There is a general similarity in the effects of stimulants on the

digestive and nervous systems. The most largely used stimulant is ethyl

alcohol, and as its action is best known, it may be useful to name the

principal effects. Alcohol in the form of wine and spirits, in small

quantities, first stimulates the digestive organs. Large quantities

inflame the stomach and stop digestion. (Beer, however, retards digestion,

altogether out of proportion to the alcohol it contains.) Alcohol

increases the action of the heart, increases the blood pressure, and

causes the vessels of the whole body to dilate, especially those of the

skin; hence there is a feeling of warmth. It the person previously felt

cold he now feels warm. The result of the increased circulation through

the various organs is that they work with greater vigour, hence the mental

faculties are brightened for a time, and the muscular strength seems

increased. The person usually feels the better for it, though this is not

always the case; some have a headache or feel very sleepy. It has been

repeatedly proved that these good results are but transitory. The heart,

although at first stimulated, is more exhausted after the action of the

alcohol has passed away than it was at first. This is true of all the

organs of the body which were stimulated. In consequence of the dilatation

of the blood vessels of the skin, an unusual quantity of heat is lost and

the body is cooled. After taking alcohol persons are less able to stand

cold. When overtaken by snowstorms or subjected to excessive or prolonged

cold, it has often happened that those who resorted to spirit drinking

have succumbed, whilst the others have survived. Insurance statistics

have conclusively shown that teetotallers are longer livers than the

so-called moderate drinkers. The terrible effects on both body and mind of

the excessive drinking of alcohol, or the use of other strong stimulants

or narcotics, are too obvious to need allusion to here; we are only

concerned with what is vaguely called their moderate use.

The stimulation produced by tea and coffee is in some respects like that

of alcohol. The heart is stimulated and the blood pressure rises. The

kidneys are strongly affected in those unaccustomed to the drug, but this

ceases after a week or more of use. Their chief effect is on the brain and

nervous system.

Many have boasted that they can take of what they call the good things of

life to their full, without any bad effect, and looking over a few years,

or even many years, it seems a fact. Some of us have known of such men,

who have been esteemed for their joviality and good nature, who have

suddenly broken down at what should have been a hearty middle life. On the

other hand there are men who were badly equipped for the battle of life,

with indifferent constitutions, who never had the buoyancy and overflow of

animal spirits, but who with care have long outlived all their formerly

more robust but careless companions.

Simple versus Highly-flavoured Foods.--It is very difficult to decide to

what extent condiments and flavourings should be used. These have

stimulating properties, although differing from the more complex

properties of alcohol and the alkaloids. The great differences in the

dietetic practices of nations does not appear to be in conformity with any

general rule. It varies with opportunity, climate and national

temperament; though doubtless the national temperament is often due in

part to the dietetic habits. Some races are content with the simplest

foods, large numbers subsist chiefly on rice, others on the richer

cereals, wheat, oatmeal, etc., and fruit. On the other hand there are

races who enjoy stronger flavoured food, including such things as garlic,

curry, pickles, pepper, strong cheese, meat extracts, rancid fats, dried

and smoked fish, high game or still more decomposed flesh, offal and

various disgusting things. The Greenlanders will eat with the keenest

appetite, the half-frozen, half-putrid head and fins of the seal, after

it has been preserved under the grass of summer. In Burmah and Sumatra a

mess is made by pounding together prawns, shrimps, or any cheap fish; this

is frequently allowed to become partially putrid. It is largely used as a

condiment for mixing with their rice. Numerous examples of this sort could

be given. There is scarcely anything that it is possible to eat, but has

been consumed with relish by some tribe or other. The strongest flavoured,

and to our minds most disgusting foods are eaten by the least intelligent

and most brutal races. It is hunger that compels the poor African bushman

to eat anything he can get, and the Hottentot not only the flesh, but the

entrails of cattle which die naturally, and this last he has come to think

exquisite when boiled in beast-blood. All this shows a wonderful range of

adaptability in the human body, but it would not be right to say that all

such food is equally wholesome. The most advanced and civilised races,

especially the more delicately organised of them are the most fastidious,

whilst it is the most brutal, that take the most rank and strongly

flavoured foods. Even amongst the civilised there are great differences.

The assimilative and nervous systems can be trained to tolerate injurious

influences to a remarkable degree. A striking example is seen in the

nausea commonly produced by the first pipe of tobacco, and the way the

body may in time be persuaded, not only to tolerate many times such a

quantity without manifesting any unpleasant feelings, but to receive

pleasure from the drug. Opium or laudanum may be taken in gradually

increasing quantities, until such a dose is taken as would at first have

produced death, yet now without causing any immediate or very apparent

harm. Nearly all drugs loose much of their first effect on continued use.

Not only is this so, but a sudden discontinuance of a drug may cause

distress, as the body, when free from the artificial stimulation to which

it has become habituated, falls into a sluggish or torpid condition. For

the enjoyment of food two things are equally necessary, a healthy and keen

appetite and suitable food; without the first no food, however good and

skilfully prepared, will give satisfaction. The sense of taste resides in

certain of the papilloe of the tongue, and to a much less degree in the

palate. Tastes may be classified into sweet, bitter, acid and saline.

Sweet tastes are best appreciated by the tip, acid by the side, and bitter

by the back of the tongue. Hot or pungent substances produce sensations of

general feeling, which obscure any strictly gustatory sensations which may

be present at the same time. To affect the taste the food must enter into

solution. Like the other senses, taste may be rendered more delicate by

cultivation. Flavours are really odours, and the word smell would be more

appropriate. For example, what we call the taste of an onion, the flavour

of fruit, etc. (independent of the sweetness or sourness of the fruit) is

due to the nose.

Much has been written on the necessity of making food tasty, so as to

stimulate the appetite and digestion. It is urged that unless this is done

food will not be eaten in sufficient quantity. Innumerable receipts (some

very elaborate) have been published for this purpose. All this is supposed

to increase the enjoyment of food. The Anglo-Saxon race--the race whose

dietary is the most elaborate--is especially subject to digestive

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._______________

| |

| The "Lancet" says, |

| "Cadburys Cocoa undergoes |

| no method of treatment by which |

| foreign substances are |

| introduced." |

| |

| /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ |

| |

| Cadbury's |

| |

| THE NICEST COCOA |

| ____ |

|[Illustration] [Illustration] |

| "The standard of highest |

| purity."--_The Lancet._ |

| |

| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ |

| |

| Cadbury's Cocoa is an exceedingly |

| nourishing article of food |

| containing every ingredient |

| necessary for the sustenance of |

| the body. It is the best and |

| safest stimulant for brain workers |

| and those who undergo great |

| bodily exertion. |

| |

|_________________LOWEST IN PRICE__________________|