“_British Islander._—Vegetarianism? No thank you; not here! All very nice in Africa and India, I dare say, where you can sit all day under a palm tree and eat dates. “_Vegetarian._—But I have not observed that when you visit Africa or India you practise vegetarianism. On the contrary, you take your flesh-pots with you everywhere—even to the very places where you admit you don’t need them, and where, as in India, they give the greatest offence to the inhabitants. “_British Islander._—Oh, well, it’s no affair of theirs, is it, if I take my roast beef? “_Vegetarian._—Yet you think it your affair to interfere with the cannibals when they take their roast man. And have you observed that it is in the tropical zone, not the temperate zone, that cannibalism is most rife? “_British Islander._—Why do you remind me of that? “_Vegetarian._—To show you that all this talk about vegetarianism being ‘a matter of climate’ is pure humbug. The use of flesh is a vicious habit everywhere, and nowhere a necessity, except where other food is not procurable. “_British Islander._—But do we not need more oil and fat in northern climates? “_Vegetarian._—Undoubtedly; but these can be obtained without recourse to flesh. “_British Islander._—Then how do you account for the fact that northern races have been, to so great an extent, carnivorous? “_Vegetarian._—Perhaps because in primitive times hunting and pasturage were less toilsome than agriculture. But I am not called on to ‘account’ for such a fact. Their past addictedness to flesh food no more proves the present utility of flesh-eating, than their gross drinking habits prove the utility of alcohol. “_British Islander._—Can you quote any scientific authority for your contention? “_Vegetarian._—There is one which is all the more valuable because it is an admission made by an opponent. Sir William Lawrence wrote: ‘That men can be perfectly nourished, and that their physical and intellectual capabilities can be fully developed in any climate by a diet purely vegetable, has been proved by such abundant experience that it will not be necessary to adduce any formal argument on the subject.’ ‘In any climate,’ mark! And a diet ‘purely vegetable’; whereas all _you_ are asked to do is to forego the actual flesh foods, and not the animal products. But come now, let me ask the great question! “_British Islander._—What is that? There is only one other I have in mind. What would become of the Esquimaux?