Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/400

 performed. As to any exercise of taste in the serving or in the combining of different foods at a meal, the subject is completely out of reach of the great majority of people, and is as little comprehended by them as the structure and harmonies of a symphony are by the first whistling boy one chances to meet in the street. The intelligent reader who has sufficient interest in this subject to have followed me thus far, may fancy this a sketch from savage life. On the contrary, I can assure him that ignorance and indifference to the nature and object of food mark the condition of a large majority of the so-called educated people of this country. Men even boast of their ignorance of so trivial a subject, regard it as unworthy the exercise of their powers, and—small compliment to their wives and sisters—fit only for the occupation of women.

Admitting man, then, to be physically so constituted as to be able to derive all that is necessary to the healthy performance of all his functions from the animal or from the vegetable kingdom, either singly or combined, he can scarcely be regarded otherwise than as qualified to be an omnivorous animal. Add to this fact his possession of an intelligence which enables him to obtain food of all kinds and climes, to investigate its qualities, and to render it more fit for digestion by heat—powers which no other animal possesses—and there appears no a priori reason for limiting his diet to products of either kingdom exclusively.

It is a matter of great interest to ascertain what have become, under the empirical conditions named, the staple foods of the common people of various climates and races—what, in short, supports the life and labor of the chief part of the world's population.

In the tropics and adjacent portions of the temperate zones, high temperature being incompatible with the physical activity familiar to northern races, a very little nitrogenous material suffices, since the waste of muscle is small. Only a moderate quantity of fat is taken, the demand for heat-production being inconsiderable. The chiefly starchy products supply nearly all the nutriment required, and such are found in rice, millet, etc. Rice by itself is the principal food of the wide zone thus indicated, including a large part of China, the East Indies, part of Africa and America, and also the West Indies. Small additions, where obtainable, are made of other seeds, of oil, butter, etc.; and, as temperature decreases by distance from the equator, some fish, fowl, or other light form of animal food, are added.

In the north of Africa, Arabia, and some neighboring parts, the date, which contains sugar in abundance, is largely eaten, as well as maize and other cereals.

Crossing to Europe, the southern Italian is found subsisting on macaroni, legumes, rice, fruits, and salads, with oil, cheese, fish, and small birds, but very little meat. More northward, besides fish and a little meat, maize is the chief aliment, rye and other cereals taking a