Copy 1, Volume 1

The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good].

  • John Mason Good
Date:
1834
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The study of medicine. Improved from the author's manuscripts, and by reference to the latest advances in physiology, pathology, and practice / [John Mason Good]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Power of animals to derive nutriment from food not natural to them. Whether azote be necessary to animal nutriment. PHYSIOLOGICAL PROEM. potato, the bread-fruit-tree, bread-nut (brosimum alicastrum), sweet-chestnut, banana, cabbage-tree, palm (areca oleracea), and meal-bark (eycas circinalis). Others live on raw animal flesh, or flesh of the coarsest kind, as that of one species at least of the walrus (trichecus dudong), the sea-bear, and sea-calf. The Green- lander feeds voraciously on the skin and fins of the nord-capon, and on the flesh of whales. Many African tribes are said to live on dead lions and hippopotami. Dogs are eaten in the South Sea islands, horses in Tartary, and cats in many parts as a substitute for rabbits. Among numerous tribes of savages, indeed, the flesh of man himself is still dressed for food: the custom may have been more extensive formerly than in the present day; but it still prevails in several of the Australasian isles, and is even exhibited in New Zealand, where the inhabitants are nevertheless peculiarly in- telligent, and disposed to adopt the manners of Europeans. The Hindus subsist chiefly on rice and maize, and will not touch flesh of any kind. Many tribes of wandering or nomadic Moors on gums, principally gum seneca. The Kamtschadales, and the wretched inhabitants of the neighbouring shores, on fishes, or coarse fish-oil mixed into a paste with saw-dust, or the rasped fibres of indigenous plants: while the more polished and luxurious nations of Europe live on solid and liquid foods of every description. Yet, it should not be forgotten that, in Ireland and some other places, the only aliment subsisted upon in extensive and populous communities, whose poverty prevents them from obtaining any other, is the potato. Man, therefore, is omnivorous; but he is not the only omniv- orous animal in the world: for the great Author of nature is perpetually showing us that, though he operates by general prin- ciples, he is in every instance the lord, and not the slave, of his own laws. And hence, among quadrupeds, the swine, and, among insects, the ant (and more examples might be adduced if necessary ), possess as omnivorous a power as man himself, and feed equally on the fleshy parts of animals, and on grain, and the sweet juices of plants. [In this respect, there is a power of accommodation, where it would not @ priori be expected. Thus, certain animals which, from the structure of their digestive organs, are plainly de- signed to live entirely either on vegetable or animal food, will sub- sist, as a matter of necessity, altogether on the particular kind not intended for them by nature, especially when the change is made in a gradual manner. Thus, in the northern parts of Asia, where grain is scarce, horses and oxen are sometimes fed on fish.* Spallanzani habituated an eagle to live on bread, and a pigeon on sea-water mollusca into fresh water, they perish ; but, if the change be gradually made, they live very well. ] : It is sometimes suspected, that no animal can derive nutriment from any material not containing a proportion of azote, one of the essential elements of the animal body, and existing in it far more * See Home’s Lect. on Comp. Anat. + Expériences sur la Digestion, c. 74. et 75. ‘ ¢ Ann. de Chimie, &c. vol. ii. p. 32. and Blumenbach’s Physiology, 4th edit. p. 309. Sometimes a long deviation from the natural food is followed by a change in the structure of the digestive organs: thus, after a sea-gull has lived for some time upon grain, the strength of its gizzard is increased. See Home, Comp. Anat., vol. i. p. 354.
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