THE NATURE AND INFLUENCE OF FOODS. 441 



which we can infer the character of an animal from its track, though, 

 when he wrote, fossil foot-marks were unknown. " Any one," says he, 

 " who observes merely the print of a cloven hoof, may conclude that it 

 has been left by a ruminant animal, and regard the conclusion as 

 equally certain with any other in physics or morals. Consequently, 

 this single footmark clearly indicates to the observer the forms of the 

 teeth, of all the leg-bones, thighs, shoulders, and of the trunk of the 

 body of the animal which left the mark. It is much surer than all the 

 marks of Zadig." 



The contemplation of fossil foot-marks may suggest important moral 

 lessons. To leave their names inscribed on the world's history is a 

 universal desire of mankind. To accomplish this object, various 

 methods have been devised ; comfort, health, life, and even moral 

 principle, have been sacrificed, and yet the actor has been unable to 

 crawl into the remotest corner of history. There have been conquer- 

 ors bathing their limbs in the blood of the slain ; kings, who have 

 erected towers, pyramids, and cities ; authors, who have composed 

 elaborate and learned treatises ; gigantic intellects, who have moulded 

 the characters of nations and yet no traces of their individual names 

 or memories remain to posterity. All of these may have spurned the 

 reptiles crawling beneath their feet ; yet the lower orders of animal 

 life such as flourished hundreds of thousands of years since, before 

 the surface of the earth was fitted for the residence of man have left 

 memorials of their passage enduring and indelible. 



Those who would benefit their fellow-men need not despair. Those 

 senseless tribes had only dead matter to work upon, and the touch of 

 a hammer may ruthlessly destroy what has endured for ages, and it 

 can never be repaired. But man can influence the living mind, im- 

 parting lessons that will outlast, in their influence, both time and fate. 

 Then let all our actions be upright, and we shall thus 



" departing, leave behind us 



Footprints on the sands of time." 







THE NATURE AND INFLUENCE OF FOODS. 1 



By EDWARD SMITH, M. D., F. E. S. 



BEFORE proceeding to consider the numerous foods which will 

 come under review in the course of this work, it seems desirable 

 to offer a few remarks of a general character on their nature and quali- 

 ties, and the necessity for them. 



As a general definition, it may be stated that a food is a substance 



1 From the introductory chapter of the International Scientific Series, No. III., " On 

 Foods." 



