imal food, are cruel and ferocious in their
disposition, gloomy and sullen minded, delighting in exterminating wars
and plunder; while the Bramins and Hindoos, who live entirely on
vegetable aliment, possess a mildness and gentleness of character and
disposition directly the reverse of the Tartar; and I have no doubt, had
India possessed a more popular form of government, and a more
enlightened priesthood, her people, with minds so fitted for
contemplation, would have far outstripped the other nations of the world
in manufactures, and in the arts and sciences.

"But we need only look at the peasantry of Ireland, who, living as they
do, chiefly on a vegetable--and to say the least of it, a very
suspicious kind of aliment, I mean the potatoe--are yet as robust and
vigorous a race of men as inherit any portion of the globe.

"The greater part of our bodily disease is brought on by improper food.
This opinion has been strongly confirmed by my daily experience in the
treatment of those diseases to which the people of England are
peculiarly subject, such as scrofula, consumption, leprosy, etc. These
disorders are making fearful and rapid strides; so much so, that not a
single family may now be considered exempt from their melancholy
ravages."

This is fearful testimony, but it is the result of much observation and
of twenty years' experience. But the same causes are producing the same
effects--at least, so far as scrofula and consumption are concerned--in
this country, at the present time, of which Dr. W. complains so loudly
in England. I could add much more from his writings, but what I have
said is sufficient.

DR. JAMES CLARK.

Dr. Clark, physician to the king and queen of Belgium, in a Treatise on
Pulmonary Consumption, has the following remarks:

"There is no greater evil in the management of children than that of
giving them animal diet very early. By persevering in the use of an
over-stimulating diet, the digestive organs become irritated, and the
various secretions immediately connected with and necessary to digestion
are diminished, especially the biliary secretion; and constipation of
the bowels and congestion of the abdominal viscera succeed. Children so
fed, moreover, become very liable to attacks of fever and of
inflammation, affecting particularly the mucous membranes; and measles
and the other diseases incident to childhood are generally severe in
their attack."

The suggestion that a mild or vegetab