62 FOOD. _ 



" The mode in which the condyles of the lower jaw are articu- 

 lated with the temporal bones, demonstrates his destination for 

 both kinds of food in the most striking manner." In animals which 

 subsist on animal food, the condyles of the lower jaw are locked 

 in an elongated glenoid cavity, and all rotatory motion thus pre- 

 vented, as motion upwards and downwards is sufficient for the 

 laceration of the food. In vegetable feeders the joint is shallow, 

 so that a horizontal motion is allowed for grinding the food. Its 

 nature in man is explained at the beginning of the next chapter. 



" As the human race exists in more parts of the globe than any 

 other kind of animal, we should have been but ill provided for 

 if we had been destined to subsist on either description of food 

 alone ; whereas man now inhabits some countries which afford 

 either vegetable or animal food only. 



" Man is by far the most omnivorous of all animals, capable 

 not only of feasting on luxurious combinations derived from each 

 kingdom, but of subsisting with health and vigour on nearly one 

 kind of the most simple food. 



" Thus, to mention a very few instances, many at present live 

 on vegetables only, as the tubera of solanum (potatoes), chestnuts, 

 dates, &c. The first families of mankind most probably subsisted 

 for a long period merely on fruits, roots, corn, and pulse. d 



" The nomadic Moors have scarcely any other food than gum 

 senega': 



d " Consult Heyne, Opuscula Academ. vol. i. p. 366. sq." 

 e Adamson, Mem. de FAcad. des Sc. de Pans, 1778, p. 16." 

 In 1750, a caravan of Abyssinians had consumed all their provisions, and 

 would have starved but that they discovered among their merchandise a stock of 

 gum-arabic, on which alone above a thousand persons subsisted for two months. 

 (Hasselquist, Voyages and Travels in the Levant, p. 298.) Yet Dr. Magendie 

 says he finds that dogs perish if fed only with gum or sugar, olive oil, butter, and 

 similar articles, regarded as nutritious, which contain no azote. (Annales de 

 Chimie et de Physique, voh iii. p. 66. 1816.) But although such substances be 

 alone unable to nourish, yet when united with others they may afford some 

 support ; for persons accustomed to a mixed diet generally grow thinner if they 

 confine themselves to vegetable food, which is indubitably good nourishment : and 

 even if we grant that such substances are not nutritious to dogs, they may be 

 proper food for other species : and to render it probable even that these are not 

 nutritious to dogs, the animals should have been gradually brought to feed on 

 them only ; for animals may be brought to live on food the most opposite to 

 what their nature inclines them, if the change is made insensibly : Spallanzani 



