age. _That men can
be perfectly nourished, and their bodily and mental capabilities fully
developed in any climate, by a diet purely vegetable, admits of abundant
proof from experience._ In the periods of their greatest simplicity,
manliness, and bravery, the Greeks and Romans appear to have lived
almost entirely on plain vegetable preparations. Indifferent bread,
fruits, and other produce of the earth, are the chief nourishment of the
modern Italians, and of the mass of the population in most countries in
Europe. Of those more immediately known to ourselves, the Irish and
Scotch may be mentioned, who are certainly not rendered weaker than
their English fellow-subjects by their free use of vegetable aliment.
The Negroes, whose great bodily powers are well known, feed chiefly on
vegetable substances; and the same is the case with the South Sea
Islanders, whose agility and strength were so great that the stoutest
and most expert English sailors had no chance with them in wrestling and
boxing."

The concession of Prof. L., which I have placed in italic, is sufficient
for our purpose; we ask no more. Nevertheless, I am willing to hear his
views of the indications afforded by our anatomical character, which
are, as will be seen, equally decisive in favor of vegetable eating.

"Physiologists have usually represented that our species holds a middle
rank, in the masticatory and digestive apparatus, between the
flesh-eating and herbivorous animals--a statement which seems rather to
have been deduced from what we have learned by experience on the
subject, than to result from an actual comparison of men and animals.

"The teeth and jaws of men are, in all respects, much more similar to
those of monkeys than of any other animal. The number is the same as in
man, and the form so closely similar, that they might easily be mistaken
for human. In most of them, except the ourang-outang, the canine teeth
are much larger and stronger than in us; and so far, these animals have
a more carnivorous character than man.

"Thus we find, that whether we consider the teeth and jaws, or the
immediate instruments of digestion, the human structure closely
resembles that of the simiae (monkey race), all of which, in their
natural state, are completely herbivorous. Man possesses a tolerably
large coecum, and a cellular colon; which I believe are not found in
any herbivorous animal."

The ourang-outang naturally prefers fruits and nuts, as the prof