• Beard, Sidney, Is Flesh-eating Morally Defensible? (Paignton, 1895).

[https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/ghp_booksection_detail/MjM2NC0zNTYxLTEx#page/4/mode/2up] 

- Beard argues that ‘the unnatural custom of killing sentient creatures to consume their flesh’ is at odds with the Christian concept of universal love and hinders human prosperity. Animal consumption is evil and prevents progress towards God’s ideal world. Medical problems arising from animal consumption, such as scrofula, tuberculosis, and gout, are physical manifestations of sin.

​

• Caird, Mona, Beyond the Pale. An Appeal on Behalf of the Victims of Vivisection (London, 1897).

[https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/view?docId=VAB7025&doc.view=print]

- Caird condemns animal vivisection by disputing the claim that humans have the right to use animals for their benefit simply because they have power over them. She connects the abuse of animals through vivisection with historical cases of human vivisection, arguing that equal compassion should be shown to both groups. Disputing the ‘argument from authority fallacy' is a key part of modern vegan belief.

​

• Couchman, William, Man's best diet, and twenty year's trial of it (London, 1873).

[https://dlcs.io/pdf/wellcome/pdf-item/b30572149/0] 

- Couchman describes various vegan and vegetarian meals such as soups, peas, and beans, and also discusses the transition away from a meat-eating diet. The first part of the text is concerned with his own justifications for giving up flesh: religious Swedenborgism, humans' lack of prominent canines, and health. Perhaps the most relevant section is when Couchman talks about the environmental and economic costs of animal products. Although a vegetarian, he at least passively endorses veganism when he claims that milk is a third cheaper than mutton in land use and cost but that wheat is eighteen times more superior and potatoes are forty-eight.

​

• Forward, Charles, Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England (London, 1898).

[http://iapsop.com/ssoc/1898__forward___history_of_food_reform.pdf]

- Forward’s history of vegetarianism is an invaluable resource for information on vegetarianism and veganism. It includes the beliefs of vegans such as Joseph Ritson and Henry Salt, as well as the inner workings of the vegetarian movement. Veganism is mentioned directly on pages 10, 71, 76, 82, 152, and 158. Forward regards veganism as a more radical form of vegetarianism, such as when he describes vegan athlete Gaston de Benet as a ‘Vegetarian of the straightest sect’. The chapter ‘‘vegetariansim’ or dietetic reform’’ is especially useful for looking at how the vegetarian society welcomed non-vegetarian associates, which may have alienated vegan members.

​

• Gompertz, Lewis, Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (2nd edn, Fontwell, 1992).

[https://www.tier-im-fokus.ch/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/gompertz_pdf.pdf] 

- This book is a foundational text in veganism. Gompertz's moral axioms on preventing unnecessary suffering to animals are echoed by modern-day vegan figures. Chapter 6 'On the use of milk and eggs' is directly about dietetic veganism. The whole book is of great value in the study of victorian veganism.

​

• Gompertz, Lewis, Fragments in Defence of Animals, and Essays on Morals, Soul, and Future State (London, 1852).

[https://archive.org/details/fragments-in-defence-of-animals-and-essays-on-morals-soul-and-future-state-lewisgompertz/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater]

- This work contains a variety of content from Lewis Gompertz, founding member of the SPCA (later the RSPCA) and founder of the Animals' Friend Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The almost 300-page collection of poems, letters, essays and comments is exceptionally useful for gaining Gompertz's vegan perspective on a variety of issues. Dietetic veganism is specifically mentioned on pages 170, 201, 206, 207, and 272, but the whole work is full of vegan ideas. Sections where Gompertz talks about the increased land use of animal products are especially relevant to today’s discussions on climate change. The way in which he critiques the use of eggs and dairy is also valuable.

​

• Ritson, Joseph, An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty (London, 1802).

[https://archive.org/details/anessayonabstin00ritsgoog/page/n7/mode/2up] 

- Ritson makes one of the earliest moral non-religious arguments for abstaining from animal products. He also emphasises the similarity between humans and non-human animals, claiming that meat-eating is akin to cannibalism. Ritson’s argument is unique in that it precedes Darwinism.

​

• Salt, Henry, Animal’s Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress (New York, 1894).

[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64498]

- Salt’s book is one of the first to use the term ‘animal rights’. Salt seeks to expand the human rights system to animals, which has been used in modern vegan arguments such as in Peter Singer’s Expanding Circle.