AUTHOR OF THE YOUNG MAN'S GUIDE, YOUNG WOMAN'S GUIDE, YOUNG MOTHER,YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER, AND LATE EDITOR OF THE LIBRARY OF HEALTH.
SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.
NEW YORK:
FOWLER AND WELLS, PUBLISHERS,
No. 308 BROADWAY
1859.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849,
By fowlers & wells,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New
York.
BANES & PALMER, STEREOTYPERS,
201 William st. corner Frankfort, N. Y.
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The following volume embraces the testimony, direct or indirect, of morethan a hundred individuals—besides that of societies andcommunities—on the subject of vegetable diet. Most of this one hundredpersons are, or were, persons of considerable distinction in society;and more than fifty of them were either medical men, or such as havemade physiology, hygiene, anatomy, pathology, medicine, or surgery aleading or favorite study.
As I have written other works besides this—especially the "YoungHouse-Keeper"—which treat, more or less, of diet, it may possibly beobjected, that I sometimes repeat the same idea. But how is it to beavoided? In writing for various classes of the community, and presentingmy views in various connections and aspects, it is almost necessary todo so. Writers on theology, or education, or any other important topic,do the same—probably to a far greater extent, in many instances, than Ihave yet done. I repeat no idea for the sake of repeating it. Not aword is inserted but what seems to me necessary, in order that I may beintelligible. Moreover, like the preacher of truth on many othersubjects, it is not so much my object to produce something new[Pg iv] in everyparagraph, as to explain, illustrate, and enforce what is already known.
It may also be thought that I make too many books. But, as I do notclaim to be so much an originator of new things as an instrument fordiffusing the old, it will not be expected that I should be twentyyears on a volume, like Bishop Butler. I had, however, been collectingmy stock of materials for this and other works—published orunpublished—more than twenty-five years. Besides, it might be safelyand truly said that the study and reading and writing, in thepreparation of this volume, the "House I Live In," and the "YoungHouse-Keeper," have consumed at least three of the best years of mylife, at fourteen or fifteen hours a day. Several of my other works, asthe "Young Mother," the "Mother's Medical Guide," and the "Young Wife,"have also been the fruit of years of toil and investigation andobservation, of which those who think only of the labor of merelywriting them out, know nothing. Even the "Mother in her Family"—atleast some parts of it—though in general a lighter work, has been theresult of much care and labor. The circumstance of publishing severalbooks at the same, or nearly the same time, has little or nothing to dowith their preparation.
When I commenced putting together the materials of this little treatiseon diet—thirteen years ago—it was my intention simply to show thesafety of a vegetable and fruit diet, both for those who are afflictedwith many forms of chronic disease, and for the healthy. But I soonbecame convinced that I ought to go farther, and show its ...