136 ASSIMILATION AND ITS ORGANS. 



ments required by the different races from the equator to the pole ; 

 the vegetable predominating at the equator, and running by a les- 

 sening scale down the sides of the globe ; the animal commencing, 

 if I may so speak, at the polar end, and likewise running by a 

 lessening scale, modulated according to climates, towards its mini- 

 mum in the torrid zones. Thus we have the highly baked white 

 meats of India passing through long gradations to the raw red flesh 

 and blubber* of the Arctic regions; and again by a curious inver- 

 sion, the highly flavored vegetable dishes of India decline in the 

 same manner towards the insipid vegetable cookery of the north. 

 In the tropics, taste is the great allurement, and cookery there, as 

 in China and Hindostan, is in its most varied perfection ; in the 

 frigid zones, hunger is the predominating sense, and readiness and 

 quantity satisfy it best. As measured by the sense of taste, the 

 hot countries are the tongue of the world, delicate, liguriating, fasti- 

 dious, in which hunger is near to thirst; the other regions are the 

 successive portions of the alimentary canal, ravenous and void at 

 last ; little appreciating quality, but loving impletion. The tropi- 

 cal man lives upon the sun, which gives him its warmth, and he 



* Although fatty substances seem to be taken in cold climates upon the 

 principle of supplying fuel to the animal fire, yet oils or vegetable fats are con- 

 sumed in large quantities in warmer countries, and especially in the summer 

 season. The diet in Italy, for example, is largely mixed with oil. The frigid 

 zones provide animal fats in abundance, the torrid yield vegetable fats, rich oily 

 nuts, &c. ; and undoubtedly the staple of the soil is a kind of measure of the 

 diet of the inhabitants. In cold latitudes fat makes heat, and keeps out cold, for 

 a well-lined skin is an important ingredient of warmth, and is the basis of warm 

 clothing. But in hot parts oily aliment is taken upon a different principle. It 

 is demanded in the latter case as a corrective to the watery, pungent, acid and 

 cold things which are so refreshing to the frame. On this principle it is used 

 with salads, cucumbers, &c. &c. It acts mechanically or sensationally, com- 

 municating its own smoothness to the otherwise irritated stomach and intestines ; 

 or giving a soothing organic feeling to the parts, which is communicated to the 

 nervous centres. All foods have this contagion in addition to their other effects ; 

 they propagate their own feel to the body. The pleasures of taste depend part- 

 ly on this/ee/, as well as upon proper gustation; thus the crunch of nuts and the 

 smoothness of cream are agreeable apart from the taste. We cannot but think 

 that this demulcent use of oil is important in a medical point of view, in 

 spasmodic actions of the intestines. It is said to have been remarkably success- 

 ful in Spain in the treatment of cholera, which involves intestinal insurrection of 

 the greatest intensity. 



