68

Dr. LYON PLAYFAIR, who has entered into some extended inquiries for some years, as to the nature of the soldiers' diets in England, France, Prussia, and Austria, concludes that a full-grown, able-bodied man requires on an average about

It is also shown by PLAYFAIR, that in order to get this daily supply of flesh-forming food for one week (28 oz.), you must buy, respectively,—

In like manner, in order to obtain the equivalent of heat-givers required for a week's nutrition of an adult, you must purchase

s. d.

4160z. butcher's meat, costing

17 4

224oz. cheese,

616oz. potatoes,

298oz. bread,

190oz. flour,

221oz. split peas,

183oz. oatmeal,

Thus it will be seen that OATMEAL, PEAS, and wheat FLOUR afford the cheapest elements of nutrition, supplying as they do, at the smallest cost, the requisite amount alike of the flesh-formers and heat-suppliers. Well might the Poet Burns sing of

"The halesome parritch, chief of Scotia's food."

Last year, some very extended and elaborate investigations, were completed under the sanction of the Privy Council, the results of which were published by government in Dr. JOHN SIMON's Sixth Report, as medical officer, on Public Health. The inquiries were specially carried out by Dr. EDWARD SMITH, F.R.S., under the direction of Dr. SIMON, and related mainly to the "Food of the Poor Labouring Classes of England;" but they included also some more limited investigation respecting similar classes in Scotland and Ireland.

Dr. Smith, who is an experienced physician, examined the food of 553 households in England and Wales, of 29 in Scotland, and 52 in Ireland. In 125 English cases the inquiry related to the poorer classes of indoor workpeople, such as silk weavers, needlewomen, glove stitchers, stocking weavers, and shoemakers, almost all of whom were, of course, resident in towns. In nearly all the remaining 509 cases the inquiry related to farm labourers. England appears to be the worst fed of the four divisions of the United Kingdom; Scotland and Ireland are the best fed; and Ireland in one particular rather worse, in another rather better, fed than Scotland. The general result, as summed up by Dr. Smith, is as follows:"On the whole there was the most nutriment, the least sum spent upon food, the least variety of food, the greatest economy in the selection of food, the most breadstuffs and milk, the least sugars, | fats, meats, cheese, and tea in Ireland. There was the least amount of nutriment, the greatest variety of foods, the most costly selection of food, the least quantity of breadstuffs and milk, the greatest quantity of sugars, fats, and meats in England." The average weekly cost per head of this food will place this result in a still more remarkable light. In England it was 2s. 11 d., in Wales it was 3s. 54d., in Scotland 2s. 32d., and in Ireland 1s. 93d. Comparing, moreover, the amount of nutriment obtained by the same money, it appears that Ireland obtains more than twice as much for the money as England. These conclusions are founded upon a comparison of the elements which each dietary contains of the two chief principles of nutrition-carbon and nitrogen.

"I was desirous," says Dr. Smith (p. 288), "to ascertain the opinion of persons so circumstanced as to the necessity for the use of [flesh] meat, and when I met with a thoughtful and intelligent labourer I asked the question. The answer generally was that they should like to have more of it, but it was not necessary either for health or strength." This testimony more especially refers to families in Tipperary, Kerry, Limerick, and Clare, where it appears "both bacon and butchers' meat were less commonly obtained than in the other localities visited. Some families obtained it only for the Sunday's dinner; others lb. a month; 3lbs. a month; 5lbs. once a month; 1lb. in three months; six times a year; and many procured it only on two feast days in the year." These poor, hard-working, simpleminded people liked the meat, and would like to have had more of it; but they had sense enough to know that "it was not necessary either for health or strength."

Let me now give you a practical fact, in illustration, of recent date and near to home. The following paragraph is from the Manchester Courier of Feb. 18, 1865:

"A SUPPER FOR A HALFPENNY.-On Thursday evening the Bolton Working Men's Club was the scene of much bustle. An enterprising tradesman of the town had a week or two before signified his willingness to supply the members and visitors with a good supper for one halfpenny. The night was accordingly fixed, and an appropriate announcement of the repast posted on the notice board of the club. Much curiosity was excited as to what kind and quantity of victuals could be supplied at so small a charge. The novelty of the project induced many to invest a halfpenny, and by Wednesday night more than 300 tickets had been sold. On Thursday the demand for them was so great that many of them could have been sold at twopence each. The supply was, however, necessarily limited. The total number of tickets sold was 327. The supper was served at eight o'clock, each ticket-holder being supplied with a plate of cake, thickly treacled, with an abundant supply of buttermilk. We are informed that the gentleman who undertook the management of the affair reaped a slight pecuniary profit.-Bolton Guardian, Feb. 11."

No preparation of butcher's meat, not even of that nasty South American jerked beef, however prepared, could compete, for economy, with the Bolton Working Men's Club supper.

The following table gives at a glance the comparative food values of various articles of ordinary diet, showing the relative economy of each article when compared with BREAD.*

From this table it is seen that BREAD at 13d. per lb. yields 1,450 grains of CARBON and 66 grains of NITROGEN for one penny; BARLEY, at 1d. per lb., yields 2,500 grains of carbon and 93 grains of nitrogen for one penny; MAIZE, at 1d. per lb., yields 2,800 grains of carbon and 121 grains of nitrogen for one penny. On the other hand, BEEF, at 74d. per lb., yields only 320 grains of carbon and 23 grains of nitrogen for one penny; MUTTON, at 7d. per lb.. yields 415 grains of carbon and 20 grains of nitrogen for one penny; PORK, at 7d. per lb., yields 483 grains of carbon and 18 grains of nitrogen for one penny.

* From Dr. Edward Smith's Tables, in "PRACTICAL DIETARY."

Taking the two groups of articles, as samples of the two classes of diet, the relative economic values will be as follows:

Showing that THREEPENCE spent in BREAD, BARLEY, and OATMEAL; and threepence spent in BEEF, MUTTON, and PORK, will realize the following result as to nourishment:

More than four-fold value, in favour of the Vegetarian system of diet!

We need not enter further into the economics of the question, though very much more might be added. And it need scarcely be remarked, that as we are responsible beings, this is not a matter of indifference, even where it may be said that we can afford to be extravagant in our Dietetic habits. We all acknowledge the Christian and manly duty of feeding the hungry, and we all have civic duties to perform of providing for paupers, criminals, and the insane. It is, then, surely well to know how we can best discharge these duties-on the wisest, widest, and cheapest scale. If that man is a benefactor who makes two blades of grass grow, where only one grew before; surely he is not wise nor beneficent, who spends his money in feeding one hungry brother, when he could equally well, and even better, with the same amount, feed a family of four or five.

II. The WHOLESOME and NOURISHING character of Vegetarian food.—It may be objected, that the mere cost of food is an inadequate and fallacious test, unless it can be shown that the cheaper class of food is really as wholesome and as nourishing; and will supply all the vital wants of the system, warming, repairing, re-invigorating and preserving the parts, and thus tending to physical health, energy, endurance, and longevity. This is the second and the more important part of the task I have undertaken in this paper. And here I feel that the ground is very strong and sound; and that the proofs are so numerous, varied, and cogent, that the argument, when intelligently grasped, becomes irresistible. I bring before you no mere theory,-no fine poetic dream, -no vain and idle speculation. There is no one so sceptical or captious as to be able to say that men cannot live, labour, and enjoy life, performing all its functions and its duties, without partaking of any portion of the flesh of animals. You know that there are men and women living in your midst who have abstained for ten years, twenty years, thirty years, and even fifty years, who have lived active, useful lives, not living to themselves, but earnestly serving their generation as good citizens, and who are still hale, active, and hearty. There are some present who have never indulged in the use of flesh-meats; and I can bear a testimony in favour of Vegetarianism, based upon eighteen years of rigid abstinence from fish, flesh, and fowl. I have the pleasure of knowing, corresponding with, and frequently meeting, many others, residing in various parts of England,

Ireland, and Scotland, who have for many years adopted the same practice, and who bear the same testimony.

If time would permit, testimony could be quoted to any extent, from all ages, nations, peoples, and tongues. Not to go back to the earliest ages of the world-the "golden age" of the poets, the pre-historic age of primeval innocence, when man was in Paradise, and when no act of carnivorous slaughter had marred the universal harmony of that beautiful creation that God pronounced to be "very good;" it may be observed that the Vegetarian system of diet has always had illustrious exemplars and defenders. I will but briefly refer to a few. PYTHAGORAS, who lived 500 years before Christ, and was one of the most celebrated philosophers of antiquity, practised and recommended a Vegetarian diet, strictly prohibiting the use of flesh by his disciples and himself. This is so well known a fact, that those who abstain from flesh-food, to the present time, are frequently called Pythagoreans. He was a man of immense powers of mind and vast learning; and it is said that he was the first demonstrator of the 47th problem of Euclid's First Book. One noble maxim of this fine old heathen sage has become an English proverb, and is worthy to be inscribed in letters of gold, over every mantelpiece in the land:

"Fix on that course of life which is the most excellent, and habit will render it the most delightful."

Zeno the Stoic, Diogenes the Cynic, Plato, Plutarch, Plautus, Proclus, Empedocles, Socion, Quintus Sextus, Appolonius, Tyanæus, Porphyry, and numerous others amongst the ancient sages, abstained from animal food; and more recently Haller, Ritson, (celebrated for his numerous works and splendid talents) Dr. Cheyne, Dr. Lamb, Mr. Newton, (who wrote a work entitled "Return to Nature,") Shelley, Dr. Hufeland, Sir Richard Phillips, Professor R. D. Mussey, of Maine, U.S.; Dr. James, of Wisconsin; Dr. Whitlaw, Dr. W. A. Alcott, of Boston, U.S., advocated and personally adopted for many years, a strictly and exclusively Vegetarian diet. Clement of Alexandria, says of St. Matthew, that "he abstained from the eating of flesh; and that his diet was fruits, roots, and herbs," (Vide Smith's "Fruits and Farinacea, the Proper Food of Man," p. 143.)

Facts and favourable testimonies might also be quoted from Franklin, Swedenborg, Newton, Wesley, Howard, Linæus, Daubenton, Gassendi, Cuvier, Ray, Lawrence, Monboddo, Bell, and many other celebrated men.

But whole nations, both ancient and modern, have subsisted for many generations on a Vegetarian diet; and it is more than probable that a large majority of the human race, both now and in all previous ages, have lived without the use of flesh

food.

"It may indeed be doubted," says ADAM SMITH, in his Wealth of Nations, (Book V. p. 370.) "whether butcher's meat is anywhere a necessary of life. Grain and other vegetables, with the help of milk, cheese, and butter, or oil, when butter is not to be had, it is known from experience, can, without butcher's meat, afford the most plentiful, the most wholesome, the most nourishing, and the most invigorating diet. Decency nowhere requires that any man should eat butcher's meat, as it in most places requires that he should wear a linen shirt, or a pair of leather shoes."

LIEBIG, in his "Animal Chemistry," says:

"Grain, and other nutritious vegetables, yield us, not only in starch, sugar, and gum, the carbon which protects our organs from the action of oxygen, and produces in the organism the heat which is essential to life, but also in the form of vegetable fibrine, albumen, and caseine, our blood, from which the other parts of our body are developed." "These important products of vegetation are especially abundant in the seeds of the different kinds of grain, and of peas, beans, and lentils, and in the roots and juices of what are commonly called

vegetables. They exist, however, in all plants, without exception, and in every part of plants, in larger or smaller quantity." Again:-" Vegetable fibrine and animal fibrine, vegetable albumen and animal albumen, hardly differ, even in form; if these principles be wanting in the food, the nutrition of the animal is arrested; and when they are present, the graminivorous animal obtains in its food the very same principles on the presence of which the nutrition of the carnivora entirely depends.' The next statement is very important to be remembered. "Vegetables produce in their organism the blood of all animals, for the carnivora, in consuming the blood and flesh of the graminivora, consume, strictly speaking, only the vegetable principles which have served for the nutrition of the latter."

Professor W. B. CARPENTER, of the London University, says :

"Good wheaten bread contains more nearly than any other substance in ordinary use, the proportion of azotized and non-azotized matter [carbonised and nitrogenous elements] which is adapted to repair the waste of the system, and to supply the wants of combustible material, under the ordinary conditions of civilised life in temperate climates; and we find that health and strength can be more perfectly sustained upon that substance than upon any other taken alone."

In the "Journal of the Statistical Society" for September, 1863, appeared an able and elaborate paper from the pen of Dr. W. A. Guy, Professor of Forensic Medicine, King's College, London, Medical Superintendent of the prison at Millbank, and one of the honorary secretaries of the Statistical Society. The subject and scope of the paper referred to will appear from its title-" On Sufficient and Insufficient Dietaries, with Reference to the Dietaries of Prisoners." The paper was read before the Statistical Society before it was published, and it bears all the marks of careful preparation, extended research, and close observation.

Dr. Guy gives a number of examples of prison dietaries where flesh meat was excluded, and says:—

"I have no hesitation, then, in expressing an opinion in favour of the sufficiency of a dietary from which the meat element is wholly excluded. I have no doubt that health may be preserved, and with it the capacity for labour, on a diet consisting of milk and vegetable food; and I should have no hesitation in prescribing for all criminals under short terms of imprisonment a diet consisting wholly of bread and potatoes. I think that the experience acquired at the Devizes House of Correction, at Stafford and at Glasgow, would be a complete justification for such a dietary."

In his concluding remarks he adds the following proposition as one of the distinct results of his enquiry :

"That we possess conclusive evidence of the sufficiency of a diet from which meat is wholly excluded, and even of a diet consisting entirely of vegetable matter; that such a diet would probably suffice for able-bodied paupers, and even for prisoners sentenced to hard labour, and for convicts employed at public works; and that this is true of men previously accustomed to animal food."

Mr. FAIRBAIRN, of Manchester, in the "Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain," says:

"I observed in a late journey to Constantinople, that the boatmen or rowers of the caiques, who are perhaps the first rowers in the world, drink nothing but water; and they drink that profusely during the hot months of summer. The boatmen and water-carriers of Constantinople are decidedly, in my opinion, the finest men in Europe-as regards their physical development; and they are all water drinkers. Their diet is chiefly

bread; now and then a cucumber, with cherries, figs, dates, mulberries, or other fruits, which are abundant there; now and then a little fish. Occasionally, I believe, they eat the flesh of goats; but I never saw them eating any other diet than I have described. They eat about the same amount as European workmen, but, if anything, are more moderate as respects quantity."

Mr. JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM says that the inhabitants of the mountains of Himalayah, although fed upon nothing but rice, were yet much superior to our sailors in strength.

"There is a caste of Hindoos," says Sir JOHN SINCLAIR, "called, on the Western side of India, Pattamars, whose sole occupation is to carry letters and despatches by land; and they