The Ethics of Diet

The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-eating is an 1883 book by English humanitarian Howard Williams, published by F. Pitman and John Heywood. It presents a chronological anthology of historical figures who criticised meat-eating, including philosophers, poets, physicians, and reformers, compiling moral and philosophical arguments against animal consumption from antiquity to the nineteenth century. Originally serialised in The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger, it was later issued in book form.

The book contributed to early debates on the ethics of eating meat and to the growth of the Victorian vegetarian movement. It influenced figures such as Henry S. Salt, Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, and Jaime de Magalhães Lima. The work has since been recognised as a foundational text in the history of vegetarianism and has been reissued in several revised and translated editions.