SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

As stated in the Preface, the book is concerned with both the “physical constitutions” and the “mental and moral characters” of the human (iii). More specifically, Nichols' aim is

to write a plain, practical work, as free as possible from technicalities, which will enable every reader to understand the present condition of human society; the structure and functions of the human body; the laws of generation, or the methods by which the species is continued and character determined by hereditary influences; the laws of health; the nature, prevention, and cure of diseases; the moral and social nature of man, and that state of morals and constitution of society which will secure his highest earthly good, and his greatest happiness (iv).

Nichols sees society as “disordered and diseased” (iv). His reform efforts, particularly with respect to medical practice and dietetics, aim to rectify the situation. To this end, the book first provides an discussion on the nature of the human within the natural order. Next, an overview of human physiology is followed by a section on sexuality and reproduction. Nichols then focuses on the notion of health and the relation of health to disease, including a discussion of the water-cure and some of its practices. The final section of the book deals with morality, social organization, and education.

With respect to nutrition and diet, Nichols claims that “there can be no doubt that fruits, nuts, and grains, or the seeds of vegetables, are the most natural and therefore the most healthful food of the human species” (196). More specifically, Nichols observes: "Three fourths of the human race live on grains, fruits, bulbs, tubers, and the leaves and stalks of plants. Wheat, rice, Indian corn, rye, oats, barley, sago, tapioca, arrowroot, potatoes, yams, onions, cabbages, bread-fruit, plantains, bananas, are the great staples of food for man. Add to these grapes, apples, pears, peaches, plums, olives, melons, berries, &c., and we have a vast variety of the most healthful and delicious articles of food, abundant for all our needs" (334). In contrast, meat is “a very fertile source of disease” (353).

Children, too, should live on a veg*n diet as much as possible: “The food of childhood should consist chiefly of brown bread, wheat, oatmeal, rice, milk, fruit, and vegetables – substantially, a bread, milk, and fruit diet; with an avoidance of fine flour, pastry, especially that made by bakers and confectioners, and concentrated sweets” (329). They should not eat “any kind of flesh or fish, and are much better without it. Flesh, especially, is a stimulating form of food, often impure and unhealthy in itself, causing fever of the blood, and exciting sensual feelings, which are among the chief perils of childhood” (329). “For the same reasons,” Nichols continues, “children should never have pepper, spices, hot sauces, heavy wines, beer, or spirits, and their delicate nerves are always injured by tea or coffee. Chocolate is too heavy, heating, stimulating, and bilious, and even the mildest cocoa is doubtful” (329-330). Indeed, a vegan diet  contributes to the control of sexual urges: “Every man and every woman,” Nichols writes, “living simply, purely, and temperately – respecting the laws of health in regard to air, food, dress, exercise, and habits of life, not only can live in the continence of a pure virgin life when single, and in the chastity which should be observed by all married partners – but be stronger, happier, every way better by so living” (296).

All the these considerations contribute into Nichols' understanding of more general and wide-ranging social reform. For, as Nichols diagnoses, “[o]ur social state is one of war; class is arrayed against class in serried ranks, and the conflict is going on. What we need is peace, the love of God, and the brotherhood of man; not merely to be talked about on Sunday, but to become the reality of daily life” (407). Notably, one of the first things Nichols mentions as a contributing factor to remedying this situation is his conviction that the “State can and ought to resume its rights over all property which is not managed so as to promote the public welfare … for the higher and highest law in every community is the general welfare and happiness of its members” (409). Nichols goes even further when he writes:

If the soil of a nation is the common property of its inhabitants, because necessary to the production of the food upon which they must all be fed, a principle admitted in the poor laws and all taxation, all other natural wealth must also be rightfully the common property of all. The navigation of all seas and great rivers, and the produce of all fisheries, must be free to all mankind. The ocean is the highway of nations, and there are no individual owners of whales or herrings. I see no reason why all the wild lands, forests, and game of a country should not be the common property of its inhabitants. Certainly all stores of wealth deep buried in the earth – salt, coal, iron, copper, tin, silver, and gold – cannot rightfully belong to the persons who chance to be in possession of the soil that lies above them (410).

Indeed, Nichols holds that “[t]he rightful possession or use of land is the first condition of a true society, and no such society can exist until this first right is obtained” (411). In general, “[a]ll surplus of wealth is for the common welfare” (413). Nichols has an anti-capitalist understanding of trade, as he believes not only that “the whole system of trade and commerce needs a radical reform” as “[i]t is immoral in principle, and demoralising in practice,” but he calls for a system in which

every article produced should be registered at the actual cost of its production, and the standard price should cover a fair average. Articles could then be exchanged, value for value, cost for cost, including, of course, transport, storage, etc. Profit, the speculating, gambling gains of trade, where ignorance or necessity are taken advantage of by unscrupulous greed, should be banished from all decent society. It is a question of economy as well as justice. Proudhon said, “Property is theft.” It is very true that much property is accumulated by means as dishonourable as most kinds of stealing (421-422).

Nichols' views are thus not dissimilar to those of some of his Fourierist and anarcho-communist peers such as Charles Lane and A. Bronson Alcott. When such “a system of exchanges is fully organised,” Nichols writes, “we shall have free trade in its reality – the exchange of all commodities, labour for labour, at equitable prices, to be fixed by mutual agreement, neither party taking the slightest advantage of the other” (422). Nichols provides a kind of thumbnail history of social theories from Moses to Plato to Fourierism, suggesting that a form of Fourierism with “some modification” would work best and making a series of propositions towards this end (431).

Education should cater to “the purity, the honesty, the unselfishness, the regard for the rights of others, the devotion to the welfare of others and the highest good of all, which are the elements of every noble character, and the true motives of action in all our relations to our fellow-men” (466). Ultimately,

every faculty of man, every propensity, every sentiment, from the perception of order or number, to love, reverence, hope, charity, conscience, and the highest elements of heroism and religion, are to be educated, trained to use, strengthened, and perfected. Man has no faculty which may not be regulated, ordered, and perfected for the highest use, by the power of his own good will and the aid of others; and this training of humanity to its highest condition, this repression of whatever is evil, and culture of what is good, is the great work of education, not only in childhood and youth, but through our whole earthly existence (467-468).

In all this, Nichols favors “a gradual change than a volcanic eruption of human passions” (469); that is, reform rather than revolution. He is convinced that “the existing social system is wrong” and “must come to an end” (470, 471). This will happen

either by social conflicts – the struggle and warfare of the poor against the rich, with all the sufferings and dangers of such a contest; or by all classes uniting to form a new order of society, based upon principles of equity and humanity, by which rich and poor, every class in the community, will be raised to a higher and happier position – a social order in which there will be free play for all the talents, all the faculties of man – in which industry will have its rewards, and worth of every kind appreciation and honour (471).

Thus all of Nichols' dietary and medical reform efforts contribute to his gradualism:

There is nothing destructive in the preparation for a better social state, and there need be no disorder in its inception. On the contrary, the whole progress should be orderly, and one of improvement of our actual conditions. We cannot take the first step without gain. Cleanliness, a pure diet, the disuse of intoxicating drinks and tobacco, the improvement of our minds and manners, the cultivation of the high Christian virtues, of purity, temperance, order, patience, industry, and honesty, can do no harm in any social state. We cannot educate ourselves too thoroughly, or too carefully train all our faculties to the best uses. There is no danger of our being too kind, too helpful, too unselfish, too full of the feeling and expression of the charity that covereth a multitude of sins, and is the crown of all virtues. There is no preparation for any future so good as making the best we can of the present (474).