VEGETARIANISM. The practice or doc trine of living upon foods obtained from the vegetable world, to the exclusion of animal food. In all ages there have been idealists who have advocated an exclusively vegetable diet, chiefly on ethical grounds—among whom may be men tioned Pythagoras, Plato, Plutarch, Rousseau, Shelley, and Swedenborg, but they never had any extensive following. The modern vegetarian movement took its rise about the middle of the nineteenth century. The vegetarian idea was best received in England, where the principal cities are represented by their 'societies, and where there are many vegetarian restaurants.
The arguments in favor of vegetarianism may he summarized as follows. On physiological grounds it is urged that the formation of the teeth and the intestines in man prove that he was not intended to he a carnivorous, but a fruit and vegetable eating animal. The length of the intestine shows him to be midway between the herhivora and the carnivo•a, and neither fitted for digesting grasses, which require a long in testine, nor flesh, which needs a short one, but nearer akin to the fruit-eating apes. It is main tained that a vegetable diet is best for man physically, intellectually, and morally; that with it life is longer, more enjoyable, and bodily strength and symmetry superior; that the use of animal food stinmlates unnaturally, begets a fierce disposition. a carelessness about life, and a callousness to the sufferings of men and ani mals; whereas a vegetable diet has very opposite effects. It is further contended that all the ele ments necessary for perfect nutrition are con tained in vegetables, and that a proper dietary can be selected which is not open to objection on account of enormous bulk. On the score of economy it is urged that a diet of meals and grain can be purchased for much less than one of meat, and confers more working power; that a given acreage of land will support more people if devoted to growing grain and vegetables than if used for the raising of cattle or sheep. On
moral grounds it is contended that it is wrong to slaughter animals unnecessarily. that the higher instincts revolt against taking life, and that the constant killing and eating of animals reacts unfavorably on higher nature. Lastly, it is pointed out that animal food is often the means of communicating disease to man, e.g. tuberculosis, triehiniasis.
Scientific opinion is not favorable to vege tarianism. The structure of moan's stomach and intestines and the variety of intestinal juices are held to prove that nature intended him for an om nivorous animal, his digestive organs being fitted to derive nourishment from every kind of food. The possession of biting, tearing, and grinding teeth (incisor, canine, and molar) is also sug gestive of the same conclusion. It has been a matter of almost universal experience that al though a vegetable diet may keep a man in ap parent health for some time, it eventually results in loss of strength and general resisting power against disease. That a mixed diet (i.e. one including meat) enables the individual to do more physical work and increases the staying powers has often been proved. While there are some races that live almost exclusively on a vegetable diet, and others that exist wholly on animals (for example, the Eskimos), it cannot for a moment be contended that these are the equals of peoples living on a mixed diet.