Page:Substance of the Work Entitled Fruits and Farinacea The Proper Food of Man.djvu/23



the facts of contrast and resemblance above recounted, some infer that man is omnivorous; that is, eats with equal propriety the food of the carnivora and the food of the herbivora; but I infer that, his structure being intermediate, his natural food also is intermediate.

If the carnivora have received the very best structure for the assimilation of flesh-food, and the herbivora the very best for grassy and vegetable food, then man who differs from them both cannot have the best adaptation for either sort indifferently, even though he be capable of digesting both tolerably.

Physiologists inform us that the gastric juice varies with the habitual food, adapting itself to flesh or vegetables; and it is believed that men who live largely on animal food lose power of digesting vegetarian food. If so, it will explain the frequent complaint that vegetables and fruit "disagree" with the stomach, so that some persons limit their vegetarian food to stale bread, biscuit, or rice. If it be true that the gastric juice thus changes, then a mixed diet must produce a mixed juice; and it seems a physical impossibility that this should act as well on each sort of food as the juice which is specifically adapted to the food.

We know that man can live on flesh alone, and can live on fruit and grain alone. If this is to be omnivorous, then, without controversy, he is omnivorous: but it cannot be justly inferred from these facts, that indiscriminate eating is his natural state. That must be judged of by considering the special aptitude of his structure, and by inquiring whether some definite food exists better suited to his entire nature than either that of the carnivora or that of the herbivora.

It is questionable whether any animal is omnivorous, if that word means formed for feeding on all sorts of food without preference, and able to attain by every sort indiscriminately the full perfection of its nature. The hog, the bear, and the opossum most nearly approach this character; but these, in a state of nature, invariably prefer fruits, roots, grain, and other vegetable produce.

If we even admit the hog to be omnivorous, the same cannot hence be inferred of man. For the hog resembles the carnivora in the cuspid and bicuspid teeth and the incisors, as to which man widely differs; and, wherever the hog resembles the herbivora, so also does man. Now, since we see that even the hog naturally prefers fruits, roots, and other vegetables when he can get them, and requires no animal food, how much more ought we to conclude this to be the natural state of man. Add to this the erect