TRANSACTIONS 01? THE SECTIONS. 103 



The following are some of the circumstances which have given rise in the author's 

 mind to doubt : — 



1st, then, taking the instance of the adult man : is there any evidence that those 

 engaged in expeditions or services in which for a period the allowance of food was 

 deficient, though they were weakened indeed greatly at the time, experienced any 

 permanently bad effects ? Those who belonged to the arctic exploring parties, whe- 

 ther by sea or land, have not eventually suffered. The author referred specially to 

 the cases of the late Sir John Richardson, who had suffered so much from priva- 

 tion in his first arctic journey, and his companion, the late Sir John Franklin. 

 They were reduced by starvation to such a state that even their minds were en- 

 feebled ; and when they arrived at a station where their wants could be supplied, 

 they were intent on nothing but cooking and eating, day and night. Nor is there 

 evidence that any African traveller, whatever his privations, if so fortunate as to 

 return to this country, suffered eventually. The late Captain Speke is an instance 

 in point, and both of the effects of deficient diet with fatigue and of ample diet with 

 rest. Captain Burton, his companion, a traveller in so many lands, and of such vast 

 experience as a traveller, affords evidence in his own person corroborative of the 

 fact that temporary privation is not necessarily permanently injurious ; indeed he 

 expresses it as his opinion that occasional fasting is beneficial. 



2. A deficiency ol food, especially of fresh vegetables, is productive, as is well 

 known, of scurvy, accompanied by a diseased state of the blood and great loss of 

 bodily strength ; yet how soon does recovery take place when a wholesome invi- 

 gorating diet is supplied. Nor is the author aware that scurvy is productive of any 

 taint, as a sequela, injurious to the constitution. And he apprehends that the same 

 remark is applicable in relation to consequences, to all acute diseases, such as are not 

 accompanied by organic lesions of a permanent kind. It is marvellous, in cases of 

 recovery from yellow fever and some other fevers, how rapid is the convalescence, 

 the gain of weight, and the restoration of vigour. 



•'!. Taking the instances of tribes of people : some are scantily fed, or, at least, 

 owing to the regions they inhabit and their habits as to their mode of procuring 

 food, are often for a considerable time on a scant allowance, sometimes approaching 

 the starvation degree. Such races are the Boshmen of Southern Africa, the Tas- 

 manians, the aborigines of Australia, the Veddahs of Ceylon, who all lead the pre- 

 carious life adverted to as to diet, depending chiefly for their daily food for their 

 success in the chase. What is their condition ? All of them are below the average 

 i,i height and size and are thin in person ; but they are not said to be unhealthy 

 races, or subject to any spe: ial diseases attributable to their mode of life. 



4. Taking examples of different ages — the young during the period of growth, 

 adults, the middle-aged, the advanced in years, and the very aged — in either of 

 these stages have we proof that there is any disease special to either when too spa- 

 ringly fed, provided the food they have is of a wholesome kind ? Dining the period 

 of distress in Lancashire, owing to the diminished imports of cotton, it would ap- 

 pear that the people generally were in tolerable health ; indeed it is stated that they 

 were in improved health, and that there was actually a diminished rate of mortality. 

 Yet we may be sure that, during that calamitous time, a very large number of men, 

 -women, and children must have been underfed. Of the men and women most re- 

 markable for longevity, the greater number have been of the labouring class — in- 

 dividuals of whom it may be pretty confidently asserted that their diet was sparse 

 rather than abundant. Though the Irish, as a people, owing to their dependancy 

 on the potato, have been greater f ufferers from famine than the English in modern 

 times, yet it is remarkable that the number of persons in that country who have 

 attained the age of fO years is greater than in England, with a population, com- 

 paring the two, so greatly in excess. 



5. Taking instances of peoples and persons well fed and regularly so, in what par- 

 ticulars do they differ chiefly from the preceding? Pastoral and agricultural tribes 

 well to do may be cited as examples — such as the Caftiesof Southern Africa, living 

 chiefly on milk; and, amongst Europeans, the middle-class, using a mixed diet, and 

 that without stint. Such — and the Caffres and our own countrynn n are striking 

 examples — are chiefly remarkable for a size exceeding Ihe average of mankind, and 

 for a full development with proportional strength and energy ; but the author is 



