170 on animal and vegetable food.” Dee. §. 
Arabs that dwell in towns in Barbary, three out of 
four persons live entirély on bread*. In Egypt no 
meat is seen on the tables of the great and opulent 
__~but mutton and poultry ; for beef and buffalo flefh 
are only eaten by the common people t. In April 
_ and May, besides fruit, only fifh is eaten, but no 
flefh ; because during the hot months they have an 
aversion to all animal viands tf. ; 
Thus, of the nations of our quarter of the globe, 
it may, almost without exception, be affirmed, that 
they eat more cooling fruits and legumes, and lefs 
flefh, and that flefh, in quality, lefs nutritious and so- 
lid, the more southward they dwell, or the hotter 
their climate. Our forefathers, on the contrary, the 
old Saxons, Danes, and Britons, ate much more 
flefh, and much lefs bread, legumes, and fruit than 
we||; because our country, by the endlefs forests and 
morafses with which it was covered, was. much 
colder and moister, than it is at present. This fre- 
quent use of simple flefh meats was not only more 
suited to the climate, and the manner of life of the 
ancient Britons, but was certainly a concomitant 
cause of the extraordinary bulk and strength which 
rendered them so formidable tothe Romans. Their 
posterity have wisely departed from the animal diet 
of their progenitors. In proportion as the great fo- 
rests have been cleared, the deep marfhes drained, 
various kinds of corn and grain,—of legumes and 
* Shaw, p. 188. + Millet, tom. ii. p, 109. t, Idem, ib, 
{| Pelloutier, tem. i, p. 467. i 
