398 Transactions of the American Institute. 



and ten cents per barrel. Muck is abundant here — at every man's 

 door, and of the best quality. I am hauling it now for my spring 

 crops, for my vineyards and orange trees. Let all discouraged ones 

 follow the advice of the Club about hauling, mixing, etc., and they 

 will rejoice over beautiful crops next spring. Our weather is delight- 

 ful ; wind south, and mercury up to eighty degrees four successive 

 days, averaging sixty-six degrees at sunrise. Notwithstanding the 

 freeze of last winter, we have had several large bunches of ripe 

 bananas, and have promise of a great abundance next year. 



Meats in Market. 

 The paper of the day was read by Dr. J. Y. C. Smith on the sub- 

 ject indicated in the foregoing sub-head. Allusion was made at the 

 outset to the large consumption of animal food in our country, in 

 England, throughout South America, and in the Orient. In the 

 latter localities meat is not easily obtained, but the appetite for it is 

 quite as strong as in Great Britain, on the Continent or in the United 

 States. The demand for meat in the equatorial regions of Africa is 

 so great that if it cannot be procured from other sources, prisoners are 

 frequently slaughtered and consumed for food. Persons mainly sus- 

 tained on animal food are unquestionably bolder, braver and more 

 intelligent than pure vegetarians. The contrast is striking between 

 a beef-eating English army and East Indian soldiers who subsist almost 

 entirely on rice. A Chinese, Japanese, or Corean regiment would 

 have neither the physical energy nor skill for resisting 200 European 

 troops whose daily rations are beef with bread, and few or no fresh 

 vegetables. Bread is common to both, but the real bone and muscle 

 belong to beef-eaters everywhere. Admitting, then, as we must, on 

 physiological investigations, that man requires animal food in order 

 to develop the full character of the race, if put upon an exclusively vege- 

 table diet, neither great intellectual power nor muscular activity need be 

 expected in northern climates. The further north men reside, the 

 more animal sustenance required. It is precisely so with a large pro- 

 portion of animals in those bleak and stormy latitudes where the 

 Esquimaux and polar bear both hunt for seals. If people who subsist 

 principally on h'sh are examined by such tests as reveal their nature, 

 they w T ill invariably be found kindly disposed, obliging and easily per- 

 suaded. They are the most daring, fearless and implacable of foes 

 when their rights are withheld or they are wrongfully oppressed. 

 No sailors compare with well-trained fishermen. In the navy they 

 always stand by the flag. The student of nature thinks he under- 



