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● The Perfect Way in Diet (O Caminho Perfeito na Dieta). Anna Bonus Kingsford. Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., Londres, 1881. 121pp. Segunda Edição: 1906.
Informação: Essa obra está baseada em sua dissertação para a graduação no curso de Medicina. O texto completo está disponível. Essa obra foi pela primeira vez posta à disposição do público da Internet nesse site (março-2005). Leia a seguir a página de título e o índice dos capítulos, em português, com os links para ler o livro, em inglês:
O CAMINHO PERFEITO NA DIETA
(1906)
Um Tratado em Defesa do Retorno
à Alimentação Antiga e Natural
de nossa Raça
Anna Kingsford
ESCRITO
PARA OS MEMBROS DA
SOCIEDADE VEGETARIANA
POR
SUA VICE-PRESIDENTE
Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.
Londres
1881
CONTEÚDO
Prefácio (vii-ix)
Proêmio (x-xii)
2. Culinária (15)
3. Força Física (16)
4. Hábitos Nacionais (19)
5. Química (41)
6. Efeitos Estimulantes da Alimentação com Carne (53)
7. Alcoolismo (57)
8. Matadouros (59)
11. Perigos da Alimentação com Carne (71)
12. Tratamento de Doenças (77)
13. Considerações Econômicas (93)
14. Procriação Exagerada (105)
15. A Questão do Couro (107)
16. Crueldade do Comércio de Peles (109)
17. A Questão do Estrume (113)
18. Esportes (114)
19. Recapitulação (117)
20. Conclusão (118)
(p. vii)
[Note: Original page numbers.]
THE following treatise is a translation, revised and enlarged, of my ‘These pour le Doctorat’ which, under the title ‘De l’Alimentation Végétale chez l’Homme,’ I presented in the month of July, 1880, at the Faculté de Médicine of Paris on completing my medical studies and taking my degree.
The original thesis was published in Paris in the French language, and subsequently translated into German and issued with illustrative notes and other additions by Dr. A. Aderholdt Encouraged by the success obtained by these two editions, and by the favourable notices they elicited from various foreign scientific and popular critics, I offer the present work to English readers, confident of a kindly welcome from the friends of the reform I advocate, and hopeful of a serious and intelligent
(p. viii)
hearing from those who as yet are strangers to the merits of that reform.
The French and German editions of this treatise include an Appendix, containing short notices and citations from the works of the chief exponents and exemplars of the Pythagorean system of diet. In the present volume this Appendix is suppressed in favour of a forthcoming ‘Catena of Authorities Denunciatory or Depreciatory of the Practice of Flesh-Eating,’ by a ‘Graduate of Cambridge’; an excellent and ample compendium to which the reader is referred.
That I have dwelt chiefly on the aspects, physical and social, of my subject, and touched but lightly on those moral and philosophical, is not, assuredly, because I regard these last as of lesser importance, but because their abstruse and recondite nature renders them unsuitable to a work intended for general reading.
Finally, if any into whose hands this book may fall, should be inclined to think me over-enthusiastic, or to stigmatise my views as ‘Utopian,’ I would ask him seriously to consider whether ‘Utopia’ be not indeed within the realisation of all who can imagine and love it, and whether, without
(p. ix)
enthusiasm, any great cause was ever yet won for our race. Man is the master of the world, and may make it what he will. Into his hands it is delivered with all its mighty possibilities for good or evil, for happiness or misery. Following the monitions and devices of the sub-human, he may make of it – what indeed for some gentle and tender souls it has already become – a very hell; working with God and Nature, he may reconvert it into Paradise.
ANNA KINGSFORD, M.D.
II CHAPEL STREET, PARK LANE,
Michaelmas, 1881.
(p. x)
PROEM
THE king stood in his hall of offering,
On either hand the white-robed Brahmans ranged
Muttered their mantras, feeding still the fire
Which roared upon the midmost altar. There
From scented woods flickered bright tongues of flaunt
Hissing and curling as they licked the gifts
Of ghee and spices and the Soma juice,
The joy of Indra. Round about the pile
A slow, thick, scarlet streamlet smoked and ran,
Sucked by the sand, but ever rolling down.
The blood of bleating victims. One such lay,
A spotted goat, long-horned, its head bound back
With munja grass; at its stretched throat the knife
Pressed by a priest, who murmured, ‘This, dread gods
Of many yajnas, cometh as the crown
From Bimbasâra; take ye joy to see
The spirted blood, and pleasure in the scent
Of rich flesh roasting ‘mid the fragrant flames;
Let the king’s sins be laid upon this goat,
And let the fire consume them burning it,
For now I strike.’
But Buddha softly said,
‘Let him not strike, great king!’ and therewith loosed
The victim’s bonds, none staying him, so great
His presence was. Then, craving leave, he spake
Of life, which all can take but none can give,
Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep,
Wonderful, dear, and pleasant unto each,
Even to the meanest; yea, a boon to all
(p. xi)
Where pity is, for pity nukes the world
Soft to the weak and noble for the strong.
Unto the dumb lips of the flock he lent
Sad, pleading words, showing how man, who prays
For mercy to the gods, is merciless.
Being as god to those; albeit all life
Is linked and kin, and what we slay have given
Meek tribute of their milk and wool, and set
Fast trust upon the hands which murder them.
Also he spake of what the holy books
Do surely teach, how that at death some sink
To bird and beast, and these rise up to man
In wanderings of the spark which grows purged flame.
So were the sacrifice new sin, if so
The fated passage of a soul be stayed.
Nor spake he, shall one wash his spirit clean
By blood; nor gladden gods, being good, with blood
Nor bribe them, being evil; nay, nor lay
Upon the brow of innocent bound beasts
One hair’s weight of that answer all must give
For all things done amiss or wrongfully,
Alone, each for himself, reckoning with that
The fixed arithmic of the universe,
Which meteth good for good and ill for ill,
Men are for measure, unto deeds, words, thoughts;
Watchful, aware, implacable, unmoved;
Making all futures fruits of all the pasts.
Thus spake he, breathing words so piteous
With such high lordliness of ruth and right,
The priests drew back their garments o’er the hand
Crimsoned with slaughter, and the king came near.
Standing with clasped palms reverencing Buddha;
While still our Lord went on, teaching how fair
This earth were if all living things be linked
In friendliness and common use of foods.
Bloodless and pure; the golden grain, bright fruits.
Sweet herbs which grow for all, the waters wan,
Sufficient drinks and meats. Which when these heard,
The might of gentleness so conquered them,
The priests themselves scattered their altar-flames
(p. xii)
And flung away the steel of sacrifice;
And Through the land next day passed a decree
Proclaimed by criers, and in this wise graved
On rock and column: ‘Thus the king’s will is:
There hath been slaughter for the sacrifice
And slaying for the meat, but henceforth none
Shall spill the blood of life nor taste of flesh,
Seeing that knowledge grows, and life is one,
And mercy cometh to the merciful.’
So ran the edict, and from those days forth
Sweet peace hath spread between all living kind,
Man and the beasts which serve him, and the birds,
On all those banks of Ganga where our Lord
Taught with his saintly pity and soft speech. (1)
Footnotes
(xii:1) The Light of Asia; being the Life and Teaching of Gautama, Founder of Buddhism. By Edwin Arnold.
(p.1)
BY what habits and mode of life has humanity in the past attained its highest development, and what is the method which modern science and philosophy indicate to us as that best adapted to perfect our kind?
In order to resolve this vast and important inquiry, it will be necessary, in the first place, to refer to natural history, and seek in the study of the comparative anatomy of men and other animals for information regarding the primitive habits of mankind, and the mode of living which is indicated by their exterior conformation and by the structure of their organs. In short, we must inquire whether the human race is naturally carnivorous, herbivorous, omnivorous, or frugivorous. Without accepting definitively the theories of Lamarck, Darwin, and Haeckel, I think we may adopt, without fear of any serious objection, the classification of Linnaeus, which is generally admitted by scientists. This classification distinguishes, under the name of Primates, the highest order in the class of mammiferous animals, and at its head is placed the human family and that of the anthropoid apes. This last contains two species, one of
(p.2)
which, from an anatomical and physiological point of view, resembles man very closely; I mean the apes of the Old World, among which we find the orang-outan (wild man), the gorilla, and the chimpanzee. The orang belongs to the tribe of the Simiadae, the gorilla and the chimpanzee to the Troglodytes.
We will examine as rapidly and shortly as possible the characters which attach these creatures to man, and those which separate them, as well as man, from certain other orders or genera. Next we shall inquire what mode of alimentation is proper to the animals most resembling the human family, and thus we shall be enabled to judge what ought to be, consistently with natural laws, the habits and diet of the latter. We will begin our task by an examination of the superior part of the skeleton, the cranium, and the organs it contains.
The most superficial observation enables us to recognise on the one hand the resemblance which exists between the general conformation of the skull of man and that of the ape, and on the other hand the differences which establish a line of separation more or less marked between the human cranium and that belonging to other mammalia of no matter what order or species. Passing by these familiar and superficial features of morphology, we will devote ourselves to the study of those which present a more scientific and less common interest.
The noblest and most important apparatus of the animal economy is without doubt the nervous system, which, dominating the functions of all the organs, presides over the harmony of their operations, regulates the work of all other systems and tissues, repairs their lesions, maintains their integrity, and is, as it were, preserver and law-giver of the bodily kingdom. The animal in which this system, and above all, the dominant part of this
(p. 3)
system, that is to say the brain, appears to resemble the human type most closely, will therefore possess, a Priori, the right to be considered the most man-like among the lower races. Moreover, it is to the perfection, more or less accentuated, of the nervous system, and in particular to that of its ganglionic centres – that is, to the more or less perfect aggregation and complete composition of the parts which constitute this system – that are due principally, we might almost say exclusively, the degree of elevation of any given being in the animal scale, and the characters which separate it more or less distinctly from the vegetable kingdom. Now it is in man that we find the supreme degree of this aggregation and ganglionic development, and the animal which most closely imitates him in this respect is the orang-outan. The height of the brain in the orang is greater than in the chimpanzee, the frontal lobe is more developed, the occipital smaller, the temporal more horizontal and less flattened – characteristics which well agree with the exterior aspect of the simians. Besides, the brain convolutions, which are very rudimentary in the rodents and edentates, less simple in the carnassiers, and still less so in the ruminants and solipedes, attain their greatest development in the apes, and particularly in the orang. The disposition of the cerebral mass in the carnivorous mammals, which has been well studied by Leuret, shows only six convolutions, varying in regularity and simplicity according to the species, but remaining in all cases parallel to each other and antero-posterior in direction. These convolutions have been described by Professor Sappey under the name of constant or primitive convolutions. It is not until we reach the elephant, the lemur, and particularly the ape-group, that we find certain new convolutions, or ‘folds of perfectionment’ remarkable by their volume and by
(p. 4)
their perpendicular direction to the primitive convolutions. ‘Add,’ says M. Sappey, ‘to the antero-posterior convolutions of the carnivora and other inferior mammals, two or three convolutions cutting them perpendicularly in the middle, and the disposition proper to the highest mammals, particularly man and the ape, will be realised.’
Now in the brain of the orang we not only find the antero-posterior convolutions lengthened, curved, and anastomosed after the human type, but it is also in the encephalon of the same animal that those additional convolutions or ‘folds of perfectionment’ noticed by Professor Sappey appear the roost distinctly, and offer consequently the completest analogy with the disposition of the cerebral organ in man. We are thus authorised to conclude, with Professor Mivart, (1) that the difference between the brain of the orang and that of the human subject is one not of kind, but of degree. The writings of the late Professor Broca, whose careful studies in anthropology give special weight to his statements, confirm this opinion, and assert that the brain of the archencephalous animals – hominidae of Owen – differs so little from that of the superior gyrencephalae that the only distinctive characters observable in the latter are altogether secondary in importance. ‘But,’ says the professor, ‘these characters are not real in their nature, and even if they were, even if the cerebral hemispheres of the apes contained neither the ancyroid cavity nor the small hippocampus of man, even if we should find their cerebrum not entirely covering the cerebellum, these differences would be but slight, almost accessory, and less important than those which we meet with among animals belonging to the same order, so that
(p. 5)
they must be held altogether insufficient for the establishment of two sub-classes.’
Having thus briefly traced the points of resemblance between the human and the simian brain, and their common divergence from the type presented by other and lower races, we pass to the examination of the buccal cavity, which ought to furnish us with valuable indications respecting the mode of life of the subject under observation.
In the anthropoid animals the mouth is disposed according to the human type. The lateral sacks, known as cheek-pouches, are absent in this species; the two excretory canals of the sub-maxillary glands (Wharton’s ducts) open singly on the sides of the fraenum of the tongue; the tongue itself resembles that of man; in the orang the circumvallate papillae present the V-shaped disposition of the human type, their arrangement slightly differing in the chimpanzee and assuming the form of a T. The dental morphology and formula of the apes of the old world (catarrhines) are identical with those of man; their cuspids are, however, longer, especially in the males, and the wisdom teeth appear at an earlier age than in the human subject The apes of the New World (platyrrhines) differ from man by the absence of one molar in each half-jaw, the place of this tooth being occupied by an extra bicuspid. The surface of the molar teeth in the human subject is characterised by the presence of an irregular ramified depression dividing it into four or five distinct tubercules. The same formation is met with in the orang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla, as also is the superficial disposition of the enamel, which substance, in the herbivorous races, is quite otherwise distributed. Among the latter, pachydermata, ruminants (which have no incisors in the upper jaw), and rodents, the molar
(p. 6)
teeth are composed of alternate layers of dentine, enamel, and cement, which penetrate into the interior of the tooth, so that a transverse section of it, instead of presenting an homogeneous substance surrounded by a simple enamel stratum, as in man and the quadrumana, exhibits several undulating composite folds.. the dentine of which, being much less durable than the enamel, wears down rapidly, and the tooth thus acquires a rough unequal surface fitted to triturate the woody substances which form pan of the alimentation of these animals. On the other hand, the carnassiers possess organs of mastication, which, according to Küss, are hardly properly called teeth, but rather spike-like instruments destined to tear in fragments the meat on which they feed. Their incisives, six instead of four in number in each jaw, are small, pointed, and uneven; the surface of the molar teeth exhibits the appearance of a saw, and there usually exists but one on each side, the last bicuspid or carnassial tooth being especially characteristic. This tooth, well developed in the tiger kind, is composed of three sharp strong uneven prominences, placed one behind the other and connected by jutting ridges, the anterior prominence being doubled by an accessory spine. Nothing of this sort is observable in man or in the races which stand nearest to him. By the side of the exclusively predatory mammals we place the omnivorous types, such as the Alpine bear, the North American bear (ursus arctos), the wild boar, and the hog (sus scrofa, sus tibetanus, and sus ibericus). In the bear the surface of the molars is flattened, but the incisives number six as in the true carnivora, although they are blunter and less accentuated than the corresponding teeth of the latter. The cuspids are very long and curved, and between them and the bicuspids a remarkable
(p. 7)
interval generally exists. This character of dentition resembles the carnivorous rather than the herbivorous type, and, except that the enamel is superficially placed upon the cheek teeth, has nothing in common with the human and frugivorous morphology. The incisive teeth of the wild boar and the hog are elongated, and project forward in the direction of the axe of the maxillary bone; the cuspids, particularly those of the superior jaw, assume a special character, and develop themselves in the shape of tusks; in the lower jaw these teeth projecting outwards cross the direction of the upper pair. The same interval between the cuspids and the premolars, which we noted in the bear, exists also in the boar and pig species.
Let us now pass to an examination of the zygomatic arch and temporal region in the various orders of the mammalia. This region is important to our subject, because its disposition and aspect serve to indicate the kind of food proper to the animal It is to be remarked that in man and in the apes the zygomatic arch is comparatively frail, slightly curved so as to present an upper concave surface, and that the tempora and masseter muscles are but little developed; while in the ruminants, although the temporal muscle does not attain any important dimensions, the masseter on the contrary manifests considerable development, and. passing beyond the zygomatic arch, attaches itself to nearly the whole of the lateral surface of the superior maxillary. Moreover the inferior jaw of these latter animals possesses a lateral movement, which is quite characteristic, and to produce it the condyles are flattened and enabled to slide sideways in their cavity of reception. Another type of condyle is that of the rodents, which exhibits an increased diameter in the antero-posterior sense, and has a glenoid cavity similarly hollowed.
(p. 8)
But it is pre-eminently among the carnivorous quadrupeds that we meet with the most striking variation from the human type in respect to the characters of the temporal arch. The zygomatic arch in the flesh-eating animals is extremely large, and is increased in strength by its decided curve, the direction of which is the reverse of that which we have noted in the frugivora; for the concavity is inferior in position and the upper surface is strongly convex, the curve increasing with the ferocity of the species. The dimensions, as well as the peculiar form, of this bone, and its outward projection from the skull, give strength precisely in the direction most required, and augment enormously the tearing power. Besides, the masseter and temporal muscles are strongly developed, the thickness of the latter entirely filling the large space between the zygomatic process and the temporal bone; while in height it attains the upper limit of the skull On the other hand the internal and external pterygoidan muscles are very small, because these quadrupeds possess no lateral mobility of the jaw. This movement indeed is rendered impossible by the disposition of the glenoid cavity, the great depth of which prevents any change of position other than perpendicular opening and shutting. The omnivora differ but very slightly from the carnassiers in these respects; and it is only among the apes and above all the simians and troglodytes that we find a disposition and aspect of this articulation and muscular region perfectly analogous to those observable in man.
The classification which we have thus seen indicated in regard to the brain, the buccal cavity, the teeth and the temporo-maxillary articulation, will be confirmed by a study of the digestive canal.
The human stomach is simple, consisting, that is,
(p. 9)
of a single receptacle, as is that of all the primates. Professor Broca kindly allowed me to see in his anthropological laboratory, some drawings and anatomical preparations which demonstrated in a most striking manner the identity of configuration which exists between the digestive apparatus of man and that of the superior apes. Indeed it is at first sight barely possible to distinguish between the two, though a close comparison will show the human stomach to be smaller than that of the ape. As for the intestine, the anthropoids do not differ from man in this respect; their caecum, deprived of mesentery, is fixed in the right iliac fossa by the peritoneum, the vermiform appendix exists in all animals of the tribe, and the length of the entire tract accords with the human type. The liver of the orang (and gibbon) is as simple as that of man; in the chimpanzee this organ seems less developed, for its ‘lobule of Spigel’ is smaller and the fissure of the inferior vena cava is reduced to a mere depression. We may note that with regard to the liver, as in some other respects, the anthropoids differ considerably from the last three families of the primates, and do not differ in any sensible degree from man. The gall-bladder is always present in all the primates; among other mammals it is absent in the cetacea, sloths, rhinoceri, elephants, camels, horses, and tapirs. The peritoneum and the omenta of the orang are almost identical in arrangement with the same membranes in man, and we must remember that the peritoneal folds have considerable importance, for their connexions and complicated dispositions are the consequence of certain alterations of position undergone by the abdominal viscera during embryonic evolution. In one small detail the chimpanzee differs from man in this respect; the omentum of the former is attached to the upper part
(p. 10)
of the ascending colon for a very limited distance. In this animal, as in the gorilla and the orang, the ascending colon, and the superior part of the caecum are fixed by the peritoneum to the side of the vertebral column in the came manner as in the human subject (1). The stomach of the carnivorous quadrupeds differs from the same organ in man in regard not only to its relative dimensions, but to its form. Instead of being subdivided, as in the frugivorous races, into cardiac and pyloric portions, the carnivorous stomach is formed like a simple bag, elongated slightly in a transversal sense, and is throughout of the same capacity. The length of the digestive canal, compared with that of the whole body, varies in the carnivorous races from three to six for one:, while in the apes and in man the proportion is from seven to ten for one, The liver of the carnivora presents, in respect of general conformation, a much more complicated division than the human organ, being composed of six distinct lobes or parts. There is usually no caecum; in those instances in which it exists it is always rudimentary.
On the other hand, the stomach of the herb-eaters, especially that of the ruminants, possesses a very complicated form, and even when a comparatively simple organ exists, as in the horse, the caecum and colon present an advanced development which seems calculated to compensate for the want of complexity presented by the stomach. We find in the ruminants four distinct receptacles – the rumen or paunch, the reticulum, the psalterium or many-plies, and the abomasum or rennet; and the length of the digestive canal, compared with that of the whole body, varies from twelve to twenty-seven for one. Not to omit
(p. 11)
the omnivorous quadrupeds, we will take the hog as a fair specimen of the class. In this animal we find the cardiac fundus dilated into a pouch, unlike the human type while two parallel folds conduct from the oesophagus to the pylorus.
The celebrated experiments of Dr. Beaumont upon Alex’s Saint Martin have demonstrated that the peristaltic movements of the human stomach take place in the sense of a complete revolution; in other words, that portion of the alimentary mass which at any given moment occupies the greater curvature, moves to the right towards the pylorus, while that portion of the mass which occupies the lesser curvature moves to the left towards the cardiac. There is then a continuous peristaltic movement on the side of the greater curvature, and an anti-peristaltic movement on the side of the lesser curvature.
Now it appears to be established that it is thus the digestive movements of the stomach are produced in herborous animals, and without doubt it is thus also that they take place in mammals of the order to which man himself belongs; but in the carnivora there exists only a simple action to-and-fro from left to right and from right to left. (1) It does not appear that any opportunity has arisen of observing these movements in omnivorous animals, but analogy leads to the belief that no difference in this respect would be found between the latter and the .true carnassiers.
With regard to the comparative analysis of the different digestive juices of the economy, it is advisable to make a few comments:
1. The opportunities which present themselves for the study of their composition in the physiological, that is, in the healthy state, in the human subject, are exceedingly rare; and the same may be said
(p. 12)
in the case of other animals; for the preliminary operations necessary for the creation of fistula, etc., complicate so greatly the conditions under which these juices are obtained, that it is hardly possible to regard as conclusive the results which their analysis affords. It is highly probable that in the greater number of such cases, the secretions are altered some time before the operator can succeed in isolating the constituent elements.
2. The secretions of the economy vary with the nature of the alimentation, and it seems probable that were it possible to compare the digestive juices of a person habitually kreophagist with those of another habitually vegetarian, a chemical difference would be distinctly noticeable. It is in fact well known that the functions and secretions of the organism accommodate themselves with more or less ease and rapidity to the habits of life and food of the individual. Thus, in the carnivorous animal, the quantity of saliva produced during a repast is proportionately much less than in the herb-feeder, and the kreophagist man secretes relatively but little. But the same man, it appears, after becoming vegetarian, experiences a notable increase in the secretion of his salivary glands, which thus adapt their function to the necessities of his new regimen; and although it is unfortunate that we cannot refer to any comparative analysis in such cases, one would logically be brought to suppose that the chemical properties of the digestive juices would, as readily as the mechanical process, adapt themselves to new conditions of subsistence.
But notwithstanding these restrictive remarks, it appears, according to Bernard, Lent, and others, that the human saliva, even in the ordinary kreophagist conditions, bears a stronger resemblance to that of the herbivorous than to that of the carnivorous animals, for
(p. 13)
like the former it possesses the power of saccharification, which has not been discovered in the corresponding secretion of any of the carnivora, the action assigned to the saliva in these latter bearing exclusive relation to the mechanics of mastication and deglutition. It has also been demonstrated by the studies of Frerichs and Gorup-Besanez (1) that the human bile presents the same composition as that of the herbivora.
In terminating this portion of our work, we may just glance at the difference which exists with regard to the disposition and extent of the sudoriparous glands between the carnassiers on the one hand and the anthropoids and herbivora on the other, the alimentation of these last giving rise naturally to the formation of an excess of heat, and demanding therefore a more extensive apparatus for its elimination. Man in this respect also resembles the fruit and herb eaters.
If we have consecrated to this sketch of comparative anatomy and physiology a paragraph which may seem a little wearisome in detail, it is because it appears necessary to combat certain erroneous impressions affecting the structure of man which obtain credence, not only in the vulgar world, but even among otherwise instructed persons. How many times, for instance, have we not heard people speak with all the authority of conviction about the ‘canine teeth’ and ‘simple stomach’ of man, as certain evidence of his natural adaptation for a flesh diet! At least we have demonstrated one fact; that if such arguments are valid, they apply with even greater force to the anthropoid apes – whose ‘canine’ teeth are much longer and more powerful than those of man – and the scientists must make haste therefore to announce a
(p. 14)
rectification of their present division of the Animal Kingdom in order to class with the carnivora and their proximate species, all those animals which now make up the order of Primates. And yet, with the solitary exception of man, there is not one of these last which does not in a natural condition absolutely refuse to feed on flesh! (1) M. Pouchet observes (2) that all the details of the digestive apparatus in man, as well as his dentition, constitute ‘so many proofs of his frugivorous origin’ – an opinion shared by Professor Owen, who remarks that the anthropoids and all the quadrumana derive their alimentation from fruits, grains, and other succulent and nutritive vegetable substances, and that the strict analogy which exists between the structure of these animals and that of man dearly demonstrates his frugivorous nature. This is also the view taken by Cuvier, (3) Linnaeus, Professor Lawrence, (4) Charles Bell, (5) Gassendi, Flourens, and a great number of other eminent writers. The last named scientist gives expression to his views after the following manner: –
‘Man is neither carnivorous nor herbivorous. He has neither the teeth of the cud-chewers, nor their four stomachs, nor their intestines. If we consider these organs in man, we must conclude him to be by nature and origin frugivorous, as is the ape.’
It may possibly be objected that since, according to natural structure and propensities, man is a fruit and seed eater, he ought not to partake of those leguminous plants and roots which belong rather to the dietary of the herb-eaters, whose organisation we have shown to differ in so
(p. 15)
many details from that of man. It may be urged that trouble is wasted in proving to what order man belongs by nature, since with him, alone of all animals, Art has superseded Nature, and has enabled him by means of fire, condiments, and disguise, to eat and digest without disgust, and even with relish, the food of the tiger, the wolf, and the hyena.
Such objections are not without an air of reason; and I shall meet them first by the frank statement that the most excellent and proper aliments of which our race can make use consist of tree-fruits and seeds, (1) and not of the plants themselves, whether foliage or roots. But through a combination of natural and artificial causes, this best mode of subsistence has become impossible to the majority of persons in certain parts of the globe, and it seems therefore wise and consistent that they should increase the variety and range of their food by recourse to cookery. Fire can, however, be only used legitimately by man for the preparation of those vegetables, herbaceous plants, roots, and hard fruits, which he cannot properly masticate when raw, and for the digestion of which, in that condition, the anatomy and physiology of his system are not adapted. The true frugivora, of which he is a member, do not refuse to eat produce of this kind when thus prepared, even in countries where fruits are procurable; and it is well known that in the Jardin des Plantes (Paris) and other menageries, the daily rations of the monkeys are composed of bread, cooked potatoes, salad, and apples – a dietary derived, therefore, from cereals, tubers, herbs, and fruit. Such substances as these are not distasteful to frugivorous feeders; on the contrary, their odours and their aspect are alike inviting to the palate, and even in their unprepared state they are agreeable to sight, smell, and
(p. 16)
idea. But for man, the choice between Nature and Art, between the garden and the slaughter-house, involves far larger issues and far deeper-reaching considerations than can be held to touch the mere anthropoid. The culture, harvesting, and preparation of all vegetable produce are alike in harmony with the interests of morality, of individual and of public health, of social and private economy, and of that love of beauty, virtue, and consistent philosophy which dominates the nature of all gentle and civilised humanity. Each one of these interests, on the contrary, is wounded, and that violently, as I am about to show, by the abuse of the art of cookery in the hands of the man who degrades himself by its means to the level of the beast of prey.
Thus we have shown that mankind are naturally frugivorous; and we know that they can also become both omnivorous and carnivorous. Let us proceed to inquire therefore whether, from any point of view, such transformations of their nature are attended with advantage to the race or individual.
FOOTNOTES
(10:1) Broca, ‘L’ordre des Primates.’ Bulletins de la Société d’Antroplogie, vol. iv.
(11:1) Béclard and Schults.
(13:1) Etudes sur des Suppliciés.
(14:1) Broca Mivart, Owen, etc.
(14:2) Pluralité de la race humaine, p. 39.
(14:3) Règne animal.
(14: 4) Lectures on Physiology.
(14:5) Diseases of the Teeth.
(15:1) And these uncooked.
Now the idea that attributes to man an organisation which he does not possess is not more common than is another belief equally false; I mean the opinion that flesh-food contains the elements of physical force, and that to be strong, robust, and endowed with muscular energy, it is necessary to partake largely of animal food. This belief, like the former, finds partisans not only among the general public, but in the world of medical teachers and practitioners, who, for the most part, have adopted the opinions and faith of the vulgar upon the strength, not of scientific examination, but of accepted custom. Nevertheless, we daily see in our fields and our streets ample evidence that the strongest, the usefullest, and the most capable workers among the animals are
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precisely those which never taste flesh-meat Their force and their endurance are invincible, and surpass beyond comparison that of their beef-fed masters. All the labour of the world is performed by the herbivora – horses, oxen, mules, elephants, camels; by these our fields are ploughed, our cities built, our battles fought, our journeys accomplished, and to these is man largely indebted for the existence of civilisation, commerce, and national wealth. No carnivorous animal can boast the enormous power of the herb-fed rhinoceros, who breaks with scarce an effort trunks of trees, and grinds whole branches to powder like so many wisps of hay; no carnassier exhibits the endurance and stay of the horse, who toils with hardly any rest from morning to night under the weight of immense burdens, and whose strength has passed into a proverb. Du Chaillu reports that he saw a gorilla, nourished with simple fruits and nuts, break in his hands, with no apparent effort, the gun accidentally dropped by one of his pursuers; and an eminent naturalist, Dr. Duncan, F.R.S., assures us that this animal in his native wilds is more than a match for the African lion.
The buffalo, the bison, the hippopotamus, the bull, the zebra, the stag, are types of physical power and vast bulk, or of splendid development of limb, built up, not mediately from the flesh and blood of fellow organisms, but from the original sources of strength itself – the wild plants and fruit and herb of the field
The carnivora indeed possess one salient and terrible quality, ferocity, allied to thirst for blood; but power, endurance, courage, and intelligent capacity for toil, belong to those animals who alone, since the world had a history, have been associated with the fortunes, the conquests, and the achievements of men.
And here we will take occasion to observe that the
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nations who have left to us the most superb monument, the most glorious records, the profoundest and the purest thought, were not kreophagist nations. The opening chapters of the Hebrew book of Genesis, the origin of which is Egyptian, plainly declare what tradition this great people – mother of all the arts and sciences in the world – held with regard to the nature of man, and of his food in the perfect state. And we are informed by investigators of antiquarian records that the habits and primitive religion of ancient Egypt, and of Ethiopia – perhaps the oldest of all human colonies – absolutely forbade the use of animal meats. (1)
FOOTNOTES
(18:1) See Samuel Sharpe’s History of Egypt.
What would our athletes of to-day say to the regimen of the Grecian wrestlers and pugilists of antiquity, whose degenerated shadows they are? In the gymnasia or palestrae, academies of the athletic profession, where persons destined to the acquirement of the art were trained from early youth, the masters subjected their neophytes to those methods which they judged the most efficacious for the production and augmentation of physical strength and power of resistance to fatigue. And one of the means employed for accomplishing this object was the enforcement of a very severe and frugal dietary, composed only of figs, nuts, cheese, and maize bread, without wine. (2) In the palmy days of Greece and Rome, before intemperance and licentious living had robbed those kingdoms of their glory and greatness, their sons, who were not only soldiers but heroes, subsisted on simple vegetable food, rye meal, fruits, and milk. The chief food of the Roman gladiator was barley cakes and oil; and this diet, Hippocrates says, is eminently fitted to give muscular strength and endurance. The
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daily rations of the Roman soldier were one pound of barley, three ounces of oil, and a pint of thin wine. It was no regimen of flesh that inspired the magnificent courage of the Spartan patriots who defended the defiles of Thermopylae, or that filled with indomitable valour and enthusiasm the conquerors of Salamis and Marathon. And even in these days it must not be forgotten that the kreophagist nations constitute little more than a quarter of the human race, and it is precisely among this fourth part of mankind that the greatest amount of misery, crime, and disease is found.
The Hindoos are divided into several castes or distinct orders, a division which dates from the remotest antiquity. Of these orders the highest, which is that of the Brahmins, attributes its origin to the head of the Creator, while the lowest is figured as issuing from his feet. The three superior castes, Brahmins, Kshattriyas, and Vaisyas, are by their religious precepts forbidden the use of animal meats; for the practice of kreophagy is, in the Hindoo mind, associated with ideas of pollution and degradation, and a pure vegetable diet is regarded as the first essential of sanctity. And we must remember that this venerable and important race possesses a cultus, a literature, and a religious system which many authors deem to be of higher antiquity than those even of Egypt; and that consequently the national laws of Hindostan reflect the true image of the world’s early instincts, and of the primitive manners of the first civilised communities, before the advent of that vital and moral decline which, in later ages, luxury imported into the habits of our great commercial centres.
The larger part of the population of China and Japan consists of Buddhists, whose traditions are analogous to those of the Brahmins. Buddha Sakyamouni, the
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Christ of their faith, absolutely condemned the use of flesh-food among the elect; and the pious Buddhist not only avoids killing animals, but believes he performs a meritorious act in succouring them or in showing them kindness. The murder of a cow is punished by scourging, and imprisonment during two months; a repetition of the offence entails banishment. Conceive the horror which would be felt by a Brahmin or Buddhist educated in such sentiments and accustomed to such modes of thought as these, were he to be brought face to face with the spectacles which every moment confront us in our Christian streets and markets; imagine his astonishment at the phenomenon presented by a religion whose principal holy days are celebrated by the massacre of untold multitudes of beasts and birds of every kind, and by bloody repasts in which the most fervent devotees and the priests themselves take eager part!
The following brief résumé of facts collected from many various sources will enable the reader to see at a glance how wide a range of climate and of race the vegetarian question embraces, and how high under this regimen has been and is the standard of human health and physical strength.
EGYPT. – Edwin de Leon, in a work entitled ‘The Khedive’s Egypt,’ 1877, writing of the Egyptian fellah or peasant proprietor, says ‘His living expenses are miraculously small Bread and vegetables are his food, Nile water his drink.’ ‘In Egypt,’ says another writer, ‘the diet of the peasantry and labouring people is much the same as in China. They use fish as a kind of relish or condiment, but their nourishment is derived from vegetable substances. Their food chiefly consists of coarse bread made of wheat, millet, or maize, together with cucumbers, melons, gourds, onions, leeks, beans,
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chickpease, lupins, lentils, dates, etc. Most of these vegetables they eat in a raw state.” (1)
‘It is indeed surprising to observe how simple and poor is the diet of the Egyptian peasantry, and yet how robust and healthy most of them are, and how severe is the labour they undergo. The boatmen of the Nile are mostly strong, muscular men, rowing, poling, and towing continually; but very cheerful, and often the most so when most occupied, for then they amuse themselves by singing.’ (2)
‘The Egyptian cultivators of the soil, who live on coarse wheaten bread, Indian bread, lentils, and other productions of the vegetable kingdom, are among the finest people I have ever seen.’ (3)
INDIA. – ‘From the earliest period the most general food in India has been rice, which is still the most common food of nearly all the hottest countries in Asia. It is not, however, so much used in the south of Hindostan as formerly, and has been replaced by another grain called rági.’ (4)
‘The principal food of the people of Hindostan is wheat, and in the Deckan, jowár and bájra; rice, as a general article of subsistence, is confined to Bengal and part of Behár, with the low country along the sea all round the coast of the peninsula. In most parts of India it is a luxury. In the southern part of the tableland of the Deckan, the body of the people live on a small and poor grain called rági . . . Pulse, roots, and fruits are also largely eaten.’ (5)
In Sir John Sinclair’s time (1818), before modern facilities had obviated the necessity of employing pedestrian
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messengers, the Pattamar Hindoos, occupied in carrying letters and despatches by land, performed journeys almost incredible in the time allotted. Thus from Calcutta to Bombay twenty-five days were allowed (about sixty-two miles a day), from Madras to Bombay, eighteen days; from Surat to Bombay, three days and a half. ‘These men,’ says Sir John, ‘are generally tall, being from five feet ten inches to six feet high. They subsist on a little boiled rice.’
MEXICO.– ‘The usual food of the labouring classes, throughout such states as I visited, is the thin cake of crushed maize, which I have described under the name of tortilla; and it is remarkable that, notwithstanding the great abundance of cattle in many places, the traveller can rarely obtain meat in the little huts which he finds on his road. Chilis are eaten abundantly with the tortillas, being stewed in a kind of sauce, into which the cakes are dipped.’ (1)
‘The Indians of new Spain generally attain to a pretty advanced age . . . They are accustomed to uniform nourishment of an almost entirely vegetable nature, that of their maize and cereal gramma.’ (2)
CHILI. – ‘It is usual for the copper-miners of Central Chili to carry loads of ore of two hundred pounds weight up eighty perpendicular yards twelve times a day. When they reach the mouth of the pit they are in a state of apparent fearful exhaustion, yet, after briefly resting, they descend again. Their diet is entirely vegetable: breakfast of figs and small loaves of bread; dinner, boiled beans; supper, roasted wheat.’ (3)
RIO SALADA. – ‘The Spaniards of Rio Salada in
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South America – who come down from the interior and are employed in transporting goods overland – live wholly on vegetable food. They are very robust and strong, and bear prodigious burdens on their backs, such as require three or four men to place upon them, in knapsacks made of green hides, travelling with a speed which few men can equal without any encumbrance.’ (1)
BRAZIL, RIO DE JANEIRO, LAGUAYRA. – ‘The Brazil slaves are a very strong and robust class of men, and of temperate habits. Their food consists of rice, fruits, and bread of coarse flour and the farrenia root. They endure great hardships, and carry enormous burdens on their heads a distance of a mile without resting. It is a common thing to see them in droves or companies, moving on at a brisk trot, stimulated by the sound of a bell in the hands of the leader, each man bearing upon his head a bag of coffee weighing a hundred and eighty pounds, apparently as if it were a light burden. . . They are seldom known to have a fever or any other sickness . . . The Congo slaves of Rio Janeiro subsist on vegetable food, and are among the finest-looking men in the world. They are six feet high, every way well proportioned, and remarkably athletic. . . The labourers of Laguayra eat no flesh, and are an uncommonly healthy and hardy race. A single man will take a barrel of beef or pork on his shoulders and walk with it from the landing to the custom-house, which is situated on the top of a hill, the ascent of which is too steep for carriages. Their soldiers likewise subsist on vegetable food, and are remarkably fine-looking men.’ (2)
Similar facts are related of the Peruvians, Tobaso Indians, Kroomen, natives of the New Hebrides, Sandwich
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Islands, coast clans of the Wamrima, Affghans, Japanese, etc. etc. (1)
CYPRUS. – ‘It was extraordinary to see the result of a life-long diet of beans and barley bread in the persons of the monks of Trooditissa, who very seldom indulge in flesh. The actual head of the monastery is a handsome man of seventy, perfectly erect in figure, as though fresh from military drill, and as strong as most men at fifty. The younger priests were all good-looking, active, healthy men, who thought nothing of a morning’s walk over the fatiguing rocky paths to Troodos and back – twelve miles – to be refreshed on their return by an afternoon’s work in their gardens.’ (2)
‘Under the mouldering walls in the recesses of sacred courts, the Moslem cultivates his onion, sugar cane, and fig. . . . . . These dwellers in the plain are good for
more than growing pomegranates and smoking in the shade. Brave, sober, faithful, they have the virtues of a camp. Free of the sword and saddle from their cradles, they are easily turned into good cavalry. No English officer, I am told by experts, would desire a better company before him when he moved into line.’ (3)
‘The people in Cyprus fast more than a third of the year rigorously, only eating bread and vegetables, no milk or oil even. ... A house is considered extravagant where cooking is done more than once in about eight days. Meat and fish are looked upon as rare luxuries. The people look healthy and well, and seem to find enough subsistence in the fruit and herbs that this island produces so plentifully.’ (4)
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ARABIA. – ‘Few people surpass the Arabs for longevity, agility, and power of endurance. Yet they subsist on dates and milk, and for months the Bedouin Arabs consume nothing else. The Soumanlies, who inhabit the country in the neighbourhood of Cape Guardafui and Berberah, when on the war path, in which they pass half their lives, live entirely on milk.” (1)
BOLIVIA. – ‘The troopers of this country are fed on maize corn, cocoa, and water. Their strength is surprising and well known. They will perform marches of eighteen, twenty, and twenty-five leagues a day, encumbered with their baggage and without distress.’ (2)
CANARY ISLANDS. – ‘Mr. L. Jewett, of Portland, Maine, says that one of his schooners came into Portland laden with barilla from the Canary Islands ; and that he stood by while the cargo was being discharged, and saw four stout American labourers attempt, in vain, to lift one of the masses of barilla which the captain and mate both solemnly affirmed was brought from the storehouse to the vessel by a single man – a native labourer where they freighted; and he subsisted entirely on coarse vegetable food and fruit’ (3)
ITALY. – ‘The peasants here are a splendid hardy set, living almost entirely upon cakes and porridge of chestnut flour, a little wheat bread, and, at this season, on bread made of the gran turco (Indian corn). The country wine is not very plentiful in these parts, and during the last two years the poverty has been too great to admit any drink but water for many families.’ (4)
CEYLON. – ‘The ordinary diet of the people consists of rice seasoned with salt, the chief condiment of the East,
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and a few vegetables, flavoured with lemon juice and pepper, from which they will make at any time a hearty meal ... It is considered anything but a reproach to be sparing in diet’ (1)
JAPAN. – ‘The Japanese not only abstain from animal food, but even from milk and its productions. One of the laws which they most religiously observe is, not to kill, nor to eat anything that is killed. Their chief food consists of rice, pulse, fruits, roots, and herbs, but mostly rice, which they have in great plenty and perfection ; and dress in so many different ways, and give to it such variety of tastes, flavour, and colour, that a stranger would hardly know what he was eating.’ (2)
‘Hot rice cakes are the standard food of the Japanese, and are kept ready at all the inns, to be presented to the traveller the moment he arrives, with tea, and occasionally sacki or rice-beer. The Japanese are represented as robust, well made, and active, remarkably healthy, long-lived and intelligent.’ (3) Some writers, as in the following extract, observe that the Japanese eat fish. This discrepancy is probably owing to difference of religion, of caste, or perhaps of locality.
‘Fish and rice are the staple articles of Japanese diet. The soil is fertile, and apparently vegetables grow well here. Sweet potatoes, ordinary potatoes, turnips, carrots, squashes or pumpkins, egg-plants, and peas are grown, but do not enter largely into the people’s diet Beans are an important article, and from these is manufactured tofee - literally bean-cheese, an article largely used by the poorer classes. Radishes are also grown, and some varieties are very large and not unlike
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beets. . . . The young bamboo is also eaten, and a variety of mushrooms is used in making sauces and relishes. . . . Cakes and unleavened bread of various kinds are made from rice flour. ... Of fruits, oranges, peaches, pears, apricots, plums, persimmons, raspberries, mulberries, and currants are indigenous here . . . apples and strawberries have been introduced.... The moisture keeps the vegetation constantly green and beautiful.’ (1)
SIERRA LEONE. – ‘The natives, who live in a climate said to be the worst on earth, are very temperate; they subsist entirely on small quantities of boiled rice, with occasional supplies of fruit, and drink only water; in consequence they are strong and healthy, and live as long as men in the most propitious climates.” (2)
GREECE. – ‘The Greek boatmen are seen in great numbers about the harbours, seeking employment They are exceedingly abstemious ; their food always consists of a small quantity of black bread, made of unbolted rye or wheat-meal, generally rye ; and a bunch of grapes or raisins, or some figs. They are, nevertheless, astonishingly athletic and powerful; and the most nimble, active, graceful, cheerful, and even merry people in the world. At all hours they are singing; blithesome, jovial, and full of hilarity. The labourers in the ship-yards live in the same abstemious and simple manner, and are equally vigorous and active. They breakfast and dine on a small quantity of their coarse bread, and figs, grapes, or raisins. Their supper, if they take any, is still lighter, though they more frequently take no supper, and eat nothing from dinner to breakfast.’ (3)
MALTA. – ‘The Maltese peasant at his best is a model
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of thrift. Whether he rents a few acres and hires a few hands to assist him in cultivating it, or whether he is himself a hireling, his condition is about the same. He and his family are astir before daybreak, and have not only attended mass, but have also got through two or three hours of hard work in the cool of the morning, before they think about breaking their fast Then another spell of work; and then an afternoon siesta, followed by another turn in the fields and another frugal meal. The system of farming is old-fashioned and oriental, everything being done by handwork, but the soil generally yields each year three crops. The people manage to be strong and hardy on their scanty fare of black bread and coarse macaroni, eked out by such garden stuff as they cannot profitably dispose of in the market, and only washed down on Sundays and saints’ days by a draught of the common Sicilian wine, for which they pay two pence a pint. The children who are too young to do rougher work pick the weeds, and these are saved for the goat that supplies them with milk.’ (1)
TURKEY. – I observed, on a late journey to Constantinople, that the boatmen or rowers of the caïques, who are perhaps the best rowers in the world, drink nothing but water; and they drink that profusely during the hot months of the summer. The boatmen and water-carriers of Constantinople are decidedly, in my opinion, the finest men in Europe, as regards their physical development, and they are all water-drinkers; they may take a little sherbet at times. Their diet is chiefly bread; now and then a cucumber, with cherries, figs, dates, mulberries, or other fruits which are abundant there; now and then a little fish.’ (2)
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‘From the day of his irruption into Europe the Turk has always proved himself to be endowed with singularly strong vitality and energy. As a member of a warlike race, he is without equal in Europe in health and hardiness. He can live and fight when soldiers of any other nationality would starve. His excellent physique, his simple habits, his abstinence from intoxicating liquors, and his normal vegetarian diet, enable him to support the greatest hardships, and to exist on the scantiest and simplest food.’ (1)
‘Low stature is the exception in the Ottoman army. These men of herculean form are endowed with fabulous sobriety ; they drink no intoxicating drinks, and seldom touch meat.’ (2)
‘Some of the men among the Turkish excavators were remarkably adroit in throwing up the sand, which they would cast up even as high as twelve feet Their food was of the simplest kind; coarse bread and a little salt fish or olives, black raisins and some fruit occasionally, accompanied by copious draughts of the best water they could obtain, constituted their breakfast and dinner. To their supper, as being the most sumptuous meal, some delicacy, such as thistle-broth, boiled thistle-stalks, snail-soup, dandelion, and other wild vegetables, were often added. With this frugal diet their strength was unusually great, as the fatigues which they endured, in spite of the unhealthy climate, and the great weights which they carried in their arms or on their backs, sufficiently proved. The Turkish porters in Smyrna often carry from four hundred to six hundred pounds weight on their backs, and a merchant one day pointed out to me one of his men who, he assured me, had carried an
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enormous bale of merchandise weighing eight hundred pounds up an incline into an upper warehouse.’ (1)
‘In Smyrna, where there are no carts or wheel-carriages, the carrying business falls upon the shoulders of the porters, who are seen in great numbers about the wharves and docks and in the streets near the water-side, where they are employed in lading and unlading vessels. They are stout, robust men, of great muscular strength, and carry at one load, upon a pad fitted to their backs, from four hundred to eight hundred pounds. Mr. Langdon, an American merchant residing there, pointed me to one of them in his service, and told me that a short time before, he carried at one load, from the warehouse to the wharf, about twenty-live rods, a box of sugar weighing four hundred pounds, and two sacks of coffee weighing each two hundred pounds, and that, after walking a few rods with a quick step, he stopped and requested that another sack of coffee might be added to his load ; but Mr. Langdon, apprehending danger from so great an exertion, refused his request.’ (2)
CHINA. – ‘The perfection of the art of cooking is nowhere more observable than in the monasteries of the Buddhists. They have but the simplest elements of food to deal with. No meat, no fish, no poultry are allowed at their tables. No eggs, no lard, no butter, no milk must be introduced into their confectionery. Vegetables alone are permitted, and yet by means of these a dinner of surprising variety is served, and if the guest judged only by appearances he would suppose that the worthy abbot had forgotten the rigid rules of his monastic establishment, and was about to break his vow by partaking of most heretical viands.’ (3)
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PALESTINE. – ‘The Damascene artisan’s or handicraftsman’s diet consists of fruit, vegetables, rice, oil, and bread. . . . The diet of both Christian and Moslem is strictly vegetarian, . . . their food is of the most primitive kind, . . . barley or pea bread, with fruit and vegetables.’ (1)
‘The Fellahin, or modern Canaanites, live on simple food; they rarely touch meat, but live on unleavened bread dipped in oil,– reminding one of the poor widow of Sarepta,– or rice, olives, dibs (grape treacle), scum (clarified butter), with gourds, melons, marrows, and cucumbers, or, in times of scarcity, the kobberzah or mallow, cooked in some milk or oil. To this frugal diet is due probably the whiteness of their teeth, the strength of their constitutions, and the rapidity with which their wounds heal.’ (2)
ALGIERS. – ‘It was a good beginning to have a stately, barefooted Arab to shoulder our baggage from the port, and wonderful to see the load he carried unassisted. As he winds his way through the narrow and steep slippery streets it is well to see how nobly our Arab bears his load, how beautifully balanced is his lithe figure, and with what grace and ease he walks along. It is generally admitted, we believe, that “a vegetable diet will not produce heroes,” and there is certainly a prejudice in England about the value of beef for navvies and others who put muscular power into their work. It is an interesting fact to note, and one which we think speaks volumes for the climate of Algeria, that this gentleman lives almost entirely on fruit, rice, and Indian corn.’ (3)
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AFRICAN COAST. – ‘The causeway at Suakin, on the African coast, is the great highway to the interior, and at this season it is daily threaded by long strings of stately camels, with stalwart Hadendoa drivers. You cannot wish to see stouter or better-made men than these fellows, whose glossy skins and well-filled forms show that their diet of dura or sorghum and milk agrees well with them. These two elements compose the food of the whole country side. Milk is in plenty; and of a forenoon in the outskirts of the town one is always meeting a donkey laden with skins of it The dura, which is brought down from the more fertile inland, is not ground in the mill, but by rubbing-stones.’ (1)
POLAND. – ‘Our Polish Upper-Silesians are a very frugal people. A mason who goes to work in the town, distant five to eight English miles or more, must rise in the morning by three o’clock if he will be punctual. His diet for the whole day is the bread which he takes from home in his pocket ... So with the field labourer. As a soldier he is very enduring, and the Polish regiments can always make long marches. The main articles of diet of our Polish peasantry are bread and potatoes.’ (2)
RUSSIA. – ‘Eggs, black bread, milk, and tea – these formed my ordinary articles of food during all my wanderings in Northern Russia. Occasionally potatoes could be had, and afforded the possibility of varying the bill of fare. The favourite materials employed in the Dative cookery are sour cabbage, cucumbers, and kvass – a kind of very small beer made from black bread.’ (3)
‘The people of Russia generally subsist on coarse black rye-bread and garlics . . . . I have often hired men
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to labour for me in Russia, which they would do from sixteen to eighteen hours for eight cents a day. . . . They would come on board in the morning with a piece of their black bread weighing about a pound, and a bunch of garlics as big as one’s fist This was all their nourishment for the day of sixteen or eighteen hours’ labour. They were astonishingly powerful and active, and endured severe and protracted labour far beyond any of my men. Some of these men were eighty and even ninety years old, and yet these old men would do more work than any of the middle-aged men belonging to my ship. In handling and stowing away iron, and in stowing away hemp with the jack-screw, they exhibited most astonishing power. They were full of agility, vivacity, and even hilarity, singing as they laboured.’ (1)
‘The Russian peasant is satisfied with the plainest food. . . . The diet consists of pickled cucumbers, cabbages, mushrooms, with a piece of black bread. . . . Unless in the largest towns, butcher’s meat would appear to be very little used. Even in such places as Toula and Zaraisk a butcher’s shop is never seen. . . . Vegetables and milk compose a great part of the diet in the districts we have now reached.’ (2)
Here were about 600 irregulars (Russian cavalry), besides militia and regulars, all, especially the irregulars, fine-looking men. The extraordinary thing was that the resources of the country did not seem in any way overtasked to support them; there was no scarcity of anything. As an officer who had served in the French army observed, there was not enough in the place in the way of meat to satisfy two companies of English soldiers, yet here were 3,000 to 4,000 men, many of them of the
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upper classes. With a little millet boiled into a pudding or “pasta,” some goat’s milk, cheese, and onions, and a goblet of “vin du pays,” even the chiefs are quite contented, while their retainers make good cheer over cake of Indian corn flour, some curds, a piece of dried fish, or a strip of tough beef among half-a-dozen. The Russian soldier is happy with his lump of black bread and glass of whisky or tumbler of weak tea, with, in the evening, perhaps, a basin of weak soup, something like the “black broth” of the Spartans.’ (1)
NORWAY. – ‘The general food of the Norwegians is rye-bread, milk, and cheese. As a particular luxury, peasants eat sharke, which are thin slices of salt hung-meat, dried in the wind, but this indulgence in animal food is very rare indeed. A common treat on high days and holy days consists of a thick hasty-pudding or porridge of oatmeal or ryemeal, seasoned by two or three pickled herrings or salted mackerel All the travellers I have consulted agree in representing the people as thriving on this fare, and in no part of the world are there more instances of extreme longevity than in Norway.’
‘Notwithstanding the poor fare of the inhabitants, they are remarkably robust and healthy. Though in many parts of Norway animal food is quite unknown, they are generally tall and good-looking, with a manly openness of manner and countenance, which increased the farther north I proceeded. From this hardy way of living, and being daily accustomed to climb the mountains, they may be said to be in a constant state of training, and their activity is so great that they keep up with ease by the side of your carriage at full speed for the distance often or twelv