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WHY I WAS IMPRESSED TO WRITE A COOK BOOK.

It must appeal to the judgment of every thinking man and woman that the human family are more in need of sound, wholesome advice as to what they should eat and drink than ever before. The number of physicians and dentists increases each year at an alarming rate, but the aches and ills of the suffering people do not lessen. Thousands of people find themselves in a deplorable condition, with stomachs almost worn out, having depended largely upon predigested foods and a long list of so-called "dyspepsia cures."

The amount of patent medicines, "sure cures," consumed by the people in the United States is enormous, and is increasing every year. It must be apparent to all students of the past century that the people of the present are not enjoying the same degree of health as our ancestors, nor have we any assurance that things will improve unless some radical change is made.

Disease among cattle, poultry, and fish has increased so alarmingly in the last few years that we should no longer depend on the animal kingdom for food. We should look to the grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits for a better dietary than can be prepared from the flesh of animals likely to be contaminated with tuberculosis, cancer, and other diseases.

In writing this book, the author has treated the subject from the commonly accepted definition of the term vegetarianism, which means to abstain from flesh food, but allows the use of eggs, milk, and its products. After years of experience in conducting vegetarian restaurants in several cities and making a study of the food question, he thinks he can bestow no greater gift upon the people than to place before them a book containing instruction in the preparation of wholesome dishes that will build up in place of tearing down the body.

In this work I do not claim to have reached perfection, nor to have exhausted the category of wholesome preparations and combinations within the domain of vegetarianism. In our efforts to teach how to live without the use of flesh foods, we find we have only begun to discover the inexhaustible resources of the great vegetable kingdom in the boundless wealth of varied hygienic foods.

E. G. F.

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