INTESTINAL SYSTEM 215 



addition to fat and carbohydrate must not fall below a certain 

 level, according to Henneberg, -J gm. per kilogramme of body- 

 weight. 



Midway between the carnivora and herbivora come the 

 omnivora, including man : in their bodily economy, they ap- 

 proach one or other extreme, according as flesh or vegetable 

 food preponderates. Man's capacity for work is greatest on a 

 mixed diet. 1 The old world apes are shown by their teeth to 

 be adapted to a vegetable diet, but that they do not in any 

 way despise animal food is evident from observations on 

 baboons, who in the wild state will greedily devour small 

 animals, birds and their eggs, reptiles and insects of all sorts. 

 Even the anthropoids, especially the gorilla, manifest in cap- 

 tivity a preference for flesh food. The habits of the anthropoids 

 in the wild state are up to the present almost unknown, and 

 for this reason the assertion of savages that the gorilla kills 

 and devours animals and men should be accepted with great 

 reserve. It seems certain that the orang-utan lives exclusively 

 on herbs and fruits. 



A peculiarity which puts man on a different level from all 

 other animals living in freedom is his predilection for condi- 

 ments, a weakness shared by all races. No other animal in 

 the natural state knows anything of these, or attempts to 

 procure them, although it is well known that captive and 

 domesticated animals soon acquire a taste for alcoholic bever- 

 ages. 



The ideal food which the young of all animals enjoy in 

 their early days, and one which man continues to consume 

 from infancy to advanced old age, is milk. 



If food is withheld death is brought about ; speaking 

 generally, starvation proves fatal when the body-weight has 

 fallen to about three-fifths. 



This occurs in 



Adult man ~\ 



Horses - after four weeks 

 Cats 

 In a full-grown dog after six weeks 



Life may be prolonged, however, on water alone. 2 

 1 Munk-Schultz, loc. cit., pp. 276-88. *Ibid.. p. 122. 



