vinous spirits; no form of ale, beer, or
porter; no cider, tea, or coffee; but using milk and water as my only
liquid aliment, and feeding sparingly, or rather, moderately, upon
farinaceous food, vegetables, and fruit, seasoned with unmelted butter,
slightly boiled eggs, and sugar or molasses; with no condiment but
common salt.

I adopted this regimen in company with several friends, male and female,
some of whom had been afflicted either with dyspepsia or some other
chronic malady. In every instance within the circle of my acquaintance,
the _symptoms_ of disease disappeared before this system of diet; and I
have every reason to believe that the disease itself was wholly or in
part eradicated.

In answer to your inquiry, whether I ascribe the cure, in the cases
alleged, to the abstinence from animal food or from stimulating drinks,
or from both, I cannot but give it as my confident opinion that the
result is to be attributed to a general abandonment of the _diffusive
stimuli_, under every shape and form.

An increase of flesh was one of the earliest effects of the
_anti-stimulating_ regimen, in those cures in which the system was in
low condition. The animal spirits became more cheerful, buoyant, and
uniformly pleasurable. Mental and bodily labor was endured with much
less fatigue, and both intellectual and corporeal exertion was more
vigorous and efficient.

In the language of Addison, this system of ultra temperance has had the
happy effect of "filling the mind with inward joy, and spreading delight
through all its faculties."

But, although I have thus made the experiment of abstaining wholly from
the use of liquid and solid stimulants, and from every form of animal
food, I am not fully convinced that it should be deemed improper, on any
account, to use the more slightly stimulating forms of animal food.
Perhaps fish and fowl, with the exception of ducks and geese, turtle and
lobster, may be taken without detriment, in moderate quantities. And I
regard good mutton as being the lightest, and, at the same time, the
most nutritious of all meats, and as producing less inconvenience than
any other kind, where the energies of the stomach are enfeebled. And yet
there are unquestionably many constitutions which would be benefited by
living, as I and others have done, on purely vegetable diet and ripe
fruits.

In relation to many of the grosser kinds of animal food, all alcoholic
spirits, all distilled and fermented l