CHAPTER XIII.

VEGETABLE DIET FAVOURABLE TO MENTAL EXERTION AND INTELLECTUAL CULTURE.

423. THE organic structure and physiological laws which determine the natural food of man, are (in general) so briefly and superficially noticed, in connexion with the subject of diet, and the results of practical experience are so little known or considered, that most men think vegetable food inadequate to impart strength and vigour to the human frame; but sufficient evidence has been adduced (Chapter IV.), and abundant more might be had (if necessary), to prove that the opinion is unsupported, either theoretically or practically. Though many have entertained doubts on this point, there are few who do not admit the superiority of vegetable over animal food, in favouring all mental processes and intellectual labours; as well as in regulating the temper, and checking all inordinate exercise of the passions.

424. Theophrastus, the disciple of Plato and Aristotle, who died at the age of one hundred and seven, says that "eating much, and feeding upon flesh, makes the mind. more dull, and drives it to the extreme of madness."

Diogenes, the cynic, attributed the dullness and stupidity of the ancient athlete, to their excessive use of the flesh of swine and oxen; and the Calmucks, and other people who subsist principally or entirely on animal food, are noted for similar qualities. Sir John Sinclair observes : -"Vegetable food has a happy influence on the powers of the mind; and tends to preserve delicacy of feeling, and liveliness of imagination, and an acuteness of judgment seldom enjoyed by those who make a free use of animal food. The celebrated Franklin ascertained, that a vegetable diet-promoting clearness of ideas, and quickness of perception-is to be preferred by those who labour with the mind. Vegetable aliment-as never over-extending the vessels, or loading the system-never interrupts the stronger motions of the mind; while the heat, fulness, and weight of animal food, is an enemy to its vigorous efforts. Temperance, then, does not so much consist in the quantity,-for that always will be regulated by our appetite, as in the quality; namely, a large proportion of vegetable aliment.”*

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425. "In proof of the assertion", continues Sir John, that a vegetable diet promotes clearness of ideas and quickness of thought, and that a transition from vegetable to animal food produces injurious effects,-a friend of mine states, that he has more than once selected, from his tenants' children (in Ireland), a boy remarkable for that smartness of intelligence so common in the Irish youth, while in the capacity of errand boys on the farm, or helpers in the stables, and before they became pampered

* "CODE OF HEALTH." Vol. I. P. 427.

with better food than their parents' cabin afforded. The lads, at first, were lively and intelligent; and displayed a degree of shrewdness, exceeding what is met with from the youth of a more elevated walk in England. But he invariably found that, in proportion as those boys became accustomed to animal food, and (according to common notions) were better fed, they relaxed in activity, and became dull and stupid; and he is confident that the change in the disposition, was the effect of the change of diet; and was not owing to corruption of mind, from intercourse with the other servants. In fact, they lost all their vivacity of manner, so inherent in the Irish boys:whether born in the vast bog of Allen, or in the dry and rocky mountains of Mayo and Galway. He is therefore inclined to think, that the character of the people does not depend so much upon the climate and soil, as upon food; for no part of the globe can differ more than those parts of that kingdom."

426. "These facts, in relation to the Irish youth," says Mr. Graham," are very important; and deserve far more attention from philosophers and philanthropists, than has ever been given to them. The Irish peasantry, wherever they are known in the civilized world, are proverbial for their peculiar expressions, commonly called Irish bulls ; and which are generally considered as attributable to their peculiar national stupidity; or natural crookedness of mind,—if I may so express myself. Whereas, directly the opposite of this is true. There is probably no class of people on earth, more remarkable for natural quickness and shrewdness of mind, than the Irish peasantry of pure

and simple habits: but they are, as a general fact, entirely destitute of the advantages of education; and, therefore, have a very limited and imperfect use and knowledge of language. The consequence is, that their intellectual quickness and activity, with their ignorance of the grammatical force and arrangement of words, continually leads them to express their ideas in a very peculiar-generally shrewd-often ludicrous-but always spirited and witty manner. Their very blunders, therefore, are really evidences of their remarkably natural quickness and activity of mind: and hence, when well educated, they are often found among the most eloquent and witty men, and able writers in the world."*

427. While Caspar Hauser (132 & 416) continued to subsist on his simple diet of bread and water, as he had done in his dungeon, "the activity of his mind," says his learned biographer, "-his fervent zeal to lay hold of every thing that was new to him,-his vivid, his youthfully powerful and faithfully retentive memory, were such as to astonish all who witnessed them. The curiosity, the thirst for knowledge, and the inflexible perseverance, with which he fixed his attention on anything which he was determined to learn or comprehend, surpassed every thing that can be conceived of them." After he had learned regularly to eat flesh, his mental activity was diminished; his eyes lost their brilliancy and expression; his vivid propensity to constant activity was diminished; the intense application of his mind gave way to absence and indifference; and the quickness of his apprehension was also considerably diminished."

*GRAHAM'S LECTURES. Vol. II. P. 302.

428. In the Orphan Asylum of Albany, New York, (249) from eighty to a hundred and thirty children were, in the close of 1833, changed from a diet which included flesh, or flesh-soup, once a day, to a pure vegetable diet, regulated by physiological principles. Three years after this change was made, the principal teacher of the Institution thus speaks of it :-"The effect of the new regimen on the intellectual powers of the children, has been too obvious and too striking to be doubted. There has been a great increase in their mental activity and power. The quickness and acumen of their preception, the vigour of their apprehension, and the power of their retention, daily astonish me. Indeed, they seem eager to grasp, with understanding minds, almost any subject that I am capable of presenting to them in language adapted to their years." In Ovington's "Voyage to Surat", we learn that "in their thoughts the Bannians are often more quick and nimble by their abstemious diet; which renders their spirits more pure and subtle, and thereby greatly facilitates their comprehension of things. In a word, they keep their organs clear, their spirits lively, and their constitutions free from those diseases, which a grosser diet is apt to create in these warm climates."

429. "On my way to Smyrna, in Greece, in 1828," says Judge Woodruff, "I stopped at Syra; where I was detained, by contrary winds, about twenty days. I there became acquainted with Dr. Korke, an eminent teacher from Switzerland. He had the charge of the principal school at Syra, containing from two hundred to three hundred pupils. During my stay at Syra, I took great