No. 149.] 221 



ancient nations, for their early introduction through conquest, 

 into England and Spain; and in due course of time, in to our o^vn 

 country, after their acclimation there. In this manner the fruits 

 of once highly cultivated Asia, such as the peach, cherry, jdum, 

 apple, pear, orange, fig olive, and very many others, natives of 

 that country have reached us ; and through us will soon find 

 their way to the islands of the Pacific ocean, Califurnia and 

 Oregon. Nuts are an article that were much employed as food 

 by ancient nations ; and are still used in some countries exten- 

 sively, as a source of aliment ; the kernel of nuts contains a veiy 

 large per centage of oil ; consequently they are ver v nutiitious, 

 but the most indigestible of all the vegetable tribe. Berries 

 (Bacca,) is a name by which numerous small fruits without 

 membraneous covering, consisting of a pericarpium full of pulp 

 and juice, with the seeds disposed throughout it are known. 

 Those used as food usually grow upon shrubs in cultivated 

 grounds; such as the cranberry, gooseberry, raspberry, currant, 

 barberry, &c. The S2)ices used in food do not come to maturity 

 in the open air in our latitude, they are the productions of the 

 Spice Islands in the Indian ocean. 



Dr. Paris observes that the use of spices was not intended by 

 nature for the inhabitants of temperate climes : they are heating 

 and highly stimulant ; more weight should not be given to this 

 objection than it deserves. Man is no longer the child of nature, 

 nor the passive inhabitant of any particular region ; he ranges 

 over every part of the universe, and elicits nourishment from the 

 productions of every climate. It may be, therefore, necessary 

 that he should accompany the ingestion of foreign aliment with 

 foreign condiment. Nature is very kind in favoring the growth 

 of those productions which are most likely to answer our local 

 wants. Those climates, for example, which engender endemic 

 diseases are, in general, congenial to the growth of tlie plants 

 that operate as antidotes to them. 



Spices stimulate the appetites of some, and destroy the tone of 

 the stomach of others. Bread, the staff of life, though named 

 last, is by no means the least of man's comforts, since he first 

 became civilized, even until now, no aliment has been more uni- 

 versally employed as nourishment. To the cultivation of cereal 



