goddess of health; hygiene, the science of health; all these are more or less distant relatives.
The Vegetarian, then, is one who aims at wholeness, soundness, strength, quickness, vigour, growth, wakefulness, health. These must be won by a return to nature, and the natural food for man is a diet of fruit and farinacea, with which some combine such animal products as may be enjoyed without destroying sentient life.
In the German journals of kindred societies the true derivation has frequently been insisted on. Eduard Baltzer's Vortrag über Vegetarianismus, am 27 Juni 1870 im sächischen Hof zu Nürnberg gehalten. (Nürnberg, G. Meyer.)
Explaining the meaning of the term Vegetarianism, for the benefit of those to whom it may be unknown, Baltzer says (pp. 8, 9):—
Homo vegetus denoted for the ancient Roman one whose whole appearance betokened a healthy vigour of nature; mens vegeta a soul sound to the core and full of activity; ingenium vegetum an intellect possessed of energy and force. . . In its origin, therefore, the word has nothing whatever to do with that sense which modern usage would thrust upon it, or which jesters apply, when they take an opportunity to invite us to the meadow as grass-eaters.
At a meeting of the German Vegetarian Society, at Cologne, 7th June, 1876, Securius, proposing to change the name, was left in a minority of one, Dr. Dock declaring that the name continually improved upon one; by degrees we feel it to be an honour to be called Vegetarians. [Vereinsblatt für Freunde der natürlichen Lebensweise (Vegetarianer) No. 87, p. 1381, Nordhausen, 3rd July, 1876.] In No. 88 (Aug. 1876, p. 1395) Baltzer states that at the first constitution of the Society, after much consideration, the members adopted the name "German Union to Promote a Natural Mode of Living," adding in brackets (Vegetarians), for the sake of historical continuity. Afterwards much pains was taken to find a short, plain substitute for Vegetarianism, but in vain. Es wird wohl auch vergeblich bleiben ("I believe the endeavour will remain fruitless").
Baltzer himself (Vereinsblatt, No 2, 1st August, 1868, p. 18) once shared Prof. Skeat's error:—
If we choose to call ourselves "Vegetarians," from vegetables, that is very inexact, and we ourselves not only give occasion to others to christen us, in mockery, "grass-eaters," but, what is worse, by the obscure name we obscure the thing itself.
