76 WASTE OF ORGANISED TISSUES 



rapidly than in the carnivora. Were this not the 

 case, a vegetation a thousand times more luxuriant 

 than the actual one would not suffice for their 

 nourishment. Sugar, gum, and starch, would no 

 longer be necessary to support life in these animals, 

 because, in that case, the products of the waste, or 

 metamorphosis of the organised tissues, would con- 

 tain enough of carbon to support the respiratory 

 process. 



Man, when confined to animal food, requires for 

 his support and nourishment extensive sources of 

 food, even more widely extended than the lion and 

 tiger, because, when he has the opportunity, he kills 

 without eating. 



A nation of hunters, on a limited space, is utterly 

 incapable of increasing its numbers beyond a certain 

 point, which is soon attained. The carbon neces- 

 sary for respiration must be obtained from the ani- 

 mals, of which only a limited number can live on 

 the space supposed. These animals collect from 

 l^lants the constituents of their organs and of their 

 blood, and yield them, in turn, to the savages who 

 live by the chase alone. They, again, receive this 

 food unaccompanied by those compounds, destitute 

 of nitrogen, which, during the life of the animals, 

 served to support the respiratory process. In such 

 men, confined to an animal diet, it is the carbon of 

 the flesh and of the blood which must take the place 

 of starch and sugar. 



But 15 lbs. of flesh contain not more carbon than 



