. ftron 
DIGESTION. 
as well as thofe which regard the quantity and proportions 
both of folid and liquid food, belong to the fubjed of di- 
ztetics. See Diet 
The food of man, in the firft ages, feems t have been 
drawn from the vegetable kingdom; im thofe times, milk, 
derived firft from the brea of the female, and afterwards 
from flocks and herds, was the hee nerruhment furnifhed by 
a ee however, ficfh was added to the food, and 
e juice of the grape to the jane of the human f{pecier, 
Sable saul - > air, and _ have been exhaufted 
to adminifter to the w r luxury of mankind; and {ub- 
fiftence bas been ac inden from animal or vegetable 
fub ‘tances. 
The power of adopting all kinds of diet would naturally 
lead us to expe& the differences which we aétually find in 
this refpect among the numerous nations {cattered over the 
face of the earth. In th 
ti 
tribes in Africa, an {ts 
who lived only on vegetables; while the Ethiopians, Scythi- 
ans, and A gs, ate nothing but flefh or anim So 
tribes on the fea-coatt fubfifted entirely on fifth, Modern 
hiftory difcovers the fame difference of regimen. A vege- 
table diet feems fuitable to the burning countries under the 
equator, and wt, oe find nations there who haze 
completely adapted it, and who reat = much the more 
feverely from all animal set inaf{much as it is an article of 
eed pun faith. It is allo “gory a in pees 
mperat caries Potatocs, chefnu 
ie Tego fatisfy the wants af ae one a et : and 
numerous inftances might be quoted of individuals and tribes 
whofe fole food has been vegetables and water. ‘The frozen 
regions of the north demand a different diet ; and the animal 
kingdom fupplies the food of man near the pole. In the 
north of Europe, where the cold is lefs rigorous, the Swede, 
ch 
Dane, Ruffian, German, and Englifhman, cat much meat 
and little ata es, The Tartars in hee and entire tribes 
of favages orth America, live raw and half putrid 
eat. cau animals afford the beft animal food; 
but the anes Samoieds, Efqnimaux, and others, do not 
refufe food derived from other claffes. 
The mutcles of the herbivora are moderately foft and con- 
tain much gelatine; their milk is m 
regions. 
ng and a 
pocrates, and itill by {everal favage tribes ; and the feal and 
walrus have often yiclded-a fupply to the failor. All the 
granivor. aus, herbivorous, and i: fe@tivorous birds, are eaten; 
civorous ne 
even reptiles and in 
The miferable inha ene of New Holland lived wholly on 
fifh when that country was firft difcovered; and the fame 
circumftance may be affirmed of various tribes on the fhores 
of Arabia and the Perfian gulph. In the ‘flands towards 
the North of Scotland a great part of the food arifes from 
the fame fource ; ftill more in the Ferro iflands, in Iceland, 
and en e in Greenland, lige in — neigh- 
of the large ream e north 
clals ie aifo fupplicd fome ae Gaede 
nent: the roces of the fturgeon, beluga, and carp, 
pruifed, falted, dried, and immerfed in oil, form the Ruffian 
delicacy named caviar 3 this, and a fimilar preparation from 
other fithes, were caten a great quantities by the adherents of 
the Greek church, although Tournefort thought them deteft- 
able. The Roman luxury garum, which bore fo high # 
price, confifted of the putrid entrails of fithes (firtt of ne 
arus only ) seat with wine ; and a fimilar as data ig is ee 
and E 
not digetted, Jet them be ever fo tender and foft. 
however, digefted by fome other animals; but every man 
knows, from his own obfervation, that the fki 
raifins, &c. pafles unchanged through the inteftines. 
will {till retain their power of germination, after going inkl 
the alimentary tube ia oe if the hufk be not broken be- 
fore they enter the ftomach. eine er are all animal atten 
dige(tible; is Pe cae bcrone 
cc. which, accordingly, a cites wn ae in 
mach of birds “el e “The indigeftible nature of thefe 
matters eye _ from their being inorganic, or dehi- 
tute of living pow 
It m may alto be aonioned asa curious fac, that the pot 
fonous juices of feveral animals, w ; when infufed into 
wound, prove almoft pune ee ey patie = ken 
into the pine not on! other als, even: 
f the human fubje&, w Si ecit | ed {mall eft devin ee Dr. 
ord yce e knew the black ake nt of an ane merchant i in 
any need to the moe 
tained, ae the deadly ticunas, with which the American ar- 
rows are poifoned, may be taken into the ftomach with impa- 
Neit re the animal or vegetable poi fo eflen= 
i i nva 
to man, is taken in abundance, without injury, by goats 
feveral other poifonous vegetable produdtions are eaten by 
birds; and the cantharides are devoured by two kinds of in- 
fet, whofe juices are, neverthelefs, perfeGly mild. 
Since man is diltinguifhed beyond all animals by the power 
of living in i bape AS ay Nobis of the globe, under every 
variety of c hich t arth affords, his food could 
not be derive : eainay a pie kingdom, fince he ia- 
babits regions that afford aliments only of one or the other 
fort. He claims more juftly than any other the title of an 
omnivorous animal ; becaufe, on the one hand, he can reve! 
in the vait variety of aliments drawn from the endlefs ftores 
of the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; ‘while, on the other 
fide, he can live healthy and hel on a id in that a 
moft fimple form of food. Thus, in mod mes, numerou 
a occur of perfons living ay on paneact a chef 
nuts, dates, &c. Some wandering Mo 
moftt seeely to gum Sen 
1778. The Kamtfchatkans, and other inhabitants of the 
fea-fhore, fubfift wholly on fifh; the thepherds, in the pro- 
vince of Caraccas, on ee rondko, entirely on fl Some 
barbarous eae eat t 
en, i appears ons the ftruéture of the teeth, the 
joint of the lower oe and the form and ftructure of the fto- 
mach and inteft:nes, hold a middle oe in the human {ubje@, 
between the carnivorous ard herbivorous; and that men 
have actually fubfifted in fall health and frrength on one ox the 
other kind only, or on a mixture of both forts of food, the 
conclufion that he is naturally defigned to be omnivorous 
follows neceflarily. We are the more difpofed to wonder 
; that 
