OF DIGESTION. 175 



mortal Linnaeus sums up this argument thus : 6 Fruits and esculent 

 vegetables constitute his most suitable food.' Cuvier, the highest 

 authority on this point, sums it up thus : c The natural food of man, 

 therefore, judging from his structure, appears to consist of fruits, 

 roots, and other succulent parts of vegetables ; and his hands offer 

 him every facility for gathering them. His short and moderately 

 strong jaws on the one hand, and his cuspidati being equal in length 

 to the remaining teeth, and his tubercular rnolares on the other, 

 would allow him neither to feed on grass nor devour flesh, were 

 these aliments not prepared by cooking.' 



That distinguished physiologist, Professor Lawrence, sums up an 

 elaborate argument on this point as follows : ' The teeth of man 

 have not the slightest resemblance to those of carnivorous animals, 

 except that their enamel is confined to the external surface. He 

 possesses, indeed, teeth called canine, but they do not exceed the 

 level of the others, and are obviously unsuited for the purposes 

 which the corresponding teeth execute in carnivorous animals.' 

 ' Whether, therefore, we consider the teeth and jaws, or the imme- 

 diate instruments of digestion, the human structure closely resem- 

 bles that of the simise or monkeys, all of which, in their natural 

 state, are-completely frugivorous.' 



Dr. Thomas Bell, in his c Physiological Observations on the 

 natural food of man, deduced from the character of his teeth,' de- 

 clares, that * every fact connected with human organization goes to 

 prove that man was originally formed a frugivorous animal.' Cul- 

 len and Lamb took similar ground, and the Abbe Galani ascribed 

 all crimes to animal destruction. Pope protests against ' kitchens 

 sprinkled with blood,' and insists that animal food engenders crime. 

 Plutarch tells us that Pythagoras ate no pork, and wondered what 

 first < led man to eat carcass.' 



These conclusions, however unpopular, have been extorted from 

 every rigid physiologist who has ever examined this subject ; and 

 are confirmed by the length of the alimentary canal, which is short 

 in the carnivora, long in the herbivora, and long in man about six 

 times the length of his body. 



These two arguments, derived from the structure of the teeth 

 and alimentary canal, of themselves completely establish the dietetic 

 character of man to be vegetable ; and, taken in connexion with 

 those converging principles already adduced and yet in reserve, 

 establish this anti-flesh-eating argument as a fundamental ordinance 

 of nature. 



