I 



LECTURE ir. 101 



only from their form, but from the mecha- 

 nism of the joints of his jaws, from the great 

 strength and various actions of his muscles 

 of mastication, and from the lever formed 

 by the coronoid process to increase their 

 power. I do not know, however, that we 

 are warranted to infer from the teeth alone 

 what kind of food nature designed us to 

 live on. Some vegetables and animals are 

 peculiar to certain districts, and will not 

 thrive in other situations ; whilst other 

 kinds of vegetables and animals, are found 

 more generally distributed over the surface 

 of the globe. Grass and corn thrive every 

 where. Man also seems an universal ani- 

 mal. He can and does live in some places 

 upon vegetables only, whilst in a Greenland 

 winter, his chief sustenance is derived from 

 oil and fish. Nature may have given man 

 means to grind his food, that he may ex- 

 tract the greatest quantity of nourishment 

 from a deficient supply of it ; and he can by 

 mixing different kinds of food qualify sub- 

 stances for trituration, which by themselves 

 would be unsuited to that process. It is 

 also one of his characteristics, and in which 



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