St. Mary's beacon., 1858-05-20

Varieties Of Die.

Varieties OF Die.
That lone mans meat is another mans poi-
son" is proverb of strict yeracity. Tnere
are persons to whom even a mutton cnop
would be poisonous. The celebrated case oil
| the Able de ViIle1lieu is a rare but not I'M
paralleled example of animal f'od being pci-
sonous from his earliest years his repugraflce
to it was 50 decided that neither the entreatles
.: bus parents nor the menaces oG his tutors
could induce him to overcome it. After rcach-
! ing the age OF thirty, on regimen oi vc@eta-
| bic food he was over-persnaded. and tired the
effect Of meat soups, which led TO his eating
! both mutton and beef: but the change was
! fatal plethora and sleepiness intervened, and
! he died of cerebral Inflammation. In 1874,
I a French soldier was forced to quit the service
| because he could not overcome his violent re-
pugnance and disgust towards animal food
| DR.. Prout, whose testimony will be more con-
| vincing 20 English rcaters, knew person on
whom mutton acted rs a poison: "He could
not eat mutton in any form. The popularity
was supposed to be owing To caprice, but the
mutton was repeatedly disguised and given to
him unknown; but uniformly with the same
result OF producing violent vomiting and diar-
rll9I. And from the severity of the effects
which were in fact those of virIlient poison.
there can be little doubt that if the use Of NUT
ton had been persisted in it would soon have
destroyed the life of the individual DIR.
Pereira, who quotes this passage. adds Il know
a gentleman who has repeatedly had an attack
of indigestion after the use Of roast matton.'
Some persons, it is known, connot take coffee
without vomiting; others are thrown into a
general Inflammation OF they eat cherries or
gooseberries. Hahn relates OF himself that
or a;u y,-nni1 rrndy,ce Cru-
vulSiOns in him. Tissot says he could never
swallow sugar without vomiting. Many per-
sons are unable to cat eggs. ard cakes or pud-
dings having eggs in their composition produce
serious disturbances in such persons: if they
are induced to eat them under false assurances
of no eggs having been employed, the are soon
undeceived bv the unmistatable effects
Cn,:er less striking forms this difference in
the asSimiIatinG power of different human be-
ngs is familiar to us all: we see our friends
freely indulging with benefit instead Of harm,
in kinds of food which experience too painfully
assures us we can eat only with certain injury.
To this fact the attention Of parents and guar
dams should seriously be given, that bv it thev
NAV learn to avoid the petty tyranny and folly
of insisting on children eating food for which
they manifest rcpugnance. 1t is too common
TO treat the chiid's repugnance as mere caprice.
to condemn it as ''s.u!f and nonest nSc" wen
he refuses TO eat fat, or eggs, or certain vegc-
tables, and wholesome" puddings. Now,
even caprice in such matters should not be
altogether slishtcd, especially when it takes
the form of refusal because this caprice is
probably nothing less than the expression of
a particular and temporary state of his organ
ism, which we should d" wrong to disregard
And whenever refusal is constant it ind-
-,
gross ignorance Of physiology, an ignorance
unappily too widely spread, can argue that
because a certain article is wholesome to manv.
it must necessarily be wholesome to all. Each
individual organism is specifically different
from every other. However much it NAV rc-
semble others, it necessarily in some points
differs from them; and the amount Of these
differences is often considerable. If the same
wave of air striking upon the tympanum Of
two different men will produce sounds to the
one which to the other are inapprecia ahlc-if
the same wave of light will affect the vision Of
one man as that of red color, while 10 the Wis
ion of another it is no color at all how unrca
sonablc is it TO expect that the same sub
stance will hear precisely the same relation to
the alimentarv canal of one man as 10 that &C
another! Experience tells It's that il is not SO
A glance at the animal kingdom reveals the
striking differences manifested BY two closely
allied organisms in their capabiitv of assmiIa
ting the same substance. There are two spe
cics of rhinoccYos, the black and the white
The black species feeds on the graceful bu;
deadly plant. euphorbia ca1,1elaJrum. and con-
verts it into its own substance but If the
white species happen to eat thereof, it is nevi-
tably poisoned. The herbivora are divided in
tn two classes, the first suhsisting on n variety
Of plants, the second on one kind only. But
even the various feeders will not touch certain
plants eagerly G!evoured by others thus the
horse passes over almost all the crucifer:p tho
OK all the lahiates goats, oxen, and lambs re-
fuse almost all the solan1; and the poisnns
are food to many the rabbit devouring bella
dona, the goat hemlock. ard the horse aconite
The dog will feed on bread or biscuit. which
his ancestor the wolf would starve rather tbaD
touch The cat. although preferring animal
food, will eat bread and milk, which the TIGER
viii not look at.
We have brought these facts forward for tbc
sake of giving di>tinc: relief to the Importance
which must inevitably belong to physiological
considerations in every question of food: and
10 indicate tine necessity Of fixing our attention
on the organism to be nourished. rather tnan
on the chemical composition of the substances
which nourish it. When we are building a
bridge. or making machine, we can accurate
" guide ourselves by estimates Of the strength
OF the wood and iron, because these substances
do not lose their properties under new arrange
ments but in building the mysterious fabric
of the BODY, we have little or no guidance
from our estimates of the properties Of sub
stances out ri the body, because the body itself
is an important factor in the SUN, acting on
the substances as well as acted on nv them
annulling OF exalting their properties in a way
quite peculiar to itself.