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French physician Jean-Francois Dancel presented his cure for obesity, a nearly exclusive meat diet, to the French Academy of Sciences in 1844 and later wrote a book on it, which was was translated to English in 1864 by M Barrett in Toronto. Dancel encouraged an exclusively meat diet to cure obesity, but did not add sources of fat like dairy and eggs or high fat meats. "That kind of meat known as game is very nutritious, occupies but small space, and consequently only moderately distends the alimentary canal."
CHAPTER VII.
ON THE SELECTION OF ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO THE REDUCTION OF CORPULENCE.
It is to be borne in mind, that in dividing alimentary matter into two kinds—one fitted to develop fat, and the other having an opposite tendency—my object is merely to suit the indispensable requirements of my plan of treatment. Nor is the conclusion to be drawn, that in order to diminish corpulence, an exclusive meat diet is absolutely necessary. Man is omnivorous; that is to say, he partakes of everything entering into the composition of ordinary alimentation; but, for the purposes of my system, azotized substances should constitute, though not exclusively, his principal food.
Large quantities both of animal and vegetable substances compose the ordinary diet of man. According to some philosophers, man should live on flesh only; while others maintain that man is by nature a vegetable feeder. Most naturalists, however, are agreed that the human species is omnivorous; that is to say, can live both upon vegetable and animal matter. A certain proof, in my opinion, that such is the case, is to be found in the fact that man is provided with the two kinds of teeth, the one appertaining especially to carnivorous, and the other to herbivorous animals.
It is remarkable that man, in his present state of civilization, does not instinctively recognize the kind of food which is beneficial or prejudicial to his well-being. Experience alone teaches him what is good or bad. With the lower animals it is otherwise; they have the power to discern that which is suitable for food. The colt and the kid know how to select, among the varied herbage, the particular grasses which are suitable to their organization. Domesticated animals, having but an insufficiency of food, do sometimes partake of noxious plants. It may be that man, in consequence of his civilization, has lost that instinct possessed by the lower animals, and in blind confidence partakes of everything which is served to him in the shape of food; and this view derives support from the fact, that savages, and people but partially civilized, refuse to eat anything they are unacquainted with, no matter how temptingly it may be prepared.
The uneducated peasantry of France, at this day, will not taste food to which they are unaccustomed, or if they do, it is only with great mistrust.
It is matter of daily experience, that man can simultaneously feed upon both vegetable and animal matter, and can also live when restricted to one of these alone; such restriction, however, being better borne under the varied conditions of age, season and climate.
From these considerations it follows that, for the accomplishment of a given purpose, man has the privilege of selecting certain alimentary substances, and of refusing many others; the health of the individual, who may thus submit to the diet of his choice, being in no wise affected thereby.
Bearing in mind the well established principles of physiology and chemistry, together with the precepts set forth in the preceding pages, we may be safely guided in the selection of such alimentary substances as will conduce to the fixity of a certain condition of embonpoint, although having a tendency to redundancy; or which, on the other hand, will insure a diminution of obesity.
Such results can be obtained by paying attention to the following remarks:
That kind of meat known as game is very nutritious, occupies but small space, and consequently only moderately distends the alimentary canal. It contains but a small amount of carbon, relatively to the other compounds, and therefore should be used as much as possible: such as venison, hare, the warren rabbit, woodcock, snipe, partridge, quail, plover, wild duck, &c.
The fluid portion of all ragouts should be avoided by those who dread corpulence, and game should therefore be roasted rather than stewed. The same may be said of butcher's meat, such as surloin of beef, beefsteak, veal cutlet, mutton chop, fresh pork, leg of mutton, &c. Gelatinous dishes, such as calves' feet and tripe, should be avoided. Poultry, when roasted, is not contra-indicated.
It is a matter of observation, that those races which live chiefly upon fish are gross and dull, pale and lymphatic, and less courageous than such as live upon flesh. A fish diet is consequently favourable to the development of fat, and the usual accompaniment of butter sauce is also productive of a like result.
The anti-obesic treatment, therefore, requires that fish should be partaken of sparingly; still it has been remarked that patients, while undergoing treatment, who eat principally of meat, with a very small amount of fish, do nevertheless succeed in the accomplishment of the object they have in view. The most nutritious fish are turbot, trout, sole, salmon, perch, pike, tench and carp. On the other hand, shell fish, such as oysters, lobsters, crabs and shrimps, have a tendency to impede the formation of fat.
Vegetables, such as lettuce, chicory, sorel, artichokes, spinach, green pease, beans, cabbage, celery, and all such as are used by way of salad, are not very nutritive, but contain much watery and mucilaginous matter, favourable to the development of corpulency: the same may be said of carrots, turnips, potatoes, rice, beet-root, maccaroni and vermicelli bread; all kinds of cakes, pastry and biscuits, which are made of wheaten flour, are decidedly contra-indicated, as are also eggs, cream, cheese and butter.
In reference to chocolate, much difference of opinion has hitherto existed as to its nutritious properties; but we know by experience that it is easy of digestion, and eminently suited to such as are subject to great mental exertion. Some dietists have held that chocolate has a tendency to prevent any augmentation of corpulency. When made with water, it is decidedly preferable to coffee made with milk, the latter being productive of fat. Milk, by virtue of its composition, combines all the elements which are fitted for the development and nutrition of the body; casein containing nitrogen, a fatty matter (butter), and a saccharine substance (sugar of milk).
Chemistry reveals the remarkable fact, that the composition of casein or the cheesy portion of milk, is identical with that of the fibrin and albumen of the blood. Under this aspect, therefore, milk is very nutritious.
The sugar and butter which exist in milk, have no analogy with flesh; according to analysis, they are composed of carbon and the elements of water. When, therefore, we partake of milk, we obtain in one and the same substance all the elements which are necessary for the growth and nutrition of the body, and such is the case in infant life. Since, however, both carbon and hydrogen, in very large proportion, enter into the composition of milk, it is advisable, whenever there is a manifest tendency to corpulence, that the use of it as an article of diet should be avoided. Infants are usually fat, owing to the elements of adipose matter forming so large a proportion of their food, whether that consist of milk alone, or in combination with starchy or farinaceous and saccharine substances.
▽Jean-Francois Dancel (a French physician) presented his thoughts on obesity in 1844 to the French Academy of Sciences and then published a book, Obesity, or Excessive Corpulence: The Various Causes and the Rational Means of a Cure.
“All food which is not flesh ―all food rich in carbon and hydrogen [i.e., carbohydrates] ―must have a tendency to produce fat,” wrote Dancel.
Dancel also noted that carnivorous animals are never fat, whereas herbivores, living exclusively on plants, often are.
Dancel claimed that he could cure obesity “without a single exception” if he could induce his patients to live “chiefly upon meat," and partake “only of a small quantity of other food."
Dancel argued that physicians of his era believed obesity to be incurable because the diets they prescribed to cure it were precisely those that happened to cause it. (pp.151-152)
Dr Dancel says "These chemical principles are founded upon facts—upon observation. As I have said, carnivorous animals are never fat, because they feed upon a substance rich in nitrogen—flesh; which flesh makes flesh, and very little fat. They have no belly, because flesh, taken in small quantity, suffices for one day, or twenty-four hours."
These chemical principles are founded upon facts—upon observation. As I have said, carnivorous animals are never fat, because they feed upon a substance rich in nitrogen—flesh; which flesh makes flesh, and very little fat. They have no belly, because flesh, taken in small quantity, suffices for one day, or twenty-four hours.
It has been objected that the carnivora do not always obtain food when hungry, and that they are often obliged to chase their prey for a long time before catching it. This is true; but on the other hand, carnivorous animals, when domesticated and fed upon meat, are not more fat, and have no belly. The celebrated traveller, Levaillant, in his Travels in Africa, says that he has seen, in the southern part of the continent, flocks of gazelles, which live in the interior, numbering from ten to fifty thousand. These flocks are almost continually on the move; they travel from north to south, and from south to north. Those of the flock which are in advance, and in the enjoyment of a rich pasturage, frequently come upon the borders of the settlements of Cape Colony, and are fat; those composing the centre of the herd are less fat; while those in the rear are extremely poor, and dying with hunger. Being thus stayed in their course by the presence of man, they retrace their steps; but those which composed the rear are now in advance, and regain their fat, while those which were in advance become the rear, and lose fat. Notwithstanding the vast numbers which daily perish, their natural increase suffices to maintain the integrity of the herd. In connexion with my subject I may state that these flocks are always accompanied or followed by lions, leopards, panthers and hyenas, which kill as many of them as they please for food, devour a part, and leave the rest to the jackals and other small carnivorous animals, which follow upon their steps. Now, these lions, panthers, leopards and hyenas, which need make but the slightest exertion to find food when hungry, are never fat.
It has been said, by way of objection to my system, that butchers are generally fat, due to their living upon meat. Now, I have made some enquiries in this matter, and have satisfied myself that butchers, as a general thing, are not fond of meat, but live chiefly upon vegetable food, and usually drink a great deal. It has been said also that their good condition is due to the atmosphere (filled with animal miasm) in which they live, a supposition which has yet to be proven. Again, it has been said that hogs can be fattened upon horse-flesh. My reply is, that they drink at the same time a large amount of water. And here I may remark, that the lard of hogs thus fattened upon flesh is soft and watery, and is considered by dealers to be of little value. It is evidently not due to the flesh upon which these hogs are fed, that their fat is soft and watery, but to the great amount of fluid they imbibe.
On the other hand, those animals which are enormously fat, live exclusively upon vegetables, and drink largely. The hippopotamus, for example, so uncouth in form from its immense amount of fat, feeds wholly upon vegetable matter—rice, millet, sugar-cane, &c. Naturalists long entertained the opinion that this animal, living mostly in the water, fed chiefly upon fish. It is now, however, well ascertained that the hippopotamus never touches fish, and is wholly a vegetable feeder.
The walrus, which, according to Buffon, seems to afford the connecting link between amphibious quadrupeds and the cetacea, is a veritable mass of fat, and lives exclusively upon marine herbage. The walrus of Kamschatka measures from twenty to twenty-three feet in length, sixteen to eighteen feet in circumference, and weighs from six to eight thousand pounds.
The following fact may be cited as a remarkable proof that the quantity of fat in any animal is mainly dependent on the character of its food: Among the whale tribe, those monsters in size, that of Greenland (Balæna mysticetus of Linnæus) possesses the greatest amount of blubber, and it feeds upon zoophytes, of which many resemble as much in character the plant as the animal. The fin-backed whale (Balæna böops of Linnæus), which does not feed upon mucilaginous matter, but upon small fish, has a much thinner layer of blubber than the former. The sperm whale or cachalot (Balæna physalus of Linnæus), which feeds on mackerel, herrings, and northern salmon, although nearly as long as the Greenland whale, is much thinner. The layer of blubber is not so thick as in the fin-backed, and yields only ten or twelve tuns of oil; while the Greenland whale yields fifty, sixty, and even eighty tuns.
Now, chemistry, as we have said, furnishes a rational explanation of these facts. With the exception of flesh, all alimentary substances (the mucilaginous, the gummy, the saccharine, the aqueous, &c.) consist of carbon and hydrogen, and fat is composed of the same elements. Success in the treatment of disease would be more frequent, if medical practitioners would pay greater attention to the chemistry of the vital functions; and the reason why certain articles of diet have a greater tendency than others to the formation of fat, would, by the aid of the exact science of chemistry, be rendered self-evident.
“I hold a family to be in a desperate way when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel,”
The Chainbearer.
The Chainbearer; or The Littlepage Manuscripts is a novel by the American novelist James Fenimore Cooper first published in 1845. The Chainbearer is the second book in a trilogy starting with Satanstoe and ending with The Redskins.[1] The novel focuses mainly on issues of land ownership and the displacement of American Indians as the United States moves Westward.
Indeed, for the first 250 years of American history, even the poor in the United States could afford meat or fish for every meal. The fact that the workers had so much access to meat was precisely why observers regarded the diet of the New World to be superior to that of the Old. “I hold a family to be in a desperate way when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel,” says a frontier housewife in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Chainbearer.
Like the primitive tribes mentioned in Chapter 1, Americans also relished the viscera of the animal, according to the cookbooks of the time. They ate the heart, kidneys, tripe, calf sweetbreads (brains), pig’s liver, turtle lungs, the heads and feet of lamb and pigs, and lamb tongue. Beef tongue, too, was “highly esteemed.”
Bernard's experiments show how the milky chyle released from the pancreas dissolves the fat into a minutely divided state.
The next office of the pancreatic juice to be spoken of is that connected with the digestion of fat. Eberle, it appears, was the first to announce, which he did as far back as 1834, that the pancreas possessed the power of emulsifying fat. He experimented, however, only with the glandular tissue of the organ, and never obtained its secretion. His annoucement also could not have received much attention, as it is not until after the publication, in 1848, of Bernard's extensive series of experiments, commenced in 1846, of Bernard's extensive series of experiments, commenced in 1846, that hte pancreas is found to be spoken of by physiologists in connection with the digestion of fat. Before Bernard's researches nothing was known about the nature of the pancreatic secretion, and nothing had been shown to connect it with the digestion of fat. Bernard is therefore fairly entitled to the credit of discovering the function of the pancreas now about to be referred to.
It appears that Bernard was led to the prosecution of his researches upon this subject through observing, whilst conducting some experiments for the purpose of comparing the phenomena of digestion in the animal and vegetable feeder, that after the ingestion of fat the lacteals coming from the intestine almost up to the pylorus were found to be injected with milky chyle in the dog, whilst in the rabbit chyle only made its appearance in the lacteals some little distance down. With this, he noticed a corresponding difference in the point of discharge of pancreatic juice into the intestine, and thus was prompted, whilst seeking for an explanation of the phenomenon, to give attention to the pancreas. In this manner he was led to endeavor to collect the pancreatic juice, and, having succeeded in this, to examine its action upon fat.
The effect produced when pancreatic juice is freely shaken with oil or fat is to form a liquid having the appearance of milk. The pancreatic juice emulsifies or brings the fatty body into a minutely divided state; in which it afterwards remains suspended in the liquid in the same manner as is noticed in milk. The minute globules into which the fat has been separated have no disposition again to coalesce and rise and form an oily layer at the surface, as they do when saliva or any ordinary watery liquid may happen to have been used instead. In this state of minute subdivision the fatty matter is found to be adapted for absorption and passage into the lacteals, the effect of its presence in the lacteals being to give to the contents a milky character, which they do not possess when no absorption of fat is going on.
John Hughes Bennett predicts that weight loss will help with cancer, and also advises that starch and sugar should be avoided.
"The circumstances which diminish obesity, and a tendency to the formation of fat , would seem a priori to be opposed to the cancerous tendency."
“… [I]t seems to me a prudent step to diminish all those dietetic substances easily converted into fat , including not only oily matters themselves, but starch and sugar.” --John Hughes Bennett, On Cancerous and Cancroid Growths, 1849
"In the month of August, 1849, M. Guénaud, a master baker, still residing in the Rue St. Martin, Paris, presented the following appearance:—Age, twenty-eight years; height, four feet eleven inches. His obesity was such that he was scarcely able to walk, and whenever he attempted to do so, suffered from difficulty of breathing." Cured after 3 months of the following diet. "A beefsteak or a couple of cutlets, with a very small allowance of vegetables, together with half a cup of coffee, constituted his breakfast. Dinner consisted of meat and a very small quantity of vegetables."
CHAPTER VI.
CASES OF REDUCTION OF CORPULENCE.
In the month of August, 1849, M. Guénaud, a master baker, still residing in the Rue St. Martin, Paris, presented the following appearance:—Age, twenty-eight years; height, four feet eleven inches. His obesity was such that he was scarcely able to walk, and whenever he attempted to do so, suffered from difficulty of breathing. When standing for a short time, he experienced great pain in the region of the kidneys. He was incapable of superintending the workshop and attending the flour market, duties which devolved upon him as manager of an extensive bakery. An unconquerable drowsiness overcame him the moment he sat down, and rendered him unable to attend to his numerous accounts. When in bed he was obliged to be propped up by a number of pillows, in a semi-recumbent position; for if his head happened to be too low, he suffered from vertigo, dizziness, &c. His countenance was suffused, and the veins of the head, especially the temporal, were more than usually distended. The slightest exercise was attended with excessive perspiration. The cerebral circulation was so much impeded, that he could not bear even the pressure of a hat; and asserted that he would not dare to stoop, even were it to insure him a fortune. In this distressing condition he sought the advice of a physician, under whose directions he was repeatedly bled, and freely purged. He was recommended to live upon the smallest quantity of food that nature would permit, and to diet chiefly upon watery vegetables, such as cabbage, turnips, salad, spinach, sorrel, &c., and only occasionally to partake of a very small quantity of meat. He was also directed to use active exercise, to work in the bake-house, and to take long walks. But he found it impossible to follow the latter part of this advice, on account of a feeling of impending suffocation, and severe pains in the region of the kidneys. He was therefore recommended to take exercise on horseback; but this even could not be borne, and in spite of every effort his obesity was constantly on the increase. At last he could not walk a quarter of a mile, and was obliged to confine himself to the house, passing his time in a listless, somnolent condition, entirely deprived of all mental and bodily energy. His mother, who lived in the neighbourhood of Paris, having seen the advertisement of my book upon Obesity, and thinking of the melancholy condition of her son, procured a copy and read it. She thereupon brought her son in a carriage to my office. Guénaud was quite out of breath from having to ascend one pair of stairs; he seated himself upon a sofa in my room, and soon fell asleep. Occasionally he would wake up, and take some part in the conversation. The mother and her son went home, and on the following day Guénaud began to carry out the directions he had received from me; and at the end of thirteen days he was able to walk from the Porte St. Martin to La Chapelle, where his mother resided, delighted at having recovered the use of his legs. What astonished him most was that he had been able to perform the journey on foot, without once taking his hat off. The latter remark may appear trivial; it shows, however, the great inconvenience he had been wont to suffer from the violent perspiration hitherto induced by the slightest exercise. By the end of the month Guénaud had reduced his weight from one hundred and ninety to one hundred and seventy-four pounds, and his circumference round the belly from fifty to forty-three inches. He was recovering his activity, both of mind and body, and his respiration was already considerably improved. The treatment was continued two months longer, and at the end of the three months his circumference was reduced fourteen inches, having lost forty pounds of fat. His muscular powers were now much increased. Guénaud had a very short neck; the two masses of fat, which made his cheeks appear continuous with his chest, have disappeared. The line of the lower jaw is now perfectly distinct, and without the slightest wrinkle. Instead of his former aged appearance, induced by obesity, his figure is now youthful, his countenance intelligent and sparkling. Before commencing my system of treatment, the patient was in continual danger from threatening head symptoms. It was generally said, even by the medical men under whose care he had placed himself, that he suffered from excess of blood; yet he has not lost a single drop during the whole course of treatment, and is now free from somnolency, giddiness and headache. The veins of the head are no longer turgid, nor does he suffer from excessive perspiration of the head.
I am satisfied that this man, at the present time, has more blood in his system than he had when labouring under obesity; but the circulation being now free, all inconvenience has disappeared.
It is unnecessary to add that, owing to the lungs being no longer oppressed on all sides by a superabundance of fat, their movement is unimpeded, air finds easy access, and the difficulty of breathing, with sense of impending suffocation, no longer exist. Guénaud can now sleep in the ordinary recumbent position. Men of great corpulence, when walking, experience severe pain in the kidneys, and this arises from the enormous mass of fat which surrounds these organs, inducing by its weight a dragging sensation. Guénaud, having lost his big belly, is no longer troubled with this uneasiness when walking.
With respect to this patient, and in all the other cases which have come under my care, it may be well to remark that the muscular system has recovered its tone, and that the muscles are harder than they were before treatment; and I can safely say, without fear of contradiction, that every person who has been submitted to my system for the cure of obesity, is convinced that his flesh, his muscle, has increased both in firmness and in size.
I have had men under my care weighing two hundred and fifty pounds. Upon the occasion of their first visit, having felt their limbs, I have said, "I can diminish your weight by fifty pounds; but these enormous muscles will be increased rather than diminished in size. You must not expect a reduction of more than fifty pounds; but fifty pounds less of fat, distributed among organs overloaded with it, will be highly beneficial to health."
Guénaud is far from being thin, but he is strong and muscular, and has the physical and moral energy of a robust young man. His enormous size had rendered him conspicuous in that part of the city where he carried on his business as a baker; but when he had become reduced to the normal size of other men, the change produced considerable sensation, and excited curiosity as to the cause. He has done justice to the treatment which has made him once more a man. I will also do him the justice to say that he has honestly carried out my instructions. A beefsteak or a couple of cutlets, with a very small allowance of vegetables, together with half a cup of coffee, constituted his breakfast. Dinner consisted of meat and a very small quantity of vegetables. From being a great water-drinker, he had come down to an allowance of a bottle or a bottle and a half of liquid in a day. When thirsty he drank but little at a time; and between meals, used to gargle his mouth with fresh cold water.
A 26 year old lady suffering obesity uses Dr Dancel's advice of an exclusive meat diet to lose at least 15 pounds.
A lady, residing in the town of Montereau, wrote to me in the early part of September, 1849. She was twenty-six years of age, and weighed one hundred and seventy pounds. Her corpulence was increasing to such an extent that she would soon be unable to attend to her household duties. She wished to know if my system of treatment would interfere with her general health, and whether it would prevent her pursuing her usual and indispensable daily avocations. On receiving the necessary explanations, she immediately placed herself under my care, and upon the 23rd of the same month, she informed me that her weight was already considerably less, but that her size remained about the same. A letter of the 12th October following states that she has lost fifteen pounds weight, and that her size is materially diminished. The treatment was continued for some time longer, and never caused the least interference with the discharge of her domestic affairs.
Between 1850 and 1885, the Inuit population of coastal arctic Alaska declined by 50 percent. In two generations, the Mackenzie Delta Inuit were reduced from about 1,000, to fewer than 100. Labrador's Inuit numbered about 3,000 in 1750. In 1946, 750 were left.
This is, perhaps, too rosy a view of early Inuit life. It was hard, precarious, and in some regions haunted by recurring famines. But it did have that saving grace of contentment known only when a people are secure within their society and in harmony with their natural environment. That ancient balance was broken when Europeans came to the Arctic - the whalers who took from the North much of its wildlife, the basis of the Inuit's existence, and who brought to the North diseases to which the long-isolated Natives had no immunity.
Between 1850 and 1885, the Inuit population of coastal arctic Alaska declined by 50 percent. In two generations, the Mackenzie Delta Inuit were reduced from about 1,000, to fewer than 100. Labrador's Inuit numbered about 3,000 in 1750. In 1946, 750 were left. With the whales nearly exterminated, the whalers departed, leaving a people wracked by disease and accustomed to, and dependent upon, many southern goods. Into the vacuum created by the whalers' departure stepped the fur traders, and to pay for the southern goods they had come to regard as essential, the Inuit became trappers. Where once they had been poor but independent, they were now dependent and still poor, their ancient autarky destroyed beyond redemption.
Dr Dancel explains his third case of obesity cured through meat diet. She wrote after seventeen days trial of the system:—"My corpulence is perceptibly diminished, and I am no longer afflicted with drowsiness after meals. I follow rigidly the instructions you have given me, and each day feel more deeply indebted to you."
In the course of the following year I received a communication from Widow Rollin, of Versailles, stating that she is the only support of a large family, which necessitates great exertions on her part: that a daily increasing corpulence with most troublesome abdominal enlargement gives rise to the most serious anxiety as to the future. Provided no interruption in her daily duties be required she would cheerfully submit to my treatment. She wrote after seventeen days trial of the system:—"My corpulence is perceptibly diminished, and I am no longer afflicted with drowsiness after meals. I follow rigidly the instructions you have given me, and each day feel more deeply indebted to you. At the end of the month I shall do myself the honour of calling upon you, as it is my wish to continue under treatment until entirely freed from my encumbrance. I can now walk with ease, which was for a long time an impossibility. The pain in the loins has likewise disappeared."
Rev. Metcalfe describes the tenets of the American Vegetarian Society
The Rev. William Metcalfe on taking the chair, addressed the Convention in a few appropriate remarks, expressive of the objects of the Convention. So far as he was informed, he believed the objects contemplated to be, to promote a knowledge of the principles, and an extension of the practice of a Vegetable Diet in the community; - to induce habits of abstinence from fish, flesh and fowl, as food; and secure the adoption of a principle which would tend essentially to promote a "sound mind in a sound body."
He observed that the subject was one of a deeply interesting nature. The preservation of health, and the attainment of longevity were objects of desire with every human being, whatever might be the tenure by which life was held. The subject of diet was confessedly one of interest to all, and one on whichall ought to have an accurate knowledge, especially as to its main principles, and their more immediate personal application. He had long ago laid aside the use of the flesh of animals, and had confined himself to the products of the vegetable kingdom. "It was nearly forty-one years since he had made use of any kind of flesh-food. He had raised a family, some of his children being present; and he had children and grandchildren who had never tasted flesh. The consequence of that system of dietetics had been altogether satisfactory. As a general thing they had enjoyed good health - better in fact, than their neighbours. When the yellow fever broke out in Philadelphia, in 1818, his residence was in the immediate vicinity of its appearance. He visited families afflicted with that disease, and yet neither himself nor his family were affected by the epidemic. The same exemption was experienced during the cholera of 1832 and 1849. All those facts went to confirm more fully, the sentiment in favour of vegetable food, long ago embraced, that the diet best adopted to health - best adapted to the true enjoyment of life, and to the development of all the higher powers of our nature, was that known as the Vegetarian Diet (Applause).
They had met there to endeavour to form a Vegetarian Society, composed of individuals favourable to the adoption and dissemination of principles advocating the Vegetable Diet. It would be for that assembly to consider whether it would be well to organize an association of that kind then, or not, and to act accordingly. Some discussion followed these remarks of the President.
That comaprative anatomy, human physiology, and chamical analysis of different animal and farinaceous substances, uniteldly proclaim the position, that not only the human race may, but should, subsist upon the productions of the vegetable kingdom.
That the Vegetarianm principle of diet derives the most ancient authority from the appointment of the Creator to man - when he lived in purity and peace, and was blessed with health and happiness - in Paradise.
That though the use of animal food be claimed, under the sanction of succeeding times, it rests only on the permissions accorded to man in his degraded condition, and is a departure from the appointment of the creator.
That if any man would return to Paradise and purity, to mental and physical enjoyment, he must return to the Paradisaical diet, and abstain from the killing and eating of animals as food.
That there is found in the vegetable world every element which enters into the animal organization; and that combinations of those elements in the vegetable kingdom are best adapted to the most natural and healthy nourishment of man.
That the approbation of man's unsophisticated and unbiassed powers of taste, sight, and smell, are involuntarily given to fruits, farinacea, and vegetable substances, in preference to the mangled carcases of butchered animals.
That flesh-eating is the key-stone to a wide-spread arch of superfluous wants, to meet which, life is filled with stern and rugged encounters, while the adoption of a vegetarian diet is calculated to destroy the strife of antagonism, and to sustain life in serenity and strength.
That as there are intellectual feasts and a mental being into which the inebriate can never enter, and delights which he can never enjoy - so there are mental feasts, and a moral being, which to the flesh-eater can never be revealed, and moral happiness in which he cannot fully participate.
That cruelty, in any form, for the mere purpose of procuring unnecesary food, or to gratify depraved appetites, is obnoxious to the pure human soul, and repugnant to the noblest attributes of our being.
That the evidence of Linnaeus, Sir Richard Phillips, Franklin, Sir Isaac Newton, John Wesley, Swedenborg, Howard, Jefferson, Rouseau, Akenside, Pope, Shelley, Sir John Sinclair, Arbuthnot, and a host of others, living as well as ancient observers of nature, testify to the truth of vegetarianism.
That in the vegetarian cause, a new field of exercises is opened up to the moral reformer, in which he is most earnestly and cordially invited to become a co-worker with truth, by adopting its teachings in the government of his own life, and by diffusing its principles in all his efforts for the elevation of his fellow man.
That we will personally interest ourselves in promoting the circulation of publications calculated to advance our cause - such as the London Vegetarian Advocate, the water cure and phrenological journals of New York, and all publications having for their objects the promotion of a knowledge of the laws of our being.
That we hail with great joy the progress of the vegetarian cause in England, where large societies exist, which, in one or two instances, embrace nearly five hundred members.
That it is advisable to organize State and local vegetarian societies wherever practicable, with as littel delay as possible - lecturing and diffusing facts and principles in the science of man.
Gary Taubes wrote in his new book The Case For Keto a paragraph that I want to dedicate this database towards:
"I did this obsessive research because I wanted to know what was reliable knowledge about the nature of a healthy diet. Borrowing from the philosopher of science Robert Merton, I wanted to know if what we thought we knew was really so. I applied a historical perspective to this controversy because I believe that understanding that context is essential for evaluating and understanding the competing arguments and beliefs. Doesn’t the concept of “knowing what you’re talking about” literally require, after all, that you know the history of what you believe, of your assumptions, and of the competing belief systems and so the evidence on which they’re based?
This is how the Nobel laureate chemist Hans Krebs phrased this thought in a biography he wrote of his mentor, also a Nobel laureate, Otto Warburg: “True, students sometimes comment that because of the enormous amount of current knowledge they have to absorb, they have no time to read about the history of their field. But a knowledge of the historical development of a subject is often essential for a full understanding of its present-day situation.” (Krebs and Schmid 1981.)