VEGETARIANISM AND LEGAL SUICIDE


A vegetarian, if he is wise, not only abstains from what he looks upon as second-hand food containing quantities of more or less ready made waste products, but he substitutes for these foods he considers best suitable for his particular requirements, that will keep him in perfect health and fitness.


IN speaking of Vegetarianism it should be clearly understood that in the view of the writer Vegetarianism means far more than a negative thing. In fact more than Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary claims for it. A vegetarian is said to be “One who holds that vegetables are the only proper food for man”. By many this is narrowed down to mean “One who lives on cabbages and but little else”. The vegetarian, on the other hand, claims all the vast varieties of non-animal foods the world produces for this use, comprising fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes and nuts in endless varieties.

He claims that all humans have the right to eat these in their natural condition, first hand; not for the animal to eat them first, may be the pig, and then he eat the pig with all its impurities, caused chiefly by the filthy unnatural condition under which it is kept.

A vegetarian, if he is wise, not only abstains from what he looks upon as second-hand food containing quantities of more or less ready made waste products, but he substitutes for these foods he considers best suitable for his particular requirements, that will keep him in perfect health and fitness. He endeavours further to eat no more of such foods, and no greater number at a time than the body requires.

He recognizes the fact that his digestive organs, like all other parts of his wonderful body, require and demand rest, and if rest is denied them ill health legal suicide must ultimately follow. The vegetarian further considers that all and every food he eats should be his medicine, and all the medicines he takes should be food.

The writer would not think of laying down hard and fast rules regarding what is best for any individual to eat. So much depends on the work he or she has to do, his general make-up, and the capabilities of his digestive organs to make the best of the food eaten.

When a man or a woman adopts a vegetarian diet they do so for health or other reasons, and if they follow the principle that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well, a little thought and experience will soon convince them that they are travelling the road that leads to fitness of both mind and body, not the road to legal suicide. All who adopt this better and safer mode of living, and who keep their eyes open to learn the lessons that facts and experience provide, will know that they have ceased to practise the legal suicide their former method of eating and drinking entailed.

Every week we hear of sudden deaths of good men and women apparently in the prime of life. Of such it is often remarked, “He did not take the care of himself he should have done, he ate too much and weighed far too much to reach a ripe old age.” But is this not legal suicide?.

Only recently I heard of a gentleman who had for many years occupied a high and prominent position in his profession, who, on retiring some months ago was presented with a cheque for a considerable sum by his friends and admirers, with a request that he would use it to take a long sea voyage after a life of strenuous self-sacrificing work for others. This he did, and he doubtless had a “good time” and a well deserved rest for everything but his digestive organs. In any case he returned later in a condition anything but fit, in fact less fit he thought, than he had ever previously been in his life.

Fortunately for him he had a true friend, a doctor who practised on other than the orthodox lines, who would make, to him, no charge for his services. His friend, however, informed him that he had diabetes very badly and advised him what he should eat and drink, or rather, what he should not eat and drink if he wished to get bitter. As this was what he did wish to do, and being willing to pay the price, he now appears to be on the high road to recovery. Legal suicide will thus, I trust, claim one victim less.

Of all conditions which the writer knows he thinks the greatest temptation for over-eating and drinking is provided by a long sea voyage on a first class steamship with no work to do and its multitudinous opportunities for indulging. The vegetarian under such conditions has far less temptation to overeat than the meat eater owing to the fact that although the vegetarian may live on foods far more nourishing, they are much less stimulating than beef and mutton.

For stimulants always ask for stimulants, whether in the form of beef and mutton, the most stimulating of solids, or alcohol, the most stimulating of liquids. So their temptation to commit legal suicide is lessened accordingly. Rest assured the enjoyment they get from eating and drinking is none the less on that account.

A very striking case was brought to my notice some years ago of an athlete who had been rather badly injured on the football field years before he was married. He always experienced very great pain in the region of the old wound every Monday while seldom being troubled in like manner at any other time. It proved to be the old story of no time to overeat during the week, but little else to do at week-ends. He was advised to eat nothing from noon on Saturday until Monday morning, but one of the following selections: fresh fruit and Place-o-bred or other wholemeal biscuits; stewed fruit and Granarg or similar biscuit.

Or failing any of these bringing about the desired results Nuto Cream Soup and Granarg biscuits, obtainable from Health Food Stores. Unlike many people who would prefer to eat as usual and trust to pills or some advertised remedy to put them right, the athlete tried first doing without food entirely for one week-end, and then the above alternatives, the result being that the pain was absent on each and every following Monday morning.

With care in what he eats, and less in quantity, he has never experienced a recurrence of the same trouble. Thus, with wise eating, the trouble that had practically become chronic was arrested, life on Mondays as well as other days was rendered more worth living, and thereby legal suicide was prevented.

Another and quite different form of legal suicide I consider is for doctors or others to say, or make anyone believe they are suffering from an “incurable disease”. I am not prepared to admit there is or ever was such a disease. Disease disease is, I believe, the outcome of the breaking of Natures laws, and such laws cannot be broken with impunity. Eventually one has to pay the price of all such misdeeds.

With the discontinuance of such transgression, and the working with, instead of against Natures laws, who is to limit Natures powers of healing? Says John Maillard, “I have vowed to my Master that I will never rest until the so-called incurable diseases are curable.” This is the faith that has removed mountains, such as Hells Gate that once blocked New York harbour. John Maillard also adds, “Who has said that these afflictions and infirmities are incurable? It was not told to you in the Gospels!”.

An incurable disease seems to the writer to admit one of two things. Either we have so little knowledge of Natures healing powers that our ignorance has obliterated our faith, or legal suicide has been committed already.

To the meat-eater the vegetarian can unhesitatingly say that on a vegetarian diet life will be found more worth living. Your health will be improved. Your outlook on life will be brighter. Your will to be well in both body and mind will be greater. The craving for highly spiced and stimulating foods and drink will disappear and your temptations to commit suicide, legal or illegal, will be lessened.

No longer shall we allow

“Some things to pull us up,

Other things to pull us down,

While we wobble between

Earth, and a golden crown.”.

In acute diseases patients should be given food only after considerable time has elapsed and when the disease is diminishing, in order to ensure that the severity of the disease is broken by a fast which acts beneficially by depriving the disease of its material.

As I have been discussing the science of impending illness I ought now to describe the method of treatment which should be adopted as soon as indications of impending disease have become noticeable. If such indications have become apparent, by far the best treatment consists in resting and fasting. If the patient wishes to drink, let it be water. Sometimes treatment by fasting and water drinking continued during a day suffices.

Sometimes, when the indications of approaching disease continue, fasting combined with water drinking should rule during two days. On the ending of the fast, one ought to eat very little and drink only water. On the following day one might add wine and on successive days one might alternate water and wine until all indications of impending illness have disappeared. By acting in this manner people may forestall threatening illnesses.- CELSUS.

James Henry Cook
Henry W.J. Cook was born in Edinburgh in 1870, the eldest son of Dr Edmund Alleyne Cook.

Henry followed in his father's footsteps, obtaining his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Durham in 1891. At the age of 27 he arrived in Melbourne in April 1894 aboard the Port Albert. He was registered as a medical practitioner in Victoria on 4 May 1894.

It appears that Dr Cook already believed in homœopathy, possibly because of his father's influence, as in 1895 Dr Cook took the position of Resident Surgeon of the Melbourne Homœopathic Hospital . (This position was previously held by Dr James Cook, unrelated, who resigned in March 1895). He was listed in the 1896 & 1897 editions of the Melbourne Post Office Directory as being Resident Medical Officer at the Melbourne Homœopathic Hospital, but not in the 1898 edition.

In 1901 he moved to Sale in Eastern Victoria, where he ran a practice in York Street. By 1909 his practice was at Wyndham Street, Shepparton.

By 1919 he had moved to 2 Studley Park Road, Kew, where he died on 7 May, 1923.