RESULTS OF A MEAT DIET.
By S.
IN the course of his remarks before the National Vegetarian Society at Worcester, Mass., Mr. Henry D. Perky had the following to say concerning the carnivorous diet:— When I quit eating beef about eight years ago, I began to receive that normal condition which a man should enjoy before he can become a successful business man. I have not eaten beef since then. About nine years ago I read a newspaper paragraph about the rapid increase of cancer in England. It was then discovered that cancer was most prevalent among well-to-do men and women, the beef-eaters, whereas it was scarcely known among the common people, who get little beef to eat. Mr. Perky is not a hobbyist nor a fanatic; but a well-to-do business man, a man of the world, but withal a man who does not allow appetite to overpower conviction and reason. Concerning his address on this occasion an influential daily remarks editorially as follows:— Mr. Perky's opinion as to the dangerous qualities of beef certainly deserves close attention. As he presents the matter, it is a novel one. But the danger in excessive beef-eating was pointed out long since by Dr. Levenne of Paris. This eminent physician, head of the great Rothschild Hospital in Paris, continually warned his patients against beef-eating. He demonstrated that excessive eating of beef is extremely bad for the nerves. By numerous experiments he showed that only those engaged in the hardest kind of physical outdoor labor could, with safety, live on beef. He assured this writer some fifteen years since that he had cured nervousness in many women and children simply by stopping peremptorily the beef diet which had been administered under the false notion that it would give strength. But the author of this last quotation does not fully indorse Mr. Perky's position on the meat question. The reason which he gives for not doing so is, however, a powerful argument in favor of the position which he refuses to indorse. Here it is:— In view of the fact that meat-eating races dominate, it seems advisable to us that men should continue meat-eating in a world where fighting counts for so much. That is, meat-eating is productive of strife, of war, of the spirit to dominate over others, to rule others or make use of others to our own profit. Therefore we should eat meat in order that we may do our share of this kind of work, and to prevent others doing so by us. In other words, meat-eating fosters and propagates the spirit of selfishness—self-service at the expense of others; and as we are in this world for what we can make out of it and out of those who are in it, we should and must eat meat in order to get "our share." It encourages the spirit of fighting; therefore while we are in a world where men fight, we must eat flesh in order that we may participate successfully in this work of the flesh. That is the argument of the world and of the flesh. Now the true Christian knows that all this is contrary to the spirit of Christ, contrary to all the teachings of Christ; and while men of the world are free to admit that such is the tendency of flesh-eating, Christians should be equally free to acknowledge its effects. Knowing, then, that its influence is toward darkness, while theirs should be toward light, the only wise and consistent thing for them to do is to abandon the practise. We are not in the world to fight, to strive, to exalt self. Let us not, then, hold to a practise which ministers to that end.