Jules Grand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jules Grand | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1846 |
| Died | 1933 (aged 86–87) |
| Occupations | Physician, writer, activist |
Jules Grand (1846–1933)[1] was a French physician, writer, Theosophist, and vegetarianism activist. He served as president of the French Vegetarian Society.
Grand completed his doctoral thesis in medicine on cataract removal in 1873.[2] Grand was a physician at the École de Médecine de Paris (Paris School of Medicine).[3] He was an associate editor of the 1893 and 1894 Annual of the Universal Medical Sciences and Analytical Index.[4][5]
Grand was the president of the French Vegetarian Society from its formation in 1899.[6] He was elected to the management committee in 1905 with biologist Jules Lefèvre and other physicians.[7] By 1906 there were 800 members of the Society.[6] In 1901, the Society published his book La Philosophie de I' alimentation ("The Philosophy of Food").[6] Grand also authored the introduction to Louise Smeeckaert's La table du végétarien, published by the Society.[8]
Grand made anatomical, physiological and ethical arguments for vegetarianism.[1] In June 1900, he was chairman and a speaker at the International Vegetarian Congress organized in Paris.[9] In his speech he commented "that vegetarianism contributes powerfully to making the better man; that it ensures his intellectual capacity; softens his relations with his fellow men and makes them more fraternal".[1] He argued in his essays that meat is responsible for the degeneration of the French nation.[10] He stated that a vegetarian diet could prevent the misuse of alcohol.[11] A paper he wrote on vegetarianism was read at the International Vegetarian Union's 1926 congress.[12] He was an opponent of vivisection.[13]
