If medical men, instead of quibbling about the word “Vegetarian,” would recommend to their clients the use of animal products, as a substitute for “butchers’ meat,” there would be a great gain to the humanities of diet. Incidentally, it must be remarked, the doctors quite admit the efficiency of such substitutes; for in their eagerness to convict Vegetarians of inconsistency in using animal products, they guilelessly give away their own case by arguing that, of course, on this diet the Vegetarians do well enough! As for those ultra-consistent persons who sometimes write as if it were not worth while to discontinue the practice of cow-killing, unless we also immediately discontinue the practice of using milk–that is to say, who think the greater reform is worthless without the lesser and subsequent one–I can only express my respectful astonishment at such reasoning. It is as though a traveller were too “consistent” to start on a journey because he might be required to “change carriages” on the way.
Henry S. Salt (1851-1939) Excerpted from “The Humanities of Diet” (Manchester: The Vegetarian Society, 1914), serialised on The Grumpy Vegan and available in full at the Animal Rights Library. Learn more Henry Salt.
