1812. 
MAN AN OMNIVOROUS ANIMAL. 
33 
custom, and plead his cause. Or, if we cannot gain for him an 
acquittal of the crime of eating unclean food, let us at least examine 
whether his judges be not themselves equally guilty : unless we at 
once decide the question by admitting to its utmost extent, the 
maxim that, there should be no disputing about tastes. 
To all animals, excepting man, Nature seems to have pointed 
out some particular class of food as their proper nourishment ; and 
when, from any morbid or depraved inclination they acquire a habit 
of taking other substances, we may with justice accuse them of 
having an unnatural taste. But man is left omnivorous : a fact 
which his history, and daily observation, sufficiently prove ; even 
without the testimony of our own Materia culinarna. Throughout 
the whole zoological system, there is scarcely a class from which, 
either in one or other country, he does not convert some or many 
of its species to the purpose of food, and which in all instances 
afford wholesome nourishment. But it is remarkable how little man- 
kind are agreed in these matters, and how few substances are eaten uni- 
versally, or how few there are which are not rejected by one nation, or 
another : and so patriotic in this respect, are the inhabitants of various, 
and even of polished, countries, that they, or at least, the illiberal part 
of them, entertain a species of contempt for those whose habits or ne- 
cessities lead them to the use of aliments different from their own ; and 
pity their want of judgment in not preferring those things which 
they themselves find most agreeable to their own palate. To enume- 
rate instances in substantiation of these assertions, is unnecessary, 
because they are too numerous, and too well known : but the ap- 
plication of the mode of reasoning derivable from them, seems on 
the other hand, to be too little practised. To mitigate poor Speelman's 
abhorrence at the Bushman, I would have told him that there was a 
nation in Europe who sometimes ate frogs, and that many of my own 
countrymen were excessively fond of an animal like an enormous toad, 
and not only ate its eggs, but its whole body ; and that some of the most 
luxurious and polished nations of the world ate lizards * also : but 
* The Iguana of the West Indies and South America ; where it is esteemed a great 
delicacy. 
VOL. II. F 
