11 OCTOBER 1879, Page 13

SENSIBLE VEGETARIANISM.

[TO THE EDITOR OF Tag " SPROTATOR.1 SIRS Will you allow me to say that the writer of the article on " Vegetarianism," in your impression of last week, entirely misrepresents mg—I am sure unintentionally—in describing me as a vegetarian, and in implying that I have said that 4' flesh is probably as an article of diet far from wholesome P" I should not ask you to allow me to make this correction, but to allow it to be supposed that I have anywhere said or written what thd experience of most men teaches them to be rank non- sense would necessarily weaken, and probably destroy, the effect (whatever and however small it may be) of my advocacy of greater moderation in flesh-eating, less extravagance and more skill in cooking, and the more general and varied use of vegetables and cereals, as an element of health and economy in diet.

I have illustrated in more than one place the disadvantages of an excessively or exclusively vegetable diet, the chief of which are bulk and defect of variety. Allow me to add, however, to the statement of your reviewer, that " a glance at his dentition shows that man is meant to be an omnivorous animal," is a somewhat rash repetition of a hasty statement, often made, but hardly tenable, after a comparison of the dentition of man with that of the anthropoid apes„ exclusively vegetable-feeders. I am wholly opposed to the purely vegetarian theory and practice, but I should be sorry to rely upon a broken reed, such as indications from human dentition, which is incapable of affording any logical support to either view, and must be elim- inated from the argument.--I am, Sir, &o., ERNEST HART.