SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OF MAN. 139 



Temperate countries furnish the greatest abun- 

 dance of both species of food, and thus enable the 

 inhabitants to combine both, or to adopt more or 

 less of either, according to the nature of the sea- 

 sons, the condition of climate, and the particular 

 circumstances in which they may be placed. Na- 

 ture is always provident ; she takes sufficient care 

 that each particular district, country, and climate* 

 shall have within themselves, or shall be capable of 

 producing by requisite labour, those articles of diet 

 which are most wholesome, and therefore most ap- 

 propriate to their inhabitants. The diseases, to 

 which particular situations are most liable, are ge- 

 nerally more successfully avoided, or their fatality 

 prevented by adopting as articles of food those pro- 

 ductions only which the place affords. As com- 

 merce or manufactures increase the population of a 

 district beyond the means of sustenance, derivable 

 from the soil, or the lower animals in the vicinity, 

 the food of the inhabitants, which is obtained from 

 a similar climate and country, is generally the most 

 wholesome. It is owing to the introduction of many 

 articles of diet, which is unsuitable to the circum- 

 stances of the inhabitants of a particular country, 

 or to the climate which that country enjoys, that 

 many disorders originate. And not a few derive 

 their origin from the improper mode of preparing 

 food, which would otherwise be wholesome. Thus 

 the hot spices and highly-seasoned dishes, which, 

 during the intropical rains, would be beneficial to 

 those who live in those climates on vegetable food 



