"Animal food certainly gives most strength; but its stimulancy excites fever, and produces plethora and its consequences. The system is sooner worn out by a repetition of its stimuli, and those who indulge greatly in such diet are more likely to be carried off early by inflammatory diseases; or if, by judicious exercise, they qualify its effects, they yet acquire such an accumulation of putrescent fluids as becomes the foundation for the most inveterate chronic diseases in after age.
"The most valuable state of the mind, however, appears to be connected with somewhat less of firmness and vigor of body. Vegetable aliment, as never over-distending the vessels or loading the system, does not interrupt the stronger emotions of the mind; while the heat, fullness, and weight of animal food, are inimical to its vigorous exertion. Temperance, therefore, does not so much consist in the quantity—since the appetite will regulate that—as in the quality; namely, in a large proportion of vegetable aliment."
DR. VAN COOTH.
Dr. Van Cooth, a learned European writer—I believe a Hollander—has recently maintained, incidentally, in a learned medical dissertation, that the great body of the ancient Egyptians and Persians "confined themselves to a vegetable diet." To be sure, Dr. V. does not seem to be a vegetable eater himself, but the friends of the latter system are not the less indebted to him for the concession. The physical and moral superiority of those vegetable eating nations, in the days of their glory, are well known; and every intelligent reader of history, and honest inquirer after truth, will make his own inferences from the facts which I have mentioned.
DR. WILLIAM BEAUMONT.
The work of this gentleman, entitled "Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion," is well known—at least to the medical community. The following are some of the conclusions to which his experiments conducted him:
"Solid aliment, thoroughly masticated, is far more salutary than soups, broths, etc.
"Fat meats, butter, and oily substances of every kind, are difficult of digestion, offensive to the stomach, and tend to derange that organ and induce disease.
"Spices, pepper, stimulating and heating condiments of every kind, retard digestion and injure the stomach.
"Coffee and tea debilitate the stomach and impair digestion.