ns_. Man would not need to study diet were he so
situated, but he is not. The wild animal of the woods is far removed
from the civilized human being. The animal's instinct guides him aright,
but man has lost his primitive instinct, and to trust to his
inclinations may result in disaster.

The first question about vegetarianism, then, is this:--Is it the best
diet from the hygienic point of view? Of course it will be granted that
diseased food, food containing pernicious germs or poisons, whether
animal or vegetable, is unfit to be eaten. It is not to be supposed that
anyone will defend the eating of such food, so that we are justified in
assuming that those who defend flesh-eating believe flesh to be free
from such germs and poisons; therefore let the following be noted. It is
affirmed that 50 per cent. of the bovine and other animals that are
slaughtered for human food are affected with Tuberculosis, or some of
the following diseases: Cancer, Anthrax, Pleuro-Pneumonia, Swine-Fever,
Sheep Scab, Foot and Mouth Disease, etc., etc., and that to exclude all
suspected or actually diseased carcasses would be practically to leave
the market without a supply. One has only to read the literature dealing
with this subject to be convinced that the meat-eating public must
consume a large amount of highly poisonous substances. That these
poisons may communicate disease to the person eating them has been
amply proved. Cooking does _not_ necessarily destroy all germs, for the
temperature at the interior of a large joint is below that necessary to
destroy the bacilli there present.

Although the remark is irrelevant to the subject in hand, one is tempted
to point out that, quite apart from the question of hygiene, the idea of
eating flesh containing sores and wounds, bruises and pus-polluted
tissues, is altogether repulsive to the imagination.

Let it be supposed, however, that meat can be, and from the meat-eater's
point of view, should be and will be under proper conditions,
uncontaminated, there yet remains the question whether such food is
physiologically necessary to man. Let us first consider what kind of
food is best suited to man's natural constitution.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: It seems reasonable to suppose that granting the organism
has such natural needs satisfied as sleep, warmth, pure air, sunshine,
and so forth, fundamentally all susceptibility to disease is due to
wrong feeding and mal-nutrition, either of the indi