Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1824 edition. Excerpt: ... kind, might be usefully compared with the statements of Dr. Lambe and Mr. Newton. The full examination of the subject would prove, I believe, that though a strict vegetable regimen, in certain peculiarities of constitution, and in some states of disease, is highly advisable, almost essential to life and health, it is by no means the only sustenance, which suits the healthy organs of man. The system has been recommended for the mind as well as the body. A strict diet of vegetables is said to improve the intellect. Sir I. Newton, it is well known, when writing his treatise on optics, abstained from flesh. Dr. Lambe states that his rigid regimen has increased, considerably, his intellectual powers. In Watts' work on Diabetes, is detailed the case of a student, the subject of severe depletory treatment, whose intellect was raised in the inverse proportion to the reduction of his body. From my own observation also, I am convinced, that by low diet the intellect is often relieved and invigorated. But on the other hand, I have seen it improved by an opposite system. A young gentleman who has tried various diets, assures me that his mind is most capable of exertion, when his body is most plentifully nourished. He now takes flesh twice, and milk once, a day. Dr. Stark, on taking beef, after a low diet, had ." a keenness for study." On inquiry I learn, that at "There can be no doubt then, that animal food is unfavourable to the intellectual powers. In some measure this effect is instantaneous, it being hardly possible to apply to any thing requiring thought after a full meal of meat, so that it has been not improperly said of the vegetable feeders, that with them it is morning all day long. But its effect is not confined to the immediate...
