Diptheria (1862)

AUTHOR: Trall, Russell Thacher

KEYWORDS: animals, diphtheria, disease, food, health, water-cure

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen)

In this book Trall promotes veganism as an essential aspect of the treatment of diphtheria, while he identifies meat-eating is one of its main causes. As stated in the Preface, the book responds to the “increasing prevalence” of diphtheria in the United States and “the disastrous results of drug-medication” in its treatment. Trall promotes “the Hygienic or Hygeio-Therapeutic method of treatment” instead (n. pag.). The causes of diphtheria are “impure or indigestible food, with inattention to personal cleanliness – the chief sources of impure blood and foul secretions” (101), and specifically “swine raising and pork diet” are primarily to blame:

That the flesh and grease of that filthy scavenger, the hog, in the form of pork, ham, sausages, lard, etc., constitute a most impure and blood-poisoning aliment, I believe no intelligent physiologist will deny. And that a sty-fed hog is a diseased carcass, is evident to all pure senses. That pork and scrofula stand to each other in the relation of cause and effect, has been proverbial among observing men for centuries. Yet all over this Christian land some form of sty-fed and sty-fattened hog-food is one of the most common, most cherished, and most relished dishes to be found on the tables of the rich or poor; while in an ordinary hotel, boarding-house, or restaurant, or even in a private family, but few articles of food can be found not attainted with some part or portion of the tissue or adipose matter derived from this disgusting animal (102).

Trall is “of the opinion that all of the contagious diseases in the world originate from slaughter-houses, hog-pens, distilleries, barn-yards, stables and henneries, provision dépôts, etc., where animal offal and excrements accumulate, and where animal matter is constantly undergoing decomposition and putrefaction, thus loading the atmosphere with miasms and impurities.” Consequently, everyone should “become vegetarians” in order to put “an end at once” to “such diseases as eruptive fevers, and of contagious diseases of every sort” (102-103).

Trall strongly criticizes dietary prescriptions of “beef-tea, milk, eggs, brandy, wine, and coffee” (202), suggesting that a fully vegan diet is the best remedy:

During the acute stage of the disease, while the fever is violent and the inflammation severe, no food can be digested, and none should be taken. As the fever subsides, the patient may be allowed a little gruel, and good fruit, to be followed, as convalescence advances, with such farinaceous articles as mealy potatoes, beans, peas, unleavened bread, etc. Baked apples, tomatoes, stewed or raw, sweet oranges, etc., may generally be allowed as freely as the patient desires, and, until the crisis of the disease is fairly passed, no other food is required (248).

Trall suggests that a diet based exclusively on fruit may be particularly wholesome, writing that “[t]he value of a really frugivorous diet, in febrile diseases, has never been sufficiently appreciated” (249).