COMMON THINGS MAN. 



developed, sharp and curved ; and the incisors partake of the 

 canine character. The teeth which occupy the place of molars, 



edged and sharp, close side by side 

 like the blades of scissors. The 

 dentile apparatus is thus adapted 

 to tear and cut the flesh before 

 it passes into the stomach. The 

 teeth, on the contrary, of frugi- 

 vorous animals consist of incisors 

 and molars ; the canine teeth ex- 

 isting, but so little developed as 

 to have no functions different from 

 those of incisors. The molars of 

 the two jaws, nearly flat at their 

 ends, come into direct contact and superposition like two mill- 

 stones, and the jaws, by a small lateral motion, have the power 

 not only of bruising but of grinding the food between them. 

 These operations are all that is necessary and sufficient for vege- 

 table, but would be altogether inapplicable to animal food. 



23. Every one will recognise in the dentile apparatus last 

 described the form and structure of the human teeth ; and so far 

 as they are an index of the food adapted to them, it is plain that 

 man is frugivorous. But the same conclusion is further supported 

 by an examination of the digestive apparatus. 



In carnivorous species, the intestine through which the food 

 passes is generally short, its length not exceeding three or four 

 times that of the body, while in the herbivorous species it is usually 

 ten or twelve, and sometimes (as in the sheep, for example) twenty- 

 eight times the length of the body. In accordance with this prin- 

 ciple, we find that the human intestine, like the teeth, is suited 

 to vegetable aliment, having a length bearing a proportion to that 

 of the body, which is analogous to the internal structure of other 

 frugivorous species. 



24. How then, it may be asked, has it happened that man, 

 instead of being exclusively frugivorous, is, in fact, omnivorous, 

 nourishing himself indifferently with vegetable and animal ali- 

 ment ? The answer is obviously, that he cannot be nourished by 

 animal aliment, unless it be previously prepared by fire. In a 

 word, flesh, to be fit for human food, must be cooked. 



25. One of the physical peculiarities which distinguishes man 

 from other members of the animal kingdom, is the facility with 

 which his organisation adapts itself to differences of climate, and 

 this is one of the marks which appear to confirm his destiny to 

 rule over the whole surface of the globe. Placed originally by his 

 Maker in a single region, his race has multiplied and diffused 



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