Twenty-four Reasons for Being a Vegetarian,
FROM THE BIBLE, THE LAWS OF HUMANITY, SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND ECONOMY. 1. Because the primitive injunction of the Almighty to man, when in a state of purity and holiness, was, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Gen. 1: 29. 2. Because neither Scripture nor any other authority shows the mechanism or physical structure of the human body to be in anywise different now from what it was when the Creator pronounced it “good.” 3. Because during the time man abstained from the flesh of animals as food (i. e., from the creation to the deluge), the average length of his life was much greater than it has been since. 4. Because although the divine permission was given to man to eat flesh, as divine permission was afterward given to the children of Israel to have a king (1 Sam. 8.), there seemed to have followed a punishment in like manner; for we find that his days gradually shortened from that period. 5. Because the anger of the Almighty was raised against the children of Israel, when they demanded flesh of Moses (see Num. 11: 19, 20; also 5: 33, where we are told that “while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague”). 6. Because the eating of flesh is constantly used in the Old Testament as a symbol of the worst abominations; while the praise of the promised land was, that it yielded grapes, figs, and pomegranates,—a land flowing with milk and honey. 7. Because Daniel and his companions, who ate pulse and drank water, were “fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat.” (Dan. 1: 15.) 8. Because those who abstain from animal flesh as food (other habits being correct), live to a good old age. Among others may be cited the early Christians, many of whom lived from one hundred to two hundred years of age, Lewis Cornaro, Old Parr, Henry Jenkins, and a host of others. The “riotous eaters of flesh,” on the contrary, seldom attain longevity. 9. Because I find, from the unvarying testimony of vegetarians, that they enjoy a comparative immunity from disease. Many who have lived to old age have scarcely had a day’s sickness since adopting the vegetarian practice. Not a single case is known, although a rigorous inquiry has been instituted, of a vegetarian being attacked with cholera, during the late visitation, either in this country or in America, where, especially in New York, they are very numerous, and where the disease was extremely destructive. When the epidemic did enter the house of a vegetarian, it was to take some flesh-eating member of the family. John Howard, the philanthropist, visited, while living on a vegetarian diet, dungeons and other abodes of wretchedness, where fevers and malaria were raging so violently that his guides durst not enter. The most flesh-eating nations are always the most diseased. 10. Because “the brave Spartans, who, for muscular power, physical energy, and ability to endure hardship, perhaps stand unequalled in the history of nations, were vegetarians, as well as the armies of Greece and Rome, in the time of their unparalleled conquests; the departure from their simple habits being soon followed by their decline;” also, because, “in the training for the public games in Greece, where muscular strength was to be exhibited in all its varied forms, vegetable food was adhered to; but when flesh-meat was adopted afterwards, those hitherto athletic men became sluggish and stupid.”—See Vegetarian Messenger, vol. i. p. 25; also, Preface to Rollin’s Ancient History. 11. Because many of those bright geniuses who have opened out to the world fresh tracts of thought, and traveled the untrodden paths of knowledge, have, from their own private convictions, become vegetarians. Among others, may be named Pythagoras, Plato, Plutarch, John Wesley, Benjamin Franklin, Emanuel Swedenborg, John Howard, Alphonse de Lamartine, and others. 12. Because those who live on a vegetarian diet are, as a class, heavier, and capable of lifting greater weights than those who live on a mixed diet; as proved by Professor Forbes from experiments on flesh-eating Englishmen, porridge-eating Scotchmen, and potato-and-bread-eating Irishmen; the Scotchmen being superior in height, weight, and strength to the Englishmen, and the Irishman superior to both. (Chamber’s Information for the People, sheet on the Physical History of Man.) “The Laplanders, living on flesh, are a diminutive race, while the Finns, who inhabit the same climate, and live chiefly upon the products of the soil, are as fine a race as the Swedes or Norwegians;” the difference, says Dr. Lambe, “must be attributed mainly or entirely to diet.” 13. Because vegetarian diet gives a more youthful and beautiful appearance to the “human face divine.” Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, informs us that the greater part of the most beautiful women in the British dominions are said to be from the lower ranks of the people of Ireland, who are generally fed with potatoes. 14. Because those animals which, for power of endurance and rapidity of motion, are made subservient to the wants of man, derive the whole of their strength and nutriment from the vegetable kingdom: such are the horse, the camel, the elephant, &c., &c. 15. Because my feelings are shocked by the quivering limbs, the horrid moans, and the melancholy whinings of the poor animals, as they receive from the “butcher” those wounds necessary to end their existence; and because I cannot believe that, if Infinite Wisdom designed me to use flesh as food, he would have implanted in my bosom an instinctive abhorrence of such deeds of blood. 16. Because the matured convictions of the most eminent naturalists known, namely, Linnæus, Daubenton, Gassendi, Sir Everard Home, Baron Cuvier, Ray, the botanist, Professor Lawrence, Lord Monboddo, Mr. Thomas Bell, and others, are, that the teeth, the stomach, the cellulated colon, and indeed the whole of the internal and external structure of man, clearly indicate his adaptation to a fruit, farinaceous, graminivorous, and vegetable diet. 17. I am a vegetarian, because I find the testimony of the most eminent organic chemists, Liebig, Boussingault, Playfair, and others, is—(1) That, in consuming the flesh of animals, we consume, strictly speaking, only the vegetable productions which have served for their nutriment; and consequently obtain them at “second hand.” (2) “That vegetable albumen and animal albumen, and vegetable fibrine and animal fibrine, are identical, scarcely differing even in form.” (Liebig’s Familiar Letters on Chemistry.) I should therefore obtain not the slightest advantage as regards the quality of the article by feeding on flesh. (3) That flesh contains only 36 per cent of solid nutriment, 64 parts being water, while many vegetable productions, such as grain and other farinaceous food, contain from 80 to 90 per cent of solid nutritious matter. (4) That man requires in his food a large proportion of carbonaceous material to keep up the heat of the body. That “butchers’ meat” contains much less of this than vegetables, as it consists of flesh-forming principle, with 14 per cent of fat for animal heat; while all vegetable productions used as food contain flesh-forming principle, more heat-forming principle, more ashes for the bones, and a portion of innutritious matter. I am therefore a decided gainer in every point of view by obtaining my food direct from the vegetable kingdom. 18. Because the experiments of Dr. Beaumont on the body of Alexis St. Martin (who was accidentally wounded in the side by a gun-shot, in such a manner as to leave an opening to his stomach, and enable Dr. Beaumont to examine the operation of digestion in the human body), prove that, when flesh is taken into the stomach, it causes an excited and inflamed appearance of the coating of the stomach, somewhat similar to that produced by taking alcoholic drinks; so much so, that Dr. Beaumont calls flesh “heating and stimulating.” 19. Because economy being one of the grand distinguishing features of nature, and the productions of the vegetable kingdom four or five hundred per cent cheaper than the same weight derived from the flesh of animals, it is unnatural, as well as unphilosophical and unbusiness-like, to pay so much dearer for an inferior article. 20. Because I find the Almighty has implanted in those animals which feed upon flesh, instincts to seek their food by night; while man’s natural instincts lead him to sleep by night, and eat and work by day. 21. Because a large proportion (some say 19 out of every 20) of the animals slaughtered for the public market, are diseased; which is caused by putting the animals into an unnatural condition, absolutely necessary to fatten or otherwise prepare them, by bleeding, &c., for the public market. Charles Lane, in his essays on dietetics, says, “There can be no doubt that to the eating of swine is to be attributed the exceeding prevalence of scrofula, measles and other cutaneous diseases so common in Great Britain.” 22. Because those animals which live on flesh are vicious, savage, and dangerous; while those that live on vegetable productions are mild, docile, and tractable. Even animals naturally savage, by being fed on meal-porridge, bread, milk, &c., seem to lose their natural ferocity and become domesticated, as, for instance, the dog and the domestic cat; while sheep, and other gentle animals, have become savage and dangerous when fed on flesh. 23. Because a vegetarian diet, by contributing to the physical health of man, improves likewise his moral condition, besides conducing in no small degree to the healthy development of the intellectual faculties; since it must naturally follow that, by rendering the instrument clear and pure, the acts of life will be materially influenced, in being identified with that which is clear and pure also. 24. Because the principle contains within itself a protest against slavery, capital punishment, war, intemperance, and other evils of society; also, because the active benevolence of its principles fosters and encourages all movements having for their object the well-being and moral elevation of the human family.—Published by the Vegetarian Society, Manchester, England.