

THE FOOD OF MANKIND 27 



able than that of man, and yet " even now no existing race of 

 man, in spite of the most elaborate methods of preparing and thus 

 increasing the nutritive value of its vegetable food, is capable of 

 subsisting on it alone." Animal food, prior to the period of 

 cibiculture, was accepted in every form procurable. Of course, 

 the choice would be limited to the smaller forms of animal life 

 until such time as evolving man learned to hunt, fish, trap, and 

 fashion weapons. 



Three great factors influenced the changes the diet of evolving 

 man has undergone since presimian times. These factors were 

 the kind of food available ; the instinctive liking for certain kinds 

 of food, which depended on the richness of the food in nutrient 

 material, its digestibility, and its taste ; and, lastly, the ability 

 to secure the desired food. The food of the great apes and the 

 monkeys at the present time consists largely of the more concen- 

 trated vegetable substances, with a certain proportion of animal 

 food in addition. That they, like man, are descended from 

 ancestors whose diet was bulky, and was composed mainly of 

 vegetable material, is evidenced by the presence of a large caecum 

 and the possession of a vermiform appendix. " The diet of 

 primates, as of all highly intelligent animals, is a concentrated 

 diet, consisting of concentrated vegetable foods, and to a less 

 extent of the yet more highly concentrated animal foods." 



Dr. Campbell goes on to trace the dietetic career of evolving 

 man from simian times onwards, and shows that it was character- 

 ized by three signal advances, each of which greatly augmented the 

 supply of food. He tabulates the following epochs and periods : 



1. The precookery epoch from ] The simian period. 



the ape stage to the invention of [The homo-simian period, 

 cookery. J The early hunting period. 



2. The precibicultural cookery 

 epoch from the invention of 

 cookery to the introduction of 

 agriculture and the breeding of 

 animals for food. 



3. The cibiculture epoch from^j The period of migratory agriculture, 

 the time man began to produce his I The period of stationary agriculture, 

 food artificially to the present j (Early.) 



day. J (Late.) 



The homo-simian period saw the evolution of ape to man, and 

 his gradual spread from Southern Asia or Northern Africa over 

 the Indo- African continent. As intelligence increased a greater 

 supply of animal food was obtained, so that he became more of 

 a flesh- eater and less herbivorous. 



