Quotation: Richard G. Watson (1956)

"A correspondent, Richard G. Watson, writing on "Slaughter Methods," in The Christian Science Monitor, of 5/7/56, maintains that the words "humane" and "slaughter" cannot be linked together. The word "humane," he states, according to its dictionary significance, means kind, benevolent, disposed to promote the prosperity and happiness of others and, he says, "in the slaughtering of animals not a single act is humane."

From an abridged article in the Vegetarian News headed 'Humane Slaughter - Is there such a thing?' (Winter 1956 edition)

"Thou Shalt Not Kill"

From The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger, July 1866

'Origin of the word "Vegetarian" By the Rev. Henry S. Clubb'

Henry Stephen Clubb (1827-1921)



The reminiscences of a distinguished Bible Christian emigrant to the U.S. who served as President of the Vegetarian Society of America for just over three decades.

The topic was extensively examined by Henry Amos who traced the first appearance of the word in print to the April 1842 edition of The Healthian.

(Clubb letter published in The Vegetarian Messenger dated November 1901)

The Rev James Clark (1830-1905)

The first portrait dates from the 1870s and the second from the 1900s.

From The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review, July 1905

See also: 'Bible Difficulties' and Sermon on vegetarianism (1897)

'In Memoriam The Rev. Gideon Jasper Richard Ouseley' (1835-1906)

Published by Samuel Hopgood Hart (1865-1958) as part of a pamphlet in 1952.

Hart's text was partly based on a biography which was published in the influential 'Men of the Day' series which appeared in the Victorian periodical Vanity Fair (unrelated to the contemporary magazine). Later editions of the Gospel of the Holy Twelve reprinted Hart's essay in their introductions.

A short chapter of my book Familiar Strangers is devoted to the Victorian origins of Ouseley's allegedly "ancient" manuscript.

(Hart portrait from The Vegetarian News, December 1921)