462 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
animals. Our readers will remember the result of the four 
Jewish youths, who, at the request made by Daniel, were 
fed on pulse (peas and beans) to eat, and water to drink— 
that “ their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh 
than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s 
meat.” 
We are quite aware that it has been said such seeds are 
very likely to be productive of skin diseases, either from the 
sympathy which exists between the common integument and 
the stomach, or from continuity of membrane. Yet we think 
much of this may be referred to habit; while w r e are con¬ 
vinced, that from a mixture of the vegetable principles a great 
amount of good would be obtained. Still, in this as in 
everything else, judgment is to be exercised. The advan¬ 
tages to be derived from a mixed diet are so patent as to 
need no comment. There is likewise a needs-be for com¬ 
bining, in our ordinary diet, vegetable matters w 7 ith animal 
substances. The object science ever has in view is to explain 
the facts which experience has developed, and to ascertain 
the governing laws, so that principles may be our guide, 
rather than custom or conjecture. By experience we know 
that butter with bread is nutritious, in the popular sense. 
Science tells us the “ why and the wherefore ; ” namely, that 
amylaceous matters are more readily transformed into fat if 
eaten with a little fat in some form, than if they are eaten 
alone. We partake of a little cheese at dinner almost from 
custom ; science, however, tells us that it promotes digestion 
by inducing catalytic action. Again, we add salt to our food, 
not merely because it imparts savour to it, but because it 
furnishes one of the constituents of the gastric juice. Eggs 
and milk are proverbially nutritive, simply because they con¬ 
tain all the elements necessary for the maintenance of life, 
these being in the form of proximate principles or otherwise. 
Chemistry also assigns the reason why the Laplander luxu¬ 
riously feeds on oil and grease, whilst the inhabitants of 
tropical climates prefer cooling and refreshing fruits. Thus 
it is that the utility of science becomes demonstrated; for 
“ truth is one” how T ever varied its forms may appear. 
