what may be done for the more extensive production of human food, by exploring the storehouse of Nature. The growth of this plant has, within the last century, produced a new era in our agriculture. "The potato has this great and peculiar advantage, over all other substantive esculent vegetables, that it can be not only cultivated in places where no others can be profitably raised, but that it can be cultivated there at small expense; while it is less subject to disease, and more secure against degenerating in those situations than on richer lands. Consequently, in a soil so diversified as that of Britain," and the remark may apply to other regions," an almost unlimited supply of potatoes may be raised, without any diminution of the breadth of profitable crops of the cerealia, the legumes, or indeed of any other useful plant."* The author from whom I have quoted these sentences, gives, from Mr. Jacob's Corn Tracts, a calculation, by which it appears that an acre of potatoes will maintain a number of individuals, more than double of what is capable of being maintained on the same place, from wheat, the most nutritive of all the corn plants. Here, then, we have an example of a power, inherent in vegetable nature, which has only lately been developed, by means of which, alone, a capacity of human nourishment has been obtained, surpassing its former limits, at a rate which cannot be estimated at less than three or fourfold.

It is very remarkable, and must be regarded as altogether providential, that this accession to human food should have been obtained at a time when, on account of the natural progress of society from other causes, such an accession had become a matter of great importance. This, indeed, is but an example of those facts in the history of the human race, in relation to food, which distinctly mark the hand of an overruling Intelligence. The whole records of the world are full of similar instances. They confirm the truth of the principle, already stated, that the intention of the Creator, in adjusting the relation between the demand for subsistence, and the supply,

* Library of Entertaining Knowledge-The Potato.

was, that there should be a constant pressure on the one hand, and a constant power of yielding to that pressure on the other; and they give additional assurance to the anticipation, that this system will continue, so long as the human race exists.

In connexion with this subject, and as a further proof that vegetable nature is full of resources, which have not yet been called into action, I may refer to the curious statements contained in Mr. Turner's recent volume, to show that human nutriment is contained in all classes of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. From an interesting induction of particulars, this author shows, that there is scarcely a living creature, which is not used as food by some of our species. After particularizing many of the most nauseous of the larger animals, both belonging to the land and waters, as eaten with relish by different tribes, he adds, "But ants, grubs, snails, worms, and reptiles, are as repulsive, yet these are liked and used. Snakes and serpents are eaten in Egypt and Western Africa; lizards, mice, rats, and caterpillars, also on the Niger; ants are eaten by the Hottentots, either boiled or raw, or roasted after the manner of coffee. Several kinds of grubs are eaten in civilized communities, as well as by those we deem savage. Mr. Kirby concurs with Dr. Darwin in recommending the addition of both cockchafers and their larvæ, to our own well-filled tables. The Greeks feasted so much on their grasshoppers, as to distinguish critically their different flavors. Locusts are highly valued, and dressed in various ways, by the Arabs, and are not less precious to several other nations."*

From all this, Mr. Turner concludes, that the convertibility of animal matter into means of subsistence, is bounded only by the use of it; and that whatever any people are not in the habit of feeding on, is either unsalutary or unpalatable to them; but whatever they accustom themselves to, becomes agreeable and nourishing; and, therefore, as long as there are any classes of the inferior animal kingdom on the earth, mankind cannot starve.

* Sacred History of the World, vol. iii. Letter 31.

1

From the animal, our author directs his attention to the vegetable compartment of Nature; and he finds it as universally applicable to human nutrition. He particularizes a vast number of vegetable substances not commonly used as food by Europeans, which are freely employed and well relished by other communities of men, and among others, grass, and the leaves of trees and herbs, are enumerated. "One of the most remarkable facts," says he, "to show the universal applicability of all vegetable matter to human nutrition, is, that in the Quilimane country, in Southeast Africa, grass is made an article of human food, and is cultivated for that purpose, and is cooked into a palatable porridge.* A still more extraordinary circumstance of the same bearing, is, that the leaves of trees and herbs are both applicable and sufficient for the sustenance of a human being, who has been accustomed to the use of them, and are capable of giving both strength and pleasurable vitality. In the department of the Var, a man is now living, who, having been at one period of his life reduced to great want, was obliged to eat raw leaves of trees, herbs, &c., to satisfy his hunger. From being accustomed to it, he now prefers this diet, and adds only three or four ounces of bread and a little wine, to his daily fare, with which he could easily dispense. He is remarkably strong and healthy."+

But not only are grass and leaves capable of affording nourishment to the human frame; what is still more remarkable, it has been found that this property belongs even to the substance of the hardest wood. We owe this discovery to the German professor, Autenrieth. Dr. Prout has thus described the preparation of it, in the Philosophical Transactions: First, every thing that was soluble in water was removed by frequent maceration and boiling. The wood was then reduced to a mi

* Owen's Voyage, vol. ii. p. 51.

† Athenæum, 1835, p. 627. [The author here introduces a story, quoted by Turner, of a "wild boy" found in Germany in 1749, who subsisted on grass. As the creature, from the description of him, was probably a beast, and not a boy, the story is now omitted, as irrelevant, and unworthy of notice in the present connexion.-AM. ED.]

nute state of division; that is, not merely into fine fibres, but into actual powder, and after being repeatedly subjected to the heat of an oven, was ground in the usual manner of corn. Wood, thus prepared, according to the author, acquires the smell and taste of corn flour. It is, however, never quite white, but always of a yellowish color. It also agrees with corn flour, in this respect, that it does not ferment without the addition of leaven; and, for this, some leaven of corn flour is found to answer best. With this it makes a perfectly uniform and spongy bread; and, when it is thoroughly baked, and has much crust, it has a much better taste of bread than what, in times of scarcity, is prepared from the bran and husks of corn. Wood-flour, also, boiled in water, forms a thick tough trembling jelly, like that of wheat starch, and is very nutritious.'*

For further details, I must refer the reader to Mr. Turner's instructive work. Enough has been said, to warrant the conclusion, that, with few exceptions, all the plants of the field, and trees of the forest, as well as all the animal creation, have been purposely so formed, as to yield, when properly prepared, nutritious and agreeable food to mankind; and we may confidently concur with this author in his averment, that, "as far as the question of our subsistence rests between man and his Creator, there is a most diversified and abundant provision made for him, which will never fail for his support, through all his generations, let them spread as they may, as long as herbs and trees can grow, or animals exist, in addition to all the corn and cattle that can be reared."

FOURTH WEEK-THURSDAY.

HUMAN FOOD.-VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL.

ALTHOUGH there are probably above a hundred thousand vegetable productions in the world, by far the greater

* Philosophical Transactions, 1827, part ii. p. 318.

part of which might be converted into articles of human food, there are only a few that can strictly be included under the title of necessaries. Of those species, that afford the kind of nutritive matter which constitutes bread, emphatically called the staff of life, the number is very small, unless we extend the kinds, by taking into account those which modern ingenuity has, by means of various processes, added to the list. The whole amount may be nearly comprised under the heads of the cereal grasses, rice, the leguminous plants, farinaceous roots, such as the potato, and the fruit and pith of some palms and bananas. The other more numerous classes of vegetables, which supply food to man, may be regarded more as luxuries than necessaries; they certainly afford, however, an agreeable, and sometimes useful variety.

The inhabitants of very warm climates, live principally, and often entirely, on vegetable food; but animal food, as it seems more necessary, is used in greater abundance, in temperate and polar regions. I have formerly mentioned the nature and qualities of the domestic animals, furnished by Providence, for the supply of this want; and I shall here merely state, on this subject, that they are not only disposed to live gregariously, but are readily brought under obedience, becoming docile and inoffensive, and that they are all granivorous and herbivorous animals, classes for which ample provision has been made in the spontaneous fruits of the earth, or the simplest operations of agriculture, and which are particularly suited to their domestic condition, by the absence of that propensity for devouring each other, which exists in so many other species. It has been remarked, too, that the order to which they belong is, in general, less mild and tractable than that of the carnivorous animals ;* and, if this be the case, the deviation from the rest of their class is particularly worthy of observation, as indicating a peculiar intention in the Creator.

The flesh of all the domestic species, is acceptable to the human palate, and is, in some degree, necessary to

*M. Frederic Cuvier, Mem. du Mus.