The power of the human body to withstand severe cold will appear in a more remarkable light, when we observe what heat it is capable of bearing. Boerhaave asserts, that a temperature of 96 or 100 would be fatal to man. The mean temperature of Sierra Leone is 84° F.; Messrs. Watt and Winterbottom saw the thermometer frequently at 100°, and even 102 and 103° in the shade, at some distance off the coast. Adanson saw it at 1080 in the shade at Senegal, in 17 N. latitude; and Buffon cites an instance of its being seen at 1174°. The country to the west of the Great Desert may be still hotter than Senegal, from the effect of the winds which have swept over the whole tract of its burning sands. Dr. Chalmers observed a heat of 115° in South Carolina, in the shade; and Humboldt, of 110 to 115° in the Llanos or deserts near Orinoco in South America. And man has been known, by artificial means, to withstand a temperature, for a considerable length of time, sufficient to cause water to boil, or meat to roast, without material injury.

Thus man can support all possible degrees of atmospherical heat and cold; he has also an equal power of supporting varieties of pressure. The ordinary pressure of the atmosphere, at the level of the sea, may be reckoned at 32,325 pounds for the whole surface of the body of a common man, supposing the barometer at 30 inches. By ascending to a height of 12,000 feet, of which elevation extensive tracts, inhabited by thousands, are found in South America, the barometer stands at 20 inches, and the pressure is 21,750 pounds. Condamine and Bouguer, with their attendants, lived three weeks at a height of 14,604 French feet, where the barometer stood at 15 inches, where the pressure must consequently have been 16,920 pounds. The hamlet of Antisana, 13,500 feet above the level of the sca, is the highest inhabited spot on the surface of our globe; but Humboldt ascended Chimborazo to 19,300 feet. There are no instances of men living under a pressure much greater than what has been mentioned; the depths to which the earth has been penetrated in the operations of mining, are trifling in this point of view.* In diving, however, the body is subject to, and can bear several atmospheres; as, on the contrary, in balloons men have probably ascended beyond any point of elevation on the surface of the earth, and have consequently been exposed to a much more considerable diminution of the ordinary pressure than what has been stated above.

* The salt mine in Fruttenburgh, Bohemia, is 3000 feet deep.

Man.

As the physical capabilities of his frame enable him to occupy every variety of climate, soil and situation, it follows of necessity, that he must be omnivorous, that is, capable of deriving sufficient nourishment and support from all kinds of food. The power of living in various situations would be rendered nugatory by restriction to one kind of diet.

If it was the design of nature, that the dreary wastes of Lapland, the naked and barren shores of the Icy Sea, the icebound coasts of Greenland and Labrador, and the frightful deserts of Terra del Fuego, should not be left entirely uninhabited, it is impossible to suppose that either a vegetable or even a mixed diet is necessary to human existence. How could roots, fruits or other vegetables be procured, where the bosom of the earth is closed the greater part of the year, and its surface either covered with many feet of snow, or rendered impenetrable by frost of equal depth? Experience shows us that the constant use of animal food alone is as natural and wholesome to the Eskimaux, the Samoiedes, and the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, as the most careful admixture of vegetable and animal matters is to us. The Russians who winter in Nova Zembla, are obliged to drink fresh rein-deer blood, and to eat raw flesh, in order to preserve their health. Dr. Aikin informs us that these practices were found most conducive to health in those high northern latitudes. The Greenlander and the inhabitant of the Archipelago between north-eastern Asia and north-western America, eat the whale, often without waiting for cookery. The former bury a seal, when they catch one, under the grass in summer, and the snow in winter, and eat the half-frozen, half-putrid flesh with as keen a relish as we do our most delicate dainties.

In the torrid zone, on the contrary, the deficient supply of flesh is most abundantly compensated by numerous and valuable vegetable presents; by the cocoa-nut, the plantain, the banana, the sago-tree; by the potatoe, yams, cassavi, and other roots; by maize, rice and millet; and by an infinite variety of cooling and refreshing fruits. By these precious gifts nature has pointed out to the natives of hot climates the most suitable kind of nourishment; here, accordingly, a vegetable diet is found most grateful and salubrious, and animal food much less wholesome.

In the temperate regions of the globe all kinds of animal food can be easily procured, and nearly all descriptions of grain, roots, fruit, and other vegetable matters; and when taken in moderation, all afford wholesome nourishment. As we pass from these middle climes towards the poles, animal

matters are more and more exclusively taken; towards the equator, cooling fruits and other produce of the earth constitute a greater and greater share of human diet.

The

Mr. Murray observes that almost everything that moves on earth, in the sea or air, has been devoured by man. In South America, nothing in the shape of life comes wrong to them; they eat serpents, lizards and ounces; and Humboldt has seen children drag enormous centipedes from their holes and cranch them up. At Emeraldi their delicate morceau is a roasted monkey. Horse flesh, in Arabia, is choice food; elephants' flesh in India, and camels' flesh in Egypt. Chinese devour cats, dogs, rats and serpents. The inhabitants of Cochin-China prefer rotten eggs to fresh. The Tonquineze and inhabitants of Madagascar prefer locusts to the finest fish. In the West Indies, a large caterpillar found on the palm is esteemed a luxury, while the edible nests of the Java swallow are so rich a dainty that the ingredients of the dish will cost fifteen pounds. The astronomer De la Lande was remarkably fond of spiders. In Germany, the ligneous fibres of trees, when dried, ground and sifted, so as to form an impalpable powder like coarse flour, are not only capable of affording wholesome nourishment to man or animals, but even, with some admixtures and culinary skill, constitute very palatable articles of food. Humboldt says the Ottomaques, on the banks of the Meta and the Orinoco, feed on a fat unctuous earth, or a species of pipe-clay, tinged with a little oxyd of iron. They collect this clay very carefully, distinguishing it by the taste; they knead it into balls of four or six inches in diameter, which they bake slightly before a slow fire. Whole stacks of such provision are seen piled up in their huts. These clods are soaked in water when about to be used; and each individual eats about a pound of the material every day. The only addition which they occasionally make to this unnatural fare, consists in small fish, lizards and fern roots. The quantity of clay that the Ottomaques consume, and the greediness with which they devour it, seem to prove that it does more than merely distend their hungry stomachs, and that the organs of digestion have the power of extracting from it something convertible into animal sub

stance.

The diversity of substances composing the catalogue of human aliments, offers a strong contrast to the simple diet of most other animals, which, in their wild state, are confined to one kind of food, either animal or vegetable, and are often restricted to some very small part of either kingdom. Hence

it has been conceived that man also ought to confine himself to one sort that he probably did so in his natural state-and that the present variety in his bill of fare is the consequence of degeneration, or departure from nature. The question of the natural food of man has been much agitated.

The nature of an animal is only to be learned by an observation of its structure, actions and habits. From the powerful fangs and jaws, the tremendous talons, the courage, and the vast muscular strength of the lion, and his constant practice of attacking living prey, we pronounce his nature to be ferocious, predatory and carnivorous. From evidence of the same sort, we determine the nature of the hare to be mild, timid and herbivorous. In a similar way we conclude man to be naturally omnivorous.

It is alleged in reply, that man in society is artificial and degenerate; and the object of enquiry is stated to be, what does he subsist on before civilization? Generally on animal food, the produce of the chase or the fishery; because vegetable food cannot be obtained in sufficient certainty and abundance, until settled habits of life have begun, until the arts, at least that of agriculture, have commenced. If the rudest barbarism is the most natural state of man, the New Hollanders are the most exceptionable specimens; raised, and but just raised above the level of the brutes. Is it a just point of view to regard the savage state exclusively as the state of nature? Is civilization to be considered as opposed to, and incompatible with the nature of man?

A power of improvement, of advancement in arts and sciences, is recognized in all human beings; its degree is various in individuals and races. All have lived in society, which strongly tends to promote and assist the developement of this power. Social life and progressive civilization, instead of being unnatural to man, are very valuable parts of his nature, as much as the erect stature and speech; as much as ferocity and solitary life are the nature of predacious animals, or mildness and herding together are of many herbivorous ones. It is just as natural for man to form societies, build up political associations, cultivate arts and sciences, spread himself over the globe, and avail himself of both organized kingdoms for his support, as it is for the bee and ant to establish their communities, gather honey, and lay up provisions.

These considerations lead to the conclusion, that progressive advance and developement, and the employment of all kinds of food, are as natural to man, as stationary uniformity and restriction to one species of aliment are to animals.

Recurring to the subject already adverted to the extension of the great human family over the whole habitable globe, let us enquire into the causes of a phenomenon which so remarkably distinguishes man from all other animals;-this power of existing and multiplying in every latitude, and in every variety of situation and climate. Does it arise from physical endowments, from any particular capabilities of the human organization-from strength and flexibility of the animal machinery? or from the effects of human art and contrivance, in affording protection from extremes of heat and cold, winds and rain, vapors and exhalations, and the other destructive influences of local situation? Is it, in short, the result of physical constitution, or of reason? It is thought that both these causes are concerned ;—that the original source of an attribute, which so strikingly characterizes our species, is to be sought in the properties of the human frame; and that this original power of the bodily fabric is assisted and fully developed by the mental prerogatives of man.

How do the Greenlander, the Eskimau, and the Canadian employ remarkable talents or invention to defend themselves against the cold? They brave the winter with open breasts and uncovered limbs; and devour their whales and seals, dressed, raw or putrid. The Negro is healthy and strong under a vertical sun, with the soles of his feet bare on the burning sands.* On the other hand, the fox, the beaver, and other animals seek the shelter of dwellings which they dig for themselves. In this comparison, in respect to protection from external influences, man enjoys no peculiar privilege. The mind, indeed, employs the excellent structure of the body, lifts him above the rest of the creation, accommodates him to all places, gives him all the necessaries and materials for comfort and defence; but, with all this, could never make him what he now is, the inhabitant of all climates, if he did not possess the most enduring and flexible corporeal frame. The lower animals, in general, have no defence against the evils of a new climate, but for the force of nature. The arts of human ingenuity furnish a defence against the dangers that surround our species in every region. Accordingly, we see the same nation pass into all the climates of the earth; reside whole winters near the pole; plant colonies beneath the equator; pursue their commerce, and cultivate their arts on the

The women and children on the coast of Sierra Leone wear nothing on their heads, either in rain or sunshine. The mean heat is 84°; but the thermometer rises in the sun to 130 or 140°.