106 



OF FOOD, AND THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS. 



see the immense advantage as to economy of food which a fixed agricultural 

 population possesses over those wandering tribes of hunters which still 

 people a large part both of the Old and New Continents. The mixed diet, to 

 which the inclination of man in temperate climates seems usually to lead 

 him (when circumstances allow that inclination to develop itself freely), 

 appears, moreover, to be fully conformable to the construction of his dental 

 and digestive apparatus, as well as to his instinctive propensities. And 

 whilst on the one hand it may be freely conceded to the advocates of 

 "Vegetarianism" that a well-selected vegetable diet is capable of producing 

 (in the greater number of individuals) the highest physical development of 

 which they are capable, it may on the other hand be affirmed with equal 

 certainty that the substitution of a moderate proportion of animal flesh is in 

 no way injurious, whilst, so far as our evidence at present extends, this 

 seems rather to favor the highest mental development. If indeed \ve take a 

 comprehensive survey of the conditions of the various races of Man at pres- 

 ent inhabiting the earth, we cannot help being struck with his adaptiveness 

 to a great variety of circumstances, as regards climate, mode of life, diet, 

 etc. And we can scarcely avoid the conclusion, that the Creator, by con- 

 ferring upon him such an adaptiveness, intended to qualify him for subsisting 

 on those articles of diet, whether animal or vegetable, which are most readily 

 attainable in different parts of the globe; and thus to remove the obstacle 

 which a necessary restriction to any one kind of food would have otherwise 

 opposed to his universal diffusion. 



<i">. It is exceedingly difficult to give even an approximation to the com- 

 position of the ordinary butcher's meat used as food, since the analyses of 

 different chemists vary considerably ; some selecting the muscles alone and 

 the heart, others taking the whole body. The average constitution of entire 

 carcasses of butcher's meat, as given by Messrs. Laws and Gilbert, the fat 

 being included, is : 





Moleschott gives the following as the composition of the principal animal 

 foods : 



amount of fceces, containing also IPS? nitrogen than Munich rye bread, North Ger- 

 man black bread, or the Horsford Liebig's bread, luit the feeling of hunger after four 

 days was much greater than with the other kinds of bread. It was found impossible 

 to'o-ive Millieieni bread to maintain the individual at his full weight, though no less 

 than. 94.4 per cent, of the dry material was absorbed. Sec also Dr. Pavy on the 

 Physiology and Therapeutics of Food. Lancet, 1871-72. 



