The Humanities of Diet: Some Reasonings and Rhymings is a 1914 book by British writer and social reformer Henry S. Salt. Published in Manchester by the Vegetarian Society, it combines short essays, dialogues, and poems in support of ethical vegetarianism and animal rights. The book drew on Salt's earlier writings on the subject, including an article of the same name in The Fortnightly Review (1896) and a 22-page pamphlet published by William Reeves in 1897, and added further material.
The phrase "logic of the larder", later used in animal ethics debates to describe a version of the replaceability argument, is credited to Salt's discussion of the idea in The Humanities of Diet.
Henry S. Salt (1851âÂÂ1939) was born in Naini Tal, India, and educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. He taught classics at Eton between 1875 and 1884, then settled at Tilford in Surrey, where he became a vegetarian and devoted himself to writing on humanitarianism and social reform.
During the late 1880s and 1890s, Salt published a series of pamphlets and books on vegetarianism and animal rights, including Flesh or Fruit? An Essay on Food Reform (1888) and Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress (1892). His later writing also addressed corporal punishment, alongside a wider range of literary and political topics.
Salt published an article titled "The Humanities of Diet" in The Fortnightly Review in September 1896. In 1897, it was expanded and reissued as a 22-page pamphlet, published in London by William Reeves as no. 23 in The Humanitarian League's Publications series.
In January 1914, the Vegetarian Society in Manchester published The Humanities of Diet: Some Reasonings and Rhymings, a 70-page volume that reprinted earlier writings by Salt alongside new material.
The book combines short essays, dialogues, and poems. Its recurring themes include opposition to slaughter and meat-eating, criticism of social indifference to animal suffering, and satire of common justifications for killing animals for food.
Several pieces present humane diet arguments directly (for example "The Humanities of Diet", "Grace Before Meat", "Logic of the Larder", and "The Moralist at the Shambles"), while others use parody, dialogue, or character sketches to make similar points (including "A Chat with Professor Grillman", "Paterfamilias at the Breakfast Table", and "Mr. Facing-Both-Ways"). The volume also includes poems and dramatic vignettes centred on particular animals and scenes of slaughter ("A Cow Mourning for Her Calf", "The Dying Ox", and "Voices of the Voiceless"), alongside seasonal or topical pieces such as "The Joys of Christmas" and the Christmas-themed sketches.
Reviewing the book in January 1914, the Manchester City News described Salt as writing from a humane opposition to meat-eating, using satire and parody to target "the human carnivore". It said the essays were serious, though often "very wittily serious", and praised the verse as sharp-edged. The review noted Salt's habit of stressing parallels between a "mixed diet" and cannibalism, and concluded that the book combined "wisdom as well as wit", recommending it even to readers who enjoyed "roast meat" on the grounds it might make them "refuse beef afterwards".
The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review commended it as a contribution to vegetarian literature, quoting Salt's description of opposition to flesh-eating as a protest against a practice he called a "relic of savagery". The review also commented on the book's physical production, describing it as well printed and bound in green cloth to match earlier Vegetarian Society editions of Salt's work.
In animal ethics, the replaceability argument holds that farmed animals can be said to benefit from being bred for food, because demand for meat is the reason they are brought into existence. On this view, provided such animals are well treated, it is better for them to exist than not, and replacing animal products with alternatives can be presented as depriving them of lives worth living. Salt is credited with introducing the term "logic of the larder" for this position in The Humanities of Diet.