derangements, and without good digestion and the consequent healthy
appetite, no food will give full gustatory pleasure. The most wholesome
food, and that which can be eaten most frequently without weariness, is
mildly flavoured and simply prepared. Plain bread is an example; whereas
sweet bread, currant bread, etc., though agreeable in small quantity, or
as an occasional delicacy, soon palls on the appetite. Rice is the poorest
and mildest flavoured of the cereals, it is therefore often, perhaps
generally, made more tasty by the addition of fish, curry, etc. The bulk
of the Chinese live on rice, with the exception of only 3 or 4 ounces of
fish per day, and they are a fine, big and strong race. The Japanese
labourer lives on similar food. In India rice is the food most in use,
though many other cereals are eaten there. Other races live chiefly on
fruits. It appears that the digestive organs will perform their functions
perfectly with the mildest flavoured food. There is nothing surprising in
this. The strongest, most intelligent, and largest animals are those which
feed on grass, herbs and fruits. Even the African lion is no match for the
gorilla. The lion and tiger are capable of great strength, but they cannot
put it forth for long periods as can the herbivora. Our most useful
animal, the horse, can exert much more muscular energy, weight for weight,
than any of the carnivora. The cost of feeding one of the herbivora is
much less than that of one of the carnivora of the same weight. This is so
whether we take the cost of purchasing the food; or the expenditure of
time, labour and energy on the part of man or of natural forces in the
production of the food. Herbs, roots, corn and fruit are produced much
more abundantly and freely than the corresponding quantity of sheep, deer,
etc., on which the carnivora feed.

The restlessness, craving for novelty, and love of excitement, so
characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon, and to a less extent of some other
European races, has its correspondence in the food of these races.
Highly-seasoned and nitrogenous foods act as a stimulant and favour
spasmodic, and for a time perhaps, great intellectual and physical
exertion, with a succeeding period of exhaustion. Simpler food favours
long, sustained, uniform muscular strength, clearness of intellect, and
contentment. Let no one misunderstand us; we do not assert that all who
live on simple food have either clear intellects or are contented, because
there are other factors besides food, but that such qualities are more
easily retained or obtained under that condition. It is well known that
the over-fed and badly fed are the most irritable and discontented Those
living on a stimulating dietary consisting largely of flesh have their
chief successes in feats of short duration. Simple and abstemious living
individuals or races excel in laborious work requiring endurance over long
periods, such as long walking, cycling, and other athletic feats and long
military campaigns.

The digestive and assimilative organs need the food constituents of which
we have written, in proper proportion and quantity, and in a fairly
digestible condition. Within these very wide and comprehensive limits, the
organs can be trained. Very much of the great difference in food is due to
the non-essential flavouring and stimulating part, rather than to that
part which is essential and nourishing. What is the best, interests but
few; whilst what is at present the pleasantest, influences the many. The
ego, the superphysical conscious and reasoning entity should rule its
material body, its temporary vehicle. The body, being the servant of the
ego, just as a horse, dog, or other of the lower animals recognises its
master, becomes a docile subject. The body can be led into good habits
nearly as easily as into bad ones; often more easily, as bad habits are
sometimes painfully acquired. The body being once habituated to certain
movements, conditions, foods or drinks, within reasonable limits, derives
pleasure therefrom and resists change. It is only when the food, etc.,
transgresses certain elementary principles, that the result is more or
less painful. We may on scientific principles condemn flesh-foods,
stimulants and elaborately prepared foods; but after ruling all this out,
there is still left a very great variety of foods and methods of preparing
them: hereon each individual must form his own opinion. Of the foods thus
left, the same kind is not equally suitable to everyone, nor even to the
same person at different periods.

A delicately balanced, fine-grained, high-toned mind and body responds to
every tender influence, and is painfully jarred by that which is coarse.
To such, fruits and delicately flavoured and easily digested foods are
doubtless best and conducive to purity and clearness of thought. A
coarse-grained, badly poised, roughly working body and spirit, is
non-responsive except to loud or coarse impulses; and such a one's
appetite is gratified, not by simple but by coarsely seasoned foods.

A person who is accustomed to a stimulating dietary of flesh-foods,
especially if well-seasoned, finds a simple diet unsatisfying. Should such
persons dine off simple vegetarian food, there is a tendency to
over-eating. The less stimulating food fails to rouse the digestive organs
and to appease the appetite; although an ample supply of nourishment be
consumed. This is the reason why so many imagine that it is necessary to
eat a larger quantity of food if it be vegetable. Should a distressing
fulness and flatulence result from their over-feeding, they lay the blame
to the vegetarian dietary instead of to themselves. Most persons, on
changing to a vegetarian dietary, commence by imitating flesh dishes in
appearance and flavour and even in the names. There is the additional
inducement that the food may be attractive and palatable to friends who
lack sympathy with the aesthetic and humane principles of the diet. After
a while many of them incline to simpler flavoured foods. They revert to
the unperverted taste of childhood, for children love sweets, fruits, and
mild-flavoured foods rather than savouries. One who loves savouries, as a
rule, cares much less for fruits. By compounding and cooking, a very great
variety of foods can be prepared, but the differences in taste are much
less than is usually, supposed. The effect of seasoning instead of
increasing the range, diminishes it, by dulling the finer perception of
flavours. The predominating seasoning also obscures everything else. The
mixture of foods produces a conglomeration of tastes in which any
particular or distinct flavours are obscured, resulting in a general
sameness. It is often stated that as an ordinary flesh-eater has the
choice of a greater range of foods and flavours than a vegetarian, he can
obtain more enjoyment, and that the latter is disagreeably restricted.
Certainly he has the choice, but does he avail himself of it to any
considerable extent? No one cares to take all the different kinds of food,
whether of animal or vegetable that are possible. Of edible animals but a
very few kinds are eaten. A person who particularly relishes and partakes
largely of flesh-foods will reject as insipid and unsatisfying many
mild-flavoured foods at one end of the scale. The vegetarian may abstain
from foods at the opposite end of the scale, not always from humane
reasons, but because they are unpleasant. Thus there may be little to
choose between the mere range of flavours that give enjoyment to each
class of persons. The sense of taste is in its character and range lower
than the sense of sight and hearing. The cultivation of the taste for
savouries seems to blunt the taste for fruits and the delicate foods. The
grass and herbs on which the herbivora subsist, seems to our imagination
of little flavour and monotonous; but they eat with every sign of
enjoyment, deliberately munching their food as though to get its full
flavour. In all probability they find a considerable range of flavours in
the great varieties of grasses commonly found together in a pasture.

Our elaborate cooking customs entail a vast amount of labour. They
necessitate the cost, trouble and dirt from having fires in great excess
of that required for warmth: the extra time in preparing, mixing and
attending to food which has to be cooked: and the large number of greasy
and soiled utensils which have to be cleaned. Cooked savoury food is
generally much nicer eaten hot, and this necessitates fires and attention
just previous to the meal. We have already said that soft cooked food
discourages mastication and leads to defective teeth. Our elaborate
cookery is mainly due to our custom of eating so largely of flesh, whilst
the eating of flesh would receive a great impetus on the discovery of the
art of cooking. Flesh can only be eaten with relish and with safety when
cooked. Such a large proportion of it is infected with parasites, or is
otherwise diseased, that it would he dangerous to eat it raw, even were it
palatable in such a state. In those countries where man eats flesh in a
raw or semi-cooked form, parasitic diseases are common. There is not the
least doubt that our habit of eating so much cooked food is responsible
for much over-eating, hasty eating, dyspepsia and illness. In regard to
the making of bread, porridge, and many other comparatively simple
prepared foods, the advantages of cooking seem overwhelmingly great. With
our present imperfect knowledge and conflicting opinions, it is
impossible to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion, and the whole
question requires careful and impartial investigation. Experiments have
been made with animals, chiefly pigs, with cooked and uncooked clover,
hay, corn, meal, etc. (U.S. Department of Agriculture). It was found that
the food was more or less diminished in digestibility by cooking. At least
13 separate series of experiments with pigs in different part of the
country have been reported. In 10 of these trials there has been a
positive loss from cooking the food. The amount of food required to
produce in the animal a pound gain in weight was larger when the food had
been cooked than when it was given raw. In some cases, the increased
quantity of food required after cooking was considerable.

Those who live on uncooked food contend that a smaller quantity of
nourishment is required. As uncooked food requires more mastication and is
eaten more slowly, there is a better flow of saliva and time is given for
the digestive organs to be gradually brought into complete action, and
finally for the appeasing of the appetite. In the case of the members of
the fruitarian family, whose food was uncooked, and of whom we have
previously written, the quantity of nutriment taken was much less than
that thought necessary, even after making full allowance for their small
stature and weight.

Meat Extracts.--Justus von Liebig, the great German chemist, was the
first to attempt to make these on the commercial scale. He described a
method in 1847, and this not proving satisfactory, another one in 1865. He
stated that the only practicable plan on a manufacturing scale, was to
treat the chopped flesh with eight to ten times its weight of water, which
was to be raised to 180° F. In another passage he says it is to be boiled
for half-an-hour. After straining from all the undissolved meat fibre,
etc., and carefully cleansing from all fat, the decoction is to be
evaporated to a soft extract; such a preparation is practically free from
albumin, gelatin and fat; all the nutritive principles except the saline
matter having been extracted. Liebig states that 34 pounds of meat are
required to produce 1 pound of extract. In 1872, he wrote "neither tea nor
extract of meat are nutritive in the ordinary sense," and he went on to
speak of their medicinal properties. Druit, in 1861, in describing the
effect of a liquid preparation of meat, states that it exerted a rapid and
stimulating action on the brain, and he proposed it as an auxiliary and
partial substitute for brandy, in all case of great exhaustion or weakness
attended with cerebral depression or despondency. In like manner, a feast
of animal food in savages, whose customary diet was almost exclusively
vegetable, has been described by travellers as producing great excitement
and stimulation similar to that of intoxicating spirits. Similar effects
have been observed from a copious employment of Liebig's extract. Voit
asserts, from the results of his experiments, that extract of meat is
practically useless as a food, and other authorities are quite of the same
opinion, although they may value it as a stimulant and drug. _The Extra
Pharmacopæia_, 1901, states that "Liebig's Extract or Lemco consists of
creatin, creatinin, globulin and urea, with organic potash and other
salts. It has been much over-estimated as a food either for invalids or
healthy persons; still it is often valuable as a flavouring to add to
soups, beef-tea, etc., and it is a nerve food allied to tea." Meat
extracts stimulate the action of the heart and the digestive processes,
but as in the case of other stimulants there is a succeeding period of
depression. The _British Medical Journal_ says that the widespread belief
in the universal suitability of concentrated beef-tea is frequently
responsible for increasing the patient's discomfort, and is even capable
in conditions of kidney inefficiency, of producing positive harm. Some of
the meat bases, the leucomaines, have been found to possess marked
poisonous effects on the body. The manfacturers of meat extracts continue
to mislead the public by absurdly false statements of the value of their
products. They assert that their extracts contain the nutritive matter of
30, 40 or 50 times their weight of fresh meat, or that one or two
meat-lozenges are sufficient for a meal. One company, asserts by direct
statement, or imply by pictorial advertisement, that the nutritive matter
in an ox can be concentrated into the bulk of a bottle of extract; and
another company that a tea-cup full is equivalent in food value to an ox.
Professor Halliburton writes: "Instead of an ox in a tea-cup, the ox's
urine in a tea-cup would be much nearer the fact, for the meat extract
consists largely of products on the way to urea, which more nearly
resemble in constitution the urine than they do the flesh of the ox."
Professor Robert Bartholow has also stated that the chemical composition
of beef-tea closely resembles urine, and is more an excrementitious
substance than a food. Those whose business it is to make a pure
meat-broth, for the purpose of preparing therefrom a nutrient for
experimenting with bacteria, cannot fail to recognise its similarity both
in odour and colour to urine. Little consideration is needful to show the
untruthfulness and the absurdity of the statements made by manufacturers
as to the food value of these extracts. Fresh lean beef contains about 25
per cent. of solid nutriment and 75 per cent. of water. If lean beef be
desiccated, one pound will be reduced to four ounces of perfectly dry
substance; this will consist of about 80 per cent. of proteid matter and
nearly 20 per cent. of fat including a little saline matter and the
extractives. This is as far as it is possible to concentrate the beef. If
it were possible to remove, without interfering with the nutritious
constituents, the membraneous matter, the creatin, creatinine and purin
bodies, we should reduce it to a little less than four ounces. It is very
remarkable that the most nutritious matter of the beef, the muscle
substance or proteid and the fat, are rejected in making Liebig's extract,
whilst the effete or waste products are retained. In Bovril and some other
preparations, some meat fibre has been added with the object of imparting
a definite food value. Hence in some advertisements, now withdrawn, it was
alleged that the preparations were immensely superior in nutritive value
to ordinary meat extracts. The Bovril Company extensively circulated the
following:--"It is hard for ladies to realise that the beef tea they make
at home from the choicest fresh beef contains absolutely no nourishment
and is nothing more than a slight stimulant. It is so, however, and many a
patient has been starved on beef tea, whether made from fresh beef or from
the meat extracts that are sold to the public. From these Bovril differs
so much that one ounce of its nutritious constituents contains more real
and direct nourishment than fifty ounces of ordinary meat extract." If
analyses of meat extracts are referred to, it will be seen that the
principal part of Bovril is the meat bases and other things common to all
such extracts, and which the Company in their circular so emphatically
condemn. If the meat fibre, which is the principal, if not the sole
difference, is the only nourishing constituent, it is difficult to see the
advantage over ordinary beef, which can be procured at a very small
proportionate cost. Concerning this added meat fibre, C.A. Mitchell, in
"Flesh Foods," writes: "As this amounts to at most some 8 or 10 per cent.,
it is obvious that a large quantity of the substance would be required to
obtain as much unaltered proteid as is contained in an egg. On the other
hand, it has been pointed out that there is nothing to show that flesh
powder suspended in meat extract is more digestible than ordinary flesh in
the same fine state of division, whilst the amount of flesh bases, the
principal stimulating agents, is correspondingly reduced." Concerning
added albumin and meat fibre, A.H. Allen, in "Commercial Organic
Analysis," vol. iv., writes: "The amount of these constituents present in
such a quantity of meat extract as is usually, or could be, taken at a
time, is too insignificant to give it any appreciable value as nutriment."
Notwithstanding such statements by analysts and others, Bovril is
advertised to contain "the entire nourishment of prime ox-beef." The great
extent of the extract of meat trade is shown by a circular issued by the
Lemco and Oxo Company. They give the number of their cattle killed since
1865 as 5,550,000; stock of cattle 160,000; employees in works, farms and
branches, 3,200. This is only one out of many such companies. It is a sad
thing that myriads of animals should be slaughtered with all the horrible
and brutalising surroundings of the slaughter-house to such a purpose--the
nutritious matter being nearly all wasted. Reliance on these extracts is
responsible for much sickness and death. Instead of their preventing
colds, influenza, and other complaints as is professed, they predispose to
them by overloading the body with waste products, taxing the excretory
organs and reducing the vitality. The following analyses of meat extracts
are by Otto Hehner:--

                                           Gela-  Albu-  Meat
                               Water.  Fat.  tin.  min.  Fibre.

Liebig Co.'s Extractum Carnis  15.26  0.34  5.18    --    2.12
Armour's Extract of Meat       15.97  0.21  3.31    --     --
Brand & Co.'s Extractum Carnis 17.85  0.38  4.56    --    1.81
Brand & Co.'s Meat Juice       55.48  0.10  0.69   1.00    --
Brand & Co.'s Essence of Beef  89.68  0.06  5.12    --     --
Valentine's Meat juice         55.53  0.10  0.75   0.25    --
Bovril Company's Fluid Beef    28.34  1.02  3.81    --    5.37
Bovril for Invalids            24.34  1.07  4.56    --    5.87

                               Albu-  Pep-   Meat
                               moses. tones. Bases.  Ash.
Liebig Co.'s Extractum Carnis   2.01   8.06  39.32  23.51
Armour's Extract of Meat        1.75   5.13  41.12  29.36
Brand & Co.'s Extractum Carnis  4.19  10.16  38.90  18.80
Brand & Co.'s Meat Juice        1.06   2.50  12.50  11.06
Brand & Co.'s Essence of Beef   0.19   0.57   3.43   1.00
Valentine's Meat juice          2.00   2.87  12.48  12.01
Bovril Company's Fluid Beef     8.38  13.18  19.38  17.67
Bovril for Invalids             5.56   6.44  34.07  16.50

Some of the "Liebig's Extract of Meat" so called, contains yeast extract;
some even, is almost entirely, if not altogether made from yeast. The
latter can be manufactured at a very low cost from brewers' and
distillers' waste products, and there is a strong incentive for
unscrupulous dealers to substitute it secretly. Artificial meat extracts
prepared from yeast have the appearance and taste of meat extracts, but
some, at least, have a considerably sharper flavour. In one method of
manufacture common salt is added, and this renders it unfit for use in
more than very small quantities as a flavouring. J. Graff has made
analyses of ten yeast extracts, and contrasted them with meat extracts
(see _Analyst_ 1904, page 194), and says, "It will be seen that the
chemical composition of yeast extract does not greatly differ from that of
meat extract." Yeast extracts contain purin bodies, and are probably
equally as injurious as meat extracts. Such strong and rank flavours (the
odour is suggestive to us of putrefaction) should be discouraged by those
who would cultivate a refined taste in food.

Flesh Bases and Waste Products.--As the result of destructive
metamorphosis or the wearing out of the body, there remain certain waste
products which have to be expelled as soon as is possible. Their retention
and accumulation would soon produce death. A part is expelled by the
lungs as carbon-dioxide, or as it is generally though less correctly
termed, carbonic acid. Upon the breaking down of the complex proteid and
other nitrogenous matter, the nitrogen is left in comparatively simple
combinations. These effete nitrogen compounds are commonly termed flesh
bases or nitrogenous extractives. They exist in small quantity in flesh
meat, but are concentrated and conserved in the making of beef-tea or
beef-extract. The spleen, lymphatic and other glands, and especially the
liver, break these down into still simpler compounds, so that the kidneys
may readily separate them from the blood, that they may pass out of the
body. By far the largest part of this waste nitrogen is expelled from the
bodies of men and many other mammals in the form of urea. Pure urea is an
odourless transparent crystalline substance, of cooling saline taste like
nitre. It is soluble in an equal volume of water, and is expelled from the
body with great ease. In the herbivora the nitrogenous waste takes the
form of another body called hippuric acid. The nearly solid light-coloured
urinary excretion of birds and serpents consists of urates; this is uric
acid in combination with alkalies. In man, in addition to the urea
excreted, there is also a little hippuric and uric acid or compounds of
these. Uric acid is a transparent colourless crystalline body almost
insoluble in water but soluble as urates in the presence of alkalies. As
deposited from urine it is of a dull red sand-like appearance, as it has a
great affinity for any colouring matter that is present.

It is only possible to make a brief reference to the chief organic bases.
The xanthine bases are closely related to uric acid. Some of these occur
in small quantity in the urine and animal tissues, others, such as
caffeine, occur in plants. Creatine is a constant constituent of muscle
substance. In fowl's flesh there is said to be 0.32 per cent., in cod-fish
0.17 per cent., and in beef 0.07 per cent. Creatinine is produced from
creatine with great facility; it exists in urine. Both creatine and
creatinine are readily soluble in water. A series of bases, closely allied
to creatinine have been isolated from the flesh of large animals by A.
Gautier; they are known as Gautier's flesh bases. When administered to
animals, these act more or less powerfully on the nerve centres, inducing
sleep and in some cases causing vomiting and purging in a manner similar
to the alkaloids of snake venom, but less powerfully than the ptomaines.
These bases are formed during life as a result of normal vital processes
and are termed leucomaines.

Another class of bases of an alkaloidal nature, are termed ptomaines;
these differ from the leucomaines, being produced by putrefactive or
bacterial agency from dead flesh. The poisoning which has occasionally
resulted from the eating of sausages, pork-pies, tinned meats, etc., is
due to their having contained ptomaines.

Such quantities of waste products as are produced in the healthy body are
excreted with ease, but it is otherwise in certain diseases. Either
specially noxious substances are produced, or the usual substances are in
excessive quantity and not eliminated with sufficient rapidity; in
consequence the body is poisoned. Those who eat largely of flesh,
introduce into their system the excretory matter contained therein, which
super-added to the excretory matter resulting from the vital processes of
the body puts an unusual and unnatural strain upon the liver and kidneys.
It has been observed, that the eating of the flesh of some trapped animals
has produced severe symptoms of poisoning. The pain and horror of having a
limb bleeding and mangled in a most cruel steel trap, the struggles which
only add to the misery, slowly being done to death during hours or even
days of torture, has produced in their bodies virulent poisons. Leucomaine
poisons have also been produced by the violent and prolonged exertions of
an animal, fleeing from its pursuers, until its strength was completely
spent. Cases are also known, where a mother nursing her infant, has given
way to violent anger or other emotion, and the child at the breast has
been made violently ill. We must not expect the flesh of any hunted or
terrified animals to be wholesome. Animals brought in cattle ships across
the Atlantic, suffer acutely. After rough weather they will often arrive
in a maimed condition, some being dead. To this is added the terror and
cruelty to which they are subjected whilst driven by callous drovers,
often through a crowded city, to the slaughter house to which they have an
instinctive dread. It is only to be expected that the dead flesh from such
animals, should contain an unusually large quantity of the more poisonous
flesh bases.

Purin Bodies.--The term purin has been applied to all bodies containing
the nucleus C_{5}N_{4}. It comprises the xanthine group and the uric acid
group of bodies. The principal purins are hypoxanthin, xanthin, uric acid,
guanin, adenin, caffeine and theobromine. Purins in the body may either
result from the wear and tear of certain cell contents, when they are
called endogenous purins; or they are introduced in the food, when they
are distinguished as exogenous purins. These purins are waste products and
are readily converted into uric acid. The production of some uric acid by
tissue change is, of course, unavoidable; but that resulting from the
purins in food is under control.

An excess of uric acid is commonly associated with gout and similar
diseases. The morbid phenomena of gout are chiefly manifested in the
joints and surrounding tissues. The articular cartilages become swollen,
with ensuing great pain. There is an accumulation of mortar like matter
about the joints. This is calcium urate (not sodium urate as is generally
stated). These nodular concretions are called tophi or chalkstones.

Very many are the hypotheses which have been propounded on the cause of
gout and the part played by uric acid; many have had to be discarded or
greatly modified. Though much light has recently been thrown on the
subject, there remains much that is obscure. The subject is one which is
surrounded with great difficulties, and would not be suitable for
discussion here, were it not for the following reason: Certain views on
uric acid as the cause of gout and several other diseases, are at the
present time being pushed to the extreme in some health journals and
pamphlets. Unfortunately many of the writers have very little knowledge,
either of chemistry or physiology, and treat the question as though it
were a simple one that had been quite settled. Our purpose is to clear the
ground to some extent, for a better understanding of its fundamentals,
and to warn against dogmatism. Our remarks, however, must be brief. It is
undeniable that great eaters of meat, especially if they also take
liberally of alcoholic drinks, are prone to diseases of the liver and
kidneys, about or soon after the time of middle life. Flesh meat contains
relatively large quantities of purins. Purins are metabolised in the body
to uric acid, about half of the uric acid produced in the body disappears
as such, being disintegrated, whilst the other half remains to be excreted
by the kidneys.

One view is that whilst the organs of the body can readily dispose of its
endogenous uric acid, or that produced by its own tissue change, together
with the small amount of uric acid derived from most foods, the organs are
strained by the larger quantity introduced in flesh-food or any other food
rich in purins: that there is an accumulation in the system of some of
this uric acid. Vegetable foods tend to keep the blood alkaline, flesh
possesses less of this property; alkalinity of the blood is thought to be
favourable to the elimination of uric acid, whilst anything of an acid
nature acts contrarily. Dr. Alexander Haig writes "I consider that every
man who eats what is called ordinary diet with butcher's meat twice a day,
and also drinks acid wine or beer, will, by the time he is 50, have
accumulated 300 to 400 grains of uric acid in his tissues, and possibly
much more; and about this time, owing to the large amount of uric acid in
his body, he will probably be subject to attacks of some form of gout or
chronic rheumatism." Dr. Haig ascribes to the presence of uric acid in the
system, not only gout and rheumatism, but epilepsy, hysteria, mental and
bodily depression, diseases of the liver, kidneys, brain, etc.

The opinion of the majority of eminent medical men, during recent years,
is that uric acid is not a cause, but a symptom of gout, that uric acid is
not an irritant to the tissues, and that it is readily excreted in the
healthy subject. Some of the reasons for this latter and against the
previously stated hypothesis, are as follows:--Birds very rarely suffer
from gout--the nodular concretions, sometimes found about their joints and
which have been ascribed to gout, are of tuberculous origin--yet their
blood contains more uric acid than that of man, and the solid matter of
their excretion is mainly urates. If uric acid caused gout we should
expect the disease to be common in birds. It is a remarkable fact that the
waste nitrogen should be excreted in the form of uric acid or urates from
such widely differing classes of animals as birds and serpents. Birds
have a higher body temperature than man, they are very rapid in their
movements and consume a large amount of food proportionate to their
weight. They live, as it were, at high pressure. Serpents, on the other
hand, have a low body temperature, they are lethargic and can live a long
while without food. There is no obvious reason why some animals excrete
urea and others uric acid. As uric acid is a satisfactory and
unirritating form in which waste nitrogen is expelled from the body of the
active alert bird, as well as from the slow moving reptile, it is
surprising if a very much smaller quantity acts as a poison in man. Many
physicians are convinced that uric acid is absolutely unirritating. Uratic
deposits may occur to an enormous extent in gouty persons without the
occurrence of any pain or paroxysms. Urates have been injected in large
amounts into the bodies of animals as well as administered in their food
with no toxic result whatever, or more than purely local irritation. The
most careful investigations upon the excretions of persons suffering from
gouty complaints, have failed to show uric acid in the excretions in
excess of that in normal individuals, except during the later stage of an
acute attack. There is an excess of uric acid in the blood of gouty
subjects; some eminent medical men say it is in the highest degree
probable, that this excess is not due to over production or deficient
destruction, but to defective excretion by the kidneys. The excess may
arise from failure of the uric acid to enter into combination with a
suitable substance in the blood, which assists its passage through the
kidneys. Under the head of gout are classed a number of unrelated
disturbances in the gastro-intestinal tract and nutritive organs, whose
sole bond of union is that they are accompanied by an excess of urates,
and in well developed cases by deposits in the tissues. This is why there
are so many different causes, curative treatments, theories,
contradictions and vagaries in gout. There are good reasons for believing
that uric acid is not in the free state in the body. In the urine it is in
combination with alkalies as urates, perhaps also with some organic body.
It has been shown that the blood of the gouty is not saturated with uric
acid, but can take up more, and that the alkalinity of the blood is not
diminished. The excess over the normal is in many cases small; it is said
to be absent in some persons, and rarely, if ever reaches the quantity
found in leukaemia. Leukaemia is a disease marked by an excessive and
permanent increase in the white blood corpuscles and consequent
progressive anæmia. Neither does the uric acid of gout reach the quantity
produced in persons whilst being fed with thymus gland (sweetbread), for
medical purposes. In neither of these cases are any of the symptoms of
gout present. In the urine of children, it is not unusual to find a
copious precipitate of urates, yet without any observed effect on them.

The symptoms of gout point to the presence of a toxin in the blood, and it
is this which produces the lesions; the deposition of urates in the joints
being secondary. This poison is probably of bacterial origin, derived from
decomposing fæcal matter in the large intestine. This is due to faulty
digestion and insufficient or defective intestinal secretions and
constipation. This explains why excessive feeding, especially of proteid
food, is so bad. The imperfectly digested residue of such food, when left
to stagnate and become a mass of bacteria and putrefaction, gives off
poisons which are absorbed in part, into the system. This bacterial poison
produces headache, migraine, gouty or other symptoms. Because of the
general failure of gouty persons to absorb the proper amount of nutriment
from their food, they require to eat a larger quantity; this gives a
further increase of fæcal decomposition and thus aggravates matters. The
voluminous bowel or colon of man is a legacy from remote pre-human
ancestors, whose food consisted of bulky, fibrous and slowly digested
vegetable matters. It was more useful then, than now that most of our food
is highly cooked. About a third part of the fæcal matter consists of
bacteria of numerous species, though chiefly of the species known as the
_bacillus coli communis_, one of the less harmful kind which is a constant
inhabitant of the intestinal tract in man and animals. This species is
even thought to be useful in breaking down the cellulose, which forms a
part of the food of the herbivora. Flesh meat leaves a residue in which
the bacteria of putrefaction find a congenial home. Poisons such as
ptomaines, fatty acids and even true toxins are produced. It is believed
that there exists in the colons of gouty persons, either conditions more
favourable to the growth of the bacteria of putrefaction, or that they are
less able to resist the effect of the poisons produced. It has generally
been found that milk is a very good food for gouty patients. This seems
due to its being little liable to putrefaction, the bacterial fermentation
to which it is liable producing lactic acid--the souring of milk. The
growth of most bacteria, particularly the putrefactive kinds are hindered
or entirely stopped by acids slightly alkaline media are most favourable.
This explains how it is that milk will often stop diarrhoea.

Dr. Haig condemns pulse and some other vegetable foods, because, he says,
they contain uric acid. Pulse, he states, contains twice as much as most
butcher's meat. Vegetable foods, however, contain no uric acid and meat
but a very small quantity. The proper term to use is purins or nucleins.
Dr. Haig has used a method of analysis which is quite incapable of giving
correct results. Many vegetarians have accepted these figures and his
deductions therefrom, and have given up the use of valuable foods in
consequence. We therefore give some of the analyses of Dr. I. Walker Hall,
from "The Purin Bodies in Food Stuffs." The determination of the purins
has proved a very difficult process. Dr. Hall has devoted much time to
investigating and improving the methods of others, and his figures may be
accepted with confidence.

The first column of figures indicates purin bodies in parts per 1,000, the
second column purin bodies in grains per pound:--

Sweet bread         10.06  70.4
Liver                2.75  19.3
Beef steak           2.07  14.5
Beef Sirloin         1.30   9.1
Ham                  1.15   8.1
Chicken              1.3    9.1
Rabbit               0.97   6.3
Pork Loin            1.21   8.5
Veal loin            1.16   8.14
Mutton               0.96   6.75
Salmon               1.16   8.15
Cod                  0.58   4.07
Lentils and haricots 0.64   4.16
Oatmeal              0.53   3.45
Peameal              0.39   2.54
Asparagus (cooked)   0.21   1.50
Onions               0.09   0.06
Potatoes             0.02   0.1

The following showed no traces of purins: white bread, rice, cabbage,
lettuce, cauliflower and eggs. Milk showed a very small quantity, and
cheese consequently must contain still less.

The researches of Dr. Hall show that the purins of food are metabolised or
broken down by gouty patients, almost as well as by normal individuals,
any slight retention being due to increased capillary pressure. A portion
of the purins remain undigested, the quantity depending upon the
particular purin and the vigour of the digestive organs. Two rabbits had
the purin hypoxanthin given to them daily, in quantities which if given to
a man in proportion to his weight, would have been 17 and 3 grains
respectively. These rabbits showed malnutrition, and after death
degenerative changes were visible in their liver and kidneys. Dr. Hall has
made a large number of personal experiments, and says that when he has
taken large doses of purin bodies--such as 7 grains of hypoxanthin, 15 to
77 grains of guanin or 7 to 15 grains of uric acid, apparently associated
symptoms of general malaise and irritability have frequently appeared. In
gouty subjects such moderate or small quantities of purins which are
without effect on the healthy subject, may prove a source of irritation to
the already weakened liver and kidneys.

Professor Carl von Noorden says of gout, "with regard to treatment we are
all agreed that food containing an excess of purin bodies should be
avoided, and those words embody almost all there is to be said as to
dietetics. Alcohol is very injurious in gout. Salicylic acid is a
dangerous remedy. Alkalies in every form are utterly useless." Dr. J.
Woods-Hutchinson says, "the one element which has been found to be of the
most overwhelming importance and value in the treatment of gout and
lith¾mia, water, would act most admirably upon a toxic condition from any
source; first, by sweeping out both the alimentary canal primarily, and
the liver, kidneys and skin secondarily; and secondly, by supplying to the
body cells that abundant salt-water bath in which alone they can live and
discharge their functions." Dr. Woods-Hutchinson proceeds to state, that
the one active agent in all the much vaunted mineral waters is nothing
more or less than the water. "Their alleged solvent effects are now known
to be pure moonshine." The value consists in "plain water, plus
suggestion--not to say humbug--aided, of course, by the pure air of the
springs and the excellent hygienic rules."

It is a common experience amongst rheumatic patients, that they cannot
take lentils, haricots and some other foods; sometimes, even eggs and milk
are inadmissible. This is not for the alleged reason that they contain
purins, or as some misname it, uric acid; but because the digestive organs
are unequal to the task. It will be seen, that although Dr. Haig's
hypothesis of uric acid as a cause of gout and some other diseases is
disputed by many eminent physicians, his treatment by excluding flesh and
other foods which contain purins, and also pulse, which is difficult of
digestion by the weakly, is a wise one. It has proved of the greatest
value in very many cases.

Digestion and nutrition is a complex process, and it may be faulty at
various stages and in several ways; there may be either deficient or
excessive secretions or inaction. Thus there are exceptions, where gouty
symptoms, including an excessive quantity of urates in the urine, have
only been relieved by the giving up of milk foods or starch foods (see
_Lancet_, 1900, I., p. 1, and 1903, I., p. 1059).

Those particularly interested in the subject of the purins and gout are
referred to the lecture on "The meaning of uric acid and the urates," by
Dr. Woods-Hutchinson, in the _Lancet_, 1903, I., p. 288, and the
discussion on "The Chemical Pathology of Gout" before the British Medical
Association at Oxford (see _British Medical Journal_, 1904, II., p. 740).

Dr. George S. Keith, in "Fads of an Old Physician," has a chapter on
rheumatic fever; he says that the disease is much more common than it was
fifty years ago. He has never met with it in the young or old except when
the diet had consisted largely of beef and mutton, and this although he
has been on the outlook for at least forty years for a case of the disease
in a child or youth who had not been fed on red meat. He speaks of it as
being exceedingly common in Buenos Ayres and Rosario in the Argentine
Republic, amongst the young; and that it leads to most of the heart
disease there. The amount of meat, especially of beef, consumed by old and
young is enormous. The main evils there, were anæmia in children and
neuralgia both in old and young. Dr. Haig relates how he suffered from
migraine all his life, until the time of his discontinuing butchers' meat.
As meat contains a comparatively large quantity of purins and other bodies
called extractives, it is probable that such quantities have an injurious
effect, quite apart from the question of uric acid production. That an
excessive meat diet lessens the vitality of the body and pre-disposes to
disease is undoubted, but opinions differ as to how the injury is brought
about.

On thorough Mastication.--We have written at some length on the quantity
and constituents of food required per day and have criticised the usually
accepted standards. We have since read a valuable contribution to the
subject by Mr. Horace Fletcher in his book, "The A.B.-Z. of our own
nutrition" (F.A. Stokes & Co., New York). Ten years previous to the
writing of the book, when of the age of 4, he was fast becoming a physical
wreck, although he was trained as an athlete in his youth and had lived an
active and most agreeable life. He had contracted a degree of physical
disorder that made him ineligible as an insurance risk. This unexpected
disability and warning was so much a shock, that it led to his making a
strong personal effort to save himself. He concluded that he took too much
food and too much needless worry. His practice and advice is, be sure that
you are really hungry and are not pampering false appetite. If true
appetite that will relish plain bread alone is not present, wait for it,
if you have to wait till noon. Then chew, masticate, munch, bite, taste
everything you take in your mouth; until it is not only thoroughly
liquefied and made neutral or alkaline by saliva, but until the reduced
substance all settles back in the folds at the back of the mouth and
excites the swallowing impulse into a strong inclination to swallow. Then
swallow what has collected and has excited the impulse, and continue to
chew at the remainder, liquid though it be, until the last morsel
disappears in response to the swallowing impulse. In a very short time
this will become an agreeable and profitable fixed habit. Mr. Fletcher has
been under the observation of several eminent scientific men. Professor
R.H. Chittenden, of Yale University, in his report refers to the
experiments of Kumagawa, Sivén, and other physiologists; who have shown
that men may live and thrive, for a time at least, on amounts of proteid
per day equal to only one-half and one-quarter the amount called for in
the Voit standard (see p. 32), even without unduly increasing the total
calories of the food intake. Such investigations, however, have always
called forth critical comment from writers reluctant to depart from the
current standards, as extending over too short periods of time.

Dr. Chittenden writes that he has had in his laboratory, for several
months past, a gentleman (H.F.) who for some five years, practised a
certain degree of abstinence in the taking of food and attained important
economy with, as he believes, great gain, in bodily and mental vigour and
with marked improvement in his general health. The gentleman in question
fully satisfies his appetite, but no longer desires the amount of food
consumed by most individuals. For a period of thirteen days, in January,
he was under observation in Professor Chittenden's laboratory. The daily
amount of proteid metabolised was 41.25 grammes, the body-weight (165
pounds) remaining practically constant. Analysis of the excretions showed
an output of an equivalent quantity of nitrogen. In February a more
thorough series of observations was made. The diet was quite simple, and
consisted merely of a prepared cereal food, milk and maple sugar. This
diet was taken twice a day for seven days, and was selected by the subject
as giving sufficient variety for his needs and quite in accord with his
taste. No attempt was made to conform to any given standard of quantity,
but the subject took each day such amounts of the above foods as his
appetite craved. The daily average in grammes was, proteid 44.9 (1.58
ounces), fats 38.0, carbohydrates 253.0, calories 1,606. The total intake
of nitrogen per day was 7.19, while the output was 6.90. It may be asked,
says Professor Chittenden, was this diet at all adequate for the needs of
the body--sufficient for a man weighing 165 pounds? In reply, it may be
said that the appetite was satisfied and that the subject had full freedom
to take more food if he so desired. The body-weight remained practically
constant and the nitrogen of the intake and output were not far apart. An
important point is, can a man on such food be fit for physical work? Mr.
Fletcher was placed under the guidance of Dr. W.G. Anderson, the director
of the gymnasium of Yale University. Dr. Anderson reports that on the four
last days of the experiment, in February, 1903, Mr. Fletcher was given the
same kind of exercises as are given to the 'Varsity crew. They are drastic
and fatiguing and cannot be done by beginners without soreness and pain
resulting. They are of a character to tax the heart and lungs as well as
to try the muscles of the limbs and trunk. "My conclusion, given in
condensed form, is this: Mr. Fletcher performs this work with greater ease
and with fewer noticeable bad results than any man of his age and
condition I have ever worked with." "To appreciate the full significance
of this report, it must be remembered," writes Professor Chittenden, "that
Mr. Fletcher had for several months past taken practically no exercise
other than that involved in daily walks about town." Sir Michael Forster
had Mr. Fletcher and others under observation in his Cambridge
laboratories, and in his report he remarks on the waste products of the
bowel being not only greatly reduced in amount, as might be expected; but
that they are also markedly changed in character, becoming odourless and
inoffensive, and assuming a condition which suggests that the intestine is
in a healthier and more aseptic condition than is the case under ordinary
circumstances. If we can obtain sufficient nourishment, as Mr. Fletcher
does, on half the usual quantity of food, we diminish by half the
expenditure of energy required for digestion. By thorough mastication the
succeeding digestive processes are more easily and completely performed.
What is also of great importance is that there is not the danger of the
blocking up of the lower intestines with a mass of incompletely digested
and decomposing residue, to poison the whole body. Even where there is
daily defæcation, there is often still this slowly shifting mass; the end
portion only, being expelled at a time, one or more days after its proper
period. All this improved condition of the digestive tract, leaves more
vitality for use in other directions, a greater capacity for work and
clearness of brain.

Professor R.H. Chittenden, in "Physiological Economy in Nutrition,"
writes:--"Our results, obtained with a great variety of subjects, justify
the conviction that the minimum proteid requirements of the healthy man,
under ordinary conditions of life, are far below the generally accepted
dietary standards, and far below the amounts called for by the acquired
taste of the generality of mankind. Body weight, health, strength, mental
and physical vigour and endurance can be maintained with at least one-half
of the proteid food ordinarily consumed."

From these and other considerations, we see that it is not only
unnecessary, but inadvisable to diet ourselves according to any of the old
standards, such as that of Voit, or even to any other standard, until they
have been very thoroughly revised. We shall probably find that as the body
becomes accustomed to simpler food, a smaller quantity of the food is
necessary. The proportion of proteids to other constituents in all the
ordinary, not over manfactured vegetable foods, such as are generally
eaten, may be taken as sufficient. Several cookery books have been
compiled in conformity with certain proteid standards and also with some
more or less fanciful requirements; these give the quantities and kinds of
food which it is imagined should be eaten each day. Theoretically, this
should be calculated to accord with the weight, temperament, age and sex
of the eater and the work he or she has to perform. The dietaries that we
have seen have their proteid ratio placed unnecessarily high. This high
proteid ratio can be got by the use of the pulses, but except in small
quantities they are not generally admissible, and in some of the dietaries
they are ruled out. The difficulty is got over by the liberal use of eggs,
cheese and milk. To admit a necessity for these animal products is to show
a weakness and want of confidence in the sufficiency of vegetable foods.
Some of these cookery books are of use in sickness, especially as
replacing those of the beef-tea, chicken-broth, jelly and arrowroot order.
They provide a half-way stage between flesh and vegetable food, such as is
palatable to those who have not quite overcome a yearning for flesh and
stimulating foods. The liberal use of animal products is less likely to
excite the prejudice of the ordinary medical practitioner or nurse.
Possibly, also, a higher quantity of proteid may be required on first
giving up flesh foods.

The Use of Salt.--One of the most remarkable habits of these times is
the extensive use of common salt or sodium chloride. It is in all ordinary
shop bread, in large quantity in a special and much advertised cereal
food, even in a largely sold wheat flour, and often in pastry. It is added
to nearly all savoury vegetable food, and many persons, not content, add
still more at the time of eating. No dinner table is considered complete
without one or more salt-cellars. Some take even threequarters of an
ounce, or an ounce per day. The question is not, of course, whether salt
is necessary or not, but whether there is a sufficient quantity already
existing in our foods. Some allege that there is an essential difference
between added salt and that natural to raw foods. That the former is
inorganic, non-assimilable and even poisonous; whilst the latter is
organised or in organic combination and nutritive. The writer is far from
being convinced that there is a difference in food value. Some herbivorous
animals are attracted by salt, but not the carnivora. This has been
explained by the fact that potassium salts are characteristic of plants,
whilst sodium chloride is the principal saline constituents of blood and
of flesh. In their food, the herbivora take three or four times as much
potash salts as the carnivora. Of course, the sodium chloride in the flesh
of the herbivora and frugivora is obtained from the vegetable matter
forming their food, and very few of them have the opportunity of obtaining
it from salt-licks and mineral sources. They must have the power of
storing up the sodium chloride from plants in sufficient quantity, whilst
the potash salts pass away. There is no justification for saying that they
are worse off by being deprived of salt. If the ape tribe can thrive
without added salt why should not man? Bunge considers that a restriction
to vegetable food causes a great desire for salt. Opposed to this, is the
fact that certain tribes of negroes who cannot obtain salt, add to their
vegetable food wood ashes or a preparation of wood ashes; this is chiefly
potash. One preparation used in British Central Africa was found to
contain about 21 per cent. of potassium chloride to only 0.5 per cent. of
sodium chloride. It has been said that vegetarians consume more salt than
those who take flesh food. We doubt this; we know of many vegetarians who
have a strong objection to added salt, and have abstained from it for
years. Some find that it predisposes to colds, causes skin irritation and
other symptoms. At many vegetarian restaurants the food is exceedingly
salty; the writer on this account cannot partake of their savoury dishes,
except with displeasure. Nearly all who patronise these restaurants are
accustomed to flesh foods, and it is their taste which has to be catered
for. Flesh, and particularly blood, which of course, is in flesh, contains
a considerable quantity of sodium chloride; and most flesh eaters are also
in the habit of using the salt cellar. These people are accustomed to a
stimulating diet, and have not a proper appreciation of the mildly
flavoured unseasoned vegetable foods. Only those who have, for a time,
discontinued the use of added salt, and lost any craving for it, can know
how pleasant vegetables can be; even those vegetables which before were
thought to be nearly tasteless, unless seasoned, are found to have very
distinct flavours. It is then perceived, that there is a much greater
variety in such foods than was previously imagined. It is commonly urged
that salt and other condiments are necessary to make food palatable and to
stimulate the digestive functions. We, on the contrary, say that
condiments are the cause of much over-eating; and that if food cannot be
eaten without them, it is a sign of disorganisation of the digestive
system, and it is better to abstain from food until the appearance of a
natural and healthy appetite. An excess of salt creates thirst and means
more work for the kidneys in separating it from the blood prior to its
expulsion. Even should it be admitted, that certain vegetables contain too
little sodium salts, a very little salt added to such food would be
sufficient; there is no excuse for the general use of it, and in such a
great variety of foods. It is thought that some cases of inflammation of
the kidneys originate in excessive salt eating; certain it is that
patients suffering from the disease very soon improve, on being placed on
a dietary free from added salt and also poor in naturally contained sodium
and potassium salts. It is also possible to cause the swelling of the legs
(oedema), to which such invalids are subject, to disappear and reappear at
will, by withdrawing and afterwards resuming salt-containing foods. The
quantity of one-third of an ounce, added to the usual diet, has after a
continuation of several days, produced oedema. In one patient, on a diet
of nearly two pounds of potatoes, with flesh, but without added salt, the
oedemia disappeared and the albumin in the urine diminished. As potatoes
are particularly rich in potash salts, this case is significant, as
showing contrary to expectations, that such quantity as they contained had
not the irritating effect of added common salt. Salt and other chlorides
have been shown by several observers, to be injurious, not only in
diseases of the kidneys, but also of the liver and heart. In these
diseases the excess of salt is retained in the tissues, it causes a flow
of fluid into them, and so produces oedema and favours the increase of
dropsy. The good effect of milk in such diseases has long been known; it
is probably due to its relative poverty in sodium and potassium chlorides.
Even in the case of three healthy men, by an abrupt change from a diet
extremely rich in chlorides to one deficient, they were able to reduce the
body-weight by as much as two kilos. (4 lbs. 6 oz.); this was by the loss
of an excess of water from their connective tissues. Sodium chloride
diminishes the solvent action of water on uric acid and the urates; but
potassium salts, on the contrary, do not, they may even increase the
action. Although nearly all the medical experience recorded has to do with
diseased persons, such cases are instructive; it is only reasonable to
suppose, that more than a very small quantity of salt in excess of that
natural to the food, is a source of irritation in the body, even of the
ordinarily healthy individual.

Summary.--Enjoyment of food is dependent upon appetite quite as much as
upon the nature of the food. Better a simple repast with good appetite
than sumptuous fare with bad digestion. There is indeed a causal
relationship between simplicity and health. The savage likes the noise of
the tom-tom or the clatter of wooden instruments: what a contrast this is
to the trained ear of the musician. Uncivilised man has little enjoyment
of scenery or of animal life, except as in respect to their power of
providing him with food, clothing or other physical gratification. What an
enormous advance has taken place. In the case of the painter, his eye and
mind can appreciate a wide range and delicacy of colour. Man has improved
on the crab-apple and the wild strawberry. From a wild grass he has
produced the large-grained nutritious wheat. Vegetables of all kinds have
been greatly improved by long continued cultivation. In tropical and
sub-tropical climates, where wild fruits are more plentiful, high
cultivation is of less importance than in temperate regions. In sparsely
inhabited or wild, temperate and cold regions, in times past, when deer
and other animals were plentiful, and edible fruits few, flesh could be
obtained at less labour; or such intelligence and industry as is required
for the cultivation of fruits, cereals, and other foods scarcely existed.
Flesh almost requires to be cooked to be palatable, certainly this much
improves its flavour. The eating of flesh tends to produce a distaste for
mild vegetable foods, especially if uncooked. In process of time, not only
flesh but vegetable foods, were more and more subjected to cooking and
seasoning, or mixed with the flesh, blood or viscera of the animals
killed. Next, food was manufactured to produce a still greater variety, to
increase the flavour, or less frequently to produce an imagined greater
digestibility or nutritiveness. Man has taken that which seemed most
agreeable, rarely has he been intentionally guided by scientific
principles, by that which is really best. Only of late years can it be
said that there is such a thing as a science of dietetics; although
cookery books innumerable have abounded. Of recent years many diseases
have enormously increased, some even seem to be new. Digestive
disturbances, dental caries, appendicitis, gout, rheumatism, diabetes,
nervous complaints, heart disease, baldness and a host of other diseases
are due, in a great measure, to abuse of food. One of the most learned and
original of scientific men, Professor Elie Metchnikoff, in his remarkable
book on "The Nature of Man," referring to the variety of food and its
complexity of preparation says that it "militates against physiological
old age and that the simpler food of the uncivilised races is better....
Most of the complicated dishes provided in the homes, hotels and
restaurants of the rich, stimulate the organs of digestion and secretion
in a harmful way. It would be true progress to abandon modern cuisine and
to go back to the simpler dishes of our ancestors." A few have lived to a
hundred years, and physiologists, including Metchnikoff, see no inherent
reason why all men, apart from accident, should not do so. Most men are
old at 70, some even at 60; if we could add 20 or 30 years to our lives,
what an immense gain it would be. Instead of a man being in his prime, a
useful member of the community, from about 25 to 60 or perhaps to 70; he
would have the same physical and mental vigour to 80 or 90 or even longer.
This later period would be the most valuable part of his life, as he would
be using and adding to the accumulated experience and knowledge of the
earlier period.

Some, perceiving the mischief wrought by luxurious habits, urge us to go
back to nature, to eat natural food. This is ambiguous. To speak of
animals as being in a state of nature, conveys the distinct idea of their
living according to their own instinct and reason, uninterfered with, in
any way, by man. The phrase, applied to man, is either meaningless, or has
a meaning varying with the views of each speaker. If it has any definite
meaning, it must surely be the giving way to the animal impulses and
instincts; to cast off all the artifices of civilisation, to give up all
that the arts and sciences have done for man, all that he has acquired
with enormous labour, through countless failures and successes, during
hundreds of thousands of years, and to fall back to the lowest
savagery--even the savages known to us use art in fashioning their arms,
clothing and shelter, to the time when man was a mere animal. Civilised
man is not only an animal, but an intellectual and spiritual being, and it
is as natural for him to clothe himself as for a cow to eat grass. Our
intellect has been made to wait on our animal nature, whilst our spiritual
has lagged far behind. Animal food and all else of a stimulating
character, stimulates the lower nature of man, his selfish propensities;
whilst mild food makes it easier to lead a pure life. In the treatment of
habitual drunkards in retreats, it has been found that a permanent cure is
rare upon the usual abundant flesh dietary. Only by the use of vegetable
food, particularly farinaceous, can a permanent cure be assured. The
editor of the Clarion, Mr. R. Blatchford, or "Nunquam," has lately adopted
a vegetarian diet. He remarks with surprise, that although he has been a
heavy smoker for more than 30 years, using not less than eight ounces of
tobacco a week, often two ounces in a day, he has found his passion for
tobacco nearly gone. He has had to get milder tobacco, and is now not
smoking half-an-ounce a day. He says "it does not taste the same; I am not
nearly so fond of it." He finds, with regard to wine, that he now cannot
drink it, "it tastes like physic." He writes: "These things have come upon
me as a revelation. I begin to see that the great cure for the evil of
national intemperance is not teetotal propaganda, but vegetarianism."

We have given reasons of a scientific character, for abstaining from flesh
as food, but higher than these are those relating to ethics. Everything
relating to the slaughter-house is revolting to a refined and humane
person. In the great slaughter-houses of Chicago; in those huge hideous
box-shaped buildings, five or six storeys high, about ten millions of
animals are killed every year. They are treated as if they were bales of
merchandise and as destitute of feeling. Bullocks are struck on the head
with a mallet and let fall into the basement of the building. They are
whilst stunned or half-stunned, at once strung up by their hind legs to
some machinery, which moves them along, their heads hanging downwards.
Regardless of their agony, men run after them to cut their throats,
followed by others with great pails to catch the blood. Much of the warm
blood is spilt over the men or on the floors; but this is of no
consequence, if but a small fraction of a minute is economised. In a short
time, whether the animal has bled long enough or not, it reaches the
lowest and darkest and worst ventilated portion of the gloomy building,
where it is disembowelled. The walls and floors are caked with blood, the
place is filthy, there is no proper lavatory accommodation, everything
both to eyes and nose is detestable. Even if the windows were kept clean,
light could not penetrate into the centre of the buildings. Consequently a
large part of the work is done by artificial light. Tuberculosis is
prevalent amongst the workpeople living under such unsanitary conditions.
Serious crime is much more common amongst them than amongst any other
class.

We English-speaking people, who pride ourselves on our civilisation and
religion; who call ourselves the followers of the gentle Jesus, the Prince
of Peace; yet hunt, shoot, trap and torture animals for food sport and
science. Our main reason for eating flesh is that of personal
gratification. We are loath to admit that the lower animals have any
rights. Those Eastern peoples who are adherents to the teachings of the
gentle Buddha hold life sacred. Mr. H. Fielding, who lived many years
amongst the simple-minded Burmese, says that though there is now no law
against the sale of beef, yet no respectable Burman will even now, kill
cattle or sell beef. No life at all may be taken by him who keeps to
Buddhistic teaching, and this is a commandment wonderfully well kept. "He
believes that all that is beautiful in life is founded on compassion and
kindness and sympathy--that nothing of great value can exist without them.
Do you think that a Burmese boy would be allowed to birds'-nest or worry
rats with a terrier, or go ferreting? Not so. These would be crimes. That
this kindess and compassion for animals has very far-reaching results, no
one can doubt. If you are kind to animals, you will be kind, too, to your
fellow-men."

By participating in any form of cruelty or injustice, not only to our
fellow-men, but also to the lower animals, we retard our progress towards
the higher life, the subtler forces in man cannot find their full
expression and we are less responsive to spiritual influences.

Printed by
Hurst Bros., Shaw Heath, Stockport.

 ______________________________________________________________________
|                        THE STANDARD NUT MEAT.                        |
|                               PROTOSE                                |
|   Made from choice grains and nuts so combined as to produce         |
|   a food resembling beef-steak in appearance, taste, and nutriment,  |
|   but free from all the tissue wastes found in animal foods.         |
|   Protose constitutes a perfect substitute for all flesh foods,      |
|   to which it is much to be preferred.                               |
|   It tastes good, promotes health and vigour, and imparts            |
|   great staying power.                                               |
|   The success of Protose is based upon merit, and the best           |
|   advertisement of Protose is--Protose.                              |
|   Literature more fully descriptive of Protose and of our other      |
|   Health Foods may be had upon request.                              |
|                                 THE                                  |
|               International Health Association, Ltd.,                |
|                      LEGGE STREET, BIRMINGHAM.                       |
|______________________________________________________________________|

 ______________________________________________________________________
|                     THE FOOD REFORM RESTAURANT                       |
|        (Opposite the                                                 |
|         Prudential               4 FURNIVAL STREET,                  |
|         Assurance                HOLBORN, LONDON, E.C.               |
|         Buildings)                                                   |
|           _4 minutes walk from City Temple or Law Courts._           |
|  The daintiest and most up-to-date Vegetarian Restaurant in London.  |
|            Central yet quiet situation, every convenience.           |
|                  ROOMS TO LET FOR EVENING MEETINGS.                  |
|                        OPEN 9 A.M. TO 8 P.M.                         |
|           (SATURDAYS, 7 p.m. in winter, 4 p.m. in summer).           |
|   Special Nut and other Proteid  |  F.R. Co's. Shilling Ordinary     |
|   Foods always on the Menus.     |  Three Courses, Cheese & Coffee.  |
|                                  |                                   |
|   Conservative Cooking,          |         Six varieties of          |
|      Great variety of dishes.    |         Sixpenny Teas.            |
|      _FRUITS, SALADS, and Dishes à la Carte, in great variety._      |
|              PROPRIETORS--THE FOOD REFORM COMPANY, LTD.              |
|______________________________________________________________________|

 ______________________________________________________________________
|                 _Will you try_                                       |
|                    _a cup_               [Illustration]              |
|                    _of tea_                                          |
|  that instead of injuring your nerves and toughening your food, is   |
|                   ABSOLUTELY SAFE AND DELIGHTFUL.                    |
|                     The Universal Digestive Tea,                     |
|                        2/2, 2/10, 3/6 per lb.                        |
| is ordinary tea treated with oxygen, which neutralises the injurious |
| tannin. Every pound of ordinary tea contains about two ounces of     |
| tannin. Tannin is a powerful astringent substance to tan skins into  |
| leather. The tannin in ordinary teas tans, or hardens, the lining of |
| the digestive organs, also the food eaten. This prevents the         |
| healthful nourishment of the body and undoubtedly eventuates in      |
| nervous disorders. On receipt of a postcard, The Universal           |
| Digestive Tea Co., Ltd., COLONIAL WAREHOUSE, KENDAL, will send a     |
| sample of this Tea and name of nearest Agent, also a Descriptive     |
| Pamphlet compiled by Albert Broadbent, Author of "Science in the     |
| Daily Meal," etc. AGENTS WANTED.                                     |
|      Sold by The Vegetarian Society, 257 Deansgate, Manchester.      |
|______________________________________________________________________|

 ______________________________________________________________________
|             'IT IS NATURE'S SOAP'--_Dr. Kirk_ (Edinburgh)            |
| M'Clinton's Colleen and Tyr-Owen Toilet Soaps are made from the      |
| natural salts of plants and vegetable oils only. They have therefore |
| a mildness that no other soap possesses. The use of this soap        |
| prevents heat irritation insummer, and keeps the hands from chapping |
| in cold weather.                                                     |
| M'Clinton's Shaving Soap is also made from vegetable oils and the    |
| ash of plants, and is the only shaving soap so made.                 |
| M'Clinton's Tooth Soap is free from the nauseous taste of caustic    |
| soda. It contains no animal or mineral matter. An ideal dentifrice.  |
| We guarantee these statements, and will return the money to anyone   |
| dissatisfied with the result of a trial. For 1/6 we will send, post  |
| paid, a large assorted box, say with Shaving soap (cake or stick),   |
| or Tooth soap as required. Also a pretty Enamelled Matchholder,      |
| representing a cottage fireside in this Irish village.               |
|      _(Dept. S.)_ D. BROWN & SON, Donaghmore, Tyrone, Ireland.       |
|______________________________________________________________________|

 ______________________________________________________________________
|  TRADE MARK         They have stood the test                         |
|                   _______________________________                    |
| [Illustration]                                                       |
|                   F.R. NUT MEAT    VEJOLA                            |
|                   MEATOSE          GRAIN GRANULES                    |
|                   NUT CREAM ROLLS  NUT CARAMELS                      |
|                   NUT BUTTER       NUTMEATOSE                        |
|                   _______________________________                    |
|                                And found to be best                  |
| Samples of either of the above will be forwarded post free for six   |
| stamps.                                                              |
|     Solely Manufactured by THE LONDON NUT FOOD CO., Health Food      |
|            Specialists and Manufacturing Confectioners,              |
|                465 Battersea Park Road, London, S. W.                |
|______________________________________________________________________|

 ______________________________________________________________________
|                     EMPIRE LINEN MESH UNDERWEAR.                     |
|                             A CONTRAST.                              |
|    _EMPIRE LINEN MESH UNDERWEAR_          _WOOLLEN UNDERWEAR_        |
| Is a clean vegetable product        Is an animal product and cannot  |
|                                        be properly cleansed          |
| Preserves the Natural heat of the   Creates unnatural heat           |
|   body                                                               |
| Is porous and open, allowing the    Becomes felted and chokes the    |
|   skin  to breathe                    pores                          |
| Absorbs moisture very rapidly       Absorbs moisture very slowly     |
| Dries very rapidly                  Dries very slowly                |
| Radiates away all moisture from     Retains the moisture of the body |
|   the pores                                                          |
| Can be easily cleansed              Cannot be boiled without         |
|                                       destroying the fabric          |
| Hardens and strengthens the         Enervates and enfeebles the      |
|   system                              system                         |
| Does not shrink in washing or wear  Always shrinks                   |
| Prevents chills and colds           Encourages chills and colds      |
| Prevents and relieves Rheumatism    Promotes Rheumatism and similar  |
|                                       diseases                       |
| Does not irritate the most          Causes Rash and other skin       |
|   sensitive skin                      troubles                       |
| Cures and prevents prickly heat     Irritates all skin diseases      |
|            _________                           _________             |
| "They shall be clothed with Linen   "And no wool shall come upon     |
|   garments."--Ezekiel 44.17         them."--Ezekiel 44.17            |
| "But Flax, that cleanest and best   "For wool the excretion of a     |
|   production of the field, is used    sluggish body taken from       |
|   not only for the inner and outer    sheep." &c.--Apuleius          |
|   clothing,"--Apuleius              "I go woolward for penance."     |
| "They'll find linen enough."           --Shakespeare                 |
|   --Shakespeare                                                      |
| _Booklets telling all about this underwear, together with patterns   |
|   of materials can be had free._                                     |
|  The IRISH LINEN MESH CO., Cathedral Buildings, Belfast.             |
|______________________________________________________________________|

 ______________________________________________________________________
|                            MAPLETON'S                                |
|                             NUT FOODS                                |
|  Stand the test alike of time, experience and chemical               |
|  analysis. They are daily used by all classes in the community, and  |
|  have been awarded after full analysis the certificate of the        |
|  Institute of Hygiene, 34 Devonshire St., Harley St., London, W.     |
| _These foods were largely used at the Vegetarian Society's Summer    |
| School at St. Andrews._                                              |
|     Send for full descriptive Price List from the manufacturer,      |
|     Hugh Mapleton, 2 and 3 Dolphin St., Ardwick, Manchester,         |
|     also at Bristol and Hamburg.                                     |
|______________________________________________________________________|

 ______________________________________________________________________
|                    The Broadbent Health Booklets.                    |
|                           ONE PENNY EACH.                            |
|              1. How to Keep Warm                                     |
|              2. Bread: Its Influence on Health                       |
|              3. Constipation Prevented by Diet                       |
|              4. Dyspepsia Prevented by Diet                          |
|              5. Dangers in Food (for sufferers from Rheumatisms)     |
|              6. Rheumatism and Gout Prevented by Diet                |
|              7. Children: Their Health and Food                      |
|              8. Complexions made Beautiful                           |
|              9. Nervousness Prevented by Diet                        |
|             10. The Secrets of Longevity                             |
|            _London:_ R.J. James. London House Yard, E.C.             |
|  _Philadelphia:_ THE BROADBENT PRESS. 1023 Foulkrod St., Frankford.  |
| _Price 3 cents. Special quotations from the Author for quantities--_ |
|        _ALBERT BROADBENT, F.S.S., 257 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER._        |
|______________________________________________________________________|

 ______________________________________________________________________
|                               PLASMON                                |
|                              ARROWROOT.                              |
| [Illustration]                                                       |
|                        INFANTS, INVALIDS, &c.                        |
|                  Provides the greatest nourishment;                  |
|                   _is absolutely non-irritating_,                    |
|                  easily digested, and particularly                   |
|                     useful in extreme exhaustion                     |
|                       and _wasting diseases_.                        |
|                     Tins 5d. & 9d. All Chemists.                     |
|______________________________________________________________________|

 ______________________________________________________________________
|                     The Broadbent Health Books.                      |
|                BY ALBERT BROADBENT, F.S.S., F.R.H.S.                 |
|                                ______                                |
|      Fortieth                                     Dietetic           |
|      Thousand.           "SCIENCE IN THE        Treatment for        |
|      Fourpence             DAILY MEAL."         Gout,                |
|      Post Free.                                 Rheumatism.          |
|                   "FRUITS, NUTS, AND VEGETABLES,"                    |
|   Seventieth Thousand. THEIR Uses As FOOD AND MEDICINE.              |
|                                                3-1/2d. Post Free.    |
|   "A BOOK ABOUT SALADS."                      3-1/2d. Post Free.     |
|            _All these Books contain Invaluable Recipes._             |
|                   FROM 257 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER.                    |
|______________________________________________________________________|

           ______________HIGHEST IN QUALITY._______________
          |                                                  |
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          |            "Cadburys Cocoa undergoes             |
          |         no method of treatment by which          |
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          |                   introduced."                   |
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          |                                                  |
          |                    Cadbury's                     |
          |                                                  |
          |                 THE NICEST COCOA                 |
          |                       ____                       |
          |[Illustration]                     [Illustration] |
          |             "The standard of highest             |
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          |                                                  |
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          |                                                  |
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          |                                                  |
          |_________________LOWEST IN PRICE__________________|