Fresh fruits of the drupaceous, baccate, and pomaceous classes-plums, peaches, olives, cherries, grapes, currants, cranberries, gooseberries, oranges, citrons, apples, pears, etc., etc.—contain a very large proportion of carbo-hydrates, vegetable acids, salts, and water.

We have it, then, clearly demonstrated by the foregoing analysis, that not only do vegetable substances contain all the elements necessary to nutrition and to the production of force and heat, but that they contain proportionately even more of these elements than are found in animal substances. For instance, peas, beans, lentils, and haricots contain from 23 to 30 per cent. of proteid matter, 55 to 58 of starch, and about 3 of saline matter, while animal food contains from 8 to 19 of proteid matter, and no carbo-hydrates at all. Fatty matter, is, however, present to a larger extent in flesh meats than in ordinary vegetable and grain produce, but the use of seed and nut oils abundantly compensates for this deficiency. We have it shown also, that not only are the nutritive and dynamic values of vegetable foods, taken in their totality, greater than those of animal foods, taken in their totality, but that the former contain, besides, a whole class of principles which do not exist in the composition of the latter. These are the carbo-hydrates, the relative place of which in human alimentation we shall presently see. And if to vegetable produce proper, are added certain other aliments, which, though of animal origin, may, without inconsistency, be introduced into a Pythagorean regimen—such as milk, eggs, cream, butter, and cheese—we have at our disposition the entire range of the very substances which, of all aliments known to man, are richest in nitrogen and hydro-carbons. I say 'without inconsistency,' because (1), all animals of the order to which man himself belongs, are nourished during their infancy by

milk, the derivatives of which cannot therefore be regarded as improper to their or his nutrition; (2), because all these substances, especially cheese and curds, habitually formed part of the diet of the ancient phytivorous peoples; (3), because morality is in nowise outraged by their use; (4), because, as we shall see further on, their use is not excluded by economical considerations.

As regards the proportional quantity of each principle which should enter into the daily alimentation of man, it varies according to sex, circumstances, and personal habit. On the average, in a state of repose or with moderate exercise, the proportion should be—

During active exercise and prolonged work, as with manual labourers, soldiers engaged in war, etc., the proportion should be

Let it be noticed that these dietaries, which are quoted from Dr. Playfair, contain a large proportion of carbohydrates-substances which, as we have seen, do not exist in the food of carnivorous animals, for no animal tissues in the healthy state contain them; the few traces of inosite in muscular fibre not being worth mention. They are found principally in fresh fruits. The carbo-hydrates are absolutely necessary to proper human alimentation; they take the place which would otherwise be occupied

by fatty matter, and their use prevents fatigue of the digestive organs. Moreover, fruit acids possess certain proper qualities which appear to exercise on the economy a special influence-purifying, cooling, refreshing, corrective, regulatory-such as no other substances are able to supply.

But, if it is indisputably demonstrable that the alimentation afforded by a vegetable diet is more efficacious, more varied, richer in nutritive and dynamic principles and more fitted to the requirements of man than fleshmeats, the superiority of which, from all these points of view, has been so long maintained, it is also possible to adduce evidence of facts tending to prove that the use of animal viands produces an effect analogous to that of alcohol; that they stimulate and excite the nervous system; that they rapidly waste its elements, as also those of all the organism; and that they thus indirectly diminish vital resistance and the term of natural life. And though it might be deemed exaggeration to say that the use of flesh-meats induces premature death, it is certainly true that it hastens the arrival of old age, and the manifestation of diseases and diatheses, as much by its directly baneful effects on the system, as by the habits it engenders, such as alcoholism, unchastity, and excesses of all kinds. Referring to the immediate effects on the nervous system of the ingestion of flesh-meats, Dr. Pavy says:

'Animal food exerts a greater stimulating effect upon the system than vegetable fare. Accounts are related of the stimulant properties of animal food having sufficed, in those accustomed only to a vegetable diet, to produce a state resembling intoxication. Dr. Dundas Thompson1 quotes a narrative of the effects of a repast of meat on some

1 Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals.

native Indians, whose customary fare, as is usual amongst the tribe, had consisted only of vegetable food. They dined most luxuriously, stuffing themselves as if they were never to eat again. After an hour or two, to his great surprise and amusement, the expression of their countenances, their jabbering and gesticulations, showed clearly that the feast had produced the same effect as any intoxicating spirit or drug. The second treat was attended with the same result.'

Dr. Druitt, also,1 describing the properties of a liquid essence of beef prepared according to his instructions, speaks of it as exerting a rapid and remarkable stimulating power over the brain, and introduces it to notice as an auxiliary to, and partial substitute for, brandy, in all cases of exhaustion or weakness, attended with cerebral depression or despondency. Correspondingly stimulating properties have been claimed as the effect of other similar compounds. I myself once knew a young lady of nervous temperament, who but very seldom ventured to partake of more than a single plate of animal viands at the same meal, for fear of becoming surexcited. One day, being very hungry, she transgressed her rule and ate two mutton chops, and, as I happened to be seated beside her, I witnessed the result of this excess, which soon avenged itself in the shape of a fit of actual intoxication. It is certain that the conduct even of beasts may be modified by the character of their food. In the Lancet 22 Liebig maintains that the ingestion of flesh produces in the carnivorous races the ferocious and quarrelsome disposition which distinguishes them from the herb-eaters. A bear, kept at the Anatomical Museum of Giessen, showed a quiet gentle nature so long as he was fed exclusively on 1 Transactions of the Obstetrical Society, 1861. 2 Vol. i. 1869.