Page:Books from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (IA mobot31753000820123).pdf/35

 Rh

the Blood into the Stomach and Guts, and is there mix'd with our comminuted Victuals, is able to open and extract from them what is good and proper, whether they be Roots, Stalks, Leaves, or Seeds of Vegetables of several kinds; Fat or Lean of the Flesh of Animals, of parts of them, sweet or sower, acid or Alkali, 'tis all one, the best parts are kept, and the worst, unuseful, or earthy, thrown off by Excrements. There will be no need of proving this, if we do but consider how many live very well on Vegetables only, thinking it inhuman to kill any thing to eat; others live on Flesh only, most on both Vegetables and Flesh. Many live on the Irish Patatas, a sort of Solanum, (on which, I have heard, they live in the Mines of Potosi, and in Ireland) the common Brakes, as in the late Famine in France; on the Roots of Argentina, called Mascorns, in Scotland and the North of Ireland, the Stalks of the Fucus Phasganoides called Tangle in Scotland, or on the Roots of Bulbocastanum or Pignuts. The greatest part of Mankind have their chief Sustenance from Grains; as Wheat, Rice, Barley, Oats, Maiz, Buck-wheat, Zea or Spelta, Rye, some from the Seeds of a wild Grass called Gramen Mannæ in Poland, or from wild Oats, or Folle Avoine, growing in the Lakes of Canada, on which the Indians feed; or from the Seeds of the several sorts of Millet and Panicum. Some in Barbary feed on Palm Oil, others on that drawn from Organ or Erguen Nuts, many on Oil Olive, or that from Walnuts or Sesamum, which last is much used in Egypt and the East-Indies. Kine, Goats, Swine and Sheeps Flesh sustain most people in these parts, and so does Camels in Arabia, and Horses in Tartary. Most in Groenland feed on large Draughts of Train Oil; and in England the poorer sort have strong Nourishment from Milk-meats, (on which feed the longest Livers) Butter and Cheese. In many parts of the World, as Lapland, &c. Fish is their chief subsistence.

Besides these already above mentioned, Joachimus Struppius, has written a Book printed Francof. 1573. in quarto, called Anchora Famis, &c. and ''Giovanni Battista Segni, trattato sopra la Carestia è fame, &c. Bol.'' 1602. in quarto. wherein I find some of the following Vegetable and Animal Productions were made use of in times of Famine, which may be not only curious to consider, but useful in the direction of others in the like necessities, should it please God to inflict the like Calamity. There are likewise other Instances of extraordinary feeding taken from other Books, as Voyages, Sieges, ''&c. Petronius de victu Romanorum, Mundy, Muffet, &c. Roots, not mention'd already, affording Sustenance, are Carrots, Parsneps, Parsly, Navews, Skirrets, Radishes, Onions, Turneps, Scorzonera, Sassafie or Tragopogon, Peony, Gladiolus, Papyrus, Fennel, Daucus, Asphodil, Liquorice, Bur-roots, White-thistle-roots, Alisanders, Satyrium, Trast, Arachidna, & Bambu''.