Page:Fruits and Farinacea the Proper Food of Man.djvu/61

Rh by which the diet of man ought to be regulated. "In the torrid regions of the globe," say they, "where a variety of rich and juicy fruits, rice, &c., abound, and where gregarious animals, such as sheep and oxen, are scarce, or of an inferior description, there it is evidently intended that man should feed on vegetable productions, and his health is best preserved by them: but in colder climes, where the circumstances are reversed, animal food should form the chief part of human diet. These are the evident intentions of nature." The argument is plausible; and, as the majority of a nation practically adopt the diet that seems purposely provided for them, without ever being led to suspect they are in error, or to investigate the matter on anatomical and physiological grounds, it is concluded, that public practice is the result of experience, and consequently the best: the more rational inference is, that expediency in the first place, and habit in the second, have reconciled man to the food he usually feeds on; and his alimentary organs are so peculiarly constructed as to accommodate themselves easily to his circumstances. But when the structure and functions of the various human organs employed in the prehension, mastication, and digestion of food are considered, it is clear they have a special adaptation, in obedience to which all the interests and happiness of man are most effectually promoted; while, at the same time, they possess a wider range of capability, which permits him to feed on the greatest variety of animal and vegetable productions, without destroying his life, or materially interfering with his pleasures.

51. There are few who doubt that fruits, &c., were the original food of man; and I trust the evidence already presented will tend to produce conviction in the minds of those who have not previously thought upon the subject. Now, if such was the original diet of man, it is certain that the Divine Being must have provided him with such an organization as was better adapted to the solution and assimilation of vegetable matter, in the form of fruits, roots, grain, &c., than any other alimentary matter: to suppose otherwise would be to admit a defect in the plans of Omniscience, which we invariably find "ordered in all things and sure." It devolves, therefore, upon those who maintain that man was originally frugivorous but not so now, to show that his organization has, since his original creation, undergone some change. This, of course, they, cannot do; and I shall now endeavor to prove, that the organization of man is precisely of the nature we should expect a frugivorous creature to possess.

52. Without a comparison of the natural dietetic habits of animals, anatomy supplies us with no internal evidence of the characteristic food of any particular species. It is necessary, therefore, that the naturalist