GRINDING OF FOOD. 99 



palatable, or at least to convert by the science of cookery, 

 into something he can take into his stomach. 



279. The most active ingredients in the vegetable and 

 animal kingdoms, and even slow poisons, are in common 

 use as condiments, for what otherwise would be whole- 

 some food ; and notwithstanding man is the most anxious 

 of all animals to procure long life, and is perpetually in- 

 venting new and improved methods to prolong his 

 earthly existence, yet in practice no animal shows so little 

 wisdom on that very point for which he is so anxious, as 

 the lord of creation. All the inferior animals are taught 

 either by instinct or experience to avoid deleterious ali- 

 ment, and to select such food as is most congenial and 

 wholesome ; and in the wild state, most animals would 

 starve rather than touch the food which man prepares for 

 himself. Indeed, no being which the Creator has brought 

 into existence, except the dog and the swine, could long 

 exist on the scientific compounds which man has invented 

 to gratify the artificial cravings of his omnivorous appe- 

 tite. These animals having been, from time immemorial, 

 subjected to human power, the one his companion, and 

 the other the object of his cravings, have finally, like their 

 masters, acquired indiscriminate appetites. But notwith- 

 standing the pernicious effects of luxurious indulgence, it 

 will be shown in another place, that man requires a va- 

 riety of nutriment. 



GRINDING OF FOOD. 



280. Animals which are furnished with jaws and teeth, 

 prepare their food for the stomach by mastication. But 

 there are several tribes which are not provided with such 

 an apparatus, and which, as they take solid food, require 

 some internal means of breaking it in pieces, before it 

 enters the stomach. All the birds which live on seeds, as 

 well as the lobster and crab, are provided with an appara- 

 tus for this purpose. 



281. The part which performs this office in the birds, is 

 well known under the name of gizzard. That which 

 performs the same functions in the lobster, is very differ- 

 ent in its construction, though equally efficacious in its 

 operations. 



