Fruits and Farinacea
.png) First edition title page | |
| Author | John Smith |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Vegetarianism |
| Genre | Treatise |
| Publisher | John Churchill |
Publication date | 1845 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 314 |
| OCLC | 610348355 |
| Text | Fruits and Farinacea at the Internet Archive |
Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man[note 1] is an 1845 treatise by English banker and vegetarianism activist John Smith advocating for a vegetarian diet. Drawing upon anatomical, physiological, chemical, historical, and biblical evidence, Smith argued that humans are naturally suited to a diet of fruits, grains, and other plant-based foods, and that the consumption of animal products is a primary cause of disease and moral decline. The book was one of the earliest comprehensive defences of vegetarianism in the English language and became a key text in the early British vegetarian movement. It was widely reviewed in contemporary medical and popular journals, receiving both praise and criticism, and remained influential for decades, undergoing several reprints and adaptations in Britain and the United States.
Background
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John Smith was an English banker, spiritualist, and respected community figure in Malton, known for his advocacy of vegetarianism in the mid-nineteenth century. He adopted a vegetarian diet around 1835 after reading a paper titled "Manifestation of Mind", which highlighted the cognitive and emotional capacities of animals, including their ability to experience pleasure and pain. This ethical insight inspired his commitment to diet reform and eventually led to the publication of Fruits and Farinacea in 1845.[1]
Summary
[edit]Smith cited research from anatomy, chemistry, history, and physiology to argue that the natural food of humans is a vegetarian diet. He cited the Bible as evidence that fruits and farinacea—starchy plant foods, such as grains, pulses, and root vegetables—are the original food in the Garden of Eden before the fall of man.[2][3] Smith also documented how ancient peoples mentioned in the Bible and early nations lived on a vegetarian diet.[2]
Smith argued from the shape and size of human teeth, conformation of the jaw, length of the alimentary canal and other anatomical evidence that man was not intended to be either carnivorous or omnivorous.[2] He stated that a vegetarian diet is sufficient to maintain physical activity and strength, and that extremes of temperature and warm climates are best endured on a vegetarian rather than a meat-based diet.[2][4] He argued that food derived from animals is the main cause of severe diseases and that the constant use of animal food causes gout, rheumatism and many other disorders. Smith believed that a vegetarian diet is more pleasurable, favourable to mental vigour and the development of moral faculties, and best for promoting health and longevity.[2][4]
Reception
[edit]Fruits and Farinacea was influential in the early vegetarian movement and was widely reviewed in the mainstream press, aided by its publication through the medical publisher John Churchill.[1] The earliest reviews of the book were most favourable.[2][5] However, it was later negatively reviewed in many medical journals for relying on outdated sources from ancient history and presenting flawed arguments from physiology.[6][7][8]
It was positively reviewed in the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal in 1845, which described it as a "curious and interesting work".[5] The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal gave the book a detailed fourteen-page review which was supportive of Smith's arguments against excessive meat consumption but recommended a mixed diet as the most suitable.[2]
In 1846, The Medico-Chirurgical Review commented:[4]
In conclusion, we may express the opinion that Mr. Smith has stated his case ably but not successfully; he has said enough in favour of an exclusively vegetable diet to show that it offers all the requisites for human sustenance, when fancy, ill-health, or any particular circumstance, may induce its adoption; but no sufficient arguments or experience have been advanced to lead us to believe that any advantage would arise from its substitution in place of the ordinary mixed regimen.
A reviewer in the Monthly Journal of Medical Science in 1849 took issue with the book because many of the cases Smith cited of individuals and communities living on a vegetable diet were not strictly vegetarian, as they also consumed milk.[3] Smith's book appeared to argue for an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, but this was never specified. This also contradicted his statement that "vegetables contain all the elements and qualities necessary for the complete nutrition of man." The reviewer agreed with Smith that many people eat too much meat but concluded the book was too extreme in promoting the total exclusion of all meat from the diet.[3]
The New York Medical Gazette and Journal of Health praised Smith's writing and described it as "the best book on the subject, and immeasurably superior to any which have been written here in this department." However, the reviewer criticized Russell Trall's added notes as a salesman advertisement for other publications.[9] A reviewer in the New Hampshire Journal of Medicine in 1854 was unconvinced by Smith's arguments against meat and also criticized Trall's notes as shameless sales promotion.[10]
A review in the Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science in 1874 commented that Smith's "arguments and proofs are in the main so unsatisfactory, that we are more inclined than ever to be omnivorous".[8] The Quarterly Journal of Science concluded that "we have been unable to find a trace of sound logic or convincing argument in the whole book, and are more than ever assured that our omnivorous diet is the right one."[7]
The British Medical Journal attacked the book in an 1897 review as non-scientific.[6] The review noted that Smith relied on obsolete historical sources and that his religious arguments were "fanciful". The book was also mocked for physiological inaccuracies—for example, Smith mistakenly claimed that the pancreas secretes nitrogen when dietary intake is lacking.[6]
Legacy
[edit]In 1860, Smith published The Principles and Practice of Vegetarian Cookery, an ovo-lacto vegetarian cookbook, at the request of James Simpson, to whom it was also dedicated.[1]
In his 1898 history Fifty Years of Food Reform, vegetarian historian Charles W. Forward described Fruits and Farinacea as "the most comprehensive and complete work on the subject published in England up to that date".[11] Historian James Gregory has characterised the book as a "major text" in the development of the vegetarian movement.[12]
Publication history
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Fruits and Farinacea was first published by John Churchill in 1845, with a dedication to the vegetarian activist Dr. William Lambe.[13] An American second edition was published in 1854 with notes and illustrations by Russell Trall.[14] A condensed version was published in 1873, edited by Professor Francis William Newman for the Vegetarian Society.[15] In 1897, a further edition was edited by Charles W. Forward, who included additional commentary and revisions.[16]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Full title: Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man, Being an Attempt to Prove, from History, Anatomy, Physiology, and Chemistry, that the Original, Natural, and Best Diet of Man is Derived from the Vegetable Kingdom.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (2002). "Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food reformers of the Victorian Era". The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF) (Thesis). Vol. 2. University of Southampton. p. 108.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man". Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. 65: 190–204. 1846.
- ^ a b c "Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man". Monthly Journal of Medical Science. 9: 1218–1226. 1849.
- ^ a b c "Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man". The Medico-Chirurgical Review. 48: 378–388. 1846.
- ^ a b "Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man". Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal. 9: 628. 1845.
- ^ a b c "Reviewed Work: Fruits And Farinacea The Proper Food Of Man. Vol. IV by John Smith, C. W. Forward". The BMJ. 2 (1911): 405. 1897. JSTOR 20250967.
- ^ a b "Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man". Quarterly Journal of Science. 11: 239–240. 1874.
- ^ a b "Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man". Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science. 29: 204. 1874.
- ^ "Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man". New York Medical Gazette and Journal of Health. 5: 426–427. 1854.
- ^ "Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man". New Hampshire Journal of Medicine. 4: 335–336. 1854.
- ^ Forward, Charles Walter (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: The Ideal Publishing Union. p. 15.
- ^ Gregory, James (2007). Of Victorians and Vegetarians: The Vegetarian Movement in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Tauris Academic Studies. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-84511-379-7.
- ^ Smith, John (1880). Newman, Francis William (ed.). Substance of the Work Entitled Fruits and Farinacea the Proper Food of Man (PDF) (Abridged ed.). Manchester: John Heywood.
- ^ Smith, John (1854). Trall, Russell Thacher (ed.). Fruits and Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man (2nd ed.). New York: Fowler and Wells.
- ^ Smith, John (1873). Newman, Francis William (ed.). Substance of the Work Entitled Fruits and Farinacea the Proper Food of Man (PDF) (Abridged ed.). Manchester: John Heywood.
- ^ "Review of Fruits And Farinacea The Proper Food Of Man. Vol. IV". The British Medical Journal. 2 (1911): 405–405. 1897. ISSN 0007-1447.
External links
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Media related to Fruits and Farinacea at Wikimedia Commons- Fruits and Farinacea at the Internet Archive
