172 



FOOD AND COOKERY 



in the chase, in order to consume them as food. We have 

 no reason to suppose that man ever made use of the raw 

 flesh of higher animals as his habitual diet. His teeth 

 are not, and never were, from his earliest ape-like days, 

 adapted to true carnivorous diet. Cooked meat is not 

 the food of a carnivor, but is an adaptation of the flesh of 

 animals to the requirements of a frugivorous animal. 

 Probably the use of grain and cultivated vegetable food is 

 a later step in human progress than the roasting of meat. 

 The Neander-men, and even the later Reindeer-men 

 (Cromagnards), had no cultivated fields, but lived on 

 roasted meat (of beasts, birds, and fish) and wild fruits. 

 We know how thoroughly the most ancient Greeks 

 enjoyed the long slices of roasted meat cut from the chine, 

 as told in the Homeric poems, and everywhere in 

 Europe after the neolithic or polished-stone period, meat 

 was a main article of diet, in conjunction with the vegetable 

 products of agriculture. In this country, after the Norman 

 conquest, meat-eating was greatly favoured by the impor- 

 tant industry which grew up in hides. The land was well 

 suited for the pasturage of cattle, and owing to the small- 

 ness of the population and the abundance of cattle 

 slaughtered for their hides, meat was almost to be had for 

 the asking. It was thus that Englishmen became great 

 meat-eaters and that " the roast beef of Old England " was 

 established. Later the same superfluity of meat in this 

 case, " mutton " recurred and became general when wool- 

 growing and the manufacture of woollen goods developed 

 into important industries. Relatively to the population 

 there was more " meat " of oxen and sheep in this country 

 than on the continent of Europe, and this disproportion 

 has been maintained. 



But the increase of population has led to a considerable 

 change in the diet of a very large proportion the poorer 

 part of the community. Whilst the families of the better- 



