Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages Part 16

SYLVESTER GRAHAM.

Although Mr. Graham does not, so far as I know, lay claim to the "honors" of any medical inst.i.tution, it cannot be doubted that his knowledge of physiology, to say nothing of anatomy, pathology, and medicine, is such as to ent.i.tle him to a high rank among medical men; and I have, therefore, without hesitation, concluded to insert his testimony in this place.

Of his views, however, on the subject before us, it seems almost superfluous to speak, as they are set forth, and have been set forth for many years, so conspicuously, not only in his public lectures, but in his writings, that the bare mention of his name, in almost any part of the country, is to awaken the prejudices, if not the hostilities, of every foe, and of some friends (supposed friends, I mean), of "temperance in all things." It is sufficient, perhaps, for my present purpose, to say of him, that, after the most rigid and profound examination of the subject which he is capable of making--and his capabilities are by no means very limited--it is his unhesitating belief, that in every climate, and in all circ.u.mstances in which it is proper for man to be placed, an exclusively farinaceous and fruit diet is the best adapted to the development and improvement of all his powers of body, mind, and soul; provided, however, he were trained to it from the first. And even at any period of life, unless in the case of certain forms of diseases, he believes it would be preferable to exchange, in a proper manner, every form of mixed diet for one purely vegetable. Such opinions as these, as a part of his views in relation to the physical duties of man, he publicly, and strenuously, and eloquently, announces and defends.

DR. JOHN M. ANDREW.

Dr. Andrew is a pract.i.tioner of medicine in Remsen, Oneida county, State of New York. His letter was intended for chapter iv., but came too late.

This fact is the only apology for inserting it in this place. Several interesting cases of dietetic reform accompanied the letter, but I must omit them, for want of room, in this work.

REMSEN, April 28, 1838.

DEAR SIR--It is now about sixteen months since I adopted an exclusively vegetable diet. I have, however, never been very much inclined to animal food; and, indeed, before I ever heard of the Graham system I laid it aside, during summer, when farming--which, by the by, had always been my occupation till I commenced my professional course, about four years ago. I have, to the best of my knowledge, enjoyed what is commonly called good health, and possessed a degree of strength surpa.s.sed only by few; and in connection with the a.s.siduous cultivation of my mental faculties, I have carefully sought to improve my physical powers, which I deem of incalculable worth to the student, as well as to the laborer.

My attention was first called to the subject of vegetable eating by Professor Mussey, in a lecture before the medical cla.s.s of the Western Medical College of New York, while fulfilling the duties of the professorship, to which he was called in 1836. In that lecture our adaptations, and the design of the Creator in regard to our mode of subsistence, were clearly held forth, and such was the impression made on my mind, that I was induced at once to adopt the vegetable system, both in practice and theory. In my change of diet I did not suffer any inconvenience. The fact that I had, for some length of time, been living mostly on vegetables, will account for that circ.u.mstance, however.

But the great advantages derived from the change were soon perceptible, though not appreciated by others. I met with much opposition from my friends, frequently being told that I was fast losing my flesh and all my youthful vigor and vivacity. And yet, for one year and more, I have not lost a pound of flesh.

I was gazed upon as an anomaly in society; some anxiously looking, and others fearfully expecting my downfall and destruction; but both are alike disappointed. The system, though I have not been able to follow it so strictly as I could wish, from the circ.u.mstances in which I have been placed, has far exceeded my expectations. One year and more has rolled away, and I thank G.o.d I can look back, with some degree of satisfaction, on the time spent in the enjoyment of that alone which sweetens the cup of life. My most able advocacy has been my manual exertions and I have demonstrated the utility of the _system_ alike to the professional and laboring cla.s.ses of community.

I do not go beyond the truth when I say, that I cannot find a man to vie with me in the field, with the scythe, the fork, or the axe. I do not want any thing but potatoes and salt; and I can cut and put up four cords of wood in a day, with no very great exertion. I have frequently been told, by friends, that my _potato and salt system_ would not stand the test of the field; but I have silenced their clamor by actual demonstration with all the implements above named.

At present, no consideration would induce me to return to my former mode of living.

JOHN M. ANDREW.

DR. WILLIAM SWEETSER, OF BOSTON.

Dr. Sweetser is the author of a "Treatise on Consumption," and of a "Treatise on Digestion." He has also been a medical professor in the University of Vermont, and a public lecturer on health, in Boston.

In his work on consumption, while speaking of the prevailing belief of a necessity for the use of animal food to those children who possess the scrofulous or consumptive tendency, he thus remarks:

"A diet of milk and mild farinaceous articles, with perhaps light animal decoctions, appears best suited to the early years of life. Whenever there exists an evident inflammatory tendency, as is the case in some scrofulous systems, solid animal food, if used at all, should be taken with the greatest precaution.

"And again--how often is it that fat, plethoric, meat-eating children, their faces looking as though the blood was just ready to ooze out, are with the greatest complacency exhibited by their parents as patterns of health! But let it ever be remembered, that the condition of the system popularly called rude or full health, and which is the result of high feeding, is too often closely bordering on a state of disease."

In his work on digestion he seems to regard man as naturally an omnivorous animal; and, taking this for granted, he speaks as follows respecting his diet:

"One would hardly a.s.sert that even in temperate climates his (man's) system requires animal food. I doubt whether any instance can be adduced--unless man be regarded as such--of an omnivorous animal incapable of being adequately nourished by a sufficient and proper vegetable diet.

"Man, dwelling in a temperate climate, and with the power to choose, almost uniformly employs a mixture of animal and vegetable food; but how much early education may have to do in forming his taste for a mixed diet it is difficult to estimate. Habit has certainly great influence in attaching us to particular kinds of aliment. One who has long been accustomed to animal food cannot at once abstain from it without experiencing some feebleness for the want of its stimulation, and perhaps even temporary emaciation. And, on the other hand, he who has long been confined to a vegetable diet is apt to lose his relish for flesh, and, on recurring suddenly to its use, to find it too exciting.

"The liberal use of animal food has been generally thought requisite in arctic climes, to stimulate the functions, and thus furnish a more abundant supply of animal heat, to preserve against the extremity of external temperature. Northern voyagers mostly believe that fat animal food and oils are essential to the maintenance of health and life in the inhabitants of those frozen regions. But to me it would seem that their habits, in respect to diet, prove the _capabilities_, rather than the necessities, of their systems. They learn to eat their coa.r.s.e fare because they can get no other. Their food, moreover, as is generally the case in savage life, is precarious; and thus, being at times exposed to extreme want, they are stimulated to greater excesses when their supplies are ample.

"The fact of man's dwelling in them (the arctic regions), and eating what he can get there, no more proves him to be naturally a flesh-eating animal than the circ.u.mstance of some cattle learning to eat fish, when they are in situations where they can obtain no other food, proves them to be piscivorous.

"Haller conceived it necessary that human life should be sustained by animal and vegetable food, so apportioned that neither should be in excess; and he a.s.serts that abstinence from animal food causes great weakness in the body, and usually a troublesome diarrhoea. But such an opinion is certainly incorrect, since not only particular individuals, but even numbers of people, dwelling in temperate climates, from various causes, subsist almost wholly on vegetable substances, and yet preserve their health and vigor.

"Were we educated to its exclusive use, I am persuaded that a vegetable diet would afford us ample support; but whether, if restrained from animal food, we should, _as a consequence_, in the course of time, and under equally favoring circ.u.mstances in other respects, rise still higher in our moral and physical nature, remains, as I conceive, to be proved."

These views of Dr. S. were repeated, in substance, in a course of lectures given by him at the Masonic Temple, in Boston, in 1838. It will be seen that he concedes what the friends of the vegetable system deem a very important point, viz., that man's whole powers, physical, intellectual, and moral, can be well developed on a diet exclusively vegetable. We do not ask him to grant more. If man is as well off on vegetable food as without it, we have moral reasons of so much weight to place against animal food, as, when duly considered, will be, by all candid persons, sufficient to lead to its rejection.

True, we do not believe, with Dr. S.--at least I do not--that "whether a diet purely vegetable, or one comprehending both animal and vegetable food, would be most conducive to health, longevity, and intellectual, moral, and physical development, is a question only to be determined by a long course of experiments, made by various individuals in equal health, and placed, in all other respects, under as nearly similar circ.u.mstances as practicable." I believe this course of experiment does not remain _to be_ made, but that it has been made, most fully, during the last four or five thousand years, and that the question is settled in favor--wholly so--of vegetable food. Still I do not ask physicians and other medical men to grant more than Dr. S. has; it is quite as much as we ought to expect of them.

DR. A. L. PIERSON.

Dr. Pierson, of Salem, in Ma.s.sachusetts, a physician and surgeon of considerable eminence, in a lecture some time ago, before the American Inst.i.tute of Instruction, observed that "young men who were anxious to avail themselves of the advantages of a liberal education, and were therefore compelled to consult economy, had found out that it was not necessary to pay three or four dollars a week for mere board, when the most vigorous and uniform health may be secured by a diet of mere vegetable food and water."

I know not that Dr. P. avows himself an advocate for the exclusive use of vegetable food, but if what I have quoted is not enough to satisfy us in regard to his opinion of its safety, and its full power to develop body and mind, I know not what would be. If the most vigorous and uniform health can be secured on vegetable food, what individual in the world--in view of the moral considerations at least--would ever resort to the carca.s.ses of animals?

STATEMENT OF DR. C. BYINGTON, OF PHILADELPHIA.

A physician of some eminence, residing in Philadelphia, has been heard to say that it was his decided opinion that mankind would live longest, and be healthiest and happiest, on mere bread and water. I may add here, that there was every evidence but one that he was sincere in this statement, although I do not fully accord with him, believing that the best health requires variety of food--not, indeed, at the same meal, but at different ones. The exception I make in regard to his sincerity, is in reference to the fact, that while he professed to believe a bread and vegetable diet to be best for mankind, he did not adopt it.

TESTIMONY OF A PHYSICIAN IN NEW YORK.

In the work ent.i.tled "Hints to a Fashionable Lady," by a physician--his name not given--we find the following testimony:

"Young persons invariably do best on simple but moderately nutritious fare. Too large a proportion of animal food and fatty substances are pernicious to the complexion. On the contrary, a diet which is princ.i.p.ally vegetable, with the luxuries of the dairy (not b.u.t.ter, surely, for that is elsewhere prohibited), is most advantageous. Nowhere are finer complexions to be found than in those parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, where the living is almost exclusively vegetable.

"Those who subsist entirely on vegetable food have seldom, if ever, a constantly bad breath, or an offensive perspiration. It has been ascertained that the teeth are uniformly best in those countries where least animal food is used."

THE FEMALE'S CYCLOPEDIA.

From a fugitive volume, ent.i.tled "The Female's Cyclopedia," I have concluded to make the following extract, because I have reason to believe the writer to have been a physician:

"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 repet.i.tion 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 acc.u.mulation 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 quant.i.ty--since the appet.i.te 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, ent.i.tled "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.