CASE IV.-A boy of about ten years of age had lived on this regimen about three years. He had enjoyed good health, was very stout, but was not without occasional slight indispositions, enough to make him lie down for a day or two, but hardly to be regularly confined. About the beginning of the year 1811, he had the angina parotidæa, or mumps, attended with some fever of a low or typhus kind, and this hung upon him at least a fortnight. It left behind it a tumor, on the right side of the neck, which remained for four or five months. It was attended with some shooting pain, by no means severe; but was perfectly hard and incompressible, as large almost as an egg, and gradually rose much above the surface. Toward the beginning of summer, the apex of the tumor softened, and it ulcerated. A good deal of purulent matter came out, the skin gradually retracted, and a hard and conical tumor remained projecting beyond the skin. From this there was, of course, a continued flow of matter; but besides this, there was a quantity of a gritty substance separated, which had been imbedded in the body of the tumor. This separation took place repeatedly, but at separate intervals, and in consequence the substance of the tumor gradually wasted, and was finally reduced to the level of the skin. Then the ulcer dried up and cicatrized. This whole process took up about a twelvemonth. But though the ulcer cicatrized, some thickening remained. In the course of the summer of 1813, a fresh ulceration took place, and a small quantity more of the same matter came out. The ulcer this year continued open a month. It showed some disposition to break out again the following year, 1814. There was, however, no breach of substance, but for a single day. Since that he has remained quite well. This boy showed strongly in his countenance the ameliorating effects of a vegetable regimen. He had before he adopted it great fullness about the head, and a sternness, not to say a ferocity, of the countenance. After a certain time, the features relaxed, and he gained much more the aspect of good humor and benevolence. It cannot be doubted that these changes of countenance were the index of corresponding changes of the moral disposition. The regimen, however, had been persevered in three years before they took place decidedly. Another example has occurred of a pretty severe affection of the chest, in a lady who had used the regimen more than four years. And I should think it proper to notice it more particularly, except that it cannot be said at this present time (March, 1815) to have completely subsided. I shall say only, therefore, that it was a peripneumony, designated by its cocamon symptoms of pain in the chest, cough, and expectorations. Such are some of the principal examples of disease moder this regimen which have occurred to myself, in addition to those I have noticed in the general course of my narration. Others of smaller consequence, as slight cough, colds, pains of the face or limbs which have been observed, I omit as not deserving of a distinct relation. It is very obvious to the most superficial consideration flat these occurrences have not been the consequences of the regi men, and therefore can form no solid objection against it. They have in truth been, not in consequence, but in spite of it. Some of them were clearly natural processes. Thus the glandular tumor, which has been last described, was a process for bringing the concreted matter, which was finally evacuated, to the surface of the body. It may then be suspected that the other examples were natural processes likewise, though the fact is not so obvious. At all events they were not diseases of debility, which is apprehended from vegetable regimen; but were inflammatory diseases, such as would be judged to require depletion rather than stimulation. They form then, I repeat, no objection to the regimen. It will follow, evidently, from the whole course of my narration, that for the most part the use of this regimen affords no hope nor prospect of great relief from deep constitutional disease in a very short time. To jump from a state of disease to a state of health is contrary to the laws of nature. Those who hold out prospects of this kind can have no other object than to impose upon the credulity of mankind. Those who think fit to undertake it should be well aware of its aim and intent. This is not so much to obtain perfect and uninterrupted health (objects, perhaps, hardly consistent with our present condition), as an alleviation of suffering, and to pass through the years that are allotted to us with the least possible evil. These are objects which every reasonable person will acknowledge to be the most important of all temporary and sublunary concerns. The observation of a regular system of dieting, such as I have described, fulfills this object by radically strengthening the pow ers of life. It has no control, or at least a very imperfect one, over the immediate symptoms of disease. The general habits of the system therefore remain in a great degree unaltered. But slowly and gradually the constitution becomes changed, at The pow least in its powers, if not in its primordial structure. ers inherent in the system to preserve the life of the body, to overcome the operation of agencies tending to destroy the body, or to derange healthy action, and to restore parts which are defective either in their organization or power, are strengthened and invigorated. This doctrine, no doubt, will never be acknowledged by those persons who are under the influence of the common prejudice, that vegetable diet has a natural tendency to produce weakness. The facts which appear to favor this notion are so strong, and the assertion is so confidently made by a multitude of observers, who have had neither object nor interest in making false representations, that I despair of being able to eradicate it from the minds of hasty, superficial, and prejudiced inquirers. But those who will calmly and dispassionately weigh the facts which I have advanced, will, I have no doubt, acknowledge that I have traced the sense and appearance of weakness, to its proper source, the agency of foreign matter upon the system; and that the accusations brought against the vegetable regimen are in this respect groundless. Remove these noxious agencies, and then the true operation of the vegetable regimen, in radically strengthening the vital powers, becomes obvious. But to produce a very great change in the habits of the constitution must be the work of time, and even of a great length of time. must be the effect of the patience, not of weeks, nor of months, but of years. There must, too, be a natural limit to the change which it is possible to effect. This limit it is impossible to define, independent of experience; and it will, of course, be different in each different constitution. This It may be thought that the examples which I have given of the pertinacity of diseased symptoms are extremely discouraging, and hold out a melancholy prospect to those who are great sufferers. I suspect that the great sufferers will not be of this opinion; but that, for the most part, they will be contented to put up with small evils, if they can escape the great. However, with all men, the first and greatest object in life is to inform the reason. Let them, then, well consider how slowly disease itself is engendered; and, therefore, how unreasonable it is to suppose that it can be quickly eradicated. To illustrate this point, let us take a very common example, If any disease is acknowledged to be artificial, it is the gout. A man then has his first fit of gout, we will say, at forty; he has repeated regular paroxysms, it may be for twenty, or fiveand-twenty years; then, perhaps, the seat of the diseased action becomes changed; the gout begins to desert the limbs; the head becomes affected with apoplexy or palsy; the lungs with cough, dyspnoea, or pneumonia; the stomach with spasms, sickness, vomiting, or diarrhoea; and, after suffering a few years more, he at length dies. Now here we see that, for a certain number of years, this person enjoyed health, though under the influence of powerful morbific causes; for a certain number of years more, the causes continuing to act, a new train of phenomena are produced, which we call gout; and, finally, the powers of life declining, a third series of morbid actions is established, seated in the internal organs. We must acknowledge, then, the body to be under a constant force, which must impress and modify it at every period of its existence; but that the phenomena of diseases depend not wholly on the action of these forces, but on the state of the system in conjunction with them. The system itself is in a constant state of mutation; so that the effects of agents at one period of its existence is dissimilar to the effect of the very same agents at a former or succeeding period. Now as these agents have, for the most part, been applied during the whole of life, how utterly unreasonable must it be to expect that great changes can be produced speedily by the mere cessation of their action. Surely we ought rather to expect, even a priori, that the restoration to health will be analogous to the formation of disease; that the amendment will be by degrees almost insensible at short intervals of time; and that many must content themselves with an alleviation of suffering rather than a perfect restoration to health. And when we consider the enormous load of misery under which some of our unfortunate fellow-creatures are oppressed, who labor under some of the forms of chronic disease, this prospect must be allowed tc be most consolatory to suffering humanity. I may mention here, incidentally, that under the theory which I have chalked out, the diseases which prove fatal can rarely be considered to be strictly local. I know that almost all medical theorists espouse an opposite opinion. They dissect the dead body; such and such, say they, were the appearances after death; here then was the seat of the disease, every other part of the body was sound and uninjured. But let it be considered that a part, whose organization is perfect to-day, tomorrow perhaps mortifies. The powers of any part of the body then may be lost, though the structure is uninjured; and, therefore, the parts of the body, in which no diseased action has taken place, may be inherently as much diseased as those the texture of which is obviously changed. They might then have taken on diseased action, if it had not been suspended either by the existing disease, or prevented by the death and dissolution of the body. These considerations show that dissection can never completely unravel the phenomena of disease. By dissection we can discover only the final changes of composition, which the body undergoes. But disease is a change of the powers and actions of the living parts; that is to say, of parts of which, for the most part, the organization continues perfect. If then disease be seated in and pervade the whole body, it must be counteracted by measures which affect and pervade the whole body likewise. Now the whole series of observations which have been made on the system of dieting recommended in the preceding pages, evinces that it affects the whole frame, every organ, and every fibre of the body. As a whole, the body under it attains its just stature, due proportions, and proper strength, provided there be no original defect of structure. In consequence, all artificial defects of structure are tending to disappear under it. The skin appears to become more firm and dense. The hand and foot in particular become harder, less white and doughy, but perhaps more fleshy. The pungent heat of the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, with which many are tormented, disappears. The whole surface of the body commonly becomes cooler; but the temperature of the body, as indicated by the thermometer under the tongue, is the same as under common regimen. The hair grows with much greater luxuriance and rapidity. In some in whom it was dry like hay, it regained a due softness and moisture. In others the disposition of the hair to fall off has been removed. Premature grayness appears to be pre vented. All the secretions are promoted, and re-established where they had been checked. Hence, the skin becomes moist and perspirable; the mucous discharges from the nostrils and the trachea become more copious. On the same principle, the bowels become regular in their action. The urine is extremely copious and commonly clear. The saliva loses all viscidity and clamminess, and on this account much uncomfortable feeling in the mouth and fauces are removed. The teeth become sound and clean, the gums firm, and strongly attached to the teeth and alveolar processes. The tongue likewise grad |