Substance of the work entitled fruits and farinacea : the proper food of man / by the late John Smith, of Malton ; edited by emeritus professor Francis William Newman, for the Vegetarian Society.

  • Smith, John
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Substance of the work entitled fruits and farinacea : the proper food of man / by the late John Smith, of Malton ; edited by emeritus professor Francis William Newman, for the Vegetarian Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    look closely into the matter can doubt, that by aban^loning butchers' meat, and cultivating for grain, pulse, and potatoes a large part of the vast area which is now under grass, we should enormously multiply the quantity of available human food ; that is, we should have the means of supporting a greatly increased population. On the other hand, we should need a great increase of population so to cultivate the land. Out of these two undeniable certainties it follows that the pressure of population, when a considerable increase comes, must forcibly drive down the consumption of butchers' meat. Evidently, if mankind is to increase largely, nations must hereafter live on vegetable food more and more. There is no uncertainty as to this. It is true, and it is undeniable, whether we do or do not like the prospect. No one can foresee the rate at which any particular land will increase its popiilation. Emigration has arrested the increase of numbers in Ireland ; the same may happen in England. Mr. Alison expects a decay of national virtue {i.e., an increase of vice and indolence and crime), a decay of wealth, and an arrest or diminution of population : nay, he pictures our fields returning to pristine desolation, and savage animals regaining their long- lost habitations. This very dreary picture is, no doubt, possible, on the assumption that we are about to become licentious and corrupt, like certain conquering nations of old, to whom he compares us. But I anticipate a happier destiny for our island, and for Christendom, Our prosperity has arisen from industry, not from conquest and robbery. We are not a nation of slaves or serfs, with a wealthy privileged class at their head. In this country has arisen a middle class, through whom we may hope for just laws and equal rights. The invention of printing, and the spreading conviction that we must have national education, augur for us a future diflferent from that of ancient states ; and above all, Christian sentiment is laying the foundations of sound national institutions. The mass of the people is to be so elevated by instruction and moral training, that their language, manners and habits shall no lono-er separate them from their fellow-men. In this state the rich man will not consume the produce of an acre at a meal, while his unfortunate brother is left to starve. Population, unchecked by wars, pestilence, and other causes (of which by far the most depopulating is licentiousness), increases at a steady rate, and presses on the supply of foods. This must force up the price of that sort of food which cannot be supphed rapidly enough. Hence, when we know that by fruit and farinacea the land can maintain from 50 to 100 times as many persons as by flesh meat alone, and that vegetable food is conducive to the physical, mental and moral interests of man, we ought not to doubt that a vegetable diet must hereafter become universal.