SUMMARY (Deborah Madsen):

Despite the numerous topics announced in the lengthy title, the treatise is divided into two chapters. The first is concerned with the detrimental effects of distilled alcoholic spirits (as opposed to beer and ale) and tobacco, especially upon women. The second chapter is devoted to food: the dangers of consuming flesh and the health benefits of a diet comprised of herbs, fruit, vegetables, and grains. Tryon also offers some thoughts on the reasons why flesh is now the preferred food in England. The book is addressed especially to women upon whom, Tryon claims, the future of human posterity depends.

He positions his tract as a source of necessary advice to those who are unaware of the dangers posed by a flesh-based diet and intemperate dietary habits, including the drinking of alcohol in place of water.

If Men and Women were but sensible of the danger, and terrible Diseases that are contracted by the frequent eating and drinking of those things that are unequal in themselves, as Brandy, Rumm and other Spirituous Drinks and high prepared Foods, they would not so eagerly desire them. Do not all or most that do accustome themselves to such things quickly spoil their Healths? Nature is Simple and Innocent, and the Simplicity thereof cannot be continued, but by Sobriety and Temperance in Meats and Drinks that are Simple and harmless, which will not only gratify Nature, but contribute both due and moyst Nourishment, far beyond all lushions [sic] Fat, compounded Dishes of the Richest Food, and Spirituous Drinks, as it appears by many hundreds of Poor People who are constrained by pure necessity, not by Wisdome, to Live for the most part on Simple Food and mean Drinks, their Labour hard, Cloathing thin, open Air, cold Houses, small Fires, hard Beds, standing on Earthen Floors; by all which means, they are not only preserv'd in better Health, but also enabled to endure Labour with more ease and pleasure, then the Intemperately Superfluous can lye a Bed or sit by the Fire. O then how excellent are the ways of Temperance and Sobriety! they free the Body from pain, and the mind from perturbations, sweetning all Gods Blessings, and giving the opportunity of time, which being well Imployed, affords many benefits both to the Body and Mind; for what advantage is it if a Man possess the whole World, if his Body be full of pain through Intemperance, which for the most part no less affecteth and indisposeth the Mind (7).

The negative effects of alcoholic spirits on the body are intensified by climate, Tryon argues, so that in a hot climate the “internal spirits” are inflamed, causing the body to move in a more animated way. This is followed by a process of physical weakening as the stomach becomes “feeble, cold, and raw,” a condition that can only be improved by further consumption of alcoholic spirits because “all such Fiery strong Drinks do not only Prey on the Natural Spirits, but also too violently do evaporate them” (7-8). For those inhabiting such climates as the West Indies, the drinking of alcohol and the “Common eating of Salt-Fish and Flesh, which are all great Extreams, do thereby become very obnoxious to the dry Belly-Ache, or Griping of the Guts, Dropsies and the Gout, for all such Food and Drink does violently stir up and consume the Natural Heat and moisture” (8). Tryon proposes as a solution to this problem and the health consequences that "as God is always good, and his Hand-Maid Nature an Indulgent Mother, so they have as it were chalk'd out the Means, and prescribed a Diet whereby these Diseases may be prevented, would Men but be so wise as to observe and follow it; for all hot Climates do furnish the Natives with wonderful variety and plenty of Herbs and Fruits, far exceeding cold Countries therein, both in quantity and quality; for in those hot Regions, the Sun hath greater power to prepare all such things" (9).

Tryon's explanations are based on two theories, the first of which is the theory of humors. He argues that women, and children, are more vulnerable to the negative effects of tobacco, alcoholic spirits and "extremes" either in "Meats, Drinks, or Exercises, without mannifest danger to their Healths, they be[i]ng generally more Sanguine then Men, and their Central Heat [w]eaker, therefore all kind of Inequality makes deeper Impression [o]n them, and they are sooner moved to all kinds of Passions: [f]or Women in their Radix are Compounded more of the sweet [f]riendly Sanguine Nature, their dignification being chiefly from [t]he Element of Water, but the Root of Mens Nature is from the [s]trong might of the Fire (11).

The second theoretical basis that Tryon uses is the theory of analogy, whereby “every like ... works on and awakens its likeness … for every individual Man has essentially in him the true Natures and Essences of all the Beasts of the Field, and Fishes of the Sea, as also of all Herbs and Fruits, Stones and Minerals, and whatsoever else can be thought of” (15). This is Tryon's explanation for the biblical prohibition against the consumption of “unclean beasts.” He describes the difference between clean and unclean creatures in terms of the carnism of the "unclean" diet: “no Creatures that are clean will eat Flesh, except they be taught it, and brought to it by degrees; on the other side, all such Animals as naturally will eat Flesh, are by all means counted unclean, as Dogs, Cats, Bears, Wolves, Foxes and many others both in the Sea and Land, and most Men will avoid the eat[i]ng of such Creatures, as being unclean in the Root of their Natures” (19). By forbidding the consumption of flesh, Moses was protecting human nature from contamination by “bestial qualities” (15). Thus, while “All Vegetables and Fruits being in themselves of a clean Simple Nature and Opperation [sic], which being well prepared and temperately eaten, have onely power to waken their Similes in the Body and Senses.” In contrast, however:

all Beasts, especially unclean Beasts, are endued with all kind of Beastial Passions, as Anger, Revenge, Covetuousness, Love and Hate, which dispositions and Passions of the Flesh, but especially the Blood, doth retain after such Animals are Killed; and for that reason it was, that the Blood of all sorts of Beasts was so strictly forbidden, for the Essential Spirits dwell in the Blood, and in the Blood and Spirits lye hid all the dispositions and Inclinations the Creature was endued withal, and therefore all sorts of Flesh that were permitted to be eaten were to be well Purged from the Blood. And also this same Blood was either to be consumed by Fire, or an hole made in the Earth and the Blood cast into it and covered, that the wrathful Spirits and Vapours thereof might not defile the Air, which is continually Breathed into our Bodies; for when any Creature is Killed, the great pain and Agony they endure does so powerfully awaken the Center of the wrathful Fire, and also the Internal Poysons which are the Root of every Life, that the said Fierce Poysonous Spirits seize the Blood on their right Fountain of pre[se]rvation, so that the Blood does not only contain all the natural [d]ispositions, passions and Inclinations, but also the awakened Poysons and irritated Spirits which were violently stirred up by Deaths stroke. For when the natural Life is in danger (the continuation of which is so sweet unto all Creatures, and they do so unwillingly part with it, especially when the Creature is in perfect Health and Strength) what a strange fear and dread must needs attend the Creature in this condition? and how strongly and violently are all the Centers and Powers of nature stirred up? and then are awakened the revengeful Spirits, which do contain the Blood, for that is their Habitation, which in this Agonous condition does often spread it self through the whole Body, and makes the Flesh look red, but this is generally drawn back again by the drawing away of the Blood where the wound is made. Now if this Blood be exposed to the open Air, these fiery dark wrathful Spirits do by degrees evaporate, and incorporate themselves with the Air, and so de[fi]les it, and renders it pernicious (15-16).

The inhalation of this poisonous atmosphere affects those living near slaughterhouses and, especially, those who work within them: “for this cause all Butchers and others, that do use such Trades, are more fierce and cruel, sooner moved to wrath than others; killing is as easie and familiar to them as Plowing the Land is to the Husbandman; and in a word, they are far more inclined to violence than men of other Imployments are” (16). Not only the slaughtering and consumption of “beasts” but also working in close proximity with them has a deleterious effect on humans who develop “dull, heavy, sordid dispositions, yet subtle and cunning in a Beastial way” while, Tryon proposes, “those whose Conversation is amongst Men, as Citizens and Merchants; have they not higher and greater Spirits, being more tractable and humane, fair and ingenious in all their dealings and conversations” (17). The reason for these differences produced by environmental influences he explains: “all things have a sympathetical operation, whether it be Imployments, Meats, Drinks, or Communications, every thing does secretly awaken its like property, which do often captivate the spirit of a Man before he is sensible of it, being ignorant of the nature and sympathetical operation all things have with his own Nature (17).

Tryon concludes that if his advice is followed, many diseases of body and afflictions of mind would be avoided: “What I have delivered, is the very Doctrine of Nature, approved by Religion, justified by Reason, and confirmed by Experience; Those that wilfully slight so many Monitors, will scarce deserve Pity in their Misery (22). The reason why flesh, and the misery it brings, is so much preferred as food is that humanity has become alienated from what Tryon calls "the Innocent ways of God and Nature." This is because of the incremental process of adaptation to the negative effects of carnism: "the Radix of Beasts and Men have a greater Affinity, and the more ignorant and sottish people are, the more they desire to eat Flesh, and the more Flesh they eat, the more Sottish, Ignorant, and Bruitish they become (20-21). "Clean" creatures desire clean food that does not include flesh, which cannot be obtained without the violent slaughter of creatures who value their own lives as much as humans value theirs. Tryon proposes that the violence of killing for food encourages anger and cruelty thus deepening human alienation from nature:

if Men had not departed from the Innocent ways of God and Nature, and suffer their Wills to enter into the Wrath and Beastial Nature, they would not so much desire Flesh; for Flesh cannot be eaten without violence done to Nature, for the Lives of all Beasts are as sweet to them, and they as much desire to continue them as Men do, and as unwillingly part with them. And the Groanings of these Creatures that suffer Oppression and Pain, do awaken the Wrath in them that do it, which is a certain Retaliation or Reward; for all kind of Cruelty does stir up and awaken the Wrath of God in Nature. And so on the contrary, all Love and Concord does powerfully beget its likeness. …  Mens coveting to eat so much Flesh is too plain a Sign, that they are departed from that Innocent and Simple Life for which they were made, and en[t]]red into the contrary (21).

In this context, Tryon concludes that, having been informed by his explanations and the examples from the Bible and the Pythagoreans, those who continue to suffer from the health impacts of a carnist diet deserve their suffering.