“A week or two after the race I had the pleasure of examining the winner, who had, to a large extent, arranged his diet by the aid of a previous edition of this book.... His circulation was far better than that of any meat-eater, which, to a large extent, explains his victory; and the records show that his heart was smaller at the end of the race than at the beginning. I have but little doubt that the meat-eaters who gave up had dilated hearts, owing to their obstructed circulation.... In my opinion, a few more hard facts like these (and plenty more of such records will be forthcoming) will quite dispel the meat-eating delusion that strength and endurance can be attained on no food but flesh. The truth is that 50 per cent. more endurance and strength can be obtained with many other foods; and the chief reason for this can now be seen and gauged in a moment by the rate of the capillary circulation of the individuals concerned; and this capillary circulation is proportioned to the uric acid in the blood, and is therefore slowed and obstructed by meat, which introduces uric acid.”
Professor Baelz, of Tokio, Japan, made some experiments on vegetarian natives, and, after measuring and recording some of their feats of endurance, he gave some of them meat, which they took eagerly, and regarded as a great luxury, because it was used by the “upper classes”; but after three days they came and begged to be let off the meat, as they felt tired on it, and could not work as well as before. The Professor then made some similar experiments on himself, and he found that he also was sooner tired, and more disinclined for exertion when he took meat.
Mr Eustace H. Miles, formerly amateur champion of the world and holder of the gold prize at tennis, amateur champion of the world at racquets, and of American squash, tennis, etc., is a strong advocate of vegetarianism, and has written a number of works on this subject, defending the non-flesh diet—which books are too well known to need more than a mere reference. Mr Miles, though he must be approaching middle age, is a remarkably young-looking man, with a brilliant complexion, and thinks that he will be as good ten or fifteen years from now as he is to-day. In a conversation with me, Mr Miles stated that he considered diet the all-important factor, so far as health is concerned; and exercise, and other forms of health-getting “a luxury.” I agree with him absolutely, and defended this very position in my “Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition,” pp. 618-621. I too think that if the food be regulated in quality, and sufficiently reduced in quantity, all other factors might be more or less neglected, and perfect health maintained.
But it would be useless to refer to a large number of individual cases of this character. However many I might cite, the defenders of meat-eating would be enabled to cite an equal number of cases in favour of their argument; and for this reason I do not think that individual cases are of value in establishing any conclusion beyond this one—viz. such cases show us conclusively that men can live, and can maintain a high standard of physical health and mental brilliancy upon a diet derived exclusively from the vegetable world. That is an important point, but would not be conclusive. In order to arrive at a definite conclusion, far larger numbers of vegetarians and meat-eaters must be investigated; and the question, therefore, becomes one of statistics and of the diets of nations, rather than of individuals. I shall accordingly turn to this aspect of the problem—after mentioning one additional point that must not be lost sight of, in this connection.
It must be remembered, throughout, that, for every vegetarian in England or America, there are doubtless 100 or more meat-eaters, so that the percentage of success in the athletic field and elsewhere should be at least 100 to 1—and probably a great deal more, if the balance is to be maintained between the vegetarian and flesh-eating athletes, and others before the public eye. But, as a matter of fact, we find that the percentage is very much lower than this; and that, within the last few years, at any rate, quite as many vegetarian athletes secured successes and achieved records as did the meat-eating athletes; and in some instances, where the two ran in competition, it was found that a larger percentage of vegetarian athletes achieved success than did the meat-eaters. Inasmuch as the number is so disproportioned, in the two cases, it would certainly appear that the vegetarian athletes did, on the whole, achieve a far greater percentage of successes than did the meat-eating athletes.
The diets of the various nations have so frequently been summarised and presented by writers upon this subject that it will not be necessary for me to do more than to mention briefly a few of the most essential points; and to refer the reader to those works in which these facts and arguments are to be found in full. Dr Graham, in his “Science of Human Life”; Dr John Smith, in his “Fruit and Farinacea”; Dr Anna Kingsford, in her “Perfect Way in Diet,” and, more recently and fully, the Hon. Rollo Russell, in his extensive volume, “Strength and Diet: A practical treatise with special regard to the life of nations”—all these writers have discussed this question of national health, as compared with national diet, and found, almost invariably, that in every nation whose diet consisted almost exclusively or even largely of meat, the natives were small in stature, depraved mentally and morally, and afflicted with diverse diseases; whereas those nations which were largely vegetarian did not suffer in the same way from the sicknesses and pestilences that affected their fellow-men; but were, on the contrary, more forceful, superior morally and mentally, and in every way higher in the scale of evolution than those nations which subsisted largely upon meat.
A striking example of this is to be found in the pigmy races of Central Africa. In his work, “The Pigmies,” Professor A. de Quatrefages has shown us that this miniature people, stunted as they are, mentally, physically and morally, subsist almost entirely upon meat. He says:
“The Mincopies are exclusively hunters and fishermen, living upon the shore of a sea filled with fishes, close to great forests where boars run at large, and which furnish them, besides, honey and nuts, they have not felt the necessity of wringing by labour from the soil, a supplement to their food supply; and this very luxuriance of food, perhaps, has been of influence in keeping them at the lowest point in the social scale. Francis Day informs us that a very small tribe of Mincopies camped near the English establishments, and receiving daily rations, took besides, in a single year, five hundred boars, one hundred and fifty turtles, twenty wild cats, fifty guianas and six bugongs.... All the descriptions agree in attributing to the Akkas, men and women, an extreme abdominal development, which causes the adults to resemble the children of Arabs and negroes.... But it is evident the abnormal development of the abdomen, among the Akkas, is not a true race characteristic, but that it is largely due to their manner of life, the quantity of their food, perhaps also to the general conditions of their habitat. This fact results from some observations of Count Minis Calchi, who has seen, after some weeks of regular and wholesome diet, the extreme development of the abdomen disappear, and the vertebral column resume its normal state.”
These people are described as cruel, cowardly and wanting in all the qualities that would raise them in the scale of evolution: yet their diet consists almost entirely of meat—the supposed “strengthening” and courage-breeding food of civilised nations! Emaciation is very common among them, under certain conditions. It cannot be objected to what I have said that this condition is brought about by their cannibalism, for we read (“The Pigmies,” p. 155) that: “Far from seeking human flesh, the Andamanese regard it as a deadly poison.”