TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 8197, 13 June 1892, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Lady Paobt—who, if we

A Lady ate_otnttafcakeri,isthelady Vegetarian, who first brought Count

Mattel's so-called remedies before the English public—has an article in the NinefeeatA Century on vegetarianism which is likely to attract fresh attention to a " oult" which at one time was regarded as a passing craze, but which appears to be increasing its number of adherents. We are not aware whether Lady Paget is entitled to be regarded as at all a scientific authority. She con certainly write attractively on the question. Her first plunge into vegetarianism was not very encouraging. She got very little to eat, she tells us, for neither she nor her cook were d la hauteur of the situation. The first results of the diet were that she felt tired and sleepy at night, and so tired she could hardly walk. The doctor said, "You have no pulse at all and mnst give in; it does not suit you." The winter was cold and depressing, and for a time Lady Paget followed tho doctor's advice. In the spring, however, she made her second methodical and successful attempt, eliminating. week by week one kind of animal food and replacing it by some equally nutritious vegetable preparation.

If we are to accept all that Diet and Lady Paget says in favour Disease, of the therapeutic effects of

a vegetarian diet, it would seem that if we were all to give up eating meat, even Count Mattei and his wonderful remedies would soon be at a discount. Her ladyship says :—

"It is certain that the giving up of animal food cures many illnesses which no medicines cau reach. Everybody knows tbe bad effects of butcher's -meat in gout aud rheumatism. In affections of the heart it is often the only remedy, and the wonderful results are not* difficult to explain iv a case where rest often means cure, if one reflects that whilst tho meateater's heart has seventy-two beats in the minute the vegetarian's only has fiftyeight beats, therefore 20,000 beats less in the course of the twenty-four hours. Insomnia and nervousness are affjoted in the same way ; there is less wear aud more repose in the constitution. I- could enumerate many other illnesses in which vegetable diet does marvels, but will only mention those of the skin. Mo3t vegetarians have unusually clear and often beautiful complexions. I need only remind those who -now them of the old. Carthusian and Trappist niouks, who all have smooth white and Fra Bcato Augelico kind of faces, which are not found amongst the Orders that do not habitually live on leaten fare. The splendid teeth of the Italian peasantry, who .never touch meat, speak for themselves, and it is the same in other countries where the people live under similar conditions. *

The writer goes on to urge that ifc is far easier to cure a drunkard if you deprive him of meat, and adds:—" Vegetarianism is often called a fad, but; it is a healthy and an innocent one, and the natural reaction against the present state of things. It imparts lightness and elasticity to tho body, brightness and clearness to the mind. The vegetarians I know are all unusually strong, active, and young-looking people for their age. One of them walked without stopping for thirty-four .fend another time twentyseven hours without a. rest, whilst on an excursion in Norway, feats not easily equalled by the most inveterate beef : eater. Travelling, mountain climbing, all seems" easier and leas fatiguing on this light and soothing diets and why should it not give strength to the limbs and sinews if one reflects that allthe strongest animals who do the heaviest work in tho world, like horses, oxen, and elephants, are entirely < herbivorous.'' Finally the writer urges that many who are out of health without knowing what is' the matter with them would be all tbe better for trying' whether /their discomforts spring from too high . and rich a diet, or from the- inability to procure any but inferior meat or fish.: "In the first caso," she says, "they would soon feel their tired digestions' rested and their irritated nerves calming down, whilst in the latter they would find Out that it is easy to get a healthier and an equally satisfying meal for half the cost of what they were iv the habit of spending before."

. Oft this subject it is in ■ What "The terestingp to read what "Lancet"Says, that . high , medical authority the Lancet has to say. That journal recalls one or two ourious circumstances Which the vegetarians will certainly seize upon as being iv their favour. Corn meal, it tells us, was the grand necessary of life to those legionaries who, led by Cffi3ar, subdued the world, and two somewhat singular quotations are given from Tacitus and Julius Crosar. The former tells' how the army of the great Roman General Corbulo was in his Armenian campaign reduced to extremities from being driven to satisfy its hunger from the flesh of sheep, and Gagarin his Gallic War complains bitterly of his* troops having for several days been without corn meal, and " sustained the extreme of hunger on mutton.". Even British troops, our contemporary adds, have been known to suffer from an exclusive meat diet, as we found to our cost in the Zulu campaign of 1879; while the preference of the Roman soldiery for vegetable food has its justification in the experience of the Russian army, and still more of the .German one in 1870, which carried that memorable campaign to its triumphant close, on tbe Erbswurst (pea sausage flavoured with a little bacon."/ The Lancet "without for a moment lending countenance to the vegetarian, who would cut off butcher's meat from human consumption " will "concede to him that an animal diet, unbalanced by a due proportion of the 'kindly fruits of the earth,* is distinctly prejudicial to the consumer, particularly to the resident in cities, whose opportunities of open-air exercise are few and far between/ Our contemporary urges that what is wanted is such a series of experiments on the nutrient and sustaining values of foods, vegetable and animal, as the late Professor Parkes, of Netley, instituted with such conclusive results on. the various kinds of drink, from nater up to spirits. Till statistics of equal comprehensiveness and accuracy are furnished, it is impossible to lay down any decisive dictum on the subject. Probably it will be found that n? hard and fast rule can be laid down. Vegetarianism may be of the greatest possible benefit to some people, aud may shorten tbe lives of others. In the meantime, however, it may safely be admitted that in these colonies most of us eat more meat than is really beneficial, and might diminish the amount with considerable advantage.

Thh statement Road columns lately that a locs* Making, body which had occupied Stself some time ago m laying down road metal and using mud as a •« blimH n »«a was now engaged in scraping the mud of? again, is one illustration out of many roadmaking still seems to be very i mperi fectly understood in this colony. Suoh a thing as a fine, firm, level road of the kind we see in England is almost unknown in New Zealand. In winter our roads are wildernesses of slush, and iri summer they are expanses of dust aad rolling stones which gather no moss, bus cause a good deal of annoyance both it horsemen and pedestrians. The goldea rules of Macadam are absolutely ignored. These were that the metal used nvagfc be broken, so as to present angular surfaces so as to dovetail in with each other, and that the pieces must in no caso be large; than would go through a 2Jin ring. A* rough and ready test it is said he *»oul4 not have any stone used that would net go into his mouth. In New Zealand a favorite road-making material is worn round and smooth in th# river beds — excellent, no doubt, foiDavids in murderous Bearch e$ Goliaths, but not at all likely to "bind* if it remained on the roads till If broken metal is used, very little cats seems to bo taken to keep the Bisse Baalim a point on which Macadam laid espochd. stress. There is undoubtedly plenty <# room for us in Now Zealand to « men! our ways" in a more effective mao&«» tlpn we have done in the past.