“Vegetarian.—Perhaps because in primitive times hunting and pasturage were less toilsome than agriculture. But I am not called on to ‘account’ for such a fact. Their past addictedness to flesh food no more proves the present utility of flesh-eating, than their gross drinking habits prove the utility of alcohol.
“British Islander.—Can you quote any scientific authority for your contention?
“Vegetarian.—There is one which is all the more valuable because it is an admission made by an opponent. Sir William Lawrence wrote: ‘That men can be perfectly nourished, and that their physical and intellectual capabilities can be fully developed in any climate by a diet purely vegetable, has been proved by such abundant experience that it will not be necessary to adduce any formal argument on the subject.’ ‘In any climate,’ mark! And a diet ‘purely vegetable’; whereas all you are asked to do is to forego the actual flesh foods, and not the animal products. But come now, let me ask the great question!
“British Islander.—What is that? There is only one other I have in mind. What would become of the Esquimaux?
“Vegetarian.—Of course! I have always been profoundly touched by the disinterested concern of the Englishman (when vegetarianism looms ahead) for the future of that arctic people. Well, perhaps the question of what ice-bound savages might do or might not do, need scarcely delay the decision of civilised mankind. For that matter, what would become of the polar bears? If you cannot dissociate your habits from those of the Esquimaux, why don’t you eat blubber? At least they have a better reason for eating blubber than some people have for eating beef—they can get nothing else.”[29]
This whole question of diet, so far as it is decided by experience at all, can in reality be summed up in a very few words. In the first place, all that it is necessary for anyone to do is to experiment upon himself. Let him study the subject sufficiently, first of all—so that he may be sure he is balancing his diet properly, when the meat is discarded; and then give up meat, and continue the new dietary for a year or so—or even a few weeks, for that matter. The result will soon be apparent. In the next place, it is ridiculous to raise the question at all, as a matter of fact—as to its “possibility”—when we consider that seven-tenths of the inhabitants of the whole globe are vegetarians! They are not the scattered few, here and there, as the majority suppose; but the great bulk of the people in every country. The peasantry in every land have always subsisted almost exclusively upon fruits, grains and vegetables; and it is only recently, when the price of meat has been so greatly reduced, and the average wages of the people increased, that they have been enabled to buy meat at all, with any regularity. Meat-eaters have always been in the minority—and have, as a rule, shown signs of degeneracy before many centuries or even generations have passed. To anyone knowing these facts, it is little less than absurd to speak of the “impossibility” of subsisting without flesh-foods! It displays the greatest short-sightedness.
Dr Trall, in writing upon this question some years ago, said:
“They say that vegetable food is not sufficiently nutritious. But chemistry proves the contrary. So does physiology. So does experience. Indeed, it can be demonstrated that many kinds of fruit are nearly as nutritious as flesh. Many kinds of vegetables are quite as much so, and the grains and nuts several times as nutritious. They allege that human beings cannot have permanent strength without the use of animal food, right in face of the fact that the hardest work is now being done, and has always been done, by those who use the least animal food; and right in the face of the fact, too, that no flesh eating animals can endure prolonged and severe labour. I should like to see them try the experiment of working a lion or a tiger, or a hyena against an ox, a camel, or a mule. Examples exist here and there, all over the world, of men of extraordinary powers of endurance who do not use animal food at all; and history is full of such examples in all ages of the world. And again: the largest and strongest animals in the world are those which eat no flesh-food of any kind—the elephant and rhinoceros.”[30]
I cannot refrain here from alluding to the most common objection to vegetarianism we meet with in this country; and I do so for the purpose of explaining it away. The objection is, that vegetarians are themselves poor specimens of health. And the answer is that the great majority of those who are the subjects of notice and comment are invalids who are restricted to a vegetable diet, because they can recover health in no other way; and many of them are living on a strict vegetable regimen because it is the only way they can live at all. At the various hydropathic establishments in this country the most desperate cases are put on a vegetable diet, simply because it affords them the best chance of getting well. The casual observer, who judges by appearances, will always find an argument in favour of flesh-eating in the fact that the best-looking persons, physiologically, are those who eat meat.
There are, however, scattered, in America, in England and elsewhere, many persons who will not suffer by comparison, either physical or mental, with the flesh-eaters of any country that can be found. In bodily vigour and in mental capacity they are equal to any meat-eaters. Let us consider this a little more fully.