Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages Part 18

DR. SCHLEMMER.

Dr. C. V. Schlemmer, a German by birth, but now an adopted son of old England, in giving an account of the diet of himself, his three sons of eleven, ten, and four years of age, with their tutor, observes: "Raw peas, beans, and fruit are our food: our teeth are our mills; the stomach is the kitchen." And all of them, as he affirms, enjoy the best of health. For himself, as he says, he has practiced in this way six years.

DR. CURTIS, AND OTHERS.

Dr. Curtis, a distinguished botanic physician of Ohio, with several other physicians, both of the old and the new school, whom I have not named, do not hesitate to regard a pure vegetable diet, in the abstract, as by far the best for all mankind, both in health and disease.

Dr. Porter, of Waltham, for example, when I meet him, always concedes that a well-selected vegetable diet is superior to every other. He has repeatedly told me of an experiment he made, of three months, on mere bread and water. Never, says he, was I more vigorous in body and mind, than at the end of this experiment. But the reader well knows that I am not an advocate of a diet of mere bread and water. I regard fruits, or fruit juices--unfermented--almost as necessary, to adults, as bread.

PROF. C. U. SHEPARD.

The reputation of this gentleman, in the scientific world, is so well known, that no apology can be necessary for inserting his testimony. As a chemist, he is second to very few, if any, men in this country. The following are his remarks:

"Start not back at the idea of subsisting upon the potato alone, ye who think it necessary to load your tables with all the dainty viands of the market--with fish, flesh, and fowl, seasoned with oil and spices, and eaten, perhaps, with wines;--start not back, I say, with disgust, until you are able to display in your own pampered persons a firmer muscle, a more beau-ideal outline, and a healthier red than the potato-fed peasantry of Ireland and Scotland once showed you, as you pa.s.sed by their cabin doors!

"No; the chemical physiologist will tell you that the well ripened potato, when properly cooked, contains every element that man requires for nutrition; and in the best proportion in which they are found in any plant whatever. There is the abounding supply of starch for enabling him to maintain the process of breathing, and for generating the necessary warmth of body; there is the nitrogen for contributing to the growth and renovation of organs; the lime and phosphorus for the bones; and all the salts which a healthy circulation demands. In fine, the potato may well be called the universal plant."

BLACKWOOD, IN HIS MAGAZINE.

"Chemistry," says Blackwood's Magazine, "has already told us many remarkable things in regard to the vegetable food we eat--that it contains, for example, a certain per centage of the actual fat and lean we consume in our beef, or mutton, or pork--and, therefore, that he who lives on vegetable food may be as strong as the man who lives on animal food, because both in reality feed on the same things, in a somewhat different form."

There is this difference, however, that in the one case--that is, in the use of the vegetables which contain the elements referred to--we save the trouble of running it through the body of the living animal, and losing seven eighths of it, as we do, practically in the process; whereas in the other we do not. We also save ourselves the necessity of training the young and the old to scenes of butchery and blood.

PROF. JOHNSTON.

This gentleman, in a recent edition of his "Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology," tells us that from experiments made in the laboratory of the Agricultural a.s.sociation of Scotland, wheat and oats, when a.n.a.lyzed, contain of nutritious properties the following proportion:

Musc. matter. Fat. Starch.

Wheat, 10 pounds, 3 pounds, 50 pounds.

Oats, 18 " 6 " 65 "

Thus oats, and even wheat, are quite rich in that which forms muscular matter in the human body.

SIMEON COLLINS, OF WESTFIELD, Ma.s.s.

This gentleman, in his fifty-first year, states that having been for several years afflicted with a severe cough, which he supposed bordered upon consumption, he "discontinued the use of flesh meat, fish, fowl, b.u.t.ter, gravy, tea, and coffee, and made use of a plain vegetable diet."

"My bread," says he, "is made of unbolted wheat meal; my drink is pure cold water; my bed, for winter and summer, is made of the everlasting flower; and my health is, and ever has been, perfect, since I got fairly cleansed from the filthiness of flesh meat, and other pernicious articles of diet in common use.

"My business requires a great degree of activity, and I can truly say that I am a stranger to weariness or languor. At the time of entering upon this system, I had a wife and five children, the youngest eight years of age;--they all soon entered upon the same course of living with myself, and soon were all benefited in health. I have now six children--the youngest fifteen months old, and as happy as a lark.

Previous to the time of our adopting the present system of living, my expenses for medicine and physicians would range from $20 to $30 a year--for the last four years it has been nothing worth naming."

REV. JOSEPH EMERSON.

Mr. Emerson was a teacher of eminence, known throughout the United States, but particularly so in Ma.s.sachusetts and Connecticut. He died in the latter state, in 1833, aged about fifty-five. He had long been a miserable dyspeptic, but was probably kept alive amid certain strange violations of physical law, such as studying hard till midnight, for example, for many years, by his great care in regard to his diet. Mrs.

Banister, late Miss Z. P. Grant (the a.s.sociate, at Ipswich, of Miss Lyon, who died recently at South Hadley, who was his pupil), thus speaks of his rigid habits:

"He not only uniformly rejected whatever food he had decided to be injurious to him, but whatever he deemed necessary for his food or drink, was always taken, whether at home or abroad. As his diet, for several years, consisted generally, either of bread and milk, or of bread and b.u.t.ter, what solid food he wanted could be supplied at any table."[16]

It is also testified of him, by his brother, Prof. Emerson, of Andover, that "for more than thirty years he adopted the practice of eating but one kind at a meal." If I do not misremember, for I knew him well, he was in favor of banishing flesh and fish, and subst.i.tuting milk and fruits in their stead, on Bible ground.--I refer here to the Divine arrangement in the first chapter of Genesis; and which has never, that I am aware, been altered.

TAK SISSON.

Tak Sisson, as he was called, was a slave in the family of a man in Rhode Island, before and during the Revolution.

From early childhood he could never be prevailed on to eat any flesh or fish, but he subsisted on vegetable food and milk; neither could he be persuaded to eat high seasoned food of any kind. When he was a child, his parents used to scold him severely, and threaten to whip him because he refused to eat flesh. They said to him (as I have been told a thousand times), that if he did not eat meat he would never be good for any thing, but would always be a poor, puny creature.

But Tak persevered in his vegetable and unstimulating diet, and, to the surprise of all, grew fast, and his body was finely developed and athletic. He was very stout and robust, and altogether the most vigorous and dexterous of any of the family. He finally became more than six feet high, and every way well proportioned, and remarkable for his agility and strength. He was so uncommonly shrewd, bright, strong, and active, that he became notorious for his shrewdness, and for his feats of strength and agility. Indeed, he was so full of his playful mischief as greatly to annoy his overseer.

During the Revolutionary War it became an object to take Gen. Prescott.

A door was to be forced where he was quartered and sleeping, and Tak was selected for the work. Having taken his lesson from the American officer, he proceeded to the door, plunged his thick head against it, burst it open, roused Gen. P., like a tiger sprung upon him, seized him in his brawny arms, and in a low, stern voice, said, "One word, and you are a dead man." Then hastily s.n.a.t.c.hing the general's cloak and wrapping it round him, at the same time telling a companion to take care of the rest of his clothes, he took him in his arms, as if a child, and ran with him to a boat which was waiting, and escaped with his prisoner without rousing even the British sentinels.

Tak lived on his vegetable fare to a very advanced age, and was remarkable, through life, for his activity, strength, and shrewdness.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] By seed, Dr. C. means the farinaceous grains; wheat, corn, rye, etc.

[10] Cuvier was not a medical man, but I have cla.s.sed him with medical men, on account of his profound knowledge of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology.

[11] "Unless," as a writer in the Graham Journal very justly observes, "these latter indulge, habitually and freely, in the use of intoxicating substances."

[12] Such was Gen. Elliot, so distinguished at the famous siege of Gibraltar. Such, too, was Mr. Shillitoe, of whom honorable mention will be made in another place;--besides many more.

[13] So he thinks, but I think otherwise. Animal food, as I have shown elsewhere, is not so nutritious as some of the farinaceous vegetables.

[14] Dr. J. here overlooks one important fact, viz., that the testimony of all those who have tried the exclusive use of vegetable food is _positive_ in its nature; while that of others, who have not tried it, is, and necessarily must be, negative.

[15] The Water-Cure Journal.

[16] An aged lady, of Dedham--a pillar in every good cause--has, for twelve or fifteen years, carried abroad with her, when traveling, some plain bread and apples; and no entreaties will prevail with her, at home or abroad, to eat luxuries.

CHAPTER VI.

TESTIMONY OF PHILOSOPHERS AND OTHER EMINENT MEN.

General Remarks.--Testimony of Plautus.--Plutarch.--Porphyry.--Lord Bacon.--Sir William Temple.--Cicero.--Cyrus the Great.--Ga.s.sendi.--Prof.

Hitchc.o.c.k.--Lord Kaims.--Dr. Thomas d.i.c.k.--Prof. Bush.--Thomas Shillitoe.--Alexander Pope.--Sir Richard Phillips.--Sir Isaac Newton.--The Abbe Gallani.--Homer.--Dr. Franklin.--Mr.