The time-honored custom of consuming the flesh of animals which has prevailed in Western nations for so long, has flourished unchecked throughout the centuries in consequence of the popular belief that such a form of diet is both natural for man and necessary.
In all probability the cruelties which are involved in the flesh traffic, and the wholesale massacre of sentient creatures which flesh-eating necessitates, would have been stopped long ago in Christian lands were it not for the prevalence of this popular delusion. No thoughtful or humane person who is fully acquainted with the nature and extent of these barbarities, would attempt to justify them by advancing any other argument than stern necessity. As soon, therefore, as this—the only legitimate defence of the custom—is successfully refuted, and Christendom is made to realize that flesh-eating is not only unnecessary but also unnatural and a violation of God's physical laws, the voice of conscience may be trusted to bring about such an awakening of humane sentiment concerning this matter that the era of butchery and bloodshed will ultimately be brought to an end.
Man's physical structure reveals conclusively, and beyond all question, his Creator's intention concerning his method of living, and this revelation is one which is not only irrefutable, tangible, and capable of demonstration, but it also demands from us the fullest respect and obedience. Notwithstanding the erroneous ideas upon the subject which may have been held or taught by good men in bygone ages when the human race was existing in a state of semi-barbarism, this unanswerable fact confronts us—Man is created a “frugivorous” or fruit-eating creature, and neither his internal organs, his teeth, nor his external appearance, resemble those of carnivorous animals. To eat flesh, therefore, in any form is to violate a law of our being which must bring penalty upon us. Man is violating that law in many lands, and the widespread disease which exists where such violation is taking place, points in an unmistakable manner to the manifestation of cause and effect.
A considerable number of medical men are now being awakened to this fact, and are forbidding their patients to eat animal food—not only as a means of cure for such diseases as gout, rheumatism, etc., but as a preventive measure against complaints of various kinds. The following testimonies, which could be multiplied ad libitum, will be sufficient to corroborate the foregoing statements:—
The natural food of man, judging from his structure, consists of fruit, roots and vegetables.—Prof. Baron Cuvier.
Certainly man was never made to be a carnivorous animal.—Professor Ray.
No physiologist would dispute with those who maintain that man ought to live on vegetarian diet.—Dr. Spencer Thompson.
The teeth of man have not the slightest resemblance to those of carnivorous animals, and whether we consider the teeth, jaws, or digestive organs, the human structure closely resembles that of the frugivorous animals.—Prof. Wm. Lawrence, F.R.S.
The anthropoids and all the quadrumana derive their alimentation from fruits, grains, and other succulent vegetable substances, and the strict analogy which exists between the structure of these animals and that of man, clearly demonstrates his frugivorous nature.—Sir Richard Owen, F.R.S.
Comparative anatomy proves that man is naturally a frugivorous animal, formed to subsist upon fruits, seeds, and farinaceous vegetables.—Prof. Sylvester Graham, M.D.
It has been truly said that man is frugivorous. All the details of his intestinal canal, and above all his dentition, prove it in the most decided manner.—F. A. Pouchet, M.D.
It is, I think, not going too far to say that every fact connected with the human organization goes to prove that man was originally formed a frugivorous animal. This opinion is principally derived from the formation of his teeth and digestive organs, as well as from the character of his skin and the general structure of his limbs.—Prof. Sir Charles Bell, F.R.S.
There is no doubt that fruit and vegetable food purifies the blood, while meat inflames and is the source of many diseases, which are the punishment for breaking the natural law and command.—Dr. Josef Drzewiecki.
Flesh is an unnatural food and therefore tends to create functional disturbance. As it is taken in modern civilization, it is affected with such terrible diseases (readily communicable to man), as cancer, consumption, fever, intestinal worms, etc., to an enormous extent. There is little need to wonder that flesh-eating is one of the most serious causes of the diseases that carry off ninety-nine out of every hundred people that are born.—Josiah Oldfield, M.A., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.
I believe consumption is constantly communicated to human beings by eating diseased meat.—Dr. Marsden, M.O.H.
All the bloodshed caused by the warlike disposition of Napoleon is as nothing compared to the myriads of persons who have sunk into their graves through a misplaced confidence in the value of beef tea.—Dr. Milner Fothergill.
I do not consider flesh food (chemically and physiologically speaking) is a necessary food for man. There is no question about it that, owing to the evils likely to arise from imperfect supervision of private slaughter-houses, the present widespread ingestion of flesh is responsible to an appreciable extent for many diseases which now exist, and which vegetable eaters avoid. We have diarrhea, cramp, trichina disease, tuberculosis, carbuncle, malignant pustule, and the various forms of tapeworms through eating diseased meat.—J. Edwin Cooney, M.D., M.O.H.
The preceding evidence of anatomists and physiologists is corroborated by the testimony of thousands of living witnesses in various parts of the world and in all climates, who declare—after long experience—that they are healthier, happier, stronger, and more humanely disposed, whilst subsisting on a rational and bloodless diet than when they lived upon flesh food.—Herald of the Golden Age.
