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A TEST

of the purity, is a few drops of nitrate of lead, dropped into a glass of water. If the water be properly distilled, it will remain clear; if not, it will be cloud ed.

To prove the existence of putrid animal matter in water, add to a sufficient quantity of water, a solution of the acetite of lead. If the precipitate be collected and heated with it's own weight of a fixed alkali, a portion of lead will be found reduced. Hence the precipitate must have furnished the inflammable matter necessary to the reduction of the lead.

If fruit and vegetables were adhered to, there would be little occasion for other drink than these afford. Thirst is excited by an unnatural flesh diet, which causes disorders, bodily and mental. The southern climate, in which the heat gives a greater tendency to thirst, has provided the juice of the orange and the milk of the cocoa nut; and where can be found more delicious beverage?

What an elegant table has nature laid for the inhabitants of the West India Islands, which abound with pines, melons, figs, grapes, mangoes, mammees, grenadillos, bell-apples, guavas, strawberries, sour. sops, sugar-apples, alligator pears, sappadillos, pomegranates, cocoa-nuts, oranges, shadocks, forbidden fruit, &c. &c.

As the Arabs had their excellencies, so have they, like other nations, their defects and vices. Their own writers acknowledge that they have a natural disposition to war, bloodshed, cruelty, and rapine; being so much addicted to bear malice, that they scarcely ever forget an old grudge: such vindictive temper, some physicians say, is occasioned by their frequent feeding on camel's flesh, that creature being

most malicious and tenacious of anger; which account suggests a good reason for a distinction of meats. [Poc. Spec.]

The inhabitants of the most northern parts of Eu. rope and Asia, the Laplanders, Samoides Ostiacs, Tunguses, Buræts, and Kamtshadales, as well as the inhabitants of the most northern and southern promontories of America, the Esquimaux and the natives of Terra del Fuego, are to be reckoned among the smallest, ugliest, and most dastardly and feeble people upon the face of the earth; and yet all these nations not only live almost entirely on animal food, but mostly raw, and without any preparation.

The Buræts, says Mr. Pallas, are not only diminutive and of a feminine look, but are also so weak, that six Buræts, with the utmost exertions of their force, cannot perform so much as a single Russian. Again, if you take one of equal size with a Russian, you will find him much lighter, or less solid and compact than the Russian. Boys at an age, when among the latter, one can scarcely lift with both hands, we may easily, among the Buræts, take them up with one hand from the ground, and hold them suspended in the air. A proportionable lightness is seen likewise in grown persons; for when a Russian has rode his horse quite jaded, the beast will directly set off again, if mounted by a Buræt. And these effeminate, feeble, and light Buræts, like the rest of Siberian pagans, live almost entirely on animal food, the constant unqualified use whereof (as Mr. Pallas likewise thinks), may easily be considered as the cause of this very weakness and unsolidity of the Buræts and their brethren.-Pallas's Mongolian tribes, vol. i. p. 171.

ous.

DIET.

If we consider pure nature, we must acknowledge that our food ought to be of such a kind as to require mastication, at least as soon as we are furnish-ed with teeth. This consideration alone is enough to make us suspect, that milk cannot be strictly proper or perfectly suitable to the human constitution. Some have argued, from the custom of giving milk to children, and even to infants without apparent detriment, that it must therefore be perfectly innoxiNow I see no reason why milk should be reck. oned perfectly innocent, because we give it to children; or why a healthy child may not bear deviations from the most natural and proper food, with as much, or even greater safety, than a healthy adult. In such a child, tho' the bodily health be feeble, the vital powers are strong; and indeed they must frequently be much stronger in the child than in the full grown man. It cannot be, but a child, which may have fourteen years of life remaining to it, must be vitally stronger than an adult, who may have nearly finished his race of life; it may be expected to bear injuries better; and, in fact, it generally does. It is however very common for children to die, whose principal sustenance has been milk. From the custom of feeding children with it, then, we can infer nothing with regard to it's salubrity. Milk-eating and flesh-eating, are branches of a common system; and they must stand or fall together. If there were no demand for the flesh of the animal, the milk would not be produced. The real question, taken in the widest extent, is, whether the agricultural system ought not wholly to supersede the pastoral system, as in countries in

Greasing in population, it is constantly doing. The productive power of the soil has confined the possi bility of maintaining the domestic animals within such limits, than an abundant population cannot be sup, plied with a daily moderate portion, either of flesh or of milk; much less can it feed them on these substances. [See Additional Reports, p. 169.] Search the world through, and an example cannot be found of a large society, living on flesh, the produce of it's own soil. The same may be said of milk. Both these are monopolized by those members of the community who possess superfluous property. But this order of men will ever struggle in vain to draw a line of demarcation between themselves and their fellowmen, and to raise themselves above the common lot of humanity. Nature disdains our artificial distinctions and views all her offspring with the same parental eye. Can indeed any notiou be so irrational, so monstrous, as to suppose that the creator has formed myriads of human beings, perfect in strength and intellect, and at the same time has made it impossible for them to provide what is necessary to the preservation of animal life? We may safely conclude, then, that what is not necessary cannot be natural. It is easy to go one step further, and say, what is not natural cannot be useful.-Idem, p. 169.

Mr. Newton says, "Our breakfast is composed of dried fruits, whether raisins, figs, or plums, with toasted bread or biscuits, and weak tea, always made of distilled water, with a moderate portion of milk in it. The children, who do not like the flavour of tea, use milk and water instead of it. When butter is added to the toast, it is in a very small quantity. The dinner consists of potatoes with some other vegetables, as they happen to be in season; maccaroni,

tart, or pudding, with as few eggs as possible; to this is sometimes added a dessert. Onions, especially those of Portugal, may be stewed with a little walnut pickle, and other vegetable ingredients, for which no cook will be at a loss, so as to constitute an excellent sauce for all other vegetables. As to drinking, we are scarcely inclined, on this cooling regimen, but when it happens, we take distilled water. Return to Nature, p. 144.

Mr. Newton does not particularize any further his mode of diet, but Dr. Lambe has continued his case up to the time of publishing his "Additional Re ports," which is four years beyond the period of Mr. Newton's publication. He announces that Mr. Newton, has continued to follow the same course of diet, and that the result has proved completely satisfactory. "More perfect and even robust health was never displayed among any set of young people. The female head of the family, to whose spirit, independence, and intelligence, much of the emancipation from the yoke of vulgar and destructive prejudices must be ascribed, enjoys an activity of mind and body rarely equalled in her sex. Our feeble and delicate country-women will, perhaps, be shocked, when they learn that this lady, bred up in habits as delicate and luxurious as the most sensitive of themselves, has been enabled, during the course of the present year, to walk thirty miles in one day. She has a high colour, and is full of flesh. Such are the real mischiefs, and such the debility, which are the consequences of a vegetable regimen, when used by persons of sound con. stitutions."

Dr. Lambe doubts whether artificial preparations of all our vegetable food be necessary. That many sorts are really improved by cookery admits of no

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