A FLESHLESS DIET: Vegetarianism as a Rational Dietary.

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original navy blue cloth with titles in gilt to the upper board and spine. Illustrated with numerous black and white in-text figures and tables. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with minor marking to the boards, a little chipping to the spine ends and wear to the corners. The lightly toned contents with a small abrasion to the front free endpaper and a few occasional pencil annotations are otherwise in very good order and clean throughout.

The key work by the French-American vegetarian physician, written shortly after graduating from Yale Medical School, arguing from a more explicitly scientific basis than most other advocates, for the benefits of a meatless diet. Using comparative anatomy, Buttner asserted meat-eating to be both dangerous and unnecessary, providing extensive evidence for the role of a vegetarian diet in reducing the incidence of certain diseases in individuals and societies. Taken seriously by the medical establishment, the work was reviewed in several prominent journals. It was, however, certainly praised and criticised in equal measure, with some admiring its rigourous, careful scientific approach, but with others still viewing it as thinly-veiled propaganda. Nevertheless, Buttner's writings stimulated significant debate in the U.S., and provided a pioneering statement of the medical benefits of a vegetarian diet.