the fat must constantly increase, and become at length an oppreffive load; and the plethoric diftenfion of the veffels endangers life from hemorrhages, inflammations, and other dif eases.

To correct this kind of conftitution, a vegetable diet ought to be employed; and when accompanied with fufficient exercise, cannot fail of fuccefs. It is vain to expect to remove it by purgatives and bleedings. These means only produce temporary relief.

Long courfes of powerful medicines are dangerous; and cannot prevent the return of the plethoric state, except by weakening or ruining the organs of digeftion.

A vegetable diet is an innocent and effectual remedy.

As fish are the leaft nourishing genus of animals, they usually enter as part of the vegetable regimen. The fat fish, however, are to be excepted, and likewise rich fauces. Milk, for the fame reason, although an animal fubftance, is always admitted into the vegetable diet.

To conform to fuch a regimen is at first irksome; habit however makes it become eafy, and as agreeable as the more ufual food. As fudden changes in the mode of life are fometimes dangerous, the vegetable diet ought to be introduced gradually; and except, in extreme cafes, it need not be made the fole, but the chief fpecies of aliment.

As the vegetable diet is proper in one kind of constitution, a meat diet is preferable for thofe of an oppofite habit of body. Namely, perfons who are emaciated, pale, and feeble, who have weak and delicate ftomachs, and are fubject to acidities or flatulency.

The appetite of perfons of this defcription is never great, many of them hardly ever feel the fenfation of hunger; but after fafting fome time, grow weak and faint. As the quan

tity of food which they are able to fwallow is always fmall; it ought to be both nourishing and eafily digefted.

Moft vegetables which are light of digestion give little nourishment, and fat meats, although extremely nutritive, are heavy. Both thefe fpecies of Aliments are therefore improper; the leaner meats ought to be the principal part of the diet, and fuch vegetables, and vegetable juices, as are at the fame time light and nourishing.

Another quality of vegetable aliments, is that of being cooling, or lefs ftimulant than animal food.

From this circumftance they are extremely proper in inflammatory complaints, and in a variety of difeafes of excitement. There is good reafon to believe, that this cooling quality principally proceeds from the acid which is in moft vegetable productions; because those vegetables which are most acid are most cooling.

Vegetables are likewife generally confidered as acefcent and flatulent. As these qualities, however, are never perceived by people of vigorous ftomachs, the fault feems to lie in the perfon, rather than in the aliment. So that acidity and flatulency may be reasonably imputed to disease in the ftomach and bowels, and to digeftion being carried on in a difturbed and imperfect manner.

Having taken notice of thefe general qualities, I fhall next proceed to confider a few of thofe vegetable fubftances which are chiefly employed as food; and first, of bread.

This forms by far the greater part of the vegetable food, and is generally made of wheat. Wheat, however, is not a vegetable in a natural ftate, but, like almoft all thofe used by men, has been enlarged and improved by culture. The feed of the plant alone is alimentary, which is ground, fifted, fermented, and baked,

in

in order to form bread. Thefe proceffes are too generally known to require description.

It is thought by many, that fermentation renders bread more wholefome; for my own part, I am much difpofed to doubt this. Oat-meal, maize, potatoes, and rice, are eaten unfermented, and all of them appear perfectly wholesome. If wheat were made into cakes unfermented, as it fometimes is, without doubt it would be good food likewife, were we equally accustomed to it. But in weak ftomachs, and to thofe who are not accustomed to unfermented bread, it is apt to occafion acidity.

This is a fact strongly corroborating what was formerly advanced, that the acid in the ftomach is a fecretion, and does not proceed from the vegetable undergoing the acetous fermentation. For acidity is much less apt to occur after eating bread, in which the acetous fermentation has already begun, than after eating bread in which no fermentation has commen

ced.

It feems on the whole, that fermented bread is easier digefted than unfermented. This, although it renders fermented bread a better food for delicate stomachs, does not render it more wholesome on the whole. Perhaps it would be better, that our ftomachs were accustomed to digeft substances not easily diffolved, that they might be ftrengthened by exertion. For every part of the human body, as well as the human mind, is improved by exercise.

Bread affords more nourishment than most vegetable fubftances, and there are few of eafier digeftion. But it is inferior both in nourishment and facility of digeftion to animal food; and fome ftomachs bear but a very small portion of it, without foon fuffering from diftenfion and acidity.

Rice is used all over Afia, and in a great part of Africa and America, as the whole or principal part of the

food of the inhabitants.

This fact demonftrates its innocence and wholesomeness. It is likewife a very wholefome grain to Europeans.

Dr Cullen refutes an ill-founded opinion which prevails in this country, that rice occafions coftiveness. If it poffeffed a quality fo prejudicial to the human body, it would long fince have been discovered by the numerous nations who fed constantly upon it.

The discovery, however, has been referved for this country, where little is ufed; and of courfe the obfervation is little to be regarded.

Rice is of a mild and fomewhat sweet tafte, extremely mucilaginous, more eafily digested than bread, feldom occafioning acidity or flatulency, and on the whole perhaps is the most wholefome grain that is used by man. It is frequently recommended in diarrhoeas, on account of its fuppofed aftringent quality. I agree in thinking it very proper in fuch complaints, not on that account, but merely because, in digefting, it occafions no disturbance to the alimentary canal, and is in all other refpects wholefome.

Maize, a grain cultivated only in America, forms a good nourishment. It is lefs agreeable to the taste of most perfons than the wheaten bread, and cannot be made into the form of bread fo as to keep for any length of time, and therefore is ufed only where wheat cannot be procured,

Oatmeal is greatly used in Scotland, in the northern counties of England, and in fome provinces of France, and other parts of Europe. It is made into bread unfermented, and is of less eafy digeftion, than fermented wheat bread. Yet it is certainly a wholefome aliment to those who are accustomed to it. Whether it is more or lefs nourishing than wheat, is doubtful.

Potatoes are easier digefted than bread, and rarely disagree even with delicate

delicate ftomachs. They afford lefs nourishment than thofe farinacea already mentioned; chiefly owing to the large quantity of water in their fubftance.

The flower of barley is fometimes made into bread, and is probably lefs nourishing than oats or wheat.

Bread, made of pease and rye, is occafionally ufed by the poor in this ifland. It is extremely apt to produce flatulency in the bowels.

I fhall attempt to add nothing to what Dr Cullen has fo accurately obferved concerning the various culinary plants.

With respect to fruits, the most acid are in general the most cooling; and the fweet, oily, and mucilaginous, are the most nutritive. Almonds, walnuts, cocoa, pistachio, and the whole race of nuts, are certainly nourishing, but of extreme difficult digeftion. Nothing therefore can be more injudicious, than the practice of introducing fuch fubftances in deferts, when the ftomach is loaded with other food.

It was formerly mentioned, that animals difcover their proper food by the fenfes of taste and smelling; and that men, in a great degree, do the fame. A ftrong prefumption may therefore be formed refpecting the wholesomeness of alimentary fubftances, by attending to the natural inclination of men. But the greatest care must be taken, not to confound natural taste, with these which are acquired by habit and prejudice, or brought on by diseases.

It is inconfiftent with the admirable order and conftitution of the univerfe, to conceive that men will naturally have defire for fuch aliments as are improper for them, and loath fuch as are wholefome. But we know that in confequence of necaffity, example, or prejudice, men may be induced to use as food, fubftances at firft difagreeable, but which, by degrees, they may be brought

to prefer to more wholesome diet. It is owing to this, that many, the rich in particular, instead of plain and falutary food, prefer what is highly feafoned with hot pungent fpices. Thefe acrid and ftimulating fubftances are detefted by every perfon at first; but even children may be induced to eat them in imitation of their parents and relations; and having acquired a taste for them, the ftimulus given to the ftomach becomes at lait neceffary.

That thofe ftimulants, though they feem to affift, yet, in reality, and at the long-run impair appetite and digeftion, is evident from this, that the ftomach, which could with ease digeft plain food, before it was accuftomed to fpiceries, cannot afterwards digeft it without their affistance. A ftomach in this fituation therefore may juftly be faid to be in a diseased ftate. And it is not without foundation, that difeafes, and premature old age, have been imputed to the habit of ufing ftimulating and acrid condiments.

Dr Cullen feems to me to treat them rather too favourably. Though it must be acknowledged, that fome individuals, after acquiring this habit, enjoy good health and arrive at old age. But these exceptions cannot overturn the general rule. It is well known that in all countries the strongest and most healthy men are thofe who live upon the plaineft diet. This must therefore be the best: a difpeptic patient will find temporary relief from the use of cloves, kayan, and liquors; because they roufe for a moment the languid organs of digeftion; and the ftomach of a glutton gorged with too full a meal, ftands in need of fuch auxiliaries to affift its natural. power. But to a temperate man in good health, they are not only unneceffary, but hurtful.

The fame obfervations are appli➡: cable to the custom of eating meats which are become tender, and tainted with fome degree of putrefaction.

This is lefs general in this country, than in fome others upon the continent of Europe.

Every child naturally abhors tainted meats, and all the nobler animals, and those whofe ftructure refembles the human, do the fame. Putrid food is only chofen by maggots, worms, and fuch disgusting animals, whofe fenfes feem the reverfe of thofe of men. Does not this form a ftrong prefumption, that no meats which are not perfectly fresh and untainted, ought to be eaten by men? Although Dr Cullen difapproves of meats which are much advanced in a putrid ftate, he seems to think that fome degree of putrefaction may be proper, as it renders them more foluble in the stomach. For it has been proved by the experiments made upon animals, that putrid meats are fooner diffolved in the ftomach than fresh. But it does not neceffarily follow that they are fooner digested. Broth, which is a fluid and already in a state of folution, is digested flower and with more difficulty than folid meat. It is therefore very poffible, that although putrid meats, from their greater foftnefs, may be changed fooner into a fluid than fresh; yet that the fresh may be fooner changed into chyle, than the putrid. Befides this, the greater quickness with which any kind of food is digefted, is not an abfolute proof of its fuperior wholefomeness. If putrid meats after digeftion convey fomething noxious into the blood, it will be but little comfort for us to know, that this was fpeedily accomplished. And that there is fomething noxious in putrid meats feems to me extremely probable; for we know that they con

tain volatile alkali, which will probably be changed by the acid in the ftomach into an ammoniacal falt; and as ammoniacal falts are found both in the urine and perfpirable fluid, there is great reason to think them excrementitious, and confequently unwholefome.

Thefe obfervations, I hope, are fufficient to prove, that although tainted meat is more foluble in the ftomach than fresh, it is not more wholefome. The original disgust, indeed, which feems planted in our very nature towards even the idea of putrid meat, would be fufficient to convince me, that we ought to eat our animal food foon after it is killed. I know that this disgust can be overcome by habit, and that our feelings and our tastes may be fo altered, as to make us at laft prefer the fumet, or rather the stench of putrid flesh. But this is evidently an artificial and acquired preference. It is only to be confidered as one example added to many, where luxury has changed the natural tafte of mankind, and perverted their inclination from what is falutary, towards what is loathfome and difgufting. In the early ages, the fresheft meat was preferred; and there is reafon to believe, that mankind then were generally both stronger and freer from diseases. The Jewish patriarchs knew no greater delicacy to place before the stranger, who came within their doors, than the fatted calf newly killed. In Homer's feafs the guests were affembled before the boar was flain; and the Caledonian heroes fed at the feast of fhells upon the red deer, which their arrows had pierced in the morning chafe.