"Simple water is the only fluid called for by the wants of the economy; the artificial drinks are all more or less injurious—some more so than others; but none can claim exemption from the general charge."
If it should be said that this testimony of Dr. Beaumont is by no means directly in favor of a diet exclusively vegetable. I admit it. But he certainly goes very far toward conceding every thing which I claim, when he says that "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;" and especially when he speaks so highly of farinaceous substances and good fruits. Pray, what animal food can be eaten which does not contain, at least, a small quantity of oil? And if this oil tends to induce disease, and farinaceous food does not, why should not animal food be excluded?
SIR EVERARD HOME.
This distinguished philosopher and medical gentleman, though, like many others, he insisted that vegetable food did not produce full muscular development, yet admitted the natural character of man to be that of a vegetable eater, in the following, or nearly the following, terms:
"In the history of man—in the Bible—we are told that dominion over the animal world was bestowed upon him at his creation; but the divine permission to indulge in animal food was not given till after the flood. The observations I have to make accord strongly with this tradition; for, while mankind remained in a state of innocence, there is every ground to believe that their only food was the produce of the vegetable kingdom."
DR. JENNINGS.
Dr. Jennings is the author of a work published at Oberlin, Ohio, in 1847, entitled "Medical Reform." In this volume, at page 198, we find the following facts and statements. The author is comparing the effects of animal food on the human system with those of alcohol, from which we learn his views concerning the former:
"Position I.—Animal food, in common with alcohol, creates a feverish diathesis, evidences of which are—1. An impaired state of the respiratory function. 2. The pulse is rendered more frequent and irregular, both by alcohol and meat. 3. A feverish heat is generated in the system, and persons are made more thirsty, by the use of both these substances. 4. Both substances equally induce what is called the digestive fever.
"Position II.—Alcoholic drinks lay the foundation for occasional disturbances in the system, of different kinds and grades, as bilious bowel affections, etc., and so do flesh meats. In the production of colds, animal food is far the most efficient.
"Position III.—Animal food tends, quite as strongly as the moderate use of alcoholic liquors, to weaken and disturb the balance of action between the secerning and excerning systems of vessels, by which some persons become leaner and others fleshier than they should be.