The Natural Food of Man: Being an attempt to prove from comparative anatomy, physiology, chemistry and hygiene, that the original, best and natural diet of man is fruit and nutsCarrington, Hereward
Science
The Natural Food of Man: Being an attempt to prove from comparative anatomy, physiology, chemistry and hygiene, that the original, best and natural diet of man is fruit and nuts
Carrington, Hereward
Food; Vegetarianism
_The Frugivora._—The orang and the gorilla are perhaps the best
examples of this class of animals. Some bats and kangaroos may be
included in it also. Animals belonging to this class have thirty-two
teeth—sixteen in each jaw; four incisors or cutting teeth; two pointed
teeth, known as cuspids, four small molars, known as bicuspids, and six
molars. The eye-teeth project somewhat beyond the others and fit into a
blank space in the lower row, the other teeth articulating uniformly. I
have referred to the uses of this large eye-tooth elsewhere (p. 29).
_The Teeth of Man._—Now when we come to consider the teeth of man,
we are at once struck by the fact that they correspond, in almost
every particular, with the teeth of the gorilla and other frugivorous
animals; and the fact they do not at all resemble or correspond to
the teeth of any other animal! To the teeth of the herbivora, the
carnivora, the omnivora, etc., they bear but the slightest resemblance,
while they agree in almost every respect with the teeth of frugivorous
animals. If we compare the teeth of man with those of the orang, the
gorilla, or other frugivorous animal, we find that the number, the
arrangement, the structure, the nature, and the size of the teeth are
almost identical; while they bear but the smallest resemblances to
the teeth of any other animal or _genera_. The complete absence of
intervening spaces between the human teeth characterises man as the
highest and purest example of the frugivorous animal. Man possesses no
long, canine tooth, capable of catching and holding a captured prey;
he possesses no tusks, like the omnivorous animals, and in every other
way bears no resemblance whatever to any other animal—while his teeth
do bear the very greatest and most detailed resemblance to the teeth of
the apes and frugivorous animals generally. Bearing all these facts in
mind, then, we surely can have no hesitation in classifying man as a
frugivorous animal—so far as his teeth are concerned. Considered from
that point of view, man must be classed with the pure frugivora.
* * * * *
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