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milk and egg consumers are committed, in assuming a title which has for centuries belonged to that not inconsiderable body of persons whose habits of life confer the right to use it. And I feel sure that my friends "the Vegetarians," living on a mixed diet, will see the necessity of seeking a more appropriate designation to distinguish them; if not, we must endeavour to invent one for them.

Our friendly censor, you will observe, uses "vegetable" and "Vegetarian" as synonyms, and declares that the name Vegetarian has been in use for centuries. Speaking with due diffidence, I believe that the name was born only a little before the Society; i.e., I challenge Sir Henry Thompson and all the world to produce an example of it 40^[1] years old.^[2] Several of us on this platform are older, I imagine, than our official name; according to Sir Henry our name is centuries old. Be it so; it is Vegetarianism that makes Methuselah look so youthful.

What does Vegetarian mean? Turn to the dictionaries.

The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language. By John Ogilvie. New edition. By Charles Annandale. London: Blackie & Son:

Vegetarian: 1. One who abstains from animal food, and lives exclusively on vegetables, eggs, milk, &c. Strict Vegetarians eat vegetable and farinaceous food only, and will not eat butter, eggs, or even milk. 2. One who maintains that vegetable and farinaceous substances constitute the only proper food for man.

Vegetarianism: The theory and practice of living solely on vegetables.

No lexicographer has learnt our secret, "fruit and farinacea." The vulgar error that we devour a wheelbarrow load of cabbages at a meal is fostered by definitions like these. The great Oxford dictionary of Dr. Murray, instructed by Mr. Axon, will do us justice, and make such strictures as Sir Henry Thompson's impossible.

W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (Oxford, 1882), classes amongst derivatives from vegetare, "Veget-ar-i-an, a modern coined word, to denote a vegetable-arian, or one who lives on vegetables." Dr. Webster, Complete Dictionary of the English Language. Revised by

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1. Written in 1885.
2. The true birthyear of our name can only be fixed when our early literature is sifted for the express purpose. In Horsell's Truth-Tester, second series, i (1847) 83b, I find a correspondent from Hull, in November, 1846, mentions only a few Vegetarians in one house in 1843. Did he antedate the name? As far as I can yet learn, it must have arisen among the founders of the Society. Letters stored in the Brotherton or Harvey archives, or among the Bible Christians of Salford, may furnish a clue to the maze.