Despite all that has been said, therefore, the only infallible argument in favour of vegetarianism to-day that has the slightest value for the individual is the personal one, to which there is no answer. When a man says that he can exist in perfect health and full possession of his faculties on a fleshless diet, then it is pretty clear that it suits him, and he would be foolish to add flesh if he, for any reason, objected to it. But this is the only reason against a moderate use of flesh food which demands serious consideration.

At the same time we have abundant evidence at our disposal to show that a lacto-vegetarian diet is not only capable of maintaining health, but apparently imparts more endurance than one with a large proportion of flesh in its composition; while even with a carefully selected pure vegetarian diet life and health are not only possible, but in some these attain a higher degree of worth than on any other diet.

I am not inclined to state the case with more emphasis than this, because I do not think that sufficient proof exists to show that flesh in moderation is necessarily productive of intestinal auto-intoxication. It has no obvious influence in this direction in the average mixed feeder, although one cannot view the yearly increasing proportion of deaths from chronic diseases in any civilised country without reflecting that, conjoined with sedentary habits and intestinal inactivity, it may be a factor in the incidence of such ailments.

The chief value of the practice of vegetarianism is the inculcation - tacit or expressed - of the principle of moderation. Those who depend for their nutrition on the ordinary fleshless foods as prepared by Nature may indeed consume more than the mixed feeders, but as hardly more than three-fifths of this amount is utilised, they obtain all the advantages of a moderate diet, and if they possess vigorous digestive organs even these are likely to share in the benefit. When, on the other hand, their alimentary canal is not up to the standard of capacity for dealing with a large quantity of ballast, dyspepsia in one form or another is likely to arise, and in the end malnutrition may supervene.

Those flesh-abstainers who are sufficiently well versed in the tenets of up-to-date vegetarianism will make use of the many excellent manufactured fleshless foods now obtainable, the feature of which is their concentrated and partially digested character, and they are intelligent enough to refuse to burden their digestions with an excess of useless material.

At the same time it is advisable that vegetarian foods should not be subjected to excess of refinement in their manufacture, or else their natural cellulose may require to be supplemented by an artificial addition in this direction.