y.c- 
 
 nftLF 
 
 ^B ac^3 
 
 ^^'^ 
 
 i 
 
 ^' 
 
 U 
 
 ;; > 
 

 A 
 
 % 
 
WATER 
 
 AITB 
 
 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 IN 
 
 CONSUMPTION, SCROFULA, CANCER, ASTHMA, 
 
 AND OTHER CHRONIC DISEASES. 
 
 IN WHICH THK ADVANTAGES OF PURE SOFT WATER OVER THAT WHICH IS HARD AXS 
 
 FABTICULARLY CONSIDKRED ; TOGETHER WITH A GREAT VARIETY fit 
 
 rACTS AND ARGUMENTS SHOWING THE SUPERIORITY OF THK 
 
 FABINACEA AND FRUITS TO ANIMAL FOOD 
 
 IN THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. 
 
 BY WILLIAM LAMBE, M. D. 
 
 T'L*'OW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON, 
 
 WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, 
 
 BY JOEL SHEW, M. D. 
 
 J5'eta gork: 
 
 FOWLERS AND WELLS, 131 NASSAU STREET, 
 
 AND 142 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. 
 
 1854. 
 
' AC- 
 
 /A-: 
 
 Entered, according to act of Conjjress, in the year 1849, by 
 
 FOWLERS ANI WELLS, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
 
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 The work which is here presented to the American public, wus 
 first published in London, under date of 1815, with the title "Ad- 
 ditional Reports on the Effects of a Peculiar Regimen in Cases of 
 Cancer, Scrofula, Consumption, Asthma, and other Chronic Dis- 
 eases." I have thought better to change this name to that of 
 " Water and Vegetable Diet in Consumption, Scrofula, Cancer. 
 Asthma, and other Chronic Diseases," as being more expressive of 
 the true character of the work. I place consumption fust in the 
 list of diseases, because of its greater frequency and importance. 
 The new title will, I am confident, be more apt to attract the eye 
 of casual observers than the old one, which consideration is plainly 
 a matter that should be looked to in this day of many books. 
 
 I have also, in the following work, changed many of the techni- 
 cal or scientific terras to such as will be better understood by the 
 generality of readers. Numerous typographical errors, and some 
 other mistakes, which had crept into the London edition, I have also 
 corrected. I have likewise taken the liberty of omitting many of the 
 marginal references of the former edition, references which were, 
 for the most part, made either to works that are not accessible to 
 American readers, or to those of foreign languages, which also are 
 not here to be obtained. By making these omissions (which I con- 
 sider does not at all depreciate the value of the work), it has been 
 brought into a smaller space than it otherwise could have been, and 
 is, as a consequence, afforded at a lower price. The notes and 
 additions which l.have made in the body of the work, will be re- 
 cognized by the latter initial of my name. 
 
 That the '* Vegetarian diet," (as it is now called in England, and 
 of which there are many followers in that country,) is destined to 
 do yet a vast amount of good in the prevention and cure of disease, 
 in the United States, I confidently believe. I feel myself too 
 thankful for the great benefit I have received by adopting it for the 
 most part during a period of nine years, to remain silent on the 
 subject. 
 
 Many in this country have indeed already found great relief and, 
 jd not a few instancoa, a perfect cure, by the adoption of vegetable 
 
 290S49 
 
iv PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 regimen. A great number have also made shipwreck of the matter, 
 so to say, and have in the end gone from bad to worse, and so as a 
 consequence have got no good. It is very common to find persons 
 who tell us that some years ago, after they had suffered much in 
 the way of indigestion, constipation, and the like, they commenced 
 the vegetable regimen, and apparently at first with the most bene- 
 ficial results. At length, however, they found that they grew 
 worse, and that on again returning to the use of flesh meat, they 
 improved. Now I think that in most of these cases there has 
 been manifest error in the method of the experiment. Thus the 
 individual was at first careful in regard to every thing relating to both 
 quality and kind of food ; at length, however, feeling an increase 
 of tone and vigor in the digestive organs, and at the same time a 
 great improvement in the keenness of appetite and relish for food, 
 he took, insensibly and by degrees, to overdoing in quantity ; a 
 practice which it should ever be remembered is a violation of the 
 most important of all dietetic rules. In the use of saccharine mat- 
 ter especially, have the " Vegetarians" committed error in the 
 United States. It is far better to partake of a proper meal of 
 plain vegetables and flesh meat than to eat a variety of rich, concen 
 trated, and highly sweetened articles, as many have been in the 
 habit of doing. 
 
 " Vegetarianism" has hitherto been presented to Americans as 
 a means of j^'i" eventing rather than of curing disease. This work, 
 then, brings the matter up in a new aspect. And surely any 
 method, however simple it may be, which promises any rehef 
 whatever, in so grave maladies as those of which it treats, merits 
 the candid consideration of every friend of his race. 
 
 The perusal of this work will lead many, doubtless, to the con- 
 clusion, that if such striking benefits as are here described are to 
 be gained by attention to diet alone, how much greater may we 
 not look for in combining the water -treatment with the course 
 pointed out. I therefore recommend that all who make the experi- 
 ment of vegetable diet, pursue at the same time a course of bathing, 
 with an observance of good hygienic habits generally, such as are 
 recommended in water-cure. The experiment will thus be much 
 easier borne; and its benefits rendered greater. 
 
 JOEL SHEW. 
 
PREFACE TO THE LONDON EDITION. 
 
 In offering to the public these ''Additional Reports," I fulfill the 
 resolution I announced, when I published my "Reports on Cancer," 
 of continuing to present to the public what X should think most in- 
 teresting and important on the same subject. It will be seen that 
 many of the facts, which I now bring forward, have been in my 
 possession, even for a series of years; and I have felt no small re- 
 pugnance at suffering them to remain useless to myself and others. 
 To withhold from society fects regarding health, is a sort of felony 
 against the common rights of human nature. But I have found 
 that little good is to be done by producing solitary cases. I have, 
 therefore, deferred this publication till I could obtain a body of facts 
 concurring to the same end; and which, I hope, may possess some 
 influence upon public opinion. I was, moreover, anxious to put the 
 correctness of my assertions beyond the reach of doubt or suspicion. 
 Circumstances beyond my control have forced me to consume 
 much more time than such an object really required. But, having 
 at length effected it, I am conscious that whatever depends upon 
 myself has been now accomplished. 
 
 The statements, which occupy the first part of these sheets, are 
 drawn, for the most part, from very common sources of information; 
 and the reader, therefore, is not to look for any thing like originality 
 in them. But the inferences from these statements, though suffi- 
 ciently obvious, are certainly not duly impressed upon the minds of 
 men. It is to these, therefore, that I would more particularly direct 
 the attention of reflecting persons. 
 
 I have purposely avoided in this work all refined reasoning about 
 the nature of the matter, which, insinuating itself into the body in 
 unsuspected vehicles, undermines its powers, and lays the founda- 
 tion of fatal diseases. It is not that I think any thing which I have 
 formerly advanced on these subjects untenable or visionary. la 
 fact, the more I have considered the subject, the more have I been 
 convinced of the general correctness of the opinions I have delivered. 
 But several experiments wh'ch I have made are still unfinished; 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Other employment, particularlj'- the attention due to this pvblication, 
 having occupied my time. When I have completed the inquiries 
 in which I am engaged, I shall pi'obably publish them in a separate 
 form. This may be more useful than blending matters more strictly 
 scientific with things designed for the general reader and common 
 utility. 
 
 I may take this opportunity of saying that I believe I have spoken 
 too hastily, when I said, in the following work, that in certain very 
 healthy situations, " probabl}^ not a tenth part of those born," die 
 before tw^o years of age. It rather appears by bills of mortality, 
 that even in those places where the general health is so good, that 
 one half the born live to mature age, still the great mass of mortality 
 is in very early life. This error, however, does not materially in- 
 fluence the reasoning of the text. 
 
 The testimonies, which I have received from several conespon- 
 dents, give me the satisfaction of knowing that my former attempts 
 to direct mankind to the consideration of regimen have not been 
 wholly lost. It would have better suited with my habits of feeling, 
 to have suppressed the expressions of kindness contained in some 
 of them, that are merely personal. But I have thought it impro- 
 per to withhold what conveys, perhaps, the most lively image of the 
 sentiments of the writers. I have, therefore, given what has come 
 to my hands without mutilation ; and must content myself with 
 hereby returning my thanks to the writers for these marks of their 
 esteem. By the facts which they have conveyed to me, they have 
 conferred a considerable obligation on ro ^ ; but eventually, I believe, 
 a much gi-eater servie on the public. 
 
 W. LAMBE. 
 
 2 King's Road, Bedford Row, 
 25tb March, 1815. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Paos. 
 
 EFfECM of the Author's former publications. Erroneous estimate of Medical 
 Practice. Medicine corrupted by vulgar errors and false Philosophy. 
 The bases of Medical Theories hypothetical. Diseases the same at all 
 times. The general doctrines of the Ancients with regard to their evi- 
 dent causes. 9-21 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Opinions of Hippocrates concerning Food, and the use of Diluents ; that of 
 Van Swieti;n. General doctrine of Hippocrates on the etiects of Water. 
 Opinion of Hotfman : cf M. Cabanis. Cullen's opinion examined. 
 Some additional consklc/fklions on Water. - - - - 21 31 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Is Disease essential to the nature of man 7 The locality of particular diseases, 
 exemplified in remittent and intermittent Fevers. The hypothesis of 
 LinnsBus. Contagione, Scurvy, Bronchocele, and Cretinism. General 
 Conclusions. - - 31-41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mortality subject to fixed laws, Erroneous opinions on this subject. The 
 
 artificial nature and identity of constitutional disease, .... 41-54 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The power of Habit. Diseases exasperated by a full diet. Illustrations of the 
 
 beneficial eftiects of abstemiousness. Dr. Barwick Francis Pechi. 
 
 Wood, the miller of Billericay. Apologia du Jeune. Estimate of the ' 
 Power of Vegetable Regiment 54-70 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The objections to vegetable food ; paleness and loss of flesh ; that the feeble 
 require nourishing diet; differences of constitution; uneasiness from 
 vegetables ; that eating flesh injures only by excess ; that it is not unfavor- 
 able to the intellect ; that it has been found useful in disease. How far 
 liking justifies the practice Fish, milk. The cookery of vegetables. . 70-109 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Noxious habits of slow operation. Erroneous statements. Vegetable food 
 necessary to a perfect organization. It is produced in all climates habi- 
 table by man. The natural progress of society. The use of animal food 
 a relic of barbarous manners. 103~iai 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 On the use of spirituous and fermented liquors. Spices. Man by nature not 
 
 a drinkin" animal. 131- 140 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 PART II. CASES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Paox. 
 Case I. ^Weak Eyes, Pimples of the Skin, Dyspepsy, Sick Headache, Constipa- 
 tion, Depression of Spirits, and Gout. -.--.- 146 
 
 Cas e II. Disposition to Pulmonary Consumption. ..... 161 
 
 Case III. Distortion of the Chest, Pimples of the Face, General Debility, and 
 
 Weak Eyes. 163 
 
 Case IV. Disposition to Hydrocepkslus and Apoplexy. . . : . 165 
 
 Case V. Pulmonary Consumption, 168 
 
 Case VI. Asthma. 174 
 
 Case VII. Cough, Difficult Breathing, and General Debility. - - - - 182 
 
 Case VIJI.- Asthma, Debility, and Loss of Flesh. 183 
 
 Case IX. Paralysis. - ----..-... 185 
 
 Case X. Tumor of the Arm. . 187 
 
 Some Remarks on Scrofula. .---.--.. igg 
 
 Case XI. Scrofulous Ulcer of the Arm. ....... 195 
 
 Case XII. Scrofulous Ulcers of the Neck. .--,... 197 
 
 Case XIII. Remarks on Cancer, with a Case. .-.-.- 199 
 
 Case XIV. Rheumatism. A Case. --.._... 213 
 
 Case XV. Polypus of the Nose, with Numbness of the Limbs, Giddiness, and 
 
 Oppression of the Head. ........ 215 
 
 Case XVL Miscellaneous (From a Correspondent). 216 
 
 Case XVII. Hypochondriasis, Headache, Indigestion, Costiveness, and Jaun- 
 dice (From a Correspondent). - . 220 
 
 Cases XVIII., XIX., XX., and XXI. Miscellaneous (From a Correspondent). 223 
 
 Case XXII. General Debility, Mental Weakness, Sleeplessness, and Headache 
 
 (From a Correspondent). ----.-.. 225 
 
 Case XXIII. Disposition to Pulmonary Consumption. 227 
 
 Case XXIV. Chronic Pains of the Bowels. Bloody Discharges, and Constipa- 
 tion. -- 228 
 
 Case XXV. Leucorrhoea, Fluor Albos, or the Whites. ..... 229 
 
 Case XXVI. Feebleness of Strength. ---..... 230 
 
 Case XXVII. Hypochondriasis, Nervous Weakness, and Constipation. . 230 
 
 Case XX VIII. Difficult Urination, Falhng of the Womb, and Constipation. - 231 
 
 Case XXIX. Cancer of the Uterus. -. 233 
 
 General Dispensary Report of the Consultation Committee. - - - 237 
 
 Remarks on some Cases of Disease which have appeared under the Regimen. 238 
 
 Appendix. Vegetable Diet in Whitestown Seminary, near Utica, N. Y. 251 
 
 Caaeof Mr. Burdell, DentisJ^ofNew York. 85{ 
 
VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Effects of the writer's farmer publications. Erroneous estimate o 
 Medical Practice. Medicine corrupted by vulgar errors and false 
 philosophy. The bases of medical theories hypothetical. Diseases the 
 same at all times. The general doctrines of the ancients with regard 
 to their evident causes. 
 
 After a silence of several years, I am at length enabled to lay- 
 before the public what I flatter myself will be considered to be 
 a respectable body of additional evidence of the beneficial effects 
 of that peculiar regimen, which I proposed for trial in cases of 
 cancer, in the year 1809. Though it cannot be said that the 
 principles, which I attempted to establish in the "Reports" 
 which I then published, have gained the assent of any consider- 
 able portion of the members of the medical profession, yet I 
 have the satisfaction to know that my labors have not been 
 wholly in vain. Several respectable persons, both in and out 
 of the profession, have been sensible of the force of the reason- 
 ing uised ; some have adopted the practice advised ; and have, 
 from their own experience, publicly recommended it to others : 
 nor has any one ventured to contradict the facts which I ad- 
 vanced ; or to assert that the conclusions drawn do not flow 
 legitimately from the premises established. And I know that 
 many serious and reflecting persons have had their attention 
 excited ; have had their thoughts turned toward subjects to 
 which they formerly had not paid the smallest regard ; and are 
 looking forward, not without interest and anxiety, to the result 
 of the experiments which I have instituted. 
 
 I am, at the same time, perfectly aware that the contempt 
 and ridicule, with which the proposal I made Avas received in 
 some quarters, was immeasurable. There were those who pro- 
 fessed that they could not preserve their gravity when speaking 
 or writing on the subject; nor were insinuations still more 
 1* 
 
10 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 offensive withheld. This, however, was no more than what I 
 lycpected. Such is the natural homage of littleness, egotism, 
 and malevolence to a zeal for truth, and the best interests of 
 mankind. The man must Uiiow httle of the workings of the 
 human mind, who concludes that, because a proposal is ridi- 
 culed, it is therefore ridiculous. Men often laugh, not because 
 there is a good joke, but to conceal some other secret, and not 
 very agreeable, feeling. I doubt not, that the slave merchant 
 laughed heartily at the first proposal to abolish the diabolical 
 traffic in human flesh ; the sot laughs, who is advised to relin- 
 quish drinking ; and we are informed by Captain Cook that, 
 Avlien several of his people expressed to the inhabitants of New 
 Zealand their abhorrence of the custom of eating haman fleshy 
 " the savages only laughed at them." I feel confident, there- 
 fore, that men of candor will not be too prompt to decide 
 whether, in the present case, these merry gentlemen laughed 
 at my expense or at their own.* 
 
 It falls not within the scope of my immediate purpose to 
 examine into the present condition of the medical art. There 
 can be no doubt of its general utility, and in some degree of its 
 absolute necessity in the present state and form of society. I 
 can have no wish, therefore, to sink it in the estimation of man- 
 kind. But having made this avowal, it is equally obvious that 
 on no subject whatever has there existed greater fallacies and 
 delusions, than in the estimates that have been formed of the 
 efficacy of medicines, and the other practices, which form the 
 established routine of the art. It would be a matter of little 
 difficulty to trace to the fountain-head the source of these 
 erroneous opinions. But I shall content myself with the irre- 
 fragable f roof of the fact. 
 
 This pr "(of may be readily drawn from the ever-varying fash- 
 ions which predominate in the administration of drugs. It i? 
 an observation of Lord Bacon, that " medicine is a science more 
 professed than labored, and yet more labored than advanced ; 
 the labor having been, in my judgment, rather in circle than in 
 progression : for I find much iteration, but small addition." 
 Though this remark is as well founded at the present day as 
 
 * So in this country, at the present day, we are often told that people 
 have been made insane by the use of vegetable food, and a hundred other 
 silly things too trifling to mention; as if a man could famish on brown 
 bread, potatoes, fruits, and milk, or even on brown bread and pure water 
 alone. These nonsensical notions, put forth not unfrequently by men 
 who, assuming to be learned, men even of the medical profession, are 
 destined soon, among the thinking :lass, to be reckoned as belonging ouly 
 to the delusions of the past. S. 
 
IN CHROMO LISEASES. 11 
 
 when it was made, it may be suspected to be occasioned by the 
 limits of the science, and not by any deficiency in its professors 
 of activity or the spirit o*" research. Twenty years never elapsed 
 without some new medicine or mode of treatment being pro- 
 posed for some intractable complaint: great cures are pub- 
 lished ; great expectations raised ; the new methods are uni- 
 versally tried ; hope is followed by disappointment ; and, in the 
 course of a very few years, they are abandoned and forgotten. 
 In my own days, there have been the pneumatic gases ; muriate 
 of barytes and muriate of lime in scrofula ; nitrous acid in syph- 
 ilis; digitalis and tobacco in dropsy; digitalis in pulmonary 
 consumption. It were easy to enlarge the catalogue. I know 
 not whether the use of iron in cancer, and of the alkalis and ab- 
 sorbents in scrofula, be as yet extinct ; but it is easy to antici- 
 pate their fate.* 
 
 I consider it not as a reproach, either to the proposers or to 
 the profession at large, to have adopted, for a time, methods of 
 treatment which have proved useless. But it is a pretty sure 
 index of the general feeling with regard to the present state of 
 medical practice. This eager research after new medicines is 
 an a<iknowledgment that something more, if more be possible, 
 ought to be done* for the relief of the diseased ; it betrays a 
 r^estlessness and uneasiness ; a consciousness, that much of the 
 established practice is either useless or impotent ; that our in- 
 struments are not what we wish them to be, and what we are 
 taught in our schools to expect them ; and it evinces a secret 
 wish a very laudable and benevolent wish that new and 
 more successful methods should be introduced, or great im- 
 provements should be made upon the old. And such, I am 
 persuaded, is the feeling of those who have devoted themselves 
 to the service of the sick with the hope to be of real use to 
 them, with the view to exercise their profession with honor to 
 themselves, and with benefit to the community. 
 
 It is evident from the history of medicine, that it has, at no 
 time, been established upon fixed and acknowledged principles ; 
 such as, being founded on just experiments, or a copious induc- 
 tion of facts, command the assent of all correct reasoners. This 
 is the reason that its doctrines have ever been a subject of con- 
 
 * Who does not know that medicine as much as dress has its fashions. 
 Thus, for example, within a few years, for the treatment of consumptiou 
 iodine has had its run; afterward wood-naptha, and last of all cod liver 
 o-il (the expressed juice of rotten cod livers), as vile a substsnice as can 
 be well conceived of. So, too, I might mention the rage for ohloroform, 
 which is already fast passing away. S. 
 
12 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 tention and disputation. When the principles of a science rest 
 upon firm bases, there can be mo sects or parties among those 
 who cultivate it. Occasional error may have crept into mathe- 
 matical science ; but there are no sects of mathematicians. In 
 physic, on the other hand, doctrines have been fluctuating in 
 every age ; there have been as many sects as schools ; and at this 
 moment there are almost as many opinions as practitioners. 
 
 Medicine is both popular and scientific. Popular medicine is 
 practiced in a certain degree by the whole body of the people, 
 even by the rudest in the village. Hence it becomes contami- 
 nated by the errors, prejudices, and superstitions of the people; 
 which must extend, in a greater or less degree, to every mem- 
 ber of the community. Physicians can boast nc exemption 
 from these prejudices. A curious example of their extent and 
 power may be found in a well-known and popular work. It is 
 this: When, in the year 1*760, the King of Spain determined, 
 by a public decree, to free Madrid from the abominable custom 
 of throwing the ordure out of the windows into the streets, it 
 was ordered by a proclamation, that the proprietor of every 
 bouse should build a proper receptacle, and that sinks, drains, 
 and common sewers should be made at the public expense. 
 ^' Every class," proceeds the relater, " devised some objection 
 against it ; but the physicians bid the fairest to interest the 
 king in the preservation of the ancient privileges of his people, 
 for they remonstrated, that if the filth was not thrown into the 
 streets as usual, a fatal sickness would probably ensue, because 
 the putrescent particles of the air, which such filth attracted, 
 would then be imbibed by the human body." 
 
 The doctrines of scientific medicine descend from that small 
 body of educated men, who give themselves up to it as a pro- 
 fession and the means of a livelihood. With these men it is a 
 branch of philosophical science, and it, of course, becomes tinct- 
 ured with the current philosophical opinions. From hence it 
 has been deformed by absurdities, that are at present hardly 
 credible. Even so late as the days of our own James the First, 
 we find the study of judicial astrology esteemed necessary to a 
 physician. In an examination of a noted impostor by the Lon- 
 don College of Physicians, we find, among other questions put 
 to him, with the answers of the man, the following : 
 
 " Being asked in astrology what house he looketh unto to know 
 a disease, or the event of it : and how the Lord ascendant should 
 stand thereto : 
 
 " He answereth, he looks for the sixth house ; which being 
 disproved, he saith, he understands nothing therein but what 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 13 
 
 he hath out of Caliman ; and being asked what books he hath 
 read in that art, he saith he hath none but Caliman.'^ 
 
 Philosophy was, in its origin, founded more upon speculation 
 than upon observation and experiment. And as the first rea- 
 soners in medicine were the philosophers, the principles that 
 were thought to regulate the universe, were, by them, trans- 
 ferred to the phenomena of the human body. Hence the 
 errors of philosophy were engrafted upon physiology. 
 
 Hippocrates is said to have separated medicine from philoso- 
 phy. This can mean no more than that he was the first of the 
 philosophers, who considered medicine to be a distinct branch 
 of science. But the principles which he adopted to explain 
 the causes and symptoms of diseases, were such as lie had been 
 taught, and found to be prevalent in the schools of philosophy 
 in his time. 
 
 These principles were purely hypothetical, being, mostly, 
 gratuitous assumptions with regard to the constituent principles 
 of the animal frame. The body was thought to be composed 
 of four humors : blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile ; 
 health was supposed to depend upon the perfect mixture of 
 these humors, each possessed of its proper qualities ; disease 
 took place when the due proportions were disturbed, or when 
 cither of the elementary humors was separated, or not perfectly 
 mixed with the common mass. 
 
 From this first rude notion of the analysis of the fluids have 
 sprung the division of temperaments into the sanguineous, 
 phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic, which is received at this 
 day ; in each of which that humor was thought to be predom- 
 inant from which it receives its denomination. 
 
 It is clear, from many passages of the Hippocratic writings, 
 that Hippocrates was not the inventor of these doctrines, but 
 that they were the current opinions of his times ; and had prob- 
 ably existed at a period anterior to that of any of the records 
 of medicine which have reached our times. However hypo- 
 thetical and ill founded are the speculations on which these 
 doctrines rest, they were implicitly received by Boerhaave and his 
 followers ; nor is their influence wholly extinguished at present. 
 
 It cannot be supposed that opinions, which have no real 
 foundation in nature, were at any time admitted without con- 
 troversy. We find, even in the writings which are called Hip- 
 pocratic, some variations from this fundamental hypothesis ; and 
 other theories, which are wholly distinct from it. Many suc- 
 ceeding teachers rejected it entirely, and proposed other sys- 
 tems. Asclepiades embraced the atomic philosophy, derived 
 
14 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 from the doctrines of Democritus and Epicurus : he ascribed 
 the production of diseases to the stopping up or relaxation of 
 the pores. The Methodists thought that diseases were not 
 produced by morbid alterations of the fluids of the body, but 
 considered them as affections of the solids. They divided dis- 
 eases therefore into three orders ; some they considered as caused 
 by laxity ; others, as the consequence of tension ; others, again, 
 as complicated, being related by some of their symptoms to each 
 of the other orders. Another sect denied that diseases were 
 connected with the sensible qualities of the body. They asser- 
 ted that there was a subtle matter, an ether, attached to, and 
 pervading the system ; and that diseases were affections of this 
 matter. This sect was that of the Pneumatists. 
 
 Opinions so discordant, as it showed the evidence in behalf 
 of each to be unsatisfactory, must have excited, in the minds of 
 many, hesitation and discontent. Accordingly, there has ever 
 been a sect, which has maintained, that, in medicine, evident 
 causes were the only proper objects of inquiry ; that the 
 changes, which take place within the body, arc mostly incom- 
 prehensible, and the study of them must be therefore super- 
 fluous ; and that, could they even be discovered, they would 
 throw no light on the methods of treatment. The question, 
 they said, is not what makes a disease, but what will cure it, 
 How digestion is performed, is of no moment ; but what matter 
 is most easily digestible, is of the greatest ; it matters not how 
 we breathe, but to determine the purest air is of the first con- 
 sequence. In things of this natui-e, we are instructed, not by 
 abstruse speculations and metaphysical subtleties, but by evident 
 experience only. This is the proper guide in medicine, distin- 
 guishing the useful from the noxious, and applying them 
 accordingly to practice. Such is the general reasoning of the 
 sect of Empyrical physicians ; a sect, the tenets of which, 
 though disclaimed in the schools, have ever found numerous ad- 
 herents among men the most versed in practice ; and which, 
 though not openly avowed, are, I am persuaded, silently assent- 
 ed to, and effectively acted upon, by the great body of prac- 
 titioners, even at this day. 
 
 This short notice of the ancient sects demonstrates that, at 
 the origin of medicine, the causes assigned, as immediately 
 operative in the production of diseases, were not deduced from 
 experience, but were the creation of the imagination. It would 
 be an unprofitable task to examine whether the doctrines of 
 modern teachers have been built upon a more solid foundation. 
 I shall therefore wholly avoid them. Those to whom they are 
 
IX CHRONIC DISEASES. 15 
 
 familiar, will readily perceive, that the questions, which have 
 exercised the ingenuity of the makers of systems, in these latter 
 days, are very nearly the same as were discussed and disputed 
 upon in the schools of antiquity ; and that our modern sects are 
 little more than the ancient, revived under new names. Nor 
 will it be disputed, that no theory, which has been proposed, 
 has had more than an ephemeral reputation; nor has contributed, 
 hardly in the most remote degree, to the only rational object of 
 speculation the improvement of practice, and the consequent 
 amelioration of social hfe. 
 
 It is perfectly clear, however, that human nature has been, 
 and is, at all times, essentially the same. History, depicts the 
 same passions ; the same motives of action ; the same virtues 
 and vices, adorning or darkening the human character ; and the 
 records of medicine show that the human body has been at all 
 times (within the reach of written memorials) subject to the 
 same diseases. With the exception of a few contagions (the 
 effect, perhaps, of some accidental combination of circum- 
 stances), it may be doubted whether there exists any new dis- 
 ease. In the Hippocratic Avritings we meet with, not merely 
 the same names of diseases, as those employed at this day, but, 
 generally speaking, the same names applied to the same things ; 
 we meet with the same order and succession of events ; the sr.me 
 accidents ; the same signs, whether announcing safety or por- 
 tending danger ; the same divisions of diseases ; in a word, as 
 far as we can judge, the very same scene, which is at this time 
 daily passing before the eyes of medical practitioners. It is, 
 indeed, the perception of this striking analogy which has im- 
 pressed upon these memorials the indehble character of authen- 
 ticity ; we feel for them a veneration like that excited by the 
 Avorks of Homer, being assured by our present experience that 
 they are faithful transcripts from nature, taken at a period of 
 very remote antiquity. As this is a fact of the first consequence 
 in the history of human nature, I shall cite in illustration of it 
 the account of a very common affection, as it is described in one 
 of these ancient treatises. The disease I shall select is the com- 
 mon catarrh, or cold, of which the following description is found 
 in the treatise on ancient medicine. 
 
 " Whenever any one is affected with a cold, and defluxion from 
 the nose, the matter is commonly more acrimonious during the 
 first days of descent from the nostril, and it makes the nose 
 swell, and it heats and inflames it; if, when it has continued 
 some tin'.e, you apply the hand to the part, it w^ill be found ex- 
 cepted though it be naturally hard, and of little vascularity. 
 
16 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 This heat in the nostrils begins to diminish, not while the mat- 
 ter is flowing, and the inflammation continues, but when the 
 matter has become thicker and less acrid, more concocted and 
 mino-led than at first ; then it is that the heat ceases." De 
 veteri Medicina, xxxi. 
 
 Here we have an example of the slightest of all inflammatory- 
 complaints, which we find to have been attended with the same 
 symptoms as the common cold, or catarrh, of the present day. 
 
 Cancer is allowed to be the most ^calamitous of all diseases 
 which afl^lict the human frame. I do not know that any regu- 
 lar description of this malady is to be found in the Hippocratic 
 writings ; but there are notices of it, which are sufficiently dis- 
 tinct, and which afford grounds for believing that it was well 
 known at the era of these writings, and that the symptoms of 
 it were essentially the same as at present. In one of the books 
 of the Epidemics, the following short narrative occurs. 
 
 " A woman of Abdera had a cancer of the breast ; it was 
 of this nature : a bloody ichor came out of the nipple ; when 
 the discharge ceased, she died." Fojmlaj'ium, vii. 56. 
 
 As then we find noticed, in the earliest records of medicine, 
 the slightest of the acute, and the most severe of the chronic 
 diseases, which men at present sufl'er, we cannot doubt that 
 they were at this time subject to all the common forms of dis- 
 ease which are found existing at present. Of most of them it 
 were easy to bring direct proof, if it were worth while. But 
 I am unwilling to fatigue the patience of my reader by affect- 
 ing to prove points which no one is likely to controvert. 
 
 How happens it then, that, while opinions have been so 
 unsettled, and in a state of perpetual fluctuatioL, nature has 
 been so uniform, and continues unchanged ? The same phe- 
 nomena have been occurring during a succession of ages with 
 the same regularity as the rotation of the seasons, or the flux 
 and reflux of the ocean. What can have produced this regu- 
 larity, but the unceasing operation of regular and uniform 
 causes ? 
 
 On these subjects I have already delivered my opinions in 
 works which have been some time before the public, and have 
 adduced many facts in corroboration of those opinions. I have 
 maintained that, while the predisposition to the various forms 
 of diseased action is congenital, and dependent upon varieties 
 in the radical organization of the frame, the more direct causes 
 are to be looked for in the agency of foreign substances on the 
 body, and principally of those which are used as food and as 
 drink. From an adherence to those :>pinions I have not seen 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 17 
 
 any reason, after more mature leflection and more extended 
 experience, to recede. On the contrary, I hope that the facts 
 which I am about tt) bring forwaid in the course of my present 
 undertaking will go far toAvard establishing them beyond con- 
 troversy. 
 
 I might continue to rest the proof of them upon the phe- 
 nomena of the cancer, as my observations on that disease have 
 been confirmed both by myself and others, since the publica- 
 tion of my "Reports" on that subject. Persons of very nar- 
 row information are ready to allow that any manner of living, 
 which is found useful in the cancer, would probably be bene- 
 ficial in other chronic diseases likewise ; and that it w^ould afford 
 a satisfactory proof of the general superior salubrity of the pro- 
 posed method. But as the prejudices of mankind are deeply 
 rooted and widely extended, and the views, that different in- 
 dividuals take of the same subject, are infinitely various from 
 the education, habits of thinking, or capacities of each, I have 
 thought it may be useful to tiike a wider circuit. I have there- 
 fore thrown together such materials as appeared to me con- 
 nected with the end I had in view. They will serve, I hope 
 not inaptly, as an introduction to the cases which it is my prin- 
 cipal object to relate, and will perhaps prepare the mind, in 
 some degree, for the conclusions I propose to draw, by show- 
 ing that the opinions which I have adopted may be supported 
 by many collateral facts, and are by no means at variance with 
 those of men of the most respectable authority. 
 
 It is surely in favor of these opinions, in general, that they 
 are fundamentally in unison with the plain, unsophisticated, 
 common sense of mankind. Though hardly any two men agree 
 with regard to the salubrity of particular things, yet all are 
 convinced of the general importance of the subject. That our 
 diseases have an intimate connection Avith our habits, is allowed 
 by all who have ever paid any attention to the subject. Some 
 facts are so flagrant, that they force themselves upon the most 
 heedless. Does any one dispute that luxury and intemperance 
 enervate the mind, and destroy the body ? that there is an essen- 
 tial difference between the peasant of the country and the arti- 
 san of the city ? that, to possess a hardy and healthy body, it 
 is necessary to adopt hardy and healthy modes of life ? The 
 influence of some customs becomes evidently imprinted on the 
 features, and gives a character to the form and physiognomy. 
 Who can mistake the lineaments of habitual drunkenness ? The 
 first questions, put by the valetudinarian to his medical adviser, 
 are Is this wholesome ? is that wholesome ? and, how ought 
 
18 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 I to regulate my diet? Though on no subject whatever do 
 there exist more deep prejudices, and, as I think, more per- 
 nicious errors, tiiere are none concerning which many indi- 
 viduals arc more seriously engaged in searching after the truth. 
 
 "j'hc venerable authority of the father of medicine may be 
 adduced in support of the same doctrine ; external causes being 
 ackno\Ylodged by Hippocrates to have the greatest influence 
 upon licalth and disease. He attributed much to the air; and 
 on this subject he entertained ideas which were sufficiently 
 correct. The spreading of epidemic diseases he attributed to 
 the operation of some morbific exhalation, or miasma, corrupt- 
 ing the atmosphere. Sleeping and watchfulness ; exercise and 
 repose ; the matters secreted, or retained within the body ; and 
 the dominion of the passions, were severally enumerated by this 
 ancient philosopher as powerful agents upon the human frame. 
 Regimen, in the most extensive sense of the word, includes the 
 totality of these agents. 
 
 Hippocrates considered man to be, as the plants and animals 
 by which he is surrounded, a product of the soil upon which 
 he grows, and as having his qualities modified by the circum- 
 stances in which he is placed. He observed that nations had, 
 like individuals, their characteristic physiognomy ; and he taught 
 that the forms and manners of men must be consonant to the 
 character of the country which they inhabit. In support of 
 this doctrine, he contrasted the Asiatics with the Europeans. 
 His words are : "I sa}'' that there is a great difference between 
 Asia and Europe, both with regard to the productions of the 
 soil, and also the men. All the productions of Asia are more 
 beautiful, and of a larger growth: for the climate is much 
 milder than ours, and the manners of the natives more kind 
 and cultivated. The cause of these phenomena is the consti- 
 tution of tlir seasons ; for Asia is placed toward the rising of 
 the sun, removed from the cold. This, of all circumstances, 
 tends to produce increase and mildness, since there is no pre- 
 dominant power to divert the course of nature, but an equalit}'- 
 of force is prevalent throughout. 
 
 "This is not the case, however, throughout the whole of 
 Asia : the inland parts, which are equally remote from the heat 
 and the cold, are the most fertile, the best wooded, the finest, 
 and watered the best by the rains or by rivulets. Thus it is 
 neither burnt up by the heat, nor dried up from want of water, 
 nor condensed by the cold ; but it is fanned by southerly winds, 
 and moistened both by rains and snow. Hence (as might be 
 expected) the plants at3 abundant, whether raised by man, or 
 
IN CHRONIC DlriEASEa. lO 
 
 growing spontaneously : upon the fruits of which tlie inhabit- 
 ants subsist, improving them by culture and transplantation. 
 Tlie cattle will be of a larger growth, more prolific, and the 
 offspring more beautiful. The men are well nourished, of the 
 finest forms, and the largest stature, and with little individual 
 differences in these respects." 
 
 The Europeans, on the other hand, are depicted by Hippo- 
 crates as differing much more among themselves, both in tlieir 
 stature and form ; which he attributes to their variable climate, 
 exposed to great vicissitudes of heat and cold, of rains and 
 droughts, and the inconstancy of the winds ; from the co- 
 operation of which the body is exposed to perpetual changes. 
 These circumstances would undoubtedly produce a more robust 
 frame, greater energy and activity, and a more adventurous 
 spirit. But Hippocrates was perfectly aware of the powerful 
 effect of political institutions upon the moral character. While, 
 therefore, he attributes, in some dem-ee, to the relaxins: efiects 
 of the climate the timidity, effeminacy, and unwarlike spirit of 
 the Asiatics, as compaied to the Europeans, he ascribes still 
 more to their institutions. ''Almost all Asia," he says, "is 
 under the dominion of absolute monarchs ; a condition which, 
 by necessity, engenders cunning, selfishness, and pusillanimity : 
 the Europeans, on the other hand, possess liberty and property, 
 living under the safeguard of laws ; which produces a character 
 marked by boldness, pride, and independence." 
 
 I cannot resist the temptation of quoting another of the ex- 
 amples by which this great man has illustrated the principles 
 he has inculcated. It is taken from the same treatise from 
 which the foregoing remarks have been extracted, a treatise 
 which has been justly esteemed one of the most precious relics 
 of antiquity. It seems to have furnished to the author of the 
 ** Spirit of Laws " the basis on which he raised the superstruc- 
 ture of his immortal work. 
 
 " I will add a few words concerning the inhabitants of the 
 Phasis. Their country is marshy, warm, and thick-set ; much 
 rain falls during every season. The inhabitants live in the 
 marshes, having houses made of wood, cr of reeds, constructed 
 among the waters ; so they walk very little, except when they 
 go to the city and market ; but they sail up and down in boats, 
 made out of a single piece of wood. There are many ditches ; 
 and they drink hot and stagnant waters, putrefied by the sun, 
 and increased by the rain. The Phasis itself is, of all rivers, 
 one whose course is the most sluggish. All the fruits of the 
 country are unwholesome, without strength, and cinide, froaa 
 
20 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 tlie superabundance of water; nor io they ever ripen. Many 
 fogs from tlie waters cover the face of the country. 
 
 " For these causes, the inhabitants of the Phasis are, in their 
 appearance, different from other men. Their size is large, their 
 bodies corpulent ; the joints of their limbs are not visible, nor 
 the veins ; their color is pallid, as if suffering under jaundice ; 
 they speak the slowest of all men, living in a dull, obscure, and 
 moist atmosphere ; and they are in their bodies slothful, and 
 unfit for labor.* 
 
 This is, perhaps, an extreme case ; but there is strong inter- 
 nal evidence that the description is, in its principal features, 
 taken from nature. Tlie same causes, at this day, produce 
 similar effects ; as is experienced in our hundreds of Essex ; in 
 Walchoren, Beveland, and in Zealand a country which is sur- 
 rounded by the oozy and slimy branches of the eastern and 
 western Scheld. The mass of the people are, in such situa- 
 tions, unhealthy, dull, bloated, and leucophlegmatic. 
 
 Nor is any truth more fully acknowledged by those who 
 have taken an extended survey of human nature, than that the 
 various races of men have their specific and characteristic forms ; 
 so. that the exprienced eye can pronounce, from simple inspec- 
 tion, the race or country to which any individual belongs. 
 Philosophers may not have determined, with perfect exactness, 
 all the circumstances which modify the system, and impress 
 upon it its peculiarities. Some of them, perhaps, have, as yet, 
 eluded their research. That climate, including, in the term, all 
 the circumstances peculiar to each particular situation, is of 
 great efficacy, has never been doubted. The changes which 
 are produced in the frame, either by an animal being brought 
 up in a particular spot, or by its being transplanted to it, are 
 not confined tc the human race': the brutes equally partake of 
 them ; they affect alike the whole animated creation. 
 
 * The people described by Hippocrates in this passage, were those 
 who inhabited the modern Mingrelia. According to the relation of an 
 Italian traveler, there is a great similitude between the present and the 
 ancient inhabitants. He says of them, " Very few of them reach a sound 
 old age. Disease of the spleen is universal, which, not being treated 
 with proper remedies in time, always terminates in dropsy. The tertian 
 and quartan ague is so familiar, that, esteeming them nothing at all, even 
 in the time of the paroxysm, the people follow their usual occupations. 
 In the autumn, the quotidian is a universal malady. Catarrh and asthma 
 are apt to suffocate men of mature years ; jaundice and lethargy prove fatal 
 to others." Lamberti, Relatione della Colchide, oggi delta MengreUia 
 cap. 27, p, 193. 
 
la CUH0I4IC DISEASES 21 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Opinions of Hippocrates concerning Food, and the use of Diluents ; tha 
 of Van Swieten. General doctrine of Hippocrates on the etFects of 
 Water. Opinion of Hoffman ; of M. Cabanis. CuUen's opinion ex 
 amined. Some additional considerations on Water. 
 
 JSucH was the general doctrine of Hippocrates on the ante- 
 cedent causes of health and disease, and those things which 
 principally aflfect and modify the human system. But of all 
 the circumstances, the influence of which it is necessary to ap- 
 preciate, Hippocrates considered diet as by far the most impor- 
 tant ; and, under this term, he included all the matters used in 
 the ordinary manner of living, namely, food, whether fish, flesh, 
 milk, or vegetables; wine, and other fermented liquors; and 
 water. He has declared in general, with regard to the quah- 
 ties of food " Whoever gives these things no consideration, 
 and is ignorant of them, how can he understand the diseases 
 of men? for, by every one of these, the body is affected and 
 changed, either in one manner or in another ; and of these is 
 the whole of life composed, in health, in convalescence, and in 
 sickness." Another passage of the same writer is still more 
 direct and express, and indicates, in my opinion, a wonderful 
 sagacity in the writer, considering the time at which it was 
 written. In treating of the generation of anasarca, he suggests 
 that the foundation of the disease is laid in a tuberculated state 
 of the lungs. To prove this, he refers to the same condition 
 of the lungs in domesticated animals : the ox, the dog, and the 
 sow. In these quadrupeds, he says, tubercles full of water are 
 formed in the lungs: they are readily found by dissection. 
 And he adds " Such things are much more likely to happen 
 in man than in animals, inasmuch as we ccse a more unwhole- 
 some diet."* 
 
 * Hippocrates, Lib. De luternis Affectionih up, x'.^r. Hippocrates had 
 probably seen hydatids: he says, "the water w'jl *!ow out;^ which is 
 not true of the common tubercle. 
 
 An ingenious writer, speaking of domestic animals, observes, " The 
 diseases of domestic animals are interesting, inasmuch as they show the 
 power of imnatural food and habits to cause a variety of disorders, and 
 confirm the opinion that human diseases are chiefly referable to the same 
 cause. In dissecting tame animals, I have frequently found ossifications 
 of the soft parts and preternatural tumors; but I never remember to have 
 found any marks of organic disease in those which might be properly- 
 called wild.'' Forster on Spirituous and Fermented Liquors, p. 50. 
 
 It may be doubted whether wild animals, living strictly according to 
 their natural habits, suffer any constitutional disease ; but the question 
 
22 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 Many other passages might be cited, if it were necessary, 
 from the Hippocratic writings to the same purpose. Accord- 
 ingly we find that the most essential part of the treatment of 
 diseases, prescribed by the father of medicine, consisted of rules 
 concerning diet and regimen. The use of medicines was second- 
 ary and subsidiary. Several treatises on these subjects have 
 come down to us, than which I do not know that the works of 
 modern writers on the same topics contain any tiling more use- 
 ful or more correct. 
 
 On the use of watery fluids in the treatment of diseases, the 
 opinion of Hippocrates was greatly at variance with modern 
 practice. We urge the sick to dilute plentifully; and there 
 was a time when physicians expected extraordinary benefits 
 to result from attenuating the fluids by the copious use of 
 liquids, the basis of which was common water. But the doc- 
 trine of Hippocrates was, that a copious use of such fluids 
 causes "an effeminacy of the fibres, impotence of the nerves, 
 stupor of the mind, hemorrhages, and faintings." In another 
 place he says, concerning the use of water in acute diseases, 
 ** I have nothing to say in favor of water drinking in acute 
 diseases : it neither eases the cough, nor promotes expectora- 
 tion in inflammation of the lungs ; and, least of all, in those who 
 are used to it. It does not quench thirst, but increases it. In 
 bilious habits it increases bile, and oppresses the stomach ; and 
 is the most pernicious, and sickening, and debilitating, in a state 
 
 cannot be easily determined. It is obvious, however, that those become 
 most diseased, which recede the farthest from their natural habits of life. 
 The common rat is natui'ally herbivorous. Mr. Lawrence, assistant-sur- 
 geon of St. Bartlwlomew's Hospital, informed me, that they have at the 
 hospital a tribe of rats, which feed principally on the offals of the dissect 
 ing-room. These animals are very large ; but, commonly, the liver is 
 found diseased. 
 
 The common dog shows the effect of unnatural aliment in a very strik- 
 ing manner. This animal, by being confined to vegetable food, loses all 
 the social qualities which has made him the companion of men, his fidelity, 
 attachment, and sagacity. The naturalist who accompanied Captain Cook 
 in his second voyage, remarks, " The dogs of the South Sea Isles are of a 
 singular race : they most resemble the common cur, but have a prodigious 
 large head, remarkably little eyes, pi-ick ears, and a short bushy tail. 
 They are chiefly fed with fruit at the Society Isles, but in the Low Isles 
 and New Zealand, where they are the only domestic animals, they live 
 upon fish. They are exceedingly stujjid, and seldom or never bark, only 
 howl now and then ; they have the sense of smelling in a very low degree, 
 and are lazy beyond measure ; they m-e kept by the natives chiefly for 
 the sake of their flesh." Foste7-'s Obi-^rvalions, p. 189. 
 
 Captain King's ac/ouut of the dogs of the Sandwich Islands is to the 
 same purpose. Sc Cook's Third Voi, -.gc, vol. 2, p. 118, ito. 
 
JX CHRuNIt: DISEASES;. 23 
 
 of inanition. It increases inflammations of the liver and spleen. 
 It passes slowly, by reason of its coldness and crudeness ; and 
 does not readily find a passage either by the bowels or kid- 
 ne3\"* In conformity to these observations, the respectable 
 Van Svvieten observes, " While girls are daily sipping tepid, 
 watery liquors, ho^\ -^^eak and how flaccid do they become !" 
 And the same writer positively affirms that, by the abuse of 
 tea, coffee, and similar liquors, he had seen many so enervate 
 their bodies, that they could scarcely drag their limbs; and 
 many had from this cause been seized with apoplexies and 
 palsies.f 
 
 That our common domestic waters possess different qualities, 
 according to their various natures, and, in consequence, have 
 different degrees of salubrity, is consonant to popular opinion. 
 Indeed, this a persuasion so widely disseminated, as to aff*ord 
 reasonable ground for believing it the result of experience. I 
 pervades remote regions, and people unconnected by prejudices, 
 religion, manners, or education. "The old men of Brazil," 
 according to Piso, "are as nice in their choice of waters, as 
 people are with us in distinguishing the qualities of wine ; and 
 they accuse persons of imprudence who use them all without 
 selection. They use the hghtcst and sweetest, and those which, 
 falling from elevated grounds, give no sediment." Sir G. 
 Staunton informs us, that "persons of rank in China are so 
 
 * If Hippocrates meant that the copious use of pure soft water causes 
 " an effeniinacy of the fibres, impotence of the nerves, stupor of the mind, 
 hemorrhages, and fainting;" and if he regarded, that such water was 
 "not good in acute diseases;'' " thiit it neither eases the cough nor pro- 
 motes expectoration in inflammations of the lungs;" "that it does not 
 quench thirst but increases it ; " " that in bilious habits it increases bile, 
 and oppresses the stomach, and is the most pernicious, sickening, and 
 debilitating in a state of inanition;" and, that *' it increases inflammation 
 of the liver and spleen," he was evidently mistaken, as is abundantly 
 proved by the success of the modern water-cure. If the objections were 
 stated against the use of hard and impure water, they would have some 
 force, but not otherwise. There is nc danger whatever in allowing per- 
 sons the freest use of pure soft water, however cold, in acute diseases, 
 although in some cases warm is probably the best. S. 
 
 t That people generally injure themselves in many respects by the 
 use of tea and coffee, it is easy enough to understand. Nervousness. 
 tremors, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, paleness, and flaccidity of the 
 muscular system, sallowncvss, decay of the teeth, and especially sick head- 
 ache, are often caused by these articles, as many may prove to their satis- 
 fiiction, if they will but resolutely abstain from them, and take only pure 
 soft water ii>s"tead, for one year. But that people will injure themselves 
 with " tepid waters ;" drink which has in its composition nothing stronger 
 than pure water, we need not at all fear. The stimulants contained, and 
 not the water, cause the evils alluded to in tu*j text. S. 
 
24 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 careful about the quality of the water inier.ded for their own 
 consumption, that they seldom drink any without its being dis- 
 tilled." In Egypt, they prefer the water of the Nile. The 
 gravel is said to be " universally the disease with those who 
 use water from the draw-wells, as in the desert. In Hindostan, 
 people universally ascribe most of their disorders to the oflfen- 
 sive quality of bad water. It is useless to multiply authorities. 
 Even in London, though it is not, in general, considered to be 
 of so much importance, the selection of waters is considerably 
 attended to : men have their favorite spring, or their favorite 
 pump ; and they think that some waters are more favorable to 
 the health than others.* 
 
 I have little doubt that popular observations of this kind, in 
 ancient times, laid the foundation of the doctrines of the cele- 
 brated treatise of Hippocrates, de Aere, Aquis, et Locis ; and 
 though some of the distinctions, found in that treatise, may 
 have been founded upon local circumstances, and have been too 
 hastily generalized, yet their accuracy upon the whole has been 
 so little questioned, that succeeding writers have added nothing 
 of importance to them. 
 
 Though Hippocrates has said, that healthy persons may 
 drink, indiscriminately, such water as comes in their way, yet 
 he declares that, to distinguish that which is wholesome is of 
 the first consequence to health. The best waters he pronoun- 
 ces to be those which fall from high places, and uncultivated 
 hills. He condemns water collected from the melting of snow,f 
 
 * After the Croton water (which is on the whole very good, and far 
 superior to the fihhy water of the wells, that had formerly been used,) 
 had been introduced into the city of New York about two years, accord- 
 ing to present recollection, the officers of the City Hospital published that 
 there had been no cases of gravel admitted into that institution since the 
 time when the Cioton water had fairly come into use, but that before the 
 complaint was frequent. S. 
 
 t The writer, residing at Cos, could p.'obably know nothing, from ex- 
 perience, on the properties of snow-water ; and spoke therefore only from 
 report. The report itself was, I conceive, grounded upon supposing the 
 waters of the valleys of alpine countries to be snow-water. 
 
 Though the putrescent matter of common water cannot be separated 
 from the earths or other matters which are dissolved in the water, its 
 presence is very easily shown. If there be any thing inflammable in 
 the residuum left by the water after evaporation, it indicates the presence 
 of matter of this kind. This impregnation of common water, though 
 little regarded by modern chemists, has been long known. Borrichius 
 observed the residuum of common water to be inflammable ; that it melted 
 with bubbles, swelled, took fire, and burned with a clear white flame. 
 Lucas, in his treatise on waters, remarked the inflammability of the resi- 
 duum both of the Thames and New River water, and also of some 
 others. This matter it is which makes water corrupt by keeping ; which. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. Zb 
 
 in which he was guided, probably, by popular prejudice. Even 
 rain-water he advises to be boiled and filtered ; otherwise it has 
 
 I believe, always happens in warm weather, if it be in a considerable 
 body. 
 
 The method which I have commonly employed to determine the pres- 
 ence of inflammable matter, is to precipitate the water by a salt of lead 
 (the acetate, or nitrate of lead), and to heat the precipitate, either alone, 
 or mixed only with an alkali. If lead is by this process revived, tlie pre- 
 cipitate must, in part, consist of an inflammable substance. And by this 
 simple method I have detected matter of this kind in every common 
 water I have examined, except two. One of these was the water of the 
 Bristol Hot Wells, a water which is known to be very light upon the 
 stomach, though it is a good deal loaded with earthy salts. 
 
 To this inflammable and putrescent matter is owing the activity of com- 
 mon water, of which persons almost constantly receive proofs, whenever 
 they change their residence. Yet it is astonishiug (as I have said in the 
 text) how much it has been overlooked. Dr. Lind, for example, says, 
 that as the guinea- worm, which seems peculiar to Africa and some parts of 
 Asia, " has been supposed to proceed from a bad quality of the water of 
 the country, I procured the waters of Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leone 
 to be sent me in bottles, well corked and sealed, in order to examine 
 their contents. Upon opening these bottles, I found the water in all of 
 them putrid, but the scent of the Senegal water was the strongest and 
 most oftensive. I could not, however, discover by the help of a good mi- 
 croscope the least appearance of any of the animalcules, nor did any 
 chemical experiment discover uncommon conteiits or impurities in those 
 waters. All of them, after standing some time exposed to the open air, 
 become perfectly sweet and good." Lind's Worlcs, vol. Hi., p. 56. 
 
 Here we see that Dr. Lind (a man of much intelligence) thought there 
 was nothing amiss with these waters, though they were absolutely foetid. 
 And most writers have conceived with him, that all that was necessary 
 to make water salubrious was to get rid of any offensive odor or taste. 
 It is, however, perfectly obvious that if water is capable of putrefaction, 
 it must contain a putrescent matter, even before it putrefies, and when it 
 is esteemed to be perfectly sweet and good. What is the effect of this 
 matter upon the human system is a proper object of inquiry, and what I 
 have attempted to ascertain experimentally. 
 
 I have argued for the universal diffusion on the surface of the earth, and 
 throughout the soil, and, in consequence, in the substance of animal and 
 vegetable bodies, of a true arsenical matter. I have said that some sub- 
 stances may comlaine so intimately with this poison as to prevent its being 
 developed and exhibited in its proper form by the common modes of 
 chemical operation. Manganese is one body which has this effect. But 
 it is net the only one. In this point of view, therefore, the explication I 
 proposed in my " Inquiry into Constitutional Diseases" (printed in 1805) 
 is too limited. But ulterior inquiries have shown to me that the nature of 
 arsenic itself is misunderstood, and its properties very imperfectly known. 
 It can be very easily shown that it is a decomposable matter, and possessed 
 of different properties, as it is obtained from different substances. What 
 I have been able to ascertain myself with regard to this body, I hope, ere 
 long, to be able to lay before the public ; and I believe the experiments 
 
 propose to relate, will at least make an opening for obtaining an insight 
 into some of the phenomena of nature, which have hitherto been involved 
 in obscurity. 
 
 ' 2 ' 
 
26 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 a bad smell, and occasions hoarseness in those who use it 
 Hard and crude waters are not adapted to all habits, since they 
 constringe and bind the belly. In countries where men are con- 
 strained to drink t-he str.gnant and foetid waters of wells, the 
 belly and spleen must, in such persons, of necessity be injured. 
 Some have calculus complaints; some, tumors of the spleen, 
 strangury, and nephritip complaints, from a similar cause. The 
 stagnant water of marshes must, in summer, be hot, and muddy., 
 and ill-scented. Persons who drink them have the spleen en- 
 larged, and the belly swollen. A train of evils is the conse- 
 quence of the use of such waters : marasmas, dropsies, fluxes, 
 agues, peripneumonies, insanity^ and abortions. Such waters 
 ai-e wholly unfit for use. 
 
 The general doctrine of this venerable and philosophic wri- 
 tei% as to the agents w^hich have the greatest influence upon the 
 frame, he has summed up, in a manner equally decisive and con- 
 cise, in the following paragraph. 
 
 " The variations of the seasons are the most powerful causes 
 of the different natures of men. Next to these is the quality 
 of the soil on which they subsist, and the waters they use. It 
 is certain, that commonly both the physical and moral consti- 
 tution of man is conformable to the nature of the soil on 
 which he Hves." 
 
 It cannot be doubted, that this doctrine is fundamentally 
 conformable to nature. As I have already said, the assertions 
 of succeeding writers, on the noxious effects of impure waters, 
 are so strictly coincident Avith those of Hippocrates, that they 
 would seem almost to be transcribed from them. Thus, the 
 celebrated Hoffman writes : " Water is the most proper bever- 
 age for all animals ; but care must be taken to use none that 
 is hard, tophaceous, and heavy ; since ttese kinds, from their 
 passing with difficulty, and easily stagnating in the minute pas- 
 sages, are favorable to the generation of calculus, and to visce- 
 ral obstructions. It has been often observed, that the drinking 
 of hard and rough water has been pernicious both to men and 
 animals ; of which persons engaged in military service have 
 given striking examples. Hard waters are most injurious to the 
 viscera, and, in particular, to the spleen, as being very vascular ; 
 and, by stagnating in its small vessels, the whole gland is easily 
 raised into a large tumor. It has been constantly asserted, 
 that scrofulous tumors, of a great magnitude, are indigenous, 
 from the use of hard and rough waters, in certain mountainous 
 tracts where such springs abound. But- the' stagnant, putrid 
 waters of marshes are chiefly to be avoided, which not only 
 
N CHRONIC riSEASE.?. 27 
 
 corrupt the air, by depraved and pestilential exhalations, but 
 are likewise capable of producing putrid diseases and fevers." 
 
 Many other authorities might be cited to the same purpose ; 
 since, in fact, there is hardly any physician of eminence, ancient 
 or modern, vrith the exceptiov: of Cullen, who has not been sen- 
 sible of the great influence of this element upon the animal 
 economy. I do not think necessary to trouble my readers with 
 numerous quotations from authors on this subject. I have my- 
 self little to add, in the way of reasoning, to what I have al- 
 ready laid before the public, in my " Inquiry into the Origin 
 of Constitutional Diseases." Those who wish to be informed 
 of the opinions of many other writers, I refer to Mr. Newton's 
 publication, which he has entitled the " Return to Nature," in 
 which he has brought together several very respectable autho- 
 rities. Many others might be added to the hst. As, however, 
 1 have seen it insinuated, that these are no more than anti- 
 quated notions, which have received no confirmation from the 
 more accurate investigations of modern inquirers, and which 
 have vanished before the correctness and precision of modern 
 pathologists, I shall, in this place, introduce the sentiments of 
 an enlightened French writer, the second edition of whose work 
 (that which is before me) was published in 1805, the year in 
 which I published my own "Inquiry." This writer is M. 
 Cabanis, who says : 
 
 "Brackish waters, loaded wuth putrid vegetable matters, 
 with earthy substances, or a considerable quantity of sulphate 
 of lime, act in a very pernicious manner on the stomach and the 
 other organs of digestion. The use of them produces different 
 kinds of disease, both acute and chronic ; all of them accom- 
 panied by a remarkable state of atony, and a great debility of 
 the nervous system. Now, this atony or this debility is in its 
 turn characterized by tormenting vaporous affections, which 
 keep the mind in a continual state of agitation and lowness ; or 
 by an annihilation, almost absolute, of the functions, by a per- 
 fect state of imbecility. The waters called hard and crude, 
 that is to say those which hold in solution a large quantity of 
 sulphate of lime, and a small proportional quantity of oxygen, 
 or rather of atmospheric air, make the deplorable enervation of 
 the stomach and intestines pass with rapidity to the glandular 
 system and the absorbent vessels ; they load the glands, alter 
 the lymph, and obstruct the different absorptions. From the 
 obstruction of the glands, and the vitiation of the lymph, arise 
 maladies, the effect of which is sometimes, I confess, to aug- 
 ment the activity of tb^^ brain, but most frequently to diminish 
 
28 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 it ; maladies which may terminate by leaving it hardly that 
 feeble degree of action, which is indispensable to carry on the 
 vital motions. From the defect of the different absorptions 
 follow new alterations of the organs and the faculties, which all 
 tend to degrade, more and more, the tone of the fibres, and the 
 vitality of the nervous system. These effects are the limit of 
 those which can be produced by the use of hard and crude 
 waters ; and, to produce them completely, requires probably 
 the concurrence of some other circumstances, which have not 
 hitherto been determined with sufficient exactness. But when 
 the disorders produced by the stricture of the absorbent sys- 
 tem are characterized in a more feeble manner, and are confined 
 to an obstinate obstruction of the different abdominal viscera, 
 the result still is hypochondriacal and melancholic affections, 
 the moral effects of which are sufficiently well known." 
 
 Again, the same writer observes : 
 
 " According to observations the most constant, we know that 
 hard and crude waters can cause lymphatic obstructions ; that 
 stagnant and vapid waters blunt the sensibility, enervate the 
 muscular force, and dispose to all cold and slow diseases. It is 
 equally well known, that in many countries, otherwise fertile 
 and rich, the inhabitants are forced to use these unwholesome 
 waters. The incommodities which they produce, quickly ex- 
 tend their action to every point of the system ; the languor 
 speedily passes from the organs to the ideas; to the inclina- 
 tions ; in a word, to the morals. This influence then evidently 
 depends upon local circumstances." 
 
 Cullen, we know, has maintained an opposite opinion ; the 
 arguments which could divert so penetrating a mind from the 
 perception of the truth cannot but merit consideration; to 
 weigh their force will serve to give us a clearer insight into 
 the subject I have imdertaken to treat. 
 
 "I hved," says he, "for many years in a large city, in which 
 the vraters very universally employed were very hard ; and, 
 although softer waters were within their reach, the most part 
 of the people used only the hard. But among this people I 
 found no endemic diseases ; and at least none that I could im- 
 pute to the water they drank ; and certainly none that I did 
 not find as frequent in a city which I also practiced in for many 
 years, whose inhabitants very universally used no other than a 
 very soft water." 
 
 This reasoning involves two suppositions, neither of which 
 appear to be well founded. 1st. It presumes that the bad 
 effects of water on the body are in consequence of its hardness. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 29 
 
 and in proportion to that quality. But the hardness of waters 
 is communicated by the earthy salts ; -whereas it is the pu- 
 tresc"ent matter which is the most noxious principle of common 
 water. This putrescent matter may be more abundant in soft 
 waters than in hard ; as is the case in the New River water, 
 and still more in Thames water. 2dly. Dr. Cullen appears to 
 have looked for some peculiar endemic diseases to be produced 
 by the use of impure water ; and, not finding any, to have con- 
 cluded that the accusations against it are ill founded. But the 
 real question is, What share does it bear in the production, not 
 of any peculiar endemics, but of the common diseases which 
 are infused throughout the community : a question, I appre- 
 hend, to be answered only by extensive observation, or by di- 
 rect and appropriate experiments. 
 
 On this head I shall add but one or two observations to those 
 which I have already offered in the work to which I have 
 above referred. It is a matter of common experience that 
 water, according to its different qualities, affects the stomach 
 with a peculiar feeling, which we call weight ; that the purest 
 water feels the lightest ; and what is reckoned, and, I believe- 
 justly reckoned, the worst, feels the heaviest on the stomach. 
 In healthy persons this sensation is little regarded ; but in dis- 
 ease it becomes very distinct, and is often very tormenting. 
 Sometimes the stomach feels as if it would burst ; sometimes 
 the sensation is as if a cord were tied round the middle of the 
 body. In another place I have cited an example of this sen- 
 sation being removed by the use of pure water. 
 
 Now it is impossible that this sense of weight and oppression 
 can be caused by the mere difference of specific gravity be- 
 tv/^een waters of different qualities. This is too trifling to be 
 felt ; and substances specifically heavier than these waters, solids 
 for example, or even fluid mercury, may be received into the 
 stomach, without occasioning any sensation of weight in the 
 organ. This must be deemed therefore to be a sensation sui 
 generis, the specific effect of the putrescent matter, or what I 
 have termed the Septic Poison of the water ; and it is probably 
 complicated of the sensation resulting .from the irritation of the 
 mucous surfaee of the stomach, and that attached to the atony 
 of the muscular fibres, yielding to the air developed by an im- 
 perfect digestion, and, at the same time, resisting the diveilent 
 force. Here then we have the direct proof of the pernicious 
 effect af this matter upon the living fibre ; and there can be no 
 difficulty in believing that the same action which it exerts upon 
 *^^e stomach in ti '3 first instance, will be exerted upon every 
 
80 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 other living fibre, to "vvhich it is applied. It is, however, ap- 
 plied to all ; it accumulates in the body ; and the more as the 
 powers of elimination become more feeble, the action is con- 
 tinued, unceasing; and there is, therefore, no degree of injury, 
 even to the complete destruction of the system, which it may 
 not readily be conceived ultimately to produce. 
 
 I would observe further, that, with regard to the noxious 
 and the deleterious effect of the stagnant water of marshes, 
 there has been but one common sentiment among all writers, 
 from the days of Hippocrates to the present hour, in assigning 
 to this cause a portion of the remarkable insalubrity of such- 
 situations. Examined hydrostatically, it is found to possess the 
 greatest specific gravity ; and it is the most loaded with foreign 
 matter. But the peculiar noxious principle of these waters is 
 nothing but the corrupted animal and vegetable matters with 
 which they are impregnated. These matters are, therefore, 
 poisonous. In consequence, they ought to be suspected where- 
 ever they are found. In inquiring therefore into the salubrity 
 of waters in general, Or into that of any particular example, it 
 is this impregnation which I conceive ought to be the chief 
 object of research. Simple earthy matter (though much has 
 been said against it) has never been shown to be particularly 
 unfriendly to the human system. Metallic matter, of all kinds, 
 is a more just object of suspicion. But the putrid or putrescent 
 matter, the animal or vegetable substances in a state of decom- 
 position, is that which is actively mischievous. It is immedi- 
 ately and directly deleterious. It is astonishing to consider 
 how greatly the influence of this matter has been overlooked, 
 even by writers who were fully aware of the general impor- 
 tance of the subject.^ 
 
 It cannot, I think, be doubted that the inconveniences which 
 have been found to result from the use of water alone, as a 
 common beverage, have been the principal motive, which has 
 induced men to have recourse to spirituous and fermented 
 liquors as a substitute. By these means some of these incon- 
 veniences have been partially obviated or counteracted, but at 
 the expense, probably, of still greater evils. But I return to a 
 few more general considerations. 
 
 * It is a remarkable fact that in the western countiy animals generally 
 some say always have diseased livers; so much so that this partis 
 never used for food. The inhabitants too, who suffer generally so much 
 fr'^m fevers, doubtless have all diseased livers to a greater or less extent. 
 Tliete is every reason to believe that the bad water which is so common 
 throughout that country, is a prominent cause of the diseases of both man 
 luid animals in those parts. S. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES, :^ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Is disease essential to the nature of man? The locality of particular d is. 
 eases exemplified in remittent and intermittent fevers. The hypo- 
 thesis of LinnfBus. Contagions, Scurvy, Bronchocele, and Cretin- 
 ism. General Conclusions. 
 
 The belief in the existence of a first and supreme Cause, and 
 the persuasion that benevolence forms a part of his nature, and 
 entered, as it were, into the original scheme and intention of the 
 Creator, in the formation of the universe, are so deeply im- 
 pressed upon the human mind that to dissent from them is re- 
 garded as a species of impiety, and to avow this dissent as no 
 better than downright madness. 
 
 It has been taught, both by ancient and modern philoso- 
 phers, that the universe is, upon the whole, a perfect work, 
 or the best that could have been possibly made. It has been 
 hard, however, to reconcile the existence of evil with this hy- 
 pothesis ; and those who have attempted to solve this knotty 
 problem have contented themselves with supposing that it has 
 been the result of some inevitable necessity. One of the an- 
 cient sages adopted this explanation to account for the diseases 
 of men. Crysippus was of opinion, that it could ^ever have 
 been the aim or first intentic* of the author of nature and pa- 
 rent of all good to make men obnoxious to diseases ; but that 
 while he was producing many excellent things, and forming his 
 work in the best manner, other things also arose, connected with 
 them, that were incommodious, which were not made for their 
 own sakes, but were ptrmitted as necessary consequences of 
 what was best. 
 
 This certainly does not appear to be entertaining very ex- 
 alted notions of divine power. To suppose either that diseases 
 are not real evils, or to feign any hypothetical necessity for 
 their existence, and to pronounce it impossible for Omnipotence 
 itself to preserve the human body from them (for this account 
 involves, I think, one of these suppositions), appears an equal 
 extravagance. 
 
 When we consider the tendency of nature to perfection in all 
 her works, and that this tendency is in nothing more apparent 
 than in the structure of animal bodies, it appears indeed a 
 strange anomaly that the human frame, the masterpiece of the 
 creation, should be so liable to derangement and disease. If I 
 
<B*-i VEGETABLE L ET 
 
 may say so without irrreverence, it appears as if the most beau- 
 tiful of designs had failed from error and want of wisdom in 
 the execution. More than half the race perish in infancy, and 
 of the remainder a large portion are the victims of pain and 
 suffering. Of those who have strength sufficient to arrive at 
 manhood, the greater part are doomed to have little more than 
 a glimpse of life, and to perish prematurely. Of those even, 
 who appear strong and healthy, if we examine narrowly into 
 their habits or their feelings, we shall find hardly an individual 
 w^ho will not acknowledge some defect, some secret uneasiness, 
 something that diminishes his present comfort, and Avhich ex- 
 cites apprehensions for the future. In some, the solids destined 
 to the support of the body are unequal to their object, and the 
 bones yield to the incumbent weight ; in others, the moving 
 powers have a similar defcot, the muscles hardly overcoming 
 the resistance opposed to them. The senses are, in many, dull 
 and imperfect ; in many, they are preternaturally acute. The 
 vital functions are often performed laboriously ; the circulation 
 is either sluggish or too rapid; the respiration straitened or 
 hurried ; the digestion is ill performed ; the stomach oppressed 
 with crudities: the secretions irregular; even the element in 
 which we are placed appears ill suited to the organs to which 
 it is destined to be applied ; some cannot bear the coldness of 
 the atmosphere ; to others its heat is equally intolerable ; and 
 so stran^ly constituted are individual constitutions, that an air 
 loaded with mephitic vapors appears better suited to them than 
 one that is pure and uncontaminated. 
 
 Man prides himself upon possessing an intellect superior to 
 that of all other animals, and to take reason for the guide of 
 all his actions. But as far as happiness, or the mere absence 
 of suffering, is the end of action, the reason of man appears to 
 be inferior to the animal instinct. A brutal ignorance debases 
 and enslaves the great mass of mankind. They appear incapa- 
 ble of acquiring knowledge ; of perceiving the connection of the 
 ideas which are laid before them, or the obvious relations of 
 cause and effect. Thus they are void of all independence of 
 thought or principle ; a blind adherence to custom, or a slavish 
 submission to authority, becomes the rule of life, and is sub- 
 stituted for self-government, and a manly obedience to the voice 
 of truth and the dictates of reason. 
 
 The moral traits are as much distorted as the physical. The 
 affections, which should link man to man, and make each hu- 
 man being regard his fellow-creatUiC as his brother, are 
 choked and almost extinguished. Envy, hatred, jealousy, and 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 33 
 
 ali the malignant passions, predominate in the human bosom. 
 The infliction of pain upon sensitive beings, instead of exciting 
 compassion, is, with the multitude, a source of pastime and 
 merriment. To such a degree are the strongest instinct-^ ^f our 
 nature perverted, that the first principle of self-preservaiion is 
 finally destroyed ; the hand is raised against the existence of 
 its possessor, or the parental arm against the life of the 
 offspring. 
 
 Such is an outline, too faithful, of the habitual condition, 
 perhaps of the majority, of the human species. I omit the 
 still darker shades of the picture ; the tragedies which perpet- 
 ually embitter domestic life ; our crowded hospitals, from the 
 gates of v.'hich shoals of supplicants are, by necessity, repelled ; 
 our surgical operations, the very thoughts of which make the 
 blood run cold ; and our madhouses, the interior of which pre- 
 sents views from which sensibility shrinks with horror and af- 
 fright. Can we avoid asking ourselves, Is this enormous mass 
 of evil then necessary and unavoidable ? Does it result from 
 the very nature of things, and the primitive organization of 
 man ? or, on the other hand, is it not factitious, the conse- 
 quence of an artificial mode of hfe, of corrupt habits, or of ac- 
 cidents which may possibly be avoided ? The determination 
 of these questions is undoubtedly of the highest interest to the 
 whole human race. I must confine myself within a straight 
 and narrow circle, and consider only the physical evils of hu- 
 man nature. If we are forced to attribute these evils to the 
 constitution of human nature, we must submit to them as we 
 do to tempests and earthquakes, and the other convulsions of 
 nature. If, however, there is reason to apprehend that a large 
 portion of these calamities is the offspring of accident, of error, 
 or of vice, we may expect, by the diffusion of knowledge, the 
 correction of abuses, and, by the introduction of rational habits, 
 to annihilate, or, at least, greatly diminish them. If the pre- 
 judices of the present age are too strong to allow any expecta- 
 tion of much instant benefit, it presents at least a more pleas- 
 ing prospect of futurity, to animate the exertions of the philo- 
 sopher and the philanthropist. And this view of the subject 
 seems consonant to the ideas which appear implanted in every 
 well-regulated mind, of the justice and benevolence of the 
 Deity. I shall here bring forward a few facts which appear 
 favorable to it. 
 
 In the first place, it is fully established and sufficiently well 
 known, that tribes of diseases, which are fatal to vast multitudes 
 of persons, are fixed to, and, as it were, domiciliated in certain 
 2* 
 
34 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 situations and certain soils, and are the direct product of mat- 
 ter generated in them, or of miasmas emanating from them. 
 In all countries that are low and flat, overspread with lakes and 
 ponds of stagnant water, and with large marshes, pestiferous 
 exhalations excite malignant fevers of the remittent or inter- 
 mittent kind, fluxes, and their attendant evils. The immediate 
 agent of these diseases are heat and moisture acting upon dead 
 animal and vegetable matter, producing in them a state of de- 
 composition ; in a word, certain forms of common elementary 
 matter. In some cases, these are so active as to produce in- 
 stantaneous death; at other times, they act more slowl}^ excit- 
 ing diseases of the above-mentioned form, fatal to many, while 
 others with difficult}'' escape. 
 
 Examples of diseases of this kind are abundant in the writ- 
 ings both of medical authors and of travelers. The works of 
 Piingle, Cleghorn, Lind, and others, will readily furnish them. 
 The districts in which they have been most commonly observed 
 to be epidemical, arc between the tropics upon the coast of 
 Giiinea; Hungary, which, from the same cause, is the most un- 
 healthy country of Europe ; the environs of Venice ; the Pontine 
 marshes; the island of St. Thomas; Guiana; Porto-Rico; Car- 
 thagena. In the western hemisphere it has been commonly 
 called Yellow Fever. P)ut as the immediate agents of these 
 eff"ects, viz., dead animal and vegetable matter, acted upon by 
 beat and moisture, are diflfused over the whole surface of the 
 earth, situations such as those which have been enumerated are 
 remarkable only as abounding in these agents, in the highest 
 degree of force and concentration. The same eftects are pro- 
 duced wherever the same causes exist. Matter of the same 
 kind, generated in sufficient quantity and in a due degree of 
 concentration, will generate fevers of these kinds in any situa- 
 tion whatever. Accordingly we find that there are seasons 
 when such fevers are much diffused over countries in which 
 they are not endemical. Agues are said to have arisen some- 
 times in London, excited perhaps by the filth of the streets or 
 the put)-efaction of the markets. Dr. Trotter remarks that 
 they have been observed to take place on shipboard. His 
 words are : *' Wood improperly seasoned will, on certain occa- 
 sions, produce a sickly crew. After a cruise of rainy and even 
 foggy weather we often meet with fevers in a ship, attended 
 with all the essential symptoms and forms of th6 remittent kind, 
 occasioned by marshy effluvia. It is probable that the cause of 
 these fevers is the same in a ship as on land." 
 
 Nor are diseases of this form the only consequences of the 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 85 
 
 pestiferous miasmas, and other morbific causes, which are accu- 
 mulated in those situations. The continued action of these 
 causes changes and modifies the system, imprints upon it a 
 pecuhar character, and engenders habitual disease, or an habi- 
 tual predisposition to disease in those who escape the more 
 violent and fatal attacks of malignant fevers. Obstinate hypo- 
 chondriacal affections, elephantiasis, and obstinate leprous dis- 
 eases, and premature old age, are said to be habitual to the 
 unfortunate inhabitants of these ill-fated spots. They carry, 
 imprinted in their form and features, the marks of the insalu- 
 brity of their residence ; and thus verify the ancient remark of 
 Hippocrates, " that the constitutions of men are conformable to 
 the soil which they inhabit." 
 
 In illustration of this fact I may cite the statement* of Bruce. 
 " At Waldubba," he says, "in Abyssinia, violent fevers per- 
 petually reign. The inhabitants are all the color of a corpse." 
 At Gondar, the capital of this coimtry, the same is said to be 
 the case. An account of Captain Turner is still more remark- 
 able, and deserves, I think, to be transcribed. It is in the fol- 
 lowing terms : " At the foot of the Bootan Mountains, a plain 
 extends for about thirty miles in breadth, choked rather than 
 clothed with the most luxuriant vegetation. The exhalations 
 necessarily arising from the multitude of springs which the 
 vicinity of the mountains produces, are collected and confined 
 by these almost impervious woods, and generate an atmosphere 
 through which no traveler ever passed with impunity. The 
 effects were fatal to Captain Jones, and to a great part of the 
 troops that served under him in 1772; and Colonel Sir John 
 Cuming, one of the few that escaped with life, still feels its in- 
 jurious consequences. Yet even this spot is not without inhab- 
 itants ; although its influence has wholly debased in them the 
 form, the size, and the strength of human creatures." 
 
 We may conclude from these facts (it is indeed the reason 
 of my producing them), that these diseases which have swept 
 away, and are daily sweeping away, large portions of the human 
 race, are not occasioned by any debility or defect in the human 
 constitution, but by the operation of extraneous and foreign 
 causes. They are not therefore essential to the nature of man, 
 but are accidental, and produced by the situations in which he 
 is placed. And in this particular case the immediate agents 
 are the common (^lenrents of nature, the matter which enters 
 into the composition of organic beings in general, Avhe^her ani- 
 mals or vegetables, but, with its properties, changed by spon- 
 taneous decomposition. By this decomposition they are ren- 
 
36 VEGETABLE DIET*? 
 
 dered destructive and poisonous.*^' '-They are peilmps the most 
 striking examples that can be produced of the suddenly dele- 
 terious effects of these agents, with the exception only of those 
 vapors which produco instant death, or the poisonous winds 
 of the African deserts. 
 
 The suddenness of the effect, w^hen a person is placed in the 
 situation in v/hich the causes of these diseases are present, shows 
 them to be produced by pestiferous exhalations, and not to be 
 immediately connected with the insalubrity of the water. The 
 exposure of a few hours is frequently enough to engender a fatal 
 attack of disease. It is said that to sleep in the country adjoin- 
 ing the Tacazze, in Abyssinia, is death. However, at no re- 
 mote period the occasional cause of these fevers Avas not under- 
 stood ; the observations of physicians and surgeons employed 
 in the naval and military services have principally disclosed it. 
 LinnaBUS ascribed them to the insalubrity of marshy water ; and 
 supported his hypothesis by much plausible reasoning. It is 
 needless to examine the arguments he has employed. I men- 
 tion the fact only to show the suspicions entertained by the 
 most eminent observers with regard to the salubrity of water. 
 It is indeed highly probable that it is a powerful concurrent 
 agent in forming the unhealthy state of constitution of persons 
 residing in these situations. 
 
 The consideration of contagious diseases leads to the same 
 conclusions as the remittent and intermittent fever. This is a 
 large class of diseases, and they cut off constantly numerous 
 victims from society. Plague, putrid and nervous fevers (under 
 the common denomination of typhus), small-pox, measles, hoop- 
 ing-cough, scarlatina (including the putrid sore throat), syphilis, 
 and chicken-pox, are the principal examples of the most severe 
 diseases of this tribe. f They are all of them produced by mat- 
 ter or exha^tions from the human body. As there are socie- 
 ties of men in which they are unknown, and as, for the most 
 part, they appear to have arisen at no very remote period, 
 
 * If an arsenical oxide be composed of common elementary matter, so 
 loosely united as to be capable of decomposition, it may be easily con- 
 ceived that dm'ing the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter, in 
 which their elements unite into new forms, and in an infinite variety of 
 proportions, some may form an arsenical oxide itself. Again, if this most 
 deleterious poison be composed of the common elements, it is very con- 
 ceivable that other deleterious matter, not exactly the same in kind, but 
 as destructive, may be formed out cf the same elements. 
 
 t Hydrophobia, the most terrible o' the contagious diseases, is uniformly 
 fatal ; but is, fortunately, so rare as not to deserve mention as one of tha 
 diseases affecting the bulk of society. ,,, 
 
IN CHRONIC DlSEAaZS 37 
 
 there can be no doubt that these diseases are all of them arti- 
 ficial and factitious, the product of society, and not an essential 
 condition annexed to the existence of man. The multitudes, 
 therefore, who have perished by these diseases may be truly 
 said to have been the victims, not of nature not of any defect 
 in tlie organization or powers of the human frame but of the 
 artificial modes of life, or of some other accidents and misfor- 
 tunes incident to society. 
 
 Scurvy is another disease which has cut off vast multitudes 
 of men. It has been sativsfactorily traced to an improper sys- 
 tem of dieting, and particularly to the want of a due sujDply of 
 fresh vegetable matter. It is, therefore, wholly an artificial 
 disease. 
 
 The most familiar and v/ell-known example of disease being 
 produced by locality is that of Bronchocele or Goitre. It re- 
 ceives its name even from the districts which it infests : being 
 called with us the Derbyshire Throat, and even the Coventry 
 Throat. These are the enormous scrofulous tumors, which 
 Hoffman says are caused by the use of hard and rough waters 
 in mountainous districts. The valleys of mountainous countries 
 are its favorite residence, though itis by no means confined to 
 such spots. The valleys where the disorder is most frequent, 
 are those surrounded by very high mountains, sheltered from 
 the currents of air, and exposed to the direct, and, still more, 
 to the vertical rays of the sun. Even under a tropical sun, the 
 same concurrence of causes produces similar effects. In Savoy 
 and Switzerland, among the Pyrenean mountains, in the island 
 of Sumatra, and in certain parts of Tartary, the bronchocele is 
 endemical, and there are many corresponding features of resem- 
 blance in the situation where it is found. M. Saussure asserts, 
 that in the Alpine countries he never observed goitre in any 
 places which are elevated more than 500 or 600 toises (3200 
 and 3840 English feet) above the level of the sea ; he noticed 
 them in those valleys where the heat is concentrated, and the 
 air stagnates ; and observed that they usually cease where the 
 valley terminates and the country expands into a large plain. 
 
 In situations favorable to the production of this disease, it 
 affects animals as well as the human species. Even dogs are 
 said to be subject to it. It is asserted also, apparently upon 
 good authority, that it affects both sheep and horned cattle. 
 
 This is the disease which has, with the greatest confidence, 
 been ascribed to the operation of unwholesome water, and it re- 
 quires, indeed, a wonderful degree of skepticism to aoubt that 
 this is, if not the sole, at least a powerful antecedent and con- 
 
38 VEGETABLE DIET t 
 
 curring cause. Popular opinion attributes it to this every 
 where : in Europe, in North and in South America ; and many 
 respectable writers have thought this opinion well founded. 
 Hoffman says that a particular well, in the village of Flach 
 (ditionis TigurincR), is called by a term answering to fons stru- 
 marum, from its producing these swellings of the neck. Mr. 
 De Luc, and Mr. Coxe, who have made many observations on 
 this disease, have espoused this notion ; and the much more 
 weighty authority of the elder Heberden is on the same side. He 
 says, " I think that the cause of the bronchocele is to be sought 
 for in the water, a chemical investigation of which is therefore a 
 great desideratum !" Those who have opposed it, appear not 
 to have done so for sufficient reasons. It is confessed by Dr. 
 Barton, Avho is not favorable to this opinion, " that the water 
 in that part of the state of New York in which I have observed 
 the goitre to prevail, besides holding in solution and diffusion 
 a portion of calcareous eijrth, appeared to be otherwise very 
 impure, and was certainly unpleasant to the taste." In other 
 districts the same thing was noticed still more strongly. Others, 
 who speak slightingly of this opinion, content themselves with 
 asserting that the water was pellucid and well tasted. Such is 
 the objection of Dr. Reeves ; an objection certainly of very little 
 weight, when unsupported by more particular examinations. 
 
 Mr. Coxe was informed by a surgeon practicing in Switzer- 
 land, that his principal method of preventing goitre consisted in 
 removing the patients from the places where the springs deposit 
 a copious calcareous sediment, which is called by the inhabitants 
 Taf; and if that could not be effected, by forbidding the use 
 of water that was not purified. This surgeon even practiced 
 distillation for the purpose of purifying the water. 
 
 On this subject I can speak a little from my own experience. 
 In the parish of Home, in the county of Surrey (a village six or 
 seven miles to the south of Ryegate), is the house of a laboi'ing 
 man whose family consisted of five daughters. Of these, four, 
 while girls, become afl\3cted with bronchocele. In all, the dis- 
 ease was formed on this spot; but it continued, and even in- 
 creased after they had left it, going out to service. I saw one 
 of them, a woman perhaps of twenty-four, married in the neigh- 
 borhood ; in her the gland continued swelled ; but she said it 
 was much diminished. The domestic water of this spot was a 
 soft water mingling readily with soap ; it had a peculiar and not 
 agreeable taste; it deposited a small sediment by boiling, and 
 showed (by oxalate of ammonia) a slight calcareous impregna- 
 tion, but no more, probably, than is common to all the domes- 
 
IN CHRONIC 2ISEASKS. 30 
 
 tic waters of this country. I used the process described in an- 
 other place, by which I determined that it was much impreg- 
 nated with putrescent matter, which I beUeve to be much more 
 noxious than the calcareous impregnation; and I doubt not, 
 therefore, that this water had an active share in forming the 
 diseased constitutions of these females. 
 
 Without speaking positively on the antecedent causes of this 
 disease, I think the most tenable hypothesis seems to be that 
 which attributes it to the continued operation, with an inferior 
 degree of force, of the causes which excite the intermittent and 
 remittent fever. The village of Home is low and damp, near 
 the banks of the Mole ; and formerly agues were common there. 
 The heat and confined moisture of the places where it is en- 
 demical, point strongly to causes of this nature. Mr. Marsden 
 saj'^s that in the valleys of the mountains of Sumatra., where 
 this disease is common, there is a dense fog every morning 
 which is hardly dissipated by the rays of the sun till the after- 
 noon. It is also affirmed that where this disease is common, 
 the bulk of the inhabitants are indolent in their disposition; 
 and, in consequence, filthy, and having made little progress in 
 civilization ; they are said to be extremely wan and livid, and 
 much subject to intermitting fevers. But whatever are the 
 antecedent causes of bronchocele, it is certain that they must 
 be applied for some years before they produce their full effect, 
 and that the effect will remain for a very considerable time, 
 after removing from the situation in which the disease was 
 generated. 
 
 Whatever, too, are these causes there can be no doubt that 
 they are local causes, and some modifications of common ele- 
 mentary matter. Other examples of diseases, whose antece- 
 dent causes are local, might readily be adduced ; but I have 
 said enough for my immediate object. From the facts brought 
 forward, therefore, I shall make, in this place, one or two con- 
 clusions, which, though very obvious and conformable to many 
 other facts in the history of disease, are little considered in 
 speculation, and still less acted upon in the conduct of life. 
 
 Where bronchocele is common, a species of idiotcy of the 
 worst kind, under the name of Cretinism, is also prevalent, and 
 is obviously the effect of the same local circumstances. These 
 miserable objects are radically defective in their organization : 
 they are bereaved of all the powers, faculties, and privileges of 
 humanity, and hardly preserve i\m form of human beings. We 
 may therefore conclude, that there is no degree of morbid de- 
 viation from the healthy powers and structure of the body 
 
40 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 which cannot be produced by the continued operation of local 
 causes.* 
 
 But under the very circumstances in which these monstrous 
 deviations from nature are produced, many are equal to all the 
 common offices of life, and enjoy apparent good health. In 
 the human body itself there is a certain degree of resisting 
 power ; in some stronger ; in others more feeble ; the most sus- 
 ceptible are those which most suffer. This adds to the difficul- 
 ties of the inquiry. Men cannot easily apprehend that the 
 things with which they support themselves, with little or no 
 evident uneasiness, can be the cause of disease or of death in 
 others; and from hence arise contention, cavihng, and mis- 
 placed ridicule. But to those who consider the wonderful and 
 infinite variety in the human constitution, a corresponding va- 
 riety in the agencies of the same substances on different consti- 
 tutions can offer no difficulty ; nor is any fact in the history of 
 human nature more firmly established by evidence. 
 
 * " The body of these poor creatures is stunted, their height not exceed- 
 ing four feet. There is a total want of due proportion between it and the 
 other parts, the height of the head with reference to the body being from 
 one fourth to one fifth, instead of one eighth, the natural proportion ; the 
 neck is strong, and bent downward ; the upper limbs reacli below the 
 knees, and the arm is shorter than the fore-arm ; the chest narrow, the 
 abdomen hemispherical, and of a length not exceeding the height of the 
 head ; the thighs, with the haunches, of greater width than the shoulders, 
 and shorter than the legs, the calves of which are wanting ; the feet and 
 toes distorted. In the head, the masticating organs, the lower jaw, and 
 the nose, preponderate considerably over the organs of sense and intelli- 
 gence ; the skull is depressed, and forms a lengthened and angular ellipsis ; 
 the receding forehead presents internally large frontal sinuses, to which 
 the brain has yielded part of its place ; the top of the head is flattened, 
 instead of being vaulted ; the occiput projects but slightly, and runs almost 
 even with the nape of the neck, as in ruminating animals. The face is 
 neither oval nor round, but spread out in width ; the eyes are far apart, 
 elightly diverging, small, and deep-seated in their orbits ; the pupil con- 
 tracted, and not very sensitive to light ; the eyelids, except when morbidly 
 swollen, are flaccid and pendent. Their look is an unmeaning stare, and 
 turns with indifference from every thing that is not eatable. The elon- 
 gated form of the lower jaw, the thick and padded lips, give them a 
 greater resemblance to ruminating creatures than to man. The tongue is 
 rather cylindrical than flat, and the saliva is constantly running from the 
 angles of their mouth. Enlargement of the thyroid glands generally pre- 
 vails, sometimes to an enormous extent. Indeed, this appearance is com- 
 monly considered as a distinguishing sign of cretinism. The other glands 
 of the throat are also obstructed. Many of these poor wretches are both 
 deaf and dumb; yet do they appear unconscious of their miserable exist- 
 ence. Stretched out or gathered up under the solar rays, their head 
 drooping in idiotic apathy, they ars only roused from their torpor when 
 food is presented to them." P-. Millingen's Curiosities of Medical JEr- 
 perience. S. 
 
N CHRONIC DISEASES. 41 
 
 The diseases to wliicli we have now particularly adverted, 
 or at least the contagions, and those obviously originating in 
 locality, form no inconsiderable portion of the whole number 
 which infest society, and occasion such an immense mortality. 
 The small-pox alone has often been the occasion of one fourth 
 part of the annual mortality ; and it is not improbable that, 
 now that it has been in a great degree suppressed by vaccina- 
 tion, the other contagions and the diseases which seem to arise 
 spontaneously in the system will, in a great measure, supply its 
 place. Now I would not dwell too strongly upon an argument 
 merely analogical ; nor say that because tliis large class of dis- 
 eases is evidently artificial, all others must be so likewise. 
 Analogy is but a fallacious guide ; nor ought it ever to be con- 
 fided in when it is possible to arrive at direct evidence. But so 
 much may be said with perfect fairness. As a large portion 
 of the diseases which cut men off in civil society are proved to 
 be artificial, and there is reason to suspect the same thing of 
 others in which so direct a proof cannot be obtained, there can 
 be nothing extravagant or absurd in the supposition that they 
 all are artificial, and to be traced to some morbific causes either 
 of circumstances or manners. And should this hypotheis, after 
 due investigation, prove correct, there can be nothing absurd, 
 extravagant, or enthusiastic in the hope that, finally, successful 
 methods may be discovered, either of treating them when torm- 
 ed, or, at least, of preventing their formation. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mortality subject to fixed laws. Erronetus opinions on this subject. 
 The artificial nature and identity of constitutional disease. 
 
 If these facts render it highly probable that locality, and other 
 accidents of life, foreign to the body itself, are the cirrmnstances 
 which chiefly influence the health, the same truth is placed be- 
 yond controversy by the observations that have been made, in 
 the mass, upon the human species. Bills of mortality, surveys, 
 or parochial registers, have afforded the materials of these ob- 
 servations. To illustrate this position, I shall make use of the 
 statements and inferences contained in the essays which form 
 a part of Dr. Price's " Observations on Reversionary Pay- 
 ments'^ etc. I cannot follow a safer guide. 
 
4S VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 From these it appears, that in every particular place there is 
 an invariable law which governs the waste of human life. In 
 single years, owing to the seasons, to the absence or prevalence 
 of epidemics, or other accidental circumstances, the quantity of 
 disease may vary, and the number of deaths be less or greater. 
 But taking the average of a series of years together, the same 
 total numbers have been found to die in the same situations, in 
 the equal successive periods of time. These facts are estab- 
 lished by observations taken from the bills of London, of North- 
 ampton, of Norwich, in England, and of many other places in 
 various parts of Europe. In situations moderately healthy, as 
 in moderate-sized towns, the rates of decrease have .been found 
 to coincide very nearly with the hypothesis of Mr. de Moivre, 
 who, assuming 86 years to be the utmost extent of hfe, sup- 
 posed an equal decrement of life through all its stages, till it 
 was finally extinguished. For example, of 56 persons alive at 
 30 years of age, one will die every year till, in 56 years, they 
 will be all dead. The same will happen to 46 persons at 40, 
 in 46 years, and so on, for all other ages. At most ages be- 
 tween 30 and VO or 75, the results of this hypothesis are very 
 nearly conformable to actual observations^ But both in the 
 earlier and in the later stages of life, the law of decrease is very 
 different. In London also, and in large cities, in general the 
 current of hfe flows with greater rapidity. In the country, on 
 the other hand, communities are more healthy, and, in conse- 
 quence, life is expended more slowly. 
 
 As life at all ages wastes according to invariable laws, so 
 likewise does it at a given age. In consequence, the expecta- 
 tion of life either at birth, or at any given age, that is to say, 
 the mean continuance of any given, single, joint, or surviving 
 hves, may, from tables properly constructed, be calculated with 
 mathematical certainty. 
 
 The proportions between the whole numbers hving at any 
 age and upward, and the whole number of the community, is 
 a fixed proportion. This fact is established by observation, and 
 is indeed a consequence of the invariable laws according to 
 which human life is expended. 
 
 From these documents the havoc made in human life, by 
 collecting multitudes of men together in great cities, is fully 
 demonstrated. There is no stage of life in which this perni- 
 cious influence is not evident, but it is most remarkable in the 
 earliest stages. In London, according to the most moderate 
 computation, half the number born die under three years of 
 age; in Vienna and Stockholm, under two. And other things 
 
IN CHIiOMC DISEASES. 48 
 
 being equal, the insalubrity of towns appears to be in propor- 
 tion to their size. 
 
 The proportion of persons who die annually in great towns, 
 is found to be one nineteenth or one twentieth of the whole 
 population. In moderate towns, it is from one twenty-third to 
 one twenty-eighth. In the country, the proportion has been 
 found to be from one thirty-fifth or one fortieth to one fiftieth 
 or one sixtieth. In London, the number of years which a child 
 at birth has been found, upon an average, to reach, is rather 
 less than twenty. In Norwich, half die under five years ; m 
 Northampton, under ten. In the parish of Holy Cross, near 
 Salop, the expectation of a child at birth is thirty-three years : 
 one half the inhabitants live to thirty years of age. At Ack- 
 worth, in Yorkshire, half the inhabitants live to the age of forty- 
 six. In the town of Manchester, one twenty-eighth part of the 
 inhabitants die annually ; in the country, in its immediate vicin- 
 ity, the number is not more than one fifty-sixth part. 
 
 Large cities are as unfavorable to longevity as they are destruc- 
 tive of infant life, and unfriendly to health at every period. In 
 country places it is the reverse. At Holy Cross, one in eleven 
 and a half of the whole population die at upward of eighty years 
 of age. At Ackworth, one fourteenth of the inhabitants reach 
 the same age. At Northampton, the proportion is one twenty- 
 second part ; at Norwich, one twenty-seventh. But in Lon- 
 don only one in forty arrives at this age ; whereas, if other 
 things were equal, the proportion in London ought to be greater 
 than in other places, since at least one fourth of its inhabitants 
 are persons who come into London from the country, in the 
 most robust period of life, at which the probability of living to 
 old age is the greatest. Of the natives of London, not more 
 than one in sixty attains the age of four- score. 
 
 Though villages and country places are more healthy than 
 towns, and that in a degree to excite astonishment in those who 
 are imperfectly acquainted with the facts, yet there is a great 
 diversity in the healthiness of different villages and country 
 places. This demonstrates and exemplifies the important in- 
 fluence of locality in the production of disease, and on the 
 length of human life. Marshy situations, conformably to what 
 has been already said of their general insalubrity, are the most 
 unfavorable to the health, insomuch that they are as destruc- 
 tive of life as large cities. Dr. Price has, in the following par- 
 agraph, strikingly contrasted the different salubrity of dif- 
 ferent parishes in the small district of Vaud, in the county ot 
 Be ne. 
 
44 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 '' One half of all born in the mountains live to the age of 4*7. 
 In the marshy parish, one half hve only to the age of 25. In 
 the hills, 1 in 20 of all that are born live to 80. In the marshy 
 parish, only 1 in 52 reaches this age. In the hills^ a person aged 
 40 has a chance of 80 to 1 for living a year. In the marshy 
 parish, his chance of living a year is not 30 to 1. In the hills, 
 persons aged 20, 30, and 40, have an even chance for living 41, 
 33, and 25 years, respectively. In the fenny parish, persons at 
 those ages have an even chance of living only 30, 23, and 15 
 years." 
 
 The average mortality of England and Wales is calculated, in 
 the year 1810, to be 1 in 49. In the parts subject to the ague, 
 Kent, Essex, Cambridgeshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire, 
 the mortality is above this average. At Boston, in the fens of 
 Lincolnshire, the mortality is 1 in 2Y. At Stamford, which is in 
 the dry and upland division of the same county, it is only 1 in 50, 
 
 The duration of human life, then, is regulated by fixed and 
 invariable laws. Nor does it at all affect the general deduc- 
 tions drawn from these facts, though the observations on which 
 they are founded should not be correctly applicable to the pre- 
 sent state of things. It is thought, and probably with reason, 
 that the healthiness both of this empire and of the metropolis 
 is improved since the time when Dr. Price published his obser- 
 vations. Dr. Heberden, the younger, estimates the present rate of 
 mortality in London to be 1 in 30 nearly ; a prodigious improve- 
 ment if it be just! But it has been always found that the ex- 
 ternal circumstances of society remaining unchanged, the rate 
 of mortality is uniform ; and when this rate has been found to 
 undergo any considerable and permanent alteration, it may be 
 traced to some corresponding change in these circumstances. 
 The extension of agriculture ; draining and enclosure of wastes ; 
 cleansing of towns ; ventilation of private houses ; improvements 
 in diet ar.d clothing ; such, in general, are the sources of im- 
 proved health and prolonged life. I suspect myself that the 
 increased cultivation of the potato, and its very general use 
 among the laboring classes of London, has, more than any 
 other single cause, contributed to the improved health of the 
 metropolis.* 
 
 A fact related by Mr. Malthus, with regard to the town of 
 Geneva, proves how great a change has really taken place in 
 
 * I have heard it suggested, not perhaps without reason, that the sub- 
 Etituiiou of cotton for woolen clothing has been the cause of the disap- 
 pearance in so great a degree, of late years, of the low contagious or 
 typhus fever. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 45 
 
 the .same spot, and at no very distant period of time. In this 
 town, in the sixteenth century, the probability of life, or the 
 age to which half the born lived, was only 4.883 rather less 
 than four years and nine tenths; and the mean life 18.511 
 about eighteen years and a half. In the seventeenth century 
 the probability of life was 11.607 above eleven years and a 
 half; the mean life 23.358. In the eighteenth century the pro- 
 bability of life had increased to 27.183 twenty-seven years 
 and nearly a fifth ; and the mean life to thirty- two years and 
 a fifth. 
 
 The conclusions which forced themselves upon the mind of 
 the enlightened and respectable writer who has principally fur- 
 ifished me with these materials, I cannot refrain from giving in 
 his own language: ''Death," says Mr. Price, "is an evil to 
 which the order of Providence has subjected every inhabitant 
 of this earth; but to men it has been rendered unspeakably 
 more an evil than it was designed to be. The greatest part of 
 that black catalogue of diseases which ravage human life, is the 
 offspring of the tenderness, the luxury, and the corruptions in- 
 troduced by the vices and false refinements of civil society. 
 That delicacy which is injured by every breath of air, and that 
 rottenness of constitution which is the effect of indolence, in- 
 temperance, and debauchery, was never intended by the Author 
 of nature ; and it is impossible that they should not lay the 
 foundation of numberless sufferings, and terminate in premature 
 and miserable deaths." To the same purpose, says another 
 writer who is very competent to form a correct opinion, when 
 his judgment is not warped by a favorite hypothesis : "Diseases 
 have been generally considered as the inevitable inflictions of 
 Providence ; but perhaps the greater part of them may more 
 justly be considered as indications that we have offended against 
 some of the laws of nature." When persons of enlarged minds, 
 and who are unfettered by professional prejudices, arrive at the 
 same conclusions, it affords no weak presumption that they are 
 justly formed. 
 
 These intelligent writers, then, have concluded that our dis- 
 eases are, for the most part, artificial. But we must not con- 
 fine ourselves to vague and barren generalities. It is essential 
 to view the subject still more closely, and attend more exactly 
 to the consequences which flow irresistibly from the data which 
 have been established. This is the more necessary as there are, 
 I think, many incorrect notions afloat on these subjects, and 
 many who are acquainted with the facts do not appear im- 
 pressed with their proper consequences. 
 
'46 VEGETABLir DIET 
 
 We may say for certain, that it is not the fact that it is an 
 established law of nature that a large portion of the human 
 race must perish in infancy, or in very early youth. And yet 
 this is both asserted, and appears to be believed, by some of 
 our best medical writers. To this purpose Dr. Woolcombe, 
 influenced evidently by the principled of Mr. Malthus, says (I 
 quote at second hand from Dr. Watt's Treatise on Hooping 
 Cough), " Since disease is one of the appointed checks to ex- 
 cessive population, and the plan of Providence in the creation 
 of human life requires the termination of the existence of one 
 third of its creatures before they have attained the age of two 
 years, it may be doubted whether the annihilation of so efficient 
 an instrument as small-pox can be admitted without the sub- 
 stitution of some equally destructive malady." If the premises 
 were true, the conclusion would be inevitable. But they are 
 in direct opposition to matter of fait. In this kingdom, in coun- 
 try villages and parishes, the major part live to mature age, 
 and even to marry. In one place one half have been observed 
 to live to 30 years of age, in another to 46 years (se p. 43), 
 and in a particular village in the Alps, called Leyzin, one half 
 of the inhabitants reach the extraordinary age of Gl years. 
 What proportion, in these cases, die before two years of age, 
 we are not informed, but probably not a tenth part of those 
 born.'^ But the just conclusion from the facts is, that as there 
 is this amazing difference in mortalit}^ according to local cir- 
 cumstances and local habits for both the one and the other 
 should be always taken into the account it does not seem essen- 
 tially necessary, or " the plan of Providence in the creation of 
 human life," that any who are produced healthy and perfect 
 
 " I have before me the Annual Report of the City Inspector of the 
 number of deaths and interments in the city of New York during the 
 years 1847 and 1848, in which I find that in the first of these years there 
 were 15,788 deaths, and of these 7373 were of children under Jive years 
 of age ; nearly one half the whole mortality ! 
 
 In 1848 the whole number of deaths in New York was 15,919: of 
 adults, according to Vhe Inspector's Report, 7020 ; of children, 8899. 
 
 According to the Report of the Health of Towns' Association, showing 
 the compai-ative mortahty and disease in the extreme districts of each 
 county in England and Wales, compiled from the returns of the Regis- 
 trar-General for 1841, the proportion of deaths under j^re years of age, to 
 the total number of all dying (in the county of Lancaster, districts ol 
 Ulverstone and Liverpool), was 47.4 , True, Lancaster was found the 
 most unhealthy of all the counties of tnese two countries ; yet wherever 
 observations have been made in large towns or cities, the world over, we 
 find an alarming amount of mortality among children, and such as no one 
 in his sobor reason can for a moment attribute to a Divine dispensa* 
 tion. 8. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 
 
 OF THE 
 COLLEGE OF 
 
 !?/?/CULTU^ 
 
 into the world should perish in infancy. On the contrary, it is 
 certain from these facts, that the greater part of the fatal dis- 
 eases of infancy are- under the control of situation and habits of 
 life ; and that, by a mere change of these external circumstances, 
 they may be, if not wholly, yet for the greater part, annihilated. 
 There is nothing, therefore, either contrary to analogy, or re- 
 volting to common sense, in the supposition that by a more 
 exact attention to these circumstances, or by a discovery of the 
 agents, which are more immediately destructive of human life, 
 the whole of this tribe of diseases might be really extinguished. 
 
 Again, it appears thxit in certain places the expectation of life, 
 or the number of yea^s which, upon an average, a child at birth 
 arrives at, iS;, in some places at least, double of what it is in 
 others. For example, London and the island of Madeira are, 
 or at least were, so circumstanced. In London, the expectation 
 of a child at birth is estimated by Dr. Price to be httle more 
 than nineteen years ; while in the island of Madeira, from the ac- 
 count of Dr. T. Heberden, it has been found that the same ex- 
 pectation is about thirty-nine years. If a child, therefore, born at 
 London, living in London, and according to the habits of Lon- 
 don, possesses strength of constitution sufficient to carry him to 
 this middle term exactly, or nineteen years, it might be expected 
 that if the same child had been removed at its birth to Madei- 
 ra, and resided there, according to the habits of the place, he 
 would still have reached the average period of this place, or 
 thirty-nine years. Life then would have been doubled ; and what- 
 ever may be supposed the disease which would have cut him 
 off at nineteen, this disease would not have taken place till he 
 had arrived almost at forty years of age. Thus it is rendered 
 almost certain, that all the fatal diseases of early life are under 
 the control of climate, situations, and habits of life. 
 
 Let us suppose that a person, born, bred, and residing in 
 London, dies at forty. Had such a one been transplanted to 
 Madeira at birth, though his life would not have been doubled, 
 he might be expected to have gained a great many years. But 
 at forty there are none of our chronic diseases to which a per- 
 son may not be supposed to fall a victim. It may be cancer, 
 or asthma, or dropsy, or any of the acute and fatal inflamma- 
 tions. It becomes, therefore, highly probable, that this whole 
 tribe of diseases is under the control of climate, situation, and 
 habits of life. 
 
 I would not be understood as advancing this argument as a 
 rigorous demonstration, including every possible case. Some 
 contagions, perhaps, are fatal to persons in full health, who 
 
48 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 would otherwise live many years. The depopulation caused 
 in many regions by the small-pox, shows this to be the fact, I 
 think, of that poison. It is, therefore, not improbable that the 
 same may be true of others ; and the salubrity of some places 
 may be owing, in some measure, to the absence of these con- 
 tagions. Accidents, too, as extreme fatigue or extreme cold, 
 may extinguish life, independent of all constitutional disease. 
 These circumstances may make the bases of an arithmetical 
 calculation uncertain, and cause a greater apparent disparity in 
 the salubrity of different places, as far as depends upon locality 
 and habits of life, than in fact exists. But after making all al- 
 lowance for these grounds of uncertainty, it is still indisputable 
 that there is a very great, and, indeed, an enormous difference 
 in the length of life in different places, independent of what 
 may be called accidental terminations of life, and such as fully 
 justifies the general deductions which I have made. 
 
 I may be allowed cursorily to add, that though diseases are, 
 in fact, a check to population, and thereby the demand for food 
 is made equal to the supply at any given period, yet it does 
 not appear that a deficient supply of food is commonly the efii- 
 cient antecedent cause of disease, as the hypothesis of Mr. 
 Malthus appears to imply. They are connected, not as cause 
 and effect, but as it were accidentally, by the intermedium of 
 the passions and interests of a certain portion of the community 
 the cultivators. In common times, a very small portion, in- 
 deed, of the reigning diseases can be ascribed, with any pro- 
 bability, to a deficient nutriment. All the contagions and all 
 the effects of locality I may add all the effects of drunken- 
 ness act as powerfully upon the rich as upon the poor ; and 
 these comprehend the great body of the reigning diseases. Nor 
 has it ever been proved that, upon the whole, persons in easy 
 circumstances live longer or raise larger families than the lower 
 orders. Whatever may be the imaginary mischiefs of an ex- 
 cessive population, they neither are, nor does it appear that they 
 ever have been in action. Hitherto an increased demand for 
 food, like a demand for all other commodities, has occasioned 
 an increased supply, and that in proportion to the demand. 
 This is true, at least, in civilized communities, versed in the arts 
 of agriculture. 
 
 The different healthiness of different places is popularly 
 ascribed merely to a purer state of the atmosphere ; nor would 
 I deny the debilitating influence of an impure atmosphere. 
 But we should consider that the diseases of large towns, and 
 the diseases of the country, are, upon the whole, the same dis- 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 49 
 
 eas6s ; only in the towns they appear and prove fatal at an 
 earlier stage of life. We cannot, therefore, directly trace the 
 specific influence of an impure atmosphere ; we can only sup- 
 pose it to accelerate the access of disease from other causes, or 
 to render it more fatal. But the phenomena are essentially the 
 same, whether they happen in great cities or in country villages ; 
 in neither the one nor the other of these situations do we meet 
 with diseases that are absolutely peculiar, and exclusively con- 
 fined to the spot on which they appear. We cannot, therefore, 
 acknowledge distinct causes as generative of disease, in large 
 cities, from which the country is wholly free. We can only 
 suppose that in cities the causes, be they what they may, are 
 more active and concentrated. 
 
 There are those who appear to think that the essential dif- 
 ference of climate consists merely in a difference of temperature. 
 They propose, by artificial methods, to correct the evils which 
 they attribute to the coldness of our atmosphere; and they 
 hope, by what they call a regulated temperature, to arrest the 
 progress of, and even to cure, the most frequent and most fatal 
 of our diseases. But it should be considered that though tem- 
 perature has very considerable influence over the symptoms of 
 disease, it has Uttle or none over its general results and final 
 termination. 
 
 In different climates disease assumes different forms, and 
 fixes its seat upon different organs. In the East Indies, prac- 
 titioners hardly see the greater part of our European diseases ; 
 rheumatism, catarrh, pleurisy, peripneumony, headaches, and 
 toothaches are wholly unknown. But instead of these almost 
 universal European diseases, another class, which are hardly 
 heard of with us, except perhaps for a month or two toward 
 the close of the summer, are habitual and universal. They oc- 
 cupy the liver, intestines, and mesentery, occasioning redun- 
 dancy of bile, hepatic congestion, fluxes, and other disorders 
 indicative of increased mobility and irritability of all the parts 
 of the system, comprehended within the extent of the coeliacal 
 and portal circle. These differences may, probably, be justly 
 ascribed to permanent differences of temperature, though we 
 are wholly ignorant of the mode in which they operate. But 
 in point of general salubrity, the warm climates do not appear 
 to nave any advantage over the temperate ; and, therefore, 
 though the symptoms of some particular cases of disease may 
 be jJleviated by the mere avoiding of cold, yet it is highly impro- 
 baf'^e that such a precaution alone can avert or much retard 
 the Vitality of any fixed diseases. 
 3 
 
50 VEGETABLE TIET 
 
 To the proposal for the use of a regulak I temperature in con- 
 sumption or other diseases, there lies a fundamental objection, 
 independent of the weakness of the proofs by which it is sup- 
 ported ; this is, that it is applicable" only to persons in easy 
 circumstances. If there is any law in the government of the 
 universe more steady than another, it is that nothing, which is 
 truly useful, is not useful to all. Neither food, nor clothing, 
 nor medicines, nor a covering from the atmosphere, nor know- 
 ledge sufficient for the guidance of life, are confined to any rank 
 of society. Every plan of acquiring, whether it be health or 
 happiness, which is not communicable to all, will assuredly 
 prove abortive. 
 
 Tliough temperature alone will not counteract powerful mor- 
 bific causes, whether of diet or of locality, it cannot be doubt- 
 ed, I think, that warmth is, within certain limits, favorable to 
 the human constitution. But a change of clin:mte includes com- 
 monly a great change of other circumstances besides tempera- 
 ture, and it illustrates most forcibly the effects of locality. 
 These effects, though men have very indistinct notions as to 
 their immediate causes, are universally acknowledged and 
 acted upon. Upon it is founded the advice given in most ob- 
 stinate diseases, to try what is called change of air. When we 
 reflect upon the astonishing difference in the salubrity of dif- 
 ferent places, we see clearly upon what foundation this advice 
 rests ; and can feel no surprise at the great benefit which has 
 been often experienced in obstinate diseases from a change of 
 residence. Complaints, which have resisted the most judicious 
 treatment, often quickly subside, as it were spontaneously, by 
 quitting the situations in which they were fonued. How many 
 gain health instantly by going out of London ? This is a poinfc 
 on which the voice of all ages has been unanimous. *' In young 
 persons afflicted with epilepsy," says Hippocrates, "changes 
 effect the solution of the disease, principally of age, and place, 
 and manner of life." The daily experience of every individual 
 corroborates, in some degree, these remarks. There hardly 
 exists a person of some experience in life who has not found, 
 with a change of residence, some corrv spending change either 
 in feelings or health. 
 
 Upon these principles, if a person is suffering under an ha- 
 bitual disease, which resists medical treatment and threatens ic 
 shorten life, a more reasonable proposal could not be made 
 than for him to remove to a situation where the bulk of the 
 inhabitants had been observed to enjoy the best health, and to 
 attain the greatest longevity. The ancients, as we are informed 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 51 
 
 by Vitriiviiis, inspected the liv^ers of the animals of a country 
 in order to judge of the salubrity of its soil and productions. 
 They did not act without reason. But our authentic registeis 
 of mortality afford a still surer guide; and I can hardly avoid 
 wishing that they had been more frequently consulted for this 
 purpose. Such a measure wouTR surely be more rational than 
 sending the sick all promiscuously to the sea, or, as Dr. Gre- 
 gory has somewhere said, from one foolish watering place to 
 another foolish watering place. In these things, however, 
 fashion has been more powerful than principle ; and so it may 
 be expected to continue. 
 
 It is obvious, from many considerations, that the quantity of 
 mortality is quite inconsiderable when compared to the general 
 quantity of sickness ; though this is a subject on which it is 
 impossible to form a calculation. Men are not always short- 
 lived because they are unhealthy, nor is great and apparently 
 very dangerous illness, in different stages of life, incompatible 
 with arriving finally at old age.* Little dependence, therefore, 
 can be placed upon solitary observations with regard to the 
 effect of particular habits, or modes of treatment. Few are 
 duly qualified to form a just estimate of such things. I am 
 apt to think that, in this respect, even the sage Cornaro de- 
 ceived himself. It becomes then of the first consequence to 
 view mankind as much as possible in the mass, and to obtain, 
 as far as it is in our power, general results. 
 
 If, in fact, it is established by such observations that our dis- 
 eases are the offspring of our habits, and of the circumstances 
 in which we are placed, it must follow that of those who are 
 placed in the same circumstances, however various are the forms 
 and external appearances of disease, there must be an absolute 
 identity in its essence. This must, I think, be correctly true 
 of all those diseases which arise, as it were, spontaneously in 
 (he habit, independently of accidental circumstances. Nor can I 
 exclude from this class the acute inflammations which are com- 
 monly regarded as a species of accident, produced by some 
 foreign circumstance recently applied, as severe cold. The 
 inflammations require a peculiar state of the constitution for 
 
 * A remarkable example of this may be found in the Commentaries of 
 the elder Heberden. " That very eminent physician, Sir Edward Wilmot, 
 before he had completed his twentieth year, labored so severely under 
 a consumptive disorder, that, as he himself told me, not only his relations 
 but the most skillful physicians despaired of his recovery; he lived, not- 
 withstanding, and enjoyed good health beyond his ninetieth year." He- 
 ierden Comment arii, p. 324 
 
,05? VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 their production, as well as an immediate external cause ; and 
 they have their seat in various organs, according to the differ- 
 ent time of Hfe in which they occur. It is highly probable 
 that when the acute inflammations prove fatal, the vitality of 
 the system is destroyed, as it were, before the attack. Such 
 persons should be considered, therefore, to be as completely 
 worn out as if they had died of a lingering disease : of dropsy, 
 or of consumption. 
 
 In a system like that of the human body, consisting of a 
 congeries of different organs, each independent, and endued 
 with peculiar powers and actions, but each likewise connected 
 with the whole, and conspiring to a common end, there can be 
 no difficulty in comprehending how the same agents should, 
 upon different individuals, produce dissimilar effects. Nature, 
 or the supreme wisdom which has formed, sustains, and ani- 
 mates the universe, seems to delight, if we may venture so to 
 speak, in conjoining the most admirable simphcity with the 
 most astonishing variety. From a few elements, and which 
 our ignorance probably makes more numerous than they are in 
 fact, we see living beings, whether vegetables or animals, so 
 diversified that human life is too short to permit us to become 
 acquainted with their various forms and properties. Is it then 
 improbable that a few agents should produce various effects 
 upon the bodies of men a race of beings no two of whom are 
 alike, and of whom not one individual preserves an absolute 
 identity for two successive days, or even for two successive 
 moments ? A familiar example may render this truth more 
 evident. How variously does wine affect different individuals ? 
 One can bear two or three bottles, another is giddy with half a 
 glass-full; one becomes jocund, another splenetic; one w^akeful 
 and sprightly, another heavy and sleepy ; one good-humored, 
 another is driven to madness. What we see in the effects of 
 wine, we can readily suppose of other agents. 
 
 If this were a simple matter of speculation it would be of 
 little moment. But I have dwelt upon it on account of the 
 practical inferences to which it obviously tends. If we can 
 show that the antecedent causes of various diseases are the 
 same, though the immediate symptoms may demand various 
 remedies, yet the radical treatment may and ought to be the 
 same, however opposite the apparent forms of the disease may 
 be. This evidently is to remove the antecedent causes as much 
 as it is possible. Then, if the radical and inherent powers of 
 the system have not been destroyed, it may be expected, if not 
 wholly ';o recover, at least to show a constant tendency to 
 
IN CHKONIC DISEASES. 53 
 
 recovery. In what degree this can take place it is in vain to 
 speculate, independent of experiment. Each case will have 
 sometliing distinct and peculiar. The bow which has been long 
 bent will, when the string is cut, tend to regain its straightness ; 
 but it may ever retain some marks of the force impressed upon 
 it. Suppose this bow to be the branch of a living tree, the 
 result may be still the same ; but the cases will be more parallel. 
 When we say that the phenomena resulting from the action 
 of the same causes must be deemed to be essentially identical, 
 we must limit ourselves to the strict terms of the proposition, 
 and by no means conclude that no morbid appearance can arise 
 in the body which may not be distinctly traced to such causes. 
 It must be considered that an animal body is a machine en- 
 dued with internal and inherent self-moving powers, Avhich it 
 preserves, and which are in action as long as life continues. 
 Changes take place from the operation of these inherent powers, 
 which, if they are attended vvith pain, and a derangement of 
 the ordinary functions, are considered as diseases. The teeth- 
 ing of children is an instance of this. In like manner acute 
 diseases may frequently be suspected to be natural processes, 
 taking place, perhaps, in morbid bodies. In the present state 
 of our knowledge, and the great obscurity in which these sub- 
 jects are involved, as it would be the height of presumption to 
 affect to explain all the phenomena of life, so would it be cap- 
 tious and uncandid to object every accidental and unforeseen 
 occurrence. We must content ourselves with approximating to 
 what appears, upon the whole, to be the truth. Anomalies 
 and difficulties must be expected to arise which, perhaps, we 
 may never be able to elucidate ; and the explication of which 
 must be left to time and the industry of future inquirers. 
 
 These few remarks, which appear naturally to follow from 
 the facts established with regard to the laws of human mortali- 
 ty, may be sufficient to render probable the general principle, 
 that the efficient causes of constitutional diseases and premature 
 death are to be sought for in the action of the substances which 
 are applied to and affect the body. But to gain useful infor- 
 mation Ave must enter into a more particular examination of 
 what these really are. 
 
 Now any substance whatever which produces a change either 
 in the composition, in the sensations, or in the motions of the 
 body ; in a w^ord, which affects it as a living system, may be 
 justly called an agent, and as such must conspire toward the 
 general result either of healtl.v or diseased action. As such, 
 
54 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 the effect of all such matters, of every kind, ought to be taken 
 into the account, and their action distinctly considered. But 
 this is a task, the proper accomplishment of which cannot at 
 present be hoped for. Man, in the wantonness of power, or 
 under the caprices of appetite, makes almost every thing he can 
 lay his hands on subservient to his real or artificial wants. We 
 must therefore of necessity confine ourselves to those agents 
 w.iich are most universally applied, and which appear to be the 
 most effective. 
 
 With regard to the generation of constitutional diseases, we 
 ma}^, I think, safely confine ourselves to four principal agents. 
 These are, 1st, impure air; 2d, impure water; 3d, iuiproper 
 aliment ; and, 4th, fermented liquors. These ar the things 
 which appear really and effectively to produce the great bulk 
 of the reio-nino; diseases, or at least to form the morbid consti- 
 tution out of which these diseases spring. I always except 
 those which are produced from contagions. Each of these 
 agents is of itself, perhaps, under certain circumstances, power- 
 ful enough to produce disease, and even death ; and very com- 
 monly men are exposed to them simultaneously. In a system- 
 atic treatise each ought to be separately considered. But as 
 my own immediate object is principally to confirm the pro- 
 priety of the treatment I myself proposed in constitutional dis- 
 ease, I must confine myself to what I deem more directly con- 
 nected with this end. On air I have nothing to say. On water 
 I have nothing further to add to what I liave already laid before 
 the pubhc. Some observations on the utility of vegetable regi- 
 men, the mischiefs of the regimen in common use, and a few 
 remarks on fermented liquors, is all that I propose to add to 
 the introductory part of my present undertaking. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The power of Habit. Diseases exasperated by a fall diet. Illustrations 
 of the beneficial effects of abstemiousness. Dr. Barvvick. Francis 
 Pechi. Wood, tlie miller of Billerioay. Apologia du Jeune. Estimate 
 of the powers of Vegetable Regimen. 
 
 However pernicious any substance or application may be, we 
 find that use in a certain degree reconciles us to it ; that which 
 was at first offensive may become at length agreeable ; and 
 what was at first manifestly injuriou- may become apparently 
 
IN C51&0N1C DISEASES. 55 
 
 indifferent, or even salutary. Such is the influence of habit, by 
 which the constitution is rendered insensible of constant irrita- 
 tions, if they possess only a moderate degree of force ; and a 
 craving or appetite is formed for things hurtful in themselves 
 and most foreign from our proper nature. But this habit, if 
 considered in the bod}^ itself, must consist of a series of motions 
 and actions, the seat of which is the sensorium ; which motions 
 must have an opposite; direction to, and so counteract the effect 
 of the iriitating cause. In this way only, according to the known 
 properties of the nervous rystem, is the power of habit con- 
 ceivable. But however it be, the body must be under the con- 
 stant influence of a foreign and external force ; this force must 
 subvert the natural actions of the system, and warp them from 
 their proj>er objects, which must ultimately produce effects 
 proportionable to the magnitude and duration of the irritations 
 applied. 
 
 We deceive ourselves, then, if we think that any thing which 
 is wrong in itself can be made right by habit, or that what is 
 hurtful, if done seldom, will become innocent by being con- 
 stantly repeated. By this repetition we may become insensible 
 to the momentary iiritation, but only to suffer with the more 
 severity ultimately.* 
 
 The use of animal food is one of these habitual irritations to 
 which most persons, who have it in their power, voluntarily sub- 
 ject themselves. Nothing need be said to show that this cus- 
 tom produces a great change in the system in its ordinary state 
 of health- This is a change which, as long as health continues, 
 is commonl}^ thought to be for the better. But omitting wholly 
 that consideration, it seems certain that it predisposes to dis- 
 ease, and even of those kinds the immediate origin of which 
 may be traced to other causes. 
 
 It has been observed that the laboring negroes of the West 
 Indian islands are almost wholly exempt from the scourge of 
 the yellow fever, which has cut off such numbers of the other 
 classes of the residents. Upon this observation it was pro- 
 posed, when the same disease invaded Philadelphia, and was 
 
 * It may be observed, that when by habit we have conquered any 
 dislike or formed any appetite for any substance, however unnatural, the 
 dislike does not appear to return by relinquishing the habit. Tobacco is 
 at first abominable; but let a man once become tbnd of it, the relish will 
 contiuue lor life. He may cease to smoke or to take snuff, because he 
 thinks it wrong or hurtful ; but the original disgust never returns. So it 
 is of olives, fermented liquors, and other things. This shows the impro- 
 priety of giving children wine, or any thing el*e which it wou'd be better 
 that they should never like. 
 
56 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 thought contagious, to employ negroes to attend the sick. But 
 here it Avas found that negroes Avere some of those who were 
 the most subject to the disease. The principal cause of this 
 difference is said, by the physician on whose authority I relate 
 the fact^ to be, that in Philadelphia the manner of living of 
 negroes was as plentiful as that of Avhite people in the West 
 Indies; tht reverse of which is known to be the fact in the 
 islands. 
 
 For the same reason, of living much more upon vegetables, 
 and being more sparing of fermented liquors, the French are 
 known to have suffered much less from the ravages of yellow 
 fever than the English, who use the same diet to which they 
 had been accustomed in northern regions. Something of the 
 same kind has been observed with regard to the plague at Con- 
 stantinople. Timoni, in his account of this disease, asserts that 
 the Armenians, who live chiefly on vegetable food, were far 
 less disposed to the disease than other people.* 
 
 I have httle doubt, from what I have observed during the 
 course of my own practice, that the common contagious, or, as 
 it is called, the typhus fever of this country is greatly exaspe- 
 rated by full living. This fever rarely attacks persons in the 
 better lines of life, obviously because they are little exposed to 
 the exciting causes of it. But when they suffer it is very apt 
 to be fatal. Several medical students have been cut off (I 
 speak of what happened some years ago), both in London and 
 Edinburgh, under the care of the best physicians of the coun- 
 try. But among paupers, and in the workhouses, the danger 
 is, commonly speaking, very little, and they recover readily in 
 circumstances under which it is probable that those who are 
 called their betters would have sunk.f 
 
 * The Greeks in Smyrna, during Lent, Howard tells us in his work on 
 Lazarettos, page 41, edition of 1792, at which time they ate only vege- 
 tables, were very seldom attacked with the plague, while among those who 
 ate flesh the contagion made great havoc. S. 
 
 t " If Scotland," says Moore, " is less subject to pestilence, it is more 
 exposed to famine, than England." 
 
 It is staled by Dr. Rash, that during a desolating fever at Leghorn, 
 " Of the beggars who had scarcely any thing to eat, and who slept half 
 naked eveiy night upon hard pavements, not one dicd.^' 
 
 " It is a full rather than an empty stomach," says Dr. Paine, " that aids 
 in breeding pestilence. And we may attirm, upon the broad ground 
 of experience," this author further remarks, " that he will enjoy the best 
 chances of escape who renounces a stimulant diet while his system may 
 be only in a state of morbid predisposition. It was upon this ground that 
 the beggars in Italy escaped; why Audubon and his J arty enjoyed tho 
 fullness of health in the jungles of Florida.' S. 
 
N CHRONIC DISEASES. 57 
 
 It seems, moreover, higlily probable that the power inherent 
 in the Uving body, of restoring itself under accidents or wounds, 
 is strongest in those who use most a vegetable regimen, and 
 who are very sparing in the use of fermented liquors. Tliis 
 has been observed among the eastern nations. Sir Geoi-ge 
 Staunton saj-s on this subject : " It is, how^ever, to be remarked 
 that the Chinese recover from all kind of accidents more rapidly, 
 and with fewer symptoms of any kind of danger, than most peo- 
 ple in Europe. The constant and quick recovery from consi- 
 derable and alarming wounds has been observed likewise to 
 take place among the natives of Hindostan. The European sur- 
 geons have been surprised at the easy cure of sepoys in the 
 English service, from accidents accounted extremely formid- 
 able." This felicity the relator attributes to the causes which 
 I have mentioned. I have received the same account from 
 other quarters. 
 
 These facts are enough to induce a suspicion that our dis- 
 eases are much exasperated by our manner of living, and the 
 full diet of animal food, to which Ave are habituated. They 
 may serve to show to what may be ascribed in some degree 
 the great difference between the mortality which prevails in 
 great towns and in the countiy. In all situations the mass of 
 this* mortality must be composed of the laboring classes. These 
 classes are allured to the cities by the temptation of high wages, 
 which are expended, partly in direct riot and excess, but even 
 by the most sober-minded in procuring for their fcimilies a more 
 luxurious mode of life than could be afforded by the customary 
 rate of wages in the country. A daily meal of meat becomes 
 to be thought necessary by persons who, in the country, must 
 have been contented with a scanty portion once a week. To 
 be able to procure this becomes a distinction in society which 
 the people are taught to look up to as the reward of industry ; 
 Avhile to be confined to what is called a poor diet, that is to say, 
 to the diet of the poor, is reckoned low and disgraceful. Be- 
 sides, the crowdin.cr together a number of persons in confined 
 and ill-ventilate'' ..abitations favors the generation or the diffu- 
 sion of a nair.oer of contagions. But these contagions act 
 with groaU'i virulence upon bodies pampered by a full diet of 
 animal tood. Thus do these places become a species of hot' 
 beds, in which the seeds of mortality are thickly scattered in 
 the soil most favorable to their growth and propagation. The 
 bodies of men are most corrupted ; the powers of life most en- 
 feebled by destructive and enervating habits ; moreover, pu- 
 tridity of all kinds, both of animal and vegetable matters, an4 
 8* 
 
5s VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 contagicns of all kinds, are in such situations collected and 
 accumuated. In a word, in great cities all the causes of mor- 
 l.Jity are concentred. 
 
 One would be apt to imagine, from the common practice of 
 most of our physicians, and still more of our medico-chirur- 
 geons, that excess and intemperance were the regular methods 
 of curing diseases. They have been laboring, during almost 
 the whole of my medical life, to prove to the public that the 
 doctrines of abstemiousness, inculcated by several of our pre- 
 decessors, are a mere prejudice and error. In almost all chro- 
 nic diseases, to forbid the use of vegetables is a part of the 
 established routine. If there be a little heart-burn or flatu- 
 lency, all vegetables are instantly proscribed, Infants, even, 
 are loaded with made dislies, and their breaths snaell of wine 
 and strong liquors. Nay, to such an extent are these abomina- 
 tions carried, that, when their stomachs revolt against these 
 unnatural compounds, with instinctive horror, and the impor- 
 tunities of nature cannot be Avholly resisted, a little fruit is held 
 out to them as a sort of premium, and as a reward for forcing 
 down the nauseous farrago which they loath. 
 
 Notwithstanding the prevalence of these abuses and absurd- 
 ities, and the pertinacity with which they are defended, no 
 truth is better established than the fact, that multitudes* of 
 valetudinarians have been restored to health by methods di- 
 rectly the reverse of those recommended by these practitionei's. 
 Many have been the examples of persons who, having been re- 
 duced from affluence to poverty, and forced to subsist upon 
 hard fare, and to gain their livelihood by daily labor, have ex- 
 changed for their useless riches the inestimable treasure of 
 health. Nor have instances been wanting, in which the con- 
 strained abstinence of a prison has proved a remedy for some 
 obstinate disease. 
 
 Dr. Cheyne has given us a history of this sort. " Dr. Bar- 
 wick tells us," says he, "in the life of his brother, who, in the 
 late civil wars, had for many years been confined in a low room 
 in the Tower, during the usurpation, that, at the time of his 
 going in, he was under a phthisis, atrophy, and dyscasy, and 
 lived on bread and water only several years there, and yet 
 came out at the restoration, sleek, plump, and gay." 
 
 Ramazzini has recorded the history of a man who lived in 
 
 prison for nineteen years upon bread and water only, and lived 
 
 afterward healthy and free fiom the gout, from wdiich he had 
 
 before been a great sufferer. 
 
 - In Schenk's collection, the following amusing story of tho 
 
m CHRONIC DISEASES. 59 
 
 same description is found : *^ The noble Francis Pechi when 
 he had mounted his mule, to dispatch some commissions of 
 our illustrious duke a man of fifty, gouty, and much oppressed 
 with the continual torments of this disease, was secretly thrown 
 into prison by a cert<nin marquis, his wife, only son, and other 
 people thinking- him dead. In the year 155G, after a lapse of 
 twenty years, he was found by the French, who took the cita- 
 del, and to the astonishment of all the inhabitants of VerceUi, 
 preserved like Lazarus from the tomb, he walked through the 
 city, with his sword by his side, without stillness of his joints, 
 without the aid of a stick. He thus escaped all the misery 
 of the gout by means of a slender diet, imposed on iiim by 
 his jailers ; and finding his wife and son dead, he began to 
 claim his houses, farms, and other property, which had 
 been sold, and were of great value. In diet, therefore, is the 
 medicine." 
 
 Cures, which appear almost miraculous, have been at all 
 times related concerning the most intractable diseases, with a 
 confidence that should awaken our attention, if it do not over- 
 come our incredulily. The elephantiasis was the disease which 
 the ancients held in the greatest horror : the miserable victims 
 were deserted by their nearest friends, and banished to the 
 wilderness, there to perish in solitude. Aretoeus has recorded 
 that some of these sufterers were reported to have been re- 
 stored, nature renewing the parts which had been destroyed by 
 the disease and thrown out of the system. On these cases it 
 is well remarked by Cocchi, that *' we should not believe that 
 their cure proceeded from their having eaten vipers, as the ac- 
 count relates, but rather from their total abstinence from animal 
 food, and a continual use of herbs, as more powerful philoso- 
 phical reasons induce us to believe.*' 
 
 The former prevalence of leprous diseases throughout Eu- 
 rope, which ooviasioned the institution of lazar houses for the 
 reception of the loathsome objects afflicted by them, may make 
 us suspect that such accounts are not wholly fabulous. The 
 leprosy is nearly extinct, and the lazar houses have fallen to 
 decay, owing, no doubt, to the improvements of agriculture. 
 We have a remarkable instance of the effects of diet on the dis- 
 eases of a nation, in the inhabitants of the isles of Ferro. Since 
 fishing has declined among them, and tlie inhabitants have cul- 
 tivated corn, and live upon other food, instead of whales' flesh 
 and bacon, the elephantiasis has ceased among them. Galen 
 ascribes the prevalence of elephantiasis, among the poor inha- 
 bitants of Alexandria, to similar causes, namely, the habitual 
 
60 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 use of salted meats. The species of animal was little regarded ; 
 amoHg others, they did not disdain the flesh of the ass. 
 
 Need I cite the well-known history of Mr. Wood, the miller 
 of Billericay ? This man, from a long course of glutton}^, eat- 
 ing voraciously animal food three times a day, with large quan- 
 tities of butter and cheese, and drinking strong ale, became 
 very fat in his fortieth year ; and, in three or four more years, 
 his health failed ; he had a constant thirst, great lowness of 
 spirits, violent rheumatism, and frequent attacks of gout. He 
 had two fits, which were called epileptic, and had often a sense 
 of suffocation, particularly after his meals. By altering his re- 
 gimen, and pursuing a strict course of abstemiousness, he 
 re-established his health, and continued to enjoy g^/od health 
 for many years. He left off animal food and fermented liquors. 
 His solid food was either sea biscuit, or flour made into a pud- 
 ding, being mixed either with skimmed milk or with water, and 
 boiled. He abstained from all fluids, except what entered into 
 the composition of his pudding. Under this course of absti- 
 nence, he lost his corpulence, and became a middle-sized man, 
 Ileal thy and active, and his strength increased instead of di- 
 minishing. This man died in his sixty-fourth year. No one 
 that reads his history can doubt that he prolonged his life many 
 years ; and, probably, had his diet been regulated upon still 
 more correct principles, he would have lived several years 
 longer. 
 
 That longevity is promoted by vegetable regimen is estab- 
 lished by the concurrence of numerous and authentic observa- 
 tions. Ulloa testifies that of the South American Indians both 
 sexes aflford many instances of remarkable longevity. " I my- 
 self," says he, " have known several who, at the age of a 
 hundred, were still very robust and active, which unquestiona- 
 bly must, in some measure, be attributed to the constant same- 
 ness and simplicity of their food." Humboldt's testimony, as 
 to their longevity at the present day, is to the same purpose, 
 except that many cut themselves off by the use of spirituous 
 liquors. He says, " While I was at Lima, the Indian Hilario 
 Pari died at the village of Chiagata, four leagues distant from 
 the town of Arequiga, at the age of 143." 
 
 It is the mountainous and barren districts, where frugality 
 and simplicity of manners are the necessary habits of the bulk 
 of the community, that have ever been the favorite abode of 
 health and longevity. " Upon the general and particular sur- 
 veys already made," says Sir William Temple, " it may seem 
 that the mountainous barren countries are equally the scenes 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 01 
 
 of health and long life ; that they have heen rather in the hills 
 of Palestine and Arcadia, than in the plains of Babylon or of 
 Thessaly ; and among us in England, rather upon the Peak of 
 Derbyshire and the heaths of Staffordshire, than in the fertile 
 soils of other counties that abound more in people and in riches." 
 Examples of great and extraordinary longevity have been 
 chiefly confined to peasants of the lowest ordei of society ; to 
 philosophers, who have thought that the truest wisdom consists 
 in the regulation of the passions and the appetites ; or hermits 
 and anchorites, who practiced great abstemiousness as a re- 
 ligious duty. 
 
 That the members of those monastic orders, who abstained 
 from the flesh of animals by the rules of their institution, en- 
 joyed a longer mean term of life in consequence, has been 
 proved by the result of an actual examination. This fact is 
 well estabhshed by the author of an interesting tract, published 
 at Geneva, in 1Y89, entitled Apoloffie du Jeune. As this tract 
 appears to furnish some important and instructive matter, I am 
 sorry that my own knowledge of its contents is derived from 
 the scanty details of a medical journal. From this source, how- 
 ever, I have obtained the calculation which seems sufficient to 
 justify the conclusions of the author. 
 
 This writer extracted from Baillot the length of the lives of 
 152 monks {solitaires), or of bishops, who used the same austere 
 mode of life. He took them promiscuously, as they were pre- 
 sented, in all times, and in all sorts of climates. They produced 
 a total of 11,589 years ; and consequently they gave an average 
 of seventy-six years and a little more than three months, w^hich 
 may be expected from a regimen confined principally to fruits, 
 herbs, roots, etc. He took, in like manner, 152 academicians, 
 half members of the academy of sciences, and half of that of 
 Belles Lettres. They gave only 10,511 years, alFording an 
 average of sixty-nine years and a little more than two months. 
 The ancient austerity, therefore, so far from abridging life, 
 lengthens it rather more, upon an average, than seven years ; 
 and the long life of the anchorites was the effect of the fru- 
 gality of their regimen. 
 
 The difference between the ages of the seventy-six members 
 of the two academies was only nineteen years ; but in every 
 stage of life the advantage was on the side of the monks ; there 
 were fewer deaths, more numerous survivors, and an old age 
 more prolonged, as appeared by noting the number of deaths 
 in every successive ten years. 
 
 The author of this account concludes with making what I 
 
62 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 deem a very just remark. ''It is not," he says, "the appa- 
 rent disease which is the real cause of death ; but men die 
 because the body is worn out ; the tone of the fibres is destroy- 
 ed ; and the principle of motion fails. The obvious disease is 
 the mask under which this condition is concealed." 
 
 Nothing is indeed more true, than that previous to the attack 
 of fatal diseases there may be commonly observed evident 
 marks of an exhausted vitality. The signs of it are frequently 
 sufficiently marked in the countenance ; or it may be observed 
 in some feebleness of the vital functions : a change in the force 
 of the circulation ; a failure of the breath, or some diminution 
 of muscular power. Habitual diseases, which, for their pro- 
 duction, require a certain energy of action, and strength of con- 
 stitution, as gout, cutaneous eruptions, etc., disappear, and peo- 
 ple vainly congratulate themselves, perhaps, that they enjoy 
 improved health. The attack may be sudden and violent, but 
 the predisposing state of the system has been formed slowly, 
 and almost imperceptibly. So truly is it said by Hippocrates, 
 " that diseases do not fall upon men instantaneously, but being 
 collected by slow degrees, they explode with accumulated 
 force." 
 
 Observations similar to those which this writer has made the 
 subject of calculation have occurred at all times, and in almost 
 every climate. It is perfectly well known to those who have 
 resided in Hindostan, that the Bramins, who abstain most scru- 
 pulously from the flesh of animals, attain to the greatest lon- 
 gevity. 
 
 From the calculation which has been given, we may, I ap- 
 prehend, reason with tolerable correctness as to the effects that 
 may be expected to result from a vegetable diet in incurable 
 diseases, supposing no other change to be adopted. Accord- 
 ing to the evidence produced, the system wears faster under a 
 mixed regimen than under a vegetable regimen ; and at such a 
 rate that those who would die under the former regimen at 
 seventy, would, under the latter, reach to seventy-seven nearly; 
 that it is to say life is prolonged about one tenth. 
 
 I am apt to think that this estimation cannot be very wide 
 of the truth. For there are circumstances, on each side of the 
 scale, which the author of the report would hardly take into 
 the account. In the first place, men who live very abstemi- 
 ously are, probably, as scrupulous in what they drink as in 
 what they eat. It is likely then that these monks and religious 
 men were, for the most part, water drinkers ; whereas the acade- 
 micians livirg in the world would, for tht most part, comply with 
 
I\ CilRONIC DISEASES. 63 
 
 the common customs of the world. Hence, then, the monks 
 would have an advantage in addition to their vegetable regimen^ 
 On the other hand, these solitaires did not, probably, adopt 
 their strict regimen till they had reached the period of manhood ; 
 moreover, it "is probable, that a perfect strictness in the vege- 
 table regimen was not observed ; it hardly excluding the occa- 
 sional use of fish, milk, and eggs, and other things, which, being 
 deviations from natural diet, must, I conceive, abbreviate the 
 term of life.* But, to assume the utmost latitude in favor of 
 the vegetable system, we will suppose that persons who use 
 the common diet might have their lives prolonged one sixth by 
 
 confininof themselves to veo^etables alone. Tliis will, I doubt 
 
 1 
 not, be generally thought to be givmg it advantage more than 
 
 enough ; though, under peculiar circumstances, it may be really 
 too little. In persons living very grossly, eating largely of 
 animal food two or three times a day, the abbreviation of life 
 will be proportionably greater ; such persons, perhaps, cutting 
 oft* one fourth, one third, or even, perhaps, one half their days 
 by their excesses. However, under common circumstances, 
 the above-mentioned allowance of one sixth is, probably, abun- 
 dant. 
 
 Now, as the action is constant and uniform, this prolongation 
 will belong equally to every portion of life ; and the same pro- 
 portion may be applied to what we ma}'- call the complement of 
 life, or that part of it which still remains unexpended. By an 
 abstinence from flesh, then, we may expect to protract the 
 periods of disease, though not to avert their fatal issue, and 
 that in about the proportion stated above. If, for example, a 
 person who is consumptive might be expected to live a twelve- 
 month, he might reasonably hope, by a vegetable regimen, to 
 prolong his life about two more months or to live fourteen 
 months. Such would, probably, under the vegetable regimen 
 alone, have been the event of the case which I have described 
 in my " Reports on Cancer," in which Mr. Abernethy gave his 
 opinion that a twelvemonth was the utmost extent of life that 
 he could hope for, but in which life was really extended to 
 three years and five months ; and that under a treatment which 
 Wcis for some months essentially defective. A cancerous tumor 
 is, under common diet, invariably fatal ; and the term of life, 
 
 * Thus Mr. Pennant " The Romish church permits the use of it (the 
 otter) on maigre days. In the kitchen of the Carthusian convent near 
 Dijon, we saw one preparing fur the dinner of the religious of that rigid 
 ordeu who, by their rules, are prohibited during their whole lives to eat 
 flesb Pennant's British Zoology, p. 119. 
 
64 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 whicli remains to a person who lias a tumor of this kind, may 
 be conjectured with a tolerable degree of precision. Let us 
 suppose such a person under common regimen would survive 
 three 3'ears ; under a strict vegetable regimen, the same person 
 may expect, from these data, to hve about three years and a 
 half. 
 
 From this view of the subject, I think it is easily explained 
 how the vegetable regimen has fallen into a species of disre- 
 pute ; and how impossible it is to obtain from it, when the sys- 
 tem is hastening toward dissolution, even a temporary respite 
 from suffering. Let us make an assumption which is certainly 
 quite extravagant ; but let us suppose that, other things remain- 
 ing the same, life would be doubled by vegetable regimen. In 
 the beginning or middle of life this would be a momentous con- 
 sideration; but how would it be toward its close? A man, we 
 will say, is consumptive, and has but half a year to live. By 
 the vegetable regimen, then, he would, by the supposition, live 
 a w^hole year. But he would still during the whole period be 
 a dying man; the symptoms might be less severe, but they 
 would persist. And liow much more evidently must this be 
 the case if, what would doubtless be the real fact, life was not 
 prolonged a month ? In these circumstances it can hardly be 
 conceived that the patient should, as far as he could judge 
 from his feelings, be sensible of any benefit whatever. And 
 as no practitioner will pretend to so correct a judgment as to 
 be able to fix, in these circumstances, and foretell death within 
 three or four weeks, the advantage gained, though real, would 
 elude the observation of the medical attendants quite as much 
 as that of the patient. 
 
 It is no wonder, then, that while vegetable regimen has been 
 confined to cases of this kind, persons should be insensible of 
 its advantages. The most sti-enuous advocates for a vegetable 
 regimen have been some solitary individuals in common life, 
 living commonly in a confined circle, and acting either from a 
 regard to health or from a principle of conscience. The errors 
 of such persons have in tliem something respectable. But the 
 medical profession have, in general, held a different and even 
 an opposite language. The reason clearly is the much more 
 extensive observation which their profession affords them. 
 This experience has presented to them diseases of all sorts, 
 invading persons whom necessity confines to such a regimen ; 
 and death taking place in all its forms. They must therefore 
 have a full conviction that all the flattering prospects of avoid- 
 ing diseases, held out by the enthusiasts of a vegetable regimen. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 65 
 
 are wholly fallacious. And as men arc apt to fall into extremes, 
 it is no wonder that a large portion of this body of men are 
 insensible to its real advantages, and inchned to attribute mis- 
 chiefs to it of which it is really guiltless. 
 
 Under the influence of prejudices, grounded, I dare say, iipon 
 observations such as I have mentioned, a surgeon, who, from 
 the extent of his practice and his standing in the profession, is 
 justly called, I believe, the first of this metropolis, being told 
 how little animal food was given to the children at Edinburgh, 
 answered, *'Yes: but 1 find animal food is necessary to our 
 London children ;" as if what was right in one place was wrong 
 in another, and that there is a i-eal difference in the human 
 constitution at London and at Edinburgh. When the first men 
 of the profession use such vague language, and ha^e sucli in- 
 distinct ideas, can we wonder at the ignorance and prejudices 
 of the bulk of the people ? 
 
 Though there is no reason to question the fidelity of the 
 writers who have given the histories which I have recited in 
 this chapter, yet it is to be considered that they are rare occur- 
 rences, and as such ought not to be allowed imdue weight. 
 Geneial conclusions must rest upon a firmer foundation ; facts 
 should be both numerous and concurring. Li indi\idual cases 
 circumstances ma}^ easily be omitted which would lead to dif- 
 ferent conclusions had they been related ; and this may happen 
 from error or piecipitation Avithout any intention to mislead. 
 
 Gout is the disease in which abstinence from animal food 
 has been the most frequently recommended, and Avith the 
 greatest, but not with uniform success. It is generally ac- 
 knowledged that the practice alleviates the symptoms of the 
 disease. Man)^ single cases, of the good done by such a regi- 
 men, have been related. A treatise by Doloeus, on the cure 
 of gout by milk diet, contains several cases in which the se- 
 verity of the disease was by this method much alleviated. In 
 Dr. Starke's works is the following passage to the same pur- 
 pose. 
 
 " Mr. Slingsby has lived many years on bread and milk and 
 vegetables, without animal food or wine; he has excellent spir- 
 its, is very vigorous, and has been free from the gout ever since 
 he began this regimen. 
 
 " Dr. Knight has lived also many years on a diet strictly 
 vegetable, excepting eggs in puddings, milk with his tea and 
 chocolate, and butter. He finds wine necessary to him. Since 
 he lived in this manner he has been free from the gout." 
 
 But it has also appeared that a great degree of atony and 
 
66 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 muscular debility has often succeeded to the more violent 
 paroxysms of the disease. This is the evidence of Dr. Mead, 
 wjiich, I doubt not, is correct. *' la persons advanced in life, 
 in whom the disease has been used to recur for a course of 
 years, if it does not invade them at all, instead of the limbs, 
 the internal parts are infected ; and, moreover, the limbs being 
 deprived of their strength, they pass the remainder of their 
 lives in a miserable state, which I have seen more than once in 
 those who, contenting themselves Avith milk and vegetables, 
 have abstained from all other food." 
 
 I question not these facts. It is no reproach to the vegeta- 
 ble regimen that it cannot effect impossibilities ; that it cannot 
 restore a constitution worn out vvitli age and disease. Nor are 
 the evils described to be attributed to the diet, thouofh vulo-ar 
 prejudice might reason so ; and the representation of the writer 
 seems to favor it, this series of symptoms being the customary 
 course of the disease under every regimen. It is equally true, 
 that in London, and perhaps every where else, many children 
 will become diseased, and die, who are confined to vegetable 
 food, other causes of disease being in action. But let observa- 
 tions be made on a scale sufficiently large, and let an average 
 be fairly taken, and there can be no doubt that the balance 
 will be in favor of the abstemious in length of life, in diminu- 
 tion of suffering, and in actual enjoyment. 
 
 Excess of all kinds is followed by an instantaneous exacerba- 
 tion of constitutional disease, as persons subject to gouty pains 
 almost always experience. And where the very contrary effect 
 is experienced, as may sometimes happen, it may be suspected 
 to be owing to a degree of torpor introduced into the nervous 
 system rather than to healthy action. 
 
 Abstinence, on the contrary, without curing constitutional 
 disease, assuages its violence ; it both protracts life and renders 
 it more comfortable. 
 
 A gentleman of about thirty years of age, while this chapter 
 was in the press, informed me that he had formerly used ani- 
 mal food two or three times a day. He had for some time suf- 
 fered most severe pains of the head, so much as to confine him, 
 during the paroxysms, to his bed ; and they gave him the great- 
 est dread of their approach, which he could commonly foretell 
 for two or three days. Moreover, he had a bleeding from the 
 hemorrhoidal vessels, from which he had hardly any respite. 
 In consequence of the inquiries originating with me, he deter- 
 mined to confine himself wholly to vegetable food, which he has 
 now done, I behevo between tv^o and three years. For half "a 
 
i:; CilRONIC DISEASES. 67 
 
 year t'be disease continued with unabating severity. But from 
 that time it became much milder, and now it never confines him, 
 and he hardly regards it. The hcmorrlKige also is greatly di- 
 miaished. The whole time it now occupies is not equal to what 
 tlie intervals were formerly. He has perceived no loss of 
 strength, and has determined, in consequence of the benefit he 
 has received, to pursue in every respect the regimen I have re- 
 commended in chronic disease. 
 
 1 have before me some papers written by a gentleman of 
 Birmingham, of the name of Luckcock, which he liberally com- 
 municated for publication. But though the matter is creditable 
 both to the benevolence and good sense of the writer, it is not 
 such as I deem suitable to my object. I doubt not, therefore, 
 that he will excuse me if I use only those facts which I think 
 more directly conducive to that end. 
 
 Tins gentleman had, in May, 1813, used a vegetable regimen 
 for rather more than four years, prompted more by a principle 
 of humanity, and a conscientious feeling, than a mere regard to 
 health. He says that he never found the smallest inconvenience 
 from the change, but that, on the contrary, he has rather in- 
 creased in weight, and sensibly improved in health. On this 
 subject he declares : " I confidently believe that I am taking 
 the best means to enjoy life as long as it may continue. In 
 this respect I do affirm that the last four years have been equal 
 to any period between twenty and the present time, and cer- 
 tainly better than the four years preceding the innovation." 
 Mr. Luckcock's age was at this time fifty-three. 
 
 It further appears that the writer, like most men of his time 
 of life, was not entirely free from constitutional disease. His 
 words on this subject are : " About fifteen years ago a slight 
 hemorrhage made its appearance with me, and has gradually 
 increased to a degree which, under less favorable circum- 
 stances, might well excite considerable alarm, and it may even- 
 tually be fatal." From this statement I conclude that the 
 change of regimen has made no marked alteration in this 
 disease. 
 
 I repeat, then, that abstemiousness does not cure constitu- 
 tional disease; but it palliates, where to cure is obviously im- 
 possible. Even in aneurisms of the aorta, or dilatations of the 
 cavities of the heart, whatever good is possible must be looked 
 for in a treatment founded upon analogous principles. Such 
 was the practice proposed by Valsalva in these hopeless dis- 
 eases. He enjoined repeated bleedings, and a spare diet rigor- 
 ously persevered in; and we are assured by Albertini, in a 
 
C8 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 paper inserted in the meinoirs of the academy of Bologna, 
 "that young persons treated in this way have, in some in- 
 stances, been cured, and in others remarkably relieved; and 
 that old persons, and those in whom the complaint was already 
 far advanced, had at least found in this plan a more or less 
 powerful obstacle to its progress, and a prolongation of life." 
 Some examples of the utility of the practice are given in the 
 work from which this extract is made. 
 
 I do not think that an impartia'. exaraii.ation of facts will 
 allow us to attribute effects more favorable than those I have 
 described, to the use u a vegeta^^dle instead of the mixed diet 
 of common life, aided even by avoiding fermented liquors. They 
 are, as I have said, prolonging life to a certain degree, and 
 rendering disease more mild. But no instances have been 
 given of the eradication of deep constitutional disease, where the 
 symptoms were well marked and unequivocal. On the con- 
 trary, such symptoms have been known to arise under a strict 
 regimen of this kiad, of which, in the sequel, I shall cite some 
 examples. 
 
 I know that very different opinions on these subjects are 
 held both by practitioners and by the people. Persons who 
 have for years used the common diet without inconvenience, 
 say, that at some former period of tiieir lives they labored 
 under severe and dangerous illness, for which they were en- 
 joined to practice a rigid abstemiousness ; and to this practice 
 they ascribe their recovery. But I would ask, if the diet caused 
 their former illness, how happen they to bear a recurrence to 
 it without a recurrence of the symptoms ? It is clear, then, 
 that they do not think their disease was caused by the mixed 
 diet, but that there was some peculiar medicinal power in a 
 temporary abstemiousness. And that British practitioners in 
 general entertain similar ideas, is clear from the rigid absti- 
 nence they enjoin in acute diseases, under the name of the anti- 
 'phlogistic regimen. In this respect, the English are said to be 
 more strict than other nations. And it is thought that life 
 itself is preserved by this strictness. 
 
 Without at all disputing the propriety of this strictness for 
 I think it perfectly proper I must doubt greatly its efficacy, 
 at least as far as it claims to preserve life. For having seen 
 severe attacks of inflammatory disease, where a regimen of this 
 kind had been followed for months, and even for years ; having 
 even suffered in my own person an exceedingly severe inflara- 
 matory sore throat, when it had been followed very neaily two 
 years, I cannot but ask what effect can it be supposed to have 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 69 
 
 on the issue of sucli a disease, when resorted to only on the 
 spur of the occasion, and continued for a few days, or it may 
 be for a few weeks ? I question not, then, that their issue de- 
 pends infinitely more upon the antecedent habits, than upon any 
 effect of regimen during their invasion. And if this be true, it 
 would seeiu that those foreigners who are much more sparing of 
 animal food in their daily habits, but much less rigid than the 
 English under illness, do not appear, in these respects, to be 
 less enlightened than our countrymen. 
 
 Under the influence of opinions, common to all British prac- 
 titioners, of the great importance of the antiphlogistic regimen 
 in inflammatory diseases, I myself proposed in a former work 
 (Inquiry into the Origin, Symptoms, and Cure of Constitutional 
 Diseases, p. 50), to render it more perfect, and, as I thought, 
 more efficacious, by attending to the fluid, as much as to the 
 solid matter used, and substituting pure instead of common 
 water. And I still think that I reasoned right, supposing the 
 common opinion to be just. But being now fully assured that 
 the operation of regimen of all kinds is, as far as it regards 
 the safety of the patient, exceedingly slow ; that the eftect of 
 the ingesta (of any kind whatever), upon the issue of these dis- 
 eases can, during the course of the disease, be hardly calculated ; 
 and that a strict attention to the antiphlogistic regimen itself 
 may tend to the comfort of the patient, but possess little or no 
 influence on the event ; being, I say, assured of these facts, I 
 think any moie minute attention than what is commonly paid, 
 would be frivolous and unnecessary. 
 
 I can therefore pay little attention to the relations of the ex- 
 traordinary benefits of vegetable diet, in persons who have 
 afterward used, for a length of time, the customary diet of the 
 country, Avithout perceptible injury. If, in fact, disease be 
 caused by diet, if not the immediate symptoms, still the dis- 
 eased state of the constitution is really attributable to this 
 source, the constitution should improve by a change of diet, and 
 either the same symptons, or at least the same diseased state of 
 constitution, should recur upon relapsing into the former habits. 
 Such only can be allowed to be a legitimate proof. In other 
 cases, such as I have alluded to, the abstinence enjoined may 
 have been beneficial, but the restoration to health must be con- 
 ceived to have been due to other causes. 
 
 i 
 
70 ^'EGETABLE DIET 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The objections to vegetable food: paleness and loss of fleshy that the 
 feeble require nourishing diet ; differences of constitution ; uneasiness 
 from vegetables ; that eating flesh injures only by excess ; that it is not 
 unfavorable to intellect ; that it has been found useful in disease. 
 How far liking justifies the practice. Fish, milk. The cookery of 
 vegetables. 
 
 In questions which must ultimatel}^ be decided by experience, 
 I know not Avliether it is necessary or useful to employ much 
 time in argument. Perhaps to lay a simple statement of the 
 facts before the public is the most proper and the most power- 
 ful argument tliat can be employed. If, therefore, I consider 
 shortly some of the objections which I have heard made to the 
 use of a vegetable regimen, it is because I have thought some 
 respect was due to the quarters from which they have pro- 
 ceeded ; and still more to popular opinion, which, it is unfortu- 
 nately too true, is vehemently adverse to it. 
 
 The palHdness and shrinking of the features and of the whole 
 body, which sometimes succeed the disuse of animal food, is 
 apt to excite an alarm, and a fear of essential and irretrievable 
 injury to the constitution. Let us consider how impossible it 
 is that this should be otherwise, and therefore how little is to 
 be apprehended from it. 
 
 Animal food commonly gives a more succulent habit, a 
 greater fullness, and, at the same time, a higher color to the 
 face. It may be suspected that all the fibres become softer ; 
 that the force of aggregation of the molecules which compose 
 them is diminished. In the healthy, the high color of the face 
 is not unpleasing, though coarse. In the lads in the service of 
 butchers it may be observed the most distinctly. In others of 
 feebler stamina it is an habitual flush. 
 
 This color it is which most imposes upon superficial observ- 
 ers. To see a pallid child or young person become more rudd}^ 
 from what is called better living, is a pleasure w^hich it is diffi- 
 cult to resist ; and to observe the color fade from an opposite 
 treatment, without alarm, requires a thorough confidence in the 
 justness of principles, which the ignorant and the timid can 
 hardly be supposed to possess. It ought, therefore, to be con- 
 sidered what it really indicates. 
 
 In fact, what can it indicate but an excitation of all the small 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 71 
 
 vessels of the face ? This excitat on cannot be supposed to be 
 confined to the surface of the cheeks, but must extend to all 
 the contiguous parts ; to the internal as well as the external ; 
 to the parts within the cranium as well as the integuments ; in 
 a word, to the organ which regulates and connects all the other 
 organs of the body to the brain itself. If, therefore, the use 
 of animal food be an unnatural custom, its primary operation is 
 to give an unnatural excitation to th i brain ; and all its conse- 
 quences of improved color, increased strength, and even of ap- 
 parently improved health, must be reckoned consequences of 
 this excitation.* 
 
 A further consequence is, that life is, in all its stages, hurried 
 on with an unnatural and unhealthy rapidity. We arrive at 
 puberty too soon ; the passions are developed too early :f in the 
 male they acquire an impetuosity approaching to madness; the 
 females breed too quick ; processes which ought to be distinct 
 and successive are blended together and confounded ; women 
 who ought to be nurses become pregnant, even with the child 
 at the breast ij finally, the system becomes prematurely ex- 
 hausted and destroyed : we become diseased and old when we 
 ought to be in the middle of life. 
 
 After all that has been said, I can hardly be so misunder- 
 stood as if I asserted all this to be, in fact, the operation of ani- 
 
 * Professor Sweetzer, of this city, in his interesting work on con- 
 sumption, remarks : " That if diet is superabundant and exciting, a ple- 
 thoric and inflammatory state of the system will be induced, highly in- 
 compatible with the equable and healthful play of the different functions, 
 and tending indirectly to waste the energies of life. How often is it that 
 fat, plethoric, flesh-eating children, their faces looking as if the blood 
 were just ready to ooze out, are with the greatest complacency exhibited 
 by their parents as patterns of health ! But let it be ever remembered, 
 that condition of the system popularly called rude or full health, and the 
 result of high feeding, is too often closely bordering on a state of disease." 
 The good sense of these remarks must be apparent to every one who 
 thinks. S. 
 
 t In all the cases of precocious menstruation and I have knowji a num- 
 ber such as in whom this function has appeared at the age of twelve 
 or thirteen years, there has been very free use of and a great desire for 
 flesh meat. I have been particular in noticing this fact. 
 
 I will admit that a very free use of milk, eggs, butter, salt, and other 
 stimulants, might easily cause preocious puberty, without the use of 
 flesh, especially in the hot-bed and unnatural life of cities. S. 
 
 X I have known more cases than one in the city of New York of flesh- 
 eating mothers, of very feeble health, who yet have become pregnant, 
 time after lime, on an average of nearly every year, and each and every 
 time after the first, while the child was yet at the breast. Tue undue 
 stimulus of animal food has e\'idently a strong influence in these cases oi 
 premature pregnancy. S 
 
72 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 mal food alone. All the habitual irritations appeir to have 
 similar effects on the body ; they stimulate to excessive action, 
 which is followed by premature exhaustion. But I cannot 
 doubt that such would be the operation of animal food alone, i'^ 
 every other cause of disease were removed. An experiment 
 which, as I have heard, lias often been made upon chickens, 
 illustrates its general action on animal bodies.* They feed 
 hens upon flesh, to make them lay eggs faster. Every thing, 
 therefore, that has been said in favor of animal diet ; of its 
 strengthening, and invigorating, and fattening, and so forth,f 
 may be perfectly true ; and still the consequences drawn from 
 these appearances may be false, and its use may be, notwith- 
 standing, radically improper. 
 
 Now, if a body be, to the senses, modified by the action :f 
 animal food ; if it be enlarged, and bloated, and reddened, it 
 must necessarily happen that by its abstraction these effects 
 must cease, and appearances the very opposite of these may be 
 expected to take place, that is to say, the body may be ex- 
 pected to diminish, and to condense, and to become paler. If 
 the face be highl}'^ colored or flushed, it may be expected to 
 lose in a measure this appearance. A load of fat, which is but 
 an incumbrance to its bearer, may perhaps vanish, and so the 
 clothes may hang about the body. But if neither this color 
 nor this fatness be health, nor indicative of health, what is there 
 to fear from the loss of them ? If, on the contrary, these ap- 
 pearances are wholly morbid, we surely ought rather to be 
 pleased than mortified that we have got rid of them.J 
 
 * I need hardly say, of animals not by nature caniivorous. Chicken are 
 probably, in some degree, omnivorous. Though seeds is their favorite 
 food, they would, I suppose, pick up insects, worms, slugs, etc. 
 
 t Mr. Malthus was, I have little doubt, deceived from not making this 
 distinction. He says, " Even in Norway, notwithstanding the disadvan- 
 tage of a severe and uncertain climate, from the little 1 saw in a few 
 weeks' residence in the country, and the information I could collect from 
 others, I am inclined to thiiuk that the poor were, on the average, better 
 off than in England. Their houses and clothing were superior, and 
 though they had no white bread, they had much more meat, fish, and 
 milk than our laborers ; and I particularly remarked that the farmers' 
 boys were much stouter and healthier-looking lads than those of the same 
 description in England." If such a diet gave a more healthy race of 
 people than one that was principally farinaceous, all that I have said must 
 be wrong. But the tables of mortality prove the contrary ; and, there- 
 fore, these appearances of stoutness and good looks, in the younger part 
 of the community, are not indicative of superior health. 
 
 t That the mere loss of flesh, and, to some degree, strength circum 
 stances which must sometimes, though by no means always, occur on 
 commencing vegetable diet, are not necessarily un&vorable, is abundantly 
 
r\ CHRONIC DISEASES. 73 
 
 I cannot doubt that, as a general rule, it may be safely assert- 
 ed that the florid are less healthy than those who have little 
 color. An increase of color has been ever judged to be a sign 
 of impending illness. " If a man becomes fuller," says one of 
 the ancients, "and better looking, and with more color than 
 usual, he ought to consider these blessings as suspicious." Our 
 own vulgar, at this day, if told that they look much better than 
 usual, regard it as a sign of approaching disease. How many, 
 with what is thought the glow of health on their cheeks, are 
 inwardly tabid ? How many on the verge of the grave, about 
 to be cut off by an acute illness ? Every day gives such pain- 
 ful examples of these truths, that I should be ashamed to urge 
 them, had I not heard even experienced medical practitioners 
 refer to the fine color of the cheek as a proof of good health. 
 The young lady who last gave occasion to this remark, has 
 since, I believe, died of consumption. 
 
 It seems very evident that our general manner of hfe tends 
 to load the head, and give an unnatural fuUness to the face. This 
 has given us ideas both of beauty and proportion, which are far 
 from just, as not coinciding with th^ most perfect specimens of 
 the human form. It has corrupted even the taste of our paint- 
 ers. I have heard from an eminent artist, that the custom of 
 painting children with the cheeks enormously swollen is con- 
 fined to the modern school ; that it was not practiced by the 
 ancient sculptors or painters. Though a well colored and full 
 face cannot be otherwise than pleasing, yet it may be often ob- 
 served in union with a narrow chest, shrunk limbs, and a tumid 
 belly. Many an anxious mother says of her child, that its face 
 is the only part about it which looks well. lso\y if, in such a 
 case, by any course of dieting for medicine is wholly out of the 
 question we can strengthen the limbs, cause the chest to ex- 
 pand, and the abdomen to shrink, we should hail these changes 
 as signs of highly improved health. If then it should happen, 
 at the same time, that the face becomes less full, and the color 
 less florid, we ought certainly to reckon this fullness and color 
 to be morbid, and as such be happy at the loss of it. 
 
 It aftbrds no trifling grounds of suspicion against the use of 
 animal food, that it so obviously inclines to corpulency. On 
 
 proved by ihe success of the hunger cure, which I have seen pracliced ia 
 Germany. If a person is losing bad flesh, which, under a properly re- 
 gulated vegetable diet, must often be the case, he is certain of growing 
 stronger again as he gets better muscle. Flesh is absolutely no criterion 
 of health, nor is a temporary loss of strength any evidence that an indivi- 
 dual is growing worse. S. 
 4 
 
74 VEG.l TABLE DIET 
 
 this subject the reasonmg of Dr. Arbuthnot is unanswerable. 
 " You may see an army of forty thousand foot- soldiers without 
 a fat man, and I dare affirm that by plenty and rest twenty of 
 the forty shall grow fat," Corpulency is of itself a species of 
 disease, and a still surer harbinger of other diseases. It is so 
 even in animals. When a sheep has become fat, the butcher 
 knows it must be killed or it will rot and decline. It is rare 
 indeed for the corpulent io be long-lived. They are at the same 
 time sleepy, lethargic, and short-breathed. Thus Hippocrates 
 says, " those who are ur*commonly fat die more quickly than 
 the lean." The monstrous and bloated form which the human 
 body occasionally assumes, is a more pointed satire upon the 
 customs which engender it, than any which can be conveyed 
 by words. He that runs may read.* 
 
 * This paragraph of Dr. Lanibe's brings to mind a mostbarlarous prac- 
 tice with which I became acquainted in Earape, a knowledge of which 
 may be gained from the following extracts from my note book, written 
 while in the old country : 
 
 " I presume most persons have heard something of the process of fatten?- 
 ing geese for the purpose of enlarging their livers, which are considered 
 by the eating and drinking gentry in the old country a great rarity. Thia 
 business, revolting as it is bothlo the feelings and taste of a person of un- 
 depraved appetite, is made a regular occupation in certain parts. Men and 
 women both follow the art of thus fattening geese as their only means of 
 getting a worldly subsistence. It is carried on principally in Belgium. 
 The mode is as follows : Geese of a suitable size are nailed with their 
 feet upon a board, a T-headed nail and a piece of leather being used for 
 each foot. (I do not know whether women engage in this part of the 
 operation.) The animals thus fastened are set before afire. This is done 
 to cause a feverishness in their systems, through which they becama 
 very thirsty. Pots of milk are then set by them, of which they drink 
 freely to quench the thirst. After this they are fed with a dough of 
 Indian meal as long as they will eat. More is then forced into their 
 throats, and pressed down their neck into the stomach. This is a prac- 
 tice that requii-^s tact, otherwise the animals would become choked. 
 After this ' stuffing,' as it is called, they are put away in a dark place to 
 sleep. Three times in the forenoon, and the same in the afternoon, the 
 geese are thus placed before the fire and fed. At the end of three weeks 
 they have become so fat and stupid they are nearly on the point of dying. 
 They are then killed to save them, their bodies being almost an entire 
 mass of fat, with livers also fat and most enormously enlarged. With 
 these are made the famous 'fat goose liver pies.'' 
 
 *'The best and most cosily of these articles are made in Strasburg, to which 
 city the livers are taken from Belgium. One liver, with a portion of 
 fat pork, the whole being surrunded with very rich pastry, is sufficient 
 for two pies, each of which are sold in London and Paris at one pound 
 sterling. The pie is transported in a circular box, about the size of a 
 three-quart measure. We see many of these in the windows of the higher 
 victualing shops and pastry establishments of Paris, and sometimes in Lon- 
 don. They are considered by many as being a great rarity. The poor 
 and laboring part of the community cannot of course indulge in so d- 
 
IN CHROMC SEA.ES. 75 
 
 I would not have it supposed, however (as ignorance is apt 
 to imagine), that great paleness, or great leanness, is a neces- 
 sary consequence of a vegetable regimen. Many who are lean 
 upon animal food thrive upon vegetables, and improve in color. 
 I could cite numerous examples of persons perfectly well nour- 
 ished, and not only enjoying, but having every external sign of 
 perfect health, on a strict vegetable regimen. Mr. Luckcock 
 gained a few pounds in weight by relinquishing animal food. 
 He says that a young boy, a son of his own, upon the same 
 diet enjoys excellent health. Mr. Lawrence, assistant-surgeon 
 of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in a twelvemonth increased in 
 weight nine pounds, upon a vegetable regimen. Dr. A. P, 
 Buchan, physician to the Westminster Hospital, told me that, 
 when a young man, he lived three years upon vegetables, and 
 was never in better health. And I hear that there are four 
 hundred persons at Manchester, who at this time abstain from 
 animal food, influenced by rehgious principles, and that they 
 enjoy at least as good if not better health than their fellow- 
 townsmen. More particularly I have not been informed. All 
 the notions of vegetable diet affording only a deficient nutriment, 
 notions which are countenanced by the language of Cullen and 
 other great physicians, are wholly groundless. They have been 
 founded upon observations of its effects on great invalids. Such 
 subjects may possibly shrink and become pale. It is enough, 
 surely, if such persons can prolong their lives, though it may 
 be at the expense of their looks. To exchange a pale face for 
 a premature shroud appears to me but a sorry bargain. 
 
 I hear much gabble about giving people proper support, and 
 am told that the feeble require what they call nourishing things. 
 I do not think it worth while to insist upon perfect strictness, 
 where the ultimate advantage is not likely to be great ; nor is 
 it very politic in a practitioner to recommend with earnestness 
 what it is probable will never be attended to. But we are here 
 discussing principles. I would fain ask, then, whether it does 
 not appear that these feeble and debihtated persons have not, for 
 the most part, passed a day without laying in a plentiful store 
 of tliese nourishing things ; and whether having been nourished 
 into their present state of debility, it is likely that they can, by 
 pursuing the same methods, be nourished out of it ? I would 
 ask the more reflecting and better informed, whether the Hip- 
 
 sii'able a luxury. I have thought the pork pie a common thing in the 
 eating-houses of New York disgusting enough, but it will be conceded, 
 I think, that in comparison with the fat goose liver pie it is quite a proper 
 dish." S. 
 
76 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 pocratic maxim is not founded in truth, which declares : " In 
 bodies that are not pure, the more you nourish them, the more 
 you injure them?" 
 
 It is said that there are great varieties of constitution, which 
 produce corresponding varieties of diseases, and that it is im- 
 possible that the same regimen can be adapted to them all. The 
 vulgar proverb is quoted, and, if I am rightly informed, by a 
 gentleman who was an eye-witness of some of the facts con- 
 tained in my " Reports on Cancer," that what is one man's 
 meat is another man's poison ; and many exclaim, A vegetable 
 regimen may do very well with some, but I am sure it would 
 not suit me ; my own feelings tell me so, and what better guide 
 can we possibly follow ? 
 
 I shall consider these objections in their order. 
 
 I have already said, that however various constitutions may 
 be, diseases, with different and even opposite symptoms, may 
 be in their essence identical. The variety of constitution is dis- 
 played in the various and ever varying forms of dfeease, and in 
 the irregular times at which they take place from infancy to 
 extreme old age. The identity then is not in the forms and 
 external signs of disease. It must consist in some circumstance 
 which is common to them all. This circumstance is a decay 
 and final destruction of the vital powers. Perhaps there is no 
 single and infallible criterion by which to judge of this decay. 
 It may exist, though the organization of the body is perfect. 
 It is not incompatible with great apparent strength and energy 
 of action. The principle of life is not an object of sense, and 
 we infer both its existence and its modifications from the phe- 
 nomena of hving bodies. Whether in its decay, the loss of 
 power be confined to the organ principally affected, or whe- 
 ther it extend primarily to the whole body, it is not easy to 
 determine. But that it is general and uniform throughout the 
 whole system, seems to me, from many circumstances which I 
 have observed, to be by far the most probable opinion. Its 
 total destruction is the death of the body. 
 
 If the gentleman who tells me that one man's meat is an- 
 other man's poison, and who is so much better versed in the 
 anatomy of the human body than I pretend to be, will show 
 me in what I have mistaken when I have asserted that man is 
 herbivorous in his structure ; if he can show that there is any 
 radical difference in this respect among the individuals of the 
 human species, I shall then subscribe to the doctrine that there 
 is a radical divinity in human constitutions beyond what I have 
 acknowledge'^., But till tliis is done, I must agree with a 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 77 
 
 sprightly friend of my own, who says that the proverb justly 
 interpreted means no more than that what is meat for the pa- 
 tient may, perchance, be poison to the doctor. 
 
 The question of feeling may deserve a little more considera- 
 tion, since it is apt to deceive persons of good judgment. The 
 impulse or feeling of the moment is that which is naturally the 
 immediate motive for action. What gives pleasure we naturally 
 seek ; and we avoid what occasions uneasiness. And this seems 
 so just and reasonable a ground of action that I can hardly 
 doubt that, in a truly sound and healthy state of the system, 
 we might safely trust to our sensations; that what is most 
 agreeable would be most healthy, and what gives uneasiness 
 would be also injurious. 
 
 But it is obvious that we cannot safely argue so in a diseased 
 system. In this case agents may neither produce their natural 
 and appropriate sensations ; nor sensations inform us justly of 
 the qualities of bodies. The same habit which has reconciled 
 us to many unnatural and noxious substances has likewise given 
 us a disrelish for those which are natural and salutary. Gas- 
 sendi tells us of a lamb which, having been bred up on ship- 
 board, refused to eat grass. We surely then cannot wonder 
 that, having accustomed our stomachs to every thing which 
 earth, sea, or air aifords, we have obliterated our relish for 
 simple vegetable food. 
 
 It may very well be, therefore, that by habit animal food 
 may cause no uneasiness on the stomach ; and vegetable food 
 may have the very opposite effect. I can only say it is a great 
 misfortune to have the feelings of the stomach so completely 
 perverted. It may be that leaving off animal food may cause 
 suffering and uneasy feeling. This a greater misfortune still, if 
 the health require it. But it betrays a profound ignorance of 
 the elementary principles of human nature to mention such 
 things as serious objections to a vegetable regimen. 
 
 The case of spirituous liquors, in which every child knows 
 how to reason properly, is exactly parallel. I should be 
 ashamed to dwell upon it if I did not know that, in fact, such 
 objections have been strongly and effectually urged. I would 
 ask, then, would any one listen a moment to a gin drinker who 
 should tell us how warm and comfortable his morning dram is 
 to his stomach, and how low and cold and flatulent he is with- 
 out it? In hke manner, no doubt, the subduction of animal 
 food is withdrawing an accustomed irritation ; a strong, but an 
 unnatural appetite remains unsatisfied ; a craving takes place 
 which it may require a determined effort to subdue ; and it may 
 
78 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 take som4 time before the old habits and old desires are com- 
 pletely eradicated ; and before the stomach feels as well satis- 
 fied with vegetable food as it did with the former fare. An 
 additional misfortune is that these depraved feelings and appe- 
 tites are the strongest in the most diseased persons. By reso- 
 lution, however, they may be conquered ; and gradually animal 
 food, so far from being an object of appetite, will cease to be 
 thought of. The very remembrance of it will be effaced. I 
 must assert that, except uneasy feeling such as I have described, 
 I have observed no ill consequences from the relinquishment of 
 animal food. The apprehended danger of the change, with 
 which many scare themselves and their neighbors, is a mere 
 phantom of the imagination ; the danger, in truth, lies wholly 
 on the other side. 
 
 But besides the uneasiness from the change of habits, there 
 may be consequent uneasiness affecting any part of the body. 
 This may have various sources. If other causes of disease con- 
 tinue to operate, such as putrescent water, or fermented liquors, 
 which have power sufficient ultimately to destroy life, the source 
 of this uneasiness is manifest. Moreover, diseased action con- 
 tinues long after the antecedent causes have been removed. 
 
 Parts imperfect in their primary organization, or rendered 
 unsound artificially, may perish and be renewed. Newly-formed 
 parts commonly possess feeble powers of life, in consequence 
 of which they may again perish and be again renewed ; and 
 this may take place repeatedly. In these processes we see 
 many sources of uneasiness ; of suffering ; even of acute pain, 
 however cautious men may be in their manner of living and 
 attentive to the rules laid down for them. They may cause 
 inflammations, ulcerations, suppurations, sloughings, and, by 
 consequence, every sort of pain which is attendant upon these 
 processes. 
 
 Some of the uneasiness consequent upon the use of vegeta- 
 ble food is due, as I. have explained in another place, to the 
 improvement of the senses, which follows the disuse of animal 
 food, and the restoration of the natural sensibility of the nerv- 
 ous system. This improvement is not confined to the organs 
 of sense, but pervades every organ and influences every func- 
 tion of every part of the system. The torpor, therefore, intj-o- 
 duced by the animal food must be equally diffused over the 
 whole system ; all the secreting organs, all the membranes, 
 probably the whole of the vasculai-, glandular, and absorbent 
 systems suffer under it, as well as the nervous system. Whe- 
 the** each suffers independently, or the whole, in consequence 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 79 
 
 Oi the union of every organ tlirougli the medium of the nervous 
 system, it is not worth while perhaps to inquire. But observa- 
 tion shows that there is no organ of the body which, under the 
 use of vegetable food, does not receive an increase of sensibility, 
 or of that power which is thought to be imparted to it by the 
 nervous system. The observation of this it is which has made 
 me think it most probable that the deca}- and final destruction 
 of the powers of life, in the diseases terminating in death, per- 
 vades the whole body, though the principal apparent disease 
 may be confined to a single organ. The same consideration 
 shows that palsy is a condition of the system not confined to 
 the muscles, or the organs of sense. There is no fibre in the 
 body which may not be paralytic. 
 
 Morever, th-ere are many pains which persons suffer in the 
 early or middle parts of life which disappear as they advance 
 to old age. On this account there are those who are an excep- 
 tion to the more common rule of old age being the season of 
 infirmity and suffering ; on the contrary, they enjoy in age a 
 uniform degree of ease and comfort to Avhieh th-ey were stran- 
 gers in the former part of their lives. Upon such observations 
 must have been founded the maxim of Hippocrates, that " old 
 men for the most part have less sickness than the young." I 
 see not what reasonable explication can be given of these phe- 
 nomena, except by attributing them to the different degrees of 
 sensibility which the body is endued with during the different 
 stages of its existence. From this cause the young suffer from 
 impressions which the apathy and torpor of the old shield them 
 against. I think it must be in the memory of every person in 
 the middle of life, that when they were children the coldness 
 of a frosty morning was infinitely more piercing than when they 
 liad arrived at manhood. 
 
 Now this diminution of sensibility may be natural ; the neces- 
 sary consequence of increasing years. As far as this is the 
 case it cannot be deemed morbid ; and it would be absurd to 
 expect to prevent or remedy it. But as far as we accelerate 
 old age by depraved customs, or diminish our natural portion 
 of sensibility by the use of deleterious substances, so far we 
 may hope to recover it, in a measure, by adopting more salu- 
 brious habits. It is possible, then, that under these circum- 
 stances pain may arise in the system which may indicate the 
 recovery of a portion of sensibility that was lost. Such pain 
 ought to be deemed salutary. No one can question that to 
 feel pain must be better than to be stupefied. Some illustra- 
 tions and examples of thi* will be given in the sequel 
 
80 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 These considerations show sufficiently how pain may b pro- 
 duced in tl)e system independent of the ingesta. Ther evince 
 further tliat the production of pain or imeasiness may form no 
 soHd objection against the propriety of the regimen recom- 
 mended in chronic disease ; on the contrary, it may be an evi- 
 dence of its beneficial influence. 
 
 I have heard it said that the only advantage of vegetable 
 diet is, that by it excess is avoided, and that it is excess which 
 is alone injurious ; and excess of animal food is acknowledged 
 to be more so than of vegetable. I answer, that the different 
 effects of excess, according to the kind of matter employed, 
 show an essential difference in the operation of these matters 
 upon the body. Excess of vegetable matter produces only 
 simple distension ; excess of animal matter, an insuperable 
 loathing and disgust ; sometimes horrible nausea and serious 
 illness. These matters then are essentially different, when first 
 applied to the body. They are different, also, in their opera- 
 tion upon all the functions. But of this enough has been said 
 already. 
 
 I cannot but think that the ancients, whether physicians or 
 philosophers, who certainly understood much less of drugs than 
 the moderns, had, to balance it, a far more correct knowledge 
 of the influence of food upon the health, the morals, and the 
 intellect. Socrates, Plato, Zeno, Epicurus, and others of the 
 mastei's of ancient wisdom, adhered to the Pythagorean diet, 
 and are known to have arrived at old age with the enjoyment 
 of uninterrupted health. Celsus asserts, that " the bodies which 
 are filled in the manner of the athletes, (that is, with much ani- 
 mal food), become the most quickly old and diseased." To 
 the same purpose the poet writes 
 
 " Immodicis brevis est aetas et rara senectus." Martial. 
 
 The doctrine of Galen is, that " food which affords the most 
 nutriment to the body, taken in excess, generates cold diseases." 
 It was proverbial, that the ancient athletce were the most stupid 
 of men. The cynic Diogenes, being asked what was the cause 
 of this stupidity, is reported to have answered, " because they 
 are wholly formed of the flesh of swine and oxen." Theo- 
 phrastus says, that " abstinence restores the use of reason ; 
 because eating much, and feeding upon flesh destroys it, and 
 makes the mind more dull, and drives it to the very extremit) 
 of madness." In these passages, we find the general doc- 
 trine very clearly indicated, that animal food diminishes the 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 81 
 
 sensibility of the system, predisposes to diseases, and abridges 
 life." 
 
 If the sensibihty of the nervous system is impaired, it must 
 follow that every function which depends upon the protection 
 and integrity of this system, must be impaired or deranged 
 likewise. It is impossible, therefore, to suppose that the intel- 
 lectual functions, depending immediately upon the brain, can 
 be performed with proper freedom and clearness by persons 
 habitually using a gross diet. In conformity to which, it has 
 been always remarked that the southern nations, who live 
 mostly upon light food, are more lively and spiritual than the 
 northern, v/hose habits are opposite. We may observe tliis 
 even in countries nearly under the same latitude, but where the 
 habits of life are considerably different ; as when we compare 
 the English with the French, or even with the Irish. 
 
 The instruments of the will are subject to the same influence. 
 When the nervous power is perfect, the muscular power will 
 be perfect likewise ; when it is oppressed and benumbed, we 
 may expect diminished muscular power, less agility, slower 
 movements. Sir George Mackenzie observed this stronglj 
 characterized in the natives of Iceland, to whom the supply or 
 vegetable food is more scanty than in any other European 
 country, Lapland, perhaps, excepted. His account is in 
 these words : " Our servants professed to be well acquainted 
 with the country we wished to examine, and being young and 
 stout, we flattered ourselves we should have little occasion to 
 reproach them with laziness ; but we soon found that, like all 
 other countrymen, they were systematically slow in their move- 
 ments ; and that every attempt, either in the way of entreaty 
 or of threat, to make them alert, was quite fruitless. Every 
 one who undertakes to travel in Iceland, must resolve to sub- 
 mit with patience to the tardiness of his attendants." 
 
 When it is said that the use of animal food "drives the mind 
 to the very extremity of madness," it must be understood with 
 the same limitations as must be apphed to all other constitu- 
 tional diseases, that it does this in those predisposed to the 
 disease. This predisposition is an original peculiarity of con- 
 stitution ; its essence escapes the senses, but its existence is 
 matter of daily experience. It is equally matter of experience 
 that animal food aggravates the disease. I shall cite in proof 
 of this the testimony of Dr. Hallaran, whose opportunities of 
 observation have been ample, he having been physician to the 
 Lunatic Asylum of Cork, from the year 1V89. It contains im- 
 portant information on more points than one. He says : 
 4* 
 
(w VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 '^ .t may be necessary to premise, that the unfortunate per- 
 sonf: I allude to are, with very few exceptions, composed of the 
 irli^i^nt and friendless idiots and insane of the county and 
 city of Cork. It therefore has been wisely resolved that their 
 common diet shall consist of the farinaceous fare to which, from 
 former habits, they have been more accustomed, 
 
 " It has been on many occasions a source of satisfaction to 
 me, and to the governors at large, to find, in compliance with 
 the necessary economy inseparable with the existence of so 
 large an institution, that this simple fare has not only been 
 proved fully competent to the comfortable maintenance of the 
 great majority of persons confined there, but also on a dietetic 
 principle more immediately suited to the prevention of those 
 inconveniences for which aperient medicines must otherwise 
 be in more frequent demand. There are some, it is true, whose 
 previous habits of living render a diet of this description rather 
 unpalatable, and among those may be ranked the incorrigible 
 drunkard, whose excesses so often reduce him to this level, 
 and to the necessity of accepting as the onl}^ indulgence the 
 beverage of all others the most likely to correct his depraved 
 appetites, and to restore him to an inclination for the natural food 
 of man. Daily observation shows that these unhappy people, 
 after having forced Nature from her fastnesses, will still, by be- 
 ing obliged to submit to a strict observance of this opposite 
 mode of living, regain their former cheerful aspect, and even 
 from its salutary consequence gave evident proofs of return- 
 ing intellect. 
 
 *' There are certain seasons of tlie year," he proceeds, '' when 
 the humanity of the governors disposes them to extend to the 
 poor people at the asylum a participation in the general festi- 
 vity, and from the prevalence of established custom, I allow of 
 It, as freely as circumstances do prudently admit, so far as a 
 few generous meals of animal food. The consequences on those 
 occasions have been uniformly the same, and so correctly anti- 
 cipated are they, that the strictest preciiutions are invariably 
 adopted to provide against the scene of uproar which is sure 
 to follow. The sudden and unusual stimulus of . animal food 
 may, therefore, very fully account for this disposition to riot ; 
 it might be inferred that, had the indulgence been more fre- 
 quently permitted, such an effect would not have been so very 
 very remarkable. This may in part apply ; but the fact is a 
 sufficient evidence that animal food tends strongly to the ag- 
 gravation of msanity. It. also affords an additional argument 
 hi favor of a farinaceous diet, in preference to tlie admittance of 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 83 
 
 animal matter, so long as there remains a prevalence of those 
 appearances which denote the insane orgasm. It also can be 
 ascertained that, on the first establishment of the institution, 
 when the number within its walls was far inferior to the pre- 
 sent, and when of course the funds were more competent, and 
 the regular allowance of animal food stood for once a week, 
 that then, in like manner, the effect among the insane was pre- 
 cisely what it now is known to be, when produced by a similar 
 cause, at two or three festivals within the year."^' 
 
 This evidence is highly important, whether considered either 
 negatively or positively. We will examine it m each point of 
 view. 
 
 First, it afFoi"ds very decisive evidence (if it were wanting) 
 that avoiding animal food and fermented liquoi-s will neither 
 prevent nor cure insanity. Such was the customary diet of the 
 great body of these patients ; and though the abuse of distilled 
 spirits is assigned as having an active share in the increased 
 frequency of insanity, it is neither pretended, nor is it all likely, 
 that this abuse was universal. Pinel has related the case of a 
 young man, "an inflexible disciple of Pythagoras in his system 
 of diet," who became subject, first to deep hypochondriacism, 
 and, finally, to total insanity. In no long time he died. On 
 this point, then, there can be no doubt ; and insanity must be 
 reckoned among the diseases which cannot be avoided, much 
 less cured, by the strictest adherence to the established rules of 
 temperance and abstinence from animal food. 
 
 But it is equally clear, on the other hand, that both the use 
 of animal food, and still more of fermented liquors, aggravates 
 and exasperates the disease. On this point the evidence of Dr 
 Hallaran is decisive; and it ought to be attended to in our 
 Englis-h -establishments, and a proper practice enforced by law. 
 In all of them both the ono and the other are allowed to a large 
 extent, and in some with little or no I'estriction. I myself have 
 seen a lunatic, a gross, fat man, in one of our largest private 
 establishments, with boiled beef, porter, and a bottle of wine 
 before him. It is high time that these abuses should be done 
 away. Probably many might be restored to reason without 
 
 * Dr. William Saunders Hallaran, on Insanity, p. 93, etc. I have seen 
 the facts related by Pinel on the deplorable consequences of a scanty and 
 insufficient nutriment on the patients of the Bicetre, cited in opposition to 
 Dr. Hallaran^s testimony. (See Pinel on Insanity, p. 209.) But the mis- 
 chiefs described by Pinel were not from farinaceous food, but from a de- 
 ficient quantity of any kind. Indeed, he says expressly, that the reduc- 
 tion which took place, and which did so much mischief to the poor peo- 
 ple, was in the daily allowance of bre^d. 
 
84 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 any further n.easurc than a strict enforcement of temperance 
 and abstinence. All certainly can not. 
 
 There can be no doubt, then, that animal food is unfavorable 
 to the intellectual powers. In some measure this effect is in- 
 stantaneous, it being hardly possible to apply to any thing 
 requiring thought after a full meal of meat ; so that is has been 
 not improperly said of the vegetable feeders, that with them it 
 is morning all day long. But its effect is not confined to the 
 immediate impression. As well as the senses, the memory, the 
 undv:rstanding, and the imagination, have been observed to 
 improve by a vegetable diet. 
 
 Notwithstanding those palpable and well-known observations, 
 I see it is asked, in a tone of triumph. Whether it is possible 
 that the species of food which has formed a Fox and a Pitt, 
 can be unfavorable to the production of talent ? Why did not 
 the writer (see Dr. Rees's Encyclopedia, Article Man) who has 
 used this argument carry it to its full extent, and prove that a 
 plentiful use of the bottle does not injure the intellect ? For it 
 is well known that one of those illustrious men indulged very 
 freely in his daily potations ; nor was the other, I believe, re- 
 markable for his temperance. But was it ever asserted that 
 the use of animal food absolutely extinguished talent, and re- 
 duced all men to idiotcy ? or that it affected all alike, so that 
 no difference of talent can be observed among those who use 
 it? Animal food, it is obvious, excites and stimulates for a 
 time the whole nervous system ; and as some under its influence 
 are able to perform prodigious feats of strength, so others may, 
 perhaps, be excited to intellectual exertions equally gigantic. 
 But such phenomena do not prove that animal food promotes 
 either healthy strength, or healthy intellect.* 
 
 I think it might be asked, w^ith much more reason, how hap- 
 pens it that the families of the whole body of the British nobility 
 could produce but one Fox and one Pitt to head the conflicting 
 parties of our senate ? how happens it that the same bodj^ has 
 produced not one man, no, not one, who is the acknowledged 
 inheritor of the talents of these illustrious statesmen? Not 
 one ; though the prize of successful exertion is the most splen- 
 did that can be proposed to honorable ambition the offices, 
 the dignities, and honors of the first empire of the world. 
 
 * The habits of Milton, it is said, were what would be ordinarily 
 termed austere. He was abstemious in diet, chaste, an early riser, and 
 industrious. He tells us that a lyrist may indulge in wine and a freer 
 life, but that he who would write an epic to the nations must eat heana 
 and drink water. Q, 
 
IN CIIUON'IC DISEASES. 85 
 
 Surely, a stronger proof cannot be given of the baleful and de- 
 pressing effects of luxury upon the human character; liow 
 much it benumbs the faculties and stifles the embryo genius ; 
 how much it emasculates the spirit, and paralyzes the best 
 energies of body and mind. 
 
 I do not doubt that the great ornament of our island, oui' 
 immortal Shakspeare, ate flesh daily. Nor do I see what this 
 proves but that among all the flesh eaters the genius of Shak- 
 speare was the most transcendent. But he, who understood 
 human nature the best perhaps of all the sons of men, was not 
 ignorant that luxury debased the intellect : for he said 
 
 " Fat paunches have lean pates ; and dainty bits 
 Make rich the ribs, but banker out the wits." 
 
 Lovers Labors Lost. 
 
 No one is ignorant that an increased portion of animal food 
 is often prescribed in disease, as is asserted, with great success. 
 I have already remarked upon what I deem this great abuse, 
 and the fallacy by which it is commonly supported. I shall 
 defer what I have to say of its alleged use in scrofula to another 
 part of these papers ; and shall here content myself with some 
 observations on its supposed utility in diabetes, and one or two 
 other cursory observations. 
 
 The treatment of this disease by a rigid abstinence from 
 vegetables is said to have been first suggested by Dr. Home ; 
 but the practice was introduced by Dr. Rollo, with the assist- 
 ance of Mr. Cruikshank, at Greenwich Hospital, about the year 
 1796. Dr. Rollo professed to have cured one case by tliis 
 method, but in a second of longer standing he failed. Hov/- 
 ever, the practice was for a time universally imitated, and vari- 
 ous examples of its efficacy have been given. Many examples 
 of its failure have also occurred. The method of treatment has 
 been extolled by some as a most important discovery. One of 
 Dr. Rollo's friends pronounced it to be " another triumph to 
 the pneumatic physicians, which blends with it relief to human 
 misery hitherto incurable." Dr. Latham has also spoken of it 
 in his treatise on diabetes, in language equally warm. 
 
 It must be observed, however, that various examples of this 
 disease being cured or subsiding spontaneously have been re- 
 lated by medical writers ; and the methods employed have 
 been occasionally the very opposite to this used by Dr. Rollo. 
 Willis, who was the first that observed the sweetness of the urine 
 in this disease, relates the case of the nobleman Avho recovered 
 from it two or three times by a milk diet, and the use of some 
 
86 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 simple remedies. And as the disease has occasionally disap- 
 peared under different modes of treatment, several different 
 remedies have had the credit of making cures. Very lately, 
 Dr. Warren has used opium in pretty large doses and with 
 seeming success. Hence it is clear that no judgment can be 
 formed of the real efficacy of the practice, of the number of 
 patients really cured, from solitary examples of success. 
 
 So little are the minds of medical practitioners made up with 
 regard to the general utility of this practice, that Dr. Watt has 
 still more recently proposed to treat this diseaiie by a method 
 exactly opposite to Dr. Rollo's, upon the alleged ground of 
 experience, and has gained much celebrity by the work he 
 published. His practice too has been imitated in some of the 
 London hospitals ; I cannot say with what success. But that 
 it has been imitated is proof enough of the unsettled state of 
 opinion with regard to the best mode of treating this disease. 
 It has been asserted (I cannot say at present by whom), that 
 in several cases in which apparent cures have been made, the 
 patients died soon afterward of inflammatory diseases ; a result 
 which I think highly probable. 
 
 Those patients who have perfectly recovered have afterward 
 resumed the use of vegetable food without injury. Hence it 
 must ever remain doubtful what share the temporary, and for 
 the most part imperfect relinquishment of vegetables for a 
 month or two (I believe more than this has been rarely done) 
 had in the cure.* 
 
 ^any afflicted with diabetes are at the same time deeply 
 consumptive. The second patient treated by Dr. Warren was 
 so, and, shortly after the apparent cure of the diabetes, died 
 consumptive. Now it will not be disputed that for the con- 
 sumptive symptoms a vegetable diet, or, at least, a vegetable 
 and milk diet, is the most proper. Here, then, we are arrived 
 at a practical reductio ad absurdum ; we ought to give the 
 meat for the diabetes, and to forbid it for the consumption. 
 Principles which lead to such incongruities can, I suspect, be 
 never founded in nature. 
 
 Still I think it must be conceded to Dr. Rollo and his imita- 
 tors, that as far as diminishing the flow of urine and destroy- 
 
 * In the Medical and Physical Journal for August, 1814, is a case of 
 diabotee mellitus cured by animal diet, which wm said to have been 
 adhered to nine months. But the patient was not under the eye of the 
 medical attendants, and therefore it is at least doubtful whether it was 
 really observed as strictly as they imagined. It is very diflBcult to con- 
 fine patients to vegetables ; bat it appears to be still more so to restrain 
 them from them altogether. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 87 
 
 mg the formation of sugar goes, the practice recommended 
 is very, if not completely, successful. From these experi- 
 ments it appears to follow, that the pabulum of these symp- 
 toms of the disease is furnished exclusively by the vegetable 
 matter taken into the stomach, and that the use of animal 
 matter checks the flow of urine, and gives it alkalescent quali- 
 ties. But though these facts are conceded, it does not follow- 
 that the effecting these changes is doing more than conquering 
 symptoms, whether to the benefit or to the detriment of the 
 constitution is undecided. 
 
 The different effects of vegetable and of animal food upon 
 the urine are facts of great importance, and the consequences 
 ought to be duly weighed. In confirmation of the conclusions 
 of Dr. Rollo, I must assert, that, upon vegetable food, I have 
 observed the urine to become at least double in quantity to 
 what it had been upon a mixed diet ; and this happened con- 
 tinuously for two or three years, or more, in a subject in whom 
 there was no thirst, and whose daily consumption of liquids 
 was less than half a pint. I have in many others made cor- 
 responding observations. From hence I have been instructed, 
 that it is the vegetable matter used, which principally supplies 
 the urine ; that the urine will be abundant, with a copious use 
 of vegetables ; and that there is no necessary proportion be- 
 tween the quantity of urine and the liquid ingesta. If, there- 
 fore, we wish to check the flow of urine, the most effectual 
 means would be to imitate the practice of Dr. Rollo, to prohi- 
 bit vegetable matter of every kind, and confine the patient 
 "wholly to animal food. 
 
 Now this is the practice, which, in dropsical cases, is, in a 
 certain degree, universally followed. We say that dropsy is a 
 disease of weakness, and requires animal food, in order, God 
 willing, to support the strength. But in general dropsy the 
 urine is likewise scanty, which we commonly in vain attempt 
 to remedy by diuretic medicines. Here, then, we have a second 
 reductio ad absurdum. Vegetable food is requisite to increase 
 the urine, and animal food to support the strength ; into such 
 strange inconsistencies and absurdities do our practices and opin- 
 ions lead us ! 
 
 Vegetable food in many dyspeptic persons gives pain of the 
 stomach. On this account it is customary to restrict or forbid 
 its use to such persons. It may be well for those, who recom- 
 mend this practice, to consider the following fact;^, related by a 
 writer who thought it reasonable and proper. This writer says : 
 
 " I knew a lady so miserablj 'ifilicted with these painful affec- 
 
83 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 tions of the stomach, that she was often under the necessity of 
 giving up every kind of vegetable food ; even the best fer- 
 mented bread became uneasy ; so much so that her diet has 
 been for weeks solely of an animal nature. I saw her once 
 luider these circumstances, when she had many symptoms of 
 the scurvy, such as spongy gums, livid spots on her arms and 
 legs, etc. At this time she lost one or two of her teeth ; but 
 the indigestion wore off, and she ate pot herbs for some time 
 without any inconvenience." Potter, on Scurvy, p. 36. 
 
 We see, then, that though this lady suffered less pain of the 
 stomach from animal food, the abstaining from vegetables still 
 injured the system, and produced deep iscorbutic symptoms. 
 It is, therefore, highly probable, that this lady lost more than 
 she gained by the plan she pursued ; and that it would have 
 been better for her to have suffered the pain, than to have pur- 
 chased ease in the manner she did. 
 
 It has been said, that the great fondness that men have for 
 animal food is proof enough that nature intended them to eat 
 it ; as if men were not fond of wine, ardent spirits, and other 
 things, which cut short their days ; as if the Russians were not 
 fond of tallow ; the Esquimaux of train oil ; and savages (I 
 might say, perhaps, some of our own vulgar) of blood, entrails, 
 and all sorts of garbage, the thoughts of which sicken a civi- 
 lized man. The raw and almost putrid flesh of the seal is the 
 delight of the Pesserais of the Tierra del Fuego ; and of this 
 the rank fat is to their taste the most dchcious part. 
 
 But those who think that a simple declaration o^ their liking 
 a thing is a sufficient apology for the use of it, I would beg to 
 consider whether it is not an argument that proves a great deal 
 too much. A savage has been seen to gnaw a bone of a human 
 body with just as much relish as we suck a bone of mutton. 
 Forster says, " In the province of Matto-grosso, in Brazil, a wo- 
 man told his excellency, Chevalier Pinto, who was then gover- 
 nor, that human flesh was extremely palatable, especially if 
 taken from a young person. And during the last dearth in 
 Germany, a shepherd killed first a young person, to satisfy the 
 cravings of hunger with his flesh, and afterward several more, 
 in order to please his luxurious palate." Man's flesh, then, is 
 as good as the flesh of the ox or the hog ; and the assertion of 
 Swift, on which he has grounded his " Modest proposal for pre- 
 venting the children of poor people in Ireland from being a 
 burden to their parents or country," is not only groundless, 
 viz., " that a young healthy child, well nursed, is at a year old 
 a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether 
 
IN CHliONIC DISEASES. 89 
 
 stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled." Some animals devour their 
 own oflspring ; and if we do not the same, it is not because 
 their flesh would be disgustful to the palate. 
 
 Whether, therefore, the taste of animal food be naturally 
 pleasing to the organs of man, or not, is what I am wholly- 
 ignorant of. . But it is certain that our having contracted a 
 liking for it is no proof of the aflirmative ; no, not if there are 
 infants who like it, as soon as they see the ligiit. Infants bring 
 with them into the world the morbid constitutions and morbid 
 appetites of their parents. The flexibility of our organs, by 
 wliich we contract a fondness for things indifferent and oflen- 
 sive is, however, a quality highly useful, and, indeed, the 
 source of much of our happiness. Men, in consequence, be- 
 come attached to what is within their reach, and to that to 
 which they are habituated ; but not so much but that they 
 have the power to change, if the circumstances of life render 
 it necessary. But th's blessing, like every other, may, by its 
 abuse, be converted into a curse. 
 
 Wretched are they who are so much enslaved to habit that 
 they find it impossible to change. But there are an abundance 
 of these wretched beings who would rather renounce their lives 
 than forego a momentary gratification. Nothing is more com- 
 mon in this very article of eating. And yet so artificial is the 
 relish we have contracted for our food, that even in European 
 countries we may find those who cannot bear what Englishmen 
 are the most fond of. Mr. Hooker has related a curious in- 
 stance of this strength of habit. In his journey through Ice- 
 land, a beggar accompanied him on his way. Observing the 
 miserable condition of this poor creature, he offered him some 
 food. But he says, *' I was extremely surprised and mortified 
 to find that this wretclied being, who could scarcely crawl along, 
 but who kept company with us some way on one of our relay 
 horses, was not able to eat a morsel of the ship bread and meat 
 which I gave him, so accustomed had he been to a milk and 
 fish diet, and such a stranger was he to any kind of food essen- 
 tially different both in flavor and hardness." 
 
 Eo.mus quo ducit gula, was the answer of a very worthy 
 friend of my own, whom I i-n vain exhorted to change his regi- 
 men. And it led him where he was evidently tending, but not 
 very fast, when the advice was given to the grave. 
 
 My reason for objecting to every species of matter to be used 
 as food, except the direct produce of the earth, is founded as 
 may be seen in my last publication on the broad ground that 
 no other matter is suited to the organs of man, as indicated by 
 
90 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 his structure. This applies then with the same force to eggs, 
 milk, cheese, and fish, as to flesh meat. The different salubrity 
 of each article ought to be estimated by the different degrees 
 of longevity enjoyed by persons, as far as it is influenced by 
 diet. But to obtain any thing approaching to correct calcula- 
 tion on such subjects is obviously impracticable. ,As far, how- 
 ever, as I can form a judgment fiom a few facts picked up in 
 the course of desultory reading, fish is the sort of food which, 
 if made the principal article of sustenance, is the most unfavor- 
 able to health and longevity. 
 
 Fish is a kind of diet which the bulk of the people, who have 
 been accustomed to other food, never use voluntarily as a chief 
 article of sustenance. Servants, where fish is cheap, bargain 
 that they shall not be forced to eat it more than once or twice 
 a week. But it is for the most part with us scarce and dear, 
 hence it is a favorite with the rich, who like whatever is of high 
 price. But even with them it is the cookery which gives it its 
 principal relish. 
 
 Dr. Cheyne says of fish, " 'Tis always observable that those 
 who live much on fish are affected with scurvy, cutaneous erup- 
 tions, and the other diseases of a foul blood. And every body 
 finds himself more thirsty and heavy than usual after a firil meal 
 of fish, let them be ever so fresh, and is forced to have recourse 
 to spirits and distilled liquors to carry them off. So that it is 
 become a proverb among those that live much upon them, that 
 brandy is Latin for fish. Besides that, after a full meal of fish, 
 even at noon, one never sleeps so sound the ensuing evening, as 
 is certain from constant observation." 
 
 These are not random and unfounded remarks, but are con- 
 formable to many authentic observations. Fish does not impart 
 the strength of animal food, but it is as oppressive to the stom- 
 ach as flesh, and it is more putrescent, as may be concluded 
 from the nauseous and hepatic eructations of the stomach after 
 it has been eaten. 
 
 I have already noticed (p. 59) the disappearance of incurable 
 cutaneous diseases, in the isle of Ferro, by the substitution of 
 agriculture to fishing. In Iceland the same diseases have taken 
 deep root, doubtless from the same cause, fish being a principal 
 part of the sustenance of the inhabitants. The following is an 
 extract from Van Troil's letters, illustrative of this point : 
 
 " You may ask, sir, hoAv this disease (the elephantiasis) came 
 to be so firmly rooted in Iceland, as it has so decreased in the 
 south, that it has almost disappeared there? I believe that 
 this is not so much owing to the climate as to the manner of 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 9i 
 
 life and diet. People, wiiose co!itiimal occupation is fishing, 
 are night and day exposed to Avet and cold, frequently feed 
 upon corrupted rotten fish, fish livers and roes, fat and train of 
 whales, nnd sea dogs, as hkewise congealed and sour milk. They 
 commonly wear wet clothes, and are exposed to all the hard- 
 ships of poverty. The greater number of these are therefore 
 to be met with in the lower class ; on the contrary-, where less 
 fish and sour whey are eaten, and more Icelandic moss (Lichen 
 Islandicus), and other vegetables, this disease is not so preva- 
 lent, according to an observation made by Mr. Paterson in the 
 above-mentioned transactions." Transactions of the Royal 
 Swedish Academy of Sciences. 
 
 The recent testimony of Mr. Hooker is to the same effect. 
 He says, " The Icelanders in general do not attain to an ad- 
 vanced period of life, though many live to the age of seventy, 
 and enjoy a good state of health ; but this is among the higher 
 class of people. Scurvy, leprosy, and elephantiasis are no where 
 perhaps more prevalent; and they are likewise, according to 
 Van Troil, peculiarly afflicted with St. Anthony's Fire, the 
 jaundice, pleurisy, and lowness of spirits." In another passage 
 he testifies " that the elephantiasis is cured by the use of anti- 
 scorbutic vegetables," 
 
 A vulgar notion has been prevalent, that a fish diet is favor- 
 able to the powers of generation, and that persons living on it 
 are more than commonly prolific. But this opinion appears to 
 be wholly erroneous. On the contrary, among such persons the 
 increase of the race is very small. Forster says, " In Greenland 
 and among the Esquimaux, where the natives live chiefly upon 
 fish, seals, and oily animal substances, the women seldom bear 
 children oftener than three or four times ; five or six births are 
 reckoned a very extraordinary instance. The Pesserais, whom 
 we saw, had not above two or three children belonging to each 
 family, though their common food consisted of muscles, fish, 
 and seal flesh. The New Zealanders absolutely feed on fish,* 
 and yet no more than three or four children were found in the 
 most prolific families ; which seems strongly to indicate that 
 feeding on fish by no means contributes to the increase of num- 
 bers in a nation." 
 
 Our knowledge of the average length of life, to which the 
 fish-eating tribes of mankind arrive, is necessarily scanty, they 
 not being numerous, and of a very low degree of civilization. 
 
 * The writer must mean that it is the only animal food (if I may so 
 epeak) they use. We know that they eat the roots of ferns, and are not 
 wholly ignorant of agriculture. 
 
92 VEGETABLE D KT 
 
 But as far as our inforniation readies, it tends to show that this 
 period is very short, I shall bring forward two distinct evi- 
 dences for this conckision, of which the coincidence of the testi- 
 mony is very remarkable. 
 
 The first is that of Captain Cook, who informs us that at Ona- 
 lashka (an island on the north-west coast of America), fish 
 forms a principal part of the food of the inhabitants. They 
 dry large quantities of it in summer, which they store in small 
 huts for their winter stock. Of these people this very saga- 
 cious observer remarks : " They do not seem to be long-lived. 
 I nowhere saw a person, man or woman, whom I could sup- 
 pose to be sixty years of age, and but very few who appeared 
 to be above fifty." 
 
 An account given by Bruce of the length of life of the injiab- 
 itants of the largest island of the Red Sea entirely correspohds 
 with this. He says, "At Dalahac, the sustenance of the poorer 
 sort is entirely shell and other fish" (they have also a good 
 deal of goats' milk, and some millet, but no bread). " I could 
 not observe a man among them that seemed to be sixty years 
 old." 
 
 These observations are the more worthy of notice, as being 
 made in very different latitudes ; and as there are few places 
 indeed so imhappily circumstanced, as not to possess a few 
 with constitutions strong enough to carry them to four-score. 
 They are, in general, conformable to a remark of Friar Bacon, 
 who says, " Bread yields a moisture safer from destruction than 
 flesh, and flesh produces a moisture more removed from cor- 
 ruption than fish." Facts such as these should be well weighed 
 by those who institute and support societies for supplying the 
 poor with fish, and those who are so anxious to promote the 
 fisheries at the expense of agriculture. For it is to be observ- 
 ed that they cannot both prosper in the same places ; the oc- 
 cupation of fishing being most lucrative and secure at the 
 season when the husbandman ought to be most busy. 
 
 Of all the other substances which enter largely into human 
 diet, the milk of herbivorous animals is, probably, that which 
 approaches most nearly in salubrity to pure vegetable matter. 
 Being secreted almost immediately after taking in food (as 
 nurses constantly experience), it partakes the most of the pro- 
 perties of the food. Accordingl}'-, we find that milk is im- 
 pregnated with a saccharine substance, and that it is suscepti- 
 ble of the vinous and acetous fermentations. Hence milk is in 
 part vegetable food ; and as such, is used by all pastoral na- 
 tions, and serves in a measure as a substitute for it. The Brit- 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 93 
 
 ish aborigines of our own island were in this condition, living, 
 as Caesar has informed us, upon milk and flesh. 
 
 Many have been sustained by milk alone, even for a series of 
 years ; and have avoided some of the sufferings which they 
 had experienced when eating flesh. I cannot doubt, there- 
 fore, that to those who can submit to such a course, it would 
 prove more salubrious than a diet of animal food, and, pro- 
 bably, such persons would lengthen their Hves by this practice. 
 
 But independent of the irksomcness and disgust which have 
 been commonly experienced from milk, when used abundantly, 
 it seems to me highly unphilosophical to suppose that there 
 can be any substitute ever discovered for natural diet. There 
 are some gases which approach ver}^ nearl}^ in their constitu- 
 ent principles to atmospheric air. But we do not find it pos- 
 sible to use any gas as a substitute for common air, consistently 
 with health. We cannot even add to or diminish from the con- 
 stituents of common air, without rendering it less fitted for 
 respiration. Why then should we fancy that we may yield to 
 any caprice or fancy with regard to our food ; and that any 
 substance whatever, which the juices of the stomach can dis- 
 solve, is equally wholesome ; or that, because the milk of a cow 
 aftbrds the best possible nourishment to a calf, it is therefore 
 the substance of all others the best suited to a child ? 
 
 For milk, besides its saccharine and fermentable principles, 
 contains a coagulabie matter, the curd or cheese, which is more 
 perfectly animalized, and which is very nearly allied to the al- 
 buminous matter of animal bodies. Hence the operation of 
 milk upon the system is in part the same as that of animal 
 food, though it is less powerful in degree. It at first fattens 
 and heightens the color. It therefore possesses a degree of 
 the stimulating power of animal food, and must ev^entually have 
 similar results. But milk, moreover, in many habits excites 
 headache, thirst, weight, and oppression at the stomach ; and 
 in those who have tried to make it the principal part of their 
 sustenance, the attempt has commonly caused an almost insu- 
 perable disgust. This, I have little doubt, is the true reason 
 why such an experiment is now so rarely made. It affords 
 sufficient ground for thinking that milk ought to be excluded, 
 as much as possible, from the diet of persons to whom a strict 
 adherence to regimen is necessary. 
 
 We give it indeed to our children, and this is so customary 
 that I have heard it exclaimed against as a perfect act of inhu- 
 manity to deny it them. But I cannot find that children from 
 whom it is withheld at all regret or suffer from the want of 
 
94 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 it. The whole immense population of China is brought up ; and 
 the use of milk is hardly known throughout this vast empire. 
 
 If Ave consider pure nature, we must acknowledge that our 
 food ought to be of such a kind as to require mastication, at 
 least as soon as we are furnished with teeth. This considera- 
 tion alone is enough to make us suspect that milk cannot be 
 strictly proper nor perfectly suitable to the human constitu- 
 tion. We are always complaining of the trouble our teeth 
 give us. But from our practices we appear to regard them 
 as useless and superfluous. 
 
 Some, from whom I expected more correct reasoning, have 
 aigued from this custom of giving milk to children, and even to 
 infants, without apparent detriment, that it therefore must be per- 
 fectly innoxious But in this whole discourse we are inquiring, 
 not what the healthy may do with impunity, but what is most 
 proper for the diseased, in order to restore their health or palliate 
 their sufferings. Now I see no reason why milk should be 
 reckoned perfectly innocent, because we give it to children, or 
 why a healthy child may not bear deviation from the most nat- 
 ural and proper food with as much, or even with greater, 
 safety than a healthy adult. In such a child, though the bodily 
 strength is feeble, the vital powers are strong, and indeed they 
 must frequently be much stronger in the child than in the full- 
 grown man. It cannot be but a child, which may have four- 
 score years of life remaining to it, must be vitally stronger than 
 an adult who may have nearly finished his race of life ; it may 
 be expected to bear injuries better, and in fact it commonly 
 does so. But with regard to the question before us, it is very 
 common for children to die whose principal substance has been 
 milk. From the custom of feeding children with it, then, we 
 can infer nothing with regard to its salubrity. 
 
 Milk eating and flesh eating are but branches of a common 
 s}stem, and they must stand or fall together. If tliere wei-e 
 no demand for the lesh of the animal, the milk would not even 
 be produced. The zeal question, taken in the widest extent, is, 
 whether the agricultural system ought not wholly to supersede 
 the pastoral system, as in countries increasing in population it 
 is constantly doing in some degree. Nature herself, that is to 
 say, the productive power of the soil, has confined the possi- 
 bility of maintaining the domestic animals within such strait 
 limits, that an abundant population cannot be supplied, from 
 its own soil,* with a daily moderate portion either of flesh or of 
 
 * The country Laplanders (for there are fishing tribes of the same race) 
 present us with the most perfect example of p.^'storal manners. They 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES' 95 
 
 milk; much less can it feed tliem upon tL.se substances. It 
 is said to have been the wish of the fourth Henry, that eveiy 
 peasant of France should have his poulet dans Ic pot. But this 
 was a dream of benevolence, to the realization of which nature 
 has placed an insuperable barrier. Search the world through, 
 and an example cannot be found of a large society living upon 
 flesh, the produce of its own soil. The same may also be said 
 of milk. Both the one and the other are monopolized, as it 
 were, by those members of the community who possess some 
 superfluous property. But this order of men will ever struggle 
 in vain to draw a line of demarkation between themselves, and 
 their fellow-men, and to raise themselves, as it were, above the 
 common lot of humanity. Nature disdains our artificial distinc- 
 tions, and views all her ofi'spring with the same parental eye. 
 Can, indeed, any notion be so irrational, so monstrous, as to 
 suppose that a Creator has formed myriads of human beings, 
 perfect in strength and intellect, and at the same time has made 
 it impossible for them to provide what is necessary to the pres- 
 ervation of animal hfe ? We may safely conclude then, that 
 what is not necessary cannot be natural ; it is easy to go one 
 step further, and say, what is not natural cannot be useful. 
 
 I shall in this place introduce a few words on the question of 
 how far artificial preparation of all our vegetable food is neces- 
 sary or useful. That many sorts are really improved by 
 cookery admits of no question ; but it may be doubted whe- 
 ther by indiscriminately macerating every thing as we do, we 
 do not often injure the substance we operate upon, instead of 
 improving it. With us, a parent will correct his child for eat- 
 ing a raw turnip, as if it were poisonous. But the Russians, 
 from the lowest peasant to the highest nobleman, are, accord- 
 have small quantities of meal, supplied by commerce, and eat such vege- 
 table matter as their country spontaneously produces, particularly the 
 angelica, which is their great delight. But the far greater part of their 
 sustenance is from the flesh and milk of the rein-deer. The wealth of the 
 Laplander is estimated by the number of rein-deer which he possesses. 
 Of the number of these animals necessary to a family we have from a late 
 traveler the following account : " We had yet seen no herd under 300. 
 With this number a family is said to be in moderate prosperity. It can 
 be maintained. They can afford to kill as many rein-deer as are neces- 
 sary for fond and clothing, shoes and boots, and to sell besides a few 
 rein-deer skins, hides, and hoi-ns to the merchant for meal, or brandy, or 
 woolen stuffs. On the other hand, a family lives very miserably on a 
 hundred of these animals, and can hardly keep from starving." (Von 
 Buch's Travels through Norway and Lapland, p. 322.) We see, then 
 what a space of ground each Lapland family must occupy, and how impoo* 
 sible it is that a country upon such a system car become populoua. 
 
96 VEGETABLK DIET 
 
 ing to Clarke, eating raw turnips all day long. We may be 
 certain then, that there is no harm in the practice. 
 
 But further, there is every reason to believe, particularly 
 from the observations of the navigators in the Pacific Ocean, 
 that those races of men who admit into their nutriment a large 
 proportion of fruit, and recent vegetable matter, unchanged by 
 culinary art, have a form of body, the largest, of the most per- 
 fect proportion, and the greatest beauty, that they have the 
 greatest strength and activity, and probably that they enjoy 
 the best health. 
 
 This fact alone is enough to refute the vulgar error (for it 
 deserves no other name) that animal food is necessary to sup- 
 port the strength. It may be necessary to those whom the 
 injustice or the artificial wants of society have doomed to the 
 labor of dray-horses. Even this is doubtful. But we see that 
 almost the whole agricultural labor of the country is performed 
 without it. It cannot, therefore, be necessary to this species of 
 labor, nor to any other whicli a man ought to undergo. The 
 same fact may still prompt us further to inquire, whether 
 there is any just foundation for the prejudices which are very 
 prevalent against the use of fruit, as if there were something in 
 it pernicious or dangerous, and to examine from whence these 
 prejudices have arisen. 
 
 This notion of fruit being unwholesome has descended to us, 
 even from the days of Galen. He has said, that " All fruits 
 are of a bad composition, and useful only to persons who have 
 been exposed to great heat, or harassed by a long journey." 
 
 But this same Galen has soon after acknowledged that fruits 
 afford a perfect nourishment ; in proof of which he observed, 
 that the persons who are set over the vineyards, and who live 
 for a couple of months upon nothing but figs and grapes (with 
 the addition, perhaps, of a little bread) become fat. Dr. Cleg- 
 horn says that this observation of Galen is annually confirmed 
 at Minorca, it being remarkable that the persons appointed for 
 the same purpose there commonly continue in good health, 
 though in that season tertians usually rage with the greatest 
 violence. Similar observations have been made upon negroes 
 in the West Indies, who live on the recently expressed juice of 
 tae sugar cane; and Sir George Staunton says, "As in the 
 West Indies, so in China, the people employed in the fields 
 during this season" (the time of pressing the sugar canes) 
 " are observed to get fat and sleek ; and many of the Chinese 
 slaves and idle persons are frequently missing about the time 
 that the canes become ripe, hiding themselves, and living alto- 
 gether in the plantations. 
 
IN tfinONIC DISEASES. 97 
 
 The prejudices then entertained against fruit and recent un- 
 changed vegetable matter cannot be founded in any just obser- 
 vations, proving that they are truly insalubrious, and unfit for 
 human nutriment. Yet it cannot be doubted that matter of this 
 kind excites, in many, great inconvenience and uneasiness. There 
 are those to whom a raw apple is an object of terror almost as 
 great as a pistol shot. Numbers of people cannot bear a mor- 
 sel of fruit. Dean Swift, in several of his letters, complains 
 that he could not eat a bit of fruit without suffering, and de- 
 clares how much he envied persons whom he saw munching 
 peaches, while he durst not touch a morsel. Wood, the 
 miller of Billericay, who set up for a sort of a doctor, warned 
 people strongly against the use of fruit, guided, no doubt, by 
 a similar feeling of uneasiness. 
 
 But we see children glut themselves, almost to bursting, 
 with fruits, and suffering nothing from them but a little tempo- 
 rary uneasiness from distention. We see, as I have said, tribes 
 of people principally supported by them. And from the great 
 pleasure which children and young persons, whose stomachs 
 are the most healthy, receive from them, it seems probable that 
 fruit, and the produce of trees in general, instead of being un- 
 wholesome, is the sort of matter the most suited to the organs 
 of man. Such was the opinion of the great naturalist Linnaeus. 
 " This species of food," he says, ** is that which is most suit- 
 able to man ; which is evinced by the series of quadrupeds, 
 analogy, wild men, apes, the structure of the mouth, of the 
 stomach, and the hands." 
 
 We have, indeed, annual accounts of persons killing them- 
 selves by eating nuts or cherries ; but such relations probably 
 come from persons who are little capable of determining the 
 causes of death or disease. Upon a sudden seizure, particu- 
 larly of fatal illness, the last thing eaten commonly bears the 
 blame. There may be found in the Philosophical Transactions 
 a grave account, by one of the most eminent members of the 
 Royal Society, of a boy killed by eating apple dumphng. 1 
 have never trembled on this account when I have had a good 
 plateful of apple pudding before me. 
 
 That fruit and recent vegetable matter, in general, is not 
 merely innoxious, but much more congenial to the constitution 
 than the same matter which has been changed by culinary pre- 
 paration, may be further deduced from its superior efficHcy in 
 the cure of scurvy. The fact of the facility with which this 
 disease, which has proved fatal to thousands of seamen and 
 others, may be cured, is so fully established that it is neediest 
 6 
 
^S VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 to cite any proofs of it. Suffice it to say, that if the patient i 
 not consumptive, nor laboring under any other chronic disease^ 
 it will yield in the course of a few days to the use of fruit, lemo 
 juice, antiscorbutic herbs, or, in short, of any vegetable mattei 
 that is wholesome and fresh. Even raw potatoes have effected 
 a cure. And so speedy is the effect upon the system, that the 
 color of a scorbutic ulcer becomes improved and reddened in 
 twelve hours after the use of lemons. It is not perhaps so well 
 known that vegetables which have been submitted to the fire 
 are far less efficacious against this disease. But this fact seems 
 perfectly established. On this point a physician of the first 
 authority on such subjects has these observations : 
 
 "It is certain that the medical eflects of the native sweet 
 juices are, in other respects, very differei^t from what they are 
 in their refined state ; for manna, wort, and the native juice of 
 the sugar cane are purgative, whereas sugar itself is not at all 
 so. This affords a presumption that they may be also different 
 in their antiscorbu.tic quality ; and there is reason to think, from 
 experience, that the more natural the state in which any vege- 
 table is, the greater is its antiscorbutic quality. Vegetables in 
 the form of salads are more powerful than when prepared by 
 fire ; and I know for certain, that the rob of lemons and oranges 
 is not to be compared to the fresh fi-uit. Raw potatoes have 
 been used with advantage in the fleet, particularly by Mr. Smith 
 of the Triton, who made the scorbutic men etit them sUced with 
 vinegar, with great benefit. This accords also with what Dr. 
 Mertens, of Vienna, has lately communicated to the Royal So- 
 ciety of London." 
 
 It has been observed by some other writers, that it adds 
 much to the suffering of the scorbutic seaman when, from the 
 rotten state of his teeth, he is unable to eat the sour krout with- 
 out boiling, for that the boiling very much impairs its antiscor- 
 butic powers. 
 
 But this is not all. There have been examples of a deep 
 scurvy appearing among persons whose diet was entirely vege- 
 table. Dr. Trotter has related an instance of this in a cargo of 
 unfortunate negroes in a slave ship, who were fed upon beans, 
 rice, and Indian corn. It is proper, however, to add, that these 
 poor wretches were most diabolically treated, being stowed 
 spoonways, according to the technical phrase ; and some were 
 actually suffocated for want of fresh air. 
 
 These facts are enough to show that there is an essential dif- 
 ference between fresh vegetable matter and the same mattei 
 jhanged by cookery ; and they make it in a manner certam, 
 
^^ cHiioMc d:sea3es. 99 
 
 that in the latter s' ite it is less congenial to the human frame. 
 If, therefore, in this state it creates uneasiness in the stomach, 
 it must proceed, not from any noxious quahty of the vegetable, 
 but from some vice of the stomach itself. And it illustrates 
 most forcibly how much we may be deceived, by inferring any 
 thing concerning the good and ill qualities of a substance from 
 its primary operation on a morbid body ; how httle, havmg de- 
 praved our stomachs by the stimulation of an artificial system 
 of diet, we can confide in the feelings conveyed. 
 
 The internal coat of this organ possesses an exquisite sensi- 
 bility, if not to all impressions, to those which are peculiarly 
 fitted to it. This sensibihty appears to be a species of taste, 
 very nearly like that of the tongue or palate ; and our likings 
 and aversions may be suspected to be caused by the relation 
 between this membrane and the substances applied to it. Now 
 under the common habits of life we find a slow but constant 
 change taking place with regard to the objects of liking, so that 
 gradually all the substances which were most the objects of 
 de-sire, and afforded the highest pleasure in our early days, when 
 it must be supposed that the organs were tlie most healthy, be- 
 come indifi'erent, if not disaorreeable. All the effective agents 
 which are applied to the system may contribute to this result. 
 But probably the stimulating part of our diet the animal food 
 and fermented liquors is that which has the most active share 
 in its production. 
 
 In consequence of these habits, the stomach becomes more 
 and more agreeably affected, and, as it were, in unison with 
 whatever is stimulating, and which is really warm or excites the 
 feelings of warmth ; and, on the other hand, what is cool or 
 what excites the feeling of coldness is disagreeable and uneasy. 
 In this respect the internal parts of the body, and especially 
 this very sensible membrane, is similar to the external, which 
 may be made so tender by large fires, close rooms, and indul- 
 gence, as not to bear without pain the common temperature of 
 the atmosphere. A gouty stomach, constantly under the in- 
 fluence of wine, spirits, rich sauces, and made dishes, finds it 
 necessary for comfortable feeling to have the stimulus gradually 
 heightened ; weak wines are deficient in power ; it requires the 
 strongest, or even ardent spirits, to make it comfortable ; and 
 every thing solid must likewise be highly seasoned. Many per- 
 sons, too, have the stomach in this condition who are not sub- 
 ject to gout. 
 
 Now these are the persons to whom vegetables of all kinds 
 are the most distasteful and insipid, and, as they think, from the 
 
100 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 flatulence they excite, indigestible. But fruit, and all vegetable 
 matter unchanged by cookery, are still more opposite to this 
 condition of the stomach, for they excite a sense of coldness in 
 the organ to which nothing is agreeable but what is stimulant 
 and fiery ; as they dissolve with more slowness than any other 
 species of matter, they are esteemed the most difficult of diges- 
 tion, and the impression which they make is more permanent 
 than that of any other matter which is used as food. 
 
 These are the circumstances which appear to me to make 
 fruit and recent vegetables so offensive to a number of persons, 
 and to have i-aised such strong prejudices against them as if 
 they were really pernicious. That in a multitude of persons 
 the}'' excite uneasy feeling, and therefore appear to disagiee, is 
 certain ; and those who argue immediately from their feeling 
 can hardly form any other conclusion. But those who look a 
 little below the surface of things will be less hasty in their de- 
 terminations. They will inquire how these uneasy feelings are 
 generated, and what they indicate. They must see that they 
 may arise from a diseased condition of the stomach, as well as 
 from any thing noxious in the matter applied to it ; and if the 
 account I have given be just, such must be the truth. This 
 will lead them a step further, and they will inquire whether by 
 breaking in upon the old habits, it is not possible to alter the 
 sensations, and to get rid of the pains or uneasiness by amend- 
 ing the state of the stomach itself ? 
 
 Considerable experience has convinced me that this is very 
 possible. I have seen persons who have followed the regimen 
 I advise in chronic diseases regain their relish for fruit, and 
 indulge in it without any detriment or inconvenience. This 
 they could not do under their former mixed regimen ; and it 
 abundantly compensated for the deprivations they sustained in 
 other articles. A gentleman told me that under this regimen 
 he can eat cherries in any quantity with impunity, which for- 
 merly were used to give him considerable uneasiness. 
 
 If I am right in my account of the source of the uneasiness 
 which many persons suffer from fruits and recent vegetables, 
 it must follow that it is a gross absurdity to deny them to 
 children, young persons, or invalids, who have a desire for 
 them and in whm they produce no uneasiness. And yet this 
 absurdity is committed daily. Children are forbidden fruit 
 who have the greatest longing for it. If any desiic can be 
 truly be said to be natural and instinctive, it is this. As such 
 it should always be moderately indulged. To act otherwise is 
 equally irrational and cruel. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 101 
 
 I hope not to be so far misunderstood (even that has hap- 
 pened) as if I blamed all culinary preparation of vegetables. 
 But I think that the practice is carried to excess. It appears 
 to be the general opinion that almost all vegetable matter, if 
 not previously submitted to the action of heat, is absolutely 
 indigestible and noxious. But the fact is that almost all our 
 common garden vegetables may be used without any such pre- 
 paration ; and it is highly probable that in this natural condi- 
 tion they would be more nutritive, more strengthening, and cer- 
 tainly far more antiscorbutic than when they have been changed 
 by the fire. On this account it is that I think it highly advisable 
 that some portion either of fruit or of* fresh vegetable matter 
 should be used daily. Children, too, should be encouraged in 
 the use of such things instead of being forbid them, as is the 
 common practice. If the stomach be so much diseased that 
 nothing of this kind can be borne, soups made with a large 
 quantity of recent vegetables may be substituted. They seem 
 to be far preferable to vegetables much boiled ; the soup and 
 the vegetables may be eaten together, and are very agreeable 
 to the palate. 
 
 I have been asked repeatedly, as I recommend to the invalid 
 distilled in place of common water, whether I think it necessary 
 to use the same kind for boiling vegetables. I take this oppor- 
 tunity, therefore, to say that I regard such nicety as needless. 
 If the matter to be boiled absorbs a large quantity of water, 
 as rice, this attention may be right. In making bread the same 
 attention should, if possible, be paid. But the quantity absorbed 
 by common culinary vegetables is probably too small to deserve 
 notice. Those who wish to be extremely exact may dress their 
 vegetables by steam. '^ 
 
 There may be other parts of our dietetic habits which it 
 would not be improper to examine. The use of tea and coffee, 
 foi*example, is by many suspected, and, perhaps, not without 
 
 * One of the principal marks of distinction between the face of a negro 
 or the savage man, and the European, is in the form of the face. The 
 negro has the mouth and chin very prominent, so that a perpendicular 
 line let fall from the forehead cuts off a much larger portion of the low^er 
 part of the face in the negro than in the European. Now it seems very 
 clear that this form of the face is generated by the use of food requiring 
 more mastication, consequently greater force of the masticating organs. 
 In consequence, the temporal, massiler, diagastric, and the other muscles 
 of mastication become habitually stronger, the surface of attachment 
 enlarged and elongated, and the whole form of the head and face changed 
 and modified from these circumstances. If this position be just, the form 
 of the head and face, which distinguishes civilized nations, is produced in 
 a great measure by the cookery of their food. 
 
102 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 reason. But I abstain from subjects on which I am conscious 
 that I have nothing of value to offer. I shall, therefore, con- 
 clude with making a single inquiry with regard to bread, which 
 I shall leave to the determination of those who are competent 
 to pronounce on such questions, and who have proper oppor- 
 tunities of observations. What I would ask is this, Is the 
 farina of wheat, or any other, improved or injured is it made 
 more or less wholesome by fermentation ? or, in other words, 
 which should be preferred, leavened or unleavened bread? 
 The leaven or fermented bread sits lighter upon the stomach ; 
 but this is no proof that it is really more salubrious. We know 
 very well that the coarsest black bread, which is as heavy 
 almost as a lump of dough, gives much nourishment and 
 strength. A sensible writer says, that he " has heard a sea- 
 faring man observe that he was always sensible of a diminution 
 of muscular strength when he left off the use of biscuit and ate 
 common bread." Hippocrates has given a corresponding 
 testimony. His words are "Leavened or fermented bread is 
 hghter in digestion, and passes easily through the body ; but 
 unfermented bread does not go off so easily, though it nour- 
 ishes more where the stomach can bear it." 
 
 If these observations are correct, the fermenting of bread and 
 the cookery of vegetables are practices adopted by mankind 
 from the same motives ; they accommodate the matters to which 
 they are applied to the factitious delicacy of our digesting 
 organs, which is effected, however, at some expense of their 
 strengthening and nutritive powers. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Noxious habits of slow operation. Erroneous statements. Vegetable 
 food necessary to a perfect organization. It is produced in all climatef 
 habitable by man. The natural progress of society. The use of ani- 
 mal food a relic of barbarous manners. 
 
 In ascribing the diseases of mankind to their situation and 
 habits of life, I have commonly said that these are to be con- 
 sidered not as their immediate, but as their remote and ante- 
 cedent causes ; a distinction v/hich it is necessary carefully to 
 attend to. For it is obvious that no habit whatever, whether 
 it regard food or drink, or situation, cf.n possibly have been 
 
IN CHROx\IC DISEASES. 103 
 
 received and adoptee' by an}^ society of men without its beino- 
 apparently salubrious to the great majority of the society. 
 Were it otherwise, the truth would become evident even to the 
 rudest savages ; and they would accordingly change their habits, 
 or at least be disposed to do so. But the majority of the 
 society enjoying a portion of health and comfort, with which 
 they are contented, the operation of remote causes escapes 
 observation, and men become exceedingly unwilhng to connect 
 their sufferings with the things which constitute a large portion 
 of their enjoyments. 
 
 Tlie example of persons arriving at what is deemed extreme 
 old age still further confirms the delusion. How, it is asked, 
 can that be pernicious which persons use, and vnjoy good health, 
 perhaps for four-score years and upward? It is, indeed, a 
 wonderful instance of the varieties of the human constitution. 
 But when we see that there are men who use daily large quan- 
 tities of wine and ardent spirits without apparent detrim-ent^' 
 that they carry it even to the extent of daily intoxication with 
 a long-continued impunity we must confess that these facts 
 prove nothing more than this astonishing variety. They show 
 us that we are really ignorant of what is the natural duration 
 cf human life under the most favorable circumstances. The 
 examples of extraordinary ]onge\ity, which some few individuals 
 have been known to attain, show how much we are in the dark 
 
 * The late Dr. Holyoke, of Salem, Mass., lived to the age 100 yeai's. 
 He was in the habit of being temperate in all things. He was a man of 
 a most remarkable character, never tempted to excess. He used to 
 live without much care, without thinking whether he would do himself 
 harm or not. He was very cheerful, and of a very benevolent heart and 
 easy conscience, and patient of little injuries. He was in the habit of 
 using intoxicating drinks in small quantities. He had a preparation, 
 which consisted of one table-spoonful of .Jamaica rum and one table- 
 epoonful of cider, diluted with water, which ho used after dinner, while 
 smoking his pipe. I would mention, in connection with this habit, that 
 he did not die of old age. I examined the body myself, with very great 
 care and attention. The heart and organs which are apt to be diseased 
 in aged persons, and to become hardened like stone, were as soft as an 
 mfant's, and for aught that appeared, might have gone on another 100 
 years. And so of the other organs. The liver and brain were in a 
 healthy state. He died of the disease which is most commonly pro- 
 duced by the use of ardent spirits and tobacco an internal cancer. 
 There was a band ^hree or four inches broad aronnd the stomach, which 
 w^as schirrous or thickened. I am far from wishing to say any thing to 
 the discredit of the late Dr. Holyoke, who was my personal friend. But 
 if his great age is to be made an argument for the moderate use of spirits, 
 I desire that his schirrous, cancerous stomach should be put alongside of 
 it. Dr. Pierson^s testimony before the Lff\slature of Mass. See Temver- 
 ance Joxitnal, 1839, f. 67. S. 
 
104 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 on these subjects. Men have arrived at double, and more than 
 double, what is the greatest common extent of Imman life. 
 The real wonder, therefore, is that such multitudes perish pre- 
 maturely. 
 
 The effects, therefore, of animal food and other noxious mat- 
 ter, of inducing and accelerating fatal disease, are not immediate 
 but ultimate effects. The immediate effect is to engender a 
 diseased habit or state of constitution, not enough to impede 
 the ordinary occupations of life, but in many to render life it- 
 self a long-continued sickness, and to make the great mass of 
 society morbidly susceptible of many passing impressions, which 
 would have no injurious influence upon healthy systems. Even in 
 the early stages of life, the agency of these habits is often suffi- 
 ciently obvious. It appears in the change of complexion, the 
 falling off of the hair, the decay of the teeth, the impaired 
 power of the senses, as of the hearing and the eyesight, de- 
 foedations of the skin, and many other marks of disease, which 
 are as various as the infinitely various constitutions of different 
 individuals. As life proceeds, the resisting powers of the body 
 diminish, and, in consequence, the derangement of the system, 
 produced by the slow but incessant action of morbific causes, 
 becomes more evident. In some, the springs of life are secretly 
 undermined, with little evident derangement of the functions ; 
 and such persons are cut off suddenly by acute illness, while 
 enjoying apparent good health. In others, chronic diseases 
 take place, perhaps not immediately affecting life, but which, 
 for the most part, increase in severity as years advance. Others, 
 again, suffer lingering diseases, which gradually, but inevitably, 
 terminate in the dissolution of the body. 
 
 Such diseases as these, then, must be regarded as the ulti- 
 mate result of the noxious powers which habitually act upon 
 the body. In all of them, the vitality of the body, or the pow- 
 ers which are essential to the due performance of the functions 
 of life, are radically impaired. The variety of symptoms can 
 be esteemed to be nothing more than the different forms of 
 death, as some organs suffer more than others. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that so little can be found in medi- 
 cal writers on the subject of the connection of the diseases with 
 the food, circumstances, and occupations of different nations or 
 classes of society ; and still more, that the greater part of what 
 has been said on these subjects is probably erroneous. Some 
 assertions, made apparently on good authority, aie so directly 
 contradictory to the doctrine I have attempted to establish, 
 that I cannot pass tht 3a wholly unncticed. 
 
IN CHR^A'IC DISEASES. 105 
 
 The Laplanders have been often asserted to be an example 
 of a people living wholly upon animnl food, and enjoying under 
 this diet perfect health, and arriving commonly at an extr;ioi-di- 
 nary degree of longevity. The authority of Linnaeus is cited 
 in proof of the correctness of these assertions. He has said of 
 the Laplander : *' Tu ducis innocentissimos titos annos ultra 
 centcnarium numeruni cam facili senectute et summa sanitate. 
 Tc latent myriades inorhoriiin nobis EuropcBls communes ^ 
 
 Yv^ith regard to longevity, no assertions can l)e depended 
 upon, unless taken from authentic registers, of which, pro- 
 bably, none exist in Lapland. It seems hardly possible that 
 many individuals among this illiterate people could be really 
 acquaintfid with their own age. And with regard botli to 
 health and longevity, the accounts of modern travelers give us 
 no reason to think that this people is peculiarly fa^'ored. 
 Acerbi, in liis travels, mentions incidentally one young widow, 
 and another paralytic person ; and as, in transiently passing 
 through such a country, the opportunities of observation must 
 have been very few, we may fairly conclude that there is, at 
 least, the usual proportion of sick among them. 
 
 Still less favorable is the general picture of their habits and 
 manners. The above-mentioned writer describes them as 
 *' feeble, awkward, and helpless beings." He says, that " the 
 unsettled and ^vandering Laplanders are remarkable for sloth 
 and dirt ;" that " stupidity, laziness, and beastliness were pro- 
 minent in all they did, and in all that appertained to them." 
 And of these tribes it appears that those who subsist by fish- 
 ing are the most miserable. The account recently published 
 by Von Buch is, if possible, less advantageous than that of 
 Acerbi. 
 
 Nor is it true that the Laplanders do not use some vegeta- 
 ble matter in their diet, even daily. They exchange, at the fair 
 of Kantokeino, the skins of their animals for meal among other 
 articles ; and Acerbi asserts that " the corn they obtain is con- 
 verted into flour for their own use, which, through long habit, 
 is become so necessary an article of their subsistence that they 
 are miserable if they have it not all the year round." 
 
 Moreover, the herds of rein-deer are milked daily, and there- 
 fore much of their subsistence must be drawn from this source. 
 It appears that the milk, by being frozen, is kept perfectly 
 sweet and fit for use during all the winter months. This it is 
 which serves as a substitute for vegetable food. After all, how- 
 ever, it must be allowed that the supply of vegetable food to this 
 . people, from their ignorai>;3 of agriculture, is very scanty ; and 
 5* 
 
106 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 I cannot doubt that they suffer from this cnuse exceedingly. 
 If, as Linwaius asserts, they are exempt from many European 
 dl cases, they are, probably, those proceeding from contagions, 
 which can hardly be kept up in a country so thinly inhabited. 
 
 If the doctrine I have maintained be well founded, we ought 
 certainly to expect to find that the inhabitants of those coun- 
 tries which, from their peculiar circumstances, are the most 
 scantily supplied with vegetable food, are the most short-lived. 
 Of these Lapland is the strongest example in Europe ; but I 
 know not that there are many registers of the mortality of this 
 people. Next to Lapland, the suppl}^ of Iceland is perhaps 
 the most scant}^ the country being poor, with little or no agri- 
 culture, and receiving all its corn by importation. Accordingly, 
 flesh, fish, and milk (particularly the two hitter) are the princi- 
 pal articles of sustenance of the inhabitants, I should, there- 
 fore, have confidently expected that in Iceland the duration of 
 life would be relatively small. 
 
 But I find it asserted by Dr. Holland, a gentleman vvdio ac- 
 companied Sir George Mackenzie in his tour through Iceland, 
 that "a comparison of facts would probably prove that the 
 longevity of the Icelanders rather exceeds than falls short of 
 the average obtained from the continental nations of Europe." 
 This assertion, coming from a member of the profession, and an 
 enlightened man, deserves some consideration. 
 
 Fortunately the work from which it is taken furnishes the 
 materials for its refutation, and it shows how little dependence 
 can be placed on hasty and cursory observations, made on sub- 
 jects with which the writers are perhaps but imperfectly ac- 
 quainted. Dr. Holland himself has supplied us with a docu- 
 ment, an examination of which leads to a conclusion the very 
 reverse of that which the doctor has drawn. From this docu- 
 ment it appears that in 1810, Iceland contained 47,207 inhabi- 
 tants. Of this number there were 1698 between 71 and 80 
 years of age, inclusive ; and the number of persons living, who 
 were still older, Avas 484. If to this latter number we add a 
 tenth part of the former, for the number who, having passed 
 the age of 79, would be reckoned to have reached 80 (a num- 
 ber which must, in fact, be considerably too large), we shall 
 have a total of 653 persons of 80 years and upward. From 
 this it appears that in Iceland 1 in 70 lives to be 80 years of 
 age. But, according to Dr. Price (see p. 43), even in London 
 1 in 40 arrives at that age ; and in country places in England, 
 a fourteenth, or even less than a twelfth part of the inhabitants 
 hara been known to reach this age. We see, therefore, that 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES 107 
 
 Iceland, instead of exceeding other European countries in lon- 
 gevity, falls very short even of tlie metropolis of England ; and 
 we may safely conclude that a diet consisting principally of fish 
 and milk is unfavorable to long life. 
 
 I cannot avoid noticing in this place the remarkable fact, re- 
 corded in this same work, that at Heimaey, the only one of the 
 Westraaiin Islands which is inhabited, scarcely a single instance 
 has been known during th last twenty years of a child surviv- 
 ing the period of infancy. In consequence, the population, 
 which does not ex-ceed 200 souls, is entirely kept up by emi- 
 gration from the main-land of Iceland. The food of these peo- 
 ple consists principally of sea-birds fulmers and puffins {2'^^'^^- 
 cel laria glacialis arad alee arctica of Linnseus). The fulmers 
 they procure in vast abundance, and they use the eggs and 
 flesh of the birds, and salt the latter for their winter food. 
 There are a few cows and sheep on the island, but the inhabi- 
 tants ar said to have no veg'etable food. 
 
 The disease which principally cuts off the infants is that 
 species of tetanus which has been called trismus infantum. The 
 writer of this account says that the same sea-fowl *' is the prin- 
 cipal ahment of the people of St. Kilda, the most remote of the 
 western islands of Scotland, which I visited in 1800 ; a peculiar 
 and fatal disease, which attacks children, is common to both 
 places, and may probably be occasioned by the mode of living." 
 
 Norway is a country in the same situation as Iceland. It is 
 said that the greatest part of the soil is incapable of bearing 
 corn; and in consequence the principal dependence for that 
 essential article is on importation. Pasturage affords a large 
 proportion of the subsistence of the people. The housernen, or 
 married laborers, all possess cattle ; the poorest have two or 
 three cows ; and stores of cheese, salt butter, salt fish, and bacon 
 are laid up for winter provisions. Such kinds of matter there- 
 fore form a very considerable proportion of the daily food of 
 the mass of the inhabitants. From these facts, for which I am 
 indebted to Mr. Malthus, we may conclude that the Norwegians, 
 as a community, use a less proportion of vegetable food than is 
 common in this country; and I should therefore infer from it a 
 more rapid relative mortality. But the account of Mr. Malthus 
 is apparently in contradiction to this inference, for he says of 
 this country, " in common years the mortality is less than in 
 any other country in Europe. The proportion of the annual 
 deaths to the whole population, on an average throughout the 
 whole country, is only as cne to forty-eight." 
 
 Notwithstaading this apparent contradiction, a more narrow 
 
JOS TEGETABLE DIE-^ 
 
 inquiry must convince us that it is favorable to my principles. 
 It appears in the first place that the climate of Norway is very 
 health}^, and it is allowed that it is remarkably free from epi- 
 demic sickness. This exemption is principally due to the scan- 
 tiness of its population, scattered over an immense surface. The 
 Norwegians are still very much in a pastoral state, depending 
 for their support upon their cattle, and this forms an additional 
 proof that this state is unfavorable to the increase of a people. 
 
 But, secondly, Norway is without any large manufacturing 
 towns ; what there are, are few and inconsiderable ; the largest 
 of them, such as Christiana and Drontheim, do not possess a 
 market. Hence we see that Norway ought to be esteemed to 
 be almost a country place ; and to estimate the consequences 
 of its habits, we should compare its mortality, not with that of 
 the countries crowded with large and populous cities, but rathei 
 with that of the villages and country places of the same coun- 
 tries. The inhabitants of Norway are, upon the whole, much 
 more dispersed than these. But the mortality of Norway is 
 somewhat greater than that of Great Britain, including its im- 
 mense metropolis, and its numerous and crowded cities this 
 being, according to the last returns, only one in forty-nine of 
 the whole population. Much greater is it than the average 
 mortality of the country places and villages of Great Britain. 
 In the vicinity of Manchester it has been shown that this mor- 
 tality was only one in fifty-six ; at Ackworth only one in sixty. 
 In these places contagious fevers of various kinds must add to 
 the destruction of life. From all these considerations I cannot 
 consider the example of Norway as affording any proof of the 
 salubrity of the diet of the inhabitants. 
 
 In the Statistical Reports of Sir John Sinclair, copied by Dr. 
 Beddoes, in his Essay on Consumption, I find the following 
 paragraph : " Rayne, Aberdeenshire. Stockings knit by all the 
 women, some old men, and boys. Hysterics very common, 
 and cutaneous disorders. Yearly deaths, seventeen in a popu- 
 lation of 1173 ; of the seventeen, seven -or eight are from con- 
 sumption ; living, wretched.'* 
 
 What the writer of this account understood by wretched liv- 
 ing does not appear. I conjecture, however, that it means 
 principally oatmeal and potatoes. Whatever it be, it would bo 
 well if this wretched living were more generally adopted ; for it 
 appears that the annual mortality of this place is no more than 
 one in sixty-nine ; a smaller proportion than any recorded in 
 England. 
 
 It is evident from these examples that no weight can be 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES, 109 
 
 attached to vague assertions, even of respectable observers, on 
 these subjects, unless they are supported by documents which 
 evince their accuracy. 
 
 From the high state of cultivation of almost all European 
 countries, the supply of vegetable food is abundant throughout 
 this part of the world. Fi-om its comparative cheapness, the 
 laboring classes are in many situations from necessity confined 
 to it ; and of those in easy circumstances, most persons make it 
 the principal part of the diet of children ; and, for the most 
 part, all use a moderate portion of vegetable food two or three 
 times a day. The greater part of these communities are well 
 grown and well formed. This is so much the ordinary condi- 
 tion of the bulk of the people, that it is looked upon as the 
 common course of nature ; and deviations from the proper pro- 
 portions of the body, or other organic defects, are considered 
 as diseases peculiar to the individual, arising out of some defect 
 of the constitution, and in no manner connected with the mode 
 of living. 
 
 But if we examine the uncivilized races of mankind, we shall, 
 perhaps, be led to form different conclusions. These whole 
 tribes of men we consider as barbarians, and with reason, if we 
 consider the knowledge of letters as the test of civilization. 
 But many of them, being acquainted with agriculture and other 
 useful arts, are so far as little barbarous as the mass of the 
 population of Europe. Other tribes again are very imperfectly 
 versed in that or any other of the most necessary arts ; and 
 some are wholly ignorant of it, and of almost all other useful 
 knowledge. 
 
 This diversity of mental cultivation has produced a corre- 
 sponding diversity in their general modes of life, and particu- 
 larly in their food. It is easy to see that those who practice 
 agriculture, not only escape from the misery of a precarious sub- 
 sistence, but acquire a bodily organization infinitely superior to 
 that of tribes who are ignorant of this useful art. On the other 
 hand, among these latter tribes a defective organization is so 
 common that it can be accounted for only by errors in the mode 
 of life. This will lead us to tlie conclusion, which I am con- 
 vinced is perfectly correct, that an abundant supply of vegeta- 
 ble food is necessary to the complete and perfect organization 
 of the human body. 
 
 I shall cite a few facts in proof of the justness of this doc- 
 trine. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Andaman Islands (situated in the 
 Indian Ocean) are described as the most uncivilized of the 
 
110 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 human race. The}^ have the characteristic features of the 
 negro. Though lying within the tropics, the cocoa-nut-tree, 
 which is so great a b.eising to almost all the islands of the 
 Indian and Pacific oceans, is denied to these ; and the natives 
 practice no sort of agriculture. They inhabit therefore the 
 coasts ; their only vegetable food is the scanty produce of the 
 woods ; but their principal subsistence is drawn from fish, shell- 
 fish, and the animals they catch in the woods. There is a race 
 of hogs on the island, one of which affords them an occasional 
 banquet ; but they eat likewise lizards, guanos, rats, snakes, and 
 whatever else they can lay their hands upon. This wretched 
 people in stature seldo exceed five feet ; their limbs are dis- 
 proportionally slender and ill formed, with high shoulders and 
 large heads ; their aspect is uncouth, and their countenances 
 exhibit the extreme of wretchedness, displaying a horrid mix- 
 ture of famine and ferocity. 
 
 This is under a tropical sun. But in a northern region the 
 effects of similar causes are very similar. The Ostiaks are the 
 Tartar tribes inhabiting the regions watered by the Obi. They 
 subsist very much by fishing, though a portion of their food 
 is the produce of the chase. Of their frame of body Pallas 
 says, " of the greater number the height is moderate, rather 
 below the middle stature. They are not strong ; the leg is 
 particularly thin and with little calf {efilee). Their figure is in 
 general disagreeable ; the complexion pale, without any cha- 
 racteristic trait." 
 
 Of the savages of Yan Diemen's Land, it is said by Peron 
 that they have all of them, though well made in other respects 
 the leg and fore-arras thin and feeble, and the belly swelled. 
 These savages have less strength than Europeans. Their chief 
 sustenance is flesh and fish. 
 
 The same writer observes that this emaciation of the limbs 
 of the savages of New Holland was observed by Labillardiere, 
 Cook, and Collins. They have scarce any fruits ; the kangaroo 
 and one other species (I believe an oppossum) are the only 
 animals of the country, and these are scarce; therefore they 
 live much on fish, which from their emigration often fails. In 
 consequence, in the interior, they feed on frogs, lizards, serpents, 
 the larva of insects and caterpillars, and even (as at New Cale- 
 donia) upon ants. 
 
 A similar defect of conformation has been observed in the 
 miserable tribes upon the coast of Tierra del Fuego. They 
 fish much, and have a very scanty supply of vegetables, though 
 they certamly do not go without them. ** Their shoulders and 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. Ill 
 
 their chest," says Forster, "are large and bony; the rest of 
 their body so thin and slender, that on looking at the different 
 parts separately, we could not persuade ourselves that they 
 belonged to the same individuals."* 
 
 Tlie country which these wretched Pesserais inhabit is 
 wholly uncultivated, and produces spontaneously very few escu- 
 lent vegetables. Captain Cook observed some berry-bearing 
 plants and scurvy grass. Perhaps the interior parts (of which 
 nothing is known) may furnish more ; but however that may be, 
 the whole is doubtless extremely scanty. But of birds and 
 animals which gain their food from the ocean, there is the 
 greatest possible abundance. Some of the islands are abso- 
 lutely covered by these animals, which may be killed in any 
 numbers with the greatest ease. 
 
 Now it is indisputable that all animals, which find an abun- 
 dant supply of food suited to their respective natures, increase 
 in numbers. If, then, animals such as these were proper food 
 for man, these islanders would be rioting in abundance and 
 luxury, and we should find a great population. But instead ot 
 this they are very few in number, and, as Captain Cook says, 
 " a little, ugly, half-starved, beardless race." We may safely 
 conclude, then, that both the deformity and stupidity of this 
 race is due to their miserable diet, and that the numbers of men 
 are limited, not by the supply of animal, but by that of vege- 
 table matter. 
 
 Let us now compare these miserable races with the natives 
 of Otaheite a people who, though they use both flesh and fish 
 in moderate quantities, draw their principal subsistence from the 
 soil practicing agriculture in no mean degree of perfection, 
 and that when they possessed no iron instrument, and without 
 the aid of domesticated animals. Of all the food of these peo- 
 ple, it has been said that at least four fifths was vegetable, and a 
 large portion of that was unchanged by culinary preparation. 
 Dr. Forster gives the following description of the bodily organi- 
 zation of the better sort of these islanders : " The features of 
 
 * Forster's Observations. The same writer says, " we found them to 
 be a short, squat race with large heads ; their color yellowisli brown, the 
 features harsh, the face broad, the cheek bones high and prominent, the 
 nose flat, the nostrils and mouth large, and the whole countenance with- 
 out meaning. All the upper part of the body is stout ; the shoulders and. 
 chest broad ; the belly strait, but not prominent. The feet are by no 
 means proportioned to the other parts; for llie thighs are lean, the legs 
 bent, the knees larga, and the toes turned inward. They seem to be 
 good-natured, friendlv, and harmless, but remarkably stupit!. Forster, 
 p. 250. 
 
112 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 the face Jire generally regular, soft, and beautiful ; the nose 
 something broad below ; the chin is overspread and darkened 
 by a fine beard. The women have an open, cheerful counte- 
 nance, a full bright and sparkling eye ; the face more round 
 than oval ; the features arranged with uncommon symmetry, 
 and heightened and improved by a smile which beggars all 
 description. The rest of the body above the waist is well pro- 
 portioned, included in the most beautiful soft outline, and some- 
 times extremely feminine. 
 
 " The common people," he says, " are likewise in general 
 well built and proportioned, but more -active, and with limbs 
 and joints delicately shaped. The arms, hands, and fingers of 
 some are so exquisitely delicate and beautiful, that they would 
 do honor to a Venus de Medicis." 
 
 The inhabitants of the Marquesas are acknowledged, by the 
 concurrent testimony of all voyagers, to be a still more beauti- 
 ful race. And it may be said in general of the inhabitants of 
 the other Society Islands, the Friendly Islands, Tanna, New 
 Caledonia, the Sandwich Islands, in all of which the natives 
 subsist chiefly upon vegetables, that they have a bodily organi- 
 zation of the highest degree of perfection. The natives of some 
 of the New Hebrides appear to be the strongest exceptions to 
 the beauty of this race. The natives of Mallicollo are active 
 and intelligent ; but both Cook and Forster describe them as 
 ugly, having faces like apes. Of their manners we know little. 
 They practice agriculture. But they probably depend much 
 upon their bow and arrows for subsistence, since every man had 
 one, and they were very unwilling to part with one. Bougain- 
 ville says that the natives of the Isle of Lepers (one of the New 
 Hebrides) are short, ugly, and ill-proportioned. I know noth- 
 ing of their habits. It may not be disagreeable to the reader, 
 if I here introduce an extract from a still more recent voyager, 
 though it only goes to confirm the observations already made. 
 
 " The Washington Islands do not appear to differ essentially 
 in the natural productions of the country from the rest of the 
 Marquesas, or from the Friendly and Society Islands. The 
 bread-tree (arto carpus incisa), the fruit of which, according to 
 Avhat Forster says, is here larger and finer flavored than any 
 where else, cocoa-nuts, bananas, Indiankole, arum esculentuni, 
 yams, dioscorea alata, and batatas, convolvulus batatas are the 
 principal articles of food among the vegetable kingdom ; sugar 
 canes are also in abundance, but no attention is paid to culti- 
 vating thera. The Otaheitati apple, spondias, which the above- 
 named celebrated naturalist (Forster) did no,' find at the Mar* 
 
. l?f CHRONIC DISRASFS. 113 
 
 quesas, I found at ISTulvabiwa, but it M'as somewhat scarce. 
 Besides the above common objects of food, there are a number 
 of other fruits and roots, wliich the inhabitants eat in times of 
 scarcity. 
 
 "Judging from the accounts of all navigators who have 
 visited the Friendly and Society Isles, I am inclined to think 
 that the people of the Marquesas and Washington Islands ex- 
 cel in beauty and grandeur of foi-m, in regularity of features 
 and of color, all the other South-Sea islanders. The men are 
 almost all tall, robust, and well made. Few were so fat and 
 unwieldy as the Otaheitans, none so lean and meagre as the 
 people of Easter Island. We did not see a single cripple or 
 deformed person, but such general beaut}'' and regularity of 
 form that it greatly excited our astonishment. Many of them 
 might very well have been placed by the side of the most cele- 
 brated chef-d'ceuvres of antiquity, and they would have lost 
 nothing by the comparison. 
 
 "A certain Mau-ka-u, or Mufau Taputakava. particularly 
 attracted our attention from his exti-aordinary height, the vast 
 strength of his body, and the admirable proportion of his limbs 
 and muscles. He was noAV twenty 3-ears old, and was six feet 
 two inches high, Paris measure ;'* and Counselor Tilesius, who 
 unites the eye of a connoisseur and an artist, said he never saw 
 any one so perfectly proportioned. He took the ti'ouble of 
 measuring every part of this man with the utmost exactness, 
 and after our return to Europe imparted his observations to 
 Counselor Blumenbach, of Gottingen, who has studied so as- 
 siduously the natural history of man. This latter compared 
 the proportions with the Apollo of Belvidere, and found that 
 those of that masterpiece of the finest ages of Grecian art, in 
 which is combined every possible integer of' manly beauty, cor- 
 responded exactly with our Mufau, an inhabitant of the island 
 of Nukahiwa. 
 
 " I trust that this subject will be thought sufficiently inter- 
 esting to excuse ray giving the measurements of Mufau, as 
 taken by Counselor Tilesius, and detailed in Voigt's Magazine 
 of Natural History. "f These proportions will be found in the 
 note below. 
 
 * A French foot measures thirteen inches, English measure, 
 t Height, six feet two inclies, Paris measure. 
 Breadth between the shoulders, nineteen inches two lines. 
 In the periphery, forty inches. 
 Breadth across the breast, fifteen inches. 
 
 Length of the arms from the point of the shoulder to the end of tue 
 longest finger, twenty-two inches fair lines. 
 
114 VEGKTABLE DIET 
 
 The truth of these infeiences will be still more evident from 
 comparing tribes living nearly in the same climate, and with no 
 other difference of habit than a more abundant use of vegetables. 
 We may select for this purpose the Nlvv Zealanders and New 
 Hollanders. Both of these nations are destitute of domestic 
 animals ; both draw a large portion of their subsistence from 
 the sea ; and both live in a climate sufficiently mild, and nearly 
 equally removed from the equator. But the New Zealander 
 cultivates the soil, from which he draws perhaps one half of 
 his subsistence. The New Hollander uses no vegetables except 
 what he picks up accidentally, the spontaneous produce of the 
 earth. *' A few berries, the yam and fern root, the flowers of 
 the different banksias, and at times some honey make up the 
 whole vegetable catalogue." 
 
 The whole quantity is, of course, very small. The conse- 
 quence is, the New Zealander enjo3"s a perfect organization ; 
 but the New Hollander is defective. " Their size," says Dr. 
 Forster of the former, " is generally tall, their body strong and 
 formed for fatigue, their limbs proportioned and well knit." Of 
 the latter Collins testifies, that " in general, indeed almost uni- 
 versally, the limbs of these people wei-e small ; of mo.st of them 
 the arms, legs, and thighs Avere very thin." 
 
 Beauty of features appears to depend upon still nicer circum- 
 stances. Many races which are perfectly vigorous are very 
 
 Length of the head fiom thr? skull to the chin, ten inches. 
 
 Circumference of the head, measured round the forehead, and just 
 above the ears, twenty-three inches and a half. 
 
 Circumference of the breast, forty-two inches. 
 
 Periphery of the lower belly about the spleen, thiity-two inches. 
 
 Periphery of tUe great bason, round the hips, forty-two inches. 
 
 Periphery of the upper part of the thigh, twenty-five inches. 
 
 Periphery of the calf*of the leg, seventeen inches and a half. 
 
 Periphery of the ankle an inch above the foot, where it is smallest, ten 
 inches. 
 
 Length of the foot, twelve inches and a half. 
 
 Greatest breadth of the foot, five inches and a half. 
 
 Circumference of the upper part of the arm, thirteen inches and a 
 half. 
 
 Circumference of the arm above the elbow, thirteen inches and a 
 quarter. 
 
 Circumference of the hand, eleven inches and a quarter. 
 
 Length of the hand, nine inches. 
 
 Circumference of the neck, sixteen inches. 
 
 Length from the skull to the navel, thirty-one inches and a half. 
 
 Length from the navel to the division of the thighs, ten inches and a 
 half. 
 
 Length from the division of the thighs to the sole of the foot, thirty 
 eight irishes Langsdorf^ s Travels, j). lOG. 
 
IX CHROMC DISK ASKS. 115 
 
 hard favored ; but it can luudly be doubted that all are beau- 
 tiful ia their own estimation. iJut the form of features which 
 accompanies the most perfect races of mankind must be reckon- 
 ed the pi'oper standard of beauty; and where great deviations 
 from tliis standard are universal, we must suspect the agency 
 of some general cause. 
 
 Tlie Calmucks and the Circassians arc not remote from each 
 other, but wonderfully dilTerent in their form and physiognomy. 
 The portrait of the former is thus drawn by Dr. Chirke: ' No- 
 thing is more hideons than a Calmuck. High, prominent, and 
 broad cheek bones, very little eyes widely separated from each 
 other, a flat and broad nose, coarse greasy jet black hair, 
 scarcely any eyebrows, and enormous prominent ears compose 
 no very inviting countenance." Of the women he says : " It 
 was difficult to distinguish the sex, so horrible and inhuman was 
 their appearance." 
 
 Of the Circassians we have from the pen of the same writer 
 the following report : " The beauty of features and form for 
 which the Circassians have been so long celebrated, is certainly 
 prevalent among them. Their noses are aquiline, their eye- 
 brows arched and regular, their mouths small, their teeth re- 
 markably white, and their ears not so large nor so prominent 
 as among the Tartars ; although from wearing the head always 
 shaven they appear to disadvantage, according to our European 
 notions. They are well shaped and very active, being gene- 
 rally of the middle sizes, seldom exceeding five feet eight or 
 nine inches. Their women are the most beautiful perhaps in 
 the world, of enchanting perfection of countenance, and very 
 delicate features. Those whom we saw, the accidental captives 
 of w^ar, were remarkably handsome. The most chosen works 
 of the best painters, representing a Hector or a Helen, do not 
 display greater beauty than we beheld even in the prison of 
 Ekaterinadara, where wounded Circassians, male and female, 
 loaded with fetters, and huddled together, were pining in sick- 
 ness and sorrow." 
 
 Few will hesitate to pronounce that this ugliness of the Gal- 
 mucks is the natural consequence of their diet. The horse is to 
 the Calmuck what the rein-deer is to the Laplander, his slave 
 in life, and his food after death. But besides horse flesh, which 
 he often eats raw, the Calmuck devours indiscriminately every 
 animal he can kill. " ISTear the entrance of the tent," says Dr. 
 Clarke, " hung a quantity of horse flesh, with the limbs of dogs, 
 cats, marmots, rats, etc., drying in the sun, and quite black." 
 And of the grossness of their manners we have the following 
 
116 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 picture : " Just before entering the town, a young Oalmuck 
 woman passed us astride on horseback, laden with raw horse 
 flesh, hano^inor hke carrion before her on each side. She was 
 grinning archly at the treasure she had obtained ; this we after- 
 ward found to be really carrion. A dead horse lying in the 
 ditch surrounding the town on the land side had attracted 
 about thirteen dogs, w^hom we found greedily devouring wlmt 
 remained, the Calmuck having contested the prize with them 
 just before, and helped herself to as much of the mangled car- 
 cass as she could carry away." 
 
 Such are pastoral manners, naked and undisguised by the 
 veil of artificial refinement ; and such their consequences. Of 
 the Circassians we know little, except that they subsist chicly 
 by agriculture. Traveling through their territory is thought 
 to be so dangerous, that it has hardly been attempted. A slight 
 view that Dr. Clarke obtained of a part of it showed " a coun- 
 try cultivated like a garden." Probably some other local cir- 
 cumstances are peculiarly favorable. It is said that the teeth 
 are remarkably white ; a circumstance which indicates great 
 purity both of the sohd and the fluid matter which enters into 
 their diet. 
 
 On the banks of the Missouri are a tribe of Indians called 
 Ricaras. They cultivate the earth ; raise corn, maize, and other 
 produce, in quantities sufficient both for their own consumption 
 and for sale and exchange with their neighbors. This tribe is 
 distinguished for the beauty of their persons ; the men are tall 
 and well proportioned, the women handsome and lively. The 
 following trait of their character sufficiently marks their intel- 
 lec'tual endowments : " On our side w^e were equally gratified 
 at discovering that these Ricaras made use of no spirituous 
 liquors of any kind, the example of the traders who bring it to 
 them so far from tempting having in fact disgusted them. Sup- 
 posing that it was as agreeable to them as to the other Indians, 
 we had at first oftered them whiskey, but they refused it with 
 this sensible remark, that they were surprised that their father 
 should present to them a liquor which would make them fools." 
 
 The Laplanders are of dwarfish stature. The Greenlanders 
 are also very short, generally under five feet. It may be thought 
 that this is the eff'ect of the rigor of their polar cold. But we 
 find interspersed among them, and inhabiting the very same 
 country, numerous families of industrious Finns, who cultivate 
 the earth, and subsist chiefly on its produce; and this race, 
 though they remain for centuries in the same country, do not 
 appear tc be in the least smaller than i\ e Swedes and Norwe- 
 
TN CHRONIC ETSEASES. 117 
 
 gians. We must acknowledge, then, that the mode of life has 
 infinitely more effect upon the human form than climate. 
 
 We need not, however, travel to the other side of the globe 
 for proofs of the salubrity of vegetable food, or to show that 
 the human body will upon no other support arrive at its full 
 stature, attain its just proportion, and be marked by health, 
 strength, and beauty. The great body of our English peasantry, 
 md even vast multitudes of the inhabitants of the metropolis, 
 subsist almost wholly on vegetables, and are perfectly Avell 
 nourished. The peasantry of Lancashire and Cheshire, who 
 live principally on potatoes and butter-milk, are celebrated as 
 the handsomest race in England. Two or three millions of our 
 fellow -subjects in Ireland are supported thvj same way. On 
 this subject it is said by Dr. Adam Smith: "The chairmen, 
 porters, and coal heavers in London, and those unfortunate 
 women who live by prostitution, the strongest men, and the 
 most beautiful women perhaps in the British dominions, are 
 said to be, the greater part of them, from the lower rank of 
 people in Ireland, who are generally fed with this root the 
 potatoe. No food can afford a more decisive proof of its nour- 
 ishing quality, or of its being peculiarly suitable to the health 
 of the human constitution." 
 
 A notion has been very prevalent, even among philosophical 
 writers, that the food should vary with the climate. They ob- 
 serve that between the tropics the natives live principally upon 
 fruits, seeds, and roots. Though animal food is not avoided, ex- 
 cept among some particular classes, yet men are in these climates 
 exceedingly sparing of its use. In the temperate climates the 
 more general habit is to use a mixture of animal and vegetable 
 food, which is held to be in these regions the most wholesome. 
 In the high northern latitudes animals are produced in plenty, 
 but vegetable productions, fit for the food of man, are scanty ; 
 and in these countries, therefore, men are confined principally 
 to animal food. They go even so far as to say, that nature 
 herself in these regions dictates the use of the flesh of animals, 
 for that men must of necessity use this sort of food, or perish 
 from hunger. If this plea be well founded it must be allowed 
 to be unanswerable. 
 
 The above is certainly a faithful account of the present habits 
 of mankind in general ; but it appears to be the result rather 
 of an imperfect state of civilization, than springing either from 
 wisdom or necessity. In the tropical climates animals are, or 
 might be produced more abundantly than in the polar regions, 
 the earth being more fertile. But men attach themselves more 
 
118 VEGETABLE I lET 
 
 to agriculture, as in these countries the ill conseq.iences of 
 using much animal food are more evident, and therefore univer- 
 sally known and acknowledged. In the temperate climates the 
 existing population could not be supported by pasturage alone, 
 and therefore the body of the people of necessity used a mixed 
 diet, wholly ignorant, for the most part, of its effects upon the 
 body. In the high northern latitudes agriculture is hardly 
 known, and a scanty population is supported by fishing, the 
 chase, or pasturage, with a scanty supply of vegetable produc- 
 tions. But they live so, not because it is most suitable to their 
 situations, but from their ignorance of more useful arts. 
 
 There was a time, probably, when in every part of the globe 
 men lived nearly as they now live in these remote regions. I 
 cannot, therefore, persuade myself that even in those climates 
 it is necessary for man to support his own life by the destruc- 
 tion of other animated beings. We find no part of the globe 
 habitable by man which is not stocked with herbivorous animals. 
 The Pesserais of Cape Horn is clothed with the skin of the gu- 
 anicoe (a species of deer). At the northern extremity of 
 the same continent, the buffalo, the moose-deer (or elk), the 
 musk ox, common deer, squirrels, hares, rabbits, mice, and 
 other animals, which draw their nutriment from the earth, are 
 found in abundance as high as the 71st degree of north lati- 
 tude, besides a plentiful stock of bears, wolves, foxes, wolverine*, 
 and other carnivorous animals, which are sustained indirectly 
 from the same source. Where the support of every species of 
 animals is so abundant, it is inconceivable that the earth should 
 deny to man alone a salubrious and innocent repast. 
 
 In these regions the transition from their long and gloomy 
 winter and summer heat is immediate, and nature compensates 
 for the short duration of the season of vegetation by its great 
 rapidity and luxuriance. The heat is at this time as great as 
 in our own climate at the same season. The country becomes 
 covered with verdure, and teems with life. Near the North 
 Cape, the Ulthna Thule of Europe, rich pastures tliat want 
 no cultivation, and beautiful natural meadows are to be seen. 
 And even at the very extremity, which forms the cape itself, 
 in the 7 1st degree of north latitude, were found growing some 
 plants of angelica, a salubrious vegetable. The aictic regions 
 are not even without their delicacies, unknown tc otlier coun- 
 tries. The berry-bearing plants are particvdar'y abundant. 
 The ruhus chamcemorns, a large kind of raspberry ^ is plentiful ; 
 and the ruhus arcticus, a plant of the same genus, bears a fruit 
 superior in fragrance and flavor to the strawberry and rasp- 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 119 
 
 berry, and to all other fruit of the same kind, even of the 
 choicest productions of Italy. A small plateful of this fruit is 
 the most exquisite of perfumes. 
 
 These considerations show sufficiently how futile is this plea 
 of necessity. On the contrary, they render it sufficiently evi- 
 dent that, in whatever part of the habitable globe man can ex- 
 ist, there vegetable nutriment may either be found or be raised ; 
 that in no situation fit for the habitation of man is the earth 
 devoid of prolific power sufficient to satisfy his wants, and even 
 to gratify his palate. 
 
 This plea of necessity is contradicted even by experience ; 
 for, from the latest accounts which have been published, agri- 
 culture has at length penetrated these remote regions. The 
 potato cultivation has been several years quite general at Lyn- 
 gen, in Lapland, situated under the YOth degree of north lati- 
 tude, and the same is called a blessed corn country. Agricul- 
 ture is practiced likewise at Alien ; this is the most northern 
 agricalture of the world. 
 
 As men, even in the rudest state of society, display a higher 
 degree of intellectual power than other animals, which is ap- 
 plied both to the gaining of food and every other object con- 
 ducive to his well being, it is argued that this makes so essen- 
 tial a difference between men and other animals, that we can- 
 not apply to man the reasoning that is acknowledged to be 
 conclusive with regard to others. In animals guided by in- 
 stinct, it is true that we see a very exact adaptation of their 
 form and powers to the objects of their desires and appetites. 
 We may, therefore, in these commonly infer from their con- 
 formation the mode of hfe to which they are fitted. But supe- 
 rior powers having been given to man by the medium of a 
 higher order of intellect, we must give him a wider field of ac- 
 tion, nor suppose that nothing can be suited to his nature which 
 happens not to be within the reach of his unaided physical powers. 
 
 I would allow so much weight to this argument as never to 
 permit theoretical reasoning to weigh for a moment against the 
 results of experience. The intellect of man is as much a part 
 of his proper nature as his bodily frame, given him surely 
 to promote his well being. But I suspect that its power over 
 the organization must necessarily be very limited. For a well- 
 organized frame of body must be thought to be a possession 
 anterior to all other improvements, and the instrument which 
 the intellect itself makes use of to acquire the materials of all 
 other improvements. In a certain degree it appears essential to 
 the iutellect itself, and connatural with it. It follows, then^ 
 
120 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 that a just bodily organization is neither the object nor the 
 consequence of intellectual culture. It is rather the gift of na- 
 ture, which is saying, nearly, that it results from natural habits. 
 In fact, it has ever been more the effect of some hapjiv com- 
 bination of fortuitous circumstances than of design or wisdom. 
 
 On the place Avhich man holds in the scale of animated be- 
 ings, all naturalists are agreed. There are those, indeed, who 
 deem it a sort of degradation to the human species to class 
 mankind with monkeys, apes, and baboons, and to show the 
 analogy of his structure with that of the orang-outang. But 
 misplaced piide and an ignorant misapprehension cannot alter 
 the nature of things. Our very language acknowledges the 
 reality of the analogy between the races ; monkey can mean 
 nothing but mannikin, or little man. In insisting on this anal- 
 ogy we limit ourselves to physical facts which are undeniable. 
 But granting it to be perfectly correct, it does not follow that 
 man in consequence approaches more nearly to the nature of the 
 monkey than he does to that of the otter, except in the single 
 circumstance of the choice of food. The monkey is not in any 
 respect superior to the otter, or the fox, or the beaver, or any 
 other animal. In his nobler part, his rational soul, man is dis- 
 tinguished from the whole tribe of animals by a boundary 
 which cannot be passed. It is only when man divests himself 
 of his reason, and debases himself by brutal habits, that he re- 
 nounces his just rank among created beings, and sinks himself 
 below the level of the beasts. 
 
 If the question were proposed whether man were by nature 
 intended to walk erect, or, like the animals, upon all-fours, 
 from the mode in which the head is united to the spine, from 
 the narrowness of the ischiadic bones, from the structure and 
 position of the socket of the thigh, from the whole compagcs 
 of the feet, I should conclude with confidence that the erect 
 position was the most natural to the human species. Looking 
 upon man merely as an animal, I should likewise conclude, 
 from the structure of the hand, the form of the mouth, the artic- 
 ulation of the under jaw, the teeth, the stomach, the caecum, the 
 colon, and the length of the intestines ; from all these circum- 
 stances, I say, I should conclude, that vegetable food is that 
 which is most natural to man.* Many, indeed, assert that man 
 
 * I have argued at some length in my " Reports on Cancer," that man 
 is in his structure herbivorous. This appears to me to be a question of 
 extreme importance, and I have therefore thought it might be useful to 
 give on this subject the sentiments of a writer who has made compara- 
 tive anatomy a peculiar object of his study. The following quotation is 
 from the article ** Man," in Dr. Rees'e Encyclopedia, written by Mr. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 121 
 
 has a structure between that of the herbivorous and carnivorous 
 tribes. Those who argue tluis, acknowledge that we ought to 
 
 Lawrence, assistant-surgeon of St. Bartholemew's Hospital. " Tlie pre- 
 sent seems a veiy proper place for cousidering a qixesliou that is fre- 
 quently agitated on this subject, whether man approaches most neaily to 
 the carnivorous or herbivorous animals in his structure ? We natiu-ally 
 expect to find iu the figure and construction of the teeth a relation to tho 
 kind of food which an animal subsists on. The carnivorous have very 
 long and pointed cuspidaii or canine teeth, wnich are employed as wea- 
 pons of offence and defence, and are very serviceable in seizing and 
 lacerating their prey ; these are three or four times as long as the other 
 teeth in some animals, as the lion, tiger, etc., and constitute very formid- 
 able weapons. The grinding teeth have their bases elevated into pointed 
 prominences, and those of the lower shut within those of the upper jaw. 
 In the herbivo-rous animals these terrible canine teeth are not found, and 
 the grinders have broad surfaces opposed in a vertical line to each other in 
 the two jaws; enamel is generally intermixed with the bone of tho tooth 
 in the latter, and thus produces ridges on the grinding surface, by which 
 their operation on the food is increased ; in the former it is confined alto- 
 gether to the surface. For further details on this subject see mammalia. 
 Tiie articulation of the lower jaw differs very remarkably in the two kinds 
 of animals : in the carnivorous it can only move forward and backward ; 
 in the herbivorous it has, moreover, motion from side to side. Thus, we 
 observe in the flesh eaters, teeth calculated only for tearing, and subser- 
 vient in part, at least, to the procuring of food as well as to purposes 
 of defence, and an articulation of the lower jaw that procludes all lateral 
 motion ; in those which live on vegetables the form of the teeth and na- 
 ture of the joint are calculated fur the lateral or grinding motion; tha 
 former swallow the food in masses, while in the latter it undergoes con- 
 siderable comminution before it is swallowed. The teetli of man have 
 not the slightest resemblance to those of the carnivorous animals, except 
 that their enamel is confined to tho external surface ; he possesses, indeed, 
 teeth called canine, but they do not exceed the level of the othei's, and 
 are obviously unsuited to the purposes vvliich the corresponding teeth 
 execute in carnivorous animals. These organs, in short, very closely re- 
 semble the teeth of monkeys, except that the canine are much longer 
 and stronger in the latter animals. In the freedom of lateral motion, the 
 lower jaw of tho human subject resembles that of herbivorous animals. 
 In the form of the stomach again, and, indeed, in the structure of tho 
 whole alimentary canal, man comes much nearer to the monkey than to 
 any other animal. The length and divisions of the intestinal tube aro 
 very different, according to the kind of food employed. In the proper 
 carnivorous animals, the canal is very short, and the large intestine is 
 cylindrical ; in the herbivora, the former is very long, and there is either 
 a complicated stomach or a very large cjecum and a sacculated colon. la 
 comparing the length of the intestines to that of the body in man, and in 
 other animals, a difficulty arises on account of the legs, which are ni- 
 cluded in the former and left out in the latter ; hence the comparative 
 length of the intestinal tube is stated at less than it ought to be in man. 
 If allowance be made for this circumstance, man will be placed on nearly 
 the same line with the monkey race, and will be removed to a consider 
 able distance from tho proper carnivora. Soemmerring states, that the 
 intestinal canal of man varies from three to eight times the length of tho 
 body. (De Corp. Hum. Tab. t. 6, p. 200.) (See note, p. 249 ) 
 6 
 
122 VEGliTJULE DIKl 
 
 be guideJ by bis form and structure, in considering the species 
 of food he ought to use. 
 
 Man, says the flesh eater, is destined to be guided by reason ; 
 the animals by instinct : and this is offered as a sufficient plea 
 foi- his doing whatever he has the power to do. Probably, 
 liowevcr, reason and instinct are essentially the same; they are 
 but diiie.ent modes of attaining the same end : nor can the for- 
 mer be more wisely employed than in rendering our habits con- 
 formable to the dictates of the latter. This was the sentiment 
 of our moral poet, who has said, 
 
 " See him from nature rising slow to art ? 
 To copy Instinct then was Reason's part." 
 
 Essay on Man. 
 
 M;in, it is true, is or ought to be, guided by reason. But no 
 guide can be more fallacious than the individual reason of the 
 beings, which are, t:s it were, the elementaiy particles of human 
 society. Passion, v/him, fashion, imitation, or the fleeting sen- 
 sations of the moment, ai-e incentives to action : above all, cus- 
 tom has erected a despotism over individual will, against the 
 tyranny of which reason protests i:i vain. How little reason 
 hcis been consulted in the establishment of the common habits 
 of life we may judge fiom consideiing, that tlie habits of mo- 
 dern life are essentially the same as have been transmitted from 
 the rude beginnings of civilized society. The manner of living 
 of a European philosopher, absorbed in study and meditation^ 
 and of an Indian savage, destitute of reflection and of foresight, 
 are essentially the same. In what does the banquet of an 
 English prince diflfer from tl:e feast of a chieftain of Otaheite, 
 unless it be in the costliness of the utensils, or the refinements 
 of the cookery ? Fish, flesh, and poultry, in each form the fa- 
 vorite materials of the re])ast, which is finished by the swallow- 
 ing of potions of an intoxicating liquor. What share reason 
 has had in the institution of these customs, I must leave to their 
 advocates to explain. 
 
 To form clear conceptions on this subject, let us take a sur- 
 vey it must of necessity be very cursory of the natural pro- 
 gress of human manners. We would begin with the state of 
 nature : but such a state can be found nowhere among the 
 inhabitants of earth. We cannot, however, but suppose that 
 there has been a primeval state of man, and it is allowable 
 therefore to conceive and depict such a state. 
 
 The earth, while left to its natural fertility, as is observed by 
 the eloquent and penetrating Rousseau, was covered with im- 
 mense forests who?e irva^ were ncvei' mutilated by the ;^ye, 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES, 123 
 
 but presented on every side both sl^^tenance and shelter for 
 every species of animals. Men would among these wander up 
 and down, and live like them upon the substances to which his 
 instinct would direct him, and which his physical powers would 
 enable bin to collect. These would probably be in harmony, 
 as Ave find them in all other animals. 
 
 As man is devoid of all natural clothing, we must suppose 
 him placed in tlie tropical regions ; here the air is always of a 
 genial warmtli ; the fertility of the earth is abujidant ; and it is 
 confined to no particular season ; and the sl;ade of the trees 
 would protect him from the oppression of a vertical sun. The 
 same trees which shelter, would yield the principal part of his 
 sustenance. Thus the fruit of trees would appear to be the 
 most natural species of diet. Rousseau says it is the most 
 abundant ; as he has convinced himself from having compared 
 the produce of two pieces of land of equal area and quality, 
 the one sown with wheat, and the other planted with chesnut 
 trees. "* 
 
 But man would not confine himself to fruits, or the produce 
 of trees ; he is formed equally for climbing, and for walking on 
 the ground ; his eye may be directed with equal ease to objects 
 above him, nnd on the earth. His arm has a corresponding 
 latitude of motion. 
 
 Man must have been fed previous to the invention of any art, 
 even the simple one of making a bow and arrows. He could 
 not then have lived by prey, since all the animals excel him in 
 swiftness. There is no antipathy between man and other ani- 
 mals, whicli indicates that nature has intended them for acts 
 of mutual hostility. Numerous observations of travelers and 
 voyagers have proved, that in uninhabited islands, or in coun- 
 tries where animals are not disturbca or hunted, they betray 
 no fear of men : the birds will suffer themseives to be taken by 
 the hand ; the foxes will approach him like a dog. These are 
 no feeble indications, that nature intended him to live in peace 
 with the other tribes of animals. f 
 
 Least of all would instinct prompt him to use the dead body 
 of an animal for food. The sioht of it would rather excite hor- 
 
 &' 
 
 * The bread-fruit tree appears to support the most abundant popula- 
 tion. Doctor Forster, comparing the parts of Otaheite which are best 
 cultivated, with those of France under tlie same circumstances, calcu- 
 lated the population, about the year 1771, to be to that year of the lat- 
 ter, nearly as 17 to 1. Forster' s Observations, 220. 
 
 t On this subject see White's Natural History of Selborne, vol. i. p. 
 206, 4to. D.orwjii's Zoonomia ; Chapter on Instinct ; or Homes's Sketches 
 C>n Man ; f'rt imhinrv D!<couve. 
 
124. VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 ror, compassion, and aversion. In a warm climate, putrefac- 
 tion succeeding immediately to dissolution, dead flesh must 
 speedily diffuse an offensive odor, and occasion insuperable 
 loathincr and disc^ust. 
 
 Living wholly upon vegetables without cuFmary preparation, 
 our man of nature could never experience thirst. Even intense 
 heat does not appear to excite thirst, unless it be upon bodies 
 injured by a depraved and unnatural diet. He would have no 
 call therefore to the use of liquids, further than as they are 
 contained in the juices of the fruits and esculent plants which 
 he would eat. Drinking v/ould be needless ; it is an action 
 which does not appear suited to the natural organization of 
 man after the infant state. 
 
 Finally, it is highly probable that man under these circum- 
 stances, considered as a mere animal, would arrive at a high 
 degree of physical perfection ; that he would have a body duly 
 formed, and a robust frame ; great vigor, great activity, and 
 uninterrupted health. I cannot think, however, that this state 
 is comparable to the benefits of civilization ; such an opinion is 
 an extravagance which can be maintained only from the love 
 of paradox and singularity. This fancied state of nature ex- 
 cludes the very notion of morality, and admits not of intellec- 
 tual improvement, principles which form the most proud dis- 
 tinction of the human race. 
 
 Though this picture is in a good measure the creature of the 
 imagination, there having been found no tribes of men who 
 depend for their subsistence solely upon their physical powers, 
 yet solitary examples have not been unfrequent in which indi- 
 viduals have really subsisted by no other means. Such are the 
 wild men, the homines sylvestres of Linnaeus, who have been 
 found in the forests, even in Europe. In intellect these did 
 not appear to be superior to the animals, their associates ; which 
 must have resulted from having been secluded from all con- 
 verse with their species. But they were in perfect health, and 
 possessed incredible activity. The^y could have used nothing 
 but fresh vegetable food ; this was the sort of food of which 
 they were the fondest ; the want of it seems to have been the 
 principal object of their regret, and the motive for attempting 
 to return to their accustomed mode of life, as they constantly 
 did. 
 
 If men ever lived nearly in the manner I have described, it 
 is obvious that this condition could not continue, ^an is by 
 nature gregarious ; and has naturally both the will and the 
 power of con->!nnnicating his ideas by the inflections of his voice.. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISE.SES. 125 
 
 I have heard a child of three months old call for the breast by 
 a distinct and pecuhar note. Knowledge must therefore spring 
 up and increase. Arts would be invented, and man would call 
 his ingenuity in aid of his physical force. The pride of reason 
 and the wantonness of power would extend his dominion, engen- 
 der artificial wants, and make him the enemy and the tyrant of 
 his more feeble and less crafty companions. No society of 
 men has beeji observed in which the procuring and preparation 
 of food has not been a work of some degree of skill and inge- 
 nuity. The savage, the pastoral, and the agricultural states 
 comprehend the principal forms of society under which men 
 are found to live. 
 
 The energies of the savage are almost wholly absorbed in 
 the search of food ; the chase, and such vegetables as grow 
 spontaneously being his sole dependence. The materials which 
 support life being very scanty, population must be proportion- 
 ally limited ; and war seems necessary to secure to him the 
 undivided possession of his precarious means of subsistence. 
 His mind is congenial to his situation ; the hostile and furious 
 passions have uncontrolled possession of his soul ; he delights 
 in the infliction of wounds and death; he is a stranger to 
 remorse, to compassion, and to sympathy ; he knows not the 
 charms of benevolence ; even love in his obdurate bosom is but 
 a transient spark. This state is, by those who have not very 
 definite ideas of things, confounded with the imaginary state of 
 nature ; and some have concluded, from the vices of the savage 
 state, that man is naturally cruel, ferocious, and malevolent. 
 But this state is totally distinct from what must be supposed 
 to be the state of nature. It is one i^i which instinct is the most 
 completely anniliilated, and reason is the most feeble. The 
 qualities of the savage are the direct result of situation and 
 mode of life. If the proper nature of man is to be improvable 
 without limit, by the force of intellect, the con'dition of the 
 savage, so far from being natural, is that which recedes the 
 farthest from the state of nature. 
 
 The period of individual existence appears in this state to be 
 short. So many are cut off by violence (for their wars are 
 indiocrimiaate massacres, in which neither age nor sex are 
 spared), that it is impossible to conjecture what proportion 
 would reach old age. But we are assured by a faithful obser- 
 ver of the northern tribes, that among them a woman is old 
 and wrinkled at thirty. 
 
 By the simple arts of fencing in the land, and preserving a 
 portion of the natural herbage for winter fodder, man. became 
 
126 VEGETA ILE DIET 
 
 enabled to domesticate some tribes of animals. By a regular 
 supply of food, the number of these animals is greatly increas- 
 ed, so that they form a portion of the artificial population of 
 cultivated countries. Over Miese tribes, he has assumed de- 
 spotic power ; he uses their labor, and applies both their milk 
 and their flesh to his own sustenance. Man then became a 
 shepherd, and by this transition he very much improved his 
 condition. Food being more abundant, population increased ; 
 and from an increased sense of security, manners wouJd become 
 less ferocious. Still civilization would be very imperfect. All 
 the hordes of barbarians, who have desolated kingdoms and 
 subverted empires, were pastoral tribes, drawing their chief 
 subsistence from their flocks and herds. 
 
 Nor is it certain that by giving life to these new tribes of 
 animals, man has conferred upon them any real blessing. One 
 fact alone may make us hesitate on this subjeet. It appears 
 impossible to keep the domestic animals in a state of subjection 
 without mutilating the males, excepting a few who are pre- 
 served for the purpose of propagation. It may fairly be in- 
 quired whether this shocking outrage on the common rights of 
 nature, this cutting asunder of the link which connects the in- 
 dividual with his common species, does not more than counter- 
 balance all the pleasures which any being may be supposed to 
 derrv^e from the mere enjoyment of animal life. 
 
 The cultivation of the earth, and the direct application of its 
 various productions to human subsistence, seems to be the 
 limit of improvement in the arts essential to the support of life. 
 By the exercise of this beneficial art, myriads of human beings 
 are called into life who could otherwise have never existed. 
 By its introduction, a great revolution was commenced in the 
 relations of neighboring communities. The cultivator being di- 
 rectly interested in the preservation of public tranquillity, and 
 the causes which fostered hostility and rancor being removed, 
 nations became disposed to suspend their animosities, and rather 
 to contribute to the promotion of their mutual welfare, which 
 became to all a common source of prosperity. Internal order 
 became, too, as necessary as external security. Thus, peace 
 and the empire of the law would succeed to strife, violence, and 
 anarchy. It seems no visionary or romantic speculation to con- 
 jecture that if all mankind confined themselves for their sup- 
 port to the productions supplied by the culture of the earth, 
 war, with its attendant misery and liorrors, might cease to be 
 one of the scourges of the human race. 
 
 Nor arc the eftects of agriculture less favorable to private 
 
l\ CHIIUMC :>ISEASL::?. 127 
 
 happiness than to public prosperity. Probably there is not 
 one of the real wants of life which may not be supplied directly 
 from the soil : food, clothing, light, heat, the materials of 
 houses, and the instruments needful for their construction. By 
 its means, not only is population increased to an indefinite ex- 
 tent, but the happiness of each individual is greatly augmented. 
 It multiplies enjoyments by presenting to the organs an infinite 
 variety of new and agreeable impressions, which are of them- 
 selves, to an unvitiated palate, abundantly sufficient for the 
 gratifications of sense. Indeed, every taste, that is truly e.^- 
 quisite, is afforded by the vegetable kingdom. In a wretched 
 state of perversion must be the digesting organs and palate of 
 the man who has lost his relish for these pure, simple, and in- 
 nocent delights. Agriculture disseminates man over the sur- 
 face of the soil ; it diffuses health, prosperity, jo}', society, 
 benevolence ; from it spring all the charities of life, and it 
 makes a common family of the whole human race. If those 
 who confine themselves to its precious gifts cannot, without 
 other precautions, escape diseases, these are at least more mild 
 in their form, and more slow in their progress ; longevity is 
 promoted, the final stroke is received with tranquillity, and 
 death is disarmed of its terrors. 
 
 The primeval command of the Deity to our first parents was, 
 "Subdue the earth." The labors of agriculture fulfill this first 
 command, and men, in their providing for their own necessities, 
 pay the homage of obedience to the divine will. The reflect- 
 ing mind, upon contemplating the strict connection between the 
 exercise of this art, and the well-being of human society, can 
 hardly abstain from the inquiry, Avhether man can perform any 
 act of religion more grateful to the Author of his existence. 
 
 We find, by looking on things as they really are, that in al- 
 most all societies of men, which have attained any tolerable 
 degree of civilization, in a certain degree the arts of .all the dif- 
 ferent stages of society continue to be practiced. Men hunt 
 and fish, and live partly upon the produce, be it of their plea- 
 sure or their toil. They keep domestic animals, and they till 
 the earth. Thus, in fact, the manners of savage, of pastoral, 
 and agricultural life are blended together. And in the pro- 
 gress of the arts it has so happened that the things which, in a 
 rude state of society, were the most plentiful, become the most 
 scanty ; and, inversely, things which could hardly be procured 
 in the first stages of society became gradually highly abun- 
 dant, and of little relative value. 
 
 Thus, in the rude beginnings of human society, the flesh of 
 
123 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 animals or fisli is obtained with infinitely greater ease than the 
 produce of the enrth. Savages, and even early colonists, kill 
 animals for their furs or their hides, their flesh being often left 
 to perish, as of no value ; and even in advanced stages of civili- 
 zation, the price of meat was either less or equal to that of 
 bread. But this proportion becomes graduallj^ reversed. 
 
 By cultivation, vegetable productions become so abundant 
 as to be brought within the reach of the mass of mankind, and 
 cheaper than any of the otlier substances which are used as 
 food. Indeed, according to all the present experience of man- 
 kind, in free countries, vegetable food increases with the de- 
 mand caused by an increase of population, so that this increase 
 is not the cause but the effect of increased population. All 
 apprehensions of evil from an over-abundance of people, ap- 
 pear, in European countries at least, to be visionary. Death 
 seems very rarely, even in the poorest class of the people, 
 to be caused, in ordinary seasons, by a want of food. Excess, 
 and the abuse of the gifts of Providence, is productive of much 
 more evil. It is not the parsimony of Nature which is the pro- 
 lific source of vice and misery, but the wastefulness and prodi- 
 gality of men, and the abuses resulting from an excessive 
 inequality in the distribution of wealth a distribution which is 
 as much a misfortune to those who are raised above the due 
 level as those who are sunk below it. To use the energetic 
 \anguage of our sublime and virtuous poet, Milton 
 
 " If every just man, that now pines with want, 
 Had but a moderate and beseeming share 
 Of that which lewdly pampered luxury 
 Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, 
 Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed 
 In unsnperfiuous even proportion, 
 Awl she no whit encumbered with her store. 
 And then the Giver would be better thanked, 
 His praise due paid ; for swinish gluttony 
 Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, 
 But with besotted base ingratitude 
 Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder." 
 
 But to return to our argument. This relative dearness of 
 animal food, compared to that of the most common vegetables, 
 making its use a species of privilege confined to persons in easy 
 circumstances, the silly vanity of distinguishing themselves from 
 the hard-working classes has conspired with the gratifications 
 of the palate to make animal food to be esteemed by such per- 
 sons one of the real necessaries of life. It is so habitual to 
 them, that the greater part of such persons think it imr^ncc-KiA 
 
IN CHRONIC DISE vSES. 'IS9 
 
 to live without it, and any proposal of the kind appears in their 
 eyes either a monstrous barbarity or a ridiculous absurdity. 
 They are tormented witb. imaginary terrors, and they conceive 
 it to be an experiment full of danger; though in every period 
 of history it has been known that vegetables alone are sufficient 
 for the support of life, and though the bulk of mankind live 
 upon them at this hour. So perverted are the judgments of 
 men ; since, really (I speak it not in the spirit of ridicule or of 
 asperity, but as a deduction from the most simple survey of the 
 progress of human manners) the adherence to the use of animal 
 food is no more than a persistence in the gross customs of 
 savage life, and evinces an insensibility to the progress of rea- 
 son, and the operation of intellectual improvement. This habit 
 must be considered to be one of the numerous relics of that 
 ancient barbarism which has overspread the face of the globe, 
 and which still taints the manners of civilized nations. 
 
 Where reason has interfered, and has exercised any influence 
 on the manners of men, its voice has always been raised in 
 favor of simple diet. Some ancient legislators are said to have 
 confined the diet of the people to the fruits of the earth ; a 
 report which is very credible by what we know of the insti- 
 tutions of Hindostan, and the remote antiquity to which they 
 reach. 
 
 Many sects both in ancient and modern times have inculcated 
 on their adherents the same abstinence as a duty of religion. 
 The Romans, in the purer days of the republic, favored the 
 same maxims : their Fannian and Licinian laws limited the 
 allowance of animal food, while that of vegetable matter was 
 unrestricted. But laws are forced to bend to the existing habits 
 and prejudices of the people for whom they are made. A good 
 man will reverence 'he laws of his country. But there is a law 
 more sacred, to whiUi he will make his own aotions conform : 
 the voice of the inward monitor, which informs him that he 
 should act in all things of moment according to the dictates 
 of right reason. 
 
 Can a practice be conformable to reason which stifles the 
 best feelings of the human heart ? By long habit and fami- 
 liarity with scenes of blood, we have come to view them with- 
 out emotion. But look at a young child who is told that the 
 chicken which it has fed and played with is to be killed. Are 
 not the tears it sheds, and the agonies it endures, the voice of 
 nature itself crying within us and pleading the cause of human- 
 ity ? We cannot hear even a fly assailed by a spider without 
 compassion without wishing to relieve its distress, and to re- 
 6* 
 
130 VEGEIABLE DIET 
 
 pel its enemy. The coldness of philosophical inquiry may per^ 
 haps lead us lo doubt whether the sound it emits, which is no 
 more than a vibration of its wings, is really an index of pain; 
 and whether we ought not to sympathize as much with the hun- 
 ger of the spider as with the pain of the fly. The emotion, 
 however, is natural and unavoidable. To suffer from tlie suffer- 
 ings of any other sentient beings, and to have the sensibility 
 aroused by the expressions of suffering, is, among civilized men, 
 an essential property of human nature ; and a? such, it ought 
 surely to be a law to man a guide of human conduct. 
 
 How closely the use of a temperate regimen is connected 
 Avith morality and with intellectual excellence seems to have 
 been perfectly understood by the masters of ancient wisdom. 
 Plato has said that " no one is bad spontaneously ; but that bad 
 morals proceed from some depraved habit of body, or from neg- 
 lected education." He must therefore have thought a proper 
 regimen to be a fundamental part of a moral education. Indeed, 
 he has expressly enumerated this among the other instruments 
 of forming the human chai-acter : *' Of much efficacy are the 
 customs, either pohtical or domestic, in which men are brought 
 up, and the daily manner of life, either fortifying or corrupting 
 the mind ; for exposure to the ah-, simple aliments, gymnastic 
 exercises, and the manners of associates have the greatest in- 
 fluence in disposing either to virtue or vice." 
 
 It is allowed that men should be guided by reason ; no truth 
 can be more evident. But let us well understand what is meant 
 by the term. By reason we cannot surely mean that feeble 
 glimmering of light which just enables the mass of mankind 
 to grope through the gloomy paths of hfe, and to pass a few 
 fretful years in a vain pursuit of happiness. The reason of in- 
 dividuals (if, indeed, it deserves the name) is commonly just 
 sufficient to conduct them through the habitual occupations of 
 the day ; but the bulk of mankind are quite unable to compre- 
 hend the bearings of a complex argument, and still more to 
 trace effects to their remote causes. Nor is this the case with 
 the vulgar merel}^ for so limited is the human capacity, thac 
 the most exalted genius, and the deepest powers of investiga- 
 tion, have not been able to raise their possessors above the 
 errors and prejudices of their age, on the subjects which have 
 not been made the peculiar objects of their reflections. 
 
 Mankind have therefore had recourse to artificial aids to the 
 feebleness of individual reason, as the guides of life, and the 
 preservers of the social order; to the writings of sages; to 
 maxims, prove "bs, and apothegms which condense as it wcro 
 
IN CHRONIC disi:ases. 131 
 
 the experience of ages ; to the institution of wholesome cus- 
 toms ; the establishment of just laws ; to the sanctions of reli- 
 gious truth. 
 
 There is then a superior and more exalted reason, which con- 
 sists in the perception of truths founded in the constant relations 
 of things, in obedience to the fixed and immutable laws of 
 Nature. This is the reason which has informed the spirit of 
 philosophers, of heroes and legislators, of those w^ho have im- 
 proved the arts of life, or extended the boundaries of know- 
 ledge. This reason we cannot but conceive to be a kind of 
 emanation from the eternal fountain of truth. This the reason, 
 the empire of which ought to be established on earth. The 
 experience of the past gives no very favorable omens for the 
 future ; but genuine philanthrophy must prompt us to consider 
 its promotion as the object the most deserving of our exertions, 
 directly tending to diffuse genuine civilization, and all the bless- 
 ings depending upon it. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 On the use of spirituous and fermented liquors. Spices. Man by nature 
 not a drinking animal. 
 
 In the use of animal food, man having deviated from the sim- 
 ple aliment offered him by the hand of Nature, and which is 
 the best suited to his organs of digestion, he has brought upon 
 himself a premature decay, and much intermediate suffering 
 which is connected with it. To this habit almost all nations 
 that have emerged from a state of barbarism have united the 
 use of-some spirituous and fermented liquors. As the course of 
 my inquiries has taken a range somewhat extensive, I have 
 thought it right not wholly to overlook the effects of these 
 liquors on the human body ; but having little that is original to 
 offer on the subject, it shall be comprised in as few words as 
 possible. 
 
 The use of fermented liquors is, in some measure, a neces- 
 sary concomitant and appendage to the .ise of animal food. 
 Animal food, in a great number of persons, loads the stomach, 
 causes some degree of oppression, fullness, and uneasiness, and 
 if the measure of it bo in ?xce.:5, some nausea, and tendency 
 
132 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 to sickness. Such persons say, meat is too heavy for their 
 stomach. Fish is sti-U more apt to nauseate. We find that the 
 use of fermented liquors takes off these uneasy feelings. It is 
 thought to assist the digestion. Probably, its real utility arise? 
 from the strong, and at the same time agreeable, impression li 
 makes on the stomach, which counteracts the uneasiness aris- 
 ing from the solid part of our aliment. Thus the food sits 
 lighter on the stomach, and digestion goes on more com- 
 fortably. 
 
 It is in vain to attempt to determine the question of the sa- 
 lubrity or insalubrity of these liquors from the evidence and 
 pretended experience of those who use them. Very many per- 
 sons have enjoyed improved health from the total abandonment 
 of all fermented liquors, and confining themselves to water. 
 These are, of course, enemies of fermented liquors, and preach- 
 ers of temperance. But others, again, assert, with the same 
 confidence, that they receive benefit from a moderate use of 
 these liquors, and even that they cannot live without them. I 
 do not see why these persons are not as worthy of credit as 
 their opponents. They must be supposed to give a faithful 
 account of l*heir own feehngs at least. This conflicting testi- 
 mony, like so many others with regard to the operation of sub- 
 stances upon the human body, is an additional proof that, in 
 such investigation, we must look beyond the primary effect of 
 things, and can determine little or nothing from the agreeable 
 or uneasy feelings which may immediately arise from them. 
 For the ultimate effect (which it is of the most consequence 
 to determine), we must have recourse to some more correct 
 criteiion. 
 
 Perhaps the oppugners of fermented liquors weaken their in- 
 fluence by pushing their hostility too far, and contradicting the 
 common experience of mankind. They deny that such liquors 
 give strength, and use some refined arguments to establish their 
 doctrine. The bodily strength furnished by beer. Dr. Franklin 
 said, can only be in proportion to the solid part of the barley 
 dissolved in the water ; and from this he argued, that a penny 
 loaf would give more strength than a pint of beer. But men 
 will not be so talked out of their feelings. Universal experience 
 shows, undoubtedly, that fermented liquors, used in modera- 
 tion, commonly augment for a time the muscular strength. 
 And hence we are taught, that stimulation causes iemporary 
 strength. 
 
 In fact, food itself raises the muscular strength, in conse- 
 quence of its application to the surface of the stomach ; for we 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 133 
 
 feel stronger immediately after eating, and before the food is 
 digested, or absorbed into the sanguiferous system. All the 
 muscles of the body sympathize with this membrane. 
 
 Fermented liquors raise the strength by impressing the brain 
 in a manner analogous to animal food. For, like animal food, 
 they increase the color of the face, which is an index that they 
 excite and stimulate all the small vessels of the brain. Mr. 
 Strutt, in his View of Manners and Customs (cited by Dr. 
 Beddoes), quotes a play of the time of Henry the Eighth or 
 Elizabeth, in which a citizen declares he has sent his daughter 
 in a morning as far as Pimlico, " to get a draught of ale to put 
 a color into her cheeks." This increase of color passes for a 
 sign of increased health. 
 
 But to estimate the effects of these substances, we must look 
 at the whole of their properties. The first and most important 
 of these properties is, that they diminish the appetite and im- 
 pair the powers of digestion. Water drinkers are well known 
 to have much keener appetites than the drinkers of beer. This 
 is commonly used as a proof of the wholesomeness of water, 
 but it really shows only the noxious power of beer. Low wo- 
 men of unprincipled habits give gia even to their infants, that 
 they may eat less bread. It is clear, from these facts, that 
 fermented liquors sap und undermine the very sources of hfe. 
 All permanent health and strength must be derived from a 
 sound stomach and perfect digestion of the food. 
 
 Fermented liquors have also a strong narcotic power. 
 Though they do not cause sleep (at least with the same power 
 and certainty as opium), they remarkably diminish the sensi- 
 bility of the nervous system. Hence they destroy and diminish 
 many uneasy feelings. They take off the uneasiness of hunger, 
 the uneasiness of la-ssitude, and the uneasiness of cold. These 
 are some of the greatest evils that the pow man suffers, and, in 
 consequence, he flies to the use of spirits, heedless or ignorant 
 of the ultimate consequence. To so great a degree is the sen- 
 sibility of the body impaired by spirits, that a drunkard has 
 been known to cut off his fingers in a tit of intoxication, with- 
 out apparent suffering, and with no reeollection of what had 
 happened ^when the drunken fit was over. 
 
 Besides this great, and, as it were, violent diminution of sen- 
 sibility, under the immediate impression of fermented liquors, 
 there appears also to be a permanent diminution of sensibility, 
 in pei'sons habitually using them, which extends to all the or- 
 gans, The spirit undergoes no change in the stomach, but iu 
 is absorbed into the circulating mass ; it is applied to the wholo 
 
ISi \EGETABLE DIET 
 
 body, and is finallj^ eliminated by all the excretory organs. If 
 therefore they arc habitually used, the body is constantly under 
 their influence in a greater or less degree. The well-known 
 fact, that persons who abstain from fermented liquors have a 
 much greater delicacy of taste than those of opposite habits, 
 may be cited as a proof that the sensibility of the latter is rad- 
 ically impaired. What is true of the tongue and palate is 
 true, probably, of the whole nervous system. 
 
 Observations on savao-es illustrates this fact more stronulv. 
 They have been often observed to have a much gr(3ater perfec- 
 tion of the senses, as of the eyesight and hearing, than Euro- 
 peans usually possess. As the fact is sufficiently well known, 
 it will be enough to cite a single observation in proof of it. A 
 writer, mentioning a native of New Zealand, named Moy- 
 hanger, says of him, " It w^as worthy of remark how much his 
 sight and hearing were superior to other persons on board the 
 ship ; the sound of a distant gun was distinctly heard, or a 
 strange sail readily discernible by Moyhanger, when no other 
 man could hear or perceive them." ]Sow it certainly has never 
 appeared that negroes, or savages of any sort, brought to 
 Europe, and conforming to European manners, enjoy this oi 
 any other superiority over other persons. There is every rea- 
 son to believe that there is no physical difference between the 
 different tribes of mankind, except w^hat is the result of differ- 
 ent habits. As the tribe we are now considering used both 
 flesh and fish in as great abundance as Europeans, the great 
 superiority of the senses which the savage tribes enjoy cannot, 
 with any probability, be attributed to any other cause than 
 to their being unacquainted with the use of fermented liquors. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to add that as large quantities of fer- 
 mented liquors are highly deleterious, producing a total loss of 
 muscular power, and an abolition nearly complete of all sensa- 
 tion ; as tliese symptoms are not unfrequently fatal, the suspicion 
 appears very just, that the perpetual ingurgitation of sucb mat- 
 ters cannot be innocent, however moderate the quantity may 
 be ; and that ail the pleasure or the comfort which persons 
 derive from such habits are gained at the ultimate expense of 
 their health, and the abbreviation of their lives. 
 
 It appears then that the advantages experienced from fer- 
 mented liquors, and from animal food, are subject to the same 
 limitations, and regulated by the same laws. There are many 
 diseases of debility in which the radical strength of the consti- 
 tution is unimpaired, and its powers adequate to the restoration 
 of health. In such diseases the stimulus of animal food and of 
 
IN fcllRONIC DISEASES. 135 
 
 feimented liquors may have no sensible injuiy, or even may 
 produce great apparent advantajres. But they mus aggravate 
 all habitual and constitutional diseases. The relie:' from pam 
 or uneasiness which they procure is induced only by a species 
 of stupefaction ; and the strengtli tliat they give is from stimu- 
 lation merely, and induces premature and permanent weakness. 
 In all diseases tending to death, and in which therefore there 
 must be a radical loss of power, this stimulation must do harm. 
 It excites action, which must further impair the strength and 
 accelerate the fatal issue of the disease. 
 
 This is a distinction which ought never for a single moment 
 to be out of view. A want of attention to, or ignorance of the 
 opposite effects of tlie same treatment in different states of the 
 constitution, is what causes such diversity of opinion and in- 
 consistent practices. A feeble child, with some external scrofu- 
 lous disorder, for example, is made to use animal food and 
 wine. Its color improves ; it grows stronger ; and if the dis- 
 order is unaffected, the child at least appears in better health. 
 The same practice therefore is transferred to another child, also 
 said to be scrofulous, but with some much more formidable dis- 
 ease a white swelling we may say, or a psoas abscess. Here 
 it is impossible but this practice must be highly noxious. The 
 inherent powers of the system are weakened ; and mere stimu- 
 lation can never impart radical 'strength. On the contrary, it 
 abbreviates life ; and the mischief done must in such cases be 
 very great and very sensible. 
 
 The habitual use of fermented liquors is a cause of destruc- 
 tion sufficient of itself to counteract all the good effects of diet 
 by no means insalubrious, and of situation which is more than 
 commonly healthful. In the Pays de Vaud, in Switzerland, 
 half who are born Hve to forty-one. Very nearly a fourth 
 part live to three years of age, the great mortality being in the 
 first year. But notwithstanding these strong indications of 
 general salubrity, after forty the probabilities of living in this 
 country decrease very fast ; and after sixty-five they appear to 
 be rather lower than is common. "Mr. Muret," Dr. Price 
 observes, "has taken notice of this fact, and ascribes it to 
 the particular prevalence of drunken'iess in his country. He 
 had," he says, " once ths curiosity to examine the register of 
 deaths in one town, and to mark those whose deaths might be 
 imputed to drunkenness, and he fecund the number so great as 
 to incline him to believe that hard drinking kills more of man- 
 kind than pleurisies and fevers, and all the most malignant dis- 
 tempers." 
 
136 rEGETABLE DIET 
 
 The species of torpor or impaired sensibility, which I have 
 attributed to the use of fermented hquors, is not a consequence 
 of this practice only. Animal food produces it likewise, a^j is 
 obvious from the improvement of the senses consequent upon 
 relinquishing it, and using vegetable food only. As the putres- 
 cent matter or Septic Poison of water is powerful enough to 
 induce palsy (as I shall show hereafter), this substance, it is 
 evident, must have an analogous effect. We may extend this 
 remark to the digesting powers. The disuse of fermented 
 liquors, the relinquishment of animal food, and the use of puri- 
 fied water, all increase the appetite and appear to strengthen 
 the digestion. We may conclude then, that fermented liquors, 
 animal food, and impure water injure the digesting powers. 
 The same observation may be applied to the secreting powers, 
 and the derangement of the other functions of the body. 
 
 It must follow from these facts that these effects of dimin- 
 ishing the sensibility of the nervous system, impairing the di- 
 gestion, and deranging the other functions of the body are not 
 to be deemed specific effects of these peculiar matters. The)'- 
 are rather to be deemed common effects and common signs of 
 an injured vitality; and it seems probable that any applications 
 or agents whatever, which diminish the powers of life and tend 
 ultimately to destroy them, would have similar intermediate 
 effects. 
 
 ^ This leads me to remark that the specific effects of fermented 
 liquors upon the body have not been hitherto precisely deter- 
 mined. At least the diseases which are ascribed, and with great 
 justice, to spirituous potations, often occurring where this evil 
 custom cannot be traced, it is obvious to suspeet that the 
 liquors are not the sole agents, but are to be esteemed only as 
 an accelerating and concurring cause in the production of these 
 diseases. 
 
 Physicians assert that the use of fermented liquors occasions 
 dropsy, epilepsy, palsy, insanity, and other the greatest calami- 
 ties incident to human nature. A multitude of observations 
 which are constantly occurring to any man who looks round 
 him, give great probability to these opinions. For example, I 
 was well acquainted v/ith a gentleman who had been afflicted 
 for eight years or more with the most acute and agonizing pains 
 of the stomach attended with sickness and vomiting, and recur- 
 ring at intervals. These pains finally ceased from no other 
 cause, as far as it could be ascertained, than his becoming 
 much more temperate, and wholly relinquishing the use of 
 spirits and water. Another person whom I well knew, a large. 
 
IN CHRONJC DISEASES. 137 
 
 full man, advanced in years, was subject to attacks very nearly 
 approaching to apoplexy. He lived in Herefordshire, and 
 drank much cider. One year the crop of apples totally failed ; 
 and the man being in reduced circumstances, his supply of 
 cider failed likewise. The consequence was that during this 
 time he escaped his customary attacks. 
 
 Still, however, as these great diseases cannot be warded o9 
 by the strictest temperance, they cannot be deemed the specific 
 effect of the poison of alcohol, but rather must be regarded as 
 the ultimate effect of various and concurring morbific powers, 
 acting on different persons according to the susceptibility and 
 predisposition of each individual. It can hardly be doubted 
 that every agent has a distinct and pecuhar effect as well as a 
 general effect. It is highly desirable that these should be duly 
 defined. But I do not feel competent to this task, nor to elu- 
 cidate the peculiar agency of each matter, further than by a rela- 
 tion of the facts, which I propose to form the sequel of this work. 
 
 That fermented liquors should be deleterious, induce disease, 
 and shorten life, is so far from affording a reasonable ground of 
 complaint against the order of nature, that it is a proof of the 
 wisdom and beneficence of the over-ruHng Power. Were it 
 otherwise, the rich would be enabled absolutely to starve the 
 poor, by their wasteful consumption of the articles of first 
 necessity. To make a pint of wine, I suppose at least three or 
 four pounds of grapes are used, enough amply to support a 
 man for a day. The man, therefore, who drinks only his pint 
 of wine daily, uses his own proper quantity of food, and destroys 
 at the same time what might have been the food of another 
 man. As the power of swallowing down wine is almost un- 
 limited, to what an extent would this mischief spread, if it did not 
 find its natural boundary in the destruction of life which such 
 habits occasion ? All but the proprietors of the soil, and those 
 living by their sufferance, would b swept from the surface of 
 the earth. Property under such circumstances would be an 
 evil wholly insufferable. 
 
 T]|ie distilleries are reckoned servicable as being a resource 
 against famine in unfavorable seasons. But are not the evils 
 which they induce much greater than those which they are 
 thought to counteract ? Do they not keep up a perpetual 
 famine among the wives and families of thousands of mechanics, 
 by the dissolute habits of the fathers which they engender, the 
 loss of health, and early deaths ? To convert the bread of the 
 poor into poison, of all the abuses of the bounties of Providence, 
 is the most flagrant and abominable. 
 
138 VEGEIABLE DIET 
 
 I must repeat on tliis what has been ah-eadv asserted with 
 regard to other morbific agents, that its action ,s not the less 
 real because it is slow, and the impression for a time is hardly 
 perceptible. A wine drinker, on hearing his favorite liquor 
 called a slow poison, is reported to have replied, '* A very slow 
 poison indeed ; I have used it daily these fifty years, and it 
 has not killed me yet." And this is thought to be a very tri- 
 umphant answer. But the same defence may be made of 
 every bad habit whatever. Many bear them with impunity, 
 which proves, not the sahibrity of the habit, but the flinty 
 hardiness of a constitution with which they are blessed. 
 
 The objections which are urged against the use of fermented 
 liquors do not seem applicable to spices. However hot and 
 fiery these are in the mouth, they do not appear to be delete- 
 rious. Tliey do not derange the brain, nor stupefy the nervous 
 system ; they do not even appear to heat the body, nor greatly 
 to accelerate the pulse. There cannot, therefore, be any ob- 
 jection to the moderate use of such substances. The experi- 
 ence and opinions of Mr. Bruce on this subject are, I think, 
 worthy of attention, though not so immediately applicable to 
 our own climate as to fhe more tropical regions. This writer 
 asks : 
 
 **But did they ever feel themselves heated by ever so great 
 a quantity of black pepper ? Spirits, they think, substituted 
 for this, answer the same purpose. But does not the heat of 
 your skin, the violent pain in your head, while the spirits are 
 filtering through the vessels of your brains, show the differ- 
 ence ? When did any ever feel a like sensation from black 
 pepper, or any pepper eaten to excess in every meal ? 
 
 " I lay it down, then, as a positive rule of health, that the 
 warmest dishes the natives delight in are the most wliolesome 
 strangers can use in the putrid climates of Lower Arabia, Abys- 
 sinia, Senaar, and Egypt itself, and that spirits and all fer- 
 mented liquors should be regarded as poisons." 
 
 Having condemned water, and attempted to show experi- 
 mentally its noxious influence upon the system ; having con- 
 demned spirituous and fermented liquors, from the authority 
 of the most enlightened medical writers and the common ex- 
 perience of mankind, it must follow that therz is no species of 
 drinking which I approve. And, indeed, I have already ven- 
 tured to assert that all drinking is an unnatural habit ; in other 
 words, that man is not naturally a drinking animal. 
 
 To those who cannot raise their views above the passing 
 scene, who think that human nature must necessarily^ be in 
 
IN CHRC VIC DfrfE E3. 139 
 
 every situation the same as they observe it in their ow" town 
 or village; to those, in short, who look for knoAvledge in the 
 prattling of the drawing-room, or the gossip of the grocer's 
 shop, I know that this appears a strange, if not a ridiculous 
 assertion. We say, with great confidence, that water is abso- 
 lutely necessary both to man and beast. But the strength of 
 the evidence is not equal to the positiveness of the assertion. 
 
 In fact, we know very httle about the habits of animals, except 
 of those whose natures we have changed and corrupted by do- 
 mestication. All that the natural historian can do with regard 
 to the wild species, is to describe their forms, and such of their- 
 qualities as have fallen under observation ; these last must of 
 necessity be very imperfect. Imperfect, however, as it is, we 
 know en;ugh to be certain that the assertion of the necessity 
 of the use of water to animals is, to the extent to which it is 
 carried, absolutely groundless. 
 
 " I have known an owl of this species," (the brown owl) 
 says M. White, " live a full year without any Avater. Perhaps 
 the case may be the same with all birds of prey." There 
 was a Llama of Peru shown in London, a year or two ago, 
 which lived wholly without liquids ; it would not touch water. 
 In some of the small islands on our coast, on which there is not a 
 drop of water to be found, there are, I am told, rabbit-warrens. 
 Bruce says, "That although Zimmer (an island of the Red Sea) 
 is said to be without water, yet there are antelopes upon it, and 
 also hyenas in numbers." To account for this, he suspects that 
 there must be water in some subterraneous caves or clefts of 
 the rocks. This, however, is only supposition. The argali, or 
 wild sheep, from the country in which it is found, it is certain, 
 does not drink. Mr. Pallas says of it, " This animal lives upon 
 desert mountains, which are dry and without wood, and upon 
 rocks where there are many bitter and acrid plants." He fur- 
 ther says of it, " There are no deer so wild as the argali ; it is 
 almost impossible to come near it in hunting. They have an 
 astonishing lightness and quickness in the chase, and they hold 
 it a long time." How wonderfull}^ therefore, is this animal 
 deteriorated by domestication, and by being forced to live ia 
 situations and to adopt habits unsuited to its nature ! 
 
 Let us therefore consider man again, for a moment, as we 
 may suppose him fresh from the hands of his Maker, and de- 
 pending upon his physical powers only for his subsistence. We 
 must suppose every animal so circumstanced, to be furnished by 
 nature with organs suited to its physical necessities. Now I 
 sec that man has the head elevated above the ground, and to 
 
140 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 bring the mouth to the earth requh-es a strahied and a painful 
 effort. Moreover, the mouth is flat and the nose prominent, 
 circumstances which make the effort still more difficult. la 
 this position the act of swallowing a fluid is so painful and con- 
 strained that it can hardly be performed. He has therefore no 
 organ which is naturally suited to drinking. He cannot even 
 convey a fluid into his mouth without the aid of some artificial 
 instrument. The artifice is very simple, it is true. But still 
 the body must be nourished anterior to all artificial knowledge. 
 Nature seems therefore fully to have done her part toward 
 keeping n*.en from the use of liquids. And doubtless on a diet 
 of fruits and recent vegetables there would be no thirst, and no 
 necessity for the use of liquids. 
 
 If it be true therefore that other animals require water, it 
 would not folloAv that man, whose organization is different, 
 would require it likewise. But we, in fact, know very little of 
 the habits of animals. Our common domestic animals certainly 
 drink. But it appears, as far as my information extends, that 
 common water has the same effect upon them as upon man ; 
 and that they are more or less healthy, according to the purity 
 of the water which they^se.* 
 
 * Many writers have observed the deleterious effect of water on our 
 domestic animals. The following passage, from the Encyclopedia Me- 
 thodique, is quoted in Sir .John Sinclair's Code of Health, vol. iii. : " Vitru- 
 vius informs us that the ancients inspected the livers of animals, in order 
 to judge of the nature of the water of a country, and the salubrity of its 
 nutritive productions. From this source they derived instruction respect- 
 ing the choice of the most advantageous situations for building cities. The 
 size and condition of the liver is, in fact, a pretty sure indication of the 
 unhealthiness of particular grounds, and of the deleterious quality of the 
 water, which, especially when it is stagnant, produces in cows, and par- 
 ticularly in sheep, fatal diseases that have often their seat in the fiver; 
 as, for instance, the rot, which frequently destroys whole flocks in marshy 
 countries. The spleen is also a viscus very apt to be aflfected by these 
 qualities." Halle, Hygiene. 
 
 In a work on agriculture, by Hogg, the Ettric Shepherd, it is asserted 
 that if it be tried to rear young lambs in the winter, upon hay and water, 
 they, for the most part, die. But if they are supplied with fresh suocu' 
 lent food, they live and thrive. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 141 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 CASES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 In the foregoing remarks I have considered the effects of our 
 ahment in general, without any regard to the immediate condi- 
 tion of the system as to health or disease. If many of the sub- 
 stances so applied are morbific causes, though only ultimately 
 and remotely, it cannot but belong to prudent foresight and 
 prospective wisdom to avoid them. But the rules for the pre- 
 servation of health and avoiding diseases, though always esteem- 
 ed a branch, and a most important branch of medicine, are rarely 
 demanded of the physician, except in cases of obvious and im- 
 minent hazard. As there can be no doubt that on these highly 
 interesting subjects many gross errors and many deep-rooted 
 prejudices pervade the mass of mankind, hopes may be enter- 
 tained that, as the understandings of men become enlightened, 
 beneficial changes may be introduced into the general habit^ 
 of society. This is, however, a remote, and not a very cheering 
 prospect; But to do all that is within the feeble powers of 
 individual exertion to diffuse knowledge, and the blessings which 
 follow in its train, is no more than striving to pay that immense 
 debt which every one owes to the community'-, who has received 
 from the sufferance of his fellow-men tlie exemption from ser- 
 vile and laborious occupations, and the inestimable advantage 
 of mental cultivation. 
 
 It belongs more to the immediate duty of the physician to 
 consider how far the principles which have been laid down war- 
 rant a change in the treatment of diseases, particularly those 
 which are chronical, and upon which medicine has little influence, 
 and to determine what are the advantages which experience 
 authorizes us to expect from the proposed change. 
 
 Whatever may be the effects upon the human body of the 
 substances which, though received at short successive intervals, 
 are continually applied to the organs, in the form of food and 
 
112 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 drink, it is obvious that they cannot be estimated as we would 
 calculate the forces, and percussions, and motions of inert mat- 
 ter. The body is a self-moving machine, subject to its own 
 peculiar laws, and though to keep up the succession of motions 
 and sensations, and the integrity of tlie powers which are essen- 
 tia] to and which constitute a living system, the application of 
 the peculiar stimuli of the various organs is necessary, still there 
 are inherent properties of the body as a whole, of each peculiar 
 organ, the totality of which constitute that whole, and even of 
 every individual molecule of the living mass. Upon a machine 
 so constituted and so complicated do the stimuli act ; and to 
 gain any insight into their effects, we must consider the pro- 
 perties of the substance acted upon, as well as the nature of 
 the agents. 
 
 The living body itself is not only endowed with peculiar pro- 
 perties at any given moment of its existence, but it is also in a 
 constant state of change, both in its powers and in its materials. 
 The irritability, mobility, and sensibility of the various organs 
 are never uniform during any two successive portions of time ; 
 and at periods considerably distant the change is more strongly 
 marked. The whole mass of the system, the materials of which 
 the body is composed, are likewise in a constant state of flux, 
 so that after a certain lapse of time there is a total change of 
 matter under an identity of form. I suspect that the laws ac- 
 cording to which these changes take place have not been suffi- 
 siently adverted to, and fhat some insight may be gained into 
 the origin, phenomena, and periods of diseases by a more strict 
 consideration of them. 
 
 The circumstances to which I have adverted create a consid- 
 erable difficulty in conducting an inquiry, by the way of experi- 
 ment, on the effects of regimen, or peculiar modes of living, 
 upon the body, either in disease or health. This difficulty is 
 increi\ed by the original varieties of the human constitution, so 
 ihat, upon the whole, it becomes extremely hazardous to trans- 
 fer the result of one trial to other cases of a different nature, or 
 even of the same, and where the appearances are very similar. 
 But still in this, as in every other physical inquiry, the founda- 
 tion of all knowledge must be laid in experience : to that the 
 appeal must be made in examining the truth or falsehood of 
 principles, and the usefulness or the futility of all new proposals 
 for the improvement of the treatment of diseases. If the varie- 
 ties of diflferent constitutions are endless, and the forms of dis- 
 ease unlimited, still there are analogies and resemblances suffi- 
 ciently striking and definite to servj as a guide in the intricate 
 
IN CHRONIC DIS&ASES. 143 
 
 maa3s of investigation. The differences of result of the same 
 treatment upon different habits, and under various circum- 
 stances, may be expected to be rather differences in degree than 
 in kind ; and in circumstances more accidental and of inferior 
 importance, than in the more marked changes, which may afford 
 a just basis for correct reasonin^g, and an encouragement for 
 new efforts toward rehef. 
 
 I proceed, therefore, now to relate some cases of disease in 
 which I have applied in some of them with the strictest accu- 
 racy ; in all with as much as i could effect, the principles, the 
 justness in which I have labored to establish in the preceding 
 pages, and in my former writings. Of the propriety of the 
 general principle of removing in chronic diseases, if possible, 
 all the causes of disease, whether these causes be immediate or 
 remote, there can, I conceive, be no dispute. The only ques- 
 tion is, what, in fact, are these causes ? I have extended them 
 to almost all the ingesta ; but particularly to common water, 
 to fermented liquors, and to animal food, fish, eggs, in short, 
 to every thing except the matter which is the direct produce 
 of the earth, and of such a kind as experience has shown to be 
 wholesome and nutritive. 
 
 Of vegetable matter I do not know that any great nicety of 
 selection is necessary; the palate will be a sufficient guide. 
 Tlicre can be little doubt that vegetables, which are raised in 
 the country where the land is not too highly manured, are 
 preferable to those which are raised in the gardens of great 
 towns, and particularly near the metropolis. But any evil 
 which may be supposed to arise from this cause, being for the 
 most part unavoidable, it is nugatory to give directions about it. 
 Of vegetable matter, I consider fruit, and what is unchanged by 
 culinary art, as the most congenial to the human constitution ; 
 and in consequent advise as much to be taken in this form as is 
 consistent with comfortable feeling. In the sort of vegetable 
 matter employed there may possibly be material differences on 
 the constitution. We know that animals cannot with impunity 
 deviate very much from the species of food which is most 
 adapted to their natures. But as on thi-s subject I am without 
 any information on which I can fully depend, I think it best to 
 leave it to be determined by time and future observation. 
 Vinous and fermented liquors I forbid. The water used in 
 every article in which water is taken into the stomach, I enjoin 
 to be artificially purified by distillation.* This is the Peculiar 
 
 * Pure rain vvat^-, such as it is when coming frona the clouds and re. 
 ceived h) a clean ^<?sse1,. in shart, rain water liint is kept free from the 
 
144 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 Regimen whicli I believe to be the best adapted to the cure of 
 chronical diseases in general, such as I have described in my 
 ''Reports on Cancer," and which I here repeat for the sake of 
 those who may not be in possession of that work, and also to 
 save me the ti'ouble of needless repetitions in the ensuing nar- 
 ratives. 
 
 But as a motion may, in inert matter, be continued by the 
 inertia of matter itself, when the impressing cause has been 
 removed, so the symptoms of disease may be found to continue 
 when the remote or exciting cause no longer acts. The patient 
 may be too far gone to be relieved, the inherent powers of the 
 system being destroyed ; or he may be partially relieved, or he 
 may be cured. All these varieties are not inconsistent with 
 the correctness of the principles and the acknowledged laws of 
 the animal economy. In defining the extent to which this prac- 
 tice is applicable, with any probability of conferring benefit, the 
 degree of benefit which it may probably afford, the time which 
 may be expected to be required, and other various circum- 
 stances concerning which the mind of a sufferer is naturally 
 anxious to be informed, experience alone must be our guide. 
 To form any conjectures on such subjects, independent of trial, 
 is obviously impossible. 
 
 And (if I may be allowed to say a word concerning myself 
 in this place), with regard to the forbidding of animal food, an 
 injunction that sounds more unwelcome to English ears than 
 any perhaps that could be given, it is impossible that any one 
 could have brought to a subject a mind more unprejudiced 
 than I did. For forty years of my life I do not know that as 
 many days were passed without animal food. Early in life 
 (certainly before I practiced physic) I read some where, I be- 
 lieve in Mrs. Macaulay's letters on education, that giving chil- 
 dren meat gravy instead of bread and water, and such sort of 
 food, was discovered to be a great improvement in their diet ; 
 and as young people are apt to be delighted with discoveries, 
 the impression remained, and I firmly believed it. The general 
 strain of medical writings since that period was not likely to 
 
 admixture of all other substances whatever, rs as good as distilled water 
 for any chemical purpose however delicate ; and from this fact we may 
 safely infer, I think, that it is also as good for drinking, cooking, and all 
 similar purposes. I am very confident that if Dr. Lambe's experiments 
 liad been made with pure rain water the results would have been equally 
 favorable. Rain water all can have at a very little trouble and expense, 
 a circunist.mco which is not true of that which is distilled. I cannot 
 believe that the Almighty would not have placed the bet remedy within 
 tije reach of all S. 
 
IN CflRONIC DISEASES. 145 
 
 change this mode of thinking. Respectable and well-intentioned 
 writers have ascribed much positive mischief to vegetable food. 
 Rickets, scrofula, consumption, palsy, and a host of other 
 evils, have been said to be the direct offspring of such a diet. 
 Dr. Downman, in his elegant poem of infancy, wholly neglecting 
 or being ignorant of all the effects of locality and other morbific 
 causes, has condensed these charges in the following lines : 
 
 The infant form'd perhaps with stronger nerves, 
 
 Or of peculiar nature, may escape 
 
 The blasting hand of sickness, or may thrive 
 
 On vegetable fare ; yet oft we view 
 
 Where poverty more generous food denies 
 
 Tottering Rachitis seize its helpless prey ; 
 
 Or slow consuming Tabes; or within 
 
 His mazy labyrinth, the torturous worm, ' 
 
 Finding a sure asylum, multiplies 
 
 His noisome produce. Hence the unwieldy head. 
 
 Distended joint, limbs variously incurved ; 
 
 Hence the sunk cheek, the hollow lifeless eye ; 
 
 Hence loss of balmy sleep, and appetite, 
 
 Convulsive motions, agonizing spasms, 
 
 And symptoms, which, in order to describe, 
 
 Had foiled the Coan Sage. 
 
 Dr. Darwin, if not the best physician of his age, certainly a 
 man of the finest genius, and of the greatest natural penetration 
 and sagacity of them all, was an advocate for animal food. In 
 his ardor against fermented liquors he has said, " Flesh meats 
 as well as vegetables are the natural diet of mankind ; with 
 these a glutton may be crammed up to the throat, and fed fat 
 like a stalled ox; but he will not be diseased unless he adds 
 spirituous or fermented liquor to his food." And upon this 
 I may say truly preposterous doctrine, he acted, both in his 
 own person and in his family. Dr. Beddoes, likewise, whose 
 writings on the subjects of health have been widely diffused, 
 more from the attraction of the style and the confident tone of 
 superiority assumed by the writer, than from any intrinsic worth 
 of the matter, pushed the extravagance of his predilection for 
 animal diet so far, that he maintained that butchers are not 
 liable to become consumptive. He might have said, with an 
 equal chance of being right, that common servants in gen- 
 tlemen's families, who, for the most part, live much in the 
 same way as butchers, do not become consumptive. But 
 amidst this general concurrence of sentiment, it was not easy 
 to permit any doubts on such a subject to come across the 
 mind. Nor, in fact, did I entertain any, till in the year 1804 I 
 observed the deleterious effect of impure water ; when I saw 
 
146 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 clearly enough that the weakness which many experience froni 
 abstaining from animal food, and the other mischiefs attributed 
 to vegetables, might arise from a diflferent cause than any thing 
 really debilitating in vegetable food. It was not, however, till 
 nearly three years afterward that I became fully convinced of 
 the absolute necessity of a strict vegetable regimen in chronic 
 diseases, from an attentive consideration of the facts which I 
 have elsewhere detailed. 
 
 In the relation of the following cases, I shall not follow any 
 artificial or scientific order, but shall put down the facts nearly 
 in the order of time in which they occurred. Thus, the re- 
 sults of those cases which have gone on long enough to enable 
 me to speak with confidence of the effects of the treatment, 
 will be a sort of cover to the defects of others, which, if they 
 stood alone, would not justify a similar language. I shall also, 
 in general, give a name to each individual case of disease, ex- 
 ercising on this point my best judgment. For though I con- 
 sider nosological arrangements to be of very little practical 
 utility, yet some names are necessary to convey to others a 
 general conception of things, and those, therefore, which are 
 ,the most generally received are the best suited to this end. 
 
 I shall venture, in the course of my narrative, to draw such 
 conclusions as the facts seem to warrant. Perhaps, here and 
 there, I may offer some conjectures upon the more hidden 
 causes of the phenomena of diseases. If in these I err, I doubt 
 not that I shall be excused in the opinion of candid and inge- 
 nious men ; since it is obvious that these causes, that is to sa}'-, 
 the internal changes in the human body that form the more 
 open and prominent phenomena of diseases, have, for the most 
 part, eluded the research of pathological inquirers ; this, I say, 
 IS obvious, from the little satisfaction to be gained on these sub- 
 jects from the writings of the most esteemed authors. 
 
 CASE I. 
 
 Weak Eyes, Pimples of the Skin, Dysjaepsy Sick Headache, Constipation, 
 Depression of Spirits, and Gout. 
 
 Though the materials of the following case are taken from 
 experience, in my own person, I have thought it better to give 
 the narrative in the third person. I have begun the thread of 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 147 
 
 the history from a distant period, being convinced that the 
 physical life of every individual consists of a series of pheno- 
 mena, none of which are absolutely insulated and independent ; 
 that each occurrence is a sort of consequence of those which 
 have preceded, and is closely linked to those which are to fol- 
 low. Thus the disease which ultimately proves fatal often 
 shows itself in early life, and might perhaps be traced by an 
 attentive observer even to the first periods of existence. It 
 ** grows with our growth, and strengthens with our strength." 
 We have an infinite number of histories of diseases, that is, of 
 solitary attacks or single illnesses. But the histories of a dis- 
 eased life, so that we may see at a single view the order and 
 succession of events, are rare and very imperfect. To pro-ceed, 
 however, with my narrative. 
 
 August 9th, 1813. A physician, in the forty-ninth year of 
 his age, passed the first eighteen years of his hfe without dis- 
 ease. But there were some peculiarities of constitution, which 
 were observable at this time. He could never bear with ease 
 a strong light, and the whole head was more than commonly 
 tender. At eight years old he received, by a fall from a horse, 
 a severe wound in the forehead. The cicatrix of this wound 
 was always so tender, that he could never afterward bear the 
 pressure of the edge of a hat upon it ; on which account, he 
 always wore the hat close upon the eyes. He was of a lax 
 fibre, with a feeble pulse, thin, pale, delicate, and with very 
 light hair. 
 
 At about eighteen, he began to have many pimples over the 
 face, neck, shoulders, and breast; and these continued unre- 
 mittingly upward of twenty years, being very troublesome, 
 producing considerable deformity, and most of them, after sup- 
 puration, leaving pits in the skin. About the same time, too, 
 he began to have some trifling uneasy feelings of the stomach, 
 and slight dyspeptic symptoms. 
 
 At the age of twenty-four or five, he was often seized with 
 sudden lameness, not very violent, and lasting only a short 
 time. He was told by a very old sufferer from gout, that these 
 lamenesses portended severe attacks of that disease. How- 
 ever, they left him before the age of twenty-eight, and they 
 have only been brought to his recollection by subsequent 
 events. 
 
 He arrived, however, at the age of thirty-two or three, with- 
 out any serious or dangerous illness. He was dyspeptic, had 
 often sick headaches, the eyes impatient of light, and tad some- 
 times slight lumbago or rheumatism. But he had no confine- 
 
148 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 ment nor violent attacks. On exposui-e to cold, or other occa- 
 sions of disease, the stomach was the principal sufferer. With 
 coughs or colds he was almost unacquainted. 
 
 About the period above mentioned, he perceived a degree of 
 confusion about the head ; reading caused a degree of dizziness, 
 so that intellectual exertion or study, which had been a source 
 of great pleasure, became less agreeable. About the same 
 time, too, but the exact period he cannot fix upon, he found 
 the head so heated at night that even a nightcap was uneasy, 
 and he always threw it off before morning ; a symptom that 
 became permanent. 
 
 In some short time afterward, he found the dyspeptic symp- 
 toms greatly aggravated, the digestion imperfect, and, for the 
 first time, the secretion by the bowels became irregular. Arti- 
 ficial methods of evacuation, both by medicine and by injections, 
 gave considerable relief, and brought away many scybala, and 
 much offensive excrement. But the benefit was only tempo- 
 rary ; after the operation of medicine, the necessity for them 
 occurred ; natural evacuations, though not suspended, seemed 
 ineffectual and unsatisfactory ; nor was he ever easy and com- 
 fortable v/hen the use of medicines was intermitted for any 
 length of time. The mind, too, fell into that disagreeable 
 state, in which the attention is greatly fixed upon the bodily 
 feelings; in health, these are hardly noticed, but the atten- 
 tion is absorbed by things that are external and foreign to the 
 body. 
 
 At this period of his life, he thought that inflammation of 
 the bowels was caused by obstruction, and that the prevention 
 or removal of this obstruction would obviate such disease. He 
 was, therefore, extremely attentive to preserve a regularity of 
 the intestinal evacuations by the regular use of gentle aperient 
 medicines. But notwithstanding all his precautions, he was 
 seized, in January, 1799, with a very severe inflammation of the 
 bowels. The pain was chiefly seated in the right epigastric 
 region, and though the violence of the disease was subdued in 
 eight or ten days, the pain at that part continued to be felt 
 for a twelvemonth ; and after that attack, he never walked out 
 in the cool of the evening, without feeling a slight tenderness 
 and uneasiness over the whole abdomen. 
 
 For a year or two, however, after this attack, he enjoyed, 
 upon the whole, a better state of health than before it. But 
 still the dyspeptic symptoms and irregularity of the bowels 
 continued to trouble him. The stomach never felt easy ; he 
 was oppressed with flatulence, and it continued necessary to 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 149 
 
 have recourse to art to procure regular evacuations. These 
 symptoms kept slowly increasing. To these were joined, to- 
 ward the close of 1802, fits of low spirits and hypochondriacal 
 feelings, which it is impossible to describe, and the horrors of 
 which can be knovrn to those only who have felt them. They 
 were not very lasting, and were succeeded by intervals of 
 cheerfulness and good spirits. 
 
 In the beginning of 1803, the uneasiness of the stomach 
 was more aggravated. It was not acute, but constant and 
 wearino^. It was not a fortnio^ht before he conceived the idea 
 which led to its relief, that he said in despair to one who was 
 the sharer of all his thoughts, " What can it be that occasions 
 this constant uneasiness of the stomach ?" He was more than 
 commonly temperate, lived in a small healthy country town, 
 and from the nature of his profession used much exercise, though 
 it seldom amounted to great fatigue. Still he found himself 
 unable to ward off severe illness, and the dread of still more dan- 
 gerous attacks. 
 
 The only thing which had afforded any permanent relief to 
 the stomach was substituting water to beer as a common bever- 
 age. This has been serviceable, but without effecting a cure. 
 
 In the month of May, 1803, he saw reason to believe that 
 deleterious matter was introduced into the body with the water 
 that is habitually employed ; and he determined therefore to 
 try the effect of using none but what was made perfectly pure 
 by distillation. The motives for this opinion he has detailed at 
 length in a Avork entitled An Inquiry into the Origin of Consti- 
 tutional Diseases. He believes that the views he took in that 
 work are essentially correct, but that the hypothesis he adopted 
 was too limited. He reserves, however, what he may have to 
 say on this head to a more proper place and opportunity. 
 
 When he found that the uneasy state of the stomach was 
 abated by this simple expedient, the dehght received from the 
 discovery may be more readily conceived than described. And 
 indeed the real benefit produced was very considerable. He 
 found a considerable improvement of muscular strength. -In 
 about nine months his sick headaches left him ; and from that 
 time to the present hour he has not experienced this great 
 inconvenience once.'" The constant uneasiness of the stomach 
 soon became soothed, and in about fifteen months it was hardly 
 sensible. All the dyspeptic symptoms were relieved, the sto- 
 
 * He has been informed by others of sick headaches having been re- 
 lieved by distilled wal^, particularly by a gentleman more than sixty 
 years of age. 
 
150 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 mach was no longer loaded and oppressed with flatulence, and 
 the bowels performed their regular functions without the aid 
 of medicine. 
 
 Regularly in the month of October he had been subject, for 
 some years, to severe attacks of pain in the jaws ; so much 
 that he used to take sixty, eighty, or even one hundred drops 
 of tincture of opium to gain relief. This kind of attack recur- 
 red the first year after the use of distilled water Avith its accus- 
 tomed violence. But since that time it has ceased entirely. 
 
 At the end of eight months, that is to say in the beginning 
 of 1804, he had a relapse of the inflammation of the bowels, 
 ushered in with exactly the same symptoms as in the year 
 1799, and with equal severity of pain. But in this instance it 
 subsided in the course of two or three days without bleeding, 
 and after a week or nine days it was entirely gone, without 
 leaving any trace of uneasiness after it. 
 
 Before he adopted the use of pure water, the linen over the 
 right shoulder was constantly stained with blood, from the 
 breaking of a succession of pimples upon the subjacent parts. 
 This ceased by its use, as did the tenderness of the abdomen 
 upon exposure to the damps of the evening. 
 
 All these changes showed that the whole habit of body was 
 affected by this simple change. It appeared to pervade and 
 affect every organ. But its effects were most evident upon 
 the mouth, tongue, and palate. The tongue was less foul, 
 the feelings of all the parts more comfortable, and the teeth 
 became very much divested of the dark and foul matter with 
 which they were soiled. 
 
 Another appearance was very striking. He had observed 
 for years that the skin of the neck contracted a black stain, 
 which he in vain attempted to remove by washing. It was 
 either indelible, or was quickly renewed after it had been re- 
 moved. But this foulness, like that upon the teeth, was taken 
 away almost entirely by the same process. It is evident, there- 
 fore, that this blackness, which may be observed on many per- 
 sons, and which is that which soils the linen in contact with 
 the neck, proceeds from the body itself. It must be a taint of 
 the mucus of the skin ; and as the black summits of coagulated 
 mucus which may be pressed out of the skin (which are vul- 
 garly called grubs) are discolored only where they have been 
 exposed to the atmosphere, it seems that the matter is colorless 
 wh-en excreted ; but it is blackened by the action of the atmo- 
 sphere. 
 
 The whole skin also became less tentter. Thus he could 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 151 
 
 bear shaving, even with cold water, without pain ; the great 
 tenderness of the forehead diminished, so that he became able 
 to bear the moderate pressm-e of a hat upon the old cicatrix 
 on the forehead without inconvenience. The number of pim- 
 ples much diminished, and those which appeared did not so 
 readily run into suppuration. 
 
 Observing these things, he cannot be surprised even at this 
 time, that, not suspecting any other evident cause of mischief, 
 and seeing that the one which he had detected was of itself 
 adequate to account for the premature and violent dissolution 
 of the body, he should have thought that no other precaution 
 than attention to the purity of the fluids introduced into the 
 body, with an observance of the common rules of temperance 
 and moderation, was requisite to the preservation of the health. 
 Ought it to be a reproach to him, that, at this period, with 
 regard to the nature of the food, he was of the same opinion 
 as the bulk of the community and the great body of the profes- 
 sion, and that he had not adopted sentiments, which are by 
 the majority, at this moment, deemed indefensible ? 
 
 But his own personal experience, united to the observations 
 he made upon others, proved to him the insufficiency of this 
 precaution aione. During the whole of 1804 he enjoyed an 
 improved state of health, Nor did he notice any thing in par- 
 ticular, except it was occasionally an uneasiness over the head, 
 particularly after dinner. In the course of 1805, he first felt 
 pains over the head frequently occurring. They were quite 
 different from sick headaches; they were of the kind rather 
 which would be called tensive, affecting the whole cranium, and 
 much depressing the spirits. The hypochondriacal feelings and 
 lowness of spirits increased. After dinner, the propensity to 
 sleep was frequently irresistible, even in company. Besides 
 this, he found the eyesight permanently injured. Every object 
 at which he attempted to look with steadiness had a vibratory 
 motion. This was more particularly evident when examining 
 pictures at a little distance. The hands and feet were always 
 parched and hot, the skin dry, and there was a tendency to 
 emaciation. At times he found it almost impossible to fix the 
 mind to any thing which demanded study and reflection. 
 
 Toward the close of this year, and the very beginning of the 
 next, the pains of the head increased much in severity, so that 
 be was obliged during the attack to lie upon the bed, and ho 
 began to loath his food. He resolved, therefore, finally, to ex- 
 ecute what he had been contemplating some time to abandon 
 animal food altogeiher, and every thing analogous to it, and to 
 
152 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 confine himself wholly to vegetable food. Tliis determination 
 he put in execution the second week of February, 1806, and he 
 has adhered to it with perfect regularity to the present time. 
 His only subject of repentance with regard to it has been, that 
 it had not been adopted much earher in hfe. 
 
 He never found the smallest real ill consequence from this 
 change. He neither sunk in strength, flesh, nor spirits. He 
 was at all times of a very thin and slender habit, and so he has 
 continued to be ; but upon the whole he has rather gained than 
 lost flesh. He has experienced neither indigestion nor flatu- 
 lence, even from the sort of vegetables which are commonly 
 experienced to be the most oppressive and windy, as beans, 
 peas, peas-soup, etc. Nor has the stomach suffered from any 
 vegetable matter though unchanged by culinary art, or uncor- 
 rected by condiments. These results, so opposite to common 
 experience, and even to his own in the former part of his life, 
 can be accounted for only by considering the changes intro- 
 duced into the state of the digesting organs by the previous 
 use of the purified water. The only unpleasant consequence 
 of the change was a sense of emptiness of the stomach, which 
 continued many months. In about a year, however, he became 
 fully recpficiled to the new habit; and felt as well satisfied with 
 his vegetable meal, as he had been formerly with his dinner of 
 flesh. 
 
 He can truly say that since he has acted upon this resolution, 
 no year has passed in which he has not enjoyed better health 
 than in that which preceded it. But he has found that the 
 changes introduced into the body by a vegetable regimen take 
 place with extreme slowness ; that it is in vain to expect any 
 considerable amendment in successive weeks, or in successive 
 months ; we are to look rather to the intervals of half years, or 
 years. 
 
 But a perceptible benefit wac. very soon obtained. The seve- 
 rity of the pain became quickly mitigated, so that it never once, 
 from the time at which he made this change, forced him to take 
 to his bed. But it recurred again and again for three or four 
 years, at irregular but no very distant periods ; perhaps a week 
 rarely passed without one or two paroxysms. And for three 
 years at least he constantly awoke with pain in the back of the 
 neck, near the insertion of the muscles of the neck into the 
 occipital bone, and from thence spreading over the whole head. 
 
 So mucli was the sensorium affected, that repeatedly, while 
 walking through the streets during the first year, he was insen- 
 sible of the weight of his body, and could not feel the pressure 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 153 
 
 of his feet upon the pavement. He presumes that this sensa- 
 tion, or rather this want of sensation, must approach near!}'- to 
 the state of those who suffer apoplectic attacks. This very un- 
 pleasant state continued recurring for near twelve months. Since 
 that time it has never been experienced. 
 
 When this symptom disappeared, the paroxysms of uneasi- 
 ness over the head were accompanied with a more evident sen- 
 sation of fullness and oppression; and these continued to recur 
 as the former paroxysms had done. It was evident, therefore, 
 that the morbid changes which were attended with a tempo- 
 rary abolition of sensibility, in an inferior degree of intensity, 
 produced the sense of local fullness and oppression. This con- 
 tinued to be considerably oppressive, even during the fifth year 
 of this course (1810). 
 
 In the autumn of the preceding year (1809), he was exposed 
 during a journey to the joltings of a stage coach. The common 
 asperities of the road did not affect the head, but a violent jolt 
 gave the sense of a deep internal pain in the interior of the 
 brain. 
 
 And to bring into one point of view this part of the case 
 even now, during the eighth year of this mode of living, these 
 pains recur very nearly in the same manner as they have for 
 the last three or four years. Sometimes two or three times in 
 the week, occasionally not above once in a fortnight, be awakes 
 (having been restless the preceding night) with a pain at the 
 back of the neck, and some uneasiness over the head ; it con- 
 tinues sometimes ten minutes, very rarely half an hour, and then 
 subsides, with perhaps a trifling depression of strength. It will 
 happen, though very rarely, that it continues to be felt, but in 
 a very trifling degree, during the whole of the day. But the 
 sense of fullness and oppression is completely gone, and the 
 whole is so trifling as not to deserve the name of disease, nor 
 even of inconvenience, since it does not in any degree interfere 
 with the common duties and occupations of life. 
 
 All these circumstances sufficiently demonstrate that there 
 was formed in this case deep-seated disease of the substance of 
 the brain, and it appears very evident that this disease was pro- 
 ceeding with a rapid pace toward an apoplectic or paralytic 
 attack. What sets this beyond dispute is, that in the worst of 
 these pains of the head, the tongue has been so affected that 
 he could not speak with perfect freedom. The effect of the 
 vegetable regimen, even during seven years and a half, has not 
 been enough wholly to subdue the disease. But it has regularly 
 and progressively diminished its intensity. The paroxysms have 
 
154 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 returned nearly in the same manner during the last year as dur- 
 ing the first; but in each successive year the strength or inten- 
 fciiy of them has been uniformly diminished. 
 
 And granting the representation of facts to be correct, and 
 the nature of this case to be justly determined, I must be per- 
 mitted to ask, what other method than that which has been 
 adopted would have produced the same benefit? If such 
 methods exist, I confess my own ignorance of- them. Bleeding, 
 either general or topical, is that which is most resorted to, and 
 is that which gives the greatest relief to urgent symptoms. But 
 it can do no more than this ; the morbid diathesis of the sys- 
 tem, that which exists equally during the paroxysms of disease 
 and during the intervals, remains unchanged. All the symp- 
 toms of oppression of the brain will persist, and gradually in- 
 crease, though the patient be cupped repeatedly and regularly, 
 as I have myself frequently witnessed. 
 
 If it be thought that if a cure were possible by this method 
 of treatment, it ought surely to be effected in the long period 
 of seven years and a half ; let it, on the other hand, be con- 
 sidered how long there had been signs of the formation of this 
 disease before it had arrived at that degree of severity which 
 enforces attention, and excites apprehension. I have shown, 
 from the tenderness of the forehead, that there existed a mor- 
 bid predisposition in these parts in the eighth or ninth year of 
 life. It is clear enough, likewise, from the dizziness and heat 
 about the head, which I have mentioned, that some morbid 
 change had taken place nine or ten years before these pains 
 came on. It cannot be thought strange or unnatural if it should 
 be proved, that wholly to eradicate these symptoms requires 
 some such time as from the appearance of the first unequivocal 
 signs of disease having taken place. 
 
 But though these pains still recur in a trifling degree, the 
 relief given to the brain in general has been decided and most 
 essential. It has appeared in an increased sensibility of all the 
 organs, particularly of the senses the touch, tlie taste, and the 
 sight in greater muscular activity, in greater freedom and 
 strength of respiration, greater freedom of all the secretions, 
 and in increased intellectual power. It has been extended 
 to the night as much as to the day. The sleep is more tran- 
 quil, less disturbed by dreams, and more refreshing. Less 
 sleep upoa the whole appears to be required. But the loss of 
 quantity is more than compensated by its being sound and 
 uninterrupted. 
 
 In abo'it three years that vibratory motion of visible objects 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 15$ 
 
 was either gone or hardly perceptible. The impression of light 
 is no longer painful ; the eye rather courts than avoids it. The 
 ear has received a corresponding benefit. Sounds had become 
 oppressive to him ; the noises of children had in particular be- 
 come irksome. But this morbid feeling has wholly vanished. 
 He is much more patient of the changes of the atmosphere, 
 but particularly the cold. He had been clothed both in sum- 
 mer and winter in flannels. But he has been enabled to quit 
 them without injury. Flannel drawers, and flannel linings to 
 the coat sleeves, during the winter months, is all that he has 
 retained. Wet clothes or wet feet are no longer objects of terror. 
 They cause no injury worth regarding. 
 
 About the same time the burning heat of the palms of the 
 hands and the soles of the feet went away. The skin, which 
 had been parched and dry, became moist and perspirable. The 
 tongue, which had been habitually foul, became clean. The 
 saliva lost all clamminess and viscidity ; and the secretion by 
 the kidneys was much increased, though the quantity of watery 
 fluids taken into the stomach was, at the same time, greatly 
 diminished. 
 
 The hypochondriacal symptoms continued to be occasionally 
 very oppressive during the second year, particularly during the 
 earlier part of it ; but they afterward very suddenly declined, 
 and at present he enjoys more uniform and regular spirits than 
 he had done for many years upon mixed diet. 
 
 From the whole of these facts it follows, that ail the organs, 
 and, indeed, every fibre of the body is simultaneously affected 
 by the matters habitually conveyed into the stomach ; and that 
 it is the incongruity of these matters to the system which grad- 
 ually forms that morbid diathesis, which exists alike both in ap- 
 parent health and in disease, I might illustrate this fact still more 
 minutely by observations on the teeth, on the hair, and on the 
 skin. I might show that, by a steady attention to regimen, the 
 skin of the palms of the hand, or between the toes, becomes 
 of a firmer and stronger texture ; that even a corn upon the 
 toe, which had for twenty years and upward been growing 
 more fixed, firm, and deep, had first its habitudes altered, and 
 finally was softened and disappeared ; but perhaps enough has 
 been said already to give a pretty clear idea both of the kind 
 of change introduced into the habit by diet, and of the extent 
 to which it may be carried. 
 
 I proceed, therefore, to relate some new phenomena which 
 took place during the course of this regimen, which are both 
 furious in theaiselves, and lead to important conclusions. 
 
156 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 I have said that, at the ag>3 of twenty-three or twenty-four, 
 the subject of this case was liable to sudden lamenesses, which 
 were thought by a gentleman much experienced in gout, from 
 having been himself a great sufferer, to portend that disease. 
 These lamenesses disappeared and were no more thought of, cer- 
 tainly before the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year. Neither 
 did any thing like a gouty affection of the limbs appear, when 
 the stomach and bowels were so much relieved by the use of 
 the pure water. But he had not conjfined himself to vegetables 
 for two months before he began to have slight pains in the 
 feet. In the course of the year these pains much increased ; 
 they became strong and beating, but of short duration, and un- 
 attended by any swelling or discoloration. Toward felie close of 
 the second year (lOOl), the determination to the feet was still 
 stronger; there were about that time frequent violent pains 
 through the ankleri and metatarsal bones ; they were internal 
 but sudden, like the infliction of a blow ; he used to say, it was 
 as if his feet had been struck with a sledge-hammer ; there 
 were also sudden twinges through the toes, so sharp as to 
 oblige him suddenly to raise his foot from the ground. In the 
 course of the third year he became lame in one of his feet for 
 two or three months. He was accustomed to awake in the 
 morning without any lameness, but before he could dress him- 
 self the lameness would come on, and remain for an hour or 
 two, after which it went off, and he could walk perfectly well 
 for the rest of the day. There was redness and slight tume- 
 faction upon the upper part of the foot, over the seat of the 
 disease. During the whole of the succeeding winter, though 
 the beating paias of the feet were much diminished in violence, 
 the gouty affection was more firmly settled in the feet. One 
 of the little toes was so constantly painful, that for many 
 months of this winter and the ensuing spring, the pressure even 
 of the bedclothes was painful. For a year and a half longer 
 he had almost constantly some gouty pains of the toes, and fre- 
 quent fits of lameness. The last time that fhis occurred was 
 in August, 1810, when, for one evening, he was so lame as not 
 to be able to walk freely without support. 
 
 This happened when he had continued the vegetable regi- 
 men four years and a half. Here again, then, let us pause for 
 a moment and consider the obvious deductions from these 
 facts. 
 
 I shall confine myself to four observations : 
 
 1st. It is clear that these pains of the extremities were 
 essentially the same affection as had appeared in the early part 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 157 
 
 of life. The cause of their disappearing about the twenty - 
 seventh or twenty- eighth year must have been the shifting or 
 concentration of diseased action upon the internal and more 
 important organs, the stomach and the brain. When these 
 became reheved by the vegetable regimen, the extremities be- 
 came again affected. Disease, therefore, though seated in dif- 
 ferent organs, may be the same in kind ; and we may conclude 
 that it is the property of this regimen, and in particular of the 
 vegetable diet, to transfer diseased action from the viscera to 
 the exterior parts of the body, from the central parts of the 
 system to the periphery. Vegetable diet has often been charged 
 with causing cutaneous diseases ; in common language, they 
 are, in these cases, said to proceed from poorness of blood. 
 In a degree the charge is probably just ; and the observation 
 I have just made may give us some insight into the cause of 
 it. But this charge, instead of being a just cause of reproach, 
 is a proof of the superior salubrity of vegetable diet. Cutane- 
 ous eruptions appear, because disease is translated from the in- 
 ternal organs to the skin. 
 
 2d. There was an interval of fifteen or sixteen years from the 
 disappearance of these pains, in consequence of the gradual 
 changes introduced into the system by the use of animal food, 
 and their being brought back again by the vegetable regimen. 
 Now, during all this number of years, there was neither inflam- 
 mation, pain, tenderness, nor any other external sign of there 
 being any disease of these extremities. But from the changes 
 which took place, as soon as the vegetable regimen was adopt- 
 ed, it is clear that they were really diseased at this period, 
 and had been so during the whole interval of fifteen or sixteen 
 years. Disease should be considered, therefore, not so much 
 as an obvious change in the texture of parts, which is either 
 visible or tangible, as a change in the inherent powers, which 
 belong to the part as a living substance. The more palpable 
 changes, which constitute the symptoms of disease, are the con- 
 sequence of the previous and imperceptible changes which 
 have taken place in the vital powers of the part. The inherent 
 vitality of the part, that which distinguishes every portion of 
 the living body from dead matter, may be, and often is, nearly 
 extinguished, when there is no such change of structure as can 
 be readily detected by the senses. 
 
 3d. As, in the affection of the head, paroxysms, the very 
 same in kind, but differing in intensity, continued to recur, even 
 for years after animal food had been discontinued, it must fol- 
 low that whatever was the proximate cause of the paroxysms. 
 
158 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 under the mixed regimen, the same continued to be the proxl- 
 raate cause under the vegetable regimen. If, therefore, there 
 was increased vascular action in the brain, or in its appendages, 
 when these paroxysms first took place, and forming the foun- 
 dation of them, the same increased action, that is to say, the 
 same in kind, but not in degree, has continued for a course of 
 many years under a diet of vegetables alone. We see, then, 
 how ill-founded is the notion that inanition and loss of power 
 is induced by a vegetable diet. In fact, all the observations 
 that have been made, have shown the very reverse to be the 
 truth. Symptoms of plenitude and oppression have continued 
 in considerable force for at least five years. And the conse- 
 quence of this peculiar regimen has been an increase of 
 strength and power, and not a diminution. In the subject of 
 this case, the pulse, which may be deemed, perhaps, the best 
 index to the condition of all the other functions, is at present 
 much more full and strong than under the use of animal food. 
 It is also perfectly calm and regular. 
 
 4th. We may, from the circufhstances of this case, form 
 something like an estimate of the time during which the ob- 
 vious effects of animal diet will remain in the system. In the 
 instance before us, there was a gouty aflfection of strength or 
 intensity, sufficient to produce lameness, after the animal food 
 and every other matter which co-operates to produce such a 
 disease had been discontinued four years and a half. I said 
 therefore to myself, if this degree of disease can remain four 
 years and a half, supposing the intensity of the diseased condi- 
 tion to continue uniformly to decline at the same rate, we ought 
 still to expect some slight vestiges of the original affection at 
 double the distance of time, or at the end of nine years. It is 
 obviously improper to transfer this precise result to any other 
 case whatever ; every one must be judged by its own proper 
 and peculiar circumstances. But a similar mode of reasoning, 
 and a probable anticipation of future events, may, I conceive, 
 be applied to any case whatever, according to the phenomena 
 which it presents. 
 
 To finish, therefore, this long account : After four years and 
 a half, the gouty affection still continued, but its strength be- 
 came so much diminished, that the lameness never again ap- 
 peared. Sometimes there has been a shght stiffness of the 
 heel ; sometimes pains of the toes, with redness and soreness 
 of them all. Through the whole of the seventh year (1812), 
 there was a stiffness and some pain of the left knee. But finally, 
 m the eighth year, the whole of these external pains have dis- 
 
m CHRONIC DISEASES. 159 
 
 appeared, with the exception of that trifling affection of the 
 liead, which has been mentioned. 
 
 Nor has this gouty disorder been the only external disease 
 which may be said to have been induced by the vegetable re- 
 gimen. Formerly he hardly knew (as has been said) what it 
 was to have a cough or a cold ; the stomach or bowels were 
 on all occasions of exposure the principal sufferers. But at 
 the end ctf the second year of the vegetable regimen, he had 
 angina, infinitely more severe than he had ever suffered before. 
 The attempt to swallow was perfect agony. He has since had 
 many severe coughs and colds, attended with much defluxion. 
 There has also been much itching on the surface of the body, 
 particularly on the head, the hams, and the legs. But to com- 
 pensate for these trifling evils, now the stomach and bowels 
 never suffer. 
 
 And as to the general state of health, it has uniformly 
 and regularly improved, and more obviously since the fifth 
 year than before that time. During the first five years there 
 were many threatenings of the return of his former dis- 
 orders, but which came to nothing. In particular, in the 
 spring of the fourth year (1810), he looked thin and ill, had 
 great agitation and restless nights ; the bowels became tense ; 
 and once he threw up his food. But all this passed off without 
 any real illness ; and he can say in general that, with the 
 exception of the attack of angina, which kept him within doors 
 for three or four days, he has not now for the space of seven 
 years suftered the confinement of a single hour. 
 
 With regard to fermented liquors, his experience is shortly 
 as follows. He was at all times habitually sober a habit to 
 which, in this instance, he attaches no personal merit since 
 he never liked wine, and it occasioned heat and uneasiness. 
 He, therefore, till near thirty years old, confined himself to a 
 single glass of wine daily, as his constant habit when not in 
 company. But after that time, he felt compelled in a manner 
 to use more wine ; he felt chilly and uneasy, and found that 
 by the use of about three glasses of wine daily, he was warmer, 
 was more cheerful and active, and had in every respect less un- 
 easy feeling. But by the use of the pure water, he found these 
 uneasy sensations greatly diminished, and the necessity for wine 
 appeared removed. He was, therefore, enabled gradually to 
 leave it off entirely ; and at present he finds fermented liquor 
 of any kind obviously injurious. 
 
 These observations instructed him how substances may in- 
 troduce into the system a quantity of agreeable sensation, or 
 
160 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 destroy uneas J feelings, whicli are at the same time ultimately 
 injurious, and concur with other causes to destroy the vital 
 powers. 
 
 He had, when living on common diet, been habitually 
 thirst}^ and like most persons inclined to studious and seden- 
 tary habits, was much attached to tea-drinking. But for the 
 last two or three years, he has almost wholly relinquished the 
 use of liquids ; and by the substitution of fruit and recent vege- 
 tables, he has found that the sensation of thirst has been, in a 
 manner, abolished. Even tea has lost its charms, and he very 
 rarely uses it. He is therefore certain, from his own experi- 
 ence, that the habit of employing liquids is wholly an artificial 
 habit, and not necessary to any of the functions of the animal 
 economy. 
 
 He has chosen to denominate this affection of the head atonic 
 gout, induced by the obvious connection between it and the 
 gouty pains. The general habit was of that kind, that it would 
 have been said that there was not sufficient strength of consti- 
 tution to throw out the gout upon the limbs. But if it should 
 seem more proper to any one to suppose this disease a disposi- 
 tion to apoplexy, palsy, or any other of the great diseases ori- 
 ginating in the brain, I should not think it worth contending 
 about. Such disorders affecting gouty subjects cannot be dis- 
 tinguished from the same disorders affecting persons not sub- 
 ject to gout. 
 
 I may, in relation to this long history, have been tedious, 
 and seem needlessly minute to most of my readers. But in 
 truth, I have omitted many circumstances for the sake of brev- 
 ity. There is no other cRse, the circumstances of which can 
 be so strongly impressed upon my mind, and of which I can 
 so fully warrant the correctness of statement. The conclusions, 
 too, which I have drawn from the facts, are general conclu- 
 sions, illustrative of the universal laws of diseased action. I 
 shall, therefore, be absolved from the necessity of employing 
 the same minuteness in what I have further to relate. If those 
 for whose service these labors are principally designed I mean 
 persons suffering under habitual and chronical illness are en- 
 abled to go along with me in my argument, to form a general 
 correct notion of what they are to expect from regimen, and, 
 above all, to arm their minds with firmness, patience, and per- 
 severance, I shall not readily be induced to think that I have 
 written one superfluous line. 
 
 Nov. 15th, 1814. I feel it needful to add to this account 
 no more than that the pains :>f the head are at present still 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 161 
 
 more trifling, and as nearly gone as possible. To say that 
 they are wholly removed would not be the truth. 
 
 CASE II. 
 
 Disposition to Pulmonary Consumption. 
 
 August 25, 1813. L. "W. L., aged sixteen, had in the first 
 years of his life every mark of a deep scrofulous habit. He was 
 of a fair and pale complexion, and at six years of age the skin 
 was rough, the eyelids habitually red, the muscles weak and 
 soft, the joints tumid. He had suffered one severe attack of 
 abdominal inflammation; the abdomen was always hard and 
 tumid, though great attention was paid to regularity in his diet, 
 and he constantly required medicine to keep the bowels regu- 
 lar. To these appearances was added a thinness which might 
 be justly called emaciation, and a generally unhealthy, pallid, 
 and sickly appearance. These appeared to me sufficient indi- 
 cations of a diseased state of the mesenteric glands, which is a 
 precursor or concomitant of pulmonary consumption. 
 
 This general state of health was greatly amended by the use 
 of the pure water, which was adopted in May, 1803 ; the habit 
 was strenj^thened, the bowels became soft and reofular, and the 
 countenance became more healthful. From having been an in- 
 habitant of the country, he had become, in the autumn of 1803, 
 an inhabitant of London ; and it was observable in him, that a 
 child, who in the country was subject to frequent indispositions, 
 was, by this attention only, in the heart of the metropolis, for 
 about sixteen months kept free from every sort of illness. 
 
 About Christmas, 1804, he had a mild ulcerated sore throat, 
 which appeared to have been received by contagion. After 
 this, though he sufi'ered very little at the time, the health began 
 rather to fail. It left a constant hacking dry cough, which re- 
 mained fixed for three or four months. At this time, instinc- 
 tively, he left off animal food, and the cough disappeared in the 
 spring, 1805. He then, spontaneously also, returned to the 
 use of animal food, which I did not oppose, my opinion at that 
 time being that the appetite should be taken as the guide for 
 the species of food best suited to the present state of the body. 
 I did not at that time consider that the fondness for animal food 
 is wholly factitious, and could not in fact exist independent of 
 
J 62 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 previous indulgence. In the course of this year he became 
 very pallid, so that by the end of it his face was of the color 
 of marble. He had an obstinate inflammation, of a scrofulous 
 nature, of the left eye and eyelid in the autumn, which left the , 
 vessels distended Avith blood from relaxation. The appetite 
 also became very delicate and capricious, so that his dinner was 
 (as was remarked by a physician who saw him frequently) more 
 play than eating. Even many sorts of vegetables he disliked. 
 In this state, without any positive disease upon him, but with 
 the air and aspect of a child that would never reach manhood, 
 I resolved to confine him to a strict vegetable regimen, early in 
 the y^ar 1806. 
 
 The consequence of this has been, that from that hour to the 
 present (now seven years and a half), he has been free from all 
 serious illness ; and the health has every year become more 
 firm and established. A very few slight indispositions he has 
 had, which it is not worth while to relate at length, except one 
 circumstance, which I propose to make the subject of a distinct 
 account. But in this case, though the subject was so young, 
 the constitutional changes have been introduced very slowly ; 
 indeed, as slowly as in persons of advanced years. 
 
 In the autumn of 1806 the opthalmia returned, but much 
 less severely, and since that time it has not appeared. But the 
 vessels of the eyelids remained distended for three or four years, 
 which gave the appearance of weakness in the part. For full 
 as long a time he had a short hacking cough every successive 
 winter. During the whole of the second year (1807), he con- 
 tinued to look exceedingly pallid, and far from healthy ; and 
 even at the end of four years he had, with a thin, pallid, and 
 extenuated body, an extremely full, throbbing, and what would 
 be called an inflammatory pulse. But since that time it has 
 beftome much softened. 
 
 Formerly, when eating animal food, the tongue was at all 
 times covered with a white slimy crust. It is now, and has 
 been for several years, perfectly clean. The smallness and 
 delicacy of the appetite remained for full two years, after which 
 it improved and became much less fastidious. He is now rather 
 pallid, but has much more color than when he used animal 
 food. 
 
 It was an observation of his own, when he was under ten 
 years of age, that ** When I ate meat, 1 was at night first too 
 cold, and then a great deal too hot, so that I could not sleep ; 
 but now I sleep comfortably all night long." I doubt whether 
 01* any point more unexceptionable evidence was ever offered. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 163 
 
 He is at present in very good iiealth, the breath sound and 
 strong, the appetite liearty, with color enough, and enjoying 
 great activity of mind and body, with a greater flow of animal 
 spirits tlian falls to the lot of most people. But he carries about 
 liim stronf>" marks of a consumptive constitution; and I do not 
 doubt that if the attention, which has been paid to him now for 
 a series of years, were to be remitted for three or four years, 
 he would become really consumptive. 
 
 Nov. 17, 1814. As this young man approaches manhood he 
 appears to acquire more firm health, and the signs of his former 
 delicate state are more completely effaced. 
 
 CASE III. 
 
 Distortion of the Chest, Pimples of the Face, General Debility, and 
 Weak Eyes. 
 
 August 28, 1813. ti. L., aged nineteen, adopted the use of 
 pure water in 1803, being then between nine and ten years of 
 age. She had passed through the first years of her life without 
 any dangerous ilhiess, but was delicate and subject to conges- 
 tions of the bowels ; she was rather pallid, narrow in the chest, 
 and had not the appearance of a child in good health. About 
 the ninth year she appeared evidently to be growing awry. The 
 health obviously improved by the use of the pure water, but 
 not in such a degree as to furnish any precise observation, ex- 
 cept that the tendency to crookedness was checked. At the 
 time that this habit was persevered in, but while she used a 
 mixed diet, the skin of the face became much deformed with 
 the black spots that are called grubs, and the forehead in par- 
 ticular became almost covered and roughened with an aggre- 
 gation of pimples. In 1805, she was still more pallid, heavy 
 about the eyes, with a dark circle round them ; and the spirits 
 were so tender that every little exertion was a toil, and on the 
 most trifling occasion the eyes would overflow with tears. 
 
 About midsummer, 1809, I joined to the pure water a vege- 
 table regimen. She went to school at Warwick, where her 
 regimen was continued. About October, Dr. Winthrop, then 
 a physician at Warwick, wrote to me, that her mistress was 
 under considerable anxiety on account of this child ; that she 
 seemed in still wors. health and spir-ts than before, which was 
 
1G4 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 attributed to the ciiange of diet, vvlucli he feared would never 
 agree with so delicate a subject. 
 
 T could not, however, attend to this well-intentioned advice, 
 which, I believe, was such as would have been given by almost 
 every other medical man. But I conceive that delicate subjects 
 are those which afford the least resistance to morbific impres- 
 sions, and from which, therefore, such impressions should be 
 removed with the greatest care. Besides, I knew perfectly- 
 well what had been the state of the health under the common 
 regimen ; and what could be hoped from a recurrence to it, but 
 a continuation of the same condition ? 
 
 And all the prognostications of mischief from this change 
 have been completely falsified by the event ; for the truth is, 
 that from that day to the present she has not had an hour ill 
 health, nor scarcely the trifling indisposition of a single day. 
 E'^ery year the marks of weakness and delicacy wore off, and 
 were at length completely effaced ; and she has grown up much 
 more robust. The tenderness and lowness of spirits, the heavi- 
 ness of the eye and languor of the countenance have been re- 
 moved and have been succeeded by uniform cheerfulness, activity, 
 and intelligence. The chest has expanded and assumed a per- 
 fect form ; and a cough, which, in the first years of this course, 
 gave strong apprehensions of a pulmonary taint has wholly 
 disappeared. In a word, she is now, and has been, for several 
 years, in perfect health. 
 
 The roughness of the forehead, occasioned by the swarm of 
 pimples, did not begin to yield till after more than two years, 
 when they gradually disappeared. If, at present, there is an 
 occasional pimple on the face or chin, she observes that it is 
 much more painful ihan formerly, which is a sufficiently clear 
 index that the general sensibility of the system is much greater 
 or more acute than formerly. 
 
 I have chosen to assume a symptom that is in itself very 
 trifling (though by no means so in the estimation of young 
 women), as the denomination of the condition of the subject of 
 this relation. The narrow form of the chest, or the habitual 
 tenderness of spirits, formed a more prominent feature of the 
 case. But I choose the cutaneous disease, in order to evince 
 the connection that subsists between all the forms of disease, 
 from the most trifling to the most severe. 
 
 The color in this example is not so high as is customary with 
 the eaters of animal food. But she is much less pallid than 
 when she conformed to the common habits of life. 
 
 1*^. may be worth while to observe that though in this 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 1G5 
 
 subject there were many signs of constitutional weakness, yet 
 there has never been a-uy deficiency of muscular strength ; on 
 the contrary, the muscular power is, and has been, rather 
 greater than usually is the lot of persons of her age and sex. 
 I am inclined to infer from this circumstance, that the disposi- 
 tion to grow awry, which is so common in growing girls, is 
 founded more in a weakness of the cartilaginous and ligamen- 
 tous parts of the body, than of the muscles. If any portion of 
 these parts is deficient in power, and the muscles have at the 
 same time their due, or more than their due tension, the body 
 inchnes where there is the least resistance, and the symmetry 
 of the parts is destroyed. 
 
 Nov. 19th, 1814. In the spring of the present year this 
 young person complained of a sense of weight, which was re- 
 ferred to the stomach ; the pulse became rapid, rising to 120 in 
 the minute, and the muscular strength was depressed. These 
 symptoms lasted three or four days, and then declined. But 
 they again recurred, and she continued in this condition, not so 
 ill as to be confined, but enough to affect her strength and 
 spirits for about three Aveeks. Then the symptoms went off, 
 and she regained her usual health. 
 
 We had here, what I think may be properly called the em- 
 bryo of some disease, and probably of a very severe one. I 
 cannot positively pronounce even what was its seat. But I 
 have not thought it right to keep back any fact which may be 
 thought by some to miUtate against my own principles. 
 
 CASE jy. 
 
 Disposition to Hydrocephalus and Apoplexy. 
 
 Nov. 21st, 1814. A. L., aged 14, had marks in her first 
 year of some irregularity of the functions of the brain. These 
 were more evident in the second and third years. Her life, at 
 this early period, was a continued storm of passion, though the 
 natural disposition seemed good. She was plethoric, high 
 colored, and the respiration thick. The front teeth, particu- 
 larly the two anterior incisors of the upper jaw, were wholly 
 incrusted with black matter. 
 
 The use of the pure water was adopted for this child in the 
 spring of 1803. Its effects upon the respiration were very 
 strikinsf. Before this, she could never bear bemg tosbed with 
 
166 VEGEI IBLE DIET 
 
 any quickness, as we are apt to do when playing with j^oung 
 children, without evident marks of terror and uneasiness. But 
 in some time after using the distilled water, the same degree of 
 violence had no longer the same effect, nor did it cause any 
 apparent uneasiness. 
 
 In the course of the ensuing winter she had a fit of sleepi- 
 ness, which lasted a day and a half. In the spring following 
 (1804), she had scarlatina very severely, but recovered from it 
 perfectly. She continued to use the mixed diet for nearly three 
 years and a half. During this time it was observed that her 
 nights were very restless ; she often screamed with violence in 
 her sleep. She had also frequent pains of the head, which, 
 when they affected her, caused a heaviness and peculiar ap- 
 pearance of the eyes, so that it was easy, from the counte- 
 nance, to judge when the head was affected. She continued 
 to have a very high florid color ; she grew much, but the 
 chest was narrow, and the abdomen so protuberant as to be 
 very observable. The spirits were also irregular; she was 
 easily offended, took little delight in play, but rather affected 
 solitude. The pulse was frequent and irregular. The tongue 
 was always covered with a thick white crust. The thyroid 
 gland was also large, and seemed inclined to swell. 
 
 Under these circumstances she was confined to a vegetable 
 diet in November, 1806, and has regularly adhered to it to 
 this time. For a very considerable time there was hardly any 
 perceptible difference in her constitutional affections. When 
 she had been confined to this diet a year and a half, she had 
 one night such violent screaming in her sleep, that she brought 
 out of their beds the family at whose house she was. In the 
 spring, 1809, she retained her high florid color, and it was very 
 nearly as strong as when she used animal food. In the autumn 
 of this year she had a mild inflammatory fever, which confined 
 her to her room, and reduced her a good deal. All this time 
 the symptoms of the diseased state of the head, the screamings 
 at night, the pains frequently recurring, and the dullness and 
 heaviness of the eyes, and the other circumstances I have men- 
 tioned, continued to harass her. Even at the end of four 
 years they were so strong as to attract the observation of those 
 with whom she conversed. But now, that is to sny, at the end 
 of eight years, and, indeed, for the last three years, the whole 
 habit is changed, and Avith it the marks of constitutional dis- 
 ease removed. The high florid color of the face is gone, 
 though she is at present far from pallid. The chest has be- 
 come expanded, and the tumefaction of the abdomen is re- 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 167 
 
 moved. I have a right, therefore, to say, as I have already 
 done, that this high florid color, so far from being a sign of 
 health, is a sign of disease. The tongue is become quite clean, 
 and the teeth are without any incrustation. Indeed, the use 
 of the pure water alone took off the remarkable foulness of the 
 fiont teeth. The swelling of the thyroid gland has disap- 
 peared. 
 
 If I were to say that the affection of tl>3 head is wholly re- 
 moved, I should say what is certainly not true. But it is so 
 much removed, that she has every external appearance of good 
 health ; nor could it be discovered that she has at present any 
 complaints about the head, without a minute and critical ex- 
 amination. The common observer would pronounce her in 
 perfect health. 
 
 The similitude between the circumstances of this disease and 
 the pains of the head related in the first case (see p. 151), 
 are sufficiently obvious. This case again warrants the conclu- 
 sion that, in deep-seated constitutional disease, the effect of 
 vegetable diet is slowly, but progressively and regularly, to 
 diminish the intensity of the paroxysms which form its exter- 
 nal sign and character. 
 
 And when I consider the early period at which these signs 
 of disease in the most important organ of the system appeared, 
 and the great pertinacity with which they have continued for 
 a series of years, I think myself fully warranted in the supposi- 
 tion that, under common circumstances, these symptoms must 
 have been continually aggravated ; that they would have led to 
 a fatal disease of the brain, probably under the form of the 
 hydrocephalus intemus ; and that it is very unlikely that she 
 would have reached puberty, or even that period of life at 
 which she is now arrived. 
 
 Though this child has now for several years been in a very 
 good general state of health, she has commonly, at least once 
 a year, a mild febrile attack which confines her for two or three 
 days. The head is always the part most affected. 
 
 Three other young people, members of the same family as 
 those whose cases have been related, have used the same regimen 
 for about the same period of time. They are and have been, 
 since its adoption, without any thing like serious diseases. The 
 oldest (now in her nineteenth year) has a better general state 
 of health than in the early period of life ; but there are no cir- 
 cumstances worthy of relation, except it be, that, notwithstand- 
 ing the attention paid to her diet, she has some thickness about 
 
168 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 the throat. The thyroid gland is lai'ge, and the whole throat 
 is larger than in common, or than is perfectly natural. The 
 gland has not the size which can be called bronchocele, and is 
 in texture, as far as can be determined by the feel, sound and 
 healthy ; but it is obviously the embryo or germ of a broncho- 
 cele. The second, aged thirteen, had some indisposition of a 
 few days, when she had left off animal food nine months. 
 She also lost her color, which was fine, so as to be a considera- 
 ble ornament to her person. This occasioned much regret. 
 But, with the above trifling exception, she has enjoyed a com- 
 plete and uninterrupted state of health. Her color improves a 
 little, but she is still a pallid girl. The third, aged twelve, 
 likewise lost his color ; but has scarcely had any indisposition, 
 even of half an hour, now for eight years. His color is of late 
 years much improved ; but it is not nearly so high as when he 
 used animal food. 
 
 I cannot help noticing a fact which occurred to the second 
 of thesQ children, the girl of thirteen. It is so trifling and com- 
 mon an occurrence, that nothing but the inference to which it 
 obviously leads can justify the mention of it. But we are really 
 apt to overlook, by attemptin.g to think too deeply, the just 
 conse([uences of what w;e are seeing every hour. 
 
 In this child then, in the spring of the year 1814, a nail 
 came off one of the fingers. There was no accident ; but it 
 exfoliated, and, in course of time, was reproduced. Of course, 
 this was not unattended with pain and suffering. 
 
 Now what happens on the surface, we must, of necessity, 
 suppose may happen in any other part of the body. A part 
 may have naturally imperfect powers of conservation. It may, 
 therefore, perish, and be reproduced. This would be a disease ; 
 and, further, it would happen in defiance of any regimen or any 
 method of treatment whatever. Was it some such event as 
 this that caused the derangement of health which occurred in 
 Case III., mentioned at p. 165 ? 
 
 CASE V. 
 
 Pulmonary Consumption. 
 
 If we except the first of the preceding cases, the facts which I 
 have hitherto related are of young people, the general state of 
 whose health rather indicated a feeble and defective constitu- 
 
IN CHROMC DISEASES. 169 
 
 tion, that! disease completely formed. Tliey are not, as I ap- 
 prehend the less valuable on that account ; for as many diseases, 
 in their perfect form, exclude all hopes of relief, it is the more 
 important to attend with care to the symptoms which are the 
 precursors of them. In those cases which are to follow, the 
 symptoms of disease, for the most part, were more definite and 
 strongly marked. 
 
 The difficulty of an investigation, such as is the object of this 
 work, is greatly increased by the endless varieties of the human 
 constitution, which produces a corresponding variety in the 
 symptoms and progress of diseases. If, for example, I cite in 
 evidence of the justness of my own conclusions an instance of 
 a patient with a large ulcerated cancer having lived four years, 
 it may be answered that the same disease has continued a 
 longer time in persons living according to the common fashion 
 of the country. And it is indeed certain that this species of 
 evidence can have little weight, except as applied to the par- 
 ticular case in question ; the extent of the disease, the stage in 
 which it was taken up, the habit of the patient, and other cir- 
 cumstances applicable to this case, and to no other, make the 
 deductions from the duration of the disease either just or nuga- 
 tory ; and our reliance upon them depends more upon our 
 opinion of the judgment of the observer than upon the fact 
 itself. 
 
 The same variety makes it almost, if not quite, impossible to 
 fix upon certain and definite pathognomic signs of diseases, and 
 more particularly in their early stages. But if these diseases 
 are such as to afford very slight hopes of success to any method 
 of treatment whatever in their more advanced and exquisite 
 form, it is more especially incumbent on us to observe atten- 
 tively their incipient stages, and to attempt to arrest them at 
 this period. 
 
 Pulmonary consumption is such a disease. As it is, when 
 arrived at a certain stage, necessarily fatal, this stage should be 
 regarded as the extreme effect of the morbific causes applied to 
 the body, 
 
 These extreme effects, when they are such as commonly pre- 
 cede dissolution at no very remote period, it is in vain to expect 
 to remove by the removal of the remote causes of disease. In 
 such cases the vitality of the body is radically impaired, and 
 the powers of restoration are destroyed. This I apprehend to 
 be universally true, whatever is the form of the disease ; though 
 the signs of this impaired vitality may be highly diversified, and 
 in some cases may be hardly cognizable by the senses. 
 8 
 
iH 
 
 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 In conformity with this doctrine, it is incumbent upon me to 
 acknowledge that in every case of pulmonary consumption 
 which I have deemed a confirmed case, death has ensued, not- 
 withstanding the most exact attention to regimen upon the 
 principles I have laid down. In some, the benefit for a time, 
 even for three or four months, was so striking as to give great 
 hopes that the patients would receive a cure. But new symp- 
 toms, which it is needless to relate, supervened ; and the issue 
 was as I liave said. It is right, however, and indeed it is 
 necessary to add that none of these patients lived a twelve- 
 month. They were therefore very far gone before they came 
 under my care. It by no means follows, then, that the same 
 fatal issue would have taken place had they been treated at an 
 earlier period. 
 
 I think it right also to acknowledge some change of senti- 
 ments with regard to symptoms, from what I have expressed 
 in my Inquiry into the Origin of Constitutional Diseases. With 
 the general doctrine which I have there maintained, that con- 
 sumption is a constitutional disease of the whole body, and 
 not a local disease confined to the lungs, and that the symp- 
 toms indicate the system to be under the influence of a con- 
 stant and preternatural stimulation, I continue to be contented ; 
 and the more 60, as it has been approved by enlightened men. 
 But I have said (p. 137 of that work) that the symptoms of in- 
 creased fever, and highly rapid pulse toward the close of the 
 disease, is an index that the vitality of the body or sensorial 
 power is not destroyed at this period. I suspect, however, 
 that this is a mistaken view ; and that, in particular, a pulse 
 habitually raised much beyond its natural standard of rapidity, 
 must be deemed an index of vital powers impaired, or nearly 
 destroyed. It is certain that in this case no diet, however 
 anti- stimulant, will bring the pulse down to its natural stan^ 
 dnrd. 
 
 There is often much difficulty in recognizing pulmonary con- 
 sumption in its earlier stages ; and at this period, the subjects 
 of this disease are so little aware of their danger, that they are 
 too often on the verge of the grave before they think them- 
 selves seriously ill. This renders it diflSicult to show that regi- 
 men possesses even a preventive power over this disease. The 
 most convincing argument in its favor is that, under the regi- 
 men of vegetables and pure water, the chest takes a more per- 
 fect and expanded form. A contracted chest is the strongest 
 of all the external signs of a consumptive tendency. If it be- 
 come expanded, the puln:onary circulation must become B3or 
 
IN CHRONIC OlSEASEwS. i71 
 
 strong and full, in Avhicli, in most, perhaps in all, cases of con- 
 sumption, there is a radical and constitutional weakness. There 
 are likewise strong indications that this weakness is not confined 
 to the pulmonary circulation, but that it pervades the Avhole 
 artei'ial system ; as is obvious from the general frame of body 
 of those who are predisposed to the disease, and might be 
 illustrated by a more particular examination of the symptoms. 
 
 But as the pulmonary consumption, like the cancer and 
 other chronical diseases, which prove ultimately fatal, is sub- 
 ject to great variety in respect to the violence of its- symptoms, 
 and the length of its duration, opportunities can be of no rare 
 occurrence, in which the disease may be so s^trongly marked as to 
 admit of little doubt with regard to its nature, and to be at the 
 same time in so early a stage as to afford a rational prospect 
 of arresting its progress. Such a case is the following, the 
 subject of which was a young woman under my own roof, 
 which will, I hope, be considered as affording very satisfactory 
 evidence on the subject. 
 
 September the 8th, 1813. M. W., aged about thirty-three, 
 had lived in my family some years as a female servant. She 
 came to me when about twenty, and seemed to have no partic- 
 ular delicacy or defect of constitution. She was subject, how- 
 ever, to convulsive affections of the nature of hysteria. On the 
 decline of the convulsions, I generally observed a degree of 
 tension and soreness of the abdomen, and I therefore gave her 
 aperient medicines, and she used soon to be well again. She 
 was also subject to cough occasionally. 
 
 She came with my family to town, in 1803. She used the 
 distilled water for her tea, and in other liquids, but did not put 
 herself under any restraint as to fermented liquors. However, 
 she continued to enjoy pretty good health, as she said, better 
 ki London than she had done in the country. 
 
 Toward the end of 1807, there appeared in this young wo- 
 man strong signt? of failing health. She lost her color, and 
 looked wretchedly, though there appeared no fixed or deter- 
 minate complaint. The appetite failed, and the muscular 
 strength was impaired. I advised her to adhere strictly and 
 solely to the pure water, and to renounce animal food. She 
 excused herself on the plea that she could eat so little ; that 
 this small quantity therefore could not hurt her. But continu- 
 ing to look extremely ill, she promised to go entirely without it 
 every second day ; and I believe that she conformed in some 
 degree to this rule for about six months. 
 
 In Novembej', 1808, she became exti'emely ill, so as to ex- 
 
m 
 
 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 cite apprehensions for her hfe. She had frequent faintings, 
 great pulsations and pains, sometimes of the head, sometimes 
 of the feet ; but the symptoms were irregular and anoma- 
 lous, so as hardly to admit a definite appellation. After a 
 confinement of a fortnight or more, the greater part of the time 
 to her bed, she was gradually restored to her former state of 
 health. 
 
 As she had no cough that was fixed (though she had fre- 
 quent occasional cough), nor made any complaints about her 
 chest, I had hitherto made no particular inquiry into the state 
 of the organs of respiration. But during her convalescence 
 from this illness, I examined into this point minutely. I found 
 the breath so straitened that she was unable to expand the 
 chest, or take in a full and deep inspiration. She was unable 
 at night to lie but on one side. She could not go up stairs, 
 without stopping for want of breath. I found, also, that dur- 
 ing the last year she had been frequently troubled with pains 
 of the side. 
 
 These symptoms, connected with her impaired health for a 
 twelvemonth before, will, I should think, be acknowledged to 
 be nearly infallible signs of approaching pulmonary consump- 
 tion. I therefore from this moment insisted upon her entirely 
 relinquishing the use of animal food, and, in all other respects, * 
 confoi ming strictly to the regimen I recommended. Though I 
 had failed in my attempts to cure confirmed cases, I had hopes 
 of relieving this. Here w^as no fixed or confirmed cough, nor 
 any exquisite hectic fever ; the pulse was accelerated after din- 
 ner, but in the moniing it was nearly natural. The regimen 
 was entered upon strictly in De-cember, 1808. 
 
 During the year 1809, she enjoyed a somewhat improved 
 general state of health. She was without any serious attack 
 of illness (unless it were temporary), and her appetite for food 
 improved. But she still looked almost cadaverously pale. All 
 the symptoms of the affection of the chest remained also sta- 
 tionary I mean, the inability to take a full inspiration ; to 
 ascend the stairs without panting and resting ; to take exer- 
 cise without stopping ; she could still lie down only on one 
 side. 
 
 During the far greater part of 1810, the same symptoms 
 persevered. She often thought herself a good deal better, but 
 these were only transient intervals. I myself, having sufltered 
 some severe disappointments in my hopes of giving relief, be- 
 came disheartened, and she frequently talked of going into the 
 country. But tcward the very end of the year the relief 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 173 
 
 became decisive. She became able to draw in her breath 
 fully and freely ; to hold it for a time after the inspiration ; 
 and she recovered the power of lying on either side with- 
 out inconvenience. This was (as I have said) at the close 
 of the year 1810, when she had used the regimen strictly for 
 two years, and had greatly lowered her diet half a year 
 more. 
 
 The improvement continued during the year 1811, though 
 the marks of disease continued strongly imprinted on her fea- 
 tures. She became much more active. She, who the year 
 before was unable to go up stairs without panting and stopping 
 for breath, was able this year to run up like a young healthy 
 person. Though she was in a lower state of health th^n pre- 
 vious to her ilhiess, she was equal to all her duties as a domes- 
 tic servant. Her appetite was quite re-established, and was 
 become strong and hearty. She was still more pallid than for- 
 merly ; but the cadaverous appearance, which shocked every 
 one who saw her, daily wore off. 
 
 During 1812 she improved still more in her looks; and again 
 became not void of the attractions of the sex. The health also 
 became more firmly and regularly established. Her color, 
 though not so strong as of a person in health, was about the 
 same as before her illness. She was restored also to nearly 
 the same state of constitution as before her illness. Her prin- 
 cipal complaints were a return of the same convulsive parox- 
 ysms, to which she had been subject formerly ; but these 
 attacks were over in two or three days, and had no bad conse- 
 quences. 
 
 Toward the end of September, 1812, she quitted her ser- 
 vice rather abruptly, and went into the country. It appeared, 
 in the sequel, that she was secretly pregnant ; and she was in 
 due season safely delivered. She now resumed the com- 
 mon habits of life ; and I understood that in consequence 
 her color quickly improved, and she became apparently 
 more robust ; but I have reason to think that there was no 
 real amendment of the health. But having no opportunity of 
 being qorrectly informed of her present situation, I must here 
 Qlose the account of the case. 
 
 , I offer these facts with confidence, as convincing evidence 
 that the symptoms of pulmonary consumption can be controlled 
 by regimen, and its progress stopped. This is the case, in 
 which the powers of life were the most impaired, of any in 
 which this regimen has hitherto been applied with advantage. 
 
 November 29th, 1814. I have lately been informed that 
 
174 VEGETABLK DIET 
 
 this young woman continues apparently in good health. 1 
 must observe, h3wever, that no conclusions of any consequence 
 can be drawn from this circumstance. Had she been for the 
 two years that elapsed, since she left her place, in another ser- 
 vice, living as servants commonly do, I have little doubt that 
 the eftect would have been apparent. But, in fact, she has 
 been in place, not above three or four months of this time. 
 For the remaining part of the time, she has lived with her pa- 
 rents, cottagers, in the country, and has been in very reduced 
 circumstances. There can be no doubt, then, that she has 
 used during this time little or no animal food. It may be said, 
 therefore, that her regimen has, in part, been continued, 
 though in an imperfect and irregular manner, during the last 
 two years. 
 
 CASE VI. 
 
 Asthma. 
 
 November, 1814. I shall in this place introduce the case of 
 a gentleman who has eminently distinguished himself by his 
 exertions to diffuse the knowledge of the great benefit to be 
 obtained from the strict attention to regimen, both through the 
 medium of the press, and by exhibiting to all, who chose to apply, 
 a beautiful family of children bred up, wi-tli regard to diet, on 
 the principles I have labored to establish. These exertions 
 were wholly disinterested on his part ; and though they may 
 have exposed him to the ridicule or the obloquy of the selfish 
 or supercilious pretenders to exclusive knowledge, will ever, in 
 the estimation of true philanthropy, do equal honor lo his head 
 and his heart, and entitle him to the noble distinction of a 
 benefactor of mankind. He has already given a statement of 
 the facts regarding his own disease, as they stood when I pub- 
 lished my " Reports on Cancer," that is to aaj, in the begin- 
 ning of 1809. In his own publication, entitled " The Return 
 to Nature," he contented himself without referring to this state- 
 ment. But as several unforeseen circumstances have occurred 
 since that time, I have thought it right to bring forward at one 
 view the whole chain of facts. In framing this statement, I 
 shall take as my guide several letters, which are before me, 
 gome oral communications, and a few personal observations. 
 
IN" cnilOXIC DISEASES. 17 j 
 
 T. F. Newton, Esq., aged 48, became subject to asthmatic 
 attacks at a very early period of life. The first seizure v/as 
 when he was seven years old, in one of tlie islands of the West 
 Indies. Soon afterward, he removed to England, and suffered 
 only occasionally from this cause till he went to Oxford. Dur- 
 inc*- the whole time that he was at Christ Church College, he 
 had repeated attacks of it, and in the night, at least, it was 
 constantly upon liim ; in so much that he looked with pleasure 
 to his return to the West Indies, in hopes of relief from the 
 voyage. But in this he Avas disappointed, as from that period 
 he was more aflected, as well in the West Indian Islands as in 
 North America, in various parts of the continent of Europe, 
 and afterward in England. 
 
 The attacks usually continued from one week to three, during 
 which he could not lie down in his bed, but was obliged, night 
 after night, to rest inclined upon a table. He was not without 
 considerable intervals of ease, and had occasionally a respite of 
 some months ; but it very seldom extended beyond three ; and 
 even during these intervals there was a constant sensation of 
 uneasiness at the breast upon inspiration. 
 
 During the years 1804 and 1805, Mr. Newton lived in Here- 
 fordshire, and he was never more indisposed than during those 
 years. The complaint seemed very much to increase upon 
 him ; especially in the violence of the spasmodic motion, with 
 which, during the paroxysms, the head was precipitated to 
 the table, on which he used to lean, whether during the day or 
 the night. Sometimes for a week together he did not venture 
 to lie down in bed, from apprehension of suffocation ; and I am 
 persuaded, from my own observations, that no example of this 
 disease, not in its very last stages, could be more severe, at- 
 tended with more stricture on the respiration, and turgescence 
 about the head. 
 
 In this last year (1805), my relation, Dr. Blount, of Here- 
 ford, put into his hands my book on the Orig'in of Constitu- 
 tional Diseases, and recommended him to adopt the use of dis- 
 tilled instead of common water. He never was a greater suf- 
 ferer than at the time he made this change ; but he found it to 
 be immediately beneficial. The general state of health im- 
 proved, and during the first tw^o years and a half he had but 
 twice any returns of asthma. These attacks were sharp, but 
 of very short duration. 
 
 Mr. Newton was fully convinced that this attention alone 
 would be enough to preserve his health ; and hoped that ia 
 tijiie the disposition to asthma would, without any other pre- 
 
176 VKtil/I.'MJLE DIET 
 
 caution, wear off. Bui I had seen enough of the faUaoy of these 
 expectations to indulge in such hopes. I assured him repeatedly 
 that unless he attended strictly to the whole of the regimen he 
 would be ultimately disappointed. 
 
 Therefore, at length, after many scruples, and no small ap- 
 prehension of injury, he resolved to join to his attention to the 
 fluids a strict vegetable regimen. The immediate motive to this 
 was, I believe, a respect and confidence in my opinion; though 
 I apprehend that a feeling and consciousness that his health 
 Avas not in a firm state concurred in determining his resolution. 
 He began greatly to diminish the quantity of animal food toward 
 the close of 1807, and became very strict about the beginning 
 of the following summer (1808). 
 
 For three years and upward after this, Mr. Newton had 
 very little asthma. Three or four paroxysms came on which 
 were, for the time they lasted, as severe as any he ever suffered ; 
 but they passed oflf very quickly, causing a confinement of two 
 or three days only. 
 
 But the health was at this time in a very precarious and even 
 critical state. The pulse was commonly very rapid, sometimes 
 rising even to 120 strokes in the minute. There was frequently 
 great quickness of respiration, with copious mucous defluxions ; 
 and through the first and second winters he kept himself prin- 
 cipally within doors, being afraid to expose himself to the cold, 
 and particularly to the damps of the evening. But though 
 often indisposed, and in a valetudinary condition, the health 
 gradually and progressively amended under the vegetable regi- 
 men. 
 
 Toward the end of May, 1811, Mr. Newton began to feel 
 indisposed ; the lungs became loaded with phlegm ; there was 
 a sensation of heaviness about the head, and excessive itching 
 about the eyes. Going up stairs caused great breathliness and 
 uneasiness. After two or three uneasy nights he experienced 
 a very severe aUack of asthma, which began on the 2d of June. 
 The head was drawn spasmodically forward, as in the former 
 paroxysms, the pulse was so quick as scarcely to be counted, 
 the feet swelled, and at night there Avas a disposition to idle 
 talking, which must be deemed a species of mild delirium, though 
 he was in a measure conscious of it. The stricture on the breath 
 was great, but the respiration was more free than in the former 
 severe fits. He could not, however, enter a bed for six nights. 
 Then the paroxysm appeared to be fast declining. But it re- 
 turned again with nearly as much violence as at first. For the 
 greater part o:' another fortnight lie passed his nights upright 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 177 
 
 in a chair, or leaning on a pillow placed on a table. The pulse 
 continued accelerated, and the ankles swelled, the eyes inflamed, 
 and the whole habit appeared extremely turgescent. Walking 
 ten yards caused much fatigue, and brought on shortness of 
 brccith. But about the 21st or 22d of the month the expecto- 
 ration became free and copious, a mild diarrhoea supervened, 
 and all the symptoms subsided. He continued in a weak but 
 convalescent state for a month or six weeks, when he was re- 
 stored to health. 
 
 An attack of this kind, after having submitted to the most 
 rigid abstemiousness upward of three years, was enough to 
 shake the confidence of any man who had not the most firm 
 conviction that he was doing the only thing that gave him a 
 chance of ever enjoying health. But Mr. Newton was conscious 
 of having received great benefit from his abstinence. He argued 
 also from the state of his children, and said " That regimen 
 must be the best which produces such health and strength as 
 are visible in them." He therefore persevered in his habits 
 with unabated zeal, and I am happy to say he has received the 
 due reward of his confidence and perseverance ; for though he 
 appeared thin and meagre, he had for ten months very good 
 health ; and, as I heard him say, now for the first time during 
 twenty years he passed a winter wholly free from his old dis- 
 order. He was not only without asthmatic paroxysms, but 
 without any material difficulty of respiration. 
 
 But the following June, 1812, brought back at the very same 
 period a relapse of the disorder. The general features of the 
 paroxysm very nearly resembled that of the preceding year, 
 and its duration was about as long. But it was by no means 
 so violent at its access, and he recovered from it with much 
 more facility. As soon as the disease had passed through its 
 usual stages, he felt well. It was also preceded by little or no 
 indisposition. During this attack the pulse was much accele- 
 rated ; at one time it mounted to 118 strokes in the minute, and 
 was rather strong and full. 
 
 Another respite as perfect as the former succeeded, in which 
 for eleven months Mr. Newton enjoyed perfectly good health, 
 free from asthma and other serious illness ; and he adhered to 
 his regimen with greater strictness, if possible, than ever. Often 
 has he made his dinn^er on a little fruit, dried raisins, bread, and 
 three or four potatoes ; and upon this strict course of abstinence 
 has found no defect of strength or nutrition. On the contrary, 
 the symptoms with which he has been occasionally afficted have 
 Ijeen accompanied with marks of plenitude and oppression;. 
 
17S VEGETABLE DIET " 
 
 ' The siimc month of June, both in 1813 and 1814, and ve- > 
 nearly the same day, brought back the asthmatic paroxysms. 
 But that of 1813 was very mild. Though the disease hung 
 upon him for a month, the confinement to the house was not 
 above five days. He had again an interval of eleven months 
 of very good health. In the paroxysm of 1814 I did not see 
 him, Mr. Newton having quitted London. But from the account 
 he sent me of it, it was more severe than daring either of the 
 two former years. It lasted also five weeks. Since that time 
 he has been, and is, comfortable in health. 
 
 I would observe, as a point of pathology, that the sweUing 
 of the legs in this case has not been an anasarcous or dropsical 
 swelling. The whole tumefaction has been ten^e and elastic, 
 not yielding or pitting. 
 
 It is necessary, in order to form a fair judgment (f this case, 
 to pass in review its most striking points. They are shortly 
 these. Mr. Newton began to use distilled water in 1805, and 
 adopted the complete regimen in 1808. From this period of 
 1805 to June, 1811, he had, upon the whole, very Uttle asthma, 
 hardly a singular regular fit of any duration ; and we were per- 
 suaded that the disease was in a manner eradicated. But to 
 our disappointment, and in a certain degree to our mortification, 
 there has been, now for four years, an annual paroxysm, declin- 
 ing upon the whole, but not quite uniformly, in severity. It has 
 regularly come on in the month of June, which whole month 
 it occupies, and encroaches a little upon July. Such is its pre- 
 sent habit, and such we may suppose that for the present it 
 will continue. I shall briefly attempt to explain these phe- 
 nomena. 
 
 First, it must be allowed, that the great freedom from asth- 
 ma, for near six years, was not entirely due to his regimen. 
 Diseases we know will change their forms. Asthma will end 
 in consumption, hydrothorax, dropsy, disease of the heart, or 
 other fatal maladies. It is obvious from the delicacy of Mr. 
 Newton's frame, and the great severity of his disease, that he 
 is not formed, undei' common habits, for long life. I am there- 
 fore satisfied that there was, about the time that Mr. Newton 
 adopted a change of habit, some secret constitutional change 
 which concurred Avith his diet to keep off the asthmatic parox- 
 ysms. 
 
 The records of medicine are full of such examples, which, 
 gave occasion to much fallacy and false experience. I shall 
 mention one which lately came under my own observation. An 
 elderly gentlewoman wa? seized, in the month of June, 1814, 
 
IN ciiKONic :isEASf:s. 170 
 
 with a paralytic disorder. She informed me thai she had been 
 subject for a great many Avinters to a cough, attended with 
 copious expectoration. But during the preceding winter, though 
 the most rigid that had been experienced for many years, she 
 was wholly without her cough. It would be easy to collect 
 numerous analogous facts, which indicate a change to have 
 taken place in the habits of the constitution, unaccompanied by 
 active disease, or any evident external signs. 
 
 Now, secondly, we have seen in the first case which has 
 been related that gout, which had been many years latent, and, 
 as it were, dormant in the constitution, became active and evi- 
 dent, producing its proper symptoms of pains and lameness, as 
 the first effect of the vegetable regimen. I am, therefore, fur- 
 ther satisfied that in Mr. Newton's case something similar, 
 though less obvious, took place, and that the first effect of the 
 vegetable regimen was to re-establish the asthmatic paroxysms. 
 Whatever is a person's habitual disease, is to that person, rela- 
 tively, a state o/ health; and such disease cannot disappear 
 without an evidently sufficient cause, without a suspicion that 
 it will be followed by something worse. If therefore the hypo- 
 thesis be just, it must follow that this re-establishment of the 
 regular asthmatic paroxysms was the sign of an improved state 
 of the constitution. 
 
 If it be asked, finally, what this gentleman has really gained 
 by his strict course of temperance and abstinence, I answer 
 that, 1st. Life has been prolonged, and that, probably, several 
 years. If I am right in supposing that there was a constitu- 
 tional change about the year 1805, we may calculate that there 
 have been five or six years, at least, already gained. It is im- 
 possible, however, to demonstrate this, and therefore I shall not 
 dwell upon it. 2d. Instead of being an habitual invalid, Mr. 
 Newton has enjoyed several years of relative comfort and good 
 health, using much exercise, and walking occasionally several 
 miles in the day. His frame is delicate ; his pulse habitually 
 too rapid. He furnishes another example of its being impossi- 
 ble to reduce the pulse to its natural standard by regimen. 
 3d. Instead of being the constant victim of asthma, rarely 
 escci'pi-ng a paroxysm for three months, Mr. Nev.'ton has had 
 but one annual paroxysm for the last four years, besides the 
 interval of almost total cessation for five previously. Those 
 advantages he deems an abundant compensation for all the 
 deprivations which sensualists may suppose he has imposed 
 upon himself. 
 
 I cannot withhold offering in this place a conjectuy^ wkl^ 
 
180 VEGETABI.fc: VlluT 
 
 regard to the regular recurrence of the asthmatic paroxysm at 
 the same period of the year, which has occurred now for four 
 successive years. 
 
 I suppose that it is allowed that the lungs themselves are 
 the primary seat of the disease ; and I will suppose further 
 that the membrane investing the bronchiae and the air vesicles 
 of the lungs is the part immediately affected. It must be pre- 
 sumed that this membrane is liable to the same sort of diseases 
 as the other membranes of the bod^ ; but the consequences will 
 depend upon the particuhir situation and functions of the part. 
 
 Now among other affections of membranes there is one which, 
 though not very obvious, is not often adverted to ; it is that 
 there takes place a species of exfoliation or sloughing ; the mem- 
 brane is destroyed, it is thrown olT, and is regenerated. This 
 whole process, of course, takes up some time, during which 
 there must, of necessity, be a derangement of the functions, and 
 I suffering of the individual. 
 
 We see this phenomenon on the external surface of the body ; 
 the epidermis peels off; and occasionally preserves its continuity, 
 and the form of the part which it invested. It comes off the 
 hand or foot like a glove or stocking. At other times it sepa- 
 rates in flakes, which is a daily occurrence. But the intestinal 
 evacuations give us more frequent and incontestible evidence of 
 the same fact. Every one must have observed, occasionally, 
 membranes evacuated preserving the form of the intestine. It 
 is much more common at the close of a diarrhcea to observe a 
 number of flakes, or films, floating in the liquid matter of the 
 stool. This is commonly the solution and termination of the 
 disease. These films can be nothing else than an exfoliation of 
 the internal or mucous membrane of the intestine. 
 
 It can hardly be doubted that the stomach itself is subject 
 to a similar affection, though it is not possible to ascertain the 
 fact by ocular proof, A person is seized with a constant vom- 
 iting, rejecting every thing which is taken into it, which lasts 
 perhaps a month or six weeks. It will then cease, as it were, 
 spontaneously, and be no more heard of. What rational ac- 
 count can be given of such a phenomenon, unless it be what I 
 have often suspected to be the fact, that the internal coat of 
 the stomach exfoliates, and is regenerated ? 
 
 I have had reason to suspect that the bladder is occasionally 
 subject to a similar affection ; and, in general, that none of the 
 mucous surfaces are exempt from it. 
 
 We may readily transfer these observations to the mucoua 
 membrane lining the bronchiae. It gives, I think, a more ra- 
 
IN LilHuNlC LilSEASEJ. 181 
 
 tional account of most of the phenomena of the astnmatic par- 
 oxysms than any pretended spasm upon the vessels or mem- 
 branes. It accounts also, not inaptly, for the regular return of 
 the disease. We know that the vital powers of all newly 
 formed parts are weak. It is therefore easily conceivable that, 
 under whatever circumstances the membrane has once perished 
 and been regenerated, the same phenomena will recur under 
 similar circumstances. It may be supposed to have received 
 the same sort or quantity of vital power, as the horns of the 
 stag, or the skin of the snake. It is enough, however, to have 
 thrown out the idea. 
 
 As Mr. Newton has himself informed the public that he has 
 introduced this regimen, which I recommend to the valetudi- 
 narians, as the regular habit of his family, and has at the same 
 time announced the complete success of the experiment at the 
 period of his publication, I need say no more than that he has 
 continued to follow the same course now for nearly four more 
 years, and that the result has continued to be completely satis- 
 factory. More perfect and even robust health was never dis- 
 played among any set of young people. The female head of 
 the family, to whose spirit, independence, and intelligence much 
 of the emancipation from tlie yoke of vulgar and destructive 
 prejudices must be ascribed, enjoys an activity of mind and 
 body rarely equaled in her sex. Our feeble and dehcate coun- 
 trywomen will perhaps be shocked when they learn that this 
 lad}^ bred up in habits as delicate and luxurious as the most 
 sensitive of themselves, has been enabled, during the course oi 
 this present year, to walk thirty miles in one day. She has a 
 high color, and is full of flesh. Such are the real mischiefs, 
 and such the debility, which are the consequences of a vege- 
 table regimen, when used by persons of good health and of 
 sound constitutions. 
 
 Since the publication of Mr. Newton's work, another child 
 has been added to his family, who is now three years old, and 
 who has been dieted on the same plan. This child, like the 
 others, is distinguished for health, vigor, and beauty. 
 
 Among this family of five children, there has been during 
 eight years one example of an external disease. It was my 
 wish arid intention to give a detail of the circumstances ; but I 
 am prevented by injunctions with which I feel it necessary to 
 comply. I must content myself, therefore, with saying that it 
 continued some months, and then ceased. During its course, 
 the general health continued perfect. We order regimen, as 
 was properly remarked by a professional gentleman, who was a 
 
1 82 VEGKTABLE DIKT 
 
 witness o: the facts, for the salce of the general health. As 
 this was unaffected, Juring the course of this disease,' it effected 
 whatever could be reasonably expected from it. 
 
 The remainino' children have suffered nothinfj but the most 
 trifling ephemeral attacks, hardly worth mentioning ; real ill- 
 ness, such as to require confinement, they have never suffered. 
 The slight affections which have occurred, have been just 
 sufficient to prove that, had they been treated like other chil- 
 dren, they would have had no exemption from the common lot. 
 
 CASE VII. 
 
 Cough, Difficult Breathing, and General Debility. 
 
 22d November, 1814. I am acquainted with this case only 
 from the relation of the patient, the disease having existed be- 
 fore I became acquainted with her. It is shortly as follows : 
 
 M , a female servant of Mr. Newton's, about thirty-six 
 
 years old, had a very indifferent state of health ; she was sub- 
 ject to very bad coughs, and had twice attacks, which, frtm 
 the description given of them, I judge to have been a kind of 
 cynanche laryngea. She had great stricture and difficulty of 
 respiration, and coughed with a hoarse and croupy noise, the 
 perspiration at the same time running off her foi-chead in tor- 
 rents. This must ha\e been about the years 1804 or 1805, 
 
 This woman, living with and being the nurse-maid to Mr. 
 Newton's children, wa? easily persuaded to conform to their 
 habits ; and the consequence has been very salutary to herself. 
 The disposition to catarrh is removed ; nor has she again had 
 any of the apparently eroupy attacks. The general health 
 also very much improved, and lias indeed been perfectly 
 good. 
 
 She lost neither flesh nor color from leaving ofi" animal 
 food, and the strength was unimpaired. She is a woman who 
 looks worn, and would pass for several years older than she 
 really is. But this appearance was formed wholly before she 
 adapted her nevr habits. 
 
IN CHUONIC f)ISli.\3E8. 183 
 
 CASE VIII. 
 
 Asthma, Debility, aud Loss of Flesh. 
 
 Sept. 16, 1813. Mi*. P , a gentleman resident in Lon- 
 don, aged thirty-four, had an attack, which was called pleuritic, 
 twelve or fourteen years ago. After this illness, he found 
 himself subject to fits of asthma. The disease increased grad- 
 ually upon him, and during the years 1806 and 1807, its seve- 
 rity was so great as t) render his life miserable. During these 
 years he put himself under the care of Dr. Bree ; but the vio- 
 lence of the disorder continued unabated. In the beginning of 
 1808 he consulted me, and consented to give a fair trial to the 
 regimen I advise in chronic diseases. 
 
 I found him thin and pallid, and witli the appearance of 
 languor. The bowels were habitually bound, and the evacua- 
 tions foul and dark. Besides his asthma, he complained of 
 frequent pains of the side. But the pulse was not accelerated. 
 He began his regimen in February, 1808. 
 
 During the first ten months, this gentleman experienced no 
 alleviation of his disease. It was to this case I alluded in my 
 " Reports on Cancer," p. 184, in these words : " But in a third, 
 nine complete months have elapsed without the smallest ap- 
 parent alleviation of the symptoms." A large portion of this 
 time was spent under the paroxysms of this painful disease, 
 breathing with rryach difficult}'^, unable to lie down in bed, and 
 at the height of the paroxysm, the legs swelled. This last 
 observation was made by Dr. Frampton, senior physician of 
 the London Hospital, who, on one occasion, saw him for me. 
 
 At the end of ten months, he began to receive sensible bene- 
 fit, and he enjoyed an interval of eight months of improved 
 health, and was free from asthma. He then suffered a rehipse 
 of considerable severity; the asthma returned, so that for a 
 fortnight, he was unable to get into a bed ; and it hung upon him 
 ill a less degree for six weeks or two months longer. This re- 
 lapse came on when he was a short time at Cambridge ; but the 
 connection between it and the change of situation was not at 
 that time observed. During the remainder of the year, he had 
 some dyspncBa daily, but nothing that amounted to asthma, 
 or that prevented him from lying comfortably in bed the whole 
 night. 
 
 In the beginning of 1810 he had another asthmatic paroxysm, 
 hut it was very slight, and of short duration. After this time 
 
184 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 the health greatly improved. During the nemainder of the yeai 
 he was free from asthma. He rose in the morning with some 
 thickness of breathing, but it wore off in two or three hours. 
 
 The year 1811 was also passed without any asthmatic par- 
 oxysm. He was often, from his sensations, imder apprehensions 
 that it would return, but it never did so in fact. The approaches 
 to the disease speedily disappeared by an easy and copious ex- 
 pectoration. About this time smoking of stramonium was ex- 
 tolled as a cure of the asthma. Mr. P used it, and found 
 
 from it considerable advantage. It relieved the breath, and 
 promoted the expectoration. It is obvious, however, that In 
 these circumstances it is hardly possible to determine what was 
 really gained by this practice. 
 
 During these last two years he was very thin, and the coun- 
 tenance, which was naturally pallid, became still more so, with 
 the marks of a diseased habit strongly impressed upon it. But 
 in 1812, the appearance much improved, the color became 
 stronger, the expression of languor vanished from the face, and 
 he was sensible of a considerable increase both of general health 
 and of bodily strength. The tendency to asthma appeared very 
 nearly, if not wholly conquered. Under these circumstances 
 he went on a party of pleasure, at the end of the spring, to the 
 sea side. 
 
 He had not, however, left London two days before his asthma 
 returned with all its attendant circumstances. The breathing 
 become laborious, and for a fortnight, nearly, he was unable to 
 lie down in his bed. He returned to London with the asthma 
 still upon him; in town it quickly dechned, and left him. 
 
 Since that time, now fifteen months, he has had no return of 
 asthmatic paroxysm. In the spring of 1813, he had some thick- 
 ness of breathing, which was an approach toward his old dis- 
 ease, but it did not force him to quit his bed, or to raise him- 
 self from a horizontal posture. The general state of health is 
 so much improved, that from being an habitual and almost a 
 desperate invalid, he is habitually and permanently well. 
 
 It is perfectly clear that the immediate exciting cause of the 
 asthmatic paroxysm which took place in 1812 (the only circum- 
 stance like a serious return of the disease for the space of nearly 
 four years), was the removal out of the atmosphere of London 
 to that of the sea coast. Now the impurities of the London at- 
 mosphere must be reckoned an unnatural and morbid irritation 
 to the surface of the lungs, and that this irritation causes no 
 uneasiness can be accounted for only by the power of habit. 
 In consequence of this habit, a harmony is established betweea 
 
 'ilk 
 
IN CHRONIC DIS VSES. 185 
 
 the different surfaces or membranes of the body, and the sub- 
 stances wliich are habitually applied to them. Uneasiness is 
 occasioned wlien this harmony is disturbed by a change of the 
 properties of the substances applied. We may see, therefore, 
 from this example, how inconsequently we reason Avhen we sup- 
 pose that a change is unwholesome or improper because it may 
 at first excite uneasy sensation. 
 
 This may be applied to the food and the drink we apply to 
 the stomach, as much as to the air applied to the lungs. The 
 very change may excite uneasy feeling, though the new habit 
 may be much more salubrious than the old one. 
 
 If it be asked what proof the case just related affords of the 
 utility of the distilled water, it must be granted that it affords 
 none which is direct, for there was certainly no perceptible ad- 
 vantage from the first change of regimen. But the fact of the 
 cure (for such it may very fairly be called) is a sufficient proof 
 of its utility, since there can be no doubt that vegetable diet 
 alone would not have effected it. Mr. P. had received the 
 common advice, to be sparing of vegetables, and to avoid all 
 fruit, salads, etc. I ventured to give the very opposite advice 
 to this, and no detriment whatever has been observed from the 
 use of matters of this kind. 
 
 16th December, 1814. I have great pleasure in stating tha*. 
 this gentleman continues in greatly improved health, and with- 
 out asthma. It may be said that, according to all appearance, 
 this most painful and dangerous disease has, in this instance, 
 been fairly subdued. He is still affected, occasionally, with 
 pains of the side, and the bowels are not quite free. But the 
 health is, upon the whole, good, and the general appearance 
 very much improved. 
 
 CASE IX. 
 
 Paralysis. 
 
 23d September, 1813. Mrs. , a married lady, aged 
 
 about forty-seven, of a plethoric habit of body, was attacked 
 in the spring of 1809 with a palsy of the left eye and cheek. 
 She could not close the eyelids of that side, and the mouth was 
 drawn considerably awry on the opposite side. She had also 
 frequent vertigo, so that she was under continual apprehensions 
 
 m 
 
186 VEGETABLE DIUT 
 
 of afresli attack, She was Wed, cupped, and frequently purged 
 copiously, and put upon a vegetable diet. But by this plan she 
 felt her strength impaired, but the disease showed no disposi- 
 tion to yield. The eyes were so susceptible of the light that she 
 was obliged to wear a shade. Besides this, the spirits were so 
 low that she was the prey to a constant melancholy. The mus 
 cular strength was entire. 
 
 As she found no benefit from low living, she had resumed 
 the common diet. But, at my suggestion, she returned to her 
 vegetable regimen in the summer of that year, and she united 
 with it the use of distilled water. By this method she felt no 
 sinking of the. strength. In about two months she began to 
 regain some power of closing the eyelids, and in a twelvemonih 
 it was completely restored. But during the whole of the first 
 year she continued in a wretched state of low spirits, looked 
 extremely ill, and continued under constant apprehensions of a 
 fresh attack. 
 
 After this time the amendment of the general health became 
 more evident. She regained her looks, from having been pallid 
 she became florid, and was able to amuse herself and to attend 
 to her domestic occupations. The painful impression of light 
 upon the sensorium was removed, so that the shade over hei 
 eyes was no longer necessary, the vertigo in a great measure 
 disappeared, and her great lowness of spirits was removed. But 
 the affection of the sensorium was not removed, it was only alle- 
 viated. Frequent pains of the head recurred, for which she 
 had often recourse to cupping. 
 
 And in this condition she has continued nearly ever since, 
 the general health rather improving than otherwise, enjoying a 
 state that is comparatively very comfortable, though by no 
 means restored to that in which she was previous to the attack. 
 
 This lady has neither lost flesh nor color by abstaining from 
 animal food. But her muscular strength" is certainly diminish- 
 ed. It is, however, to be considered that she was probably 
 morbidly strong at the time of this attack. It is, indeed, evi- 
 dent that a person may have too much strength, as well as too 
 little. In such cases, to have this unnatural and morbid 
 strength removed, cannot, with any appearance of reason, be 
 deemed injurious. 
 
 What 1 wish particularly to call the attention of the reader 
 to, in the present case, is the phenomena of the eye, since they 
 afford an ocular demonstration of the effect of the septic poison 
 of water on the system, and of the consequent beneficial effects 
 of the distilled water. Palsy is one of the diseases which I 
 
{\' OUr.oMC DlSEASEei. 187 
 
 have seen ascribed to the ? idden discontinuance of animal food, 
 by writers ^^ho either reason at random, or who draw hasty 
 inferences from a partial view of facts. The charge is so ob- 
 viously groundless, that it is not worth while to enter into a 
 formal refutation of it. Nothing, however, is more certain 
 than that palsies have taken place in persons Avho were living 
 on a vegetable diet. Besides the common experience of the 
 poor, who can claim no exemption from these diseases, direct 
 evidence has been given of this fact, by persons who have 
 adopted a diet of this kind. For e'xample. Dr. Desaguliers is 
 recorded to have bad a paralytic attack, after he had used a 
 vegetable diet for ten months. And I have seen myself, in the 
 course of the present year (1813), a woman affected very nearly 
 as the subject of the present case, that is to say, with the cheek 
 paralytic, and unable to close the eyelids of the same side. 
 This woman, from the necessity of her circumstances, did not 
 use animal food above once a week ; and her palsy therefore 
 could, with no degree of probability, be ascribed to it. We 
 must look then to other causes of these diseases. 
 
 lYth December, 1814. I understand that this lady continues 
 in improved health ; but I have not been able to see her for 
 some months. 
 
 CASE X. 
 
 Tumor of the Arm. 
 
 23d November, 1814. A medical gentleman, aged thirty- 
 seven, has had for a number of years a tumor on one of his 
 fore-arms, which had caused great uneasiness. It was at first 
 not larger than a pin's head, but gradually, in the course of 
 years, has increased to the size of a small pea, and was so ex- 
 quisitely painful that he could not bear it to be touched. 
 There was also much shooting, and other uneasiness through it, 
 independent of external violence. It appeared after he had 
 grown up, but while he was a very young man. 
 
 This gentleman adopted this regimen, but from other motives, 
 in the year 1809. His health improved very greatly under it; 
 but for the whole first year, there was no sensible change in 
 the sensations of the tumor. It was equally sensible to the 
 touch, and had the s-ime shooting pains. But at the expiration 
 
iS8 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 M' the Iwehemonth, or tho.reabouts, it became greatly soothed, 
 and finally it ceased to give pain, except very trifling, occasion- 
 ally, and it became much less tender to the touch. 
 
 In its appearance, this little tumor remains unchanged. 
 He thinks it has increased a little in size ; but so little, that 
 perhaps he is mistaken. It is still no larger than a pea. 
 
 Though this little highly painful and irritable tumor is well 
 known to the surgeons, and occasionally extirpated, I cannot 
 find that they give it any specific name, which must be my 
 apology for the general appellation giver, to this case. 
 
 This gentleman adopted the regimen for the sake of his 
 health, which had been very considerably deranged for some 
 years. I shall only say, in general, that it has very much 
 improved in consequence. But I do not think the symp- 
 toms sufficientl)^ definite to make it proper to relate them 
 minutely. 
 
 On this subject, I have heard him assert that for two years 
 before he changed his diet, his spirits were so low that he was 
 unable to smile. It is no new observation, that vegetable diet 
 has been useful in melancholic disorders. A case is given by 
 Dr. Lobb, of a gouty pain of the stomach, with flatulency and 
 melancholia, cured by vegetable diet. The disorder yielded 
 in a few months, but the regimen had been continued fifteen 
 years. 
 
 He has also been in the habit of illustrating the superiority 
 of this regimen by saying, that the diff*erence of comfort, ex- 
 perienced between it and the common mode of life, is quite as 
 great as what persons experience between the common mode 
 of life and directly riotous living. At the same time he ac- 
 knowledges that, for the pleasure of the palate, the common 
 mode of living bears the palm. It may however be doubted 
 whether this be not the mere consequence of habit. 
 
 SOME REMARKS ON SCROFULA. 
 
 The observations I have been enabled to make on this disease 
 are not numerous. Diseases termed scrofulous are for the most 
 part external, and fall principally under the care of surgeons. 
 The more common form of the disease, marked by tumors or 
 ulcers about the throat, however disagreeable or tormenting, is 
 
fN CHRONIC DISEASES. 189 
 
 not a dangerous complaint. The stamina in such a disease 
 may be strong ; the disease often subsides entirely ; and the 
 patient may hve healthy for many years. On this account, 
 such subjects can bear animal food and fermented liquors ; and 
 the current of prejudice is too strong in favor of this practice to 
 afford any chance at present of a successful resistance to it. 
 Of the more serious affections, terminating in death or mutila- 
 tion, and which are the fit objects of this regimen, I have not 
 obtained any proper examples. 
 
 Scrofula frequently takes place in children who are confined 
 nearly to vegetable food. It is, therefore, one of the evils 
 charged by superficial observers upon this species of food. In 
 order not to withhold from my reader some of the most con- 
 fident assertions which I have met with on this subject, I shall 
 here insert an extract from a work of Dr. Beddoes, which, I 
 suspect, has had no small influence in forming the present state 
 of public opinion. 
 
 " Wlien children are fed," says Dr. Beddoes, *' on vegetables, 
 with little or no admixture of animal food, they die in great 
 numbers of scrofulous affections. In the families of the poor, 
 who cannot command better aliment, this is one principal cause 
 of mortality ; and in the families of the rich, who in conse- 
 quence of the erroneous medical notions, sometimes will not 
 allow a proper proportion of animal food, scrofula often takes 
 place (though in a slighter degree, for it is checked by other 
 circumstances), and the foundation of consumption is laid. 
 There are (as a writer of superior merit on the king's evil ob- 
 serves), among the higher classes, some who keep their children 
 to the fifth, or even the seventh year, upon a strict vegetable 
 and milk diet, believing that they thus render the constitution 
 signal service. I have, however, frequently pointed out to pa- 
 rents, whom I have heard boasting of the advantages of this 
 management, either an enlarged abdomen, or some other sign 
 of an incipient scrofulous indisposition, which has convinced 
 them that their children were far from being so healthy as they 
 supposed. In our temperate latitudes, a diet of this kind is 
 certainly not proper after the age of two years. Where a feeble 
 constitution coincides with hereditary disposition to scrofula, 
 or rickets, tender meat and soups are particularly serviceable. 
 Dr. Weikard perfectly agrees with me in opinion. He observes, 
 that children brought up according to the fashion of the great 
 (without animal food) are particularly liable to rickets. Dr. 
 Kuempf attests, that by animal diet he has restored a great 
 variety of children, who had been dreadfully reduced by 
 
 # 
 
190 "VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 water-gruel, milk, and vegetables. Dr. Vogel also asserts, 
 that animal food is falsely held to be a cause of atrophy, and 
 that children, from whom such food is withheld, oftener fall 
 into an atrophy than those to whom it is allowed. [C. G. T. 
 Kortam de vitus scrophulosis. I. 3. 50.) These testimonies 
 may be received with fullei assurance, because in other re- 
 spects the authors are strongly disposed in favor of that theory, 
 which still not unfrcquently deludes English parents with the 
 false hope of rendering the blood of their children pure, and 
 their humors mild, by millet pudding, and by other prepara- 
 tions of vegetable substances in over-proportion." 
 
 It is no wonder that, with such strong assertions as these 
 staring them in the face, parents should be terrified at the 
 thoughts of confining their children to vegetable food ; and 
 should apprehend that they were inflicting an irreparable in- 
 jury on the dearest objects of their affection. These are the 
 doctrines, which, coming from what has been thought the best 
 authority, pass from mouth to mouth, and have excited such 
 an hostility to simple nutriment. It is therefore incumbent on 
 me to examine a little the validity of this accusation. 
 
 "When children are fed on vegetables, with little or no 
 .admixture of animal food, they die in great numbers of scrofu- 
 lous afl^ections." It is difficult to disprove assertions to which 
 we cannot attach definite ideas. Scrofulous affections are 
 commonly external disorders, unattended with danger. What 
 diseases Dr. Beddoes understood by this term, is not very 
 clear ; I will suppose, however, fatal chronical diseases attend- 
 ed with ulcerations, or abscesses, as lumbar abscess, psoas ab- 
 scess, white swelling, etc. 
 
 T^fovv, Dr. Watt has given us (annexed to his treatise on chin- 
 cough) a register of all the deaths of children to the age of 
 ten years at Glasgow, for thirty years. The diseases are ar- 
 ranged under the folloAving heads : Small-pox, Measles, Chin- 
 cougli, Stopping, Water in the Head, Teething, Bowelhives, 
 Still-born. I cannot find here a single head under which 
 these fatal " scrofulous aflfections" can be properly included. 
 Though, certainly, some such diseases must in thirty years have 
 occurred, and even not unfrequentl}^ and we may therefore 
 allow that these bills are defective, yet it is equally evident 
 that such cases must have formed a small proportion indeed 
 of the mass of mortality in childhood. 
 
 The London bills of mortality give as little countenance to 
 this assertion. Let us take a single year : it shall be the first 
 that offers, namely, the years ll9o and 1796, which are the 
 
IN- CilROMC DldEASE3. ^^/: 
 
 first found in Dr. Willaa's " Reports on the diseases of Lon- 
 don." The whole mortality of London, from the 22d of De- 
 cember, 1795, to the iTth of December, 1796, stated in the bills, 
 is 18,664/'^* Of these there are stated to have died of abscess, 
 twenty-one; sores, four ; ^cahI, five ; ulcers, two; rickets, one: 
 total, thirty-tLj-ee. These are the only heads, out of this great 
 mass of mortality, under which fatal "scrofulous affections" 
 can be arranged. Of this whole mortality of London, two 
 thirds of the deaths jtake place before sixteen years of age. 
 We see, therefore, how small a proportion of the diseases of 
 early life are fatal " scrofulous affections." 
 
 I look in vain for a private authority for the support for tlJs 
 assertion. Dr. Woolcombo has given a catalogue of nearly 
 5000 patients, admitted at the Plymoubh public dispensary, 
 for near seven years. In this long catalogue there are found, 
 arthropuosis, one ; hydrarthus, ten ; rachitis, nineteen ; scrofula, 
 forty-one. Of chese cases, one under the head of rachitis is 
 marked as having been fatal. If it were true, that " great 
 nurabera ' of children die of this sort of disorders, we should 
 certainly have some vestiges of the fact, either ia public or in 
 private records. 
 
 In opposition to the accusation of vegetable diet causing 
 tumefaction of the abdomen, I must testify that, twice in my 
 own family, I have seen such swellings disappear under a vege- 
 table regimen, which had been formed under a diet of animal 
 food. I must refer to pp. 161 and 166 of this work. These 
 facts I cannot but regard as entitled to infinitely more atten- 
 tion than any observations on the poor, who are addicted to 
 many depraved habits, and exposed to complicated causes of 
 disease. 
 
 We may judge from these facts, how idle and ill grounded 
 these apprehensions really are. But the general charge of 
 vegetable diet causing scrofulous disease must be allowed so 
 much weight, as to amount to a demonstration, that it has 
 often been observed under such a diet ; and, in consequence, 
 that such a diet has of itself no tendency to cure it. In the 
 last four years, several cases of glandular swellings have oc- 
 curred to me at the general dispensary ; and I have made par- 
 ticular inquiries into the mode of living of such children. In 
 the majority they had animal food. In one child, of under 
 
 * In the same work, the total number of deaths, in the year 1796, ia 
 stated at 19,228. (See Willaii on the diseases of London, p. 58.) There 
 must be an error, there(are, ia tha .iumber given abovo ; but it does not 
 affect the argnmeat. 
 
f^ VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 two years of age, with many swellings of this kind, the appe- 
 tite for animal food was so strong that the mother thought it 
 I'ight to check it. In a few, there was hardly any animal food 
 given, probably from poverty. These children appeared 
 healthy ; but in every case, except one, they had a consider- 
 able thirst upon them. 
 
 To those who think that animal food has the smallest ten- 
 dency to prevent the appearance of glandular swellings, I 
 recommend the consideration of the follo\ving facts taken from 
 the mouth of a patient of this institution, on whom I observed 
 these glandular swellings on each side of the neck, ftnd was 
 informed that they existed also under the armpits, and in the 
 groins. 
 
 T. L., aged twenty-one, lived till he was fourteen years old 
 ^vith his father, the head servant or w^orkman in the warehouse 
 of a wholesale druggist. Being one of a large family living on 
 servant's wages, their diet was principally vegetables ; the 
 family had commonly some meat on Sundays, but scarcely on 
 any other day. Their drink was chiefly water. Under this 
 manner of life he was without disease, but was not a strong 
 hearty boy. At fourteen he was put apprentice to a goldsmith. 
 Here he had meat daily, as much as he chose, for dinner ; his 
 drink was small beer, but he was allowed a little porter on 
 Sundays, The consequence was that he improved considerably 
 in strength and in appearance ; and, as he expresses it, he 
 thought himself becoming quite a hearty lad. This increased 
 strength and apparently improved health lasted nearly two 
 years. After that it began to decline. Though the diet con- 
 tinued unchanged, the strength diminished ; and he is certain 
 that, now at the age of twenty-one, he is not so strong as he 
 was three years ago, at eighteen. He is not now able to raise 
 weights which he could do then. 
 
 Besides this, mark well the sequel. During the second year 
 of his living on the fuller diet, while he was flattering himself 
 that he enjoyed so much better health, these tumors above 
 mentioned tirst appeared uj|on him. And they have continued 
 ever since, nearly as they are at present. 
 
 We see then, first, that though tlie strength may be increased 
 by animal diet, yet the increased strength may not continue 
 though the diet be continued. On the contrary, there is a sort 
 of oscillation, the strength first rising and then sinking again. 
 This is what is experienced by the trainers of boxers. A certr.in 
 time is necessary to get these men into condition ; but this con- 
 dition cannot be maintained for many weeks together, though the 
 
IS CHRONIC DI3EASKS. 193 
 
 process by which it was formed is continued. The same is 
 found to hold in the training of race horses and fighting cocks. 
 Increasing the stiength, then, is no proof of salubrity of diet. 
 
 Now let us suppose this young man had had these marks of 
 scrofula upon him while he resided at home. It would most 
 commonly have been ascribed to the poorness of his diet ; the 
 appearance of increased health and strength upon a fuller course 
 of living would have been brought in support of this opinion ; 
 and it would have been probably said that if he had had the 
 benefit of a good dinner of animal food, daily, these marks of 
 scrofula would not have appeared. The facts, however, are in 
 direct opposition to this supposition ; for the signs of scrofula 
 first appeared, as I have stated, when he was under the strong- 
 est influence of the apparently beneficial change introduced by 
 the animal food. 
 
 With equal confidence has this writer enjoined the use of 
 animal food to prevent consumption, as he would fain persuade 
 us. He says, " In cases where habitual weakness or the history 
 of the family gives reason to apprehend consumption, one of 
 the most indispensable rules of preservation is to use animal 
 food freely. There seems no limit to the quantity but the indi- 
 cations furnished by the palate, and the power of the digestive 
 organs. More should not be given, more will not be taken 
 than is relished." One can hardly help staring with astonish- 
 ment at seeing such directions as these ; when we see examples 
 daily of young persons becoming consumptive who never went 
 without animal food for a single day of their lives ; and consider 
 that such is the constant habit of this country, where consump- 
 tion destroys its thousands and tens of thousands. 
 
 If the use of animal food were necessary in northern latitudes 
 to prevent consumption, we should expect that where the peo- 
 ple liv^ed almost entii-ely upon such a diet, the disease would 
 be unknown. Now the Indian tribes, visited by Mr. Hearne, live 
 in this manner. They do not cultivate the earth. They subsist 
 by hunting, and the scanty produce of spontaneous vegetation. 
 But among these tribes consumption is common. Their dis- 
 eases, Mr. Hearne informs us, are principally fluxes, scurvy, and 
 consumption. But to return to my present subject. 
 
 Scrofula, as affecting the whole constitution, is to be con- 
 sidered, probably, as a disease of organic power. If a bone ex- 
 foliates, for example, or a membrane loses its proper structure, 
 as the cornea of the eye, there was probably some original 
 organic defect. But the more common phenomenon of glandu- 
 lar swellings and suppurations is attributed, probably \/ith jus- 
 9 
 
194 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 lice, to a vitiated state, or acrimony as it is called, of the lymph. 
 It is to be considered that the lymph is not merely the exu- 
 dation into the various cavities, which is reabsorbed, but the 
 parts of the body which, being no longer fit to continue a part 
 of the living system, are to be eliminated and thrown out of 
 the body. The sohd parts of the body must l>ecome fluid 
 before they are absorbed and form part of the lymph. The 
 lymph, therefore, must be considered in part as a dead, or at 
 least, a dying part of the system ; and hence it may readily be 
 conceived to acquire occasionally a degree of virulence or poi- 
 sonous acrimony ; to be already, as it were, cadaverous, and 
 therefore to be irritating to the parts through which it passes. 
 
 If this be correct, the glandular Svvellings in scrofula are 
 secondary symptoms. Indeed, we often see conjoined to the 
 glandular' swellings in the neck, scabs or sores upon the scalp : 
 and the thickness of the upper lip, and tumefaction and sore- 
 ness of the nostrils, are so frequent as to be esteemed a common 
 symptom of this disease. It is not improbable, therefore, that 
 the glandular swellings always indicate some disease of the 
 membranes, cavities, or other organs from which the lympha- 
 tics originate. It is not impossible that, as we see a portion of 
 bone perish and be thrown out of the system, so a membrane, 
 or other soft part, may occasionally perish, and be regenerated ; 
 it is possible that this process may take place without any ex- 
 ternal signs of it, and that during such a process the lympha- 
 tic glands may be irritated, tumefy, and suppurate. 
 
 Upon such a theory of scrofula, as this view of the phe- 
 nomena points to, there is no immediate connection as cause 
 and effect between impure water and scrofula. Impure water 
 does not directly cause the scrofula ; nor are we to suppose the 
 glandular swellings to be occasioned by foreign matter passing 
 through the glands irritating and inflaming them. But the 
 putrescent matter of water acts on the scrofulous habit as upon 
 others ; only the scrofulous habit appears to be more than com- 
 monly irritable. This matter is a depressing power ; the tone 
 of the body is diminished by its action ; the radical powers of 
 the fibres are either destroyed or greatly impaired ; of many 
 parts the structure is altered ; of others, the very substance is 
 destroyed. But these processes are, in no circumstances, 
 chemical processes, but universally vital processes. 
 
 This connection has been so often asserted, that it cannot be 
 doubted that it has been really rejnarked, that scrofulous dis- 
 orders are abundant where the \^ater is very impure. Dr. 
 Beddoes has furnished us with two such authorities, which I 
 
I\ CilROXrC DISEASES. 195 
 
 shall copy. He says, " Hard, selenitic, and calcareous waters 
 have been given out by respectable observers for a cause of 
 scrofula. M. de Luc, for instance (Lettres, I. 17), remarks, 
 that where he has found incrusting or petiifying springs, there 
 the people were scrofulous." The following passage is anony- 
 mous : " Quod vere assertum, hcet ad strumas potissimum ende- 
 mias pertineat, nullus tamen dubito tales aquas etiam diatheseos 
 scrofulosae evolutionem promovere, malumque augere posse. 
 Gottingae scrofulse frequentissimae sunt; aquae vero ibidem 
 scaturientes calcareis particuhs insigniter abundant." 
 
 But though the facts be granted, there appears an error in 
 the mode of conceiving the operation of impure water. As I 
 have said, impure water does not cause scrofula specifically, but 
 impure water excites and brings into action the diseased pro- 
 pensities of the constitution, whatever they may be, which pro- 
 pensities, but for the application of this morbific power, might 
 have continued dormant and quiescent. 
 
 These truths will, perhaps, be more evident by considering 
 the particulars of the following case. I have already brought 
 it forward as a proof of the quickness with which an ulcerated 
 surface feels the substitution of pure to common water. The 
 further contemplation of the phenomena enlarged, and, in a 
 measure, corrected the opinions I had formed when I published 
 the former facts concerning it. 
 
 CASE XL 
 
 Scrofulous Ulcer of the Arm. 
 
 I HAVE noticed, at p. 1*70 of my "Reports on Cancer," a lad 
 named John Milner, a miserable object from an inveterate scrof- 
 ula. I have there described the case. I shall here, therefore, 
 produce only some of the facts which appeared during the course 
 of the treatment. 
 
 This lad had a large ulcer on his arm. Under the regimen 
 (which was undertaken October 19, 1808), on November 31st 
 this ulcer ceased to discharge, and in a week or two more it 
 cicatrized. But during the following year the cicatrix often 
 gave way, the part became sore, and again discharged, and in 
 a few days again healed. The same event took place in Feb- 
 ruary, 1810, after which time the sore healed completely, and 
 
196 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 lias since, I am informed, continued well. But though I attri- 
 bute the very speedy drying up and cicatrization of the ulcer 
 to the regimen, I cannot ascribe the complete cicatrization to it, 
 as there were marks of old cicatrices on his body. Tliere may 
 therefore have been power in the constitution finally to heal 
 this ulcer. 
 
 In this boy, the left ear was incrusted with a large scab, so as 
 Tvholly to conceal the interior parts of it. In ten months the 
 crust was removed, and the lower part of the ear came into 
 view, and it appeared that the greatest part of the lobe had 
 been destroyed. What remained appeared sound, being covered 
 with newly formed skin. But this skin soon gave way, and the 
 the crust or scab was renewed. In February, 1810, it again 
 fell off, the ear again appeared sound, and so it continued. 
 
 About the same time, all the diseased parts were in an im- 
 proving and heahng condition. The ulcerations on the left side 
 of the face got quite well. One remained on the right side, 
 which was skinning over, and the general improvement was so 
 visible that the master of the workhouse expressed more than 
 once his satisfaction at it. But a large portion of the skin re- 
 maining preternaturally red, the appearance of the boy continued 
 to be very unpleasant. And about this time I found that the 
 boy was becoming inattentive to the rules which had been laid 
 down for him. The master of the house told me of this circum- 
 stance ; and the father of the lad, one of the rudest of the vul- 
 gar, was discontented at the restraints imposed, and had deter- 
 mined to put him a second time into St. Bartholomew's Hospital. 
 Under these circumstances I thought it would be more instruc- 
 tive to observe the case when it was again left to itself. He 
 went into the hospital this spring. 
 
 Here he underwent a mercurial course for a month, but with- 
 out any change for the better or the worse. On his being re- 
 turned to the workhouse, I certainly expected to observe the 
 ulcer on the right cheek quickly becoming worse ; but I was in 
 error, for the ulcer still continued in a healing state for five 
 months at least, when it was very nearly well. All the other 
 parts likewise, which had been diseased, continued sound and 
 well. 
 
 From this, with several other analogous observations, which 
 I do not think it necessary to relate, it appears how different is 
 the^ agency of substances upon the living body from the action 
 of inert matter, whether it be mechanical or chemical. The 
 changes which are produced by mechanical or chemical agents 
 are necessarily simultaneous, or immediately consequent upon 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASED. 197 
 
 the application of a new force or cause of change. But in the 
 living body no such coincidence can be traced ; the effects of a 
 morbific cause remain long after the cause has ceased to be ap- 
 plied ; and, in like manner, the influence of an anti-morbific cause 
 continues sensible long after it, likewise, has ceased to be ap- 
 plied. 
 
 In the case before us the fact appears to have been, that a 
 more healthy regimen had strengthened and invigorated the 
 powers of life. This increase of inherent power could only be 
 destroyed graduall}^, by the application of the common morbific 
 causes, to which the human system, under our common habits, 
 is constantly exposed. Therefore, till this increase of power 
 was totally destroyed, and the system brought down completely 
 to its ordinary level, the effects of the more healthy regimen 
 continued to be apparent. 
 
 This ulcer then failed to give, what I was looking for, an 
 ocular proof of the influence of the pure water. However, at 
 the end of about five months it ceased to cicatrize, and began 
 again to spread. But upon the left eye of this boy I obtained 
 the proof I wished for. 
 
 Tlie eyelid of this eye, before the regimen was undertaken, 
 was much distorted, being drawn at its outer angle downward 
 and outwai'd. While the regimen \wis observed, this deformity 
 ceased, and the eyelid gained its proper position. But gradu- 
 ally, after it had been abandoned, the deformity returned, and 
 in about five or six months it was exactly as it had been at 
 first. 
 
 After this period I ceased to observe him. I have met him, 
 accidentally, nearly in his former condition, as he remains at 
 present, allowing for the difference of years. 
 
 CASE XII. 
 
 Scrofulous Ulcers of the Neck. 
 
 About the end of the year 1810, G. S., a boy about twelve 
 years old, was recommended to me by the kindness of the late 
 Dr. Garthshore. He had many glands, on each side of the 
 neck, inflamed, ulcerated, and discharging an ichor. In one of 
 them, in particular, was a hole large enough to put the end of 
 a finger. The other ulcers were more superficial. 
 
198 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 This state of the glands appeared occasioned by a diseased 
 state of the scalp, on which there were several sores and scabs. 
 It extended in some measure to the eye and eyelids. More 
 than once, about this period, they inflamed, and the eyelids 
 tumefied so much as to close, for a time, the eyes. 
 
 The regimen had upon this boy the same effect as on the last 
 subject. The ulcers were quickly dried up, and they soon be- 
 gan to cicatrize. In half a year, the boy was able to leave off 
 all the coverings about his neck ; and all the ulcers were com- 
 pletely healed, except that which had been so deep. In two 
 or three more months, this became well also ; and nothing re- 
 mained but a redness about the parts. The scabs, however, 
 continued upon the scalp. They, no doubt, afterward came 
 off, but when I cannot exactly say. 
 
 This boy was very refractory, and discontented with the re- 
 straints imposed upon him. At the end of the twelvemonth, 
 therefore, the regimen was given up. The boy, however, con- 
 tinued well, as I saw, at least a year and a half after, since 
 which time I have lost sight of him. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it is probable that these ulcera- 
 tions would have got well under common regimen. But it was 
 evident that the cure was accelerated by the treatment. It 
 can hardly be doubted that the disease of the glands was oc- 
 casioned by the condition of the scalp ; and it could not have 
 been expected that they would become sound, before the in- 
 teguments had recovered. But the fact was otherwise. I 
 would not, however, infer more from this case than, first, that 
 it shows evidently the influence of the pure water on an ulce- 
 rated surface ; and secondly, that a full diet of animal food and 
 fermented liquors, which is commonly enjoined in such cases, 
 is, to say the least, unnecessary. 
 
 I cannot omit this opportunity of paying a small tribute of 
 respect and gratitude to the memory of Dr. Garthshore. He 
 was, at this time, the oldest member on the college list resi- 
 dent in London. To me he was wholly unknown. At a time 
 >vhen I was struo-o-llno- in vain to obtain a few cases suited to 
 my object ; when, from the gentleman to whom. I had shown 
 the facts concerning cancer, I received, after the labor of years, 
 a cold and reluctant, assent I cannot call it, but withholding 
 of contradiction to the conclusions wliich were pressed upon 
 me ; when another practitioner, a physician of great employ- 
 ment, with whom I had lived from early life in fraternal famili- 
 arity, preferred putting an end to an intimacy of five-and- 
 twenty years to supplying me with a single pauper ; at thia 
 
IN CHRCXIC DISEASES. /9 
 
 time, this upright, respectalle, and benevolent old ma^.came 
 to me, sought my acquaintance, encouraged me to proceed in 
 my inquiries ; told me how much the elder Heberden would 
 have been pleased with them ; and promised me every assist- 
 ance in his power. And he neglected no pioper opportunity of 
 furthering my views. The very last act of his life was an at- 
 tempt (it proved an abortive one) to serve me ; and, as he be- 
 lieved, by serving me, to promote the diffusion of useful know- 
 ledge. Thus did he preserve to the last breath the principles 
 which had guided him through hfe : urbanity, liberality, integ- 
 rity, the love of truth, and an ardent desire to contribute to- 
 ward the welfare of mankind, and diminish the mass of human 
 misery. Such were the rules of his conduct and leading traits 
 of his character. 
 
 I am not without obligations to other individuals, which I 
 may here, not improperly, acknowledge. Mr. Crowther pro- 
 cured me more than one case of cancer. Mr. Piatt, unsolicited, 
 did the same thing. These cases were such as might have led 
 to useful conclusions, had the patients themselves been tracta- 
 ble. Dr. Latham, also, the present worthy president of the 
 college of physicians, had the goodness to recommend to me a 
 subject laboring under a disease of this kind ; but it was too far 
 gone to afford any chance of relief. 
 
 CASE XIII. 
 
 Remarks on Cancer, with a Case. 
 
 I FEEL it proper to premise a few remarks to the case which 
 is next to be related. 
 
 It has become less necessary for me to bring before the pub- 
 lic many additional observations on this disease, as Mr. Aber- 
 nethy has done me the justice to recommend the method of 
 treatment I proposed to the trial of surgeons, to whose care 
 these cases commonly devolve.* I have reason to believe that 
 
 * The following is taken from Mr. Abernethy's Surgical Observations 
 on Tumors, p 93 : " There can be uo subject which I think more likely 
 to interest the mind of a surgeon than that of an eiKieavor to amend and 
 aUer the state of a cancerous constitution. The best timed and best con- 
 ducted operation brings with it nothing but disgrace, if the diseased pro- 
 pensities of the co/istitutiou are active and powerful. It is after an ope- 
 ration that, in my opinion, we are most particularly incited to regulate 
 
200 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 it lias been tried, under the inspection of competent judges, 
 and therefore of this, as of every other proposal, time will 
 ultimately decide the merits. At present, however, with regard 
 to the experience of others I am very imperfectly informed. 
 
 I do not wish to conceal, that the testimony which Mr. Aber- 
 nethy gave to the accuracy of my statements (as far as he 
 was concerned) was given at my own request. P^or it is a 
 fact, that Mr. Abernethy was so struck with the effect of the 
 distilled water, in the case of cancer that he put into my hands, 
 
 the coustitution, lest the disease shoula be revived or renewed by its dis 
 turbaiice. In addition to that attention to tranquillize and invigorate the 
 nervous system, and keep the digestive organs in as healthy a state as 
 possible, which I have recommended in the first voUime, I believe gene- 
 ral experience sanctions the recommendation of a mere vegetable, because 
 less stimulating, diet, with the addition of so much milk, broth, and eggs 
 as seem necessary to prevent any declension of the patient's strength. 
 
 " Very recently. Dr. Lambe lias proposed a method of treating cancer- 
 ous diseases, which is wholly dietetic. He recommends the adoption of 
 a strict vegetable regimen, to avoid the use of fermented liquors, and to 
 substitute water, purified by distillation, in the place of common water 
 used as a beverage, and in all articles of diet in which common water is 
 used, as tea, soups, etc. The grounds upon which he founds his opinion 
 of the propriety of this advice, and the prospects of benefit which it holds 
 out, may be seen in his ' Reports on Cancer,' to which I refer my readers. 
 
 " My own experience on the effects of this regimen is of course very 
 limited, nor does it authorize me to speak decidedly on the subject. But 
 I think it right to observe, that in one case of carcinomatous ulceration in 
 which it was used, the s^rmptoms of the disease were, in my opinion, 
 rendered more mild, the erysipelatous infiammation, surrounding the 
 ulcer, was removed, and the life of the patient was, in my judgment, 
 considerably prolonged. The more minute details of the fact constitute 
 the sixth case of Dr. Lambe'a Reports. 
 
 " It seems to me very proper and desirable that the powers of the regi- 
 men recommended by Dr. Larabe should be fairly tried, for the following 
 reasons : 
 
 " 1st. Because I know some persons who, while confined to such diet, 
 have enjoyed very good health ; and I have further kn<jwu several per- 
 sons, who did try the effects of such a regimen, declare that it was pro- 
 ductive of considerable benefit. They were not indeed affected with 
 cancer, but they were induced to adopt a change of diet to allay a state 
 of nervous irritation, and correct disorders of the digestive organs, upon 
 wWch medicine had but little influence. 
 
 *' 2dly. Because it appears certain, that in general the bodycan.be per 
 feclly nourished by vegetables. 
 
 " 3dly. It seems sutficiently ascertained, that diseases have in some 
 persons been excited by water, and therefore it is desirable that what* 
 ever is used should be made as pure as possible. 
 
 " 4lhly. Because all great changes of constitution are more likely to be 
 effected by alterations of diet and modes oflife than by medicine. 
 
 " Sthly. Because it holds out a source of hope and consolation to the 
 patient, in a disease where medicine is known to be unavailing, and sur- 
 gery aftbrds i:^ more than a temporary relief." 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 201 
 
 that he made upon it this pointed and remarkable declaration : 
 ** I cannot be insensible," he said, " to the effect of this treat- 
 ment. Whether it will cure the disease or not, I cannot tell ; 
 but I can have no doubt but that it will prevent it." 
 
 Mr. Aberncthy, in consequence of what he saw, ordered the 
 distilled water, at this time, in some other cases. One was a 
 case of cancer of the rectum. It was a desperate case, in the 
 very last stage of the disease ; and the patient soon died. But 
 the sufterer declared that it gave him much ease, and that it 
 was the only thing from which he had appeared to receive 
 benefit. This declaration, or something tantamount to it, 
 Mr. Abernethy told me, with the addition, " that he should at 
 all times be willinfr to acknowledo-e it." 
 
 o o 
 
 This leads me to mention the circumstances, which induced 
 me to be more sanguine with regard to the hoped-for result of 
 cases, that were very far gone, than was justifiable by the 
 event. I do this the more willingly, in order to guard others 
 against a similar sort of deception, which will certainly occur 
 again, under the same circumstances. What I allude to is as 
 follows : 
 
 In cases where the vital powers are greatly reduced, the 
 evident change induced by a change of regimen, and the ap- 
 parent advantage of such a change, is incalculably greater 
 than where the vital powei's are more perfect, and where, 
 consequently, the immediate danger of the patient is much 
 less. This fact has appeared in a great variety of examples. 
 I will cite a few that were remarkable. 
 
 In a case of carcinoma of the mamma, a middle-aged woman 
 adopted the regimen ; and the consequence was, that the pain, 
 which had been constant and severe for many months, was re- 
 lieved, and almost removed in one fortnight. Such a circum- 
 stance could not but cause great delight, and excite hopes 
 that much good might be done in a short time. But these 
 hopes proved fallacious. The woman died in less than six 
 months ; being cut off, as I judged from correspondence, by a 
 peripneumonic affection. 
 
 Another woman, laboring under ancites, received great, and 
 almost instantaneous, benefit from the regimen. The abdomen 
 began quickly to diminish in bulk, and for more than three 
 months she appeared to improve in health daily. But then the 
 b^efit ceased, new symptoms supervened, and in less than an- 
 other month she died. 
 
 A little boy of about four years of age, who was epileptic, 
 was made to try the same plan of diet. The effect was highly 
 9* 
 
202 VEGET. BLE DIST 
 
 pleasing, and even astonishing. After the course of a fortnight 
 the convulsions wholly ceased ; and the head, over which he 
 li id appeared to have lost the power, became in a great mea- 
 sure upright. But he continued very stupid, with the sensibil- 
 ity so much impaired, that he seemed scarcel} to be impressed 
 even by fire applied to the skin. In about two or three months 
 the lower limbs became dropsical, the strength failed, and the 
 child soon died. 
 
 These, and several other similar events, have instructed us 
 how little dependence is to be placed on the first changes, 
 however imposing they may be ; they soon showed that these 
 sudden changes denote a great diminution of the powers of life, 
 and would not have taken place had the powers been perfect. 
 In fact, the cases which have ultimately succeeded the best, 
 have been those in which the least benefit has been received 
 suddenly ; and from the repeated observation of such facts, I 
 am now much better contented to be told, in a bad case, that 
 little or no relief has been received, it may be, in several months, 
 than the contrary. 
 
 I have no doubt that the observation which caused the ac- 
 knowledgment, which Mr. Abernethy made to me, was similar 
 to those I have just mentioned. These declarations were made 
 in the year 1805 ; and I was therefore not precipitate in ex- 
 pecting that, when Mr. Abernethy was publishing on the sub- 
 ject of cancer in 1811, he should take the opportunity of ac- 
 knowledging that in the statement of facts to which he had 
 been a witness I had been scrupulously observant of the truth. 
 In that interval, the defect of the original proposal had been 
 detected, and sufficient time had elapsed to have tried the 
 power of the regimen, and to have ascertained in a good mea- 
 sure what it would really eflPect. 
 
 But though the recommendation which Mr, Abernethy gave 
 was at ray suggestion and request, he alone is answerable for 
 the terms in which it was given. In particular, when he says, 
 " It is after an operation that we are more particularly incited 
 \o regulate the constitution," it is what I can by no means as- 
 sent to. But more of tliis presently. 
 
 Mr. Abernethy says also on this subject : " I believe general 
 experience sanctions the recommendation of a more vegetable, 
 because less stimulating diet, with the addition of so much milk, 
 broth, and eggs as seem necessary to prevent any declension 
 of the patient's strength." On such a subject, Mr. Abernethy is, 
 of course, much better informed than myself. But he certainly 
 never informed me of this general experience ; nor did I, dur- 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 203 
 
 mg my attendance on the case which Mr. Abernethy put into 
 my hands, receive from him the shghtest hint of such an opi- 
 nion. No traces of such an opinion are to be found in Mr. 
 Abernethy's works, previously pubhshed ; not even in the 
 second edition of his treatise " On the Constitutional Origin and 
 Treatment of Local Diseases," published in 1809, when he had 
 seen the progress of the case we attended, 
 
 Nor was a diet of this kind recommended generally in cases 
 of cancer even by Mr. Abernethy himself, previous to the pub- 
 lication of my " Reports." In proof of this I can say, the lady 
 whom we attended was eating animal food, commonly twice a 
 day, under the mistaken notion of supporting the strength, be- 
 fore it was resolved, at my suggestion, to change her diet in 
 February, 1806. This was under Mr. Abernethy's OAvn eye. 
 I do not say it was done by his advice. He, I believe, never 
 inquired into, nor gave any directions on the subject. I will 
 further say that, had it not been for my strenuous application, 
 this recommendation would not have been given, even in the 
 place in which it has appeared. 
 
 I do not doubt, however, that it is the practice of the best 
 surgeons to order a mild diet in these diseases. I have already 
 cited the authority of Mr. Benjamin Bell to this point. Other 
 writers have likewise recommended such a regimen. " We 
 moderate," says one, '' the effects of cancer in every stage by 
 an antiphlogistic diet." Another writiu* says, " In the mean 
 time, the patient should live abstemiously, avoiding animal food, 
 wines, spirits, and fermented liquors, as heating, stimulating, 
 and tending to increase pain ; a milk and vegetable diet, there- 
 fore, in such cases, is the most proper." In a passage of 
 Cheselden's anatomy, cited in the posthumous work of Mr. 
 John Howard, it is said : " In desperate cases where we can- 
 not extirpate, we find the best remedy is plentiful bleeding 
 (which also is Nature's last resort), gentle constant evacuations 
 by stool, and a vegetable diet," And in this work of Mr. 
 Howard's is the following passage : " Except when a stimulus 
 IS required, in chlorosis, the diet in cases where there is a can- 
 cerous tendency cannot be too strictly cooling. If it consisted 
 wholly of vegetables, farinaceous substances, and milk, many 
 lives might be saved, or at least prolonged ; but, on the con- 
 trary, the majority of patients in this predicament have an un- 
 natural Jippetite for luxurious eating, and this exasperates the 
 disease." 
 
 But notwithstanding this concurrence of opinion of respect- 
 able writers, I am afraid that it is not true that it is any thing 
 
204 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 like the common practice of surgeons in general to recommend 
 even such a diet, as Mr. Abernethy has said is ** sanctioned by 
 general experience.'* I could, if necessary, bring the direct 
 proof of the contrary, but I am restrained from motives which 
 are very obvious. 
 
 Nor indeed is this wonderful, when we consider how triflitig 
 is the relief w^iich such a diet can be thought to afford. It is 
 very doubtful whether i* would give any relief to the pain 
 which forms so distressing a feature of the disease. It is quite 
 certain that the strictest vegetable regimen, unaided by vther 
 attention, will not prevent the formation of a carcinomatous 
 tumor, nor its regular progressive increase, nor its final ulcera- 
 tion. It is not surprising, then, that patients should be unwill- 
 ing to submit to restraints which appear to them to produce 
 little or no advantage. That the disease goes through its 
 stages in the usual manner, while the patient is confined to 
 vegetables, may be safely inferred from the silence of writers 
 who, had the contrary been the case, could not have failed to 
 inform us of it. 
 
 Indeed, I have myself had ocular proof of the fact. In the 
 
 spring of 1810, I saw Mrs. M , the wife of a tradesman 
 
 living near Westminster Bridge, laboring under a large ulcer- 
 ated cancer, with the breath much oppressed, as is usual in 
 the last stages of the disease. This woman had lived almost 
 entirely upon vegetable diet her whole life. She had an aver- 
 sion to anhnal food. She would take a little fish sometimes, 
 but very rarely. Her own account was to the foUoAving pur- 
 port. " When I lived in the country, I was very healthy ; but 
 as soon as I began to drink the Thames water my health began 
 to fail, and I have not been in good health since." I am 
 obliged to Dr. Richard Reece, for introducing me to this pa- 
 tient, and he saw her with me. I think it right to add, in fa- 
 vor of her vegetable regimen, that I never saw more placidness, 
 cheerfulness, and resignation under the appearance of so much 
 suffering. 
 
 Mr. Abernethy's luminous description of this disease leaves 
 nothing to be desired with regard to its general history. I 
 could have wished that he had spoken with more decision on 
 the most important feature of the disease the manner in which 
 It spreads. The facts which I showed him throw much light 
 on this point, but they require to be verified and multiplied. 
 Mr. Abernethy cites the doctrine of Mr. Hunter, wdth apparent 
 approbation : " That a disposition to cancer exists in the sur- 
 rounding parts, prior to the actual occurrence of the diseased 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 205 
 
 action. This remark, which is verified by daily experience, led 
 to tht: rollowing rule in practice That a surgeon ought not to be 
 contented with removing merely the indurated or actually dis- 
 eased part, but that he should also take away some portion of 
 the surrounding substances, in which a diseased disposition may 
 prrobably have been excited." 
 
 If the disease be propagated by contamination, a part, which 
 is tainted, communicating disease to the parts in contact with 
 it, this practice must be injudicious. But if the spreading of 
 the disease be from internal causes, foreign to the part itself, it 
 is equally clear that this removal of the parts, to whatever ex- 
 tent it be carried, cannot prevent the recurrence of the disease. 
 Let us attend then to the eridence of a most impartial and up- 
 right observer, who has left us among others the following 
 history. 
 
 " A lady, between fifty and sixty, the wife of a surgeon, of a 
 melancholic temperament, lusty, using little exercise, and living 
 luxuriously, felt pain, and perceived a small degree of hardness 
 in one breast. The whole breast was taken off, within a fort- 
 night after it was first noticed. Upon examination after re- 
 moval, there was neither extravasation nor glandular indura- 
 tion, but a thickening and a hardness of what seemed to be 
 more like condensed diseased cellular membrane than any 
 thing else to which I could compare it. The axillary glands 
 were not affected, nor was the tumor of great size, and it was 
 perfectly movable. 
 
 "If, in this case, the indurated part only had been removed, 
 without taking away the whole of the mamma, I should not 
 have wondered at a relapse ; but when the operator went clearly 
 beyond the apparent extent of the disease in every direction 
 when he dissected the whole from the pectoral muscle, so as 
 to leave the fibres of that muscle bare, and that too at an early 
 period of the disease I say, when all these circumstances were 
 considered, it was matter of astonishment to me that the un- 
 fortunate sufferer did not obtain a cure. But the fact was 
 otherwise." 
 
 This is not a solitary example. In the same work in which 
 the writer appears to have recorded the experience of his life, 
 are nine or ten other cases, in which the disease repullulated 
 after operations. This circumstance is inexplicable on the hy- 
 pothesis of the unsound parts contaminating the sound. But 
 they occasion no difficulty, if we suppose (as I have done) the 
 progress of the disease to be from internal causes. Is it not 
 indeed revolting to common sense to suppose that cutting oft* 
 
206 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 the breast can counteract the effect of luxurious living ? This 
 would be truly a matter of astonishment. 
 
 This fact is of itself enough to make us doubt whether this 
 disease be propagated by oont?mination, which is the most 
 common doctrine of surgeons. The belief in this doctrine it is 
 which makes them so anxious to remove every particle of a 
 diseased breast, in which any degree of hardness is perceptible. 
 And the almost uniform failure of the operation was, for a time, 
 often attributed to a defect in this respect. I suppose, how- 
 ever, that, at present, very few are disposed to maintain this 
 opinion. 
 
 On the mode in which the disease is propagated there may 
 be three distinct hypotheses proposed. 1st. It may be sup- 
 posed that there is a poison generated in the part, which, being 
 absorbed, infects the constitution. This may be true in part, 
 but cannot be so entirely ; for in that case excision would be a 
 radical cure. 2d. The diseased part may be thought to injure 
 the neighboring parts by simple contact, the diseased part 
 being a sort of focus or centre of diseased action. This is cer- 
 tainly the prevailing opinion of surgeons ; but it is as little 
 tenable as the first hypothesis. 3d. All the phenomena may 
 be thought to be the eifect of internal causes, remote from the 
 part itself, and common to this with other chronic diseases. If 
 this be true, these causes, being common causes, there can be 
 no specific poison of cancer. And such I conceive to be the 
 truth, and to afford a just explanation of the symptoms of the 
 disease. I must leave the proofs of it to the judgment of 
 others. 
 
 We are constanJ,ly deluded by language. We say a person 
 dies of a cancer ; which is just as true as when we say that the 
 sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The truth must be 
 that a person dies of the causes of cancer ; and the cancer is 
 not the cause, but the mode of dying. 
 
 Mr. Howard has, in so many words, maintained the same 
 doctrine as myself, that there is no specific poison of cancer. 
 He says, " If the cause of some cancers be a virus, I suspect it 
 is not, strictly speaking, sui generis, as the small-pox, but an 
 affection of the elephantiasis kind." 
 
 But I not only coincide with the doctrine of Mr. Hunter, that 
 there is a morbid change in the parts in which there is no mani- 
 fest change of structure, but contend that this change is the 
 very essence of the disease ; and that upon this, as upon a foun- 
 dation, the whole superstructure of morbid action is built. I 
 have already cited in favor of this doctrine, the phenomenon in 
 
,N CHRONIC DISEASES. 207 
 
 Case II. of my " Reports," in which, under the regimen, one 
 mamma apparently sound perished by absorption, while the 
 otlier was in a state of ulceration. I therefore not only say, 
 with Mr. Hunter, that there is a morbid change in the parts 
 Burrounding the tumor, but in distant parts also, not contiguous 
 to any tumor. This may be called, if it be thought right, dis- 
 position* 
 
 The phenomena of carcinoma of the eye illustrates this fully. 
 " When the fungus hsematodes," which is I presume another 
 name for carcinoma " takes place in children, they are gene- 
 rally found to have entirely lost the affected eye, before it is 
 remaiked by the parents." This is the evidence of Mr. War- 
 drop. To the same purpose Mr. Ware says, " that in the be- 
 ginning of carcinoma of the eye in adults, the sight is lost, and 
 the disease at first seems simply a gutta serena, without pain 
 or discoloration." Thus it is clear that the first stage of the 
 disease is a loss of power of the simple fibre, or radical struc- 
 ture of the part afiected ; and (as I have said) upon this the 
 change of organization is built. 
 
 Removing the parts, then, in which this diseased disposition 
 is supposed to exist, does not secure the patient from a return 
 of the disease, nor does it form any solid justification of this 
 operation. " If after the removal of cancer," says Mr. Aber- 
 riethy, " when the operation has been properly performed, the 
 cicatrix remains healthy for five or six years, or even for a 
 
 * By disposition to disease as contra-distinguished to action, must be 
 meant the state of the fibres previous to any change that is obvious to the 
 senses. Mr. Hunter, I believe, was the first who used this language, and 
 insisted on these diflerent conditions of diseased parts. He argu:3d, par- 
 ticularly with regard to syphilis, that we were able, by the application 
 of the specific, to cure the action, but not the disposition. This doctrine 
 seems the offspring of the spirit of generalization, carried too far. It 
 seems impossible to lay down any general rule on this subject; but many 
 facts show that the one laid down by Mr. Hunter cannot be correct in its 
 full extent. A single course of mercury often radically cures syphilis. 
 It is probable, in all such examples, that some parts were only disposed 
 to disease, while others had taken on diseased action. But further, where 
 there has been an obvious infection, and the parts have got well by the 
 power of the specific, sores have broken out even on parts that were not 
 infected, which, by their habit and history under treatment, have proved 
 not to be syphilitic. See Hunter on the Venereal Disease, p. 247, second 
 edition. The only rational account that can be given of this is, that these 
 parts have been contaminated, that is to say, in Mr. Hunter's language, 
 disposed to disease ; that the syphilitic taint had been cured by the mer- 
 curial course ; but that the parts had been so injured in powers, that they 
 ulcerate, and are gradually thrown out of the system. Here then wo 
 appear to have evidence that the disposition can be cured as well as the 
 action. In other cases, no dcubt, Mr. Hunter's doctrine is correct. 
 
20S ^'EGETABLE DIET 
 
 shorter period, and beojmes indurated and carcinomatous, etc." 
 Mr. Abernethv, of course, would not have mentioned such 
 results, as the consequences of the operation, unless he had 
 seen fact;: to warrant the assertion. But it is certain, that the 
 *' cicatrix remaining healthy for five or six years," must be a 
 very rare occurrence. Half a year, a year, or two years is the 
 more common interval. Even two years is a long period. But 
 granting that a patient has continued well six years, it proves 
 nothing in behalf of this operation. I have seen myself, within 
 these last four years, a woman with a cancerous mamma, in 
 wliom the disorder had continued eight years. The whole 
 breast was a hard lump, the skin was reddened and adherent, 
 but it never ulcerated, and the woman died with little suffering, 
 complaining principally of breathlessness upon going up stairs. 
 Here then was a slow proceeding case, of which the result 
 showed that no advantage would have been gained by oper- 
 ating. 
 
 In another case the disease went through all its stages, from 
 a small knot, no larger than a pea, to the death of the patient, 
 in fifteen or sixteen months. 
 
 The only ground of justification of this operation is, that it 
 saves the patient the misery of an ulcerated cancer. This, un- 
 doubtedl}^ is an ample justification of the practice, as it has 
 hitherto been establit-hed in surgery. If it has afforded so for- 
 tunate a result only every second, third, or fourth time, it may 
 have been right to give the patient the chance. But I have 
 every reason to believe that the peculiar regimen, which I pro- 
 posed for this disease, will, if adopted in time, prevent this hor- 
 rible, ulcerating, self-destroying process. Of course, with ex- 
 perience so limited as that Avhich I possess, I should not be 
 justified in making general assertions. Cancer, like all other 
 diseases, is subject to infinite variety of forms. In certain 
 states, either of constitution or of age, it must be, at all 
 times, hopeless. Other subjects may be relatively favorable. 
 According to my best judgment, the subject of the following 
 relation presented a specimen of the disease, which was perfect 
 in'kind, and which might be said to hold a middle rank as t(? 
 malignity, and which, had the disease been allowed to follow 
 its common course, would have terminated, as they invariably 
 do, probably before the present period. 
 
 January 16, 1815. A lady, now in her forty-fifth year, re- 
 quested me to examine her right breast, in the month of Jan- 
 uary, 1810. She was, in appearance, healthy, with a fine 
 color, and fleshy, withou", being grossly corpulent. She told 
 
IX CHRONIC DISEASES. 209 
 
 me that this breast had been uneasy from the age of fourteen. 
 She was the mother of many children, some still very young, 
 and had nursed them ; but suckling with this breast had always 
 given a good deal of pain. Now, for six months, she had suf- 
 fered very severe pain, in. one spot, about the centre of the 
 breast, but below the nipple. On this point she could place 
 her hand, and was sensible of a degree of thickening and en- 
 largement. The pain was so severe as to deprive her much of 
 rest. She could not raise her arm to her head, nor put it be- 
 hind her to adjust her dress, with convenience, nor w:*^,hout 
 aggravating the pain. Lying on the affected side at night also 
 much aggravated the pain, and, indeed, was not tolerable. 
 
 Upon examination, I found the disease so deeply seated, and 
 the subject so large, that I could determine nothing but a 
 general thickening about the seat of the complaint. But the 
 whole breast had not the soft, pliant, and healthy feel of 
 the sound one. It was more flaccid, and, at the same time, 
 stringy. A slight degree of handling, also, gave much un- 
 easiness. 
 
 Though this lady looked in health, it was, however, by no 
 means the case. The respiration was not strong, and she was 
 not equal to taking her former exercise. The legs were dis- 
 posed to swell. She was troubled with spasmodic pains of 
 the stomach ; often repeatedly in the course of the day ; and 
 every third or fourth month she had more serious attacks, 
 seated in the organs of digestion ; but which, having never seen 
 her under them, I cannot more particularly describe. The 
 bowels were habitually bound. She had also be( u considera- 
 bly troubled, for a twelvemonth, with humors (as they are 
 termed) affecting various parts of the body. The most trou- 
 blesome was a thin and acrid defiuxion from behind both ears. 
 She described, on one occasion, the state of the sensorium 
 very expressively, though the sensation was such as is never 
 experienced, and cannot, therefore, be clearly conveyed to a 
 healthy person. She felt, she said, sometimes, as if she was 
 out of herself. 
 
 This lady began the regimen in the above month of January, 
 1810. During this year, herself and her friends were sensible 
 that her general health improved. The bowels became open 
 without medicine, and the spirits rather improved. But there 
 was no change in the local disease. She thought rather that 
 it got worse, instead of better. All the other affections con- 
 tinued unabated. However^ the impiovement of her strength 
 encouraged her to persev&vtv. 
 
210 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 But during ttie second year, 1811, the pain very sensibly 
 diminished ; it no longer appeared to be spreading, and the 
 disease to be becoming deeper ; but, on the contrar}^ the dis- 
 eased part seemed to be looser, and the pain to be confined 
 more entirely to the part affected. The sores beliind the ears 
 dried up. But the eyes became sore ; the diseased action 
 appearing to be transferred to these parts. The general state 
 of health was far from good ; but now, her encouragement to 
 proceed was from the manifest soothing of the disease of the 
 breast. 
 
 The year 1812 was passed nearly in the same manner: the 
 pain in the breast was not gone, but it was much diminished. 
 The diseased breast was quiet, and the health improved. At 
 this time she became pregnant ; and toward the end of the 
 year was safely delivered. She attempted to suckle her in- 
 fant. The attempt, however, caused so much pain in the dis- 
 eased breast, that, in the same circumstances, I would not 
 again advise it to be made. At this time, a redness came on 
 the surface of the breast, over the diseased part. The infant 
 did not live many weeks. Some time after its death, the 
 breast again became easy ; more so, indeed, as she said, than 
 it had been for years. 
 
 About this time, I again examined it. I readily now found 
 a tumor, and of considerable magnitude, I think of the size 
 of a walnut. 
 
 In October, 1813, she had a kind of irregular gout. The 
 wrists and hands swelled, with some pain, but without redness. 
 At this time she was considerably indisposed ; but not for any 
 length of time. 
 
 In November, of the same year, a few pimples appeared 
 on the skin of the diseased breast. But they did not continue 
 permanent. There was still pain, but of no severity. The 
 general health continued good. 
 
 And, at this time, after a lapse of fourteen months, she still 
 complains of pain in the part. I examined it about Christmas, 
 1814, and felt a small thickening, now in the part of the gland 
 above the nipple, and nearer the sternum. But fhe whole 
 mamma was soft, without tumefaction, inflammation, or any 
 injury of the skin. The pain is enough to give her uneasiness ; 
 but not enough to derange the health, materially to encroach 
 on the sleep, nor to impede any of tlie functions of life. The 
 general health is so good that no one would take her to be an 
 invalid. It is quite as good, if not, indeed, better, than it was 
 in 1810. She is, in the countenance, a little more contracted. 
 
IN OliRONIC DISEASES. 211 
 
 tnan at that time, but not materially so ; and is thinner, but 
 without any emaciation. 
 
 As to what has taken place in the gland itself, it is obviously 
 difficult to speak positively. I do not believe, however, that the 
 thickening- which I felt at the close of last year, 1814, is the 
 same as the tumor I felt about two years before, nor still that 
 that tumor was the same as the thickening which was the seat 
 of the pain in 1810. The situation of the uneasiness was con- 
 siderably different at each examination. There have been times 
 during which the breast has been almost entirely easy, after 
 which the pain again increased. It appears probable, there- 
 fore, that the different parts of the gland, in which there was a 
 diseased disposition, have taken on diseased action successively, 
 and that each successive induration has resolved. On this point, 
 however, I would not speak decisively. 
 
 It is necessary, now, to review the principal circumstances of 
 this case. 
 
 1st. This disease was carcinoma. Its history, both as a local 
 and as a constitutional disease, proves this. The previous un- 
 easiness of the part, the tumor, the severity of the pains, the 
 extreme tenderness to handling, and the obstinacy of the dis- 
 ease, now continued for a series of years, all conspire in forcing 
 this conclusion. We must suppose that active disease took place 
 in this breast, in the course of the year 1809, when the pain 
 became so severe as to disturb the rest, and impede the motion 
 of the arm. The constitutional affections, the derangement of 
 the organs of digestion, the tendency to anasarcous swelling, 
 the state of the sensorium, are equally convincing as to the 
 nature of the disease. 
 
 2d. I am equally satisfied that at this time, after a course of 
 five years' attention to this regimen, the disease continues to be 
 truly carcinomatous. The pain, the tumor, and the highly irri- 
 table state of the part to handling prove this to be the case. 
 It cannot therefore be said that the disease is cured. 
 
 3d. But by the regimen life itself has been probably pre- 
 served. Five years is more than, upon an average, such a case 
 could be expected to last. But under this regimen that period 
 has elapsed, and the health is as good, or better, than when it 
 was entered upon. 
 
 4th. The gland has been preserved. It continues uninjured, 
 of its natural form and appearance, with no other complaint 
 than a trifling induration, not readily discoverable by exami- 
 nation. 
 
 5th. It is a consequence of this, but which from the impor- 
 
212 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 tance of the fact deserves to be particularly noticed, that in 
 this case the ulcerative process has been wholly and completely 
 superseded. 
 
 Such have been the facts of this case ; facts which I must 
 be permitted to say fully corroborate all the conclusions which 
 I formerly drew regarding this disease. I must refer, therefore, 
 those to whom these conclusions are unknown to my " Reports." 
 They are, in fact, very nearly the same appearances which took 
 place during the long attendance, from May, 1805, to October, 
 1808, in conjunction with Mr. Abernethy, on the case which he 
 put into my hands, due allowance being made for the different 
 stages at which the cases were taken up. In that there was no 
 fresh ulceration for three years and live months ; and we may 
 assert, therefore, confidently, that there too the ulcerative pro- 
 cess was superseded.* This, I say, was seen by Mr. Aberrfccthy 
 so long ago as the years 1805 and 1806. 
 
 The event of this case takes away the last apology for the 
 most severe, not to say shocking operation, of which the un- 
 happy subjects of this disease have been, from time immemo- 
 morial, the objects. I therefore cannot but be surprised that 
 that gentleman, having seen the ulcerative process superseded 
 in that case, should say, " It is afte?- an oj)eration that, in my 
 opinion, we are most particularly incited to regulate the consti- 
 tution, lest the disease should be revived or renewed by its dis- 
 turbance." But this writer has informed us, "That he has 
 known a patient die soon after an operation for the removal of 
 a cancerous tumor of no great magnitude, merely in consequence 
 of the shock imparted to the constitution by the operation." 
 Common sense, therefoi'c, seems to dictate that the constitution 
 should, if possible, be improved previous to any operation, and 
 to enable the patient to sustain it. 
 
 It is quite evident, that if the diseased part be removed, we 
 can never feel perfectly convinced that the nature of the disease 
 has not been mistaken. . As it is properly observed by Mr. 
 Abernethy, it is more from the history and progress of the com- 
 plaint that its nature becomes evident, than from any thing that 
 is obvious to the senses. Had this lady submitted to an ope- 
 ration several years ago, which I have no doubt would have 
 been proposed by the surgeons, it is impossible that there could 
 have been that sort of proof of the nature and progress of the 
 disease which it has now afforded us. 
 
 * A few small ulcerations formed upon one part, at the expiration of 
 eleven months, but they soon healed, and continued well to the end. 
 See the " Reports oji Cancer/' p. 102- 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASE?. 213 
 
 I would ask c this subject one very plain question. If a 
 medicine were proposed as a cure for a cancerc.is Aimor, would 
 any one think, as a previous step to a trial of its powers, of first 
 cutting off the diseased part ? would not the proposal of such 
 a step be deemed even ridiculous ? why then should not the 
 power of regimen, which Mr. Abernethy has acknowledged to 
 be more likely to affect sucli a disease than medicine, be treated 
 v/ith equal faii-ness ? 
 
 I have only to add that the beneficial effects of this regimen 
 in scirrhous tumors of the mammoe have been distinctly acknow- 
 ledged by a surgeon of a public institution. In one of the medi- 
 cal journals, of the year 1809, Avas a communication on this 
 subject, of which the following is an extract: 
 
 " In scirrhous tumors, where the patient's stamina is good, 
 and particularly where the uterine secretion is regular, the vege- 
 table diet and distilled water have proved very beneficial. The 
 good effects of Dr. Lambe's treatment depend entirely on the 
 natural stamina of the patient." 
 
 I entirely coincide with this writer on this point. He has signed 
 himself **A Dispensary Surgeon.''^ I am sorry to say that the 
 author of this communication, which carries with it strong in- 
 ternal marks of correct observation, should have thought it 
 proper to assume the mask of an anonymous signature, by which 
 the weight which Avould have been attached to his evidence is 
 considerably diminished. 
 
 CASE XIV. 
 
 Rheumatism. A Case. 
 
 January 20, 1815. I relate the circumstances of the folio w- 
 mg case rather to show the changes which are introduced into 
 the habit, by the regimen, than as an example of relief from 
 severe disease. 
 
 A lady, now near forty years old, was induced to adopt this 
 regimen between four and five years ago. She had no disease 
 upon her, but was not in a firm state of health. The respira- 
 tion was weak ; she was not able to take a full inspiration. 
 The habifc was relaxed and languid ; the pulse feeble and slug- 
 gish ; she was always chilly, and the skin was cold and damp. 
 The feet were always cold. 
 
 I mention these circumstances, because they are what are 
 
214 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 called signs of a languid circulation, and are thought particu- 
 larly to require stimulating food and fermented liquors to sup- 
 port, as they say, the system. Accordingly, this lady herself 
 was under the influence of a strong prejudice, that an opposite 
 system could not possibl}^ agree with her. 
 
 And, indeed, for several months, the change was very irk- 
 some. She felt as if she had nothing in her stomach, and had 
 a strong craving for animal food. But except uneasy sensa- 
 tion, the change was attended with no bad consequence, nor 
 serious mischief of any sort. Gradually, also, the uneasiness 
 subsided, and ultimately wore off entirely. The craving appe- 
 tite for animal food was also wholly subdued. 
 
 And the same amendment of th3 general health was found 
 to take place in this, as has been experienced in other cases. 
 And it was found here that under the vegetable regimen the 
 habit became, instead of cold and chilly, to be hot and fever- 
 ish. This cannot certainly be supposed to be the direct effect 
 of the vegetable diet, but must have arisen from the state of 
 the system at the time at which it was adopted. The respira- 
 tion has become strengthened ; and all the signs of languid cir- 
 culation, particularly the cold feet, and the coldness and damp- 
 ness of the skin, were removed. She sleeps much more soundly 
 than formerly ; and upon the whole, the general health is bet- 
 ter, and the habit much strengthened. 
 
 She is much less susceptible of injury frora cold than for- 
 merly. She was so tender that she dreaded a breath of cold 
 air blowing upon her. Such accidents she can now bear with- 
 out injury or apprehension. 
 
 She Wc>s able in the third year of the use of this regimen to 
 suckle an infant nearly twelve months. This is the fourth ex- 
 ample of this kind which has occurred to myself. Twice it has 
 happened in the family of Mr. Newton, and once in a patient 
 of mine in an humble walk of life. I have heard, too, of some 
 other instances of it. 
 
 This lady had no fixed disease upon her ; but she had fre- 
 quent indispositions. For five or six years she had been 
 troubled with severe rheumatic pains of the face, regularly 
 attacking her in the months of March and April, and lasting 
 six weeks or two months. These attacks have wholly ceased. 
 But during the second year, she Avas troubled with an inflam- 
 mation of the eyelids, from which there was an abundant thin 
 and acrid defluxion, which continued some months. This dis- 
 ease appeared to be a species of substitute for th3 rheumatic 
 pain. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 215 
 
 CASE XV. 
 
 Polypus ot the Nose with Numbness of the Limbs, Giddiness, and 
 Oppression of the Head. 
 
 January 20, 1815. I have obtained the particulars of the 
 following case from correspondence, the result of which appears 
 very satisfactory. 
 
 A lady, now near forty years of age, married, and a mother, 
 had been troubled from a very early period of her life witli 8 
 stoppage of the left nostril, which was found, when she was 
 eleven or twelve years old, to proceed from a polypus. The 
 nostril of that side was habitually enlarged. There was an 
 habitual discharge from the part, which had occasionally been 
 violent ; but it was unattended with pain, or other inconveni- 
 ence, except that she was obliged commonly to breathe with 
 the mouth open. 
 
 This lady was of a full habit of body, high colored, and with the 
 strength good, being able to walk several miles, but was liable to 
 numbness of the limbs, the legs and arms frequently becoming 
 torpid, or what is usually called falling asleep. The head felt 
 often oppressed, and she was affected with dizziness, and sing- 
 ing of the ears when she stooped. At times she was extremely 
 irritable and nervous. She had been informed that such dis- 
 eases of the nose occasionally become cancerous, on which 
 account she was very willing to adopt any plan that should be 
 thought right to avert such a calamity. 
 
 What reason there was for such an apprehension I will not 
 venture to pronounce. But the uncomfortable feelings which 
 this lady described, justified an attempt to remove them, and I 
 therefore advised her to adopt the regimen. This she com- 
 plied with in the very beginning of the year 1812. I heard of 
 the consequence of the change very lately, of which she speaks 
 in terms of the greatest satisfaction. Her account is in the fol- 
 lowing terms : " On the receipt of your answer to my letter, I 
 have strictly confined myself to the mode of diet you pre- 
 scribed, and I have taken no medicine whatever. I can now 
 with the greatest truth assure you, that in every way my health 
 is materially improved ; ijfiy spirits are more equal ; the confused 
 feel I formerly experienced in my head is very much better ; 
 the distressing drowsiness which frequently overpowered me 
 is quite gone, and the equally disagreeable numbness and tor- 
 por in my hmbs is quite gone also. I used likewise frequently 
 
216 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 to have the nightmare, which I do not recollect to have felt 
 for two years past. I have also the pleasure to tell you that 
 my nose is more comfortable than formerly ; for though I 
 never had any pain in it, there was often a very distressing 
 sense of fullness and heat, which I do not feel now, and the 
 discharge is less. I also breathe much more freely through 
 my nose than I used to do." 
 
 CASE XVI. 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 FROM A CORRESPONDENT. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I am happy to be able, in compliance with your request, to 
 state some of the particulars relative to my observations and 
 experiments about vegetable diet : they are, in my opinion, very 
 insignificant and useless ; but if you think they can be of any 
 service to you for your ingenious inquiry, you are at liberty to 
 use them in any way you think best. As you wish me to 
 represent my own case, I shall begin with the following par- 
 ticulars. 
 
 I first adopted the vegetable diet about the year 1801, when 
 a boy, partly from a disgust I felt toward animal food a cir- 
 cumstance I cannot exactly account for and partly from hear- 
 ing people talk of the health and longevity of many persons 
 who had fed entirely on vegetable substances ; and of the sim- 
 plicity of manners of the oriental herbivori. I also read some 
 books which came in my way by chance about the cruelty 
 practiced toward animals, with a view to improve the flesh con- 
 sidered as an article of diet ; and I heard people discussing 
 these subjects at dinner.* All these causes combined to in- 
 spire my infantine fancy with such a disgust to the flesh of ani- 
 mals, that for upward of five years I lived totally on the vege- 
 
 * I have recently become acquainted with many persons at Cambridge 
 and elsewhere, who, at some early period of their life, abstained from 
 animal food from this consideration of the cruelty necessary to catch and 
 destroy it. Most of these persons have since'been distinguished for their 
 intellectual and benevolent character. I ha'e heard thorn say that they 
 enjoyed as good health and strength during the time they fed on vege- 
 tables as at any other in their lives, and '. am sorry I cannot at this 
 moment find access to them to obtain leave to give their names, and a 
 more particular account of their cases. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 217 
 
 table productions of the earth, except perhaps a little milk and 
 butter. I do not remember, being then young, and thinking 
 ver}'^ little about medical subjects, what change was produced 
 on my feelings and health. I believe I was as well as before ; 
 and the increased pleasure which I began to take in literary 
 and scientific employments at that time, inclines me to suspect 
 that a state of mind more friendly to mental enjoyments might 
 possibly have been induced by a change to the light diet on 
 which I began to feed. I may mention in this place, that dur- 
 ing this period, I once being in Surrey, in the summer time, fed 
 for more than a week almost entirely on the fruits of the gar- 
 den, chiefly raspberries, strawberries, and currants ; I am suro 
 I was never better nor stronger in my life. 
 
 I may here observe, that while living in this manner I lost 
 the dark incrustation on the teeth ; a disagreeable appearance 
 for which persons have commonly recourse to the dentist. 
 
 I left off the vegetable diet more from a notion of the con- 
 venience of eating as other people did, than for any other rea- 
 son. I continued eating a mixed diet till 1811, when I studied 
 anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where it was the fash' 
 ion among many of the students to eat vegetable diet. Many 
 had adopted it for ill health, and told me of the benefit they 
 derived from it ; while others made the experiment in compli- 
 ance with the habits of their friends. Hypotheses are very 
 contagious, and I was infected, and determined to make the 
 experiment fairly and completely. I hved for more than six- 
 teen months on a strictly vegetable diet. The change at first 
 produced was an augmentation of nervous sensibility, which 
 was only temporary, and after a short time my health, which 
 was always good, was now nearly the same as when on a mixed 
 diet. I think I can say, however, that I was more disposed 
 for and capable of laborious mental occupation than when 
 feeding on mixed diet. 
 
 . That numerous persons have enjoyed good health on vege- 
 table diet is doubtless; but whether this diet produces the 
 same degree of muscular strength and activity, is more doubt- 
 ful. In my own case it certainly did. I frequently walked 
 twenty miles in a morning, and took other hard exercise when 
 on that diet, and I seldom felt fatigue. I am quite satisfied 
 with the experiment, and having repeated it on others to whom 
 I have recommended the vegetable diet, that people in general 
 may, after a time, live as healthy on it as on a mixed diet. 
 "Whatever change may be produced at first, a very similar state 
 
 of health appears to return after the continuance of any diet 
 10 -..i^.-.^^-. 
 
218 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 when eaten in moderation ; at least as far as tempomry appear- 
 ances indicate. How far a mixed diet lays secretly the founda- 
 tion for future disorders, or may abridge the term of life^ I am 
 unable to say. I leave this to yourself and other ingenious 
 persons, who make it a subject of their study. But I am con- 
 fident, in general, that people err considerably in the quantity 
 of food they take, and the frequency of taking it, and in the 
 manner in which they stimulate thel-. stomachs by spirituous 
 and fermented liquors. 
 
 One circumstance which strongly impressed me with the 
 small quantity of food which was necessary to sustain us in 
 health, and which shows the safety and efficacy of a sudden 
 adoption of vegetable diet, was the following. Last midsum- 
 mer I received a severe wound on the back of the hand. Ap- 
 prehending inflammation and its consequences, I left off all diet 
 except a few potatoes and some strawberries for many days, 
 and vegetable diet for many weeks. The Avound continued 
 healthy, and the perfect use of my hand returned in less tlian 
 six weeks, without any considerable inflammation or any fever, 
 during the progress of the reparation of the injury. I did not 
 perceive any other inconvenience (after the intense pain which, 
 shortly followed the accident was over, which was only cuta- 
 neous and lasted a few hours) than that of being obliged to 
 wear ray hand in a sling for a few weeks. I was perfectly 
 strong and healthy, though my diet was only on vegetables, 
 and diminished to one fourth of the ordinary quantity ; and this 
 adopted after a copious bleeding from the wound.* 
 
 To return to our subject; I recommended A. B., about twenty- 
 four years of age, who for a continual state of diarrhoea had 
 been kept by his medical attendants 'on meat alone, to alter a 
 plan from which he derived no benefit ; he began at first by 
 eating biscuits and other farinaceous substances, and by degrees 
 habituated his stomach to vegetable diet ; he grew healthy, lost 
 the diarrhoea, and after being restored took to common mixed 
 diet again ; but used much less in quantity, and remains well. 
 I mention this case out of numerous others in which vegetable 
 diet was successfully used, because it was a case in which, from 
 
 * It is evident that my ingenious correspondent has followed the com- 
 lyon opinion, that the absence of inflammation was occasioned by the 
 temporary change of his regimen. I have ah'eady given my opinion ia 
 the preceding pages that this doctrine is erroneous ; and should attribute 
 the slightness of the suffering, under this accident, much more to the 
 soundness of constitution produced by the previous long-continued habits 
 of temperance and abstinence than to the living on vegetable diet, after 
 the accident had happened. Note of the Author. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 219 
 
 the irritable state of the patient's stomach and bowels, the fruit 
 and vegetables were regarded by the medici who attended him 
 as particularly dangerous. 
 
 1 must say, in conclusion of this hasty letter, that all I have 
 observed of the good effect of vegetable or any other diet, ap- 
 pears to me referable to its power, arising either from some 
 idiosyncrasy, or some peculiar state of the patient's system, of 
 tranquilizing stomachic and intestinal irritation ; by this means 
 of insuring better digestion, and producing that tranquillity and 
 healthy action of the chylopoietic viscera, which is necessary to 
 the cure of every disorder whether general or local, which is 
 the principal condition of the maintenance of health. Of the 
 remote effects of peculiar diets on the animal system, where 
 digestion upholds temporary health for a while, I know abso- 
 lutely nothing. I must therefore confine my practice of medi- 
 cine to actual experience of facts ; and be contented till, by 
 your labors, and the future inquiries of chemical physiologists, 
 more is known about the component substances of the animal 
 fibre ; to recommend people to acquire and preserve, by mental 
 tranquillity, temperance, and exercise, and to restore by simple 
 medicines in diseases, the healthy action of those important 
 organs, which nature has designed to repair the daily waste, 
 and to restore the accidental injuries of our mutable fabric. 
 
 It may be well to observe, in the course of this inquiry, that 
 if your doctrine and experience should be able to show that 
 people may live healthily in all climates on veg*etable produc- 
 tions, the same quantity of land would sustain more human 
 beings; a fact of which agriculturists have assured me that 
 people would be more free from disease, and from inducements 
 to gluttony and intemperance, and that the removal of the dis- 
 gusting scenes of cruelty, practiced on edible animals, would 
 be gratifying to those who are organized to feel benevolently, 
 would cease to operate as an incitement to the bad feeling of 
 others, and would tend in time to a better state of society. 
 
 A circumstance may be mentioned here, of great moment in 
 the education of youth, namely, that the principles of all hu- 
 man actions are in the organization, though education and ex- 
 ternal influences are necessary, generally, to excite their 
 activity. Examples have the most powerful influence in 
 rousing either the good or bad feelings ; and precepts are of 
 little avail in comparison. The constant habit of destroying 
 animated beings, both for food and for amusement, is therefore 
 one of the most fertile sources of the ferocity and brutality of the 
 human character. Hence we see the moral benefit oi any diet 
 
220 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 which -would diminish, in any considerable degree, this baneful 
 example. Children, says an eminent author, begin with killing 
 flies, and end their lives at the p;allows for the crime of murder ! 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 Medicus. 
 London, Jan. 21, 1815. 
 
 CASE XVII. 
 
 Hypochondriasis, Headache, Indigestion, Costiveness, and Jaundice. 
 
 from a correspondent. 
 Dear Sib, 
 
 The incalculable benefit which I have, for these last two 
 years, experienced, and am daily experiencing from the vege- 
 table regimen, with distilled water, would have been, independ- 
 ent of any other consideration, a reason sufficient for comply- 
 ing with your wish, to have the principal facts of my case. 
 There are yet other considerations which have much weight 
 with me ; you have made me greatly, and I would not hope 
 ungratefully, your debtor for all which I now enjoy of health, 
 of tranquillity, and of serenity of mind. Besides, it is but just, 
 that you shoulji be put in possession of every instance where- 
 in evident and acknowledged good has resulted from the dif- 
 fusion of your opinions, since it is only by the multiplication 
 of facts that the truth of your position can be made to " come 
 home to men's business and bosoms." 
 
 Should you judge the detail of my case worthy of publica- 
 tion, perhaps it may not be misplaced to observe, that I made 
 trial of the vegetable regimen when you were unknown to me, 
 even by name ; and therefore I was not influenced by any pre- 
 viously formed opinion of what food is most natural to man. 
 Imperfect as was my trial of the regimen at first, much benefit 
 was derived from it; many unpleasant and intolerable sensa- 
 tions were alleviated ; still something was felt to be wanting to 
 its completion, when it was my happiness to become acquainted 
 with you, who instructed me in the necessity of abandoning 
 every thing animalized, and of adopting a strict vegetable regi- 
 men, with distilled water ; since which time my health has 
 sensibly increased, and is daily increasing; felicity of mind, 
 which had been despaired of, has been obtained ; and ulti- 
 mately there will be assured ** quiete et pure et eleganter actae 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 221 
 
 aetatis placida ac lenis senectus." Having premised thus 
 much, I will state my case. 
 
 At a very early period of life, and, indeed, during the whole 
 of my education at school, my health was uncertain and pre- 
 carious. What particular aliment I labored under cannot at 
 this distance of time be remembered ; perhaps, however, an 
 opinion may be formed of the nature of my complaints, when 
 it is known, that between my thirteenth and fourteenth years, 
 I was very severely attacked with jaundice ; and that previ- 
 ously, for many years, distressing headaches, and symptoms 
 of indigestion, with habitual costiveness, had been experienced. 
 Various were the means had recourse to, besides the aid of 
 medicine, to alleviate my sufferings, to re-establish my health, 
 and to correct a constitution, denominated bilious; all was of 
 no avail, and I dragged on a miserable existence until the age 
 of fifteen, when I was removed from school, and was for a 
 series of years laboriously and actively employed. This situa- 
 tion in life did certainly improve my health ; and no doubt but 
 much more would have been done by my active employment, 
 toward the re-establishment of my health, had I not suffered 
 myself to be influenced by the general opinion, that labor and 
 activity can only be gone through when animal substances and 
 fermented liquors are used ; hence I was neither sparing of the 
 former, partaking of it thrice in the day ; nor very temperate, 
 though not intemperate, in the latter. After the expiration of 
 that series of years, my views and intentions in life having been 
 changed, and otherwise directed, my labor and activity were 
 succeeded by sedentariness, and studiousness ; here again I was 
 inconsiderately persuaded by persons equally inconsiderate and 
 unreflecting with myself, who, however, as medical men ought 
 to have been better instructed, that the labor of the mind 
 cannot be endured and supported, but by having recourse to 
 solids and liquids of a stimulating quality. The ill effects of 
 such mode of living, the seeds of which most certainly had been 
 sown, and deeply, between my fourteenth and twenty-first 
 years, now became manifest. In a very short time, I was 
 wholly incapable of continuing my mental labor ; was har- 
 assed by giddiness, and confusion of the head ; my stomach 
 was much more disordered, and my bowels were very much 
 more irregular ; my mind became depressed, and disturbed by 
 all the melancholy forebodings of a thorough hypochondriac, 
 experiencing 
 
 " mortis formidiiiem et iram, 
 Somnia, terroses magicos, miracula, sagas, 
 Nocturnoa Lemures oortentaque Thessala." 
 
222 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 To enumerate the means devised, and made trial of to relieve 
 me, would be to repeat what is usually enjoined in similar 
 cases ; suffice it to say, such was my condition, now better, 
 now worse, for many years, from 1802 to 1810, in which last 
 year my health was very much worse than it had been in 
 any former year. Being at Edinburgh, as a student of medi- 
 cine, and a pupil of Dr. Gregory, I requested his advice, 
 which was of no avail. Fortunately, however, I had become 
 acquainted with a student of medicine who had been similarly 
 affected with myself. Mentioning to him my case, he wished 
 me to make trial of a vegetable regimen, with milk. I did, 
 and during the six months my stay at Edinburgh was pro- 
 tracted my health was much amended. Yet no solid nor sub- 
 stantial benefit was derived from the vegetable regimen until 
 I had been introduced to you, in January, 1812, and had 
 perused your publications ; when the milk was abandoned, and 
 distilled water substituted in its place. The change from that 
 year has been great : all that had rendered existence irksome 
 has been removed ; my mind is tranquilized and calmed ; my 
 health has increased, and no doubt will continue to increase, 
 never again, I trust, to be greatly diminished. Perhaps a 
 short narrative of what I am now equal to in mind and body, 
 contrasted with Avhat I was not equal to, when living upon 
 flesh, and fermented liquors, will be convincing. In 1812 my 
 mind and body were capable of enduring more exertion than in 
 1811 ; in this year, 1813 and especially in the past summer, 
 a great accession of mental vigor, and of bodily strength and 
 activity, has been gained, more than in 1812 ; but an improve- 
 ment had also been experienced in 1812, greater than in 1811 ; 
 the inference is plain and obvious 
 
 " Mobilitate vigeo viresque acquiro eundo." 
 
 Through the past summer, I have not unfrequently risen at 
 four o'clock in the morning to study, and I have generally 
 gone to bed at ten o'clock ; my sleep has been sound and re- 
 freshing, and free from horrid dreams. Not so when my food 
 was flesh, and my drink fermented liquors ; then the hours of 
 sleep did not refresh me in mind, nor recruit me in body ; but 
 now it is 
 
 " Airy, light, from pure digestion bred, 
 Aud temperate vapors bland." 
 
 Through the past summer, I have been equal to more walk- 
 ing exercise, been much less fatigued, and required less suste- 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 223 
 
 nance ; fruit, with bread and biscuit, in moderate quantity being 
 sufficient. Indeed I have observed that the hghter the food, 
 and the more moderate in quantity, the more walking exercise 
 I am equal to ; moreover, my respiration is more equable, each 
 inspiration is longer, and the number within a given time fewer, 
 consequently the ability to continue exercise is increased. Very 
 different was it, when I lived not as at present ; then there was 
 wanted not only the inclination to exercise, but an ability to 
 continue it ; upon level ground my respiration was frequent, 
 hurried, laborious, now I can ascend a long and steep hill, 
 walking very little slower than upon level ground ; and when 
 I have surmounted the hill, my respiration has been in no de- 
 gree either hurried or panting. With respect to my bowels, 
 they are now regular, requiring no medicine to excite them to 
 action ; on the contrary, when I lived otherwise than at present, 
 they were torpid, and needed much stimulating ; in short, my 
 habit of body was considered constitutionally costive ; an opi- 
 nion most decidedly erroneous ; it having been my erroneous 
 and unnatural mode of living which contributed thereto. I 
 should here close my statement in the usual and generally un- 
 meaning language of persons who wish not to appear ungrate- 
 ful, but I restrain myself; to you, dear sir, " conscientia bene 
 actae vitse, multorumque benefactorum recordatio, jucundis- 
 sima est." I am, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Justinian Minooh, 
 
 Walworth, 6th Oct., 1813- 
 
 GASES XVIII, XIX., XX., AND XXL 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 FROM A CORRESPONDENT. 
 
 I HAVE great satisfaction in being able to give the memoirs of 
 a third family, who (I hope I may say it without the imputa- 
 tion of vanity) have had the spirit and good sense to imitate 
 the example given by Mr. Newton and myself. This I shall 
 do in the words of the head of the family, a gentleman resi- 
 dent in a distant county, conveyed to me in the following 
 letter : 
 
224 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 Dee. 12, 1814. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I AM happy to .earn from your friendly letter that your book, 
 for which I have long been anxiously looking, is in progress for 
 publication. I wish to see you before the public, and to learn 
 if your opponents will venture fairly to encounter you by argu- 
 ment, and give the subject that full discussion which medical 
 opinions of infinitely minor importance are daily receiving. 
 From such a discussion, I can only anticipate a triumph of 
 your doctrines equally honorable to you and beneficial to 
 society. 
 
 My own experience on the subject has been perfectly satis- 
 factory. When I first adopted your regimen in my family, I 
 began it without any undue prejudice in its favor. My own 
 health had always been good, so that I had no personal alarm 
 or suffering to drive me from common habits ; and having had 
 no illness and deaths among my children, I could not be quite 
 unmoved by the predictions of permanent weakness or danger- 
 ous or fatal maladies with which I was on all sides threatened, 
 as the inevitable eflects of this mode of living. After persisting 
 near four years in the use of a strict vegetable diet and distilled 
 water, I am happy to give my decided testimony in favor of 
 your system. Its effects have been a gradual and important 
 strengthening of the constitution, without any inconvenience or 
 disagreeable symptom. I found the change easy and pleasant, 
 and have never had the least wish to resume the use of animal 
 food. I have always used much exercise ; I have found my 
 power of bearing fatigue increase ; and I have never during the 
 whole time felt even the slightest indisposition. 
 
 With respect to my children, A -, aged twelve, has al- 
 ways been a stout boy, but was formerly liable to violent inflam- 
 matory attacks on his chest and windpipe, which only yielded 
 to the powerful applications of bleeding, blisters, James' Pow- 
 der, and digitalis. He had always been hardily brought up, 
 and lived less fully than most children with whom I am ac- 
 quainted. These attacks were extremely sudden, and were 
 preceded by an unusual appearance of health. Since we have 
 adopted your regimen, he has never had a day's illness, and is 
 in size, miiscular strength, and power of supporting fatigue 
 equal to any boy of his age I have ^et with. 
 
 B , aged ten. The history af his health resembles that 
 
 of his brother ; his life has been repeatedly endangered by the 
 same inflammations of the trachea and lungs, which have been 
 repelled by the same remedies. The change of diet has had 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 225 
 
 the like favorable effects upon him ; and he has enjoyed the 
 same freedom from sickness or indisposition. These boj^s, in 
 color and fullness of habit, have every appearance of perfect 
 and robust health ; they are thinly clad, much abroad, and ex- 
 posed, without precaution or injury, to all changes of the wea- 
 ther. They find their mode of diet easy and pleasant, and have 
 no wish for animal food. 
 
 C , five years old, was a very delicate child from the 
 
 birth, and suffered much from want of action of the bowels ; 
 this defect has been completely removed, and though still less 
 robust than the two former, the general health is quite good. 
 This child has been twice indisposed for a short time with cold 
 and sore throat, the last time about six months ago ; did not 
 change the diet till some time after the experiment had been 
 tried on the stronger part of the family, and though so young 
 and so delicate, was the only one of the party who reta.ned 
 for any length of time an inclination for animal food. We 
 should not of course like to appear by name before the public, 
 but for any other use you choose to make of them, my observa- 
 tions on this or any future occasion are quite at your service. 
 
 CASE XXII. 
 
 General Debility, Mental Weakness, Sleeplessness, and Headache. 
 FROM A CORRESPONDENT. 
 
 Sandon, near Royston, Dec. 28, 1814. 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 About two years ago I was so very sickly that I had but little 
 enjoyment in life. My great complaint was general debihty, 
 which daily increased upon me, took away all desire and abil- 
 ity for exertion, and rendered my mind incapable of attending 
 to any subject for any length of time. Occasionally I was un- 
 der a considerable stimulus and animation, which were followed 
 by coldness and languor. It is not an easy task to make those 
 persons comprehend me who have never felt this distressing 
 debility of the human frame, which so materially affects the 
 spirits, and deprives the mind of all its energies. I am con- 
 vinced that man is completely a material being, and that all 
 permanent courage and strength of motive spontaneously re- 
 sult from the strength and purity of the physical system. Sleep 
 10* 
 
S26 VEGETAILE DIET 
 
 did not seem to benefit me ; my appetite was craving, and sel- 
 dom satisfied, and once a week I was subject to a distressing 
 sick headache. My fluids were evidently in an impure state, 
 consequently the solid parts were not nourished ; for impurity 
 cannot impart strength, and hence that general debility of which 
 I complained. Having read Mr. Newton's work, and your 
 publications, I resolved to adopt the use of vegetables with 
 distilled water, and now, after th? experience of nearly two 
 years, I can say Avith the strictest truth and certainty, that my 
 health has been gradually improving up to the present time. 
 My strength is greater than it ever was before ; my painful 
 sensations have left me, and my headache seldom attacks me, 
 and never Avith its former violence. I do not mean to say that 
 I am perfectly well ; such an idea would be absurd, and con- 
 trary to the laws of the human constitution ; but I am certainly 
 better in health now than I remember ever to have been in any 
 former period of my life. The comparison is not to be made 
 between me and any other person, but between what / am now 
 and what / was before I adopted this regimen. 
 
 Vegetables are certainly the natural support of man : they 
 recommend themselves by their freshness and purity ; and by 
 their natural sweetness and agreeableness to the palate. They 
 require so little trouble to prepare them, and are always a nice, 
 clean, and delicate food ; w-liile dead animal substances are very 
 offensive to the senses, and it becomes a very dirty and disa- 
 greeable task to cook and prepare them for the appetite. 
 The slauq-hter of animals is also a ferocious and diso-ustinor 
 act, which greatly opposes the growth of benevolent disposi- 
 tions. Comparative anatomy has clearly proved that man is, 
 in his construction, an herbivorous animal, which ought to have 
 great weight with every rational mind. The world, sir, will 
 thank you, in some future time, for your labors in one of the 
 most benevolent investigations that can interest oui* under- 
 standings. Yours, sincerely, G. G. Fordham, 
 
 Mr. Fordham received, in the course of )ns attempts to im- 
 prove his health, convincing proof of the necessity of uniting 
 the use of the pure water to the vegetable regimen. He at 
 first left off animal food only, using the same water to which 
 he had been accustomed. But he found the change irksome, 
 complained much of his feeble and fastidious stomach, and did 
 not appear to receive due strength and nourishment from his 
 food. To some inquiries which I made on this subject, Mr. 
 Fordham sent me the following answer : 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 227 
 
 ^ ** You are perfectly correct in the idea that the vegetable 
 diet was irksome and uneasy to my stomach hefore I had 
 united with it the use of distilled water. I thought at first, 
 that the benefit of distilled water must be a mere fancy, and I 
 even ridiculed it as trifling and absurd ; but I am now, by ex- 
 perience, thoroughly persuaded that it is of the greatest im- 
 portance. I felt an immediate benefit, my stomach was easy 
 and light, and I did not experien",e the slightest sense of 
 weakness, but a gradual increase of strength. I am convinced 
 that the use of distilled water greatly assists the stomach in 
 the digestion of vegetable substances." 
 
 Mr. Fordham, I must add, is a young man, under thirty 
 years of age. 
 
 CASE XXIII. 
 
 Disposition to Pulmqnary Consumption. 
 
 Feb. 20, 1815. Having received the appointment of physi- 
 cian to the General Dispensary, Aldersgate-street, in the year 
 1810, it has given me the opportunity of making more numer- 
 ous trials of what can be done by regimen than I before pos- 
 sessed. It is obvious, however, that the description of per- 
 sons, who apply to these institutions, is not such as can, in 
 general, be wholly depended upon, either for regularity of 
 conduct, or for veracity. But, I believe, that in the examples 
 I shall select, due attention was paid to the regulations en- 
 joined. 
 
 J. U., aged about twenty-seven, applied to the dispensary, 
 about Christmas, 1810, for a severe, dry, rending cough. I 
 thought the man, from his habit and appearance, was becom- 
 ing consumptive. He was thin, and rather emaciated. He 
 had been troubled with the cough only during the Avinter, but 
 he said, that for three or four years he had found his breath 
 fail. He could not take exercise so well as formerly, nor go 
 up stairs. I advised him, therefore, in conjunction with the 
 medicines suited to his case, to adopt the regimen, with which 
 he declared himself perfectly willing to comply. 
 
 He soon lost his cough ; which, however, I do not attribute 
 to this change. He informed me, moreover, that he found 
 immediate relief from it , He found his respiration strengthened. 
 
228 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 and, in no long time, he became as equal to exercise as in ih\ 
 former part of his life. 
 
 I saw this man occasionally for three /ears, during whicl 
 time he continued in improved health ; but he remained thin 
 and meagre ; and he had some returns of cough, but of no 
 great violence, the two following winters. I remained, there- 
 fore, of the opinion I first adopted, that he had been really on 
 the verge of consumption. It is, however, impossible to prove 
 this to the complete satisfaction of others. In internal dis- 
 eases, we must content ourselves with probable conjectures. 
 After this time he changed his residence, and I have lost 
 sight of him. 
 
 This man kept a ham and beef shop ; and he cooked \m 
 meat by steam. He found it easy, then, to prepare his dis- 
 tilled water by a part of the apparatus which he employed in 
 his business. I was satisfied, on this account, that he really, 
 in this respect, followed the directions given him. 
 
 CASE XXIV. 
 
 Chronic Pains of the Bowels, Bloody Discharges, and Constipation. 
 
 J. K., aged eleven, had, in the beginning of the summer ot 
 1810, the scarlatina. On recovering, it was observed that the 
 abdomen w^as too hard ; he complained of pains of the bowels, 
 and had often bloody stools. He took a good deal of medi- 
 cine without benefit, and continuing ill, became my patient at 
 the General Dispensary, in February, 1811. 
 
 He complained of severe pains of the bowels, apparently 
 like colic, attacking him two or three times in the course of 
 the day. The abdomen was so hard, that it would not yield 
 to the pressure of the band, and strangely protuberant, irre- 
 gular, and deformed. He was in a decaying state of health ; 
 but the pulse was regular and natural. The bowels were 
 irregular, but commonly bound. 
 
 As I thought there was little probability of this boy being 
 curer" by medicines alone, I proposed to his mother to join the 
 regimen to the use of such remedies as he appeared to require ; 
 to which she gave her consent. He began about the middle 
 of February, 1811. 
 
 The pains of the abdomen continued to recur with just the 
 
 4*^*1* 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 229 
 
 same violence for about half a year. Hardly a day passed 
 without his being obliged to go to bed in consequence of them. 
 About August, they remitted for three or four weeks, but they 
 then recurred with great severity. Toward the end of Sep- 
 tember they became much less severe, and he was able to go 
 to school, and to follow the common occupations of his years. 
 
 For the remainder of the year, he continued in improved 
 health. The pains of the belly were either gone or very tri- 
 fling ; the bowels were nearly regular. 
 
 But though this, as a constitutional disease, was nearly cured, 
 as a local disease it continued with very little change. The 
 abdomen was not quite so hard, but it still continued tumid, 
 and with much irregular deformity of shape. 
 
 After he had been a patient of the dispensary a twelve- 
 month, he ceased to attend, and I have since lost sight of him. 
 
 CASE XXV. 
 
 Leucorrhoea, Fluor Alboa, or the Whites. 
 
 Another patient of the General Dispensary afforded me strong 
 evidence how much the sense of weakness, which is so much 
 complained of under the vegetable regimen, is produced by the 
 VLF.e of common water. This patient, E. F., aged sixty, was 
 afflicted with leiccorrhcea ; but I do not think it worth while to 
 relate the particulars of her case. I was induced to recommend 
 her to use the regimen, from some circumstances in her general 
 health ; and she used it four or five months with evident 
 advantage. Some short time afterward she came to me, at 
 my own house, complaining much of weakness. Upon inquiry, 
 I found that she had quitted London for about a month, to 
 keep a house at Hornsey ; that there she had continued the 
 vegetable regimen, but had not used the distilled water, think- 
 ing it unnecessary in the country. I explained to her what I 
 thought the cause of her weakness ; and she found what I said 
 to be correct. Upon returning to the use of the distilled water, 
 the sense of weakness vanished. 
 
 This woman was at a time of life at which people are very 
 apprehensive of permanent injury, from relinquishing animal 
 food. But she certainly experienced much benefit, as was evi- 
 dent from her improved health, and even from her improved 
 looks. She became stronger, and rather gained flesh. 
 
 'i^^_ 
 
830 VEGETABLE DIET. 
 
 CASE XXVI. 
 
 Feebleness of Strength. 
 
 Though it is indisputable that animal food most commonly ex- 
 cites and increases the muscular power, yet even this does not 
 appear to be universally true.* There are habits in which 
 obviously, while it impairs the sensibility, it hkewise diminishes 
 the muscular strength. A lady somewhat more than thirty 
 years old gave a striking proof of this fact. She had been an 
 invalid some years, complaining principally of weakness, unable 
 on this account to take proper exercise, and pallid. There is, 
 perhaps, at the bottom of these ailments, some uterine com- 
 plaint ; but the symptoms are not very definite. During the 
 year 1812, she adhered to the regimen of distilled water and 
 vegetable diet. In consequence she became less pallid; the 
 countenance expanded and became more animated, and she 
 gained strength. These changes must have been occasioned 
 by the relinquishment of animal food ; for she had previously 
 been in the habit of using the distilled water, with little influ- 
 ence on her health. 
 
 Notwithstanding such evident advantage, I was not a little 
 surprised to find that, at the end of the year, this lady thought 
 proper to abandon the system and return to the use of animal 
 food. The immediate motive to this I could not exactly learn ; 
 but suspect that the wish to avoid singularity had a predomi- 
 nant influence on her resolution. 
 
 CASE XXVII. 
 
 Hypochondriasis, Nervous Weakness, and Constipation. 
 
 Feb. 20, 1815. Mr. P e, aged now thirty-one, a respect- 
 able tradesman, consulted me at the end of the year 1811, under 
 great agitation of mind. He had been ill between three and 
 four years ; had frequent uneasiness and oppression of the head, 
 for which he had been repeatedly cupped. From this he had 
 received benefit, but it was only temporary; but, besides, he 
 
 I am of the opinion that Dr. Lambe had not at the lime he wrote 
 duly considered this subject. For a great variety of facts in proof that 
 animal food is not most conducive to physical power, I refer the reader 
 to Graham's Science of Human Life. S. 
 
,^.^. 
 
 IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 231 
 
 obviously labored under the highest degree of nervous irritation. 
 He labored under great depression of spirits ; constant anxiety 
 of mind ; he could not talk of his complaints with any calm- 
 ness ; and was constantly uneasy and walking about. Going to 
 a fire oppressed his breath so as not to be bearable. Tlie bowels 
 were habitually bound. 
 
 He informed me that till the age of twenty-three, he had 
 lived principally on vegetable and farinaceous food ; that about 
 this time he began to live much upon a fuller diet of animal 
 food, eating it twice a day, and at the same time became more 
 sedentary ; that in consequence he grew fatter, but his health 
 became worse, and he gradually fell into the condition I have 
 described. He had heard of some good having been done by 
 the regimen in a case which he thought similar to his own, and 
 on that account was anxious to try it. 
 
 I encouraged him to so, ordering him at the same time a few 
 laxative medicines, which I thought he required. He began at 
 that time, and, as he informs me, has adhered to it ever since. 
 I advised him also to use much exercise on foot. 
 
 For a few months the symptoms of this disease continued in 
 full force, but then all his sufferings became alleviated ; and 
 during the second year he was quite a diflferent man. He re- 
 gained his spirits, could attend regularly to his business, and 
 his complaints, though not wholly gone, were comparatively 
 quite trifling. He had lost flesh very much, a loss he found 
 no occasion to regret. 
 
 He seems at present in perfect health, subject only to such 
 trifling ailments as happen to every body. Latterly he has 
 gained flesh. 
 
 I do not know that this disease was tending to death, or 
 attended with any immediate danger. But the mental suff"er- 
 ings which the patient underwent, were, in my opinion, more 
 severe and harassing than the symptoms of many fatal diseases. 
 
 CASE XXVHI. 
 
 Difficult Urination, Falling of the Womb, and Constipation. 
 
 February 20, 1815. M. J., aged twenty-five, applied to the 
 dispensary in October, 1812. The uterus was prolapsed; she 
 complained of great irritation in making w'ater, and besides, 
 had obstinate constipation of the bowels, Avith tumefaction and 
 
 f* 
 
232 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 soreness of the lower part of the abdomen. Under these com- 
 plaints she had suffered about three years, and to so great a 
 degree that she was hardly able to walk about, or do the work 
 of her house. 
 
 She had been at another dispensary, and had a good deal of 
 medical advice, without gaining any effectual relief; and, there- 
 fore, though the general state of the health did not seem very 
 bad, I thought medicines alone would prove ineffectual. I 
 therefore proposed the regimen to her, in addition to some 
 demulcents, laxatives, and the regular use of glysters, to unload 
 the lower part of the intestines. She declared herself willing 
 to do any thing at all likely to relieve her ; and she began it 
 on the 8th of November, 1812. 
 
 From this plan she found a speedy alleviation of her suffer- 
 ings. In two or three months the soreness and tumefaction of 
 the bowels Avere removed, and gradually cathartic pills alone did 
 their proper office of unloading the bowels, without the aid of 
 injections. The most obstinate symptom was the pain and irri- 
 tation in making water. But one day in October, 1813, she 
 voided a calculus about the size of a small bean ; and then this 
 irritation ceased, and all her complaints were effectually re- 
 lieved. 
 
 She, like the subject of Case XIV., appeared to become 
 more hot and feverish from relinquishing animal food. The 
 head became oppressed, witli a sense of fullness and pain. These 
 effects (for they cannot be thought the direct and natural 
 effects of vegetable diet) seem to me to be analogous to the 
 well-known fact of the pulse rising sometimes by bleeding. A 
 degree of fever that was, as it were, latent and suppressed, 
 becomes evident by the relinquishment of animal food. These 
 symptoms gradually subsided. 
 
 It is said that patients laboring under diabetes become more 
 thirsty and feverish by the use of vegetables. This may be 
 true, and I should account for it upon the same principles ; but 
 it does not, in my apprehension, form any solid objection against 
 their use even in this disease. 
 
 This woman had at the Christmas following a very severe 
 attack of inflammatory fever. The bowels were tender and 
 inflamed ; and the head was affected even to the extent of delir- 
 ium. But in about a fortnight it subsided, and she was restored 
 to good health. When I last saw her, three or four months 
 ago, she continued her regimen, and was in very good health. 
 
 The calculus was certainly only a portion of this woman's 
 sufferings. 1 mav observe that it has been proved very disr. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 233 
 
 tinctly that vegetable diet alone will not prevent the formation 
 of calculus. A writer, whom I have cited more than once 
 (Lobb, on Stone and Gout), has given a case where a person 
 became first afflicted with calculus, who had used a vegetable 
 diet eight years. 
 
 CASE XXIX. 
 
 Cancer of the Uterus. 
 
 10th March, 1815. On the 16th of January, 1813, a 
 woman became my patient at the General Dispensary, who, 
 from her good sense and decency of manners, gave me a pros- 
 pect of being able to effect what I had long had at heart : to 
 treat a case of carcinoma, in an early stage, as I judge such a 
 case ought to be treated, under the inspection of upright and 
 enlightened professional men terms, which it needs no testi- 
 mony of mine to show to be applicable to the gentlemen, my 
 colleagues, at that institution. 
 
 A. R., in the forty-third year of her age, had been afflicted 
 for eight months with very severe pains, referred principally 
 to the region of the uterus. The pain, she said, was darting 
 and shooting ; and though seated principally in the uterus, it 
 was sometimes m front, at other times posterior, about the 
 rectum. For, about the same time, she had had a discharge 
 of a thin, foetid, and apparently acrimonious ichor, sometimes 
 tinged with blood.. This discharge inflamed the skin of the 
 thighs, with which it came in contact. 
 
 I took an early opportunity of making an examination of the 
 parts. I found the os tincse low down in the vagina ; it was 
 not much changed in form ; perhaps it was a little fuller than 
 natural. But it was very tender ; a little handling gave un- 
 easiness ; and the pain, as she told me, from this cause, lasted 
 almost the whole succeeding day. 
 
 I could not doubt that these were symptoms of cancer, an 
 opinion in which I was confirmed by the habit and appear- 
 ance of the subject. She described herself as having been 
 long in a feeble, delicate state of health. The appetite had 
 been very bad even for years, but had been latterly much 
 worse. She had lost many teeth; and the gums were very 
 lax and. spongy. The countenance was pallid ; the strength 
 was somewhat impaired ; the breathing bad, particularly upon 
 
834 . .VEGETABLE D. ET 
 
 exertion, or going up stairs. Toward night the legs swelled. 
 The pulse was one hundred. 
 
 On the 7th of April, this woman appeared before the con- 
 sultation of the medical officers of the dispensary. I believe 
 that none of these gentlemen had any doubts with regard to 
 the nature of the case. She has, during the course of the 
 treatment, repeatedly been examined by them. The reports, 
 which were drawn up at each examination, I shall subjoin to 
 ray own account of the case. 
 
 With regard to the medicines that she has used, I may say 
 here, once for all, that it has been necessaiy to employ opiates 
 pretty freely, from the beginning of her treatment to the pre- 
 sent time, both to relieve the pain and procure sleep ; this last 
 has been effected very imperfectly. Saturnine lotions have 
 been useful to prevent the inflammation, and excoriation of the 
 discharge. Aperients (principally sulphate of magnesia) were 
 also at first necessary, but in a few months ceased to be requi- 
 site. She has taken also a feAv other medicines, occasionally, 
 but as they had no marked influence on her complaints, I need 
 not trouble the reader with an account of them. 
 
 She consented to give the regimen a fair trial, and entered 
 upon it on the 10th of February, 1813. 
 
 I also advised her particu^.arly to use as much fruit as pos- 
 sible. As the strength was radically impaired, I recommended 
 her to be sparing of exercise, but ratli^r to use considerably a 
 horizontal posture. 
 
 For more than half a year very little ground was gained. 
 The muscular strength diminished, and the pains continued to 
 be very severe. But the pulse was reduced in frequency : it 
 became habitually ?ibout eighty in the minute ; the discharge 
 became less offensive, and, apparently, less acrimonious. 
 
 In August, 1813, she had a considerable respite from pain, 
 which continued for three weeks. But it then recurred with 
 great severity ; but still, though the paroxysms were as fre- 
 quent as during the former part of the year, she found that 
 the severity of them was upon the whole sensibly diminished. 
 The respiration became rather stronger. With the pains, the 
 discharge (which had been checked) returned ; it was green 
 and fcetid. 
 
 In the middle of December, the discharge nearly ceased, 
 and the pain likewise. What she now principally complained 
 of was an almost total want of sleep, and of appetite, with 
 great lowness of spirits. 
 
 During the ensuing half year, the symptoms of cancer were 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 235 
 
 more completely got under. In the middle of April, 1814, 
 the relief was vciy great. In June the pain was quite gone, 
 and the discharge was very trifling. In August she was dis- 
 charged, principally at her own request, with all the symptoms 
 of carcinoma subdued. The genei'al state of the health, too, 
 was considerably improved.. 
 
 But in the October following, she again became a patient. 
 The pain had returned with severity, having been brought on, 
 apparently, by the approach of the cold weather. It was 
 again attended with some trifling discharge. This aggrava- 
 tion of the disease was, however, of short continuance. In 
 four or five weeks it was removed, and she again was restored 
 to her habitual state of a cessation from pain, almost complete, 
 and the discharge stopped, except, perhaps, in a quantity so 
 small as to be hardly perceptible, and as to be no incon- 
 venience. 
 
 The present state of this, considered as a local disease, is 
 very nearly as has been just described. Habitually she is 
 without pain or discharge. But she has occasional attacks, 
 which last a few days, or a week. They are severe enough 
 to break her rest, and give her uneasiness ; but not enough to 
 cause confinement, or to prevent her doing the work of her 
 house. The last of these attacks was in the middle of Feb- 
 ruary of the present year. 
 
 The proper symptoms of carcinoma, then, the pain and the 
 discharge have been subdued and kept under by this treat- 
 ment. The account to be given of the general state of the con- 
 stitution, though not so satisfactory as the efibct upon the 
 local disease, has been still sufficiently encouraging. 
 
 In fact, the chief complaints, now for about fourteen months, 
 have been much less regarding the original symptom of the 
 disease than the general state of the health. Want of appe- 
 tite, the sleep disturbed by tumultuous dreams, and some- 
 times wholly interrupted ; want of breath, lowness of spirits, 
 general debility, aching, and lassitude, have been the principal 
 subjects of complaint. Upon the whole, however, the health 
 has sensibly impro A ; so that she is, at present, considerably 
 better than she w , a twelvemonth ago. 
 
 The pulse coi. nues calm, being commonly about eighty in 
 the minute. T ; respiration is still not strong, but it has 
 mended. The ppetite remains bad. The sleep is disturbed, 
 but upon the wiiole it is more calm than formerly. The mus- 
 cular strength is a little improved ; the spirits are better; there 
 is more cheerfulness and animation in the countenance. 
 
2& VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 I think it right to add that, except from the use of opium, 
 what she has found the greatest benefit and comfort from has 
 been the unrestricted use of fruit and recent vegetables, as 
 radishes, etc. When she has been able to use an}^ other sus- 
 tenance, the stomach would receive willingly something of this 
 nature ; and at night, when the tongue and fauces were dry 
 and clammy, chewing some fruit was found to be the most 
 certain and pleasant resource. 
 
 When we consider the deplorable, and hitherto desperate na- 
 ture of this disease, that when affecting the internal organs, it 
 must be deemed a more advanced stage of the complaint than 
 a state of scirrhus in an external gland, this account will, I 
 hope, be deemed as satisfactory as can be reasonably expected. 
 The conclusions to be drawn from the facts stated are the very 
 same as those which flowed from those related under Case XIII. 
 of this work. If I therefore repeat them, I trust that the im- 
 portance of the subject will be deemed a sufficient apology. 
 It follows then from this statement 
 
 1st. That this disease was evidently carcinoma. Its history, 
 at the first examination, made this sufficiently evident. 
 
 2d. That the disease continues to be carcinoma at this time. 
 The same symptoms which at the beginning authorized us to 
 give it this designation, still recur, but with a much inferior de- 
 gree of severity. The effect of the treatment then has not 
 been, strictly speaking, to cure the disease, but to control and 
 mitigate the symptoms. 
 
 3d. But by the regimen, life itself has been preserved. It 
 will not be disputed, I suppose, that even a twelvemonth is as 
 much as, under the common habits of life, a case of uterine can- 
 cer might be expected to hist. Two years must be, indisputa- 
 bly, beyond all probability. But five-and-twenty months have 
 now elapsed, and the patient is not only alive, but in a state of 
 improv^ed health. 
 
 4th. The disease has made no local progress. On the con- 
 trary, the symptoms have been all soothed and tranquilized. 
 
 5th. The ulcerative process has been wholly superseded. 
 
 6th. I may add that the f<icts of this C'-e may b'cj applied to 
 the treatment of dropsy as well as to that c the cancer. There 
 was, when she first became a patient of t. dispensary, some 
 anasarcous swelling of the legs, as I have loted. This con- 
 tinued nearly in the same state for the first } ar, or year and a 
 half. It is now nearly, if not entirely gone. The flow of 
 urine has throughout continued veiy copious. 
 
 I need hardly say how much encouragement the result of 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 23T 
 
 this case gives to those afflicted with external cancerous tumors 
 to adopt this mode of dieting. For here was every sign of a 
 radically impaired and enfeebled constitution ; the appetite 
 greatly injured, the breath bad, the legs swelling, the strength 
 declining ; in fine, all the great and important functions imper- 
 fectly performed, though there was no breach of substance, 
 nor any apparent great local disorganization. How absurd 
 then (by the way) is it to say that this disease is in its origin 
 local. But we know that many persons with true cancerous 
 tumors enjoy, even for years, a relatively good state of health ; 
 most undoubtedly, infinitely better than the subject of this re- 
 port. I should hope, therefore, that gradually they may be 
 made sensible of what is most proper to enable them to pass the 
 remaining term of life with as much ease and comfort as their 
 situation renders admissible. 
 
 It remains only to add to this account the reports of the case 
 taken at the Consultation Committee at the dispensary. 
 
 GENERAL DISPENSARY. 
 
 Present at the Consultation Committee, 7th April, 1813, Dr. Clutterbuck, 
 Dr. Birkbeck, Dr. Lanibe, Mr. Vaux, and Mr. Norris. 
 
 Mrs. A. R., aged forty-two, has complained since June last oi 
 severe shooting pains at the lower part of the abdomen, with y 
 great discharge of foetid acrid matter; there likewise exists 
 considerable tenderness of the hypogastric region, with difficulty 
 of making water. For upward of five years, the catameni? 
 have not occurred, but pain and hardness of the breasts have 
 been frequently noticed. The bowels are regular, but the 
 evacuations are attended with pain, and the discharge of clots 
 of blood. Within the vagina no swelling can be perceived, but 
 the uterus has descended. She has employed opium with 
 temporary alleviation of the symptoms, and other medicines 
 without any benefit. 
 
 August 4th, 1812. Present, Dr. Clutterbuck, Dr. Lambe, and Mr. Vaux. 
 
 Mrs. A. R. asserts that the pains are aggravated, but the 
 discharge is less in quantity and less foetid at present ; such 
 Yariations, however, she states are not unusual. The lower ex- 
 
238 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 tremities are become anasarcous. Her rest is now mucli inter- 
 rupted. The pulse is generally about eighty in the minute, 
 with frequent intermissions ; a circumstance also noticed about 
 two months since. Sumat Hydrosulph. Ammonia gtt. vj. ter 
 in die sensim dosim augendo. 
 
 February 2d, 1814. Present, Dr. Clutterbuck, Dr. Birkbeck, Dr. Larabe 
 Mr. Vaux, and Mr. Young. 
 
 Mrs. A. R. states that the pains are much easier, though 
 she still obtains but little rest. The discharge, which is less 
 than formerly, is yellow and without blood. The hydrosul- 
 phuret was soon discontinued, and cort. cinchonee taken, which 
 is directed to be discontinued." 
 
 August 3d, 1814. Present, Dr. Clutterbuck, Dr. Birkbeck, Dr. Lambe, 
 and Mr. Vaux. 
 
 Mrs. A. R. now reports herself to be much improved. 
 There is not any discharge, and but little pain. She has chiefly 
 used opium, with a vegetable diet and distilled water. 
 
 February 1st, 1815. Present, Dr. Clutterbuck, Dr. Birkbeck, Dr. Lambe, 
 Mr. Vaux,*and Mr. Young. 
 
 Mrs. A. R. declares that she has persevered in the use of 
 vegetable diet and distilled water since the last report, with no 
 inconvenience, excepting the sense of weakness, and consider- 
 able craving for food. She is in all respects improved. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 On some Cases of Disease which have appeared under the Regimen. 
 
 It is not possible, in my opinion, to devise any other proof with 
 regard to the agents which have t\e greatest influence on 
 health than that which has been given in the preceding pages 
 I have taken, as it has been seen, examples of diseases ac 
 knowledged to be incurable, when they were presented in such 
 a stage as to aff'ord any rational prospect of relief, and have 
 given the results of experience. To these are added observa- 
 tions, accumulated now to a considerable number, in other 
 cases, as they have occurred in pi-actice. These may not all of 
 them have been of equal weight or importance. It is enough^ 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 239 
 
 that they were sufficiently serious to excite the anxiety and 
 apprehension of those who were the subjects of them. These 
 observations, thus promiscuously taken, concur uniformly in 
 corroborating the conclusions drawn from the diseases, avow- 
 edly incurable by medicine. They are, therefore, the more 
 valuable, as tending to fix the practice, which has been found 
 the most beneficial in these last. 
 
 If in these the most sanguine hopes, that might have been 
 formed of the eflects of the practice proposed, have not been 
 fully realized ; if perfect cures have not been effected, nor the 
 body restored to a complete state of health and integrity, it 
 will be allowed, it is hoped, that what has been effected is 
 neither trifling nor despicable. In cancerous diseases, in par- 
 ticular, to have relieved the horrible and excruciating torments 
 of the disease ; to have prevented ulceration, with its attendant 
 miseries of loathsome, foetid, and excoriating discharges ; to have* 
 preserved life, and that in such a degree of comfort as to 
 enable the patient to enjoy society, and be equal to the com- 
 mon duties and occupations of the world ; to have effected so 
 much in cases where neither age, nor a completely broken 
 constitution, present invincible obstacles to all amendment, is 
 surely to have achieved much for suffering humanity ; and 
 amply compensates the proposer of this regimen for the anxiety 
 and labor in which he has been involved, in consequence, for 
 more than ten years ; the obloquy of the ignorant and the mis- 
 representations of the malevolent; and, he must add, the 
 heavy pecuniary loss which he has been obliged to sustain in 
 collecting the evidence which he has been at length enabled, 
 to lay before the public. 
 
 Such, then, are the benefits which have been really gained ; 
 and the evident inferences from these facts will remain un- 
 shaken whatever may be the future progress or final issue of 
 the cases which have been treated. 
 
 It is neither pretended, nor expected, that a morbid body 
 can, by any art, be kept free from the attacks of disease. 
 There seems to be in the body, as in vegetation, the seeds of 
 future diseases, which continue latent and inactive for a length 
 of time ; they then germinate, increase, pass through their 
 regular stages, and come to a termination. What is the secret 
 condition of the frame, which gives occasion to these pheno- 
 mena, we are entirely ignorant. It is placed wholly beyond 
 the reach of the senses ; and appears to be without the sphere 
 of physical and experimental inquiry. 
 
 It is, however, beyond a doubt, that between that state of 
 
240 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 the body, in which there is merely a diseased disposition, and 
 that consequent state, in which disease becomes active, there 
 is a very long, though not a strictly definable interval. Thus 
 the breath may begin to fail for three or four years before 
 a person falls into a consumption. A change, therefore, 
 takes place, certainly in the functions, and probably in the 
 structure of the organs of respiration, long before the acces- 
 sion of confirmed cough and hectic fever. We see it more 
 evidently in the cancer, in which there is pain, perhaps, for 
 a series of years, before there is any thickening of the parts, 
 as happened in the first of the cases of cancer, which I have 
 related in this work. 
 
 !N^ow, the very state of health which persons have, upon the 
 whole, enjoyed under the regimen which I have described, 
 shows that much of diseased action can, by its use, be super- 
 seded. But it has equally appeared that this has only hap- 
 *pened imperfectly. Not only have the attacks of habitual dis- 
 eases been continued or renewed, but some examples even of 
 new diseases have taken place, of which there had been no in- 
 dication in the former part of life. They have not been nu- 
 merous, but it would be inconsistent with my duty, as a faith- 
 ful relator of facts, to pass them over in silence. I have thought 
 it proper, therefore, in this place, to set down such of these 
 occurrences as I have thought most worthy of notice. 
 
 Case I. I shall first mention a local disease of the cheek, 
 which occurred to the subject of the first of the foregoing cases. 
 He had been subject to commfen pimples from the age of eighteen ; 
 but these, under the regimen, had been almost entirely sub- 
 dued. But in the year 1809, about the beginning of the fourth 
 year, some small tumors appeared on the face. They have 
 occupied principally the left cheek, and continued for several 
 months, red and sore, but without any discharge. They gra- 
 dually rose higher upon the skin, then became dry, and peeled 
 off in the form of a scab, leaving the parts beneath clear and 
 sound. 
 
 When some of these tumors had gone through their course, 
 others appeared, and had the same progress ; and as they 
 have continued fixing on different spots, even till this present 
 time (February, 1815), it is probable that almost every portion 
 of the lower part of the cheek has been successively the seat 
 of this affection. But when the scab has fallen oft', the skin 
 underneath has been left sound, without pitting, or other de- 
 formity. 
 
 I believe that the essence of this disease has consisted in a 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 241 
 
 circumstance, to which I have alluded more than once in the 
 course of this work, as often occurring in the human body, 
 namel}^ that the skin of this cheek was unsound ; that portions 
 have perished, been thrown off by the action of the vessels, 
 and have been regenerated. Latterly, though the disease has 
 not absolutely ceased, it has very nearly so ; it is at present so 
 trifling as hardly to deserve notice, and the parts are more 
 sound and healthy both in feeling and appearance than when it 
 firsc broke out. 
 
 Case IL In another of the persons who had used this regi- 
 men more than two years, there took place a discharge from 
 the urethra, very copious, like a gonorrhoea. There was often 
 united with it a considerable irritability of tho bladder ; but, 
 otherwise, it was not accompanied with pain or inflammation. 
 This discharge continued for about three years, and then 
 ceased. 
 
 Case III. I have said many years ago that one of the 
 members of my own family, then a boy about eight years of 
 age, was of a deeply scrofulous habit (See my Inquiry into the 
 Origin, etc., of Constitutional Diseases, p. 61). In the course 
 of this investigation I have received a strong proof of the cor- 
 rectness of this observation, and of the difficulty of completely 
 eradicating such a disposition. 
 
 At the end of December, 1811, when he had used this regi- 
 men between five and six years, after having been skating dur- 
 ing the day, the hand were observed to be stiff" and a little 
 swelled. On the day following, the face on the right side 
 swelled, and the tumefaction increased, extending from the eye 
 to the clavicle. The seat of the disease appeared to be about 
 the middle of the lower maxillary bone. The bone itself be- 
 came thickened at this part, and roughened upon its surface. 
 Matter came from the part, both internally into the mouth, and 
 externally through the cheek. This happened repeatedly, for 
 two months, when the ulcerations finally closed, and the parts 
 became well. But for a couple of years the bone continued 
 thickened, and the skin adherent to the parts underneath. 
 After that, the adhesion of the skin was gradually loosened, and 
 the parts were restored to their natural structure. But the 
 bone continues thickened for near an inch through its whole 
 body. 
 
 This was, in fact, a very trifling disease. But it appears to 
 have been the germ of one which is the most serious and dis- 
 tressing of any which affects the human body a fixed and 
 radical disease of the substance of the bone. 
 11 
 
242 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 Case IV. A boy of about ten years of age had lived on 
 this regimen about three years. He had enjoyed good health, 
 was very stout, but was not without occasional slight indispo- 
 sitions, enough to make him lie down for a day or two, but 
 hardly to be regularly confined. About the beginning of the 
 year 1811, he had the angina parotidcBa, or mumps, attended 
 with some fever of a low or typhus kind, and this hung upon 
 him at least a fortnight. It left behind it a tumor, on the 
 right side of the neck, which remained for four or five months. 
 It was attended with some shooting pain, by no means severe ; 
 but was perfectly hard and incompressible, as large almost as 
 an egg, and gradually rose much above the surface. Toward 
 the beginning of summer, the apex of the tumor softened, and 
 it ulcerated. A good deal of purulent matter came out, the 
 skin gradually retracted, and a hard and conical tumor remained 
 projecting beyond the skin. From this there was, of course, a 
 continued flow of matter ; but besides this, there was a quantity 
 of a gritty substance separated, which had been imbedded in 
 the body of the tumor. This separation took place repeatedly, 
 but at separate intervals, and in consequence the substance of 
 the tumor gradually wasted, and was finally reduced to the 
 level of the skin. Then the ulcer dried up and cicatrized. This 
 whole process took up about a twelvemonth. 
 
 But though the ulcer cicatrized, some thickening remained. 
 In the course of the summer of 1813, a fresh ulceration took 
 place, and a small quantity more of the same matter came out. 
 The ulcer this year continued open a month. 
 
 It showed some disposition to break out again the following 
 year, 1814. There was, however, no breach of substance, but 
 for a single day. Since that he has remained quite well. 
 
 This boy showed strongly in his countenance the ameliorat- 
 ing effects of a vegetable regimen. He had before he adopted 
 it great fullness about the head, and a sternness, not to say a 
 ferocity, of the countenance. After a certain time, the fea- 
 tures relaxed, and he gained much more the aspect of good 
 humor and benevolence. It cannot be doubted that these 
 changes of countenance were the index of corresponding changes 
 of the moral disposition. The regimen, however, had been 
 persevered in three years before they took place decidedly. 
 
 Another example has occurred of a pretty severe affection 
 of the chest, in a lady who had used the regimen more than 
 four years. And I should think it proper to notice it more 
 particularly, except that it cannot be said at this present timo 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 243 
 
 (March, 1815) to have completely subsided. I ihall saj'- only, 
 therefore, that it was a peripneumoKy, designated by its com- 
 mon symptoms of pain in the chest, cough, and expectorations. 
 
 Such are some of the principal examples of disease under 
 this regimen which have occurred to myself, in addition to those 
 I have noticed in the general course of my naiTation. Others 
 of smaller consequence, as slight cough, colds, pains of the face 
 or limbs which have been observed, I omit as not deserving of 
 a distinct relation. 
 
 It is very obvious to the most superficial consideration that 
 these occurrences have not been the consequences of the regi- 
 men, and therefore can form no solid objection against it. They 
 have in truth been, not in consequence, but in spite of it. 
 Some of them were clearly natural processes. Thus the glandu- 
 lar tumor, which has been last described, was a process for 
 bringing the concreted matter, which was finally evacuated, to 
 the surface of the body. It may then be suspected that the 
 other examples were natural processes likewise, though the 
 fact is not so obvious. At all events they were not diseases of 
 debility, which is apprehended from vegetable regimen ; but 
 were inflammatory diseases, such as would be judged to require 
 depletion rather than stimulation. They form then, I repeat, 
 no objection to the regimen. 
 
 It will follow, evidently, from the whole course of my narra- 
 tion, that for the most part the use of this regimen affords no 
 hope nor prospect of great relief from deep constitutional dis- 
 ease in a very short time. To jump from a state of disease to 
 a state of health is contrary to the laws of nature. Those who 
 hold out prospects of this kind can have no other object than 
 to impose upon the credulity of mankind. 
 
 Those who think fit to undertake it should be well aware of 
 its aim and intent. This is not so much to obtain perfect and 
 unmterrupted health (objects, perhaps, hardly consistent with 
 our present condition), as an alleviation of sufl'ering, and to pass 
 through the years that are allotted to us with the least possible 
 evil. These are objects which every reasonable person will 
 acknowledge to be the most important of all temporary and 
 sublunary concerns. 
 
 The observation of a regular system of dieting, such as I have 
 described, fulfills this object by radically strengthening the pow- 
 ers of life. It has no control, or at least a very imperfect one, 
 Over the immediate symptoms of disease. The general habits 
 of the system therefore remain in a great degree unaltered. 
 But slowly and gradually the constitution becomes changed, at. 
 
244 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 least in its powers, if not in its primordial structure. The pow- 
 ers inherent in the system to preserve the life of the body, to 
 overcome the operation of agencies tending to destroy the body, 
 or to derange healthy action, and to restore parts which are 
 defective either in their organization or power, are strengthened 
 and invigorated. 
 
 This doctrine, no doubt, will never be acknowledged by those 
 persons who are under the influence of the common prejudice, 
 that vegetable diet has a natural tendency to produce weakness. 
 The facts which appear to favor this notion are so strong, and 
 the assertion is so confidently made by a multitude of observers, 
 who have had neither object nor interest in making false repre- 
 sentations, that I despair of being able to eradicate it from the 
 minds of hasty, superficial, and prejudiced inquirers. But those 
 who will calmly and dispassionately weigh the facts which I 
 have advanced, will, I have no doubt, acknowledge that I have 
 traced the sense and appearance of weakness to its proper 
 source, the agency of foreign matter upon the system ; and 
 that the accusations brought against the vegetable regimen are 
 in this respect groundless. Remove these noxious agencies, and 
 then the true operation of the vegetable regimen, in radically 
 strengthening the vital powers, becomes obvious. But to pro- 
 duce a very great change in the habits of the constitution must 
 be the work of time, and even of a great length of time. This 
 must be the effect of the patience, not of weeks, nor of months, 
 but of years. There must, too, be a natural limit to the change 
 which it is possible to effect. This limit it is impossible to de- 
 fine, independent of experience ; and it will, of course, be dif- 
 ferent in each different constitution. 
 
 It may be thought that the examples which I have given of 
 the pertinacity of diseased symptoms are extremely discouraging, 
 and hold out a melancholy prospect to those who are great 
 sufferers. I suspect that the great sufferers will not be of this 
 opinion ; but that, for the most part, they will be contented to 
 put up with small evils, if they can escape the great. How- 
 ever, with all men, the first and greatest object in life is to in- 
 form the reason. Let them, then, well consider how slowly 
 disease itself is engendered ; and, therefore, how unreasonable 
 it is to suppose that it can be quickly eradicated. 
 
 To illustrate this point, let us take a very common example. 
 If any disease is acknowdedged to be artificial, it is the gout. 
 A man then has his first fit of gout, we will say, at forty ; he 
 has repeated regular paroxysms, it may be for twenty, or five- 
 and-twenty years ; thei , perhaps, the seat of the diseased action 
 
[N CHRONIC DISEASES. 245 
 
 becomes changed ; the gout begins to desert the limbs ; the 
 head becomes affected with apoplexy or palsy ; the lungs with 
 cough, dyspncea, or pneumonia ; the stomach with spasms, sick- 
 ness, vomiting, or diarrhoea; and, after suffering a few years 
 more, he at length dies. 
 
 Now here we see that, for a certain number of years, this 
 person enjoyed health, though under the influence of powerful 
 morbific causes ; for a certain number of years more, the causes 
 continuing to act, a new train of johenomena are produced, which 
 we call gout ; and, finally, the powers of life declining, a third 
 series of morbid actions is established, seated in the internal 
 organs. 
 
 We must acknowledge, then, the body to be under a constant 
 force, which must impress and modify it at every period of its 
 existence ; but that the phenomena of diseases depend not wholly 
 on the action of these forces, but on the state of the system in 
 conjunction with them. The system itself is in a constant state 
 of mutation ; so that the effects of agents at one period of its 
 existence is dissimilar to the eflfect of the very same agents at a 
 former or succeeding period. 
 
 Now as these agents have, for the most part, been applied 
 during the whole of life, how utterly unreasonable must it be to 
 expect that great changes can be produced speedily by the 
 laere cessation of their action. Surely we ought rather to 
 expect, even a priori, that th^ restoration to health will be ana- 
 logous to the formation of disease ; that the cimendment will be 
 by degrees almost insensible at short intervals of time ; and that 
 many must content themselves with an alleviation of suffering 
 rather than a perfect restoration to health. And when we con- 
 sider the enormous load of misery under which some of our un- 
 fortunate fellow-creatures are oppressed, who labor under some 
 of the forms of chronic disease, this prospect must be allowed 
 tc be most consolatory to suflfering humanity. 
 
 I may mention here, incidentally, that under the theory which 
 I have chalked out, the diseases which prove fatal can rarely 
 be considered to be strictly local. I know that almost all medi- 
 cal theorists espouse an opposite opinion. They dissect the 
 dead body ; such and such, say they, were the appearances 
 after death ; here then was the seat of the disease, every other 
 part of the body was sound and uninjured. But let it be con- 
 sidered that a part, whose organization is perfect to-day, to- 
 morrow perhaps mortifies. The powers of any part of the body 
 then may be lost, though the structure is uninjured; and, there- 
 fore, the parts of the body, in which no diseased action has 
 
246 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 taken place, may be inherently as much diseased as those the 
 texture of which is obviously changed. They might then have 
 taken on diseased action, if it had not been suspended either by 
 the existing disease, or prevented by the death and dissolution 
 of the body. 
 
 These considerations show that dissection can never com- 
 pletely unravel the phenomena of disease. By dissection we 
 can discover only the final changes of composition, which the 
 body undergoes. But disease is a change of the powers and 
 actions of the living parts ; that is to say, of parts of which, 
 for the most part, the organization continues perfect. 
 
 If then disease be seated in and pervade the whole body, it 
 must be counteracted by measures which affect and pervade 
 the whole body likewise. Now the whole series of observations 
 which have been made on the system of dieting recommended 
 in the preceding pages, evinces that it affects the whole frame, 
 every organ, and every fibre of the body. 
 
 As a whole, the body under it attains its just stature, due 
 proportions, and proper strength, provided there be no original 
 defect of structure. In consequence, all artificial defects of 
 structure are tending to disappear under it. The skin appears 
 to become more firm and dense. The hand and foot in par- 
 ticular become harder, less white and doughy, but perhaps 
 more fleshy. The pungent heat of the palms of the hands 
 and soles of the feet, with which many are tormented, dis- 
 appears. The whole surface of the body commonly becomes 
 cooler; but the temperature of the body, as indicated by the 
 thermometer under the tongue, is the same as under common 
 regimen. 
 
 The hair grows with much greater luxuriance and rapidity. 
 In some in whom it was dry like liay, it regained a due soft- 
 ness and moisture. In others the disposition of the hair to fall 
 oft' has been removed. Premature grayness appears to be pre- 
 vented. 
 
 All the secretions are promoted, and re-established where 
 they had been checked. Hence, the skin becomes moist and 
 perspirable ; the mucous discharges from the nostrils and the 
 trachea become more copious. On the same principle, the 
 bowels become regular in their action. The urine is ex- 
 tremely copious and commonly clear. The saliva loses all vis- 
 cidity and clamminess, and on this account much uncomfort- 
 able feeling in the mouth and fauces are removed. The teeth 
 become sound and clean, the gums firm, and strongly attached 
 to the teeth and alveolar processes. The tongue likewise grad- 
 
IN CHRONiC DISEASES. 247 
 
 ually becomes divested of its foul covering, and becomes moist 
 and clean. 
 
 Though the regular perspiration be re-established, there is 
 much less profuse sweating. Several of the young persons 
 who have lived in this manner, have been observed playing in 
 the open air in the heat of summer, or dancing in a warm 
 room, unaffected and cool, while their companions were bathed 
 in sweat. 
 
 Not only are the secretions more copious, but they are ren- 
 dered much less offensive. The eructations from the stomach, 
 and flatus from the bowels, are relatively inoflfensivc ; and the 
 faeces themselves become less disagreeable,* of their proper 
 color, and health)'- consistency. 
 
 Doubtless the whole composition of the circulating fluids is 
 changed, but it is not possible, perhaps, to prove this chemi- 
 cally. But the whole body acquires a cleaner and a fresher 
 appearance. The muddiness of the complexion vanishes. The 
 sclerotic coat of the eye gives the strongest evidence of this 
 change. From having been yellow and dull, it regains the 
 pure and clear whiteness which is natural to it. 
 
 The body becomes more tolerant of heat, of cold, and of all 
 the mutations of the atmosphere. Such impressions lose their 
 power of injury ; and the perpetual attention to guard our- 
 selves against them becomes needless. In consequence, a 
 lighter system of clothing may be adopted. 
 
 All the senses acquire a higher degree of perfection : the 
 eye, the ear, the palate, the skin. The countenance becomes 
 more animated and intellectual. The smile which plays upon 
 the features shows the inward contentment of the heart. 
 There can be no doubt that the apprehension, the memory, 
 in a word, all the faculties which constitute the intellect, are 
 improved. 
 
 The muscles acquire both flexibility and power ; the move- 
 ments of the body are performed, therefore, with greater ease 
 and freedora.f With the power of motion, the love of exercise 
 
 * I nave observed that when recent vegetable matter, unchanged by 
 cookery, has been abundantly used, the faeces have acquired very much 
 the smell of horse dung. 
 
 t I here suppose that there has been no great disease upon any of tho 
 vital organs; for in that case it has been observed, that the muscles have 
 sometimes been affected with a sort of rheumatic stiffness, in consequence, 
 probably, of disease being transferred to these parts. Having reniarked 
 this in two or three members of my own family, I must suppose that it 
 will happen very oftea. 
 
248 VEGETABLE DIET 
 
 increases. The joints become better knit, and the body tends 
 constantly to preserve its upright form. 
 
 Heaviness and dro^ysiness is dissipated. The sleep be- 
 comes lighter, sounder, more refreshing, and less interrupted 
 by dreams. Upon the whole, the body seems to require less 
 sleep. 
 
 The appetite for food becomes sound, strong, and healthy. 
 There is no oppression or flatulency after meals ; no fullness 
 nor heaviness ; no sense of satiety, disgust, or nausea. The 
 pleasures of the palate are heightened by the increased delicacy 
 of the oi-gans ; and the enjoyment produced by the free and 
 unrestricted use of fruit more than compensates for the re- 
 straints thought to be imposed by the abstinence from stimulat- 
 ing viands. The nutrition of the body is likewise perfect. 
 Man}'-, undoubtedly, lose flesh ; but this is not because vegetable 
 diet aff'ords an imperfect nutrition, but either from disease, or 
 from the mere change of habit. Healthy subjects on this diet 
 become full of flesh, and even fat. 
 
 These phenomena mostly indicate an increased sensibility of 
 the whole frame. Perhaps there is no single nor infallible cri- 
 terion of augmented vital powers. Probably, however, a more 
 full and fi'ce respiration, and what is the consequence of this, an 
 expanded chest, may afford the strongest indication on this 
 point. Of this expansion of the chest, under this regimen, there 
 have been several examples. To this is joined a slower, more 
 full, and regular pulse ; the pulsations of the heart and arteries 
 are performed with diminished velocity, but with increased full - 
 ness and force. But in saying this, I speak only relatively of 
 each individual. For in the absolute number of the pulsations 
 of the arteries there is the same variety as in those Avho live on 
 a mixed diet. In some the pulse is quick, in others slow, accord- 
 ing to the original differences of the constitution. 
 
 This description, which has been taken from observations on 
 many subjects, who have conformed to the rules laid down in 
 this treatise, will, of course, apply to different subjects with 
 different degrees of correctness. There may be obstacles in 
 the state of the constitution which may oppose every attempt 
 at restoration. The inherent powers of the body may be so far 
 impaired, that it may be impossible to prevent even the disso- 
 lution of the fi-ame. Age is the circumstance which, of all 
 others, forms the greatest obstacle to all attempts tt relief ; and 
 this is so powerful, that even under a mild disease, or no dis- 
 ease at all, I should be unwilling to recommend any change of 
 habits which were ungrateful to the feelings. But at no period. 
 
IN CHRONIC DISEASES. 249 
 
 not even in the first stages of existence, if tlie powers of life are 
 greatly sunk, is it possible to restore them ; the principle of 
 conservation may be, by care, cherished and prolonged for a 
 short time ; but it will then sink and be finally extinguished. 
 
 These facts prove no more than the importance of prudence 
 and foresight in the conduct of life. I cannot, therefore, too 
 earnestly impress the necessity of attempting to extinguish, as 
 far as it is possible, the germ and embryo of future disease. 
 To distinguish the signs of distant mischief is often in the power 
 more of the enlightened parent, guardian, or friend than of the 
 regular professional adviser. I consign, therefore, these my 
 labors to the reflections of the discerning and benevolent few. 
 To the mass of mankind, absorbed in selfish pursuits, or strug- 
 gling to ward off poverty, I expect them to remain unknown, 
 or if known, to be ungrateful. But I hope they will meet with 
 a better fate in the domestic circle of retired persons, whose 
 rule of life is to practice what is fundamentally right ; to do their 
 duty to themselves, to their relatives, to their fellow-creatures, 
 and so to obtain the approbation of their own consciences, and 
 the favor of the great Author of their being. If among these 
 respectable circles it disseminates the knowledge of great prac- 
 tical truths, and produce the proper fruits of knowledge more 
 just principles, moi*e rational manners, and an increase of solid 
 comfort, my end will be fully answered. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 VEGETABLE DIET IN WHITESTOWN SEMINARY, 
 NEAR UTICA, NEW YORK. 
 
 Many people suppose that obtaining an education is necessarily 
 attended with much expense, and that consequently none but 
 the richer classes can be benefited by it. This is, however, a 
 mistake. Almost any person may, by adopting a plain vege- 
 table diet, attend school as long as desirable, with but very little 
 pecuniary means ; and in so doing he will enjoy better health, 
 and accomplish more within a given time than those who adopt 
 an opposite course. 
 
 At Whitestown Seminary, near Utiea, N. Y., a considerable 
 number of students obtain their education on the above plan. 
 I spent a year at that place, commencing with the winter term 
 in the month of December, 1847. There were from 150 to 
 200 students there, of both sexes, and from all parts of the 
 United States. 
 
 The inmates had the privilege of either boarding in the board- 
 ing-house kept in one of the buildings, or of furnishing their 
 own food in their separate rooms. The larger number chose 
 the latter plan. The price for board in the boarding-house was 
 $1 25 per week for those who drank tea and coffee, and $1 for 
 those who took only water. The food furnished was very good, 
 though plain. Flesh meat was given, I believe, once a day. 
 The number who drank tea and coffee was very small, the most 
 either caring nothing about it, or wishing to save the twenty- 
 five cents a week. 
 
 On an average it cost those Avho boarded themselves about 
 fifty cents per week, though some lived for considerable less. 
 They would use bakers' bread, crackers, apples, and the like, 
 and roasted potatoes, and such cakes and other articles as they 
 could cook themselves on the stove top, in an oven attached to 
 the pipe. Tea and coffee were never used, I believe, and meat 
 very seldom. It was found to be very unpleasant cooking, and 
 working with it, and disagreeable to have it in the rooms, which 
 
252 APPENDIX. 
 
 were small; and others from experience had found they were 
 better without animal food. 
 
 There were a few, however, who did not live far off, that 
 brought tlieir provisions from home flesh meat, butter, cakes, 
 pies, and rich food generall}", such as is used by farmers in that 
 fertile country. It was evident that among these there was 
 more dullness, more illness and complaining, than among all 
 the rest put together. 
 
 Many at the beginning of the term, for the saving of time 
 and trouble, would live altogether on such articles as they could 
 get at the bakers and stores, which were of course generally 
 of the finer kinds, for coarse bread and crackers could not be 
 had. But before a long time they would grow tired of these 
 fine thiiigs, much sooner than those who partook of the plainer 
 articles of their own cooking, and they would then resort to the 
 latter plan. 
 
 Fine flour was found much more difficult to make into eatable 
 articles, by unexperienced cooks, than the coarser kinds of 
 meal, so it was but little used, and the students never felt as 
 well after eating it. Corn meal was the easiest to prepare, and 
 was the most used ; and a person would live longer on it, made 
 into different kinds of cakes and puddings, than upon any other 
 one thing without becoming tired of it ; it was also the cheapest 
 article to be found on which a person could subsist. 
 
 Butter, molasses, sugar, and other sweets were generally used 
 to a moderate extent, but they were sometimes even omitted. 
 It was found that the less variety they had, and the longer they 
 lived on a few plain, simple articles, the less desire there was 
 to eat too much ; and nothing could be eaten with a greater 
 relish than when the fewest articles were taken at a time. 
 
 A few of us, for the sake of trying an experiment, lived foi 
 several weeks on simple Indian corn cake, of our own bak- 
 ing, witliout butter or salt. We found in so doing that there 
 was no part of the time in which we felt as well, or could study 
 more than during this experiment. There was no time that we 
 ate with a better relish, and had less desire for rich food. It 
 cost about eighteen cents a week. 
 
 Although most of the students would usually study a great 
 deal by candle-light all the time at night except what was 
 absolutely necessiiry for sleep sore and weak eyes were nearly 
 or altogether unknown. Weak eyes is a very common com- 
 plaint in some schools, where the students live in a different 
 manner in regard to diet. Although the chmate was severe, 
 colds, I tl.'nk, were not so common as in most other places. 
 
ArPENUix. 253 
 
 The cure for many, when they got a cold, was to lessen the 
 quantity of food and bathe more in cold water, and it was not 
 long that a cold could withstand the effects of abstemiousness 
 and water-treatment. 
 
 In the winter season many got into the habit of taking but 
 very little exercise. Some perhaps would not walk half a 
 mile a day on an average, and take no other exercise, and yet 
 all appeared to go on well enough, certainly much better than 
 with people generally who take so little exercise. The causa 
 of this must have been, I think, the mode of hving adopted. 
 
 In the summer season most of the students worked habit- 
 ually three or four hours each day for exercise. Gardening 
 and other farm work of the kind could always be obtained at 
 a short distance from the seminary, in the summer season. The 
 pay was from six to eight cents an hour. By working this way 
 during the odd hours and holidays, many were able to clear all 
 their expenses, attend school a year or two, and then leave 
 with as much money as they brought with them. They felt bet- 
 ter, and could study more, than those who did not work. 
 
 In the summer term there were two or three who, from an 
 excess of vanity, would not labor with their hands at all. And 
 they would neither board themselves, nor board in the boarding- 
 bouse where good plain food only was furnished, but went to 
 a private house in the village. There they paid nearly double 
 price, so that they could get a greater variety of rich food and 
 luxuries. They were about as different in otiier respects from 
 the rest as in their manner of living. When the seven o'clock 
 bel' rung for breakfast it was as common a time for them to get 
 up as any. In the first place, then, they would loose three 
 hours of the best part of the day for both exercise and study 
 (for the students generally rose at four in the summer) ; and 
 then go right to their breakfast, they would be far from feeling 
 as fresh and brisk as those who rose early, and worked and 
 exercised two or three hours before the morning meal. It was 
 a general remark, and a true one, that these would-be-gentlemen 
 studied but little, and learned nothing. One of them came to 
 stay two or three years, he said, but soon complained of head- 
 ache, or something else, all the time he was there, so that he 
 could not study. He left in a short time. Those who worked 
 a part of the day, and studied the rest, always slept well when 
 night came, and be ready to get up in the morning. Those lazy 
 flesh-eaters complained that they could not sleep well m the 
 night, and then would remain in bed dozing all thu morning. 
 But the plain livers, who practiced lyi ng in bed no longer than 
 
254 APPENDIX. 
 
 was necessary for sleep, and working and studying alternately 
 through the day, got along well in all respects. The time was 
 all well employed, which is no small matter to one who wishes 
 to make all the improvement possible. 
 
 Straw beds were used by many of the students, and were 
 found to be far superior to feathers in warm weather by all who 
 tried them. 
 
 The doctors found but little to do in the seminary, hardly 
 enough to support a church mouse. 
 
 Tlie students were most of them a considerable distance from 
 home, and when they got unwell they would discontinue study- 
 ing, eat moderately of vegetable fare, walk in the open air, and 
 thus get cured. This letting -alone-plan was believed to be 
 much better than the drugging system. To sum up the matter, 
 those who rose early, worked and exercised a good deal, and 
 lived on plain vegetable food, learned much more, and felt a 
 great deal better than those who lived in an opposite way ; and 
 the former could quite, or nearly, clear their expenses, while the 
 latter were at a considerable expense, and learned less. 
 
 I have thus far spoken of the young men. Concerning the 
 young ladies I knew less ; but almost all of them boarded them- 
 selves, cooked their own food, performed their own washing, 
 kept their rooms in order, and walked frequently in the open 
 air. They appeared very healthy, and I seldom heard of any 
 of them getting ill. 
 
 Those who, in obtaining an education, will take a course 
 similar to that which I have described, will find that the time 
 thus spent will ever afterward be looked upon as one of the 
 most profitable and happy of their whole lives. 
 
 If such a plan were more generally adopted by those who 
 must either go to school cheaply, or not at all, there would not 
 be so many people as there now are without a good education. 
 Since such a plan is so pleasant \nd easy, the want of money 
 is no excuse for any one who has health for not attending 
 school. 
 
 C Hambleton. 
 
 P. S. The Whitestown Seminary was formerly a manual 
 labor school, under the able presidentship of the Rev. Beriah 
 Green, who is himself an advocate of vegetable diet. The 
 students were then required to work a portion of each day ; 
 and it is a good deal owing to this, I suppose, that the students 
 still keep up the habit since it was changed from that to the 
 present form. Besides, President Green is in tfee habit of giv- 
 
APPENDIX. 255 
 
 ing lectures in the village, and sometimes at the seminary, on 
 the subject of health, and the necessity of labor, exercise, and 
 attention to diet, in order to preserve it. 
 
 C.H. 
 
 CASE OF JOHN BURDELL, DENTIST, OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Mr. Burdell is now forty-four years of age. He was from 
 Oneida County, State of New York. He has resided in this 
 city twenty-two years, before tha<-. time always in the country. 
 His parents lived a number of miles distant from neighbors, in 
 a wild part of the countr}'^, and the occupation of the male 
 members of the family was clearing of land, farming, and agri- 
 cultural pursuits generally. His parents were comparatively 
 healthy. On his father's side they predisposed to paralysis ; 
 his mother died of apoplexy. Mr. Burdell ate plentifully of 
 flesh meat, as was customary in those times, but the bread eaten 
 was mostly of the coarser forms until his coming to the city. 
 
 He was always rather delicate in health ; had frequent sick 
 headache with nausea ; was habitually costive ; and often had 
 nightmare. The first that he ever went to school was when 
 he was sixteen years old. 
 
 Mr. Burdell has now been engaged in dentistry twenty years. 
 He lived about two years as people ordinarily do, and then 
 commenced the " vegetarian system," using, however, a little 
 milk and flesh for about one year. He has not eaten flesh 
 more than three weeks in all since that time, now a period of 
 eighteen years. He has used milk he judges not more than 
 one year in the aggregate sin'ie that time, and then only in a 
 slight quantity at intervals. 
 
 On commencing the new diet he could perceive that his 
 mind gradually became more clear. Sleep grew better; and 
 his strength of mind he regards remained about the same. 
 Headache appeared to disappear just in proportion as animal 
 substances were given up ; and he has not experienced this 
 affection in a single instance, now several years. Constipation, 
 from which he had suffered from a child, became very soon 
 removed. Bodily strength was not materially changed. He 
 can now, he judges, bear more exercise of any kind to which 
 he is accustomed than ever before in his hfe. He has for years 
 known no such sensation as fatigue ; and yet his occupation 
 
256 APPENDIX* 
 
 when ardently pursued, as in his case, is a very fatiguing one> 
 particularly for the arms, extremities, and head. 
 
 He has lived principally in the city of New York during the 
 twenty years before-mentioned. Once, however, he was absent 
 about five months on a voyage to St. Croix. Nearly all the 
 persons who went to this island at the time were attacked with 
 the common fever of the place ; numbers also died. But Mr. 
 Burdell, however, experienced no attack whatever. He was 
 the only vegetarian he knew of on the vessel. Once also he 
 made a trip of some three months to New Orleans, and the 
 southern states generally. He also saw more or less sickness 
 at this time, but experienced none himself. During both of 
 these trips he lived on bread, rice, potatoes, and fruits, without 
 butter or milk. 
 
 During the whole eighteen years, Mr. Burdell has practiced 
 washing daily in cold water. This rule has been as constant 
 as that of going to rest. His drink has been only water, and 
 that rarely, as his free use of fruits has supplied the necessary 
 amount of liquid to his system. He has repeatedly passed six 
 months at a time without tasting fluid. He has never tasted 
 either tea or coffee, or any hot drinks whatever, since the time 
 of commencing the vegetarian experiments. He has also made 
 it a rule, when possible, to sleep on a hard bed with a hard pil- 
 low. He has generally retired to rest at nine o'clock and rose 
 at six, making nearly nine hours sleep. He has always walked 
 more or less daily in the open air ; but he regards that if he 
 could have had much more exercise than his occupation would 
 admit of, he would have been better off. 
 
 About eight years since, Mr. Burdell after having spent some 
 months in unpleasant mental excitement, and ate, as he now 
 believes, too many sour apples, he was attacked in the month 
 of April with diarrhoea, the first he ever had after commencing 
 his new regimen. Regarding homeopathic practice the safest 
 that he knew of at that time, and having a particular friend, a 
 homeopathic physician, in whom he confided, he consented to 
 have him prescribe, on the condition, however, that no calomel 
 or mineral poisons of whatever kind should be administered. 
 The physician, however, believing, doubtless, that it was his 
 duty to deceive him, administered both calomel and arsenic, 
 and that in no very small quantities. Moreover, he has reason 
 to believe that he was over-drugged by an evil-minded person 
 whose duty it was a part of the time to act as nurse. At all 
 events the complaint became much worse, and severe dysentery 
 set in. This continued for more than a month, and he says 
 
APPENDIX. 257 
 
 that the smell coming from his body was as bad fjs tiiat of rats 
 poisoned with arsenic. As soon as he found that he had been 
 taking calomel and arsenic, he dismissed the practitioner, and 
 declared he would take no more of his medicine. All of the 
 extremities became nearly powerless, as is common from the 
 effects of arsenic. It was more than a year before they fully 
 regained their power. It was at the time of this illness that 
 he was persuaded to break a little over the rules to which he 
 had been accustomed. He continued to use a little beef-steak 
 about two weeks, but became so nauseated and disgusted with 
 the flesh that he resolved never to eat of it again. On discon- 
 tinuing its use he grew better. And substituting for it Indian 
 meal gruel, bread, and the free use of fruits, he grew rapidly 
 better in every respect, except the extremities. It was toward 
 two years before his hmbs regained their full vigor. 
 
 Since the above illness, our subject has taken but two meals 
 a day, morning and evening, never touching food of any kind 
 between meals. Having experimentally ascertained the quan- 
 tity of nutriment required by him, he weighs or measures ac- 
 cording to their quality the amount for each meal, so as to be 
 uniform in the quantity taken. His food consists in summer 
 wholly of unholded wheat bread, and fruits of all kinds as they 
 successively appear throughout the season. He regards the 
 indigenous as the best. In winter his table supply is made up 
 with farinaceous, and baked potatoes and apples. 
 
 Previously to commencing the vegetarian experiments and 
 bathing, Mr. Burdell was every winter subject to colds ; some 
 of which were very severe upon the lungs. He repeatedly 
 experienced pulmonary hemorrhage. He has seldom been 
 troubled with symptoms of the kind since. He thinks taking 
 too much food, even of the simplest kinds, has in some instances 
 caused him to raise streaks of blood. 
 
 His daily aliment consists now (September, 1849) of brown 
 wheaten bread sometimes leavened and sometimes unleavened, 
 and peaches. He uses no butter, salt, nor spices of any 
 description. He takes no alcoholic or fermented liquors, no 
 coffee or tea, and does not now recollect when he last took 
 milk or even water, the juices of the fruits meeting and satisfy- 
 ing the demand which is naturally much diminished by the 
 total absence of animal food, salt, and spices, with the febrile 
 excitement they serve to produce. He not only bathes in cold 
 water regularly every morning throughout the year, but sleeps 
 with open windows summer and winter. He has passed most 
 of the days during the present sickly season in the city. Dur- 
 
258 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing the three chokra seasons of '32, '34, and *49, he passed on 
 unharmed. It is many years since he has taken the slightest 
 cold, or experienced the least nausea, headache, disorder of 
 the bowels, or indisposition of any kind ; and for the last seven 
 years has not omitted a single meal. "He seems," says a 
 friend, " in perfect health, with skin clear and mildly suffused 
 with a natural tinge in the place of the bloated flush of drunk- 
 enness and gluttony ; mind unclouded and active ; spirits gentle 
 and cheerful ; and conversation fluent, easy, and instructive. 
 Altogether he appears a very happy man. His wants, with his 
 mode of life, are few, and require very moderate ends to meet 
 them ; these are obtained by industry in the prosecution of his 
 professional pursuits. Much may be learned from this case, 
 and the inference will naturally arise that much sickness, with 
 its attendant calamities, is superinduced among mankind by 
 unintelligent and beast-like indulgence in improper and perni- 
 cious articles of food and drink." 
 
 7rtx svD. 
 
TOBACCO: 
 
 ITS 
 
 HISTORY. NATURE, AND EFFECTS 
 
 ON THK 
 
 BODY AND MIND. 
 
 WITH THK OPINIONS OF 
 
 REV. DR. NOTT, L. N. FOWLER, REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER, HON. HORACX 
 GREELEY, DR. JENNINGS, O. S. FOWLER, DR, R. T. TRALL, AND OTHERS. 
 
 BY JOEL SHEW, M. D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF VARIOUS WORKS ON HYDROPATHV, OR THK -WATEH-CURX 
 
 " In no one view is it possible to contemplate the creature man, /n a more absurd and ridiea 
 Cous light, than in hia attachment to tobacco." Db. Rush. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 FOWLERS AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 CLINTON HALL, 129 AND 131 NASSAU STREET. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1349, 
 
 BY FOWLERS AND WELLS, 
 
 in tliC Clerk's Office of the District Court for tlie Southern District of New \or'4. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ('oNCERNiNG the expoiisiveness of tobacco, the Earl of Stanhope 
 is 8ai4 to have made the following calculation: Every professed, 
 inveterate, and incurable snufF-taker, at a moderate computation, 
 takes one pinch every ten minutes. Every pinch, with the agree- 
 able ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose, and other incidental 
 circumstances, consumes a minute and a half. One minute and a 
 half out of every ten, allowing sixteen hours to a snuff-taker's day 
 (and he always begins early and keeps it up late), amounts to two 
 hours and twenty-four minutes out of every day, or one day out 
 of ten. One day out of every ten amounts to thirty-six and a 
 half days in a year. Hence, if we suppose the practice of forty 
 years' standing, two entire years of the snuff-taker's life will be 
 dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more to blowing it. The 
 expense of snuff, boxes, and extra handkerchiefs is another consid- 
 eration, showing as great an encroachment on his means as his time. 
 The time and money thus lost to society, if properly applied, would 
 furnish a fund sufficient to defray the national debt. 
 
 Some one has estimated the expensiveness of tobacco in this 
 wise : Suppose a tobacco-chewer is addicted to the habit of chew- 
 ing tobacco fifty years of his life, and each day of that time he con- 
 sumes two inches of solid plug, which amounts to six thousand and 
 seventy-five feet, making nearly one mile and a quarter in length 
 of solid tobacco, half an inch thick and two inches broad. What 
 would a beginner think if he had the whole amount stretched out 
 before him, and ne were told that to chew it up would be one of 
 the exercises of his life, and also that it would tax his income to the 
 amount of more than two thousand dollars ? Query Would he 
 undertake it all ? 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 In the city of New York there are aoout four hundred thou 
 sand inhabitants. About one half of the population is males. Of 
 these we will suppose that one fourth of the number smoke cigars. 
 On an average we will suppose these smokers to consume three 
 cigars each, or, for example, ten cents' worth per day. This 
 amounts, then, to no less than Jive thousand dollars^ worth of 
 cigars used in the city of New York in a single day ! We will 
 suppose that there is also about as much more used in pipes, 
 by chewing and by snuffing. There would then be consumed in 
 the city of New York one million eight hundred and twenty-Jive 
 thousand dollars^ worth of tobacco in a single year J 
 
 Let us make an estimate for a poor man. Here are multitudes 
 of such, who have hard work, year by year, to obtain the bread 
 they eat. Almost all of these men are inveterate chewers of to- 
 bacco. We wiirsuppose they use the cheapest and most miserable 
 kinds of the weed. At a low estimate each man uses five dollars' 
 worth per year, which is only a little over a single cent's worth per 
 day. This, in the space of forty years, when reckoned, principal 
 and interest, would amount to a sum that would be very conve- 
 nient to a poor old man when his hairs have grown gray. 
 
 The expensiveness of tobacco, then, is a very important consid- 
 eration important to the poor man, the rich man, the p^dilanthro- 
 pist, and the Christian. But there is yet a far more important con- 
 sideration I mean that which relates to health. If a man has 
 once lost this best of all earthly blessings, what would he not give 
 could it be again restored to him ? - All the gold and silver and pre- 
 cious metals the world has ever produced, or can ever produce, 
 bear no comparison to the value of health. 
 
 The tobacco habit is every where increasing in public favor. It 
 is hardly genteel not to be able to smoke. Looking at the habits of 
 those about us, we may well regard them as addressing the " Great 
 Plant :" 
 
 ' Scent to match thy rich perfume, 
 Chymic art did ne'er presume, 
 Through her quaint, alembic strain, 
 None 60 sovereign to tho brain. 
 Nature, that did in theo excel, 
 Framed no second smeU. 
 
PREFACE. % 
 
 Roses, violets, but toys 
 For the smaller sort of boys, 
 Or for greener damsels meant; 
 Thou art the only manly scent'- 
 
 We Americans are in some respects a peculiar people. We 
 cannot be said to be miserly, yet we outdo the nations in money- 
 making and general thrift. We go faster in our steamboats, build 
 better ships, do more hard work, eat more food, and in a shorter 
 time, than any nation on the foce of the globe. So, too, in other 
 things. We use more tea and coffee, drink more spirits, and be- 
 come gi'eater drunkards. So also we use more tobacco. But we 
 cannot be at the ti'ouble of smoking when we lie down, when wo 
 rise up, and through the whole day, as the Germans do. Nor can 
 we be satisfied in taking up so much of our time as the French and 
 English in snuffing. Two and a half hours' time out of each 
 twenty-four, in snuffing, sneezing, and blowing one's nose, does not 
 accord with the American notions of industry. The American 
 must do two things at a time. He can saw wood, or plow, or hoe 
 corn, at the same time while he is chewing a good "cud" of tobac- 
 co. He can, if need be, plead before a jury, or preach a sermon, 
 while at the same time he holds the precious bolus in one side of 
 his mouth. Besides, by the habit of chewing, more is made out 
 of the thing, more is accomplished in a given time, more of the 
 strength of the tobacco is obtained, and the system is more com- 
 pletely saturated with it. Chewing is emphatically the American 
 habit. The American can smoke, snuff, and plug his nose with 
 tobacco ; but all that is not enough ^he must chew. 
 
 But what says hydropathy to all this ? What says physiology ? 
 What the science of health ? Moreover, what says political econ- 
 omy, common morality, and even decency itself? Why, plainly 
 and emphatically, " Touch not the unclean thing." It is a more 
 than beastly practice ; and, as the couplet hath it, 
 
 " Great men and green worms will use their tobacco, 
 But ne'er a pig nor his wife ; ah ! alack, O I" 
 
 Tobacco is a good medicine, doubtless, in its proper place ; a 
 powerful means of good in certain rare emergencies, although in 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 those even there are probably better. Bit as a thing of daily and 
 general use, it is an abominable drug. 
 
 But one thing may appear singular to the reader : 1 have written 
 this little work with the expectation of changing the habits of only 
 a few. One might at first think that a book which should in a tol- 
 erable degree set forth the gi-eat evils of tobacco, would necessarily 
 be the means of reforming multitudes of foolish men. But it is 
 not so. All that the philanthropist, the physician, and the priest 
 can accomplish with those who have become addicted to the use 
 of tobacco, is but as a sand on the sea-shore, or a drop amid the 
 wide ocean. Now and then only a man, such acs John Quincy 
 Adams, or the reverend and venerable Doctor Nott, can be found 
 of self-denial sufficient to enable him to cleanse his system of the 
 disgusting, abominable, and life-destroying habit of using tobacco. 
 Often enough we can succeed in convincing a man's judgment ; 
 we can get him for a time to leave off his bad habit. But in a 
 short time a few months at most we find that he has again 
 slunk back into his old career of misery, disease, and death. 
 
 If, then, by this work, I shall be the means of warning the un- 
 initiated, and such as desire light, on an important subject, and thus 
 of keepiijg them out of a most evil habit, I shall not have spent my 
 efforts in vain. 
 
 J. S. 
 
 New York, 1849 
 
 ^^hm^^^:r'i^^^mm^j?^^-^^^ :w^^^fr^ 
 
' Books sent bt Mail to ant Post Office dj the United States," 
 
 A LIST OF WORKS 
 
 Bt Fowlers and Weijls, Clinton Hall, 131 Nassau Street, New Yobs. 
 
 In order to accommodate "The People," residing m all parts of the United States, the undcf' 
 gigned Publishers will forward by return of the First Mail, any book named in the follownng List. 
 The postage will be pre-paid by them, at the New York Office. By this arrangemer. of pre- 
 paying postage in advance, fifty per cent, is saved to the purchaser. Tlie price of each work, 
 including postage, is given, so that the exact amount may be remitted. AU letters containing 
 orders, should be post-paid, and directed as follows . Fo-ilers and Wells, 
 
 Clinton Hall, 131 Nassau Street, New York. 
 
 Combe's Lectures on Phrenol- 
 
 ogy. A complete course. Bound in Muslin, $1 25. 
 
 Chart, for Recording various 
 
 velopmenU. Designed for Phrenologists. 6 cents. 
 
 Constitution of Man. By Greo. 
 
 Combe. Authorized Edition. Paper, 62 cts. Muslin, 87 cts. 
 
 Constitution of Man. School 
 
 Edition. Arranged with Questions. 30 cents. 
 
 Defence of Phrenology, with 
 
 Arguments and Testimony. By Dr. Boardman. Paper, 
 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Domestic Life, Thoughts on. 
 
 Its Concord and Discord. By N. Sizer. 15 cents. 
 
 Education Complete. Em- 
 bracing Physiology. Animal and Mental, Self-Culture, 
 and Memory. lu 1 vol. By O. S. Fowler. $2 50. 
 
 Education, Founded on the 
 
 Nature of Man. Br. Spurzheim. 62 cts. Muelin, 87 cts. 
 
 Familiar Lessons on Phrenol- 
 
 ogy and Physiology. Muslin, in one volume. $1 25. 
 
 fiove and Parentage : applied 
 
 to the Improvement of OUBpring. 30 cents, 
 rhe same, in Muslin, including AmatiVknkss. 75 cents. 
 
 Marriage : Its History and 
 
 Philrsophv wit\ Directions for Happy Marriages. 
 Bouci iu Paper, 50 cents. Musliu 75 cents. 
 
 Merrory and Intellectual Im- 
 prove ent: Applied to Self-Education. By 0. S. 
 Fowler, Papet 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Mental Science, Lectures on. 
 
 According to the Philosophy of Phrenology. By Rev. 
 G. S. VVeaver. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Matrimony: or. Phrenology 
 
 murt Phj-siology applied to the Selection of Oetgonial I 
 C.iinpatiionij for Life. 30 Cir.ts. ! 
 
 Moral and Intellectual Sci- 
 ence. By Combe, Gregory, and others. Muslin, 92 30. 
 
 Phrenology Proved, lUustra- 
 
 ted. and Applied. Thirty-seventh edition. A standard 
 work on the science. Muslin, f 1 25. 
 
 Phrenological Journal, Ameri- 
 can Monthly. Quarto, Illustrated. A year. One Dollar. 
 
 Popular Phrenology, with 
 
 Phrenological Developments. 30 cents. 
 
 Phrenology and the Scrip- 
 tures. By Rev. John Pierpont. 12 cents. 
 
 Phrenological Guide : Design- 
 ed for the use of students. 15 cents. 
 
 Phrenological Almanac : Illus- 
 
 trated with numerous engravings. 6 cents. 
 
 Phrenological Bust : designed 
 
 especially for Learners, showing the exact location of all 
 the Organs of the Brain fully developed. Price, includ- 
 ing box for packing, $1 25. [Not mailable.] 
 
 Religion, Natural and Reveal- 
 ed, Or the Natural Theology and Moral Bearings of 
 Phrenology. Paper, 62 cents. Musliu, 87 cents. 
 
 Self-Culture and Perfection of 
 
 Character. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Self-Instructor in Phrenology 
 
 and Physiology, Illustrated, with One hundred Engrav- 
 ings. taper, 30 cents. Muslin, 50 cents. 
 
 Synopsis of Phrenology and 
 
 Physiology. By L. N. Fowler. 15 cents. 
 
 Symbolical Head and Phreno- 
 logical Chart, in Map Form, showing the Natural Lan. 
 giiage 01 the Phrenological Orgais. 25 cents. 
 
 Temperance and Tight-Lac- 
 ing. Ou the Laws of Life. By O. S. F. 15 cent*. 
 
 Works of G-all, Combe, Spurz- 
 heim and Others.t gether with all worljion Phrenology, 
 for sale, wh(jle8!ite and retail. Agents and Bookseller* 
 supplied, by Fowlkes and Wklls, New York. 
 
FOWLEKS AND WeLLS PuBIJCATIONS. 
 
 i2ir0pt^2, 0r Matu-Crt 
 
 "If the pxoflk can be thoroughly indoctrinated in the g*!neral principles of Hydeopathy, they will not er. mneh, 
 certainly not fatally, in their home application of the Watkb-Cure Appliamces to the common diseaae of tne day. 
 If they can go a step further, and make themselves acquainted with the laws of lifk and HSiLTH. they will woU 
 nigh emancipate themfelves from all need of doctors of any sort." Cb. Tball, in Hydbopathy fob thk Pboplk. 
 
 Accidents and Emergencies. 
 
 By Alfred Smee. Notes by Trail. Illustrated. 15 cenU. 
 
 Bulwer, Forbes and Houghton 
 
 on the Water Treatment. One large volume. $1 2S. 
 
 Cook -Book, Hydropathic. 
 
 With new Recipes. By R. T. Trail, M. D. Paper, 62 
 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Children ; Their Hydropathic 
 
 fement in Health and Disease. By Dr. Shew. |1 25. 
 
 Consumption : Its Causes, Pre- 
 vention and Cure. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 81 cents. 
 
 Curiosities of Common Water. 
 
 A Medical work. From London edition. 30 cents. 
 
 Cholera : Its Causes, Preven- 
 tion and Cure : and all other Bowel Complaints. 30 cts. 
 
 Confessions and Observations 
 
 of a Water Patient. By Sir E. Lytton Bulwei. 15 ets. 
 
 Errors of Physicians and Oth- 
 ers, in the Application of the Waler-Cure. 30 cents. 
 
 Experience in "Water-Cure, in 
 
 Acute and other Diseases. By Mrs, Nichols. 30 cents. 
 
 Hydropathic Encyclopedia. A 
 
 Complete Svstem of Hydropathy and Hygiene. Illus- 
 trated. By"R. T. TraLl, M. D. Two volumes, with 
 nearly One Thousand pages. Illustrated. Price, $3 00. 
 
 Hydropathy for tlie People. 
 
 Notes, by Dr. Trull. Paper, 62 cents. M;,slin, 87 cents. 
 
 Hydropathy, or Water-Cure. 
 
 Principles, and Modes of Treatment. Dr. Shew. $1 25. 
 
 Home Treatment for Sexual 
 
 Abuses, with Hydropathic AInnagement. A Practical 
 Treatise for Both Sexes. By Dr. TraU. 30 cents. 
 
 Hygiene and Hydropathy, 
 
 Lectures on. By R. S. Houghton, M. D. 30 cents. 
 
 Introduction to the "Water* 
 
 Cure, With First Principles. 15 cents. 
 
 Midwifery and the Diseases ol 
 
 Women. A practical work. By Dr. Shew. |1 25. 
 
 Milk Trade in New York and 
 
 Vicio!.^. ByMullaly. Introduction by TraU. 30 cents. 
 
 Parent's Guide and Childbirth 
 
 Made Easy. By Mrs. H. Pendleton. 60 cents. 
 
 Philosophy of Water-Cure. By 
 
 John Balbimie, M. D. A work for beginners. 30 rts. 
 
 Pregnancy and Childbirth, 
 
 Water-Cure for Women, with cases. 30 cents. 
 
 Principles of Hydropathy ; 
 
 Invalid's Guide to Health. By D. A. Harsha. 15 ctnts. 
 
 Practice of Water-Cure. By 
 
 Drs. Wilson and Gully. A handy, popular work. 30 cts. 
 
 Science of Swimming : G-iv- 
 
 iiig Practical Instruction to Learners. 12 cents. 
 
 Water-Cure Library ; Em- 
 bracing the Most Important Works on the Subject. In 
 seven large 12mo. volumes. A Family work. |6 00. 
 
 Water-Cure in America, con- 
 taining Reports of Three Hundred Cases. |1 25. 
 
 Water and Vegetable Diet in 
 
 Scrofula, Cancer, Asthma, &c. By Dr. Lamb. Notes bj 
 Shew. 62 cents. MusliUj 87 cent*. 
 
 Water-Cure in Every Known 
 
 Disease. By J. H. Rausse. 62 rents. Muslin, S7 cents. 
 
 Water-Cure Manual ; A Pop- 
 
 ular Work on Hydropathy. 62 cents. Muslin. 87 cents 
 
 AVater-Cure Almanac, Con- 
 
 tainiug much important matter for all classes. 6 cents. 
 
 Wate-Cure Journal and Her- 
 ald of Reforms. Devoted to Hydropathy and Medic* 
 Reform. Published monthly, at One Dollar a Year. 
 
 FowLSRS Aim Wbli.8 have all works on Physiology, Hydbopathy, and the Natural Sciences generally. Book- 
 ellers supplied on the most liberal terms. Aoints wanted in every state, county, and town. These works are univer' 
 ally popular, ari thousands might be sold where they have never yet been introduced. 
 
 To PRBVENT MtscABBiAr.Ek, DELAYS OR OMISSIONS, bU letters and other communications should, in all cusis, be 
 post-paid, and directed U the Publishers, asfoll )ws: Fowlkks axd Wkj.18, Clintcn Hall, 131 Nassau St., New York. 
 
Fowlers and Wetj;^ Publications. 
 
 Thb Pas '.ishkbs would r-jcpfccirullj re^r strangers, Agents, and Country dealers, to any 9f the principal P 
 Hihers ia New York, Phiiadeiphia, Boston, or other cities, for aridence of their ability to fulfi. all contracts, and to ineJ 
 kll engagementsi Thev have been many years before the public, engaged in the publjst Jig business in the City of Nw 
 York. 
 
 ||pi0l0gjy, llnmtrism u)i |spl]0l0gg. 
 
 ON PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 Amativeness ; or, Evils and 
 
 Remedies of Excessive and Perverted Sexuality, with 
 Advice to the Married and Single. 15 cents. 
 
 Combe on Infancy ; or, the 
 
 Physiological ann Moral Management of Children. Il- 
 lustrated Paper, 6'2 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Combe's Physiology, Applied 
 
 to the Improvement of Mental and Physical Education. 
 Notes by Fowler. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cenU. 
 
 Chronic Diseases, Especially 
 
 Nervous Diseases of Women. Important work. 30 cents. 
 
 Digestion, Physiology of. The 
 
 Principles of Dietetics. By Anditw Combe. 30 cents. 
 
 Food and Diet : Containing an 
 
 Analysis of every kind of Food and Drink. By Percira. 
 Paper, 87 cents. Muslin, $1 26. 
 
 Generation, Philosophy of : 
 
 Its Abuses, Causes, Prevention, and Cure. 30 cents. 
 
 Hereditary Descent: Its Laws 
 
 and Facts applied to Human Improvement. O. S. F. 
 New edition. Paper, 6i ceuU. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Maternity : Or the Bearing 
 
 and Nursing of Children, including Female Education. 
 O. S. Fowler. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Natural Laws of Man. By Dr. 
 
 Spurzheim. A good work. 30 cents. 
 
 Natural History of Man. By 
 
 Dr Newman. Illustrated. Paper, 62 eta. Muslin, 87 cts. 
 
 Physiology, Animal and Men- 
 
 tal : Applied to Hi alth of Body and Power of Mind. 
 By O. S. F. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Reproductive Organs; Their 
 
 Causes, and Cure Hydropathically. 15 cents. 
 
 Sober and Temperate Life : 
 
 with Notes and Illustrations by Louis Comaro. 30 cents. 
 
 Tobacco : Its Effect on th 
 
 Body and Mind. By Dr. Shew. 30 cents. 
 
 Teeth: Their Structure, Dis- 
 
 ease, and Management, with many Engravings. 15 ct. 
 
 Tea and Coffee ; Their Physi- 
 
 cal. Intellectual and Moral Effects. By Alcott. 15 cts. 
 
 Tobacco, Use of; Its Physical, 
 
 Intellectual and Moral Effects. By Alcott. 15 cents. 
 
 Vegetable Diet, as Sanctioned 
 
 by Medical Men, and Experience in all ages. By Dr. 
 Alcott. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 MESMEEISM AND PSYCHOLOGY. 
 Biology ; Or the Principles of 
 
 the Human Mind. By Alfred Smee. Illustrated. 30 cts. 
 
 Electrical Psychology, Phi- 
 losophy of, in Twelve Lectures. By Di. J. B. Dod* 
 Paper," 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Elements of Animal Magnet- 
 
 iem ; Or Process and Practical Application. 15 cents. 
 
 Fascination, or the Philosophy 
 
 of Charming (Magnetism). Illustiating the Principlef 
 of Life. Paper, 50 ceuts. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Mental Alchemy. A Treatise 
 
 on the Mind and Nervous Sj'ctem. By Wiliii, as. 62 cts. 
 
 Macrocosm and Microcosm ; or 
 
 the Universe Without and the Universe Within. By 
 Fishbough. Scientific Work. Paper, 62 cts. Muslin. 
 87 cents. 
 
 Philosophy of Mesmerism and 
 
 Clair\'oyance, Six Lectures, with Instruction. 30 cents. 
 
 Psychology, or the Science of 
 
 the Soul. By Haddock. Illustrated. 30 cents 
 
 Spiritual Intercourse, Philoso 
 
 phy of ; an Explanation of Modern Mysteries. 62 cent* 
 
 Supernal Theology, and Life 
 
 in the Spheres. By Owen G. Warreu 30 cents. 
 
 EiTHiE OF THKSB WoEKs may be ordered and received by return of the ftrst mail, postage prepaid by Cj 
 Publishers, Please address all letters, post-paid, to Fowlkhs and Wells, 
 
 Clinton Hall, ISl Nassau Sweet, New York. 
 K. B. Please be particular to p-n at l> nun:* oi v )vn Post Offick, County and Statk. 
 
Fowlers and "VVells Pc^lications. 
 
 |I]0n0p^gl]g anij lliuHlanejaus^ 
 
 When single copies of these works are wanted, the amount, in postage stamps, small change, or bank Mtet may ba 
 Mcloeed in a letter and sent to the Publishers, who will forward the books by return of the first mail. 
 
 ON PFONOGRAPHY. 
 
 Constitution of the United 
 
 States, in Phonography, Corresponding style. 15 cents. 
 
 Declaration of Independence, 
 
 in Phonography, a sheet ; for frammg. 15 cents. 
 
 Phonographic Teacher ; Being 
 
 an Inductive Exposition of Phonography, intended fr a 
 school book, and to afford coni,plete instruction to those 
 who have not the assistance of an oral teachei. By E. 
 Webster. In Boards. 45 cents. 
 
 Phonographic Envelopes. 
 
 Large and Small, cotiViining Brief Explanations of Phj. 
 nography and its Utility. Price, per thousand, |3 25. 
 
 Phonographic Alphabet, upon 
 
 Enamelled Card. Price, per hundred, *3 00. 
 
 Phonographic Word-Signs, on 
 
 Cardv Per hundred copies, |3 00. 
 
 The Universal Phonographer : 
 
 M mthly Journal, devoted to the Dissemination of Pho- 
 nograph^', and to Verbatim Reporting, with Practijal 
 Instruction to Learners. Printed in Phonography. [No 
 djfcoaat on this work.] Price, a Yeab, $1 00. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Botany for all Classes ; Con- 
 taining a Floral Diotionary, with numerous Illustrations. 
 Paper, 62 cunts. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Chemistry, Applied to Physi- 
 ology, Agriculture, and Commerce. By Liebig. 25 cts. 
 
 Delia's Doctors ; or, A Grlance 
 
 Behind the Scenes. By Miss Hanna Gardner Creamer. 
 
 Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Essay on Wages, Showing the 
 
 Necessity of a Woikingman's Tariff. 15 cents. 
 
 ^amiliar Lessons on Astrono- 
 my. Designed for Childr'^n and Youth in Schools and 
 Families. Mrs. Fowler. Paper, 62 cts. M.islin, 83 cts. 
 
 Future of Nations, A Lecture. 
 
 By Louis Kossuth. Revied by the author. 11 cents. . 
 
 Hints toward Reforms, in Lec- 
 tures, Addresses, and other Writings. By H. Greley, 
 Second Edition, Enlarged, with Crystal Palace. $1 15. 
 
 Hopes and Plelps for the Young 
 
 of Both Sexes. By Rev. G. S. Weaver. An excellent 
 work. Paper, 62 cents. Musbn, 87 centa. 
 
 Human Rights, and their Po- 
 
 litical Guaranties. By Judge Hurlbut. An important 
 work. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 centa. 
 
 Home for All ; New, Cheap, 
 
 Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building. 87 cents. 
 
 Immortality Triumphant. 
 
 The Existence of a God, with the Evidence. By Rev. J. 
 B. Dods. Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Innovation Entitled to a Full 
 
 and Candia Hearing. By John Patterson. 15 cents. 
 
 Literature and Art. By S 
 
 Margaret Fuller. Introduction by Horace Greeley. $1 25. 
 
 Labor : Its History and Pros- 
 pects. Use and Abuse of Wealth. By Owen. 30 cents. 
 
 Power of Kindness ; Inculca- 
 ting the Christian Principles of Love over Physical 
 Force. Paper, 30 cents. Muslin, 50 cents. 
 
 Population, Theory of. The 
 
 Law of Animal Fertility. Introduction by Trail. 15 cts. 
 
 Temperance Reformation 
 
 Its History from the First Temperance Society to the 
 Adoption of tne Maine Law. By Armstrong. |1 25. 
 
 The Student: A Monthly Mag- 
 
 azine, Devoted to the Physical , Moral, and Intellectual 
 Improvement of Youth. Amply Illustrated. Price, One 
 Dollar a Year. 
 
 Woman : Her Education and 
 
 Influence. With an Introduction by Mrs. C. M. Kirk 
 land. Paper, 50 cents. Muslin, 81 cents. 
 
 Woman, in all Ages and Na 
 
 tions. An Authentic History, from the Earliest Ages. 
 Paper, 62 cents. Muslin, 87 cents. 
 
 Thksk works may be ordered in large or small quantiti:\s. A liberal discount will be tnade to Agents, and others, 
 l^ho buy to sell again. They may be sent by Express or as Freight, by Railroad, Steamships, Sailing Vessels, by Stage 
 r Canal, to any City, Town, or Village in the United States, the Canadas, to Europe, or any place on the Globe. 
 Checks or drafts, for large amounts, on New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, always preferred. We pay cost of exchang 
 IC3r AH letters should be post-paid, and addressed ai toiiowB ; Fowlbrsand Wells, 
 
 [Name the P^st OflSce, Co., and Stats.l Clinton Hall, 131 Nawa j St., Ne York, 
 
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any 
 University of California Library 
 or to the 
 NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 BIdg. 400, Richmond Field Station 
 University of California 
 Richmond, CA 94804-4698 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 2-month loans may be renewed by calling 
 (510)642-6753 
 
 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing 
 books to NRLF 
 
 Renewals and recharges may be made 4 
 days prior to due date. 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 FEB 2 2001 
 
 12,000(11/95) 
 
^..... / 
 
 (I 
 
 IB 27453 
 
 
 U. C. BERKELEY L>BRAR'ES 
 
 CDSfiD0b3E3 
 
 290349 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA I^IBRARY 
 
Hv