sements in the newspapers
I saw men falling dead on the street as a result of heart failure--always
the same man, it is true; but that made little difference to me. I cut out
both tea and coffee and drank only milk and water. When I got to reading
about tuberculous cows and the action of State Boards of Health and public
sanitarians in the matter, I became afraid to continue drinking milk. Next
I drank only cocoa for a short season.

I took two or three health magazines, but the opinions contained therein
were so conflicting that it was a difficult matter for me to follow any of
them. For example, in one of them I read that no person who ate pickles,
vinegar and condiments could hope to live to a healthy, green old age.
Another stated that good vinegar and condiments in moderation caused the
gastric fluids to flow and thus materially aided in the process of
digestion.

For awhile I was a confirmed vegetarian. The idea of man slaughtering
animals to eat was repulsive to me in the extreme. I recalled that the
good Creator had in Holy Writ spoken of giving His children all kinds of
fruits and herbs for food, but had not said much about edible animals. An
argument against flesh-eating was the fact that some of our strongest
animals, the horse, the ox and the elephant, never touch meat. I followed
the vegetarian system of dietetics for some time, and while it seemed to
agree with me, I had some misgivings as to whether or not it was the best
thing for me. The thought happened to occur to me that, after all, we had
a few powerful animals that subsist almost wholly upon the animal kingdom.
Among these were the lion, the tiger and the leopard. The argument that
all the strong animals eat only herbs and fruits was here knocked
galley-west. I began eating meat again, although as I now look at my
actions in this matter I can see no earthly reason why I should have
turned either herbivorous or carnivorous. There was certainly no sense in
trying to make a horse or a tiger out of myself.

One day I thought I would look up a few points regarding the relative
value of foods from a scientific basis. In my chemistry I ran across a
table giving the quantity of water contained in certain foods. I found
that about everything I had been eating was the aqueous fluid served up
in one way or another. Here is a part of the table:--

Per cent. water
Watermelon .98
Cabbage .92
Carrots