THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 131 



nutritious compound and furnishes their systems with the 

 equivalents that we obtain from beef and mutton. The inhabi- 

 tants of the " Celestial Empire" — Chinese — are great consum- 

 ers of rice ; it is the principal article of diet, among the poorer 

 classes many of whom are lank and lean, and would make very 

 respectable walking lanterns (if a candle was placed within 

 their abdominal cavity and lighted), only they happen to catch, 

 occasionally, a stray dog or pig ; such furnish not only a savory 

 meal, but a supply of material for the formation of muscle 

 and fat. 



Alluding to dogs reminds me of an experiment made by 

 Majendie. He proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, that 

 such an animal could not live more than forty days on any 

 single article of diet, let it be ever so nutritious. 



The staple article of food among Irish peasants in the hogs, is 

 potatoes ; those people are subject to diseases of a low typhoid 

 type, and all that saves them from disease, or perhaps prema- 

 ture death, is buttermilk, red herrings, and occasionally a drop 

 of whiskey. 



The Scotch peasants are great consumers of oatmeal ; this 

 article is not inferior to wheat in the flesh-making principle, and 

 we might naturally infer that an article of diet so valuable and 

 palatable, ought to promote health and cater to longevity. This 

 is not the case. The great oatmeal consumers are the notorious 

 subjects of intestinal concretions, and in the Edinburgh Ana- 

 tomical Museum are to be seen a vast and valuable collection of 

 intestinal calculi, most of which proved death warrants to con- 

 firmed oatmeal consumers. 



" What is one man's ^oc? is another's poison." 



Dr. Carpenter, an eminent physiologist, says, that " no fact 

 in dietetics is better established than that concerning the 

 impossibility of long sustaining health and life on a single 

 alimentary principle. Neither pure albumen, Jibrine, gelatine, 

 gum, sugar, starch, fat, nor oil, taken alone, can serve for 

 the due nutrition of the body. This is partly due to their 



