116 ANIMAL FUNCTIONS. 



as delicacies among all classes, whether savage orcivil- 

 ized. But that these can only be employed as adjuvants 

 to a more nutritive diet, is shown by the fact, that who- 

 ever undertakes to live exclusively on such food, will 

 soon find his muscular powers in a condition to require 

 other support ; and yet of the natural productions, it 

 would seem that the pithy and succulent fruits would 

 afford the most wholesome nourishment. 



It is not denied, that many races of men, have lived, 

 and do still contrive to subsist on food taken in its 

 uncooked state ; but it is also true that such races are 

 generally indolent in their habits, stinted in their growth, 

 feeble in muscular powers, and often nearly, or quite idi- 

 ots in their intellects. 



The organization of man, therefore, appear^ abso- 

 lutely to require, both for the developement of his 

 animal system, and the perfection of his intellectual 

 powers, that his food should, at least in part, consist of 

 the flesh of animals prepared by cooking for the pro- 

 cesses of mastication and digestion, and without which, 

 it appears that he cannot perform the muscular, or 

 intellectual duties which his station in the scale of 

 existence demands. 



ORGANS OF DIGESTION. 



Having described the organs by which the food is 

 prepared to pass into the stomach, it is now time to 

 describe that organ as it is found in different animals, 

 and to point out more particularly than we have done, 

 the processes by which aliment is converted into nutri- 

 tion. 



Human Stomach. The principal organ concerned in 

 digestion, is the Stomach. This is a large membranous 

 bag, situated obliquely across the lower part of the chest, 

 Fig. 79. Its shape is not unaptly compared to that of 

 the bellows of a bag-pipe. In the adult man it is capa- 



Can man live on the unprepared productions of the earth or not 7 Is 

 this the state in which he was designed to live 1 What effect does this 

 mode of living have on the human race 1 What is the conclusion with 

 respect to the food of man 1 What is the principal organ concerned in 

 digestion 1 



