Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-03-27
A THoUeHTFUL PAPER.
..Thc Anglo Tcuton and the
0Iivo.1

ssrhe Anglo Teuton and the
olive"
In the last number Of the Southern
California Practitioner" DR.. j. 2. Wild
ney has a paper on the olive of so much
interest that 1t seems worthy of wide
circulation. Olive growing is destined
to become a matter of great Importance
to Southern California. The paper is
reproduced as follows
In an article entitled 1.-THE Anglo.
Teuton in New Home" allusion was
made to the olive as one of the food.
plants OF the new climate belt within
which he Is now beginning to make his
abode. Its dietic value is by him not
as yet fully appreciated.
Fat as q food is essential in some
form to the physical well-being of man.
aud nature seems to have wisely pro-
vided for each climatic zone q supply of
that especial form of fatty material bost
suited to it. The Eskimo fluids in the
blubber of the walrus or the seal the
strong animal fat, rich In hydrocarbons,
which he instinctively Graves, because
OF the systems need of o strong heat
producing diet to enable him to keep up
bodily temperature, and thus do battle
with the rigorous Arctic colds.
The animal life Of the polar regions
is marked by a tendency TO the album
dant formation of fat. In the warmer
regions of the world, on the contrary,
animals posses less fat-producing and
t-storing power, and men loose the ap-
petite for animal foods. Yet even in the
tropics fat in some form il o necessity in
the food OF man. Corn and wine and
oil were ever symbols OF earthly we'll
being, not only In the promised lard of
the old Hebrew, but to all the races
clustering about the shores Of the Medi-
terranean. And it is the vegetable oils
that have replaced the grosser animal
fats OF the more northern climates as
being better adapted in their dietetic
uses to the higher temperature.
The animal fats, IL used 10 any great
extent in the warmer climates, seem to
develop disease in the human organism.
1t took the English colony of India a
century to find out that the strong meat
diet Of the North used in the climate Of
India invariably produced a diseased
liver and death. Now that they, learn
ing by experience, are adopting the light
vegetable diet of the natives they endure
the climate much better.
The oil which in southern ATTITUDES
has most generally taken the place OF
the animal fats is the oil of the olive.
It is lighter and less heat-produciDg
than the oils or fats Of animal origin.
Il is used in cookery, is an ingredient of
every salad, and in the shape of the
picked fruit takes somewhat the place
of meat upon the table. Its high nu-
tritive alue is shown by the fact that
the laborers of the Riviera perform the
severest toll upon diet chiefly Of black
bread and olives.
One who has never personally tested
the olive as an article Of food can hardly
understand its value. The writer has
equently for days at q time in warm
weather almost lived upon bread and
olives, feeling as well nourished as upon
a meat diet.
The culture OF the olive seems to be
almost coeval with the races Of the
Orient. Under the shade of its fruit
ladened branches rested the old pa
triarchs in the old tent of Syria. 1t ac-
companied the Graeco. Latin in his mi
grafton along the shores OF the Mediter-
ranean. 1t passed with the Roman
arms to Gaul and Hyspania, and cross
ing the ocean with Conquistadors adds
it's pale green foliage to the verdure of
every old mission orchard from Vera
Cruz to Monterey.
II is no chance, no mere sentiment
that thus made it like the vine and the
corn producing plants the companion OF
race migration.
Whenever we find plant thus ac-
companying man for thousands OF years
in his migrations across oceans and con-
tinents it lie because of positive utility
or food-value which it is proven to pos
sess for the human race.
Somewhat of the extent Of that eco
nomic food value as estimated by one
nation may be surmised from the fact
that in Italy .the number OF olive trees
under cultivation is one hundred mill
lions, covering one million acres.
1t is q safe rule to follow, that the
foods which people have adopted after
inhabiting for generations any especial
belt of climate are the foods best suited
TO the requirements Of the system in
that climate; that back of it is the work.
ing Of some general law.
II then, for thousands of years the
races dwelling within this climatic belt
which the Anglo-Teuton is now, for the
first time in his race history, making his
home, have thus proven the economic
food value of the olive, and its especial
adaptability to the dietetic demands OF
the climate, he, II he would accommo-
date himself to his new climatic sur
roundings, would do well TO learn les
son from their experience, and to test
in his own dietary the olive. And,
indeed we can already see, in the
rapidly multiplying olive orchards and
the long rows OF barreled olives at the
grocers, indications that the lesson is
not unheeded.
But what will be the physical effect
upon this meat-sating Anglo-Teuton of
the isothermal line Of 50' as he moves
southwark to take up his abode in the
isothermal belt OF co. and abandons the
animal diet OF his fathers for the olive
Of the Gr@co-Latin?