This agrees with our argument advanced elsewhere—that meat is not as nutritious as other articles of food; and, further, when we come to consider the question of a fruitarian diet, we shall find that cooking also destroys a large amount of the vital properties of food, and that less raw food may be eaten than cooked food. For further discussion on this point, I would refer the reader to the chapter on the quantity of food necessary to sustain life.

The question of the influence of the diet upon the mental, emotional and moral life should, perhaps, be insisted upon a little more fully. Many of the older writers have insisted on this fact very strongly, and furnished numerous examples and illustrations of the effects of the diet upon this side of man—either for better or worse. Judge Woodruff, writing on this subject, says:

It is generally conceded that the eating of large quantities of meat tends to make the consumer pugnacious and animal-like in nature. This has been insisted upon over and over again, and innumerable cases could be adduced in support of this contention, if necessary. The Tartars, who live principally on animal food, possess a degree of ferocity of mind and fierceness of character which form the leading feature of all carnivorous animals. On the other hand a vegetable diet gives to the disposition, as in the Brahmin, a mildness of feeling directly the reverse of the former. To many, it would appear that, if a choice had to be made, it would be better to resemble the former class than the latter—since the one conquers and controls and the other is conquered and controlled. This is not invariably the case, however. The pigmies of Africa, and the Esquimaux do not possess this fierce disposition, but are frequently cowardly, and easily overruled by other European nations. It would appear, therefore, that dietetic considerations cannot settle this question—which is too largely a matter of philosophy, on the one hand, and of personal idiosyncrasy, on the other, to allow of any definite conclusions being drawn therefrom. If we desire to arrive at definite results, we must experiment upon different individuals of the same race; and then, by observing the same individuals, while upon a meat diet, and while upon a vegetarian diet, some definite results might be obtained.

There are two consequences of meat-eating which should be noted, in this place, however—the influence upon the passional nature, and the influence upon the desire for alcohol. Meat, being a stimulant, excites the bodily functions unduly—stimulating and irritating them in an unnatural manner, and exciting the individual to acts which he would not think of performing, were his body less stimulated and more under control. This is not saying that a vegetarian diet destroys or lowers the sexual powers, or the tone of the animal nature—far from it. But it does not keep the sexual organs in a more or less constant state of irritation, as is the case upon a meat diet. The potential energy is there; but the desire to expend it so frequently is not noted. Here is, at all events, a very important factor in civilisation—how important, few realise (see Sanger’s “History of Prostitution”). At all events this is one very strong argument in favour of the vegetarian diet, and should by no means be overlooked.

The relation between meat-eating and the consumption of alcohol is now becoming widely known and recognised. No sooner does the amount of meat consumed, per capita, rise, than the quantity of alcohol consumed rises also. The two—meat-eating and alcohol-drinking—invariably go hand in hand; and the reason is obvious. Meat is a highly-stimulating article of food. All stimulants call, after a time, either for an increase in the amount of the stimulus, or for a stimulant of another character—in order to produce the desired result. Now, of all solid foods, there is no stimulant which is more powerful than meat; and for that reason liquid stimulant is sought. One stimulant craves another. And another reason for the invariable accompaniment of the two is this. It would be practically impossible to create a desire for alcoholic beverages while eating fruits, nuts and vegetables. They do not call for alcohol, and there would be no desire for it manifested. In every way we see, therefore, that drunkenness would be largely abolished by the simple introduction of vegetarianism as a diet—and this has been confirmed by the fact that in certain sanatoriums, where the vegetarian diet has been introduced as a cure for inebriety, it has been found to work to perfection; and the patients, while on this diet—and although allowed all the alcohol they craved at first—soon ceased to want it, and the craving left them after a few days—never to return, so long as they maintained their reformed habits of living.[27]

In conclusion, I wish to call special attention to the very great effects of a properly regulated vegetarian dietary upon the body (1) when diseased; and (2) to its power to prevent such diseased states. In any form of chronic or acute disease—no matter what its nature may be—only good will follow the adoption of a vegetarian regimen; and the more closely this is followed, and the more sparing and abstemious the diet—the sooner will the patient mend and get well. And if the vegetarian diet be adopted when the patient is well, and conscientiously followed, there can be no question whatever that he will stay well—provided he does not eat too much, and that he pays reasonable attention to the general laws of health. The preventive influence of the diet is very profound and far-reaching.

But now, it may be asked, if all this be true; if these diverse and grievous diseases that afflict man result from the eating of meat; how comes it about that it is such a universal article of diet? How is it that everyone believes in its value so thoroughly? The answer to this is simple. The majority simply follow where custom leads, without further thought, and without stopping to inquire into the reasons for the course of life they daily pursue. But the scientists, and the physiologists? They surely ought to know better! They ought, indeed; but they do not seem to! It would really appear as though this whole doctrine of meat-eating could be traced back to the old and fallacious dogma that we have canine teeth in our heads! They have been the source and the cause of all the trouble! But, as Dr Trall said years ago, in writing of this very question:

Throughout the whole of the above argument, I have assumed that the meat eaten is from healthy animals, and have assumed that no diseased meat finds its way upon the table of the average meat-eater—an assumption which is certainly not warranted by facts. I wished, however, to give my adversaries every advantage in this discussion, and for that reason have assumed throughout that the meat was obtained from healthy animals, and was not adulterated before coming to the table. As a matter of fact, however, neither of these two conditions are invariably fulfilled. We might say that the second condition is very rarely fulfilled. It is generally known that meat is inoculated with chemicals of all kinds before it is placed upon the market, and for that reason it is enabled to be shipped from place to place, and to hang in the butcher’s shop by the hour without being kept upon ice—for how, otherwise, could this be? We know that meat decomposes very rapidly—especially in moist or warm weather—but it is apparently enabled to hang, nevertheless, for hours at a time in the butcher’s shop! If chemicals of various kinds were not injected into the meat, this would be impossible. Most graphically does Upton Sinclair describe this process of “pickling” in his book, “The Jungle,” where he says:

This question of diseased meat is, therefore, one which deserves our close attention, largely because it has been treated so ineffectually in the past, in other books dealing with this subject. The defect has been due to the fact that, until recently, no definite facts have been available; and, although everyone knew in a general way that much of the meat said to be “inspected” and found free from disease was, as a matter of fact, unfit for human food, there were no data to which the vegetarian could point, and say: “Here are facts and figures incontrovertible! What have you to say in defence now?”

Lately, however, several such exposures have been published. It would be well for us to summarise the facts; and I cannot do better, in this connection, than to turn to Dr Albert Leffingwell’s book, “American Meat.” (I would refer all those interested to its fascinating pages.) A very brief summary must suffice. This will be enough, however, for our purpose:

The following table affords matter of interest:—

The significance of these figures should not escape the reader. Here is the proof, based upon official statistics, of the utilisation for food purposes of animals suffering from tuberculous disease!

But the figures prove far more. They illustrate the terrible indifference to public interests which governed the inspection of meat, especially before the legislation of June, 1906. Note the vast difference which obtains between the number of animals found “partly” diseased in 1907, and the number of preceding years. For instance, the total number of beef carcasses inspected in 1907 showed an increase of precisely 10 per cent. above the figures of 1906. Yet the number of cattle, of which the carcasses were “in part” condemned increased—not 10 per cent.—but over 800 per cent. above the figures of the year before. Almost as many hogs were condemned in one year (1907) as “in part affected” by this disease, as during the entire seven years that preceded it! Was there any noteworthy sudden increase in the prevalence of this disease among animals intended for human food? There is no hint of it in the official report. The only conclusion we can reach is that, following the agitation and legislation of 1906, thousands of hogs and cattle were at least partly condemned, which in preceding years, without even the condemnation of a part, passed into the food supply of the world.

During eight years, 1900-1907, there were slaughtered, under Government Inspection, over 203,000,000 hogs. Since there can be no doubt that the trichina was as common among all the animals as among those whose carcasses were examined, it follows that, during this period of eight years, over 5,000,000 carcasses of hogs, or about 1,000,000,000 pounds of pork, infested by trichinæ—at least half of which at the time of slaughter were potent for mischief—were turned into the meat supply of an unsuspecting world!

The following “Government Regulations,” in this connection, are certainly remarkable and well worth quoting. It is hardly likely that the general public suspects what is given to them in the form of meat; and the following quotations will probably help to open their eyes:

Similar quotations could be supplied ad libitum; but the above will doubtless suffice for our purposes. From them we see that—all statements to the contrary notwithstanding—a very great deal of diseased meat does get into the market—so much, in fact, that it becomes highly probable that a large percentage of it is diseased; and that we probably run more chance of buying diseased meat than we do of obtaining meat clean and free from infection.

These facts and figures relate only to the meat slaughtered under Federal Inspection, it must be remembered; and represent the best possible condition in which our meat is obtained. This meat is passed by expert Government Inspectors; the packing houses are considered the best and the cleanest in the country, etc. What, then, of the meat killed by local butchers, on farms, and without Federal Inspection altogether? The reader may think that there are but few cattle and hogs killed in this way; and that their flesh is not disposed of upon the public market to any extent. If he is of this opinion, he is sadly mistaken, as the following figures will show. I take them from Dr A. M. Farrington’s Report to the Bureau of Animal Industry, which is published as Circular No. 154, under the supervision of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. As we have seen that the tendency of the Bureau is to under rather than over-estimate the facts in the case, the following statements will appear all the more impressive. The figures given below relate to the year 1907, but much the same conditions prevail to-day, and but little has been done to check the conditions depicted. The following is the result of a careful statistical inquiry, in tabulated form:—

It will be seen from the foregoing that practically 5,000,000 cattle, nearly 8,000,000 sheep, and over 10,000,000 hogs were slaughtered by butchers in 1907 without Federal Inspection, to which may be added about 3,000,000 calves. All these 26,000,000 animals were consumed by the people of the United States, and the responsibility of inspecting them rested wholly upon the State and local authorities, since they are beyond the reach of the Federal Inspectors.

And now, how about the sanitary conditions of the slaughter-houses in which these animals were killed, and how about the state of the animals themselves? Were they free from disease? were they sick? Were the surroundings filthy and poisonous in the extreme? If I should give an account of the real state of affairs in my own words, I should be accused of exaggeration—to use the very mildest term. I prefer, therefore, to quote entirely from the Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry, before referred to. This Report states in part:

It need only be added that such strict economy is practised in all these slaughter-houses that the odds and ends—the “trimmings”—are now valued by the butchers at about 14 per cent. of the whole. The trimmings consist of every part of the animal except the actual refuse it contains, everything else being utilised in one way or another. As one Chicago packer proudly expressed it, when speaking of hogs, “we use everything but the squeal!”

This, be it observed, is the meat placed upon the market and eaten by the American public, to the extent of millions of carcasses yearly! Is it any wonder that the people have cancer, and tapeworm, and tuberculosis, and other illnesses, and break down prematurely and become miserable and die? It would be a wonder indeed if they did anything else!

It is well known that large quantities of diseased meat are constantly being introduced and placed upon the market—far more than the public is aware of. But, for the present argument, it is not necessary that we should force this conclusion, since we can establish the point, even assuming that all the meat eaten is from the carcasses of healthy animals—the actual content of the tissue containing toxic material, no matter how free the animal may be from what is generally known as “disease.” This being true, all the arguments advanced above will remain perfectly valid—no matter how “healthy” the animal may be.