only particular individuals,
but even numbers of people, dwelling in temperate climates, from various
causes, subsist almost wholly on vegetable substances, and yet preserve
their health and vigor.

"Were we educated to its exclusive use, I am persuaded that a vegetable
diet would afford us ample support; but whether, if restrained from
animal food, we should, _as a consequence_, in the course of time, and
under equally favoring circumstances in other respects, rise still
higher in our moral and physical nature, remains, as I conceive, to be
proved."

These views of Dr. S. were repeated, in substance, in a course of
lectures given by him at the Masonic Temple, in Boston, in 1838. It will
be seen that he concedes what the friends of the vegetable system deem a
very important point, viz., that man's whole powers, physical,
intellectual, and moral, can be well developed on a diet exclusively
vegetable. We do not ask him to grant more. If man is as well off on
vegetable food as without it, we have moral reasons of so much weight to
place against animal food, as, when duly considered, will be, by all
candid persons, sufficient to lead to its rejection.

True, we do not believe, with Dr. S.--at least I do not--that "whether a
diet purely vegetable, or one comprehending both animal and vegetable
food, would be most conducive to health, longevity, and intellectual,
moral, and physical development, is a question only to be determined by
a long course of experiments, made by various individuals in equal
health, and placed, in all other respects, under as nearly similar
circumstances as practicable." I believe this course of experiment does
not remain _to be_ made, but that it has been made, most fully, during
the last four or five thousand years, and that the question is settled
in favor--wholly so--of vegetable food. Still I do not ask physicians
and other medical men to grant more than Dr. S. has; it is quite as much
as we ought to expect of them.

DR. A. L. PIERSON.

Dr. Pierson, of Salem, in Massachusetts, a physician and surgeon of
considerable eminence, in a lecture some time ago, before the American
Institute of Instruction, observed that "young men who were anxious to
avail themselves of the advantages of a liberal education, and were
therefore compelled to consult economy, had found out that it was not
necessary to pay three or four dollars a week for mere board, when the
most vigorous and uniform health may be s