204 FOOD AND FEEDING 



ancestor ' (Darwinian for the primaeval monkey, from whom 

 we are presumably descended) used playfully to disport 

 himself, as yet unconscious of his glorious destiny as the 

 remote progenitor of Shakespeare, Milton, and the late 

 Mr. Peace in tropical woods, such acrid or pungent fruits 

 and plants are particularly common, and correspondingly 

 annoying. The fact is, our primitive forefather and all 

 the other monkeys are, or were, confirmed fruit-eaters. 

 But to guard against their depredations a vast number of 

 tropical fruits and nuts have acquired disagreeable or fiery 

 rinds and shells, which suffice to deter the bold aggressor. 

 It may not be nice to get your tongue burnt with a root or 

 fruit, but it is at least a great deal better than getting 

 poisoned ; and, roughly speaking, pungency in external 

 nature exactly answers to the rough gaudy labels which 

 some chemists paste on bottles containing poisons. It 

 means to say, ' This fruit or leaf, if you eat it in any quan- 

 tities, will kill you.' That is the true explanation of 

 capsicums, pimento, colocynth, croton oil, the upas tree, 

 and the vast majority of bitter, acrid, or fiery fruits and 

 leaves. If we had to pick up our own livelihood, as our 

 naked ancestors had to do, from roots, seeds, and berries, 

 we should far more readily appreciate this simple truth. 

 We should know that a great many more plants than we 

 now suspect are bitter or pungent, and therefore poisonous. 

 Even in England we are familiar enough with such defences 

 as those possessed by the outer rind of the walnut ; but 

 the tropical cashew-nut has a rind so intensely acrid that 

 it blisters the lips and fingers instantaneously, in the same 

 way as cantharides would do. I believe that on the whole, 

 taking nature throughout, more fruits and nuts are poison- 

 ous, or intensely bitter, or very fiery, than are sweet, 

 luscious, and edible. 



' But,' says that fidgety person, the hypothetical objector 



