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can not perfwade myself otherwise, but that our niceneffe and curiousneffe in diet hath altered our nature, distempered our bodies, and made us fubject to millions of discrafies and diseases, more then ever were our forefathers fubject unto, and confequently of fhorter life then they.' "Who is ficklier," he exclaims, "then thei that fare deliciously every day? who is corrupter? who belcheth more? who looketh worfe? who is weaker and feebler then thei? who hath more filthie collor, flegme, and putrifaction (repleat with groffe humours) then thei? and to be breefe, who dyeth fooner then thei? Doe wee not," continues he, "fee the poore man that eateth browne bread (whereof fome is made of rye, barlie, peason, beanes, oates, and fuch other groffe graines), and drinketh small drinke, yea, fome tymes water, feedith upon milke, butter, and cheese, (i faie) doe wee not see suche a one healthfuller, ftronger, fairer-complectioned, and longer livyng, then the other that fare daintilie every daie? and how should it be otherwife ?t

It is wel known, according to Ovington, that nothing contributes fo much, to the scurvy, as

Anatomy of abuses, 1583, fig. I. v. b. † lbi, fig, I, v. 3. b.

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the eating of falted meat, or, to its cure, as the eating of vegetables. Seamen, who have been fo lamentablely overrun with this disease as to be unable either to walk or stand upright, have had their limbs, ftomachs, and loft health restore'd by three days eating of purflain, and other herbs, after they have once got afhore: and were those, he ads, made more frequently the diet of these that live on land, the fcorbutick humours, and all that train of diseafees that follows them, would be lefs numerous and prevailing than they are.* Nothing elfe, in doctor Cheynes opinion, than a total abstinence from animal foods can totally extirpate this disease. † A vegetable and milk diet, he says, is the proper and natural food of thofe afflicted with fcrophulous complaints, as much as feeds are that of fmall birds: ading, that a total milk and feed diet, with frequent interspersed emeticks, wil infalliblely cure hystericks, as well as confumption, if any human

* Voyage to Suratt, p. 519.

+ Essay on bealth, p. 182. It is evident, fays doctor Buchan, that if vegetables and milk were more use'd in diet, we should have lefs fcurvy, and, likewife fewer putrid inflammatory fevers.

Method of cure, &c. p. 168.

means posfiblely can.*

Even bread and water

wil be found beneficial in very serious disorders; as, in the cafe of doctor Barwick, who, in the civil wars, when under a phthifis, atrophy and dyscrafy, was confine'd in a low room in the Tower, and live'd on bread and water onely, for feveral years; yet came out, at the Restoration, fleek, plump, and gay.t

Indeed, there are fome cafeës, according to doctor Cheyne, wherein a vegetable and milk diet feems abfolutely necesfary, as in fevere and habitual gouts, rheumatifms, cancerous, leprous, and fcrophulous diforders, extreme nervous colicks, epilepfys, violent hysterick fits, melancholy, confumptions, and, toward the last ftageës of all chronical distempers; in fuch distempers, he says, i have feldom feen fuch a diet fail of a good effect.‡

The prince of Condé, after haveing long fuffer'd, and being quite overcome by the gout, was advise'd by his phyficians, for the relief of his pain, to enter upon A VEGETABLE DIET, and a total abstinence from fish, flesh, and wine. It

* Ibi, p 187. See more of the cures that may be perform'd by a milk-diet, Ibi, p. 263, &c.

+ Ibi, p. 211.

English malady, p. 167.

fucceeded accordingly, his pains were relieve'd,`,

and THE GOUT OVERCOME.*

Doctor Taylor, of Croydon, CURE'd himself, ENTIRELY and ABSOLUTELY, of the most violent, constant, and habitual epilepfy, that, perhap, ever was known, after haveing, in vain, try'd all the methods and medicines advise'd by the most eminent physicians of his time, by A TOTAL DIET of MILK, WITHOUT BREAD, or any OTHER VEGETABLE.†

Doctor Cheyne, speaking of the disorders of a disease'd liver, fays, Were there any art or medicine to turn or make choler (aduft, black, yellow, or green) an innocent, acid, active, liquor onely (as it is in the animals that live onely on vegetables), it would infalliblely cure these disorders.‡

""Tis wonderful," he says, "in what sprightlynefs, ftrength, activity and freedom of fpirit,

Dr. Cheynes Esfay on the gout, p. 20.

+ Idem, English malady, p. 253. He has an entire chapter "Of nervous cafes, requiring a ftrict and total milk, feed, and vegetable diet," in which he relates fome remarkable cures (Ibi, p. 184); and mentions, throughout his book, many cafes of patients relieve'd from their complaints by ve getable food.

English malady, p. 187.

a low (i. e. vegetable) diet wil preferve those that have habituateëd themselves to it. My worthy friend, mister Web, is ftil alive. He, by the quickness of the facultys of the mind, and the activity of the organs of his body, fhews the great benefit of a low diet, liveing alltogether on vegetable food and pure element."*

"Here is doctor Taylor," fays doctor Johnfon, " by a refolute adherence to bread and milk, with a better appearance of health than he has had for a long time pass'd." This doctor Taylor was a different perfon from the one allready mention'd, being vicar of Ashburn, and upward, at that time, of fourscore.

"The milk of those women," fays Rousseau, "who [nurfe children and] live chiefly on vegetables, is more fweet and falutary than that of carnivorous females. Form'd out of substanceës of a fimilar nature, it keeps longer, as it is less fubject to putrefaction: and, with respect to its quantity, every one knows that pulfe and vegetables increase the quantity of blood more than meat; and why not, therefor, that of the milk? I cannot believe," ads he, "that a child, who is not wean'd too foon, or should be wean'd onely

* Essay on bealth, p. 32.

+ Letters to mistrefs Thrale, II, 224.

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