herbivorous animals, classes for which ample provision is 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 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 those who are exposed, in a cold or temperate climate, to much fatigue. It is, however, liable to rapid decomposition, especially as the heat of the season advances; but a providential provision has been abundantly supplied for the removal of this difficulty, in the preservative quality of common salt,— —an article widely diffused in mines, or easily extracted from the waters of the ocean.

Besides the animals already mentioned, there are various kinds esteemed as food, which are obtained by the labours of the hunter and fisherman; and there are also almost all the herbivorous species of birds, together with their eggs, which form numerous and grateful varieties. The adaptations and arrangements which have bestowed these various productions upon us, need not be again adverted to; but it may not be unworthy of notice, in passing, that the flesh of the horse, the ass, and the dog,— animals which are so useful to us when alive, and which, when employed, become our familiar companions,—is so little acceptable as food, that, unless under extraordinary circumstances, we are not tempted to feed upon it,-a wise provision, which not only serves to encourage in the mind a humane feeling, but which affords an additional supply, a store in reserve,-that may be resorted to, in case of the necessity arising from famine.

* M. Frederic Cuvier, Mem. du Mus.

The following observations by Dr Kidd, on the analogies between vegetables and animals destined for human food, are curious:-" In the animal kingdom, all those species which serve extensively as food,―as oxen, and sheep, and swine, among quadrupeds; the turkey, the common fowl, and the duck, among birds; and the salmon, cod, herring, &c., among fish,- —are either naturally of a gregarious nature, or are easily kept together, by human means, in large bodies; and, therefore, are much better adapted for the supply of food to man, than if they were either solitary or scattered into small groups; and so it is with respect to the most useful vegetables. They are capable of being cultivated gregariously, as it were, with comparatively little labour and attention. Thus, in our own and other European countries, the daily labourer, after his hours of hired work for others, can cultivate his own private field of wheat or of potatoes, with very little additional expense of time and trouble. And as to the cultivation of the tropical fruits, scarcely any labour is required for that purpose; so that, to the less hardy natives of those climates, the assertion of the poet is strictly applicable,

Fundit humo facilem victum justissima tellus.'

"A further analogy is observable in the degree of fertility of the respective vegetables and animals. Among the animals which are destined for the food of man, the species are, on the whole, prolific in proportion as they are either small in size, or inferior as to the nutritive qualities of their flesh. The cow, which is a large animal, produces one usually at a birth; the sheep, very commonly two; swine, several. Poultry, which are comparatively small, are capable of rearing a numerous brood; and fish, which are of a less nutritious nature, and generally smaller than quadrupeds, are still more prolific. And similarly in the vegetable species, which are destined for the food of man, the numerical quantity of the product, in a given area, is greater or less, in pro

portion to the individual size of the fruit produced. Dates, which are smaller than cocoa-nuts, are produced in greater numbers than the latter; and, in a square yard of soil, a much greater number of grains of rice or wheat is produced, than of roots of the potato.

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Lastly, another analogy may be observed with reference to the palate. The taste of the flesh of those species which constitute to man the staple, as it were, of animal food, is acceptable to most palates, and is neither so rich as soon to cloy the appetite, on the one hand, or invite it to luxurious indulgence, on the other; nor so devoid of flavour, as to deter us from taking a proper quantity. And is it not the same with respect to those vegetable species, which are among the most ordinary and necessary articles of food? If corn, and the potato, and the cocoa-nut, had the pungency of euphorbium, the nauseating quality of ipecacuan, the heat of pepper, or the lusciousness of sugar, on the one hand, or the insipidity of powdered chalk on the other; what an undertaking would it be, to satisfy the craving of hunger with any of those vegetables?

"It will be in vain to urge, in opposition to the foregoing position, that custom, in particular instances, renders many things tolerable, and even pleasing, to the taste, which at first were disgusting; for it would be found, that, in such instances, custom has usually risen from necessity, which often brings us acquainted with strange companions; or from a depraved taste. None have ever consented voluntarily to feed on the flesh of vultures or of ravens; and caviare will always be caviare to the multitude."*

If there be any thing overstrained in the statement of these analogies, the observations at least tend to present to us proofs of adaptation and beneficent design, and to remind us of those numerous contrivances by which the organized world is so singularly fitted for the subsistence and happiness of man.

* Kidd's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 218-221.

FOURTH WEEK-SATURDAY.

HUMAN FOOD.-FRUITS-THEIR QUALITIES.

ONE of the peculiar provisions for the food of animals, with which vegetable nature abounds, is that which attaches the seed to an edible fruit. These productions are certainly intended by the Creator for the use of the lower as well as the higher species of animated beings, and while there are some kinds appropriated exclusively to the former, there are qualities bestowed upon others, which show them to be peculiarly destined to add to the enjoyments of the latter. It is to these qualities, as indicating beneficent design, that I intend, in the present paper, to advert.

I begin by remarking, as a proof that fruits were created by the Author of Nature for the express purpose of food, that, although they are appendages to the seed, they are in no sense essential to it. As far as the preservation and perpetuation of the plant are concerned, they are mere superfluities; and, as nothing is made in vain, we must look for some other purpose in their formation. Nor shall we be at a loss to perceive that this purpose is what it has already been stated to be. Let us consider some examples. For these, I shall have recourse to the recent posthumous work of Dr Macculloch.

In the strawberry, the fruit is the receptacle,—a spongy substance, with an expanded surface, to which the seeds are attached superficially. Though in a very different class, with a very different law, as to the relation between the flower and the seed, it is a similar part which sustains the seeds in the thistle and dandelion. The analogy of these, as well as of many in the same division with itself, shows that, if the receptacle was necessary to the strawberry, it certainly need not have been

a fruit. The dry receptacle of the thistle is of equal use in the support and protection of the seeds. The pineapple may be associated with this, without attending to botanical accuracy. Here, a whole plant has been occupied in producing a single fruit, almost as large as itself, while it is an entire superfluity, and also, if we compare it with the fruit of the strawberry, a much more complicated arrangement. It is interesting to remark, too, that the propagation of the plant, in both cases, is provided for by offsets, independent of the fruit, as if it had been foreseen that the use of the fruit would destroy the seeds which it contains. In the pine-apple, a similar provision is further made, by what our author calls "that obstinately vital production, the crown," which is not only unpalatable, but offensive to the taste, and which seems, therefore, intended to be preserved for the purpose of propagation.

Berries form a far larger and much more various class of fruits. It is here equally easy to convince ourselves, that the edible fruit is a pure superfluity. The number of dry, or, to human taste, insipid or disagreeable berries, is far greater than that of the others, while, in those, the seeds are equally preserved, and equally useful for food to the lower animals. The berries, which are intended for the use of man, contain remarkable contrivances for their preservation. There is, in many instances, a distinct mechanical separation, not only tending to prevent fermentation, like what is observed in the orange and the raspberry, but also to confer firmness on a fluid. Sometimes that structure is so minute, that it is not easily detected, resembling the vitreous humour of the eye; and sometimes there is a gelatinous or mucilaginous fluid united to the acid juice, which equally checks fermentation, by preventing the intestine motions of the fluids. This is the case of the grape, the gooseberry, and the currant.

The apple furnishes a familiar model for another class of fruits, though the variety under it is very limited. If