FOOD AND FEEDING 209 



race, without wishing to consider it also as the goal ; just 

 as it is quite possible to regard clothes as purely artificial 

 products of civilisation, without desiring personally to 

 return to the charming simplicity of the Garden of Eden.) 



Bitter things in nature at large, on the contrary, are 

 almost invariably poisonous. Strychnia, for example, is 

 intensely bitter, and it is well known that life cannot be 

 supported on strychnia alone for more than a few hours. 

 Again, colocynth and aloes are far from being wholesome 

 food stuffs, for a continuance ; and the bitter end of 

 cucumber does not conduce to the highest standard of good 

 living. The bitter matter in decaying apples is highly 

 injurious when swallowed, which it isn't likely to be by 

 anybody who ever tastes it. Wormwood and walnut- shells 

 contain other bitter and poisonous principles ; absinthe, 

 which is made from one of them, is a favourite slow poison 

 with the fashionable young men of Paris, who wish to 

 escape prematurely from ' Le monde ou Ton s'ennuie.' 

 But prussic acid is the commonest component in all 

 natural bitters, being .found in bitter almonds, apple 

 pips, the kernels of mangosteens, and many other seeds 

 and fruits. Indeed, one may say roughly that the object 

 of nature generally is to prevent the actual seeds of 

 edible fruits from being eaten and digested ; and for this 

 purpose, while she stores the pulp with sweet juices, she 

 encloses the seed itself in hard stony coverings, and makes 

 it nasty with bitter essences. Eat an orange-pip, and you 

 will promptly observe how effectual is this arrangement. 

 As a rule, the outer rind of nuts is bitter, and the inner 

 kernel of edible fruits. The tongue thus warns us imme- 

 diately against bitter things, as being poisonous, and 

 prevents us automatically from swallowing them. 



' But how is it,' asks our objector again, ' that so many 

 poisons are tasteless, or even, like sugar of lead, pleasant 



p 



