CONTENTS

Let none falter who thinks he is right.

Abraham Lincoln.

INTRODUCTION

The arranging of this help for those who are seeking to obey the call to a higher humanitarianism, which is put forth by non-flesh-eating men and women, has been a labour of love: the labour, the result of an earnest endeavour to so write the receipts that “the way-faring woman may not err therein,” the love, of a kind whose integrity may not be questioned, since it has inspired to the never easy task of going against the stream of habit and custom, and to individual effort in behalf of the myriads of gentle and amenable creatures, which an animality that defiles the use of the word has accustomed man to killing and eating.

The name Vegetarian has come to mean one who abstains from animal flesh as food; and, as some designation is necessary, it is perhaps a sufficiently suitable one. This term did not, however, originally classify those who used a bloodless diet, but is derived from the Latin Homo Vegitus, which words described to the Romans a strong, vigorous man. The definition of the word Vegitus, as given in Thomas Holyoke’s Latin Dictionary, is “whole, sound, quick, fresh, lively, lusty, gallant, trim, brave,” and of Vegito, “to refresh, to re-create.” Professor Mayor of England adds to these definitions: “The word vegetarian belongs to an illustrious family; vegetable, which has been called its mother, is really its niece.”