The China Study - T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell

Repeating Histories

IN 1985, when I was on sabbatical in Oxford, England, I had the op- portunity to study the history of diet and disease at some of the great medical history libraries in the Western world. I made use of the famous Bodlean Library in Oxford and the London libraries of the Royal Col- lege of Surgeons and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. In the quiet recesses of these marble-lined sanctuaries, I was thrilled to find authors who wrote eloquently on the topic of diet and cancer, among other dis- eases, over 150 years ago.
One such author was George Macilwain, who wrote fourteen books on medicine and health. Macilwain was born and raised in Northern Ireland. He later moved to London where he became a prominent sur- geon in the early 1800s. He was to become a member, and later, an hon- orary fellow, of the Royal College of Surgeons. He became vegetarian at the age of forty, after identifying "grease, fat and alcohol" as being the chief causes of cancer.l Macilwain also popularized the theory of the "constitutional nature of disease," mostly in reference to the origins and treatment of cancer.
The constitutional nature of disease concept meant that disease is not the result of one organ, one cell or one reaction gone awry or the result of one external cause acting independently. It is the result of multiple systems throughout the body breaking down. Opposing this view was the local theory of disease, which said that disease is caused by a single external agent acting at a specific site in the body. At that time, a fierce fight was under way between those who believed in diet and those who
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supported surgery and the emerging use of drugs. The "local disease" proponents argued that disease was locally caused and could be cut out or locally treated with isolated chemicals. In contrast, those who favored diet and lifestyle believed that disease was a symptom resulting from the "constitutional" characteristics of the whole body.
I was impressed that these old books contained the same ideas about diet and disease that had resurfaced in the health battles of the I980s. As I learned more about Macilwain, I came to realize that he was a relative of mine. My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Macilwain, and that "branch" of the family had lived in the same part of Northern Ireland that George Macilwain had come from. Furthermore, there were family stories about a famous Macilwain who had left the family farm in Ireland to become a very well-known doctor in London in the early 1800s. My fa- ther, who had emigrated from Northern Ireland, had referred to an Uncle George when I was young, but I never was aware of who this man was. Through further genealogical research, I have come to the near certain conclusion that George Macilwain was my great-great uncle.
This discovery has been one of the more remarkable stories of my life. My wife Karen says, "If there's such a thing as reincarnation.... " I agree: if I ever lived a past life, it was as George Macilwain. He and I had similar careers; both of us became acutely aware of the importance of diet in disease, and both of us became vegetarian. Some of his ideas, written over 150 years ago, were so close to what I believed that I felt they could have come from my own mouth.
I discovered more than my family history while reading in these au- gust, history-laden libraries. I found out that scholars have been arguing over the nature of health for centuries, even millennia. Almost 2,500 years ago, Plato wrote a dialogue between two characters, Socrates and Glaucon, in which they discuss the future of their cities. Socrates says the cities should be simple, and the citizens should subsist on barley and wheat, with "relishes" of salt, olives, cheese and "country fare of boiled onions and cabbage," with desserts of "figs, pease, beans," roasted
2 myrtle-berries and beechnuts, and wine in moderation. Socrates says,
"And thus, passing their days in tranqUility and sound health, they will, in all probability, live to an advanced age ...."
But Glaucon replies that such a diet would only be appropriate for "a community of swine," and that the citizens should live "in a civilized manner." He continues, "They ought to recline on couches ... and have the usual dishes and dessert of a modem dinner." In other words, the

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citizens should have the "luxury" of eating meat. Socrates replies, "if you wish us also to contemplate a city that is suffering from inflam- mation .... We shall also need great quantities of all kinds of cattle for those who may wish to eat them, shall we not?"
Glaucon says, "Of course we shall." Socrates then says, "Then shall
we not experience the need of medical men also to a much greater ex-
tent under this than under the former regime?" Glaucon can't deny it.
"Yes, indeed," he says. Socrates goes on to say that this luxurious city
will be short of land because of the extra acreage required to raise ani-
mals for food. This shortage will lead the citizens to take land from oth-
ers, which could precipitate violence and war, thus a need for justice.
Furthermore, Socrates writes, "when dissoluteness and diseases abound
in a city, are not law courts and surgeries opened in abundance, and do
not Law and Physic begin to hold their heads high, when numbers even
of well-born persons devote themselves with eagerness to these profes-
sions?" In other words, in this luxurious city of sickness and disease,
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lawyers and doctors will become the norm.
Plato, in this passage, made it perfectly clear: we shall eat animals
only at our own peril. Though it is indeed remarkable that one of the greatest intellectuals in the history of the Western world condemned meat eating almost 2,500 years ago, I find it even more remarkable that few know about this history. Hardly anybody knows, for example, that the father of Western medicine, Hippocrates, advocated diet as the chief way to prevent and treat disease or that George Macilwain knew that diet was the way to prevent and treat disease or that the man instru- mental in founding the American Cancer Society, Frederick L. Hoffman, knew that diet was the way to prevent and treat disease.
How did Plato predict the future so accurately? He knew that con- suming animal foods would not lead to true health and prosperity. In- stead, the false sense of rich luxury granted by being able to eat animals would only lead to a culture of sickness, disease, land disputes, lawyers and doctors. This is a pretty good description of some of the challenges faced by modern America!
How did Seneca, one of the great scholars 2,000 years ago, a tutor and advisor to Roman Emperor Nero, know with such certainty the trouble with consuming animals when he wrote2:
An Ox is satisfied with the pasture of an acre or two: one wood suffices for several Elephants. Man alone supports himself by the