Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1893-07-29
ORIGIN OF FOOD
Growth Of knowledge in Regard "a
Edible and Poisonous Roots.


With respect to the discovery Of food,
sd!s the Londen Spectator, q very In
/ torcsting question arises as to how
unciyilized people first hit upon the
/ method of rendering edible roots which
! IN their raw state are poisonous The
/ pro ess Of extracting the juice of the
maniOc is rather a laborious one, nor
I is it the only breadsuff which has to be
subjected to a similar preparation be
/ fore it becomes mocuous. How many
people are there, we wonder, who
imagine, when they are eating that
innocent and wholesome dish-a tapioca
pudding, that they are indebted tor it
I to a root which contains one of the
most deadly vegetable poisons? And
yet, in spite Of its deadly juice the root
/ of the iatropna manihot. or mandioca,
us lie Spanish call it, not only supplies
us now with a pudding but has from
/ time immemorial supplied savage races
with such food as caSsava bread and
| similar preparations; and that in such
( widely-distant lands as West Africa.
Z the West Indies and the South Sea
islands Some enterprsng savage must
have learned the secret, though it is
difficult to conjecture what could have
Induced him to search for it, Not the
stress of hunger, probably; for had his
other foods failed the manioc would
have failed, too. Possibaly it was il the
attempt to extract a poison for his en-
envy that he discovered that the squecz-
ed remnant of the root was wholesome
40 himself. There are however, says
Mrs. Buckland in her recent book on the
subject some who are ready to expert
ment upon anything and everything
presented TO them in the shape Of food"
ana She instances the late DR. auckland,
who made soup of the bones Of extinct
animals, and his son, Frank auckland,
who tasted every animal that he could
procure from the geological gardens.
The soup must have been a very clear
soup, we should think.
A unique opportunity for eating an
extinct monster was lost when the
siberian mammoth was discovered, en-
cased in ice-the first instance we
suppose, Of frozen meat on record. But,
in the matter Of flesh, the prOverb of
"One mans meat is another mans
poisson" still holds good We are glad
to avail ourselves of the fruit and privi-
legcS of distant countries, but we can
not bling ourselves to eat their meat
any more than they can be induced
sometimes to eat ours. There is no real
reason why puppy, properly bred and
fed, should not be as good as a rabbit;
but What Engfishman would eat
puppy Nor is it a mere sentimental
prejudice. 1t needed the terrible starva-
ton Of bcscgcd Pars to induce
Europeans to eat rats AMI mice, which
the ordinary Chinmal regards as
daintieS. Ii is said, with what truth we
know NOT, that since the siege OF Paris
the taste Of the Partisan has been
attracted toward such strange meats
as horse and donkey flesh, and that the
price Of horse meat per pound is con
siderably higher now than beef or
mutton. Tie flesh Of mares is always
eaten by the Tartars, also by the South
Americans Indians, and to a certain
extent by their successors, the GauchOs.
The latter have theory that horse flesh
not only preserves but whitels The
teeth 1t Is hard to- imagine how it can
ever be preferred 10 beef for, bsides
its disagreeable color, it has peculiarly
astringent taste.
In the matter Of what Mrs auckland
terms, ''unappreciated trihes," our taste
is more eapricious. We eat cells, but
cannot be induced to touch snakes;
shrimps, but not spiders. Other people
Bushmen and New iealedOnianS are
said to enjoy spiders; and we have
heard of a German-a scientific
German, Of course-who spreads them
on his bread like, butter; but the taste
is not a European one, any more then
taste for caterpilIars, cockchafers,
ants ana WirewurmS. nh of which are
eaten in differen5 parts Of the globe. on
the subject of strange foods tie author
calls attention to the curious results
which is said 20 be produced by the
eating in South America of adried fish
called "shockv," The face Of the CON
sumer swells as affected by the humps
This, it is believed. is due to the fish
having been hung up to dry in the
moonlight Men of science are slow to
believe il lunar influence, but in this
case it appears TO be a well known
fact which seems deserving Of inveS-
tjgation. Cmiously enough, the present
writer remembers very similar effect
to have been produced by eating a fish,
not dried in the moonlight, but left
exposed to the moons rays for some
two hours after its capture The same
Rrazilidns who explained TO him the
cause Of the change in the fish, were
always careful to remove from the
moonlight the strips Of charld or
Jcrked meat, which were hung up all
day to dry in the sun, under the con
-viction that their exposure to the moon
brought about a dangerous alteration
i'm the flesh
A MILLIONAIRE'S FAD