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bated, and have been rendered tractable and docile, by being fed on vegetable food. Dr. Arbuthnot men tions, in his " Essay on the Nature of Aliments," that several instances had fallen under his own ob. servation, of irascibility of temper, in the human species, being subdued by a vegetable regimen. A vegtable diet, by keeping the passions within due bounds, is an admirable preservative of the purity of morals. It is natural, says Strabo, for people, who live on a moderate and simple diet, to be very regular and just in their conduct. lib. vii.

While the people of the East in general, are im mersed in debauchery, profligacy, and all kinds of wickedness, the natives of India are regular in their conduct, and just and merciful in their dealings. Homer extols the justice and virtue of the feeders on mare's milk, which may in a good measure be looked on as a vegetable aliment.

And where the far-fam'd Hippemolgian strays, renown'd for justice, and for length of days; thrice happy race, that, innocent of blood, from milk innoxious seek their simple food. Pope, book xiii. See also Strabo, lib. vii—and Ammianus Marcell. lib. xxiii. c. 6.

Dr. Cullen, in his "Materia Medica," observes that vegetable aliment, as neither distending the vessels, nor loading the system, never interrupts the stronger action of the mind; while the heat, fullness, and weight of animal food, is adverse to it's vigorous efforts. That a vegetable diet is favourable to many exertions of the mind, is proved in several practical instances. Gamesters, whose minds must be always alert, and prepared to make calculations, and employ the memory, constantly avoid a full meal of animal food, which incapacitites them; for this reason they

live chiefly on milk and vegetables. Sir Isaac Newton was so sensible of this effect of animal food, that during the time of his writing his treatise on Optics, which is the work wherein his genius displayed itself in it's fullest force, he lived on a vegetable diet only, and that extremely simple and rigid. The same regimen is said to have been followed by several of the greek philosophers distinguished for wisdom, as Pythagoras, Zeno, and others.-Cheyne on Diseases, sec. ii.

66

"Of all the children, I have known or heard of," says Mr. Newton, none have disliked fruits, but several have refused to eat flesh.

made sick by it."

Some have been

Many people have a dislike to fat; some on ac count of being unfavourable to bilious complaints, and others from inducing nausea. Unfortunately one cannot easily be obtained without the other. This is a powerful argument against the use of flesh in toThere are few families that can afford to throw away the fat. If the fat be improper, then is the lean improper, for one is attached to the other.

to.

"I once indulged" says M. Marmontel, "in living for six weeks on milk at Compiégne, when in full health. Never was my soul more calm, more peaceful, than during this regimen. My days flowed a. long in study with an unalterable equality; my nights were but one gentle sleep. Discord might have overturned the world, it would not have shaken me. [Memoirs, b. v.]

In Hart's "Diet of the Diseased," p. 203, there are several instances of persons, who have lived for many years solely on cow's milk. Sheep indeed furnish excellent milk, but in small quantities, and only for a short time.

It is a curious fact that in all

the nations where milk constitutes a chief part of their diet, it is eaten in a state of acidity. The Tartars always ferment their milk. The Russians reck. on their butter-milk a specific for consumptions. The Caffres keep their milk in sheep skins, which they never clean, in order to preserve the substance which ferments it. They expressed the utmost ab horence, on seeing Europeans drink some fresh milk; and said it was very unwholesome. Even among the poor people of Scotland, and in Ireland particularly, there is more milk eaten in an acessent than in fresh state. Sinclair's Code, i, 269, 273, 275.

Grain and other vegetables, with the help of milk, cheese, and butter; or oil, where butter is not to be had, are known from experience, without any butcher's meat, to afford the most plentiful, the most wholesome, the most nourishing and the most invigorating diet. Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations, iii, 341.

In Barbary, the sheep and goats, as well as cows, contribute to the dairies, particularly in the making of cheese. Instead of rennet, especially in the summer season, they turn the milk with the flowers of the great headed thistle, or wild artichoke; and putting the curds afterwards into small baskets, made with rushes, or with the dwarf palm, they bind them up close, and press them.-Shaw's Travels in Bar. bary. Thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for maintenance for thy maidens.-Prov. xxvii, 27.

Man, in quitting the nutriment on which alone Providence has destined him to enjoy a state of perfect health, has debased his physical, and consequently his moral and intellectual faculties, to a degree almost inconceivable. It is not man that we have before us; it is but the wreck of him.-Newton, i. 66.

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The unwholesomeness of animal food is more evident, if possible, than it's pernicious effects on mor. als. In works which have been some time before the public, says the learned and scientific Dr. Lambe, I have maintained, on the authority of adduced facts, that, while the predisposition to the various forms of diseased action is congenital, and dependent upon va. rieties in the radical organization of the frame, the more direct causes are to be looked for in the agency of foreign substances on the body, and principally of those which are used as food and drink. In water, for instance, the putrid or putrescent matter, the animal or vegetable substances, in a state of decomposition, is that which is actively mischievous; it be ing immediately and directly deleterious. Fish does not impart the strength of animal food; but it is as oppressive to the stomach as flesh; and it is more putrescent, as may be concluded from the nauseous and hepatic eructations of the stomach, after it has been eaten. In every period of history it has been known, that (fruit and) vegetables alone are sufficient for the support of life, and that the bulk of mankind live on them at this hour; the adherence to the use of animal food is no more than a persistence in the gross custom of savage life; and evinces an insensibility to the progress of reason, and to the operation of intellectual improvement.-See Addit. Reports, p, 15, 39, 161, 259, 243.

Dr. Alphonsus Lercy, of Paris, has published an essay on certain diseases of men, which he traces to the animals on which they had fed; and he establishes the doctrine generally, that many diseases with which mankind are afflicted, are communicated by eating the flesh of animals.-Monthly Mag. June 1815, p. 446.

Dr. Lambe has distinctly traced a disease of the stomach, with which several families in Worcester were afflicted, to the quality of the pump water, which was impregnated with the oxyd of lead.

Mr. Newton thinks that the reason that the vegetable diet is not successful in every case, to prevent disease, seems to be, that it's beneficial effects have been in great measure counteracted by the impurity of water. It was Dr. Lambe's good fortune to discover this important fact. Fruits and vegetables, even with the use of common water, would probably prolong life more than animal food; yet as acute and chronic diseases would still supervene, the benefits derived from the antiphlogistic regimen could neither be sufficient, nor sufficiently manifest to produce a a conviction of it's salutary tendency.

ter.

Man, does not seem naturally a drinking animal. Fruits supply all the liquid which he stands in need of. It has been ascertained that particular districts have disorders occasioned by the quality of the waDistillation however is a complete remedy against every aqueous impregnation. Neither the Holywell of Flintshire, nor the spring at Malvern can serve as a substitute for distilled water. Without this precaution, even the vegetable diet will not prevent violent disorders, brought on by the use of com. mon water. It appears from Dr. Kirkland's letter, to Sir John Sinclair, that some Water in Essex, was so bad as to have immediate ill effects on those who used it.-Code of Health, ii, 215.

In distilling water, some of the first which comes off may be thrown away, which often contains some septic matter, and also leave some at the bottom of the still, on account of the filthy residium.