SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OF MAN. 133 



to particular latitudes, as to be subservient to the 

 wants of man, without becoming hurtful, or endan- 

 gering his existence in climates which are, in some 

 respects, unpropitious to his mental and bodily de- 

 velopment. Indeed, the causes which influence, 

 and the laws which regulate the distribution of 

 animal and vegetable productions over the earth's 

 surface, often conduce more materially to the ex- 

 istence of the human species in every climate and 

 country, and to the perfection of its physical and 

 intellectual capacities under various circumstances 

 inimical to both, than the natural operation of food 

 itself. 



The intimate relation which exists between the food 

 of man, and the nature of the soil and climate which 

 he inhabits, has seldom been considered in a manner 

 which the subject deserves. Man, although in some 

 measure independent of the nature of the soil or cli- 

 mate in which he lives, is yet, in several points of view, 

 the creature of both. His manifestations, whether 

 moral or physical, are moulded by both influences, 

 like the animals which are below him in the scale 

 of creation, although frequently in a much less de- 

 gree. It is the soil which furnishes his food, and 

 the air which he respires derives whatever is noxious 

 to his system from the same source ; whenever, 

 therefore, the natural history of man comes to be 

 considered, it should be viewed in relation to those 

 productions of the soil on which he subsists, and 

 with which, in many respects, he may be con- 

 sidered as a fellow-product, but holding a superior 

 relation. As it is beyond the scope of this work to 



