ADDITIONAL INTELLIGENCE.
Letter from Dr. H. A. Barrows.--Dr. J. M. B. Harden.--Dr. J.
Porter.--Dr. N. J. Knight.--Dr. Lester Keep.--Second letter
from Dr. Keep.--Dr. Henry H. Brown.--Dr. Franklin Knox.--From a
Physician.--Additional statements by the Author.
During the years 1837 and 1838 I wrote to several of the physicians
whose names, experiments, and facts appear in Chapter II. Their answers,
so far as received, are now to be presented.
I have also received interesting letters from several other physicians
in New England and elsewhere--but particularly in New England--on the
same general subject, which, with an additional statement of my own
case, I have added to the foregoing. I might have added a hundred
authentic cases, of similar import. I might also have obtained an
additional amount of the same sort of intelligence, had it not been for
the want of time, amid numerous other pressing avocations, for
correspondence of this kind. Besides, if what I have obtained is not
satisfactory, I have many doubts whether more would be so.
The first letter I shall insert is from Dr. H. A. Barrows, of Phillips,
in Maine. It is dated October 10, 1837, and may be considered as a
sequel to that written by him to Dr. North, though it is addressed to
the author of this volume.
LETTER I.--FROM DR. H. A. BARROWS.
DEAR SIR,--As to food, my course of living has been quite uniform for
the last two or three years--principally as follows. Wheat meal bread,
potatoes, butter, and baked sweet apples for breakfast and dinners; for
suppers, old dry flour bread, which, eaten very leisurely without
butter, sauce, or drink, sits the lightest and best of any thing I eat.
But I cannot make this my principal diet, because the bowels will not
act (_without physic_) unless they have the spur of wheat bran two
thirds of the time. I have at times practiced going to bed without any
third meal; and have found myself amply rewarded for this kind of
fasting, and the consequent respite thereby afforded the stomach, in
quiet sleep and improved condition the next day. And as to drink, I
still use cold water, which I take with as great a zest, and as keen a
relish, as the inebriate does his stimulus. I seldom drink any thing
with my meals; and if I could live without drinking any thing between
meals, I think I should be rid of the principal "thorn in my side," the
acetous fermentation so constantly going on in my epigastric storehouse.
As to exercise, I take abundance; perform all my practice (except in the
winter) on horseback, and find this the very best kind of exercise for
me. I seldom eat oftener than at intervals of six hours, and am apt to
eat too much--have at various times attempted Don Cornaro's method of
weighing food, but have found it rather dry business, probably on
account of its conflicting with my appetite; but I actually find that my
stomach does not bear watching at all well.
My brother continues to practice nearly total abstinence from animal
food. I have seen him but once in two and a half years, but learn his
health has greatly improved, so that he was able to take charge of a
high school in the fall of 1836, of an academy in the spring of the
present year, and also again this fall. During his vacation last July,
he took a tour into the interior of Worcester county, Mass., and came
home entirely on foot by way of the Notch of the White Hills, traveling
nearly three hundred miles. This speaks something in favor of rigid
abstinence--as when he commenced this regimen he was extremely low.
Yours sincerely,
H. A. BARROWS.
LETTER II.--FROM DR. JOHN M. B. HARDEN.
GEORGIA, Liberty Co., Oct. 19, 1837.
DEAR SIR,--I stated in my letter to Dr. North, if I recollect correctly,
that the use of animal food was resumed in consequence of a protracted
indisposition brought on, _as was supposed_, by the inhalation of
arseniuretted hydrogen gas. The gentleman had begun to recover some time
previously; and in a short time after he commenced the use of the animal
food, he was restored to his usual health. He has continued the use of
it ever since to the same extent as in the former part of his life. He
has lately passed his fifty-fifth year, and is now in the enjoyment of
as good health as he has ever known.
I know of a gentleman in an adjoining county, who with his lady has been
living for some time past on a purely vegetable diet. They have not
continued it long enough, however, to make the experiment a fair one.
No case of injury from the inhalation of arseniuretted hydrogen has come
under my own personal observation, if we except the one above alluded
to. I find, however, that Gehlen, a celebrated French chemist, fell a
victim to it in the year 1815. His death is thus announced in the
"Philosophical Magazine" for that year. "We lament to have to announce
the death of Gehlen, many years the editor of an excellent Journal on
Chemistry and other sciences, and a profound chemist. He fell a victim
to his ardent desire to promote the advancement of chemical knowledge.
He was preparing, in company with Mr. Rehland, his colleague, some
arsenated hydrogen gas, and while watching for the full development of
this air from its acid solution, trying every moment to judge from its
particular smell when that operation would be completed, he inhaled the
fatal poison which has robbed science of his valuable services." Vide
Tillock's Phil. Mag., vol. 46, p. 316. Some further notice is taken of
his death in a paper extracted from the "Annales de Chimie et de
Physique," and published in a subsequent volume of the same Magazine.
Vide vol. 49, p. 280, in which are given his last experiments on that
subject, by M. Gay Lussac. I regret that no account is given in the same
work of the symptoms arising from the poison in his case. I presume,
however, they are on record.
In the subject of the case I mention, the general and prominent symptoms
were an immediate and great diminution of muscular strength, with pallor
of countenance and constant febricula, the arteries of the head beating
with violence, particularly when lying down at night, the pulse always
moderately increased in frequency, and full, but not tense; and
digestion for the most part good. This state continued for about three
months, during which time he was attending to his usual business,
although not able to take as much exercise as before. At the end of this
time he began to recover slowly, but it was six months before he was
restored entirely.
Yours, etc.,
JOHN M. B. HARDEN.
LETTER III.--FROM DR. JOSHUA PORTER.
NORTH BROOKFIELD, Oct. 26, 1827.
Though I would by no means favor the propensity for book-making, so
prevalent in our day, yet I have been long of the opinion that a work on
vegetable diet for general readers was greatly needed. I need it in my
family; and there are many others in this vicinity who would be
materially benefited by such a work.
I have had no means of ascertaining the good or bad effects of a "diet
exclusively vegetable in cases of phthisis, scrofula, and dyspepsia,"
for I have had none of the above diseases to contend with. But, since
your letter was received, I have been called to prescribe for a man who
has been a flesh eater for more than half a century. He was confined to
his house, had been losing strength for several months, still keeping up
his old habits. The disease which was preying upon him was chronic
inflammation of the right leg; the flesh had been so long swollen and
inflamed that it had become hard to the touch. There were ulcers on his
thigh, and some had made their appearance on the hip. This disease had
been of _seven months'_ standing, though not in so aggravated a form as
it now appeared. During this time, all the local applications had been
made that could be thought of by the good ladies in the neighborhood;
and after every thing of the kind had failed, they concluded to send for
"the doctor."
After examining the patient attentively, I became convinced that the
disease, which developed itself locally, was of a constitutional origin,
and of course could not be cured by local remedies. All local
applications were discontinued; the patient was put on a vegetable diet
after the alimentary canal was freely evacuated. I saw this man three
days afterward. The dark purple appearance of the leg had somewhat
subsided; the red and angry appearance about the base of the ulcers was
gone, his strength improved, etc. Three days after I called, I found him
in his garden at work.
He is now--two weeks since my first prescription--almost well. All the
ulcers have healed, with the exception of one or two. This man, who
thinks it wicked not to use the good things God has given us--such as
meat, cider, tobacco, etc.--is very willing to subsist, for the present,
on vegetable food, because he finds it the only remedy for his disease.
Early in the spring of 1830, while a student at Amherst College, I was
attacked with dyspepsia, which rendered my life wretched for more than a
year, and finally drove me from college; but it had now so completely
gained the mastery, that no means I resorted to for relief afforded even
a palliation of my sufferings. After I had suffered nearly two years in
this way, I was made more wretched, if possible, by frequent attacks of
colic, with pains and cramps extending to my back; and so severe had
these pains become, that the prescriptions of the most eminent
physicians afforded only partial relief.
On the 13th of February, 1833, after suffering from the most violent
paroxysm I had ever endured, I left my home for Brunswick, Maine, to
attend a course of medical lectures. For several days I boarded at a
public house, and ate freely of several substantial dishes that were
before me. The consequence was a fresh attack of colic. From some
circumstances that came up at this time, I was convinced that flesh
meats had much to do with my sufferings, and the resolution was formed
at once to change my diet and "starve" out dyspepsia.
I took a room by myself, and made arrangements for receiving a pint of
milk per day; this, with coarse rye and Indian bread, constituted my
only food. After living in this way a week or two, I had a free and
natural evacuation. Thus nature began to effect what medicine alone had
done for nearly three years. The skin became moist, and my voracious
appetite began to subside. I returned home to my friends at the close of
the term well, and have been well ever since--have never had a colic
pain or any costiveness since that time. My powers of digestion are
good, and though I do not live so rigidly now as when at Brunswick, I
always feel best when my food is vegetables and milk. I can endure
fatigue and exposure as well as any man. On this mild diet, too, my
muscular strength has considerably increased; and every day is adding
new vigor to my constitution.
Having experienced so much benefit from a mild diet, and being
rationally convinced that man was a fruit-eating animal naturally, I
made my views public by a course of lectures on physiology, which I
delivered in the Lyceum soon after I came to this place (three years
ago). The consequence was, that quite a number of those who heard my
lectures commenced training their families as well as themselves to the
use of vegetables, etc., and I am happy to inform you that, at this day,
many of our most active influential business-doing men are living in the
plainest and most simple manner.
One of my neighbors has taken no flesh for more than three years. He is
of the ordinary height, and sanguine temperament, and usually weighed,
when he ate flesh, one hundred and eighty pounds. After he changed his
diet, his countenance began to change, and his cheeks fell in; and his
meat-eating friends had serious apprehensions that he would survive but
a short time, unless he returned to his former habits. But he
persevered, and is now more vigorous and more athletic than any man in
the region, or than he himself has ever been before.
His muscular strength is very great. A few days since, a number of the
most athletic young men in our village were trying their strength at
lifting a cask of lime, weighing five hundred pounds. All failed to do
it, with the exception of one, who partly raised it from the ground.
After they were gone, this vegetable eater without any difficulty raised
the cask four or five times. More than three years ago this man lost his
daughter, who fell a prey to cholera infantum; he has now a daughter
rather more than a year old, whom he has trained on strictly
physiological principles; and though very feeble at birth, and for three
months subsequently, she is now the most healthy child in the town. This
child had some of the first symptoms of consumption last August, owing
to the too free indulgence of the mother in improper articles of food;
but being treated with demulcents, at the same time correcting the
mother's system, she recovered, and is now the "picture of health."
I was conversing with this gentleman the other day respecting his
health--says he is perfectly well, weighs one hundred and sixty-five
pounds; and though he was called well when eating flesh, he was not so
in reality; for every few weeks he was troubled with headache and a
sense of fullness in the region of the stomach, for which he was obliged
to take an active cathartic. For a few months before he adopted the
vegetable system, he had decided symptoms of congestion in the head,
such as precede apoplexy. I questioned him as to his appetite. He
informed me, that when he ate meat he had such an unconquerable desire
for food about eleven o'clock, that he could not wait till noon. This he
calls "meat hunger," for it disappeared soon after he came to the
present style of living. He has no craving now; but when he begins to
eat, the zest is exquisite.
Yours,
JOSHUA PORTER.
LETTER IV.--FROM DR. N. J. KNIGHT, OF TRURO.
Dated at TRURO, October, 1837.
DR. ALCOTT: SIR,--I hasten to comply so far with your request as to show
my decided approbation of a fruit and farinaceous diet, both in health
and sickness. The manner in which nutritious vegetables are presented to
us for our consumption and support, evince to a demonstration the
simplicity of our corporeal systems. Through every medium of correct
information, we learn that the most distinguished men, both in ancient
and modern times, were pre-eminently distinguished for their
abstemiousness, and the simplicity of their diet.
It was not, however, a consideration of this kind that first induced me
to relinquish flesh meat and fish. Some three years previous to my
forming a determination to subsist upon farinacea, I had been laboring
under an aggravated case of dyspepsia; and about six months previous,
also, an attack of acute rheumatism.
I was harassed with constant constipation of the bowels, and ejection of
food after eating, together with occasional pain in the head.
Under all these circumstances, I came to this determination, which I
committed to paper: "November 9, 1831. This day ceased from
strengthening this mortal body by any part of that which ever drew
breath." To the above I rigidly adhered until last November, when my
health had become so perfect that I thought myself invincible, so far as
disease was concerned. All pains and aches had left me, and all the
functions of the body seemed to be performed in a healthy manner.
My diet had consisted of rye and Indian bread, stale flour bread, sweet
bread without shortening, milk, some ripe fruit, and occasionally a
little butter.
During this time, while I devoted myself to considerable laborious
practice and hard study, there was no deficiency of muscular strength or
mental energy. I am fully satisfied my mind was never so active and
strong.
Since last November I have, at times, taken animal food, in order that I
might be absolutely satisfied that my mode of living acted decidedly in
favor of my perfect health, and that a different course would produce
organic derangement.
I had only taken animal food about two months after the usual custom,
before I had a severe attack, and only escaped an inflammatory fever by
the most rigid antiphlogistic treatment.
I again lived as I ought, and felt well; and having continued so some
time, I resorted the second time to an animal diet.
In two months' time, I was taken with the urticaria febrilis, of
Bateman, which lasted me more than two weeks, and my suffering was
sufficient to forever exclude from my stomach every kind of animal food.
I am now satisfied, to all intents and purposes, that mankind would live
longer, and enjoy more perfectly the "sane mind in a sound body," should
they never taste flesh meat or fish.
A simple farinaceous diet I have ever found more efficient in the cure
of chronic complaints, where there was not much organic lesion, than
every other medical agent.
Mrs. A., infected with scrofula of the left breast, and in a state of
ulceration, applied to me two years since. The ulcer was then the size
of a half-dollar, and discharged a considerable quantity of imperfect
pus. The axillary glands were much enlarged, and, doubting the
practicability of operating with the knife in such cases, I told her the
danger of her disease, and ordered her to subsist upon bread and milk
and some fruit, drink water, and keep the body of as uniform temperature
as possible. I ordered the sore to be kept clean by ablutions of tepid
water. In less than three months, the ulcer was all healed, and her
general health much improved. The axillary glands are still enlarged,
though less so than formerly.
She still lives simply, and enjoys good health; but she tells me if she
tastes flesh meat, it produces a twinging in the breast.
Many cases, like the above, have come under my observation and immediate
attention, and suffice it to say, I have never failed to ameliorate the
condition of every individual that has applied to me, who was suffering
under chronic affections, if they would follow my prescriptions--unless
the system was incapable of reaction.
Yours, truly,
N. J. KNIGHT.
LETTER V.--FROM DR. LESTER KEEP.
FAIR HAVEN, Jan. 22, 1838.
DEAR SIR,--Agreeably to your request, I will inform you that from
September, 1834, to June, 1836, I used no meat at all, except
occasionally in my intercourse with society, I used a little to avoid
attracting notice.
When I commenced my studies, life was burdensome. I knew not, for
months, and I may say years, what enjoyment comfortable health affords.
In a great many ways I can now see that I very greatly erred in my
course of living. I am surprised that the system will hold out in its
powers during so long a process in the use of what I should now consider
the means best calculated to break it down.
I cannot now particularize. But in college, and during my professional
studies, and since, during six or eight years of practice in an arduous
profession, I have been greatly guilty, and neglected those means best
calculated to promote and preserve health; and used those means best
fitted to destroy it. The summers of 1832, 1833, and 1834, were pretty
much lost, from wretched health. I was growing worse every year, and no
medicines that I could prepare for myself, or that were prescribed by
various brother physicians, had any thing more than a temporary effect
to relieve me. All of the year 1834, until September, I used opium for
relief; and I used three and four grains of sulphate of morphine per
day, equal to about sixteen grains of opium. Spirit, wine, and ale I had
tried, and journeys through many portions of the State of Maine, with
the hope that a more northern climate would invigorate and restore a
system that I feared was broken down forever, and that at the age of
thirty-seven. But, without further preamble, I will say, I omitted at
once and entirely the use of tea, coffee, meat, butter, grease of all
sorts, cakes, pies, etc., wine, cider, spirits, opium (which I feared I
must use as long as I lived), and tobacco, the use of which I learned in
college. Of course, from so sudden and so great a change, a most horrid
condition must ensue for many days, for the relief of which I used the
warm bath at first several times a day. I had set no time to omit these
articles, and made no resolutions, except to give this course a trial,
to find out whether I had many native powers of system left, and what
was their character and condition when unaffected by the list of agents
mentioned.
I pursued this plan of living faithfully for one year and a half, and
with unspeakable joy I found a gradual return of original vigor and
health. Now, I cannot say that the omission of meat of all kinds, for a
year and a half, caused this improvement in health; it is possible that
it had but little to do with it. I know I was guilty of many bad habits;
and probably all combined caused my bad condition.
At the close of the year and a half, I married my present second wife,
and then commenced living as do others, in most respects, and continued
this course most of the time until I received your letter. I then again
omitted the use of all animal food, tea, coffee, and tobacco; and for
the last month, it is a clear case, my health is better; that is, more
vigorous to bear cold. I also bear labor and care better.
I have not investigated the subject of dietetics very much, but I have
no doubt that the inhabitants of our whole land make too much use of
animal food. No doubt it obstructs the vital powers, and tends to
unbalance the healthful play and harmony of the various organs and their
functions. There is too much nutriment in a small space. An unexpected
quantity is taken; for with most people a sense of fullness is the test
of a sufficient quantity.
I am satisfied that I am better without animal food than with the
quantity I ordinarily use. If I should use but a small quantity once or
twice a day, it is possible it would not be injurious. This I have not
tried; for I am so excessively fond of meat, that I always eat _more_
than a small quantity, when I eat it at all. Healthy, vigorous men, day
laborers in the field, or forest, may perhaps require some meat to
sustain the system, during hard and exhausting labor. Of this I cannot
say.
I am now pretty well convinced, from two or three years' observation,
that a large portion of my business, as a physician, arises from
intemperance in the use of food. Too much and too rich nutriment is
used, and my constant business is, to counteract its bad effects.
Two cases are now in mind of the great benefit of dieting for the
recovery of health, the particulars of which I cannot now give you. One
of them I think would be willing to speak for himself on the subject.
I am, sir, yours, etc.,
LESTER KEEP.
LETTER VI.--SECOND LETTER FROM DR. KEEP.
FAIR HAVEN, Ct., Jan. 26, 1838.
SIR,--Since I wrote you, a few days ago, I have learned of several
individuals who have, for some length of time, used no flesh meat at
all.
Amos Townsend, Cashier of the New Haven Bank, has, as I am told, lived
almost entirely upon bread, crackers, or something of that kind, and but
little of that. He can dictate a letter, count money, and hold
conversation with an individual, all at the same time, with no
embarrassment; and I know him to have firm health.
Our minister, Rev. B. L. Swan, during the whole of two years of his
theological studies at Princeton, made crackers and water his only food,
and was in good health.
Mr. Hanover Bradley, of this village, who has been several years a
missionary among the Indians, has, for I think, eight or ten years,
lived entirely on vegetable food. He had been long a dyspeptic.
There are some other cases of less importance, and probably very many in
New Haven; but I am situated a mile from the city, and have never
inquired for vegetable livers.
Yours, etc.,
LESTER KEEP.
LETTER VII.--FROM DR. HENRY H. BROWN
WEST RANDOLPH, Vt., Feb. 3, 1838.
DEAR SIR,--It has been about two years and a half since I adopted an
exclusively vegetable diet, with no drink but water; and my food has
been chiefly prepared by the most simple forms of cookery. Previously to
this, I used a large proportion of flesh meat, and drank tea and coffee.
I had much impaired my health by such indulgences. I hardly need to say
that my health has greatly improved, and is now quite good and uniform.
I think that physicians, in prescribing for the removal of disease,
should pay much more regard to the diet of their patients, and
administer less of powerful medicine, than is customary with gentlemen
of this profession at large.
Yours, etc.,
HENRY H. BROWN.
LETTER VIII.--FROM DR. FRANKLIN KNOX.
KINSTON,[5] N. C., June 23, 1837.
DEAR SIR,--Your letter of the 22d July has been hitherto unanswered,
through press of business.
I consider an exclusive vegetable diet as of the utmost consequence in
most diseases, especially in those chronic affections or morbid states
of the system which are not commonly considered as diseases; and I think
that, in these cases, such a diet is too often overlooked, even by
physicians.
Yours, truly,
F. KNOX.
LETTER IX.--FROM A HIGHLY RESPECTABLE PHYSICIAN.
[The following letter, received last autumn, is from a medical
gentleman, in a distant part of the country, whose name, for particular
reasons, we stand pledged not to give to the world. The facts, however,
may be relied on; and they are exceedingly important and interesting.]
DEAR SIR,--Your letter was duly received. I proceed to say that, since I
settled in this town, my attacks of epilepsy[6] have occurred in the
following order:
1833.
Nov. 18. One at 11 P. M. Severe.
" 19. " " "
" 24. Nineteen, from 4 A. M. to 3 P. M. Frightful.
1835.
Jan. 13. One at 4 A. M. }
" 15. " " } Milder.
" 16. Two at 2 and 4 A. M. }
Thus it appears that I have enjoyed a longer immunity since the last,
than for some years prior. I have maintained total abstinence from
flesh, fish, or fowl, for two and a half years, namely, from March 1835
to the present time. That this happy immunity from a most obstinate
disease is to be attributed solely to my abstinence from animal food, I
do not feel prepared to assert; but that my general health has been
better, my attacks of disease far milder, my vigor of mind and body
greater, my mental perceptions clearer and more acute, and my enjoyment
of life, on the whole, very essentially increased, I am fully prepared
to prove.
I have, however, found it nearly as essential for me to abstain from
many kinds of vegetable food as from animal, namely, from all kinds of
flatulent vegetables; from all kinds of fruits and berries, except the
very mildest--as, perfectly ripe and well baked sweet apples--and from
all kinds of pies, sauces, and preserves. Of these, however, I am not
able to say, as I do of the animal varieties, that I have practiced
total abstinence; by no means. I have often ventured to indulge, and
generally suffer more or less for my temerity. My severest sufferings
for the last two years have been in the form of colic, of which I have
had frequent slight attacks; but none to confine me over twenty-four
hours.
* * * * *
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS.--BY THE AUTHOR.[7]
From the age of five or six months to that of two years, I was literally
crammed with flesh meat; usually of the most gross kind. Such a course
was believed, by the fond parents and others, as likely to be productive
of the most healthful and happy consequences. The result was an
accumulation of adipose substance, that rendered me one of the most
unsightly, not to say monstrous productions of nature. I ought not to
say _nature_, perhaps; for, if not perverted, she produces no such
monsters. At the age of six months, my weight was twenty-five pounds;
and it rose soon after to thirty or more.
When I was about two years of age, I had the whooping-cough, and, having
been brought up to the height, and more than the height of my condition,
by over-feeding with fat meat, I suffered exceedingly. I? recovered, at
length, but I had lost my relish, as I am informed, for flesh meat; and
from this time till the age of fourteen, I seldom ate any but the
leanest muscle. I was tolerably healthy, but, from the age of two years,
was slender; so much so that, at five or six, I only weighed fifty
pounds; and was constantly either found fault with, or pitied, because I
did not eat meat in quality and quantity like other people. Nor was it
without much effort, even at the age of fourteen, that I could bring
myself to be reconciled to it. I was also trained to the early use of
much cider, and to the moderate use of tea and spirits. I have spoken of
my slender constitution;--I believe this was in part the result of
excessive early labor, and that it was not wholly owing to a premature
use of flesh meat.
I had suffered so much, however, from the belief that I was feeble from
the latter cause, that I had no sooner become reconciled to the use of
flesh and fish--which was at the age of fourteen--than I indulged in it
quite freely. About this time I had a severe attack of measles, which
came very near carrying me off. I was left with anasarca, or general
dropsy, and with weak eyes. To cure the former the physicians plied me,
for a long time, with blue pill, and with mercurial medicine in other
forms, and also with digitalis; and finally filled my stomach to
overflowing with diuretic drinks. However, in spite of them all, I
recovered during the next year; except that a foundation was laid for
premature decay of the teeth, and for a severe eruptive disease. This
last, and the weakness of the eyes, were, for some time, very
troublesome.
The eruptive complaint was soon discovered to be less severe, even in
hot weather, and while I was using a great deal of exercise, in
proportion as I abstained from all drinks but water, and ate none but
mild food. Owing to the discovery of this fact and to other causes, I
chiefly discontinued the use of stimulating food and drink, during the
hottest part of the season; though I committed much error in regard to
the quantity of my food, and drank quite too freely of cold water. Still
I always found my health best, and my body and mind most vigorous at the
end of summer, or the beginning of autumn, notwithstanding the very hard
labor to which I was subjected on the farm. This increase of vigor was,
at that time, attributed chiefly to a free use of summer fruits; for, so
deeply had the belief been infixed by early education, that highly
stimulating food and drink were indispensable to the full health and
strength of mankind, and especially to people who were laboring hard,
that, though I sometimes suspected they were not true friends to the
human system, my conscience always condemned the suspicion, and
pronounced me guilty of a species of high treason for harboring it.
This brings up my dietetic history, to the period at which it commences,
in the letter to Dr. North. The study of medicine, however, from the age
of twenty-four to twenty-seven, and the subsequent study and practice of
it for a few years, joined to the changes I made at the same time in my
physical habits, and my observations on their effects, led me to reject,
one after another, and one group after another, the whole tribe of extra
stimulants--solid and fluid.
The sequel of my story remains to be told. It is now nearly fifteen
years since I wrote the letter, which is found at page 23d, to Dr.
North. During this long period, and for several years before, amounting,
in all, to about nineteen years, I have not only abstained entirely from
flesh, fish, and fowl--not having eaten a pound of any one of these
during the whole time, except the very few pounds I used in the time of
the first visitation of our country with cholera, as before
mentioned--but I have almost entirely abstained from butter, cheese,
eggs, and milk. Butter, especially, I _never_ taste at all. The
occasional use of milk, in very small quantities, once a day, has,
however, been resorted to; not from necessity, indeed, or to gratify any
strong desire or inclination for it, but from a conviction of its happy
medicinal effects on my much-injured frame. Hot food of every kind, and
liquids, with the exception just made, I rarely touch. Nearly every
thing is taken in as solid a form and in as simple a state as possible;
with no condiments, except a very little salt, and with no sweets,
sauces, gravies, jellies, preserves, etc. I seldom use more than one
sort of food at a time, unless it be to add fruit as a second article;
and this is rarely done, except in the morning. I have for ten or twelve
years used no drinks with my meals; and sometimes for months together
have had very little thirst at all.[8]
And as to the effects, they are such, and have all along been such, as
to make me wonder at myself, whenever I think of it. Instead of being
constantly subject to cold, and nearly dying with consumption in the
spring, I am almost free from any tendency to take cold at all. During
the winter of 1837-8, by neglecting to keep the temperature of my room
low enough, and by neglecting also to take sufficient exercise in the
open air, I became unusually tender, and suffered to some extent from
colds. But I was well again during the spring, and felt as if I had
recovered or nearly recovered my former hardihood.
In regard to other complaints, I may say still more. Of rheumatism, I
have scarcely had a twinge in twelve or fourteen years. My eruptive
complaint is, I believe, _entirely_ gone. The weakness of my eyes has
been wholly gone for many years. Indeed, the strength and perfection of
my sight and of all my senses, till nearly fifty years of age--hearing
perhaps excepted, in which I perceive no alteration--appeared to be
constantly improving. My stomach and intestines perform their respective
duties in the most appropriate, correct, and healthful manner. My
appetite is constantly good, and as constantly improving;--that is,
going on toward perfection. I can detect, especially by taste, almost
any thing which is in the least offensive or deleterious in food or
drink; and yet I can receive, without immediate apparent disturbance,
and readily digest, almost any thing which ever entered a human
stomach--knives, pencils, clay, chalk, etc., perhaps excepted. I can eat
a full meal of cabbage, or any other very objectionable crude aliment,
or even cheese or pastry--a single meal, I mean--with apparent impunity;
not when fatigued, of course, or in any way debilitated, but in the
morning and when in full strength. It is true, I make no experiments of
this sort, except occasionally _as_ experiments.
In my former statements I gave it as my opinion that vegetable food was
less aperient than animal. My opinion now is, that if we were trained on
vegetable food, and had never received substances into the stomach which
were unduly stimulating, we should find the intestinal or peristaltic
action quite sufficient. The apparent sluggishness of the bowels, when
we first exchange an animal diet for a vegetable one, is probably owing
to our former abuses. At present, I find my plain vegetable food, in
moderate and reasonable quantity, quite as aperient as it ought to be,
and, if I exceed a proper quantity, too much so.
I have now no remaining doubts of the vast importance that would result
to mankind, from an universal training from childhood, to the exclusive
use of vegetable food. I believe such a course of training, along with a
due attention to air, exercise, cleanliness, etc., would be the means of
improving our race, physically, intellectually, and morally, beyond any
thing of which the world has yet conceived. But my reasons for this
belief will be seen more fully in another place. They are founded in
science and the observation of facts around me, much more than on a
narrow individual experience.
There is one circumstance which I must not omit, because it is full of
admonition and instruction. I have elsewhere stated that, twenty-three
years ago, I had incipient phthisis. Of this fact, and of the fact that
there were considerable inroads made by disease on the upper lobe of
the right lung, I have not the slightest doubt. The symptoms were such
at the time, and subsequently, as could not have been mistaken. Besides,
what was, as I conceive, pretty fully established by the symptoms which
existed, is rendered still more certain by auscultation. The sounds
which are heard during respiration, in the region to which I have
alluded, leave no doubt on the minds of skillful medical men, of their
origin. Still I doubt whether the disease has made any considerable
progress for many years.
But, during the winter of 1837-8, my employments became excessively
laborious; and, for the whole winter and spring, were sufficient for at
least two healthy and strong men. They were also almost wholly
sedentary. At the end of May, I took a long and rather fatiguing journey
through a country by no means the most healthy, and came home somewhat
depressed in mind and body, especially the former. I was also unusually
emaciated, and I began to have fears of a decline. Still, however, my
appetite was good, and I had a good share of bodily strength. The more I
directed my attention to myself, the worse I became; and I actually soon
began to experience darting pains in the chest, together with other
symptoms of a renewal of pulmonary disease. Perceiving my danger,
however, from the state of my mind, I at length made a powerful effort
to shake off the mental disturbance--which succeeded. This, together
with moderate labor and rather more exercise than before, seemed
gradually to set me right.
Again, in the spring of 1848, after lecturing for weeks and
months--often in bad and unventilated rooms and subjecting myself,
unavoidably, to many of those abuses which exist every where in
society, I was attacked with a cough, followed by great debility, from
which it cost me some three months or more of labor with the spade and
hoe, to recover. With this and the exceptions before named, I have now,
for about twenty years, been as healthy as ever I was in my life, except
the slight tendency to cold during the winter of which I have already
taken notice. I never was more cheerful or more happy; never saw the
world in a brighter aspect; never before was it more truly "morning all
day" with me. I have paid, in part, the penalty of my transgressions;
and may, perhaps, go on, in life, many years longer.
I now fear nothing in the future, so far as health and disease are
concerned, so much as excessive alimentation. To this evil--and it is a
most serious and common one in this land of abundance and busy
activity--I am much exposed, both from the keenness of my appetite, and
the exceeding richness of the simple vegetables and fruits of which I
partake. But, within a few years past, I seem to have gotten the
victory, in a good measure, even in this respect. By eating only a few
simple dishes at a time, and by measuring or weighing them with the
eye--for I weigh them in no other way--I am usually able to confine
myself to nearly the proper limits.
This caution, and these efforts at self-government, are not needed
because their neglect involves any immediate suffering; for, as I have
already stated, there was never a period in my life before, when I was
so completely independent--apparently so, I mean--of external
circumstances. I can eat what I please, and as much or as little as I
please. I can observe set hours, or be very irregular. I can use a
pretty extensive variety at the same meal, and a still greater variety
at different meals, or I can live perpetually on a single article--nay,
on almost any thing which could be named in the animal or vegetable
kingdom--and be perfectly contented and happy in the use of it. I could
in short, eat, work, think, sleep, converse, or play almost all the
while; or I could abstain from any or all of these, almost all the
while. Let me be understood, however. I do not mean to say that either
of these courses would be best for me, in the end; but only that I have
so far attained to independence of external circumstances that, for a
time, I believe I should be able to do or bear all I have mentioned.
One thing more, in this connection, and I shall have finished my
remarks. I sleep too little; but it is because I allow my mind to run
over the world so much, and lay so many schemes for human improvement or
for human happiness; and because I allow my sympathies to become so
deeply enlisted in human suffering and human woe. I should be most
healthy, in the end, by spending six hours or more in sleep; whereas I
do not probably exceed four or five. I have indeed obtained a respite
from the grave of twenty-three years, through a partial repentance and
amendment of life, and the mercy of God; but did I obey all his laws as
well as I do a part of them, I know of no reason why my life might not
be lengthened, not merely fifteen years, as was Hezekiah's, or
twenty-three merely, but forty or fifty.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] Dr. Knox has since removed to St. Louis, Missouri.
[6] The reader will find another remarkable cure of epilepsy in a
subsequent chapter of this volume. The case was that of Dr. Taylor, of
England.
[7] See pages 13 and 23.
[8] This fact, and certain discussions on the subject of temperance, led
me to abstain, about the years 1841 and 1842, entirely from all drink
for a long time. Indeed, I made two of these experiments; in one of
which I abstained nine months and nineteen days, and in the other
fourteen months and one or two days; except that in the latter case I
ate, literally, for one or two successive days, while working hard at
haying, one or two bowls a day of bread and water. But these were
experiments _merely_--the experiments made by a medical man who
preferred making experiments on himself to making them on others; and
they never deserved the misconstruction which was put upon them by
several persons, who, in other respects, were very sensible men. "The
author" never believed with Dr. Lambe, of London, that man is not a
drinking animal.