The evening world., 1894-04-11
VEGETABLES AND STATURE.
DR.. Elliott Answers the Claim that
Meat-Eaters Are Small.
Comparison of Elephant and Fox
Knocked Ont by Facts.

Does eating vegetables make the big
man." asks George X. Elliott, NJ D..
and then he proceeds to poke fun at
Mark ! Knapp In The Medical Record
;or advancing that proposition in an
ar.i,le On the physiological and Path
ul't, al Influence of Vegetables Upon
Man" Dr Elliott IL Il lecturer OF the
faculty II the College Of Physicians and
Surgeons, II microscopic Of note, an in
structive writer On MEDICAL science and
"A busy practitioner as well. Here is
what H. says In rep.y to Mark l. Knapp's
proposition:
The first part Of the article shows
scientific suunlncss an. much care, ami
the statement that both vegetables and
meat are OF like Importance to sustain
oar equilibrium Of health and life IL, ]
believe. for the lin de steele individual,
generally accepted.
! After laying n very good scientific
/ foundation upon food in general, the
writer makes Il very bold statement,
calling Paolo Riccarli 10 the rescue, who,
in substance. has said that vegetables
bring forth tail men, while animal diet
produces short people. The writer fol
lows ms up and settles the matter. as
! he believes, SO ColCluSively that one
might y" led to feel that Darwin. Her
bert Spencer, Huxley and Wallace had
wasted much time trying to fathOm "A
subject 80 easy to und rstand. IT'S not
nor valley. nor herclity that makes the
big man big and the little man little. but
Ii,t only. II Is vegetables that produce
| HEIGHT In animals and man"
| In ANNALS "" are told the proof is
! easy, anG We have but to contrast tn.
y"g"tarlan elephant and OF with the
Y iGsnS"'Ts lion ana fox to be Gon
Which determines the size of these quad
rurcds. our attention is further call 81
T. the fact that the herhivora are pro
pprtionntrlv built, tn" height euuallinL
tn" length of the body, while the car
nvurn ar" destitute" Of all proportion,
LaNiuE short legs. The writer here must
hay" been thinking Of the Carnivorous
greyhound, or dreaming Of the fine pro
portions ut tn" herhivorous rhinucerOs or
giraffe, When he tells us the herhvora
r." larger, and larger on account of
upon our ancient friend the !chthyOsaurus
or on our NOR" modern type of carniro-
rous brcvity and CONFERENCE.-The
halRcna m"stlcetus or whalebunc whale.
R"garGing the latter, however he may
wish to limit his remarks t. terrestrial
with those Of our biologists who pues-
tiOn a place for these monsters among
Carnivora at all, notwithstanding the
fact that our halaena misiicetus de-
YOURS immense quantities Of CrustncearS
and pt.rOpuds, and in modern times has
n'v"r been known u hunt a watermelon
patch or tread down corntielI
Having settled the point that, the size
Of animals H. du" to diet alone, 10y
contrasting the big herbvorous elephant
with the little Carnivorous fox. We are
lei step further and told that 1.-THE
ethnography Of man proves with Ger.
tarty and uos!tiveness the same thing.
W" are invited to study primitive PEG
pie who have not been civilized by the
-
i."pps Of The N"rn and t tHs rataEonian.
and nolyncSians Of the South. What q
difference, of die, in those extrcmes!'
While telling US thnt the Esqumau>
l eat animal food and are small he lead!
us to infer that the Patayonians ar,
large because they are NcEeturianS. Tha
, the latter are large is correct-th"y ar,
very large. While the older voyager'
exaggerated somewhat when they use,
to say that when Patagonian stooc
with his legs apart an ordinary MAI
= could walk between them without stoop
. ing, nevertheless they are known to com
pare in stature favorablY with picked
, English life guards
! But. alas! these same Patagonians ar,
: not VegeturianS. on the contrary. the!
| suhsist almost entirely upon the guam
Cr"atur" they spend their time in hunt
$ ing. This Is thu creature that supplies
and dwelling; our writer. must ais
: have lost sight OF our North American
t Indian in his wanderings for short
, legged and primitive animal feeders.
II Is n fact that the majority OF print
! tive men were small, Notwithstanding
| III" fact that the majority of them wer
= veSetarIans. The mass of eyidenc
Show some connection between barbar
I ism and inferority in size. @, g;
+ South American races: Guiana Indian
g Is mostly below : feet inches; Arawak
seldom more than feet inches
v northern Asia: Kirghlz, average s fee
3 inches.
: southern Asia: familiar aborigines q
a India are described as smaller than tn
: llindous Puttuoas do not exceed ; feet
t Inches; Lrpchhs average about . feet
: JuHngS less than feet.
< Many FucGian tribes are not NOR
= than feet; Andamenese men vary froT
i. tret TO 3 feet: common height of III
S NTf4n Of j. g nGhss t the Grnnr
= This dimtnutire stature, too, in spite c
/, n" fact Of n diet of nuts and fruit, o,
). IKE Ike tie he FMeEianiSS snhsisting m9stl
= Why then look no further than to cor
. meet the small size OF the Esquima
and l.aplnnder with the animal diet
II s!ological cost? Is 1t not as unreasor
=, able II attribute the small size OF III
: Esqntman ana l.app TO their animal di'
X rs II would he To attribute the sma
t. size OF the shetland pony to vegetab
= The Rushman. on the other hand, Ia
g ssarcrly nhab;abIe by any class o r. HI
- man beings lower standard OF growt
Is the natural outcome.
, Mr.. knapp also directs our attentio
lie . the shor' legs Of the carnivora an
!, primitive nesh-eating tribes like the 5,
moyedes Ohongos, Kenkobs.
> We may state that this shortness
"A eating tribes 1t Is an established sciel
,. INC fact mat small lower limbs Shara
y "a . II !,