The ethics of diet : a catena of authorities deprecatory of the practice of flesh-eating / by Howard Williams.
- Q15442840
- Date:
- 1883
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The ethics of diet : a catena of authorities deprecatory of the practice of flesh-eating / by Howard Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![the attention of physiologists and psychologists of our own age. Hecquet, with the physiologists of the present time, attributes the phenomena to physical and natural causes. La Medecine Naturelle: in this work the author alleges that it is not in the blood only that is to be sought the causes of maladies, but also in the nervous fluid.* The books in which he treats of reform in Dietetics are the Traite des Dispenses and La Medecine des Pauvres. However dietetically heterodox and heretical, the author of The Treatise on Dispensations was of unsuspected ecclesiastical as well as theological orthodoxy; yet he takes occasion, at the outset of his book, to reproach his Church with its indifferentism towards so essentially important a matter as Dietetics—scientific or moral:— It will, perhaps, be found that much theology enters into this undertaking. We acknowledge it. One might even expect that some zealous ecclesiastic or other would have done himself the credit of sustaining so beautiful a cause (que quelque ecclesias- tique zele se seroit fait gloire de soutenir une si belle cause). It might be hoped, especially in an age like ours, when physical science is in honour and for the benefit of everyone, and in which Medicine has become the property of every condition . . . It ought then to have been the duty of so many Abbe's, Monks and Religious Orders, who invest themselves with the titles of physicians—who receive their pay, who fill their employments—to advocate this part of ecclesiastical discipline [abstinence]. But, instead of doing so, though they undertake the care of the body, they, in fact, apply themselves solely to the healing of maladies One can see enough of it, nevertheless, to be convinced that the public has gained less from their secrets than they themselves, while their patients die more than ever under their hands In Chap. VI., Que les Fruits, les Grains, les Legumes sont les Alimens les plus Naturels a I'Homme, after appealing to Gen. i. and the Garden of Eden, Hecquet proceeds to insist that our foods should be analogous and consistent with the juices which maintain our life; and these are Fruits, Grains, Seeds, and Roots. But prejudice, of long standing, opposes itself to this truth. The false ideas attached to certain traditional terms have warped the minds of the majority of the world, and they have succeeded in persuading themselves that it is upon stimu- lating foods that depend the strength and health of men. From thence has come the love of wine, of spirituous liquors, and of gross meats. The ambiguity (Equivoque) comes from confounding the idea of Remedy with that of Food, Here the greater part of the world take alarm. ' How,' say they, ' can we be supported on Grains, which furnish but dry meal, fitter to cloy than to nourish ; on Fruits, which are but condensed water; with vegetables, which are fit but for manure (f umier) ?' But this meal, well prepared, forms Bread, the strongest of all aliments, this condensed water is the same that has caused the Trees to attain so great bulk, •See Biog. Universelle, Art. Philippe Hecquet](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21084324_0332.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
