f abstinence from animal food prove but
little, yet they prove something in the case of a man so remarkable as
John Howard. If he, with a constitution not very strong, and in the
midst of the greatest fatigues of body and mind, could best sustain
himself on a bread and water, or bread and tea diet, who is there that
would not be well sustained on vegetable food? And yet it is certain
that Howard was a vegetable eater for many years of the latter part of
his life; and that had he not exposed himself in a remarkable manner,
there is no known reason why he might not have lasted with a
constitution no better than his was, to a hundred years of age.

GEN. ELLIOTT.

The following extract exhibits in few words, the dietetic history of
that brave and wise commander, General George Augustus Elliott, of the
British army:

"During the whole of his active life, Gen. Elliott had inured himself to
the most rigid habits of order and watchfulness; seldom sleeping more
than four hours a day, and never eating any thing but vegetable food, or
drinking any thing but water. During eight of the most anxious days of
the memorable siege of Gibraltar, he confined himself to four ounces of
rice a day. He was universally regarded as one of the most abstemious
men of his age.

"And yet his abstemiousness did not diminish his vigor; for, at the
above-mentioned siege of Gibraltar, when he was sixty-six years of age,
he had nearly all the activity and fire of his youth. Nor did he die of
any wasting disease, such as full feeders are wont to say men bring upon
them by their abstinence. On the contrary, owing to a hereditary
tendency, perhaps, of his family, he died at the age of seventy-three,
of apoplexy."

ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA.

The following testimony is from the Encyclopedia. I do not suppose the
writer was the friend of a diet exclusively vegetable; but his testimony
is therefore the more interesting. His only serious mistake is in regard
to the tendency of vegetable food to form weak fibres.

"Sometimes a particular kind of food is called wholesome, because it
produces a beneficial effect of a particular character on the system of
an individual. In this case, however, it is to be considered as a
medicine; and can be called wholesome only for those whose systems are
in the same condition.

"Aliments abounding in fat are unwholesome, because fat resists the
operation of the gastric juice.

"The addition of too much spice makes ma