60 DIET AS CONNECTED WITH CHARACTER. 



same in all ? It is an old saying that " there are many 

 kinds of aliment, while there is at the same time but one 

 aliment." 



Dr. B. It is not strictly true that the nutritious por- 

 tions of all our food are precisely alike, or capable of 

 being reduced to one common principle, though no 

 doubt it is true to a certain extent. Whether a per- 

 son lives exclusively on vegetable or animal food, the 

 composition of the body remains the same. Such also 

 is the case with other animals. The flesh of the. sheep, 

 which lives entirely on vegetables, and that of the lion 

 whose only food is raw flesh, will be found on chemical 

 analysis to be composed of the same materials. 



Emily. But the effects on their moral and physical 

 dispositions are by no means the same, for in one it is 

 feebleness and timidity ; in the other, unrelenting fe- 

 rocity and powerful strength. 



Dr. B. The diet of an animal, and his moral and 

 physical disposition are far from standing together in the 

 relation of cause and effect. The fierceness and strength 

 of the lion, are inherent qualities of his nature compo- 

 nent parts of his constitution. His digestive system is 

 capable of acting only on animal food, and therefore 

 strength and fierceness were absolutely necessary to en- 

 able him to obtain the proper means of subsistence. 



Emily. Still, is it not the case with man, that an 

 animal diet has a tendency to make him strong, fierce 

 and courageous, and a vegetable diet on the other hand 

 to make him weak and timid ? 



Dr. B. No doubt you have learnt this notion, as 

 you have many others equally correct, from sources 

 which you supposed were entitled to confidence ; but 

 facts are strangely against you. The Negroes in Africa, 

 and the South Sea islanders subsist chiefly on a vegeta- 

 ble nourishment, yet they are remarkable for physical 

 strength, and are not deficient in courage. The Esqui- 

 maux and other Polar nations, eat hardly any thing but 

 the flesh of the seal and walrus, and drink their blood 



