166 CHIEF NUTRITIVE PLANTS OF THE TORRID ZONE 



animals which are fed with maize very speedily fatten, their 

 flesh being at the same time remarkably firm, and horses 

 which consume this corn are enabled to perform their full 

 portion of labour. The Indian miners are perhaps the most 

 hard-working people in existence, carrying large weights of ore 

 on steep ladders several hundred feet high, and yet they hardly 

 taste anything else but maize. Chemistry, moreover, teaches us 

 that this species of grain contains nearly as much albumen as 

 the best wheat, and is consequently by no means deficient in 

 nourishing azote. 



Dr. Moritz Wagner* is inclined to ascribe the gi'eat mortality 

 among the children in Costa-Eica, and the frequent dyspeptic 

 complaints, as well as the moral apathy of the adult population, 

 to their almost exclusively living on maize ; but these evils may 

 far more justly be ascribed to the indolence of that wretched 

 people, who could so easily raise cattle wath their abundance of 

 maize, and thus procure the variety of food which, as experience 

 teaches, is most conducive to the health and vigour of man. 



In light sandy soils, under the scorching rays of the sun, and 

 in situations where sufficient moisture cannot be obtained for 

 the production of rice, numerous varieties of millet {S(yi'ghtir)i 

 vulgare) are successfully cultivated in many tropical countries — 

 in India, Arabia, the West Indies, in Central Africa, and in Nubia, 

 where it is grown almost to the exclusion of every other esculent 

 plant. Though the seeds are by much the- smallest of any of 

 the cereal plants, the number borne upon each stalk is so great 

 as to counterbalance this disadvantage, and to render the culti- 

 vation of millet as productive as that of any other grain. 



As the Peruvians make a kind of beer from maize, thus the 

 Nubians prepare a fermented liquor from millet or dhounxi, 

 which they consider very wholesome and nutritious, though in- 

 temperance will render it as hurtful as any other intoxicating 

 drink. 



The bread-fruit tree is the great gift of Providence to the 

 fairest isles of Polynesia. No fruit or forest tree in the north 

 of Europe, with the exception of the oak or linden, is its equal 



* Travels in Central America. 



II 



