Although Kellogg in his drawing-room lectures does not scruple to employ many of the questionable arguments in favour of vegetarianism to which I have just referred, he never relies upon them in discussion with scientific men. In such an encounter he would first annex all the advantages claimed by the low-protein theorists, and would then turn to his study of the question as presented before the International Congress on Tuberculosis at Washington in 1908. The facts there presented are undoubtedly most powerful arguments in favour of a low-protein fleshless diet, so far as they go. From thirty years' observation on thousands of patients and attendants in Battle Creek Sanitarium, he contends that the following advantages are rapidly brought about: -

(1) Clearing the skin, disappearance of skin eruptions, sal-lowness, etc, and rapid improvement in colour and texture of the skin.

(2) Improvement in the blood count and in the haemoglobin, 12 per cent, in the former and 15 per cent, in the latter.

(3) A notable fall of blood-pressure, from an average of 181 mm. Hg to 158 in a fortnight's time.

As no pressure-lowering drugs were administered, he attributed this fall to the suppression of pressure-raising toxins produced in the alimentary canal, and to the better elimination of waste tissues. Professor Zuntz, of Berlin, demonstrated that protein requires a much greater expenditure of energy in its digestion and utilisation than the other food principles. The energy required for the digestion of fats is only 2 1/2 per cent. of the total energy represented, whereas that required for starches is 10 per cent., and that for protein is 16 per cent. The burden thrown upon the liver and kidneys by excreting the excessive quantities of urea and uric acid on a high-protein meat diet is at least four times greater than that on a low-protein fleshless one, and there is a marked diminution of the alkalinity of the blood. This results in deficient oxidation of the protein and accumulation of waste products in the blood and tissues. These are of a highly complex character, taxing the kidneys, liver, adrenals, thyroids, and other organs; whereas the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates, he declares, simply produces CO2 and H2O, which are easily eliminated without harm.

He conducted many experiments and made many analyses of excreta, showing that intestinal putrefaction is directly proportional to the amount of protein in the dietary, as much as twenty times the amount of indol in the faeces and indican in the urine being produced by low-protein fleshless feeders who were put on a high-protein meat diet. At the same time they displayed symptoms due to this increase of protein, such as headache, loss of appetite, loss of energy, and general malaise. A striking table is presented showing the amount of indol produced in equal quantities of various food-stuffs (25 grams) mixed with 10 grams of human faeces and incubated for three days. The figures were an average of 854 mg. of indol for meats, 1.045 for milk products, 0181 for vegetable foods, whilst cereals were 310 times less toxic on this method of examination than mutton, which, strange to say, was the most toxic flesh food..

Breisacher has shown that the removal of the thyroid gland of a dog is quickly followed by death if the animal is fed upon a meat diet, whilst life is indefinitely prolonged, and the animal enjoys good health, when fed upon a diet of bread and milk. Blum and Kishi hold that the function of the thyroid gland is to neutralise the poisons derived from the putrefaction of albumin in the intestine.

In the ingenious Eck fistula experiment an anastomosis is made between the portal vein and the vena cava, a ligature being applied to the portal vein close to the liver, thus cutting out the liver from the portal circuit. A dog thus prepared, fed upon meat, dies in three days; when fed upon bread and milk the animal lives in excellent health for an indefinite length of time. Pavlov has demonstrated that the urotoxic coefficient of such a dog is trebled after tying the portal vein, showing that the liver has three times as much work to do on a high-protein flesh diet as on a low-protein fleshless diet.

Hirschfield has shown that with a diet of 70 grams of albumin a healthy kidney eliminated 10.8 grams of nitrogen, a diseased kidney 9.3 grams. When the albumin ration is increased to 130 grams the healthy kidney eliminates 14.5 grams and the diseased kidney only 11.7 grams, and this disproportion increases the longer the high-protein diet is maintained.

Flesh foods contain on an average 200,000,000 putrefactive bacteria in every gram, so that an impressive total must be swallowed in the course of a day. Fortunately for us, as has already been pointed out, Nature has not left us to the tender mercies of all these virulent toxins, and thus we must recognise efficient reasons why auto-intoxication does not exist in healthy persons, even although all the local conditions may be present in them. Where, however, hypochlorhydria is present, or the colon is catarrhal, or the liver and thyroid and other glands are defective in their activity, toxins are liable to be admitted into the blood and exert their malign influence in the body.

The Social Movement

The powerful advocacy of enthusiastic men like Kellogg, however, is by no means futile. An enormous conversion of public opinion in favour of a fleshless system of feeding is to be observed in the Western Hemisphere. In spite of this, however, meat-eating on the whole is on the increase, and so the price of meat has risen, although probably the influence of the great Trusts has something to do with this. The daily ration of meat issued to the Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War must have whetted their appetites for meat, and in this way, perhaps, set the fashion for its increased use in Eastern nations.

But, after all, this experience is precisely what might have been expected, for be it noted there is a tendency to diminish the consumption of meat in nations where an admittedly excessive quantity was being consumed, and to increase the consumption in nations where previously it was not used at all, or only in minimal quantities. So long as the amount of meat in the daily diet is not greater than can be coped with by the digestive and excretory organs, I cannot see that any harm is likely to accrue to the body, and if no damage arises there is no doubt that a greater degree of vitality and vigour will be exhibited.

In reading the literary columns of the vegetarian journals one cannot help being struck with the fact that the greatest number of converts will be found amongst people beyond middle age, and the glowing accounts of the improvement in their health must be attributed to the diminished demand upon the organs of excretion.