No Animal Food | Page 2

that the slaughtering of animals for
food, being entirely unnecessary is immoral; that in adding our share
towards supplying a vocation for the butcher we are helping to nurture
callousness, coarseness and brutality in those who are concerned in the
butchering business; that anyone of true refinement and delicacy would
find in the killing of highly-strung, nervous, sensitive creatures, a task
repulsive and disgusting, and that it is scarcely fair, let alone Christian,
to ask others to perform work which we consider unnecessary and
loathsome, and which we should be ashamed to do ourselves.
Of all these various views there is one that should be regarded as of
primary importance, namely, the question of health. First and foremost
we have to consider the question of physical health. No system of

thought that poses as being concerned with man's welfare on earth can
ever make headway unless it recognises this. Physical well-being is a
moral consideration that should and must have our attention before
aught else, and that this is so needs no demonstrating; it is self-evident.
Now it is not to be denied when we look at the over-flowing hospitals;
when we see everywhere advertised patent medicines; when we realise
that a vast amount of work is done by the medical profession among all
classes; when we learn that one man out of twelve and one woman out
of eight die every year from that most terrible disease, cancer, and that
over 207,000 persons died from tuberculosis during the first seven
years of the present century; when we learn that there are over 1500
defined diseases prevalent among us and that the list is being
continually added to, that the general health of the nation is far different
from what we have every reason to believe it ought to be. However
much we may have become accustomed to it, we cannot suppose
ill-health to be a normal condition. Granted, then, that the general
health of the nation is far from what it should be, and looking from
effects to causes, may we not pertinently enquire whether our diet is not
largely responsible for this state of things? May it not be that wrong
feeding and mal-nutrition are at the root of most disease? It needs no
demonstrating that man's health is directly dependent upon what he eats,
yet how few possess even the most elementary conception of the
principles of nutrition in relation to health? Is it not evident that it is
because of this lamentable ignorance so many people nowadays suffer
from ill-health?
Further, not only does diet exert a definite influence upon physical
well-being, but it indirectly affects the entire intellectual and moral
evolution of mankind. Just as a man thinks so he becomes, and 'a
science which controls the building of brain-cell, and therefore of
mind-stuff, lies at the root of all the problems of life.' From the point of
view of food-science, mind and body are inseparable; one reacts upon
the other; and though a healthy body may not be essential to happiness,
good health goes a long way towards making life worth living. Dr.
Alexander Haig, who has done such excellent and valuable work in the
study of uric acid in relation to disease, speaks most emphatically on

this point: 'DIET is the greatest question for the human race, not only
does his ability to obtain food determine man's existence, but its quality
controls the circulation in the brain, and this decides the trend of being
and action, accounting for much of the indifference between depravity
and the self-control of wisdom.'
The human body is a machine, not an iron and steel machine, but a
blood and bone machine, and just as it is necessary to understand the
mechanism of the iron and steel machine in order to run it, so is it
necessary to understand the mechanism of the blood and bone machine
in order to run it. If a person understanding nothing of the business of a
chauffeur undertook to run an automobile, doubtless he would soon
come to grief; and so likewise if a person understands nothing of the
needs of his body, or partly understanding them knows not how to
satisfy them, it is extremely unlikely that he will maintain it at its
normal standard of efficiency. Under certain conditions, of which we
will speak in a moment, the body-machine is run quite unconsciously,
and run well; that is to say, the body is kept in perfect health without
the aid of science. But, then, we do not now live under these conditions,
and so our reason has to play a certain part in encouraging, or, as the
case may be, in restricting the various desires that make themselves felt.
The reason so many people nowadays are suffering from all sorts of
ailments