ALIMEMTIVENESS. 157 



Esquimaux eats, says Capt Ross, 20 pounds of flesh daily, and Capt. 

 Cochrane says he has repeatedly seen aYakuti eat 40 pounds of meat 

 a day ; and a Russian Admiral was informed that one of them con- 

 sumed in 24 hours the hind quarter of a large ox, 24 pounds of fat, 

 and a proportionable quantity of melted butter as drink. To test this, 

 the Admiral gave him a thick porridge of rice, boiled with 3 pounds 

 of butter, the whole weighing 28 pounds, which he consumed on the 

 spot ; and this, too, after he had breakfasted. 



The natives of Greenland cannot subsist without large quantities of 

 fats and oils ; but this, undoubtedly, is in part an instinctive propen- 

 sity, and not wholly the result of climate, as some in warm climates 

 are little less voracious. Dr. Pereira justly ascribes this fondness for 

 food to an original propensity. It is certainly everywhere well known 

 that some persons are what are called great eaters, while others are 

 small eaters. This fact is observable in the people of different na- 

 tions. The Spanish and French are very moderate eaters, while the 

 Germans, English and Americans are great feeders. The organ of 

 this faculty, Dr. Vimont observed to be remarkably distinguished 

 among a large collection of men of those nations. This, of course, 

 usually corresponds with the accustomed exercise of the propensity, as 

 the result of necessity. 



In the above example, the Doctor saw that the Spanish and French 

 were satisfied with some fruit, a light soup and a little meat, while the 

 Germans constantly complained of the want of meat, and continually 

 assailed him with the cry of flesh, flesh, sir." 



The organ of alimentiveness, the function of which is an appetite for 

 food, is considered as established by some of the most distinguished 

 medical men, both as to its office and location. It is as apparent that 

 the instinct of nutrition must have physical powers for its manifesta- 

 tions as that any function of the body or mind must have an appropri- 

 ate organ. Nor is it less true that each function of mind must have a 

 distinct and fit instrument for its exercise, than that all must have 

 such an instrument as the brain or the whole body for the manifesta- 

 tion of the whole or any class of the phenomena of life. Strange in- 

 consistency that which would make the brain an exception to all the 

 laws of organic nature ! Mr. Combe says the stomach is to this or- 

 gan what the eye is to the sense of seeing. Cut off the communica- 

 tion between it and the brain, and the appetite will be lost. A dog 

 was kept without food till he was ravenous with hunger ; the phneu- 

 mogastric nerve was then divided and the sensation left him at once. 

 Examples in the crania of mankind are remarkable." 



Hydrogen is an essential element of the body and a necessary ingre- 

 dient of vegetable and animal food. The proportion in which this is 

 found varies in different alimentary substances. In one class it is in 

 the proportion to form water with oxygen, in another it is in a greater 

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