An essay on abstinence from animal food, as a moral duty / By Joseph Ritson.
- Q6286581
- Date:
- 1802
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An essay on abstinence from animal food, as a moral duty / By Joseph Ritson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![No argument in fact, can be lefs decifive, or . more fallacious, than that deduce’d from the ca- - nine teeth of the human jaw. The kanguroo, an animal of the gerboa kind, has canine teeth, and yet its onely food, at leaft the onely food it is known to eat, is grafs.¥ There was once an ape in the French kings cabinet with twenty- eight tecth, of which four were what we call ca- nine, refembleing thofe of the human fpecies. ~ Neverthelefs, thefe apes feed entirely upon fruit ; our canine teeth, therefor, are no proof that man is naturally carnivorous. , The ourang-outang, or pongo, defcribe’d by Battel, which refembles man more nearly, and is furnifh’d with a much greater fhare of fagacity, and appearance of reafon, than any other animal but man, never meddles with animal flefh, but lives on nuts and other wild fruits.t Neither are baboons, which bear fome, though lefs, re- ’ femblance,. to the human fpecies, at all carni- vorous ; they principally feed upon fruits, roots, * Goldfmiths History of the earth, iv. 351. }+ Rousfeau, On the inequality of mankind, note 10. The animal of this kind disfected by doctor Tyfon, had two dentes ganini, asinaman, ‘* The teeth,” he fays, “of the cynoce- pbali [baboons] are like a dogs ; thofe of our pygmie exactly refembled a mans. It had, alfo, intestines like thofe of a » moan.” (See his nei sigee 8c. Pe 65, 7)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33088494_0058.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
