By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 95 



Bread is well known to constitute the chief food of the French 

 peasantry. They are a very temperate race of men ; and they 

 possess the advantages of a very fine and dry climate. Yet the 

 duration of life amongst them is very short, scarcely exceeding two 

 thirds of the average duration of life in England ; and in some dis- 

 tricts much less. Dr. Hawkins in his Medical Statistics, states 

 upon the authority of M. Villerme, that in the department of 

 Indre, " one fourth of the children born die within the first year, 

 and half between fifteen and twenty, and that three fourths are 

 dead within the space of fifty years." Having enquired of a very 

 eminent French Physiologist, M. Dutrochet, who is resident in 

 the department of Indre, the cause of this extraordinary mortality, 

 he stated it to be their food, which consisted chiefly of bread ; and 

 of which he calculated every adult peasant to eat two pounds a 

 day. And he added, without having received any leading question 

 from me, or, in any degree, knowing my opinion upon the subject, 

 that if the peasantry of his country would substitute (which they 

 could do) a small quantity of animal food with potatoes instead of 

 so much bread, they would live much longer, and with much better 

 health. I am inclined to pay much deference to M. Dutrochet's 

 opinion ; for he combines the advantages of a regular medical edu- 

 cation with great acuteness of mind, and I believe him to be as 

 well acquainted with the general laws of organic life, as any person 

 living: and I think his opinion deserves some support from the 

 well known fact, that the duration of human life has been much 

 greater in England during the last sixty years than in the preced- 

 ing period of the same duration. Bread made of wheat, when 

 taken in large quantities, has probably, more than any other article 

 of food in use in this country, the effect of over loading the alimen- 

 tary canal; and the general practice of the French Physicians 

 points out the prevalence of diseases thence arising, amongst their 

 patients. 



