a sure sign of a good state of health. The most vigorous
man, as it is well known, will endure best both extremes of temperature.
But it is a proof also of the greater purity of his solids and fluids.

The secretions and excretions of his body are in a better state; and
this, again, proves that his blood and other fluids are healthy. He does
not so readily perspire excessively as other men, neither is there any
want of free and easy perspiration. Profuse sweating on every trifling
exertion of the body or mind, is as much a disease as an habitually dry
skin. But the vegetable-eater escapes both of these extremes. The
saliva, the tears, the milk, the gastric juice, the bile, and the other
secretions and excretions--particularly the dejections--are as they
should be. Nay, the very exhalations of the lungs are purer, as is
obvious from the breath. That of a vegetable-eater is perfectly sweet,
while that of a flesh-eater is often as offensive as the smell of a
charnel-house. This distinction is discernible even among the brute
animals. Those which feed on grass, grain, etc., have a breath
incomparably sweeter than those which prey on animals. Compare the
camel, and horse, and cow, and sheep, and rabbit, with the tiger (if you
choose to approach him), the wolf, the dog, the cat, and the hawk. One
comparison will be sufficient; you will never forget it. But there is as
much difference between the odor of the breath of a flesh-eating human
being and a vegetable-eater, as between those of the dog and the lamb.
This, however, is a secret to all but vegetable-eaters themselves, since
none but they are so situated as to be able to make the comparison. But,
betake yourself to mealy vegetables and fruits a few years, and live
temperately on them, and then you will perceive the difference,
especially in riding in a stage-coach. This, I confess, is rather a
draw-back upon the felicity of vegetable-eaters; but it is some
consolation to know what a mass of corruption we ourselves have escaped.

There is one more secretion to which I wish to direct your attention,
which is, the fat or oil. The man who lives rightly, and rejects animal
food among the rest, will never be overburdened with fat. He will
neither be too corpulent nor too lean. Both these conditions are
conditions of disease, though, as a general rule, corpulence is most to
be dreaded; it is, at least, the most disgusting. Fat, I repeat it, is a
secretion. The cells in which it