DIGESTIVE OUGANS OF MAN. 199 



tribes ; and in some measure uniting the characters 

 of both. The powers of the human stomach do not, 

 indeed, extend to the digestion either of the tough 

 woody fibres of vegetables on the one hand, or the 

 compact texture of bones on the other; but still 

 they are competent to extract nourishment from a 

 wider range of alimentary substances, than the 

 digestive organs of almost any other animal. This 

 adaptation to a greater variety of food may also 

 be inferred from the form and disposition of the 

 teeth, which combine those of different kinds more 

 completely than in most Mammalia : excepting, 

 perhaps, the Quadrumana, in which, however, the 

 teeth do not form, as in man, an uninterrupted series 

 in both jaws. In addition to these peculiarities, 

 we may also here observe that the sense of taste, in 

 the human species, appears to be affected by a 

 greater variety of objects than in the other races of 

 animals. All these are concurring indications that 

 nature, in thus rendering man omnivorous, intended 

 to qualify him for maintaining life wherever he 

 could procure the materials of subsistence, what- 

 ever might be their nature ; M'hether animal or 

 vegetable, or a mixture of both, and in whatever 

 soil or climate they may be produced ; and for 

 endowing him with the power of spreading his race, 

 and extending his dominion over every accessible 

 region of the globe. Thus, then, from the con- 

 sideration of the peculiar structure of the vital, as 

 well as the mechanical organs of the human frame, 

 may be derived additional proofs of their being 

 constructed with reference to faculties of a higher 

 and more extensive range than those of any, even 

 the most favoured species of the brute creation. 



