36G 



JOURNAL R. A. S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. III. 



a continual stimulation of the digestive organs by hot pepper, 

 spices, &c, especially when we consider the constitutional 

 change which is always effected by habits of any kind, 

 continued from generation to generation. 



With regard to the use of a meat diet by inhabitants of hot 

 couutries, we find that there is very often some provision in the 

 laws of their religion, which tends to diminish the supply of 

 animal food. Thus, among the Hindus the coav is sacred, 

 among the Jews the pig is forbidden as food, and the Sinhalese 

 are not, or were not, permitted to eat beef. Now we find no 

 such laws among the inhabitants of cold climates, and may, 

 I think, reasonably conclude, that these ordinances, like some 

 other religious ceremonies among Mohammedans, were origi- 

 nally instituted for the health of the people ; who, otherwise, 

 from the elementary state of knowledge at the earlier periods 

 of the world, might have committed excesses, which in time 

 would have produced the degeneration and eventual destruc- 

 tion of the race. 



The medical science, however, of the present day, ex- 

 plains why one particular diet should be suited to a hot, and 

 another to a cold country. Respiration serves two principal 

 purposes in the human body, it purifies our blood by carry- 

 ing off from it a substance called carbon, in the form of car- 

 bonic acid gas, and at the same time maintains, by a chemical 

 process, the natural heat of the body. Now respiration is 

 quicker in a cold climate or in cold weather than in a hot 

 climate, that is, in a given time we perform a greater num- 

 ber of inspirations and expirations in cold weather than in hot. 

 Now, although in a hot climate there is less work for the 

 lungs in maintaining the temperature of the body, as that 

 of the surrounding atmosphere is so great, still the purifica-' 

 tion of the blood requires to be carried on ; and so, if we still 

 introduce as much carbon into the system in the shape of 

 food, we shall find that as the lungs do not act so frequently, 

 the carbon must accumulate in the blood, or be got rid of by 

 some other means ; now this other means of disposing of 

 it is through the liver, which thus has an extra amount 



