Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages Part 13

I will not stop here to oppose Dr. C.'s views in regard to the quant.i.ty of our food; for this is not the place. It is sufficient to show that he admits the importance of _quality_, and gives the preference to a diet of vegetables.

He seems in favor, in another place in his works, of sleeping after eating--perhaps a heresy, too--and inclines to the opinion that the practice would be hardly hurtful if we ate less animal food.

But his "First Lines of the Practice of Physic," abounds in testimonies in favor of vegetable food. In speaking, for example, of the cure of rheumatic affections, he has the following language:

"The cure, therefore, requires, in the first place, an antiphlogistic regimen, and particularly, a total abstinence from animal food, and from all fermented or spirituous liquors."

"Antiphlogistic regimen," in medical language, means that food and drink which is most cooling and quieting to the stomach and to the general system.

In the treatment of gout, Dr. Cullen recommends a course like that which has been stated, except that instead of proposing vegetable food as a means of cure, he recommends it as _preventive_. He says--

"The gout may be entirely prevented by constant bodily exercise, and by a low diet; and I am of opinion that this prevention may take place even in persons who have a hereditary disposition to the disease. I must add, here, that even when the disposition has discovered itself by severe paroxysms of inflammatory gout, I am persuaded that labor and abstinence will absolutely prevent any returns of it for the rest of life."

Again, in reference to the same subject, he thus observes:

"I am firmly persuaded that any man who, early in life, will enter upon the constant practice of bodily labor and of abstinence from animal food, will be preserved entirely from the disease."

And yet once more.

"If an abstinence from animal food be entered upon early in life, while the vigor of the system is yet entire, I have no doubt of its being both safe and effectual."

To guard against the common opinion that by vegetable food, he meant raw, or crude, or bad vegetables, Dr. C. explains his meaning by a.s.suring the reader that by a vegetable diet he means the "farinaceous seeds," and "milk;" and admits that green, crude, and bad vegetables are not only less useful, but actually liable to produce the very diseases, which good, mealy vegetable food will prevent or cure.

This is an important distinction. Many a person, who wishes to be abstemious, seems to think that if he only abstains from flesh and fish, that is enough. No matter, he supposes, what vegetables he uses, so they are vegetables; nor how much he abuses himself by excess in quant.i.ty.

Nay, he will even load his stomach with milk, or b.u.t.ter, or eggs; sometimes with fish (we have often been asked if we considered fish as animal food); and sometimes, worse still, with hot bread, hot buckwheat cakes, hot short-cakes, swimming, almost, in b.u.t.ter;--yes, and sometimes he will even cover his potatoes with gravy, mustard, salt, etc.

It is in vain for mankind to abstain from animal food, as they call it, and yet run into these worse errors. The lean parts of animals not much fattened, and only rarely cooked, eaten once a day in small quant.i.ty, are far less unwholesome than many of the foregoing.

But to return to Dr. C. In speaking of the proper drink for persons inclined to gout, he thus remarks:

"With respect to drink, fermented liquors are useful only when they are joined with animal food, and that by their acescency; and their stimulus is only necessary from custom. When, therefore, animal food is to be avoided, fermented liquors are unnecessary, and by increasing the acescency of vegetables, these liquors may be hurtful. The stimulus of fermented or spirituous liquors is not necessary to the young and vigorous: and, when much employed, impairs the tone of the system."

Dr. C. might have added--what indeed we should infer by parity of reasoning--that when fermented liquors are avoided, animal food is no longer necessary, and by increasing the alkaline state of the stomach and fluids, may be hurtful. The truth is, they go best together. If we use flesh and fish, which are alkaline, a small quant.i.ty of gently acid drink, as weak cider or wine, taken either _with_ our meals, or _between_ them, may be useful. It is better, however, to abstain from both.

For if a purely vegetable aliment, with water alone for drink, is safe to all young persons inclining at all to gout, to whom is it unsafe? If it tends to render a young person at all weaker, that very weakness would predispose to the gout, in some of its forms, if a person were const.i.tutionally inclined to that disease--if not to some other complaint, to which he was more inclined. It cannot, therefore, be unsafe to any, if Dr. C. is right.

But if those who are trained to it, _lose_ nothing, even in the high lat.i.tude of Scotland--where Dr. C. wrote--by confining themselves to good vegetables and water, then they must necessarily _gain_, on his own principles, by this way of living, because they get rid of any sort of necessity (he might have added, lose their appet.i.te) for fermented liquors.

More than this, as the doctor himself concludes, in another place, they prevent many acute diseases. His words are these:--"It is animal food which especially predisposes to the plethoric and inflammatory state; and that food is therefore to be especially avoided." It is true, he is here speaking of gouty persons: but his principles are also fairly susceptible, as I have shown, of a general application.

In short, it is an undeniable fact, that even a thorough-going vegetable eater might prove every thing he wished, from old established writers on medicine and health, though themselves were feeders on animal food; just as a teetotaler may prove the doctrine of abstinence from all drinks but water, from the writings of medical men, though themselves are still, in many cases, pouring down their cider, their beer, or their wine--or at least, their tea and coffee.

DR. BENJAMIN RUSH.

I find nothing in the writings of this great man which shows, with certainty, what his views were, in regard to animal food. The presumption is, that he was sparing in its use, and that he encouraged a very limited use of it in others. This is presumed, 1, from the general tenor of his writings--deeply imbued as they are with the great doctrine of temperance in all things; and, 2, from the fondness he seems to have manifested in mentioning the temperance and even abstinence of individuals of whom he was speaking.

Of Ann Woods, for example, who died at the age of ninety-six years, he says, "Her diet was simple, consisting chiefly of weak tea, milk, cheese, b.u.t.ter, and vegetables. Meat of all kinds, except veal, disagreed with her stomach. She found great benefit from frequently changing her aliment. Her drinks were water, cider and water, and mola.s.ses and vinegar in water. She never used spirits. Her memory (at her death) was but little impaired. She was cheerful, and thankful that her condition in life was happier than that of hundreds of other people."

In his account of Benjamin Lay, a philosopher of the sect of the Friends, in Pennsylvania, Dr. R. relates, that "he was extremely temperate in his diet, living chiefly upon vegetables. Turnips boiled and afterward roasted, were his favorite dinner. His drink was pure water. He lived above eighty years." It appears, also, that he was exceedingly healthy.

He relates of Anthony Benezet, a distinguished teacher of Philadelphia, who lived to an advanced age, that his sympathy was so great with every thing that was capable of feeling pain, that he resolved, toward the close of his life, to eat no animal food. He also relates the following singular anecdote of him. Upon coming into his brother's house, one day, when the family were dining upon poultry, he was asked by his brother's wife to sit down and dine with them. What! said he, would you have me eat my neighbors?

Dr. Caleb Bannister, in another part of this work, tells us that he was led to adopt a milk and vegetable diet, in incipient consumption, from reading the writings of Dr. Rush; and I have little doubt that Dr. R.

himself lived quite abstemiously, if not altogether on vegetables.

Nor is this _incidental_ testimony from Dr. Rush quite all. In his work "On the Diseases of the Mind," he speaks often of the evils of eating high-seasoned food, and especially animal food. And in stating what were the proper remedies for debility in young men, when induced by certain forms of licentiousness, he expressly insists on a diet consisting simply of vegetables, and prepared without condiments; and he even encourages the disuse of salt. Had Dr. Rush lived to this day, he would, ere now, in all probability, have fully adopted and defended the vegetable system. With views like his on the subject of intemperance, and a mind ever open to conviction, the result could hardly have been otherwise.

DR. WILLIAM LAMBE, OF LONDON.

Dr. William Lambe, of London, is distinguished both as a physician and a general scholar, and is a prominent member of the "College of Physicians." He was a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, and a fellow-student with the immortal Clarkson.

Dr. Lambe is the author of several valuable works, among which are his "Reports on Cancer," and a more recent work ent.i.tled, "Additional Reports on the Effects of a Peculiar Regimen, in Cases of Cancer, Scrofula, Consumption, Asthma, and other chronic diseases." He has also made and published numerous experiments, especially in chemistry, which is, with him, a favorite science; and it is said that he has spent fortunes in this way.

Dr. L. is now eighty-four years of age, and has lived on vegetable diet forty-two years. He commenced this course to cure himself of internal gout, and continued it because he found it better for his health. He is now only troubled with it slightly, at his extremities, which he thinks highly creditable to a vegetable course--having thrown it off from his vital organs. He is cheerful and active, and able to discharge the duties of an extensive medical practice. He walks into town, a distance of three miles from his residence, every morning, and back at night; and thinks himself as likely to live twenty years longer as he was, twenty years ago, to live to his present age.

The following is a condensed account of Dr. L.'s views, as obtained from his "Additional Reports," above mentioned. Some of the first paragraphs relate to the effects of vegetable food on those who are predisposed to scrofula, consumption, etc.

"We see daily examples of young persons becoming consumptive who never went without animal food a single day of their lives. If the use of animal food were necessary to prevent consumption, we should expect, where people lived almost entirely upon such a diet, the disease would be unknown.

"Now, the Indian tribes visited by Mr. Hearne live in this manner. They do not cultivate the earth. They subsist by hunting, and the scanty produce of spontaneous vegetation. But, among these tribes consumption is common. Their diseases, as Mr. Hearne informs us, are princ.i.p.ally fluxes, scurvy, and consumption.

"In the last four years, several cases of glandular swellings have occurred to me at the general dispensary, and I have made particular inquiries into the mode of living of such children. In the majority, they had animal food. In opposition to the accusation of vegetable food causing tumefaction of the abdomen, I must testify, that twice in my own family I have seen such swellings disappear under a vegetable regimen, which had been formed under a diet of animal food.

"Increasing the strength, for a time, is no proof of the salubrity of diet. The increased strength may not continue, though the diet should be continued. On the contrary, there is a sort of oscillation; the strength just rising, then sinking again. This is what is experienced by the trainers of boxers. A certain time is necessary to get these men into condition; but this condition cannot be maintained for many weeks together, though the process by which it was formed is continued. The same is found to hold in the training of race-horses, and fighting-c.o.c.ks.

"It seems certain that animal food predisposes to disease. Timoric, in his account of the plague at Constantinople, a.s.serts that the Armenians, who live chiefly on vegetable food, were far less disposed to the disease than other people. The typhus fever is greatly exasperated by full living.

"It seems, moreover, highly probable that the power inherent in the human living body, of restoring itself under accidents or wounds, is strongest in those who use most a vegetable regimen.

"Contagions act with greater virulence upon bodies prepared by a full diet of animal food.

"Since fishing has declined in the isles of Ferro, and the inhabitants have lived chiefly on vegetables, the elephantiasis has ceased among them.

"Those monks who, by the rules of their inst.i.tution, abstain from the flesh of animals, enjoy a longer mean term of life, as the consequence.

Of this there can be no doubt. Of one hundred and fifty-two monks, taken promiscuously in all times and all sorts of climates, there lives produced a total, according to Baillot (a writer of eminence), of 11,589 years, or an average of seventy-six years and a little more than three months.

"Those Bramins who abstain most scrupulously from the flesh of animals attain to the greatest longevity.

"Life is prolonged, under incurable diseases, about one tenth by vegetable diet; so that a person who would otherwise die at seventy, will reach seventy-seven. In general, however, the proportion is about one sixth.

"Abstaining from animal food palliates, when it does not cure, all const.i.tutional diseases.

"The use of animal food hurries on life with an unnatural and unhealthy rapidity. We arrive at p.u.b.erty too soon; the pa.s.sions are developed too early; in the male, they acquire an impetuosity approaching to madness; females become mothers too early, and too frequently; and, finally, the system becomes prematurely exhausted and destroyed, and we become diseased and old, when we ought to be in middle life.

"It affords no trifling ground of suspicion against the use of animal food that it so obviously inclines us to corpulency. Corpulency itself is a species of disease, and a still surer harbinger of other diseases.

It is so even in animals. When a sheep has become fat, the butcher knows it must be killed or it will rot and decline. It is rare indeed for the corpulent to be long-lived. They are at the same time sleepy, lethargic, and short-breathed. Even Hippocrates says, 'Those who are uncommonly fat die more quickly than the lean.'