FLETCHERISM AND VEGETARIANISM
The Danger of Excess of Protein--The Use of Meat and Uric Acid--To Sum
Up--Profitable Economy
In the warfare against the "Demons of Dietetic Disturbances" most of
the volunteer recruits go into the camp of the _Mealers_, that is,
they become vegetarians, _quasi_-vegetarians, or partial vegetarians,
and array themselves against human carnivorous habits and practices.
They are comparatively few in numbers, but make up in enthusiasm what
they lack in numerical strength. Some of them base their objection
to meat-eating on physiological grounds, others on sentimental
susceptibility, and yet others are influenced by reasons of economy.
With world-wide and centuries-old evidence before me in forming an
opinion, I say without hesitation that the weight of argument is in
favour of a meatless diet most, if not all, of the time, and that all
who subsist on the first-hand fruits of the soil and do not resort to
cannibalism, except in cases of emergency, are on the safer side.
THE DANGER OF EXCESS OF PROTEIN
To mention the greatest danger from using meat for nutrition first,
we find it almost impossible to eat most meats without taking into
the organism more protein (nitrogen) than is required for repair of
the broken-down tissues; and we now know that any excess of protein
or nitrogen imposed upon the body is not good for it. Large excess is
positively deadly in its final effects, and many, if not all of the
so-called uric-acid troubles or diseases are traced to such abuse.
Not only are the kidneys worn out long before their time, but high
blood-pressure is one of the baleful results that lead to untimely
demise. To be sure, persons are reported to have lived to near or
quite an hundred years of age as habitual _meat_ers, but their
occupations or activities have been favourable to burning up the dregs
of metabolism, and the belief is reasonable that if they had not been
thus self-abusing during the first century of their life they might
have gone quite a piece into the second century with their matured
experience, example, and wisdom, serving the world to good advantage.
THE USE OF MEAT
That meat is an emergency expedient in the natural nutrition of man is
pretty certain. Strictly speaking, we are all of us subsisting on meat
all of the time, but it is only _one degree removed from the vegetable
kingdom_, when we ingest only the first fruits of the soil, as
vegetarians do, and make meat of it within us. The vegetable nutriment
is transformed into our own flesh and blood in the form of fat
chiefly, and then is used to furnish whatever heat and repair material
we happen to need. When second-hand, already dead and decomposing meat
is eaten and thus used for life-giving purposes, it is really not
only second-hand supply but third-hand material. For instance, we may
subsist exclusively on vegetable or farinaceous material and get our
repair or fuel supply from such sources only. The result is, in part,
the forming of the walls of our own stomach. These walls are meat.
Should we turn into cannibals, devouring each other as the Pacific (?)
Islanders used to treat missionaries and enemies, the stomach walls
become tripe and are easily digestible. While they were live walls,
holding in place glands secreting powerful gastric juice, they resisted
the digestive aggression of their own juice, but the moment they were
separated from their own living combination, quite similar gastric
juice digested them as quickly as it does the white meat of a pet
chicken. It is physiologically possible to cut out a part or the whole
of our own stomach, and then devour and digest it as tripe in the small
intestines.
Hence it is that we are all _meat_ers, perforce, but not all of us are
third-degree-removed cannibals. What we call "pure vegetarians" are
only second-hand _meat_ers.
I am indebted to the distinguished champion tennis-player,
diet-reformer, and restaurator Eustace Miles, for the name "Meaters"
to designate those who eat meat; and I have coined the term "Mealers"
to stand for those who take only first-hand earth-fruit products for
their nutrition, disregarding the fact that all are _meal_ers who
take _meals_ of victuals. To offset this addition to the vocabulary,
it would do no harm to drop off the use of "Meals" and "Victuals,"
leaving "Meal" to mean only one thing; viz., ground cereals or
vegetables.[P]
[P] It is not outside the province of Fletcherism to Fletcherize our
vocabulary and make it as single-meaning as possible in the interest
of simplicity. The term "Fletcherize" is already commonly used to
suggest analysis and digestion of crude raw material other than food,
and has come into use in literary circles with especial usefulness.
Young reporters on newspapers are often told by editors to take their
"copy" in hand and "Fletcherize" it before handing it in for printing.
Even such a judicial person as Mayor Gaynor, of New York, had recourse
recently to such advice relative to evidence, but he called it by a
name of his own not yet in common use.
One of the details of carefulness in Fletcherism is expressed in the
statement that we should not _pro_scribe as food anything that Nature
permits to be utilized as food; but the same carefulness prescribes
that we do not _pre_scribe it as food for everybody all of the time.
Everything in its proper time and place is one of the common-sense
rules of the system.
Captain Amundsen and his comrades, as I have already observed, were
quite justified in devouring their faithful and friendly sledge dogs
when necessary to preserve their own lives. I have the acquaintance
of a collie dog whom I love devotedly; and I say "whom" appropriately
because he is as intelligent as I am, and far more consistent in his
habits of orderliness and naturalness. He is a real gentleman at all
times and as good a Fletcherite when the food substance and occasion
demand as I am. He has learned to eat and enjoy apples and no one could
give more careful mouth-treatment to some sorts of food than Bruce. I
am sure that he would want me to eat him if I needed him to preserve my
life, just as unselfishly as the Japanese soldiers, and more recently
the Balkanese soldiers, gave their lives for their causes. Whether I
would eat him or not I cannot say, and I do not know if he would have
similar consideration or otherwise for me.
I merely use this illustration as an aside in consideration of the
question of flesh eating on emergency or sentimental grounds. Nature
permits Bruce and me to eat each other, and if we managed it skilfully
we could attack each other's extremities at the same time, as long as
we did not encroach on our vital machinery, and really eat each other
up, as young lovers would like to do.
Thus much for sentiment. We are subsisting on ourselves all of the
time; we can nourish ourselves at the expense of each other if we will.
We can eat human flesh as nourishingly as we can a Spring chicken,
and if we do not know what we are eating, Nature will say us never
"No," but there are other considerations more practical for every-day
consideration. These are: physiological and economic expediency.
MEAT AND URIC ACID
In the thorough investigation that Dr. Hindhede, of Copenhagen, has
conducted for the past few years, and in which I have assisted, I
have followed the quest with eagerness because of the thoroughness of
it. It has been proven that very little protein or nitrogen is needed
for the human body even under strain of hardest physical or mental
activity. On the other hand, it has been found that any appreciable
excess of protein or nitrogen results in both uric acid secretion and
increased blood-pressure, meaning, in all probability, finally fatal
strain on the organism. It has also been demonstrated that it is almost
impossible to take the leaner meats without getting more protein or
nitrogen than the body needs.
It is quite easy to get excessive protein and nitrogen from vegetable,
farinaceous, and hen-fruit material, and cheeses are richer than
anything in these "strong" food ingredients; but these are not such
subtle foolers of the appetite as meats done up in spicy gravies and
accompanied by appetising fats.
I purposely avoid giving any figures relative to the food values under
mention because the first rule of Fletcherism in connection with the
selection and intake of food is to leave that entirely to appetite,
working intelligently and normally in relation to the food that is
available at the moment.
To my thinking, the most important consideration is economy, not alone
of the money cost of food, but economy of energy-consumption within
the body. There may be times when economy of money-cost means much
to persons struggling to lay aside an independent competency for the
purchase of leisure in old age, or for insurance against becoming a
burden upon others; and this is sure to happen to all who are not
cursed by the handicap of money inheritance. But it is the internal
economy of the body that counts for most in estimating values. There
is no doubt but what flesh food is a stimulant of the same or similar
character of alcohol. Both of these subtle agents of intemperance
invite the starting and accumulation of vicious cycles or circles
(swirls) of over-stimulation that have one bad effect, at least, on the
comfort and efficiency of the muscular tissues. They facilitate fatigue
and "that tired feeling," and also may result in contingent "soreness"
of muscle after unusual exercise.
Faithful Fletcherizing has resulted in regulating these matters in a
way that is nothing less than marvellous until the reasons are revealed.
Not only does observance of the habit and practice which Mr.
Rockefeller has condensed into thirty-three words, including several
repetitions for emphasis, result in settling the questions of
appropriateness, economy, emergencies, and comfort in general between
the _Meat_ers and the _Meal_ers; between the mixed _Meat_ers and
_Meal_ers; and between the Physiology and Psychology of normality;
and which Mr. Rockefeller calls "Fletcherizing," but a whole lot of
beneficent cycles or circles (rhythms) of profitable felicities are set
in motion.
TO SUM UP
The _Meal_ers have the advantage of the argument in that they are
always on the safer side of prudence, and there is no real deprivation
involved in the experiment.
At the present moment I am, personally, still in the experimental field
as regards everything that Nature permits as food or drink. There is
one point that vegetarianism has not satisfactorily answered as yet.
The great majority of conscientious vegetarians have not the pink
complexion that is usually reckoned as a sign of beauty or robustness,
but I have known one, Frederick Madsen (Madsen the Faithful), an
assistant of Dr. Hindhede in Copenhagen, to subsist on potatoes and
butter, or margarine, alone, for three hundred days consecutively,
stopping only because the potatoes to be had in the market were
not as good as desired, and he lost none of his pinky-pinkness of
complexion of the richest Scandinavian brilliancy. I have done the
same for four months with similar results of retention of pinkness of
complexion. Another question is: Does pinkness indicate health? It
is not the necessity of health among Latins and bronzed Orientals,
but it underlies the bronze exterior in even African Negroes, if they
are healthy. Sallow is the reverse of healthy in proportion to the
sallowness, as a usual thing.
Just here is where the efficacy of careful eating, which has been
formulated as Fletcherism, comes into service most agreeably to make
life really worth living and actually one continuous festival of
usefulness and pleasure. It is only once formed into a habit and set to
working automatically under the direction of Appetite, Taste, Feeling,
Instinct, and the other attributes of sub-conscious Intelligence.
It will be noted that Mr. Rockefeller, in his recent pithy, gisty
utterance relative to the merits of Fletcherizing, makes no mention
of the kind of food to be recommended. Happily, as far as I know, he
is not in the food business, has no connection with any special food
supply, and cannot recommend any of the products of petroleum as food
or drink. He should be absolutely unprejudiced in his judgment, and
seven or eight years of recuperative experience, similar to mine of a
longer period, is material for judgment and recommendation.
Some years ago there was born in me the ambition to formulate the
rules of economic procedure in securing optimum nutrition in a space
of not more than ten pages of coarse print that mothers, teachers,
and children of primary school age could understand as easy as the
noses on their faces. Mr. Rockefeller has "beat me out" in brevity by
several lengths. He has made the revelation with the lucky number of
thirty-three words, and left room for a final remark full of scriptural
tone, as is his wont.
PROFITABLE ECONOMY
There is one argument in favour of a meatless diet that appeals to
everybody, and that is the economy and cleanliness of it. In Professor
Irving Fisher's classic investigation to test the merits of Fletcherism
it was proven that careful attention to the mastication, insalivation,
and enjoyment of food while in the mouth, and swallowing only in
response to a strong invitation to swallow, and removing from the mouth
whatever remainder that did not practically _swallow itself_, a net
gain of approximately 40 per cent. was achieved without any attempt at
economy. The saving was in the money cost alone, and it came from more
and more inclination towards farinaceous and vegetable foods and away
from more expensive meat.
This form of saving is very telling. Dr. Francis E. Clark, founder
and permanent president of the great International Christian Endeavour
organization, noticed a reduction of one-third in the food expenses
of his family. The health officer of a suburb of Hamburg accomplished
a saving of two thousand marks a year in his family of three without
other assistance than careful eating and an inclination towards
non-flesh food material. The "Poor White Trash" community in America,
before mentioned, saved an average of three dollars a month each, three
thousand dollars a month among a thousand members of the community, and
the missionary workers who taught them to Fletcherize save half of the
cost of their sustenance. Accompanying all of this wonderful economy
was an immunity from the ordinary illnesses that was worth more than
the money saving.
In the Rockefeller family any decrease in the cost of food is a
negligible quantity in comparison with the total expenses, but seven
years of immunity from indigestion and replacing the demon with good
golf-health form have been worth more than millions of money.
APPENDIX
WAS LUIGI CORNARO RIGHT?
A PAPER READ BEFORE THE PHYSIOLOGICAL SECTION OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL
ASSOCIATION, AUGUST, 1901, BY ERNEST VAN SOMEREN
_Mr. President and Gentlemen_:
Being a general practitioner, it is with some trepidation and an
apology that I present myself before this section. The reasons for my
doing so are: First, that I believe that a hitherto unsuspected reflex
in deglutition has come to light which has an important bearing on
health, the prevention of disease and on metabolism. Second, that any
theory whatever, based on a possible physiological function, claiming
to diminish, as this does, the amount of sickness and suffering now
existent, should have serious investigation. Third, that I desire to
enlist your skilled help in the consideration of the theories I have
doubtless crudely erected on my premise.
According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica," "Luigi Cornaro (1467-1566)
was a Venetian nobleman, famous for his treatises on a temperate life.
From some dishonesty on the part of his relatives, he was deprived
of his rank and induced to retire to Padua, where he acquired the
experience in regard to food and regimen which he has detailed in his
work. In his youth he lived freely, but after a severe illness at
the age of forty, he began under medical advice gradually to reduce
his diet. For some time he restricted himself to a daily allowance
of 12 ozs. of solid food and 14 ozs. of wine. Later in life he still
farther reduced his bill of fare, and he found that he could support
his life and strength with no more solid meat than an egg a day. So
much habituated did he become to this simple diet that when he was
about seventy years of age the addition, by way of experiment, of 2
ozs. a day had nearly proved fatal. At the age of eighty-three he
wrote his treatise on the 'Sure and Certain Method of Attaining a
Long and Healthful Life.' And this work was followed by three others
on the same subject, composed at the ages of eighty-six, ninety-one,
and ninety-five, respectively. 'They are written,' says Addison
('Spectator,' No. 195), 'with such a spirit of cheerfulness, religion,
and good sense, as are the natural concomitants of temperance, and
sobriety.' He died at the age of ninety-eight." Some say of 103!
Now, was Luigi Cornaro right? Did he make use of a physiological
process unknown to us of the value of which he was not cognisant? To
live to an advanced age, must we be as temperate as he, reducing the
quantity of our food to a minimum required by Nature?
That we all eat more than we can assimilate is unquestionable. How can
we determine the right quantity? Instinct _should_ guide us, but an
abnormal appetite often leads us astray. Nature's plans are perfect
if her laws are obeyed. Disease follows disobedience. Wherein do we
disobey?
We live _not_ upon what we eat, but upon what we digest; then why
should undigested food, recognisable as such, be deemed a normal
constituent of our solid egesta?
Something like the following must be a common experience to general
practitioners, especially to those practising on the Continent. The
patient comes to see us and volunteers the information that he or she
has the "gout," "rheumatic gout," or "dyspepsia." Symptoms are asked
for. The case is gone into carefully for causation. An appropriate diet
and an appropriate bottle of medicine prescribed. As the patient leaves
the room, we may, or may not, call attention to the fact that both
teeth and saliva are meant to be used. The patient returns, better, _in
statu quo_, or worse. If better, he remains so while under treatment,
and relapses when he returns to ordinary habits. If unaffected, or
worse, we try again and again, until we despair, then take or send him
to a consultant. Temporary benefit, possibly owing to renewed hope,
results; but finally the unfortunate gets used to his sufferings, and,
if he can afford it, is sent to join the innumerable hosts that wander
from one Bad to another, all Europe over, trying, praising, and damning
each in turn. Their manner of living is, of course, at fault. Nature
never intended that man should be perpetually on a special diet and
hugging a bottle of medicine, nor did she ordain that he should go
wandering over the map of Europe drinking purgative and other waters.
Though early yet to speak with certain voice, it would seem that we
are provided with a Guard, reliance on which protects us from the
results of mal-nutrition. There seems to be placed in the fauces and
the back of the mouth a Monitor to warn us what we ought to swallow and
when we ought to swallow it. The good offices of this Monitor we have
suppressed by habits of too rapid eating, acquired in infancy or youth.
Last November my attention was called by Mr. Horace Fletcher, an
American author living in Venice, to the discovery in himself of a
curious inability to swallow, and a closing of the throat against food,
unless it had been completely masticated. My informant stated that he
noticed this peculiarity after he had begun to excessively insalivate
his food, both liquid and solid, until all its original taste had been
removed from it. Any tasteless residue in the mouth, being refused by
the fauces, required a _forced_ muscular effort to swallow. He further
told me that since adopting this method of eating he had been cured of
two maladies, adjudged chronic, the suffering from which rendered him
ineligible for Life Insurance. His weight now became reduced from 205
lbs. to 165 lbs. He had practised no abstemiousness, had indulged his
appetite, both as to selection and to quantity, without restraint, and
for the last three years had enjoyed perfect health.
After his cure, he was accepted without difficulty for insurance, the
last examination finding him an unusually healthy subject for his age.
Having leisure, he had spent three years in investigating the cause of
his cure, had pursued experiments upon others, and had extended his
inquiries, both in America and Europe, until our meeting in Venice.
He had also published a statement and inquiry in book form, entitled
"Glutton or Epicure," which had been reviewed by the "Lancet."
For nearly a year I also had been experimenting on myself and others
with various diets, and was ready to believe that in the manner of
taking food and not altogether in its varying _matter_ lay perhaps its
protean effects on our system. I at once adopted the same method of
eating. At the end of six weeks, I noticed that not only did the fauces
refuse to allow of the passage of imperfectly prepared food, but that
such food was returned from the back to the front of the mouth by an
involuntary, though eventually controllable, muscular effort taking
place in the reverse direction to that occurring at the inception of
deglutition.
What actually happens is this: Food, as it is masticated, slowly passes
to the back of the mouth, and collects in the glosso-epiglottidean
folds, where it remains in contact with the mucous membrane containing
the sensory end-organs of taste. If it be properly reduced by the
saliva it is allowed to pass the fauces,--a truly involuntary act of
deglutition occurring. Let the food, however, be too rapidly passed
back to these folds, _i. e._, before complete reduction takes place,
and the reflex muscular movement above referred to occurs. The process
of this reflex is as follows: The tip of the tongue is involuntarily
fixed at the backs and bases of the lower central incisor teeth by the
anterior fibres of the geniohyoglossi muscles. With this fixed point
as fulcrum, the lower and middle fibres of these muscles, aided by
those of the stylohyoid and styloglossi muscles raise the hyoid bone,
straighten out the glosso-epiglottidean folds, passing their contents
forward, by the fauces, the opening of which is closed by approximation
of its pillars and contraction of the superior constrictor. The
tongue, arched postero-anteriorly by the geniohyoglossi, palato, and
styloglossi muscles, laterally, by its own intrinsic muscles, is
approximated to the fauces, soft and hard palates in turn, and thus,
the late contents of the glosso-epiglottidean folds are returned to the
front of the mouth for further reduction by the saliva preparatory to
deglutition.
The word reduction is used for the reason that all foods tested,
without exception, give an acid reaction to litmus, when served at
table. The reflex muscular movement occurs in the writer's case from
five to ten times during the mastication of each mouthful of food,
according to its quantity and its degree of sapidity. As often as it
recurs, the returned food continues to give an acid reaction, while
food allowed to pass the fauces is alkaline.
Saliva, flowing in response to the stimulation of taste, seems
more alkaline than that secreted in answer to mechanical tasteless
stimulation. It is found that the removal of original taste from any
given bolus of food coincides with cessation of salivary flow and
complete alkaline reduction. The fibre of meat, gristle, connective
tissue, the husk of coarse bread and cellulose of vegetables are
carefully separated by the tongue and buccal muscles and rejected by
the fauces. To swallow any of these necessitates a _forced_ muscular
effort, which is abnormal.
Adult man was not originally intended to take his nourishment in a
liquid form, consequently all liquids having taste, such as soup, milk,
tea, coffee, cocoa, and the various forms of alcohol, must be treated
as sapid solids and insalivated by holding them in the mouth, moving
the tongue gently, with straight up and down masticatory movements,
until their taste be removed. Water, not having taste, needs no
insalivation and is readily accepted by the fauces.
In explanation of the phenomenon described, the following theory is
advanced: The fauces back of the tongue, epiglottis, in short, those
mucous surfaces in which are placed the sensory end-organs of taste
and "taste buds" (the distribution of which, by the way, has yet to
be explained), that these surfaces, readily becoming accustomed to an
alkaline contact by excessive insalivation and consequent complete
alkaline reduction of the food, afterwards resent an acid contact and
express their resentment by throwing off the cause of offence by the
muscles underlying them.
This phenomenon must not be confused with the cases of rumination and
regurgitation, which from time to time are recorded. The food in this
case is not swallowed, nor does it pass any point from which it can
be regurgitated. Eighty-one individuals of different nationalities
and from several classes of society whom we have studied are now in
conscious possession of their reflexes. These seem readily educated
back to normal functions by all who seriously and patiently adopt the
habit of what seems only at first to be excessive insalivation.
The dictum "bite your food well" that we so often use, has no
meaning to those suffering from the results of mal-assimilation and
mal-nutrition, especially should they have few or no teeth of their
own. I make so bold as to state that dyspepsia _et morbi hujus generis
omnis_ will cease to exist if patients be persuaded to bite their
food until its original taste disappears, and it is carried away by
involuntary deglutition.
The important point of the whole question seems to be this alkaline
reduction of of acid food before it passes on to meet subsequent
digestive processes elsewhere, which then become alternately acid and
alkaline.
In the first few months of infant life, when saliva is not secreted,
Nature ordains that mammary secretion be alkaline. With the eruption
of teeth come an abundant flow of saliva and a synchronous infantile
capacity for managing other foods. This flow of saliva depends on a
thorough demand and use to maintain its generous supply. It is just
at this time that children learn to bolt their food,--the demand
fails, with a consequent detriment to the salivary glands, digestive
processes, and the system generally.
A, B, C, and D were placed on an absolute milk diet. A drank his milk
in the ordinary way, and at the end of three days begged to discontinue
the experiment owing to disgust at the monotony of the diet. B, C, and
D continued the experiment for seventeen days, insalivating the milk,
but to a varying extent, B the least and D the most. Though D took most
milk, he excreted least solid egesta, C excreting less than B. Can one
infer that increased insalivation of a non-starchy food insured its
better digestion and assimilation? Each subject took as much milk only
as his appetite demanded, D taking the most, which never exceeded two
litres daily. The weights of the subjects after the usual sudden drop
of the first three days remained remarkably even until the end of the
experiment. B, C, and D all relished the diet, and it satisfied the
requirements of their appetites, but they experienced an increasing
monotony.
As long ago as the seventeenth century, before the transformation of
matter into energy by the animal organism, known as Metabolism, was
understood, the fact was recognised that by the lungs, kidneys, skin,
and intestines, substances no longer useful to the organism were
eliminated, the retention of which proved harmful. The nature of these
substances was unknown, but it was noted that however much the food was
increased the weight of the body remained the same. In other words, a
state of complete nutritive equilibrium was maintained.
The following table contains the _résumé_ of two experiments in which a
state of complete nutritive equilibrium was maintained by individuals
of about the same weight, on widely different quantities of food
similar in quality. The subjects of the experiments were a laboratory
assistant of Dr. Snyder, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and
the writer. The experiment of the former was made primarily to show the
relative digestibility of the several articles of diet, potatoes, eggs,
milk, and cream:
============================+=================+=====================
| Dr. Snyder's |
| Experiment. | Writer's Experiment.
| Published in |
| Bulletin 43 |
----------------------------+-----------------+---------------------
Age of subject | 22 years | 30 years
Duration of experiment | 4 1/3 days | 5 days
Number of meals | 13 | 10
Weight at beginning | 62.5 kilos | 57.3 kilos
Weight at end | 62.6 kilos | 57.5 kilos
Potatoes (daily average) | 1587.6 grammes | 159.4 grammes
Eggs (daily average) | 411.08 grammes | 124.7 grammes
Milk (daily average) | 710 c.c. | 710 c.c.
Cream (daily average) | 237 c.c. | 237 c.c.
Daily urine | 1108 grammes | 1098 grammes
Daily fæces | 204 grammes | 18.9 grammes
----------------------------+-----------------+---------------------
The daily diet of Dr. Snyder's subject consisted of three and one-half
pounds of potatoes, eight eggs, a pint and a half of milk, and half a
pint of cream. The writer's diet of twelve ounces of solid food (like
Luigi Cornaro) consisted of three eggs, the remainder of the twelve
ounces in potatoes, and an equal quantity of similar liquid food to
that taken by Dr. Snyder's subject. The exercise of the laboratory
assistant comprised his daily routine of laboratory work, while that of
the writer consisted of six sets of tennis, or an hour and a half on
horseback, with an hour to an hour and a half's walk or climb daily, in
addition to much reading and writing.
In each case complete nutritive equilibrium was maintained, although
the author subsisted on three-seventeenths of the solid food taken by
the other subject.
Again, cannot one infer that better assimilation and less waste
resulted from the better preparation of the smaller quantity of food
by insalivation? Surely, too, there must be less daily strain on the
intestinal canal, and body generally, in getting rid of 18.9 grammes
of inoffensive dry waste, than in getting rid of 204 grammes of humid,
decomposing, and offensive matter.
"Considerable importance has been attached to the normal action of the
bacteria in the intestines; and it has even been supposed that the
presence of bacteria is essential to life. Such a view has recently
been shown to be erroneous by an elaborate and painstaking research
carried out by Nuttall and Thierfelder, who obtained ripe foetal
guinea-pigs by means of Cæsarean section carried out under strict
antiseptic precautions. They introduced the animals immediately into an
asceptic chamber through which a current of filtered air was aspirated,
and fed them hourly on sterilised milk day and night for over eight
days.
"The animals lived, and throve, and increased as much in weight as
healthy normal animals subjected to a similar diet for the purpose of
controlling the results. Microscopic examination at the end of the
experiment showed that the alimentary canal contained no bacteria of
any kind, nor could cultures of any kind be obtained from it.
"The same authors, in a subsequent paper, described the extension of
their research to vegetable food. This was also digested in the absence
of bacteria. Under such conditions cellulose was not attacked. Hence
they consider that the chief function of this material is to give bulk
and proper consistency to the food so as to suit the conditions of
herbivorous digestion." (Schäfer's "Text-Book of Physiology," vol. i.,
p. 465.)
Now, inasmuch as bacterial digestion has no place in the animal
economy, surely it can only occur at the expense of the organism?
Can micro-organic action take place in the intestines without the
production of toxins and the consequent absorption of these toxins into
the blood?
We know that the metabolism of a cell is determined by the general
physical environment of the whole organism, by supplies of oxygen and
water, on nervous impulses, and, what chiefly concerns this argument,
on the nature and amount of the pabulum supplied to it. This pabulum is
derived from the alimentary canal.
Are not even those of us who may be enjoying seemingly the best of
health supplying to our tissues pabulum containing mild toxins, thus
causing an increased katabolic action to occur in each individual cell
of our bodies?
Are not the blood elements, floating in a plasma containing such
toxins, rendered resistant, weaker, less capable of fulfilling their
functions as carriers and combatants of disease?
Are not their and our lives, in consequence, more painful and shorter
than they need be?
Would not the elimination of these toxins render us less liable
to disease? And is not their presence an important element in
predisposition to disease?
When this reflex is restored micro-organisms get no further than the
stomach. They are destroyed there by the acid gastric juices, then
only stimulated to their full and normal secretion by the presence
of a sufficiency of alkaline substance. Undigested matter having
been eliminated, micro-organisms, still existing in the intestines,
deprived of their means of subsistence, decrease, and, in time, may
cease to exist. The body no longer absorbs the toxins these produced.
To this fact may be ascribed the increase of mental energy, the
general physical betterment, the cessation of morbid cravings for
food and drink and of those of a sexual nature, which are noticed and
experienced.
What has just been stated is based not entirely on experimental
evidence but somewhat upon inference. The inference seems justified
because the excreta, more especially of the intestines, but also of the
kidneys and skin, become almost odourless and entirely inoffensive.
The solid egesta are voided thickly covered with mucus, leaving the
end of the bowel dry and clean. The sense of cleanliness can only then
be appreciated to the full, for it is internal as well as external.
_Flatus_ is no longer produced. The urine is inoffensive and seems to
be materially changed in quality, as shown by chemical analysis. Uric
acid, the chlorides, and, more markedly, aromatic sulphates are reduced
in quantity.
Owing to deliberation in eating, necessitated by this new habit,
satiety occurs on the ingestion of considerably less food. By carefully
studying one's self I believe it possible to cultivate an instinct
which will regulate not only the quantity but the quality of food that
the body may need, and that in the _normal health_ of a full-grown
body, no more food either in quantity or quality should be supplied
than suffices to supply diurnal waste. Any excess must result in
pathological processes.
Although there results enhanced pleasure in the taking of all foods,
rich and simple, and especially in the appreciation of good wines, the
quantities of these foods and beverages that suffice to fully satisfy
the appetite are much smaller than before, while there is a marked
preference for the simpler kinds of food. The writer now can imagine no
more pleasurable meal than one consisting of good brown bread, eggs,
butter, cheese, and cream. These, with fresh vegetables and a very
little fruit, form his staple diet. This tendency and preference for
simple foods is the general experience among those who have recovered
their reflexes of deglutition.
Following on the ingestion of a lessened quantity of food and on its
better assimilation, there is less waste, the egesta are voided less
frequently, sometimes only once in five to eight days.
The lower bowel is not the reservoir it formerly was. So hæmorrhoids
cease from troubling and constipation cannot exist. For this same
reason the body, at the beginning of the practice, commences to
approximate to its normal weight, increasing or decreasing as the
individual's environment demands.
A few more words only need be said. It has been easy to state the
results of experiments and observations: but the acquiring of this
new reflex, while pursuing daily occupations, is not easy, and needs
more than a little patience and much serious thought. The habits of
a lifetime cannot be changed in a few days or weeks. The shortest
time in which the reflex has been re-established is four weeks, and
this only by avoiding conversation at meal-time and concentrating the
attention on keeping the food in the mouth until complete alkaline
reduction has taken place and sapidity has disappeared.
In closing I wish to maintain as a fact, gentlemen, of the truth of
which you will only be convinced by actual experience, that by the
restoration of this reflex and in complete dependence on its use,
there lies true health, the establishment of a condition of stable
nutrition and the possible abrogation of two great predisposing factors
of disease, mal-assimilation and mal-nutrition. Unless there be among
you, as in the "Cities of the Plain," a parlous minority who possess
this reflex and take your food as you ought, none of you are in the
enjoyment of such health as you might have. A like punishment will be
meted out to you as was visited on those cities, for you will all be
consumed long before your day by the unnecessary combustion in your
bodies caused by the circulation in them of toxins, the product of
undigested and decomposing food.
The writer, bearing in mind the warning suggested by the Frenchman
whose donkey died as soon as he had reduced his food to a single wisp
of straw, finds that he is taking less and less food. While his mind is
open as to his arriving at the final diet of Luigi Cornaro, yet it is
easily conceivable that living a similar life of retirement in a placid
environment, it would be quite possible to do as he did. Hence the
title of this paper and the queries at the commencement.
The objects in publishing and distributing this paper are twofold: to
make the subject as widely known as possible, and to solicit the aid of
colleagues in investigating it more fully.
There is ready at the service of the general practitioner an important
and potential therapeutic agent in the saliva of his patients and in
the use _ad finem_ of their salivary digestions.
* * * * *
_Editor's notes._ (1) Confirmatory evidence of the correctness of
the deductions made in this paper has begun to come in from many
professional sources and notably from a famous child specialist who
avers that children would follow the natural requirements in eating
were it not for artificial food, bad example, and bad teaching.
(2) In a report of a paper read before the _Société de Biologie_,
Paris, France, March 15th, 1902, by M. Max Marckwald, of Kreuznach, "ON
DIGESTION OF MILK IN THE STOMACH OF FULL-GROWN DOGS," the following
appears: "Hence these experiments confirm those of Horace Fletcher
and Ernest H. Van Someren on the importance of prolonged mastication"
(_translation_). Referring, as the latter statement does, to
mastication (insalivation) of liquid, it gives an important suggestion
relative to some probable causes of uncertain or defective digestion in
human nutrition.
INDEX
A
Abstinence, long abstinence from food harmless, 20, 133
Aggressive hospitality, 118
Alcohol, the abuse of, 135, 140
Alcoholic stimulant, 145
Amundsen, Captain, 185
Anderson, Doctor W. G., 18;
begins Fletcherizing, 23;
at Yale test, 24, _et seq._, 143
Appetite, 6;
wait for a true, 10;
selects simplest foods, 36, 136;
is true hunger, 52;
resting the, 56
Atwater, Professor, 12;
his diet standard, 110
B
Bacterial Decomposition, 58
Battle Creek Sanatorium, experiments on members, 21
Beer, how to take, 60, 121
Bowditch, Doctor H. P., 15, 125
Bradefagy, 65
Business men and Fletcherism, 41, 43
C
Calorie, the heat unit, 61
Calorimeter, 6l
Cannon, Doctor, 81, 125
Carbohydrates in human diet, 61
Chanute, 124
Chewing, and Fletcherism, 66;
Mr. Gladstone on, 67
Chittenden, Professor, visited by Mr. Fletcher, 16;
volunteers to experiment, 18;
on careful chewing, 85 _et seq._;
on head digestion, 83
Christian Endeavour Society, 44
Circumvalate papillæ, 9
Cornaro, Luigi, 118
D
Decency and Fletcherism, 126
Delirium tremens, a cure, 153
Diet, prejudice against unaccustomed, 94
Diet standard, the best suited to economy and efficiency, 60;
Voit's, 109
Dietetic righteousness, the Gospel of, 50, 128, _et seq._
Digestion-ash, the, 58, 59, 93
Dow, Hon. A. G., 49
E
Economy of Fletcherism, 41
Emerson, 129
Endurance tests: Irving Fisher's, 21;
Granger's and Wagner's, 21-22;
Mr. Fletcher's at Yale, 24 _et seq._
Epicure, the true, 47
Excess of food, difficulty of getting rid of, 38;
fermentation of, 47
Experiments: Someren, 13;
Yale University, 16;
Chittenden, 18;
U. S. Army, 19;
Irving Fisher's, 98;
Seventh-Day Adventists, 151
F
Fasting, the value of, 170
Fat, putting on, 70;
Doctor Anderson on, 137
Fats in human diet, 61
Fermentation of undigested food, 47
Fisher, Professor Irving, endurance tests, 21;
his endurance-testing-machine, 26;
experiments with students, 98
Fletcher, Horace, refused by insurance company as poor risk, 2;
at Galveston, Texas, 3;
discovery of the mouth food-filter, 6;
in the Philippines, 112;
delivers address before New York Academy of Medicine, 128;
at the Buffalo Club, 147
Fletcherism, its five principles, 10;
and housewives, 41;
economy of, 43;
and long life, 49, 118;
and muscularity, 111;
and companionship, 123;
as first aid, 155
Fletcherite, the dictionary definition, 116
Food-filter, our, what it is, 6;
using it properly, 35, 66
Foster, Sir Michael, interested in Fletcherism, 13;
organises tests at Cambridge University, 13
Fruit, how to eat, 59
G
Gladstone, his theory of mastication, 4, 67;
as Fletcherite, 7
Gluttony and avoirdupois, 161
Granger, J. H., 21
Grape-sugar, 69
H
Head digestion, 73 _et seq._
Higgins, Father, on alcoholic stimulants, 44
Hindhede, Doctor, 102, 187, 191
Hopkins, Professor F. G., conducts tests at Cambridge University, 15
Hospitality, aggressive, 118
Housewives and Fletcherism, 41
Human diet, the organic materials of, 60
Hunger, what is, 51
Hunger-habit, 40
Hutchinson, Doctor, 73
I
Intemperance, overcome by Fletcherism, 45, 141, 153
Intestinal toxication, 42
J
Japan, 2, 94
Java, diet in, 95
K
Kellog, Doctor, 45;
test at Tennessee Institute, 151
König, Professor, 110
L
Leonardi, Professor, in co-operation with Doctor Van Someren, 13
Liquids, Fletcherising, 120
M
Mastication, what happens during, 7;
Fletcherism not excessive, 64
Meals, choosing, 32;
how many a day, 37;
chosen by appetite, 54
Meat and Uric Acid, 187
Mendel, Professor, 18
Milk, as food material, 32, 102;
how to take, 60, 121
Mineral waters, 121
Morbid cravings, 150
Mouth digestion, 73, 76
Mouth during mastication, 7
Muscularity and Fletcherism, 111
N
National Food Reform Association, 64
Nitrogen, 61
Nutrition, the best safeguard to right, 48
O
Optimum economic nutrition, 63, 107
Organic materials of human diet, the, 60
P
Pawlow, Professor, 57, 74, 125
Peristalsis and fruit, 59
Potato, the, nutritive value of, 103
Proteids, the, 60
Protein enthusiast, the, 108;
the danger of excess of, 181
R
Responsibility in nutrition, our personal, 5, 80, 96
Rockefeller, J. D., xi, 190, 193 _et seq._
Roosevelt, President, 19
Root, Secretary, 19
S
Saliva, chemical transformation of food by, 8;
wait for profuse flow, 52, 62;
action on starch foods, 68
Scott, Captain, 108
Seventh-Day Adventists, 151
Someren, Doctor Van, first experiments with, 13
Soup, how to take, 60
Stagg, Alonzo B., 21
Starch foods, action of saliva, 68
Stomach, digestive processes in, 74
Swallowing impulse, 9, 57
Swallowing sense, 140
T
Taste, getting the best out of food, 10;
the test of, 91;
and liquids, 121
Taste-buds, the, 7
Tea, how to take it, 59
Temperance and Fletcherism, 138, 149
Tests. _See_ Experiments and Endurance tests.
Tramps and Fletcherism, 138
U
Uric Acid and Meat, 187
U. S. Army, instructions to, 57
V
Vegetarianism and Fletcherism, 180
Voit, Carl, his diet standard, 109
W
Wagner, Doctor, 22
Wine, how to take, 60
Wine-tasters, professional, 147
Wood, General, 19
Wright Brothers, the, 124
Y
Yale University, experiments at, 15
Y. M. C. A. Training School, Springfield, test at, 29
Z
Zuntz, Doctor Professor, 78
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected but inconsistencies
of spelling and punctuation are as in the original
Inconsistencies of hyphenation have been standardised.
The author consistently refers to Doctor Kellogg as Kellog, this has
been retained.
Italics are represented thus _italic_.