urvy, and consumption.

The case of Dr. Bannister, who was, in early life, decidedly
consumptive, is one of the most remarkable on record. Though evidently
consumptive, and near the borders of the grave, between the ages of
twenty and twenty-nine, he so far recovered as to be, at the age of
fifty-three, entirely free from every symptom of phthisis for
twenty-four years; during which whole period, he was sufficiently
vigorous to follow the laborious business of a country physician.

The confidence of Dr. Wright in the prophylactic powers of a diet
exclusively vegetable, so far as the mere opinion of one medical man is
to be received as testimony in the case, is also remarkable. He not only
regards the vegetable system as a defence against the diseases of
miasmatic regions, but also against the varioloid disease. On the latter
point, he goes, it seems, almost as far as Mr. Graham, who appears to
regard it not only as, in some measure, a preventive of epidemic
diseases generally, in which he is most undoubtedly correct, but also of
the small-pox.

The testimony on another point which is presented in the replies to Dr.
North's questions, is almost equally uniform. In nearly every instance,
the individuals who have abandoned animal food have found themselves
less subject to colds than before; and some appear to have fallen into
the habit of escaping them altogether. When it is considered how serious
are the consequences of taking cold--when it is remembered that
something like one half of the diseases of our climate have their origin
in this source--it is certainly no trifling evidence in favor of a
course of regimen, that, besides being highly favorable in every other
respect, it should prove the means of freeing mankind from exposure to a
malady at once troublesome in itself and disastrous in its
consequences.

In reply to the question,--Is a vegetable diet more or less aperient
than a mixed one,--the answers have been the same, in nearly every
instance, that it is more so.

The answers to the question whether it was believed the health of either
laborers or students would be promoted by the exclusion of animal food
from their diet, are rather various. It will be observed, however, that
many of the replies, in this case, are medical _opinions_, and come from
men who, though they felt themselves bound to state facts, were
doubtless, with very few exceptions, prejudiced against an exclusively
vegetable regimen for the