F O O 
have been difcovered by Swartz in tlie Weft Indies ; and 
one in Cocbincliina bv Lotireiro. See Bryum, Poly¬ 
gonum amphibium, and Potamoc.eton. 
FONTVIEL'LF., a town of France, in the department 
of the Mouths of the Rhone, and chief place of a canton, 
in the did rift of Arles : four miles north-eaft of Arles. 
FOO-TChIIEN ; , a province of China, next adjoining 
to province of Quang-tung, on titc north. It is a moun¬ 
tainous country ; but the mountains, by the induftry of 
the inhabitants, are formed into amphitheatres, with ter¬ 
races, which often extend feveral miles in length, and a 
feries of twenty or thirty prefent themfelves, one above 
the other. The account given by Du Halde is fo curious 
as to merit the attention of our readers. Thefe terraces are 
planted with rice, which is nourifhed by wafer forced tip 
to a great height, and conveyed to the diiferent planta¬ 
tions in pipes of bamboo. This province is remarkable 
for its vaft commerce, opulence, and population, and alfo 
for its amazing fertility. Among the vegetable produc¬ 
tions, it is diftinguifhed for its fine oranges; one fpeoies 
is very large, and its rind quite loofc to the pulp, which 
lias the taffe and fmell of the mnfeadine grape. This 
kind is candied, and fent to all parts of the empire ; ano¬ 
ther- is of a deep red ; and a third very final!. China is 
the native place of oranges, from whence they were com¬ 
municated to the we (fern world. 
FOOD, /, [pit-ban, Sax. veeden , Dut. to feed ; feed, 
Scott.] Viftuals ; provifion for the mouth.—Much food 
is in the tillage of the poor. Prov. xiii. 23. 
Under my lowly roof thou haft vouchfaf’d 
To enter, and thefe earthly fruits to tafte ; 
Food not or angels, yet accepted fo. Milton. 
Any thing that nourifhes : 
Give me fotne mu fie : mufic, moody food 
Of us that trade in love. Shakefpeare . 
Food, in the mod common appropriation of the word, 
implies every kind of aliment, which is capable of being 
employed for the nourifhinent of mankind. On this fub- 
jeft many fanciful nr.d abfurd notions have been diflemi- 
nated by different medical writers ; fome of whom recom¬ 
mend little elfe than vegetable food ; others chiefly ani¬ 
mal ; while tlie 1110ft rational and experienced contend 
for a due and feafonable admixture of both. See the ar¬ 
ticle Aliment, vol. i. p. 338. — Dr. Fordyce, in his 
Gulftonian Lefture, read "before the Royal College of 
Phyficians in 1791, remarks as follows: 
“ Mediciue being, as far as we can trace it in all coun¬ 
tries, in its firft beginnings in the hands of men infefted 
with fuperftition, every part of its doftrine has con'ftantly 
been affefted with that weed, and the dietetic part per¬ 
haps more fo than any other. We find always in the 
mouths of tliofe tainted with this original fin, that man 
is to live naturally, and on fuch food as is preferred to 
him by nature : forgetful of the Admighty’s decree, that 
man fhall earn his bread by the fweat of bis brow, and of 
courfe find out of all kind of fubftances from whence he 
is to procure fubfiftence ; and if he cannot by bis in- 
duftry find out vegetables or animals which may ferve 
him lor fubfiftence, he muft cultivate and alter them 
from their natural ftate. Accordingly men live, in as 
far as they live cn vegetables, on fuch as are no where to 
be found grow ing naturally. Wheat, rice, rye, barley, el¬ 
even oats, are not found wild ; that is to fay, growing 
naturally in any part of the earth, but have been altered 
by cultivation ; that is, by the induftry of mankind, from 
plants not now refenibling them even in fuch a degree as 
that we can trace from whence they drew their origin ; 
and not only thefe, but mod of the other vegetables that 
we employ. A plant of fcanty leaves, and a fmall fpike 
of flowers, not weighing altogether half an ounce, is im¬ 
proved into a cabbage, vvliofe leaves alone weigh from 
fifty to an hundred pounds, w ithout counting tliofe which 
are expanded ; or into a cauliflower of many pounds 
¥ol. VII. No. 448. 
F O O 545 
weight, being only the embryo of a few buds, which in 
their natural ftate would not have weighed fo many 
grains ; the plant itfelf, in its natural ftate, not only 
being nothing in its bulk, but in its quality the reverfe of 
nutritious. I am not, therefore, to enquire what is the 
natural food of man, who has no natural food ; but into 
what he has been able to render proper for his nourifit¬ 
ment, and been able to produce for himfelf by his own 
induftry. 
“ The firft fpecies of food which prefects itfelf is 
farinaceous matter, a vegetable mucilage, found meft par¬ 
ticularly in the feeds of that great divifion of plants called 
gramina. It is, however, obtained from various other 
p)ants«numerated by botanifts. It ccnfifts of a mucilage, 
combined with water fo as to form a folid. It feems to 
be depofited in very fine particles in extremely fmall cells, 
as appears by the fine powder or flour it falls into when 
ground in a mill. If it was an uniform folid, the grind¬ 
ing would by no means produce fo fine a powder. This 
farinaceous matter has perhaps been always the principal 
nourifhment of mankind; and not onlv of mankind, but 
of other animals vvliofe organs of digefticn approach near 
to thefe of the human fpecies. Another fubftance taken 
from vegetables, which men life for nourifhment, is 
fugar : this is found in every vegetable, excepting the 
fungi. Exprefled oils found in vegetables are alfo capa¬ 
ble of being digefted. Nonriftiment may alfo be derived 
from gums, inftances of which have been known when the 
caravans, eroding the fandy deferts of Africa, over which 
they have brought gum fencca, have loft their wayand, 
having expended their provifions, have been obliged to 
live on this gum, together with water, for many weeks. 
Thefe feetn to be the only fubftances found in vegetables 
that appear capable of giving noufiftiment to mankind, or 
even to have any power over tlie digeftion, excepting by 
their effefts on the organsof digeftion confidered as alive. 
For in the firft place, the fibrous ar.d membranous parts 
of vegetables are clearly not digefted, let them be ever fo 
tender or (oft. I need only here point out what occurs 
to every man’s obfervation, that they pafs through the in, 
teftines without being decompofed ; and never form in 
any country, or in any nation, any part of the food of 
man; otherwife why fhould many rude nations, fuch as 
the Indians, inhabiting feveral parts of America, be 
hardly able to keep up their tribes, when they have 
plenty of trees and grafs to feed upon, if thefe would 
ferve for nourifhment ? It would then be no inhumanity 
to drive thefe wretched and opprefled people into the in¬ 
land part of their country, w here there are plenty of 
grafs and trees, if they could but feed upon them. But 
fuch food cannot be digefted in the human ftomach ; in 
"confequence, inevitable deftruftion muft eventually fall 
upon that race of human beings. 
“ On the other hand, almoft all animals afford foed to 
mankind. T 1 e folid parts of thefe, which are digefted, 
confift of mucilage and water : in like manner, all animal 
fluids confiding of mucilages and water feem capable of 
being digefted by the human ftomach in order to form the 
chyle , which nourifhes and fupports the fyftem. The 
chyle confifts of three parts ; a part which is fluid and 
contained in the lafteals, but coagulates on extravafation. 
Whether the veffcls aft upon it fo as to prevent it from 
coagulating ; that is, fo as to keep it diflolved in water 
and fluid ; or whether the fluid itfelf is alive, and coagu¬ 
lates by death in confequence of extravafation, is an argu¬ 
ment which I fhal 1 not here enter into. The fecond part 
confifts of a fluid which is coagulable by heat, ar.d in all 
its properties that have been obferved is confonant to the 
ferum of the blood. The third part cofififlsof globules, 
which render the whole white and opake. Thefe glo¬ 
bules have been fuppofed by many to be exprefled oil ; 
but this has not been proved. Neither has it been per. 
feftly demonfirated that fugar has been contained in the 
chyle, although it has been made very probable. What 
renders thefe points difficult to determine is, the very fmall 
6 Z quantity 
