The animal food resources of different nations : with mention of some of the special dainties of various people derived from the animal kingdom / by P. L. Simmonds.

  • Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund), 1814-1897.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The animal food resources of different nations : with mention of some of the special dainties of various people derived from the animal kingdom / by P. L. Simmonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    23/504 (page 7)
    clence that man is really omnivorous, that he can he supported by great varieties of food. In warm climates meat is often poor, dry, insipid and hard stuff, because perhaps it cannot be kept to render it in general fit for any man who has not the teeth of a shark, or the snout of a saw-fish. In tropical countries Animal food ought to be indulged in as sparingly as is consistent with the digestive powers ; for, on the whole, animal food is more easy of digestion than vegetable ; and it may be added (en parenthese) that the flesh of the mature animal is more easily absorbed into the human system than that of the young of the same kind. Thus, five-year old mutton is more whole- some than lamb; beef than veal; goat than kid. This may seem strange to those who have never studied the subject, but the physiologist assures us that such is the fact. This being so, there was perhaps something of an unconscious wisdom in that party of sailors who once drank a bowl of punch on the summit of Pompey's Pillar in Egypt, on Christmas Day, in choosing for their dinner a tough billy-goat, in preference to a younger animal, for the all-sufficient reason that it took more chawing, and that, consequently, the flavour would linger on the palate much longer than if it had been less mature. Still, while conceding that Animal food is necessary for the sustentation of human strength and health, it cannot be denied that an abundant supply of vegetables is highly beneficial to the great omnivore—Man, and particularly so in tropical climates. There can be no doubt that a bountiful Providence has adapted the food of man to his necessities in all climates, so that the pro- duct of any particular country is best suited to the people inhabiting it. Habit, as is well known, will do much in accustoming the stomach to particular descriptions of food. Many persons live exclusively, or almost so, on vegetables, others on animal substances, and particular kinds of diet are forced on the inhabitants of many regions of the globe;