CHIEFLY BY CLIMATE. 889 



sequently, that if the Budhists and Brahmins of 

 India, the Essenes of Palestine, and the Pythago- 

 reans of southern Europe, had resided in Scythia, 

 Siberia, or British America, they could not have 

 required total abstinence from animal food. 



It is also a beautiful provision of nature, that 

 most of the animals in the polar regions afford a 

 much larger proportion of oil or fat, than those of 

 the middle latitudes ; and those of hot climates 

 still less, ceteris paribus. For example, it is said 

 that the Greenland whale has been known to 

 afford 30 tons of oil, or 50 per cent, of its whole 

 weight, and the smaller cetacea in like propor- 

 tions ;* whereas the average ratio of fat in mode- 

 rately well fed beef, mutton, and pork, in Eng- 

 land, is about 25 per cent, of their neat weight.f 



* By means of an immense blanket of fat, from eight to fifteen 

 inches thick, the whale is enabled to preserve his own temperature 

 at from 100 to 104 amidst the polar icebergs. And when em- 

 ployed as food, it enables the Esquimaux to maintain their tem- 

 perature at the natural standard, while surrounded with air at 

 from 50 to 70 below F., with no other habitations than snow 

 huts, and no fires except miserable oil lamps. 



f According to Mr. Brande, the proportions of solid matter in 

 the muscular and albuminous portions of fresh meat, are 29 per 

 cent, in mutton, 27 in chicken, 26 in beef, 25 in veal, 24 in 

 pork, 21 in cod, 21 in sole, and 18 in haddock, while it is gene- 

 rally estimated that the average is 25 per cent. In eggs, there is 

 about 30 per cent, of albumen and oil, according to Dr. Christison ; 

 while in milk of the cow, goat, and ewe, the proportion of caseine, 

 sugar, and oil, is from 12 to 14 per cent, according to O. Henry 

 and Chevallier. So that a cow giving sixteen quarts of milk per 

 day, would afford 3'841bs. of solid aliment, allowing the milk to 

 contain 12 per cent, and 4'48 Ibs. if it contained 14 per cent. 

 two-thirds of which would be oil and sugar. 



