Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/130

 Now we come to the question of flesh foods which, I think, must be abandoned if 9s are to be sufficient so as not to injure health. How would the Mahommedans and Parsis do, it may be asked in that case. For them this guide is useless. Tarry a little. I would ask: Are there not many Mahommedans and Parsis who, on account of their poverty, get flesh foods only on rare occasions and some on none? These surely can manage without flesh foods which they get but rarely in India, not for the sake of religion or principles, but for the sake of economy. They are free to take meat whenever they can get it, e.g., in their Inn if they have gone for a Barrister's education. If it be true that one can live on vegetable foods without injuring one's health, why should not all live on a vegetable diet because it is more economical than a meat diet? That vegetarianism exists in England there are living examples to prove. There are vegetarian societies and any quantity of vegetarian literature to testify to the existence of vegetarianism in England. There are living notable Englishmen who are vegetarians. Lord Hannen of the H.M.'s Privy Council, better known as Sir James Hannen, the President of the late Parnell Commission, is a vegetarian. Mr. Gotling of Bombay is a vegetarian. John Wesley was a vegetarian. So was Howard the philanthropist and a host of others all men of light and learning. The poet Shelley was a vegetarian. It is impossible in the compass of a small book to so much as do justice to such a vast subject. I must content myself with referring the inquisitive reader to Perfect Way in Diet by Dr. Anna Kingsford1 who says of herself:

I cured myself of tubercular consumption by living on vegetable food. A doctor told me I had not six months to live. What was I to do? I was to eat raw meat and drink port wine. Well, I went into the country and ate porridge and fruit and appear today on this platform.

There is another advisable book to which the reader might be referred. It is entitled A Plea for Vegetarianism by H. S. Salt.2 Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson, M.B., L.R.C.S., etc., himself not a vegetarian, has come to the following conclusions in his Food for Man.

1. Man, although possessing the capacity of existing on an animal diet in whole or in part, is by original cast adapted to a diet of grain and fruit and, on a scientific adaptation of his natural supplies, might easily be provided with all he can require from that source of subsistence. 1 2

Vide also An Autobiography, Pt. I, Ch. XV. Vide An Autobiography, Pt. I, Ch. XIV