Classify themselves as "vegetarians," a numerous body of earnest adherents to a rule which forbids them to eat flesh, are mostly compelled to consume not only milk, butter, and cheese, but also eggs,* all of which are nevertheless choice foods from the animal kingdom. In these the proteids are largely present, also fats in abundance, and in forms better adapted to the human stomach than are olive - oil, cotton - seed oil, and various nut - oils, the fats of the vegetable world.

It is most desirable, therefore, that an intelligible definition should be framed to indicate accurately the diet thus erroneously described as "vegetarian." This can only denote a dietary containing foods produced by the vegetable kingdom, and can by no possibility be accurately, that is, honestly, used to include anything else. At any rate, it must, before all things, exclude the use of the specific proteids and fats, which animals have produced in a concentrated form (milk) for the purpose of insuring a healthy, rapid, and generous growth for their offspring, when they are too young to eat any vegetable food, and could not digest it if they did. In no single instance is the young of the mammals, to which order man belongs, capable of feeding on any vegetable product, whether natural or artificially blended, during infancy and early childhood. And when the mother's milk is deficient, or naturally ceases, that of the cow, slightly modified, but containing animal proteids, fats, carbo-hydrates, and salts, best serves to maintain healthy condition, and confer full growing power on the young and active animal. All forms of vegetables are non-digestible by the infantile organs, and when given too early, as they not infrequently are, produce great disturbance, diarrhoea, colic, and, by no means rarely, fatal results. Not until some teeth have appeared is the child, as a rule, ready to make its first trial of vegetable food; and, for the first year, or even more, of life, it will generally thrive better on wholesome milk than on any substitute. Thus man is born into the world a consumer of animal food, and it is for the "vegetarian" to show cause for determining at what age, if at any, he should henceforth be compelled to restrict himself to a diet from the vegetable kingdom.

* Every egg contains a chicken ! that is, the entire material wherewith to make one; and requires nothing to produce a living animal but a little rise of temperature, 1030 or 1040 Fahr., either naturally or artificially applied.

Hence "vegetarians" use them largely, and fats also.

"Vegetarian," a misleading and inaccurate term as used by a large class.

Milk, concentrated animal food,necessary for infant life throughout the mammals.

In another form of abstention - viz. that from alcohol in all its forms - which has been of great service, and might be far more largely extended, with incalculable advantage to the community, the practice is clear and defined. The "total abstainer" means what he says, and does not take his daily or occasional glass of wine or beer unless strongly advised by his doctor, and by no means always then. The term "vegetarian" will, assuredly, soon cease to have a meaning, if clearly drawn definitions be not adopted to distinguish the man who consumes only products of the vegetable kingdom, from the man who adds thereto the animal proteids and fats which exist richly in eggs, in milk and its derivatives. The two individuals support life on wholly different dietetic principles; the latter being certainly a "mixed feeder" and not a vegetarian. It is no part of my duty to discover an appropriate definition; but, in view of the present loose practice in regard to dietary, the terms "a vegetarian" and simply "a flesh abstainer," appear correctly to indicate respectively the two classes I have described.

Man born an animal feeder.

And here let it be remarked that there are individuals, a few perhaps, in this country, who are strictly vegetable - eaters; while large populations exist on little else in the tropics, where a small proportion of animal food only is consumed, and that mostly fat. On the other hand, in northern latitudes, little or nothing besides animal food is attainable, and a vegetarian diet, if procurable, would not sustain life in those regions. For climate is an important factor in relation to food. Man, wherever he exists, has to maintain his body at a constant temperature of at least 980 Fahr.; and it is obvious that an enormous difference must exist between the needs of the individual who lives near the equator with all surrounding objects, at a constant temperature of 850 to 950, and those of one who inhabits northern latitudes, where it is continuously below the freezing - point, 32°, often to the extent of many - degrees. In each case the temperature of the body must be maintained at 980, or a little more, or man will cease to exist. In the large and populous zone we inhabit, which forms so extensive a portion of Europe, Asia, South Africa, America, and Australasia, and is known as the "Temperate Zone," there are very few persons, indeed, who can sustain their health and a fair amount of strength for many years on a strictly vegetable diet. I have met with a few, but a very few, individuals who have been able to assure me that they have long enjoyed continuous good health and strength upon a diet of bread, made solely from flour or meal of any kind, and water, the best green vegetables, roots, and fruits, avoiding all milk, butter, cheese, and eggs. Hence, it is only possible to regard man - considered as an inhabitant of the world at large - and manifesting as he does a strong and increasing impulse to explore and colonize in any part of the globe, as now naturally omnivorous; in other words, possessed of a constitution which requires a mixed diet of animal and vegetable foods for his well - being, and very few can live in the temperate zones.

"Vegetarian," adopted as it is for those who consume a mixed diet, really means no more than "flesh abstainer."

Many are almost true vegetarians in the tropics.

In high latitudes the vegetarian cannot exist, in relative proportions varying according to temperature and activity of life.

Man is naturally omnivorous.

This conclusion is not to be determined by inferences drawn from the nature of his teeth, which may perhaps offer some indications, but by no means any decisive evidence respecting the question, although the character of his stomach and intestinal canal prove the accuracy of the statements here made. In any case, anatomical evidence only indicates the results of a long course of development in the organs of a given animal, adapting it to the circumstances by which it has been surrounded, with the accommodations of structure which have enabled it to survive in its struggle for existence, to occupy a prominent place in the fauna of its country. The history of man's passage through the stages of what is understood by civilization, indicates that he has gradually extended his resources in the matter of food, and has long been omnivorous to the extent which circumstances have permitted. The present condition of his digestive organs as a whole is but the expression of what his environments and his energy through long ages of evolution have made him.

In the same manner, the great vegetable feeders have acquired special arrangements already referred to in the "compound stomachs" of the numerous and important varieties of "ruminating" animals; and some, like the rabbit, for example, have an enormously large, caecum, which is utilized for the digestion of the bulky green food they consume; while the corresponding organ in the human subject exists in little more than name, being merely a slight dilatation of the large intestine.