the proportion they ought to bear to the animal part of their food. The major part of the aliment ought to consist of vegetable substances. There is a continual tendency in animal food, as well as in the human body itself, to putrefaction; which can only be counteracted by the free use of vegetables. All who value health, ought to be contented with making one meal of animal food in twenty-four hours; and this ought to consist of one kind only.

"The most obstinate scurvy has often been cured by a vegetable diet; nay, milk alone, will frequently do more in that disease than any medicine. Hence it is evident that if vegetables and milk were more used in diet, we should have less scurvy, and likewise fewer putrid and inflammatory fevers.

"Such as abound with blood (and such are almost all of us), should be sparing in the use of every thing which is highly nourishing – as fat meat, rich wines, strong ales, and the like. Their food should consist chiefly of bread and other vegetable substances; and their drink ought to be water, whey, or small beer."

Dr. B. also insists on a vegetable diet, as a preventive of many diseases; particularly of consumption. When there is a tendency to this disease, in the young, he says "it should be counteracted by strictly adhering to a diet of the farinacea, and ripe fruits. Animal food and fermented liquors ought to be rigidly prohibited. Even milk often proves too nutritious."

DR. CHARLES WHITLAW

Dr. Whitlaw is the author of a work entitled "New Medical Discoveries," in two volumes, and of a "Treatise on Fever." He has also established medical vapor baths in London, New York, and elsewhere; and is a gentleman of much skill and eminence in his profession. Dr. Whitlaw says —

"All philosophers have given their testimony in favor of vegetable food, from Pythagoras to Franklin. Its beneficial influence on the powers of the mind has been experienced by all sedentary and literary men.

"But, that which ought to convince every one of the salubrity of a diet consisting of vegetables, is the consideration of the dreadful effects of totally abstaining from it, unless it be for a very short time; accounts of which we meet with, fully and faithfully recorded, in the most interesting and most authentic narratives of human affairs – wars, sieges of places, long encampments, distant voyages, the peopling of uncultivated and maritime countries, remarkable pestilences, and the lives of illustrious men. To this cause the memorable plague at Athens was attributed; and indeed all the other plagues and epidemical distempers, of which we have any faithful accounts, will be found to have originated in a deprivation of vegetable food.

"The only objections I have ever heard urged (the only plausible ones, he must mean, I think), is the notion of its inadequacy to the sustenance of the body. But this is merely a strong prejudice into which the generality of mankind have fallen, owing to their ignorance of the laws of life and health. Agility and constant vigor of body are the effect of health, which is much better preserved by a herbaceous, aqueous, and sparing tender diet, than by one which is fleshy, vinous, unctuous, and hard of digestion.

"So fully were the Romans, at one time, persuaded of the superior goodness of vegetable diet, that, besides the private example of many of their great men, they established laws respecting food, among which were the lex fannia, and the lex licinia, which allowed but very little animal food; and, for a period of five hundred years, diseases were banished along with the physician from the Roman empire. Nor has our own age been destitute of examples of men, brave from the vigor both of their bodies and their minds, who at the same time have been drinkers of water and eaters of vegetables.¹²

"Nothing is more certain than that animal food is inimical to health. This is evident from its stimulating qualities producing, as it were, a temporary fever after every meal; and not only so, but from its corruptible qualities it gives rise to many fatal diseases; and those who indulge in its use seldom arrive at an advanced age.

"We have the authority of the Scripture for asserting that the proper aliment of man is vegetables. See Genesis. And as disease is not mentioned as a part of the cause, we have reason to believe that the antediluvians were strangers to this evil. Such a phenomenon as disease could hardly exist among a people who lived entirely on a vegetable food; consequently all the individuals made mention of in that period of the world, are said to have died of old age; whereas, since the day of Noah, when mankind were permitted to eat animal food, such an occurrence as a man dying of old age, or a natural decay of the bodily functions, does not occur probably once in half a century.

"Its injurious effects on the mind are equally certain. The Tartars, who live principally on animal food, are cruel and ferocious in their disposition, gloomy and sullen minded, delighting in exterminating wars and plunder; while the Bramins and Hindoos, who live entirely on vegetable aliment, possess a mildness and gentleness of character and disposition directly the reverse of the Tartar; and I have no doubt, had India possessed a more popular form of government, and a more enlightened priesthood, her people, with minds so fitted for contemplation, would have far outstripped the other nations of the world in manufactures, and in the arts and sciences.

"But we need only look at the peasantry of Ireland, who, living as they do, chiefly on a vegetable – and to say the least of it, a very suspicious kind of aliment, I mean the potatoe – are yet as robust and vigorous a race of men as inherit any portion of the globe.

"The greater part of our bodily disease is brought on by improper food. This opinion has been strongly confirmed by my daily experience in the treatment of those diseases to which the people of England are peculiarly subject, such as scrofula, consumption, leprosy, etc. These disorders are making fearful and rapid strides; so much so, that not a single family may now be considered exempt from their melancholy ravages."

This is fearful testimony, but it is the result of much observation and of twenty years' experience. But the same causes are producing the same effects – at least, so far as scrofula and consumption are concerned – in this country, at the present time, of which Dr. W. complains so loudly in England. I could add much more from his writings, but what I have said is sufficient.

DR. JAMES CLARK

Dr. Clark, physician to the king and queen of Belgium, in a Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption, has the following remarks:

"There is no greater evil in the management of children than that of giving them animal diet very early. By persevering in the use of an over-stimulating diet, the digestive organs become irritated, and the various secretions immediately connected with and necessary to digestion are diminished, especially the biliary secretion; and constipation of the bowels and congestion of the abdominal viscera succeed. Children so fed, moreover, become very liable to attacks of fever and of inflammation, affecting particularly the mucous membranes; and measles and the other diseases incident to childhood are generally severe in their attack."

The suggestion that a mild or vegetable diet will render certain diseases incident to childhood more mild than otherwise they would be, is undoubtedly an important one; and as just as it is important. But the remark might be extended, in its application. Both children and adults would escape all sorts of diseases, especially colds and epidemics, with much more certainty, or, if attacked, the attacks would be much more mild, on an exclusively vegetable diet than on a mixed one. Dr. Clark does not, indeed, say so; but I may say it, and with confidence. And Dr. C. could not probably show any reason why, on his own principles, it should not be so.

PROF. MUSSEY, OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

Prof. R. D. Mussey, of Hanover, New Hampshire, whose science and skill as a surgeon and physician are well known and attested all over New England, has for many years taught, both directly and indirectly, in his public lectures, that man is naturally a fruit and vegetable eater. This he proves, first, from the structure of his teeth and intestines – next from his physiological character, and finally, from various facts and considerations too numerous to detail here.

He thinks the Bible doctrines are in favor of the disuse of flesh and fish; that the Jews were required to abstain from pork, and from all fat and blood, for physiological no less than other reasons. An infant, he says, naturally has a disrelish for animal food. He says that, in all probability, animal food was not permitted, though used, before the flood; and that its use, contrary to the wish of the Creator, was probably one cause of human degeneracy. Animal food, he says, is apt to produce diseases of the skin – makes people passionate and violent – excites the nervous system too much – renders the senses and faculties more dull – and favors the accumulation of what is mired tartar on the teeth, and thus causes their early and certain decay. The blood and breath of carnivorous animals emit an unpleasant odor, while those of vegetable eaters do not. The fact that man does eat flesh no more proves its necessity, than the fact that cows, and sheep, and horses can be taught it, proves its necessity to them. The Africans bear the cold better the first winter after their arrival in a northern climate than afterward. May not this be owing to their simple vegetable living?

DR. CONDIE, OF PHILADELPHIA

The Journal of Health, edited by some of the ablest physicians of Philadelphia, has the following remarkable language on the subject of vegetable food. See vol. 1, page 277.

"It is well known that vegetable substances, particularly the farinaceous, are fully sufficient, of themselves, for maintaining a healthy existence. We have every reason for believing that the fruits of the earth constituted, originally, the only food of man. Animal food is digested in a much shorter period than vegetables; from which circumstance, as well as its approaching much nearer in its composition to the substance of the body into which it is to be converted, it might at first be supposed the most appropriate article of nourishment. It has, however, been found that vegetable matter can be as readily and perfectly assimilated by the stomach into appropriate nutriment as the most tender animal substances; and confessedly with a less heating effect upon the system generally.

"As a general rule, it will be found that those who make use of a diet consisting chiefly of vegetable matter have a vast advantage in looks, in strength, and spirits, over those who partake largely of animal food. They are remarkable for the firm, healthy plumpness of their muscles, and the transparency of their skins. This assertion, though at variance with popular opinion, is amply supported by experience."

At page 7 of the same volume of the Journal of Health we find the following remarks. The editors were alluding to those persons who think they cannot preserve their health and strength without flesh or fish, and who believe their children would also suffer without it:

"For the information of all such misguided persons, we beg leave to state, that the large majority of mankind do not eat any animal food; or, if any, they use it so sparingly, and at such long intervals, that it cannot be said to form their nourishment. Millions in Asia are sustained by rice alone, with perhaps a little vegetable oil for seasoning.

"In Italy and southern Europe, generally, bread, made of the flour of wheat or Indian corn, with lettuce and the like mixed with oil, constitutes the food of the most robust part of its population.

"The Lazzaroni of Naples, with forms so actively and finely proportioned, cannot even calculate on this much. Coarse bread and potatoes is their chief reliance. Their drink of luxury is a glass of iced water, slightly acidulated.

"Hundreds of thousands – we might say millions – of Irish do not see flesh-meat or fish from one week's end to another. Potatoes and oatmeal are their articles of food: if milk can be added it is thought a luxury. Yet where shall we find a more healthy and robust population, or one more enduring of bodily fatigue, and exhibiting more mental vivacity? What a contrast between these people and the inhabitants of the extreme north – the timid Laplanders, Esquimaux, and Samoideans, whose food is almost entirely animal?"

Again, at page 187 we are told that "the more simple the aliment, and the less altered by culinary processes, the slower is the change in digestion; but, at the same time, the less is the stimulation and wear of the powers of life. The Bramins of Hindostan, who live on exceedingly simple food, are long livers, even in a hot and exhausting climate. The peasants of Switzerland and of Scotland, nourished on bread, milk, and cheese, attain a very old age, and enjoy great bodily strength.

"Where there is too much excitement of the body, generally, from fullness of the blood-vessels, or of any one of the organs, owing to a wrong direction of the blood to it (and in one or the other of these conditions we find almost every body now-a-days), animal food, by being long retained in the stomach, and calling into greater action other parts during digestion, as well as furnishing them with more blood afterward, must be obviously improper. The more of this kind of food is taken under such circumstances, the greater will be the oppression; and the weakness, different from that of a healthy person long hungered, will only be increased by the increased amount of blood carried to the diseased part."

It is true that the editors of the Journal of Health connect with the foregoing paragraphs the statement that, "if it be desirable to give nutriment in a small bulk, to obtund completely the sensation of hunger and restore strength to the body, a small quantity of animal will be preferable to much vegetable food." But then it is only in a few diseased cases that any such thing is desirable. And even then, if we look carefully at the language used, the comparison is not made between animal and vegetable food in moderate or reasonable quantities, but between a small quantity of the former and much of the latter.

DR. J. V. C. SMITH, OF BOSTON

The following remarks are extracted from the Boston Medical Intelligencer, at a period when Dr. J. V. C. Smith was the editor. They have the appearance of being from Dr. Smith's own pen. Dr. S. is at present the editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal:

"It is true¹³ that animal food contains a greater portion of nutriment, in a given quantity, than vegetables; but the digestive functions of the human system become prematurely exhausted by constant action, and the whole system eventually sinks under great or uninterrupted excitement. If, for the various ragouts with which modern tables are so abundantly furnished, men would substitute wholesome vegetables and pure water, we should see health walking in paths that are now crowded with the bloated victims of voluptuous appetite. Millions of Gentoos have lived to an advanced age without having tasted any thing that ever possessed life, and been wholly free from a chain of maladies which have scourged every civilized nation on the globe. The wandering Arabs, who have traversed the barren desert of Sahara, subsisting on the scanty pittance of milk from the half-famished camel that carried them, have seen two hundred years roll round without a day of sickness."

SYLVESTER GRAHAM

Although Mr. Graham does not, so far as I know, lay claim to the "honors" of any medical institution, it cannot be doubted that his knowledge of physiology, to say nothing of anatomy, pathology, and medicine, is such as to entitle him to a high rank among medical men; and I have, therefore, without hesitation, concluded to insert his testimony in this place.

Of his views, however, on the subject before us, it seems almost superfluous to speak, as they are set forth, and have been set forth for many years, so conspicuously, not only in his public lectures, but in his writings, that the bare mention of his name, in almost any part of the country, is to awaken the prejudices, if not the hostilities, of every foe, and of some friends (supposed friends, I mean), of "temperance in all things." It is sufficient, perhaps, for my present purpose, to say of him, that, after the most rigid and profound examination of the subject which he is capable of making – and his capabilities are by no means very limited – it is his unhesitating belief, that in every climate, and in all circumstances in which it is proper for man to be placed, an exclusively farinaceous and fruit diet is the best adapted to the development and improvement of all his powers of body, mind, and soul; provided, however, he were trained to it from the first. And even at any period of life, unless in the case of certain forms of diseases, he believes it would be preferable to exchange, in a proper manner, every form of mixed diet for one purely vegetable. Such opinions as these, as a part of his views in relation to the physical duties of man, he publicly, and strenuously, and eloquently, announces and defends.