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. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... VII SHOULD WE BE SENT TO JAIL FOR EATING THE WRONG FOOD? IN Erewhon people were sent to jail for f-eating the wrong food. Ever hear of Erewhon? It is a mythical country which a man named Samuel Butler wrote about. This is what I gathered says Samuel Butler. That in that country, if a man falls into ill health or catches any disorder, or fails bodily before he is seventy years old, he is tried before a jury of his countrymen, and if convicted is held up to public scorn and sentenced to jail.... But if a man forges a cheque, or sets a house on fire, or does any other such things as are criminal in our country, he is either taken to a hospital and most carefully tended at the public expense, or, if he is in good circumstances, he lets it be known to all his friends that he is suffering from a severe fit of immorality, just as we do when we are ill; and they come and visit him with great solicitude, and inquire with interest how it all came about, what symptoms first showed themselves, etc.--questions which he will answer with perfect unreserve. Butler says he visited a court in Erewhon, and saw prisoners being sentenced for eating improperly and otherwise injuring their health. To one hardened criminal the judge said: "Prisoner at the bar, you have been accused of the great crime of laboring under pulmonary consumption, and, after an impartial trial before a jury of your countrymen, you have been found guilty.... This is not your first offense: you have had a long career of crime. You were convicted of aggravated bronchitis last year; and I find that, although you are now only twenty-three years old, you have been imprisoned no less than fourteen times for illnesses of a more or less hateful character." In Erewhon, you see, the man...
