IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF EUROPE. 921 



contain no nitrogen, that the agricultural la- 

 bourers of England, Holland, Germany, Poland, 

 Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Canada, and New 

 England, prefer the fattest pork they can obtain ; 

 because they say it goes farther, and supports 

 their strength better than lean meat. Nor is it 

 improbable, that about four-fifths of the human 

 race derive nearly all their nourishment from the 

 vegetable kingdom : for it is certain, that through- 

 out southern Asia, a large portion of Africa, 

 the South Sea islands, and tropical America, 

 nearly all the inhabitants live chiefly on rice, 

 bread, yams, sugar, oil, dates, lemons, and other 

 fruits. 



But if men and other animals were nourished 

 only by those parts of food which contain nitro- 

 gen, a man living on 24 oz. of rice per day would 

 consume only about 2 oz. 2 drs. of aliment ca- 

 pable of being transformed into blood and the 

 various tissues of the body, all the rest being 

 employed in supporting respiration. And if a 

 labouring man consume 24 oz. of flour in the 

 form of bread, with 8 oz. of fat meat, he would 

 take only 3 oz. of actual nourishment, or about 

 six times less than is contained in the daily food 

 of a horse living on 10 Ibs. of pure grain, which 

 affords about 20 oz. of nitrogenized matter. But 

 we have seen that a Brazilian tiger, weighing 

 200 Ibs., consumes 6 Ibs. of fresh beef, which 

 contains 24 oz. of nitrogenized matter ; so that if 

 his weight were 150 Ibs. (the average of man) he 



