158 ANSWERS TO PRACTICAL QUESTIONS 



28. Does patent-leather form a healthful covering for the 

 feet? 



No. The pores of the leather are partly rilled, and 

 hence the insensible perspiration is largely restrained. 



29. Why are men more frequently bald than women ? 



This is the effect of the close, unventilated head-cover- 

 ing commonly worn by men. 



30. On what part of the head does baldness commonly 

 occur ? 



On that part most fully covered by the hat or cap. 



31. What does the combination in our teeth of canines 

 and grinders suggest as to the character of our food? 



That we are to eat a mixed diet of vegetable and ani- 

 mal food.* 



* u The question of the use of animal or vegetable food may well be re- 

 mitted to the arbitrament of nature, as expressed in the desires ; by which it 

 would be victoriously decided, in all such climates as ours, in favor of the 

 flesh-eater. But the sufficiency of vegetable food, if widely varied, to main- 

 tain health and even strength, is not to be questioned, for those who like it. 

 When we hear that the ancient Persians lived a good deal on water-cress, we 

 naturally connect in our minds their physical inferiority with the poverty of 

 their diet ; but finding, on the other hand, that the Romans, in the best period 

 of the Republic, largely sustained themselves on turnips, and that degeneracy 

 came in as turnips went out, we are compelled to reconsider our opinion. In 

 brief, an exclusively vegetable food may be best suited to those by whom it 

 really is preferred. Children in this respect exhibit the greatest difference ; 

 some, with manifest advantage, eat meat in large quantity others can hardly 

 be prevailed on to taste it, and yet retain perfect vigor. Similar differences, 

 in all probability, exist among adults; but a vegetarianism self-imposed 

 against the promptings of desire, would tend, as a vigorous writer says, to 

 make us l not the children, but the abortions of Paradise.' " HINTON. 



