ON THE FOOD OF ANIMALS. 143 



physic and divinity, strive their utmost to do 

 credit to the festive board. What a mass of 

 incongruous aliment is exposed to view ! hard 

 and soft, light and heavy, salt and sour, sweet 

 and spicy, green and greasy, all floating in a 

 pool of the choicest wines from France and 

 Spain. The operator seems to have tried his 

 grinders at game and fish, butcher's meat and 

 poultry, and fruits and confectionery, until his 

 jaw has refused to act. 



What must be the state of a stomach so 

 sensible and so delicately formed by Nature, 

 under such an heterogeneous burden? How 

 such a stomach would wish to be the property 

 of a goose or an ass, in lieu of belonging to a 

 rational being ! and how the circumjacent vitals 

 must be incommoded by its unnatural intrusion 

 upon their own sphere of action. We now see 

 clearly the immediate cause of headache and 

 blue devils, and inflammation, with a long train 

 of ruinous disorders, which bring the noble 

 frame of man to dust long before its time. Well 

 may we hail the improvements in surgery and in 

 pharmacy, by which the machine is enabled to 

 keep in motion at a time when we do every 

 thing in our power to impede its motion. 



