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CHAPTER II. 



On Aliments. 



" In cold regions, more food is necessary to enable the animal 

 to resist the rigours of climate, and a greater degree of stimulation 

 is requisite for the evolution of heat, than would be endured in 

 the equatorial latitudes : while the inhabitants of warm climates 

 are instinctively led to the choice of vegetable food ; because it 

 stimulates in a smaller degree, and is attended with a smaller 

 evolution of animal heat." SIR CH. MORGAN. 



THE object of food in the animal economy is to 

 supply materials for supporting that incessant 

 process of combustion in the lungs, by which the 

 temperature and vitality of the body are main- 

 tained, and its composition renewed. Nor can 

 there be a rational doubt, that a complete know- 

 ledge of all the changes which it undergoes while 

 passing through the system, would explain nearly 

 everything hitherto mysterious in the operations 

 of life. For it involves the whole theory of respi- 

 ration, sanguification, secretion, and nutrition, by 

 which the perpetual waste of all the organs is 

 repaired. 



From the earliest periods of history down to 

 the present time, it has been a question among 

 philosophers, whether animal or vegetable food 



3 M 



