No. 149. 1 213 



him to endure the cold, and acts as a stimulus to his energies ; 

 besides all that, vegetables are scarce and difficult to be obtained. 

 The Esquimaux have no vegetables at all, and live totally upon 

 flesh and fish. 



All animals, and all fish, may be safely used as food, with a 

 very few exceptions, I cannot except any by name, for the reason 

 that travellers say all the animals, fish, and nearly all the larger 

 insects, are used as food by various nations of men. 



Dr. Johnson remarks, " it is not very easy to fix the princi- 

 ples upon which mankind have agreed to eat some animals and 

 reject others ; and as this principle is not evident, it is not uni- 

 form. That which is selected as delicate in one country, is by 

 its neighbors abhorred as loathsome. The Neapolitans lately re- 

 fused to eat potatoes in a famine. An Englishman is not easily 

 persuaded to dine on snails with an Italian, on frogs with a 

 Frenchman, or on horse-flesh with a Tartar. The inhabitants of 

 Skye hold not only eels, but pork and bacon, in abhorrence." 



In America, eagles, rats, cats, mice, dogs and horses, are not 

 eaten, still they are all used as food in other countries, and some of 

 them are considered great luxuries. The flesh of the larger ani- 

 mals is generally selected as food. I do not approve of this 

 plan, for the reason that the fibre is large, the grain is coarse and 

 not so palatable as smaller animals. Mutton, for instance, is 

 more delicate than beef, and so birds and fish than mutton. 

 The flesh of young herbivorous animals, contains a larger per 

 centage of gelatinous matter than the old of the same species j 

 therefore it is that their flesh is more soluble, and feels the effect 

 of hot water sooner, boils much more tender, and is more nour- 

 ishing to persons of weak digestion. The flesh of old animals 

 contains much less gelatine, but more albumen and fibrin, con- 

 sequently it is a stronger food, and has more flavor, until the 

 animals becomes old, when the flesh is apt to be stringy and in- 

 digestible. Veal is less digestible than beef, and lamb than mut- 

 ton. The meat of the female is always finer grained ond more 

 tender than the male. The flesh of all animals, quadrupeds, 

 fish and birds, may be much improved for the table, becoming 

 more tender, fatter and larger, by means of a certain process 



