subsist by hunting, and the scanty
produce of spontaneous vegetation. But, among these tribes consumption
is common. Their diseases, as Mr. Hearne informs us, are principally
fluxes, scurvy, and consumption.

"In the last four years, several cases of glandular swellings have
occurred to me at the general dispensary, and I have made particular
inquiries into the mode of living of such children. In the majority,
they had animal food. In opposition to the accusation of vegetable food
causing tumefaction of the abdomen, I must testify, that twice in my own
family I have seen such swellings disappear under a vegetable regimen,
which had been formed under a diet of animal food.

"Increasing the strength, for a time, is no proof of the salubrity of
diet. The increased strength may not continue, though the diet should be
continued. On the contrary, there is a sort of oscillation; the strength
just rising, then sinking again. This is what is experienced by the
trainers of boxers. A certain time is necessary to get these men into
condition; but this condition cannot be maintained for many weeks
together, though the process by which it was formed is continued. The
same is found to hold in the training of race-horses, and
fighting-cocks.

"It seems certain that animal food predisposes to disease. Timoric, in
his account of the plague at Constantinople, asserts that the Armenians,
who live chiefly on vegetable food, were far less disposed to the
disease than other people. The typhus fever is greatly exasperated by
full living.

"It seems, moreover, highly probable that the power inherent in the
human living body, of restoring itself under accidents or wounds, is
strongest in those who use most a vegetable regimen.

"Contagions act with greater virulence upon bodies prepared by a full
diet of animal food.

"Since fishing has declined in the isles of Ferro, and the inhabitants
have lived chiefly on vegetables, the elephantiasis has ceased among
them.

"Those monks who, by the rules of their institution, abstain from the
flesh of animals, enjoy a longer mean term of life, as the consequence.
Of this there can be no doubt. Of one hundred and fifty-two monks, taken
promiscuously in all times and all sorts of climates, there lives
produced a total, according to Baillot (a writer of eminence), of 11,589
years, or an average of seventy-six years and a little more than three
months.

"Those Bramins who abstain most scrupulously f