82 PHYSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. 



of the inhabitants of the temperate climates eat bread and 

 meat together. Admitting, then, this question to rest for 

 the present, and that we are to use the mixed diet as we 

 have done, still, there are other and subordinate questions, 

 with regard to each individual, to be answered, before we 

 can determine what we shall eat. 



175. The various kinds of food differ as to their effect 

 upon the animal body. One kind, including most meats, is 

 stimulating, and gives a greater elasticity of life. This 

 would excite some fever, when there is a feverish tendency. 

 Another kind, including fish, eggs, vegetables, grain, and 

 fruits, has no stimulating power. These would not quicken 

 the pulse nor excite fever. The spices, and food in which 

 they are mixed, are warm and heating. Many of the vegeta- 

 bles are cooling. These differences must be known, before 

 the fitness of the various kinds to the condition of man can 

 be determined. 



176. Climate and season affect the human body, and its 

 wants and power of digestion, very materially. We want a 

 somewhat different diet in the warm and in the cold seasons. 

 We eat more meat and stimulating food in the winter, and 

 more vegetable and cooling food in the summer. The tribes 

 about the arctic circle live almost exclusively upon animal 

 food. They will eat meat in great quantities without either 

 bread or vegetables to accompany it. They devour fish 

 of the coarsest kinds, whale, porpoises, &/c., such as we 

 think unfit for our nutrition, and impossible to be digested 

 in our stomachs. They will drink whale oil with as much 

 apparent relish as we drink milk or water. The voyagers 

 to these northern regions, while they are passing the winter 

 among these people, fall into their habits of eating : they find 

 both that they need, and that their stomachs can digest, this 

 coarse and stimulating food, which would have been oppres- 

 sive and indigestible at home in a temperate climate. 



177. On the contrary, the inhabitants of the tropical re- 

 gions live very much, and some nations entirely, upon vege- 

 table food. Some of these nations never eat meat, and most 



