ter or less degree, the sources of
disease; it is also more liable to poisonous mixtures or adulterations.

It is true, that in the present state of the arts, and of agriculture
and civic life generally, vegetables themselves are sometimes the
sources of disease. I refer not to the spurred rye and other substances,
which occasionally find their way into our fields and get mixed with our
grains, etc., and which are known to be very active poisons,--so much as
to the acrid or otherwise improper juices which are formed by forced
vegetation, especially about cities, whether by means of hot-beds,
green-houses, or new, strong, or highly-concentrated manures. I refer
also to the crude, unripe, and imperfect fruits and other things with
which our markets are filed now-a-days; and especially to _decaying_
fruits and vegetables. But I cannot enlarge; a volume would be too
little to do this part of the subject justice. Nothing is more wanted
than light on this subject, and a consequent reform in our fashionable
agriculture and horticulture.

And yet, although I admit, most cheerfully, the danger we are in of
contracting disease by using diseased vegetables, the danger is neither
so frequent nor so imminent, in proportion to the quantity of it
consumed, as from animal food. Let us briefly take a view of the facts.

Milk, in its nature, approaches nearest to the line of the vegetable
kingdom, and is therefore, in my view, the least objectionable form of
animal food. I am even ready to admit that for persons affected with
certain forms of chronic disease, and for all children, milk is
excellent. And yet, excellent as it is, it is very liable to be
injurious. We are told, by the most respectable medical men of France,
that all the cows about Paris have tubercles (the seeds or beginning of
consumption) in their lungs which is probably owing to the unnatural
state in which they are kept, as regards the kind, and quantity, and
hours of receiving their food; and especially as regards air, exercise,
and water. Cows cannot be healthy, nor any other domestic animals, any
more than men, when long subjected to the unnatural and unhealthy
influences of bad air, want of exercise, etc. Hence, then, most of our
cows about our towns and cities must be diseased, in a greater or less
degree--if not with consumption, with something else. And of course
their milk must be diseased--not, perhaps, as much as their blood and
flesh, but more or less so. B