tc., is certainly favorable to long life."

BARON CUVIER.[10]

Perhaps it is not generally known that Baron Cuvier, the prince of
naturalists, in the progress of his researches came to the most decisive
conclusion, that, so far as any thing can be ascertained or proved by
the investigation of science in regard to the natural dietetic character
of man, he is a fruit and vegetable eater. I have not seen his own
views; but the following are said, by an intelligent writer, to be a
tolerably faithful transcript of them, and to be derived from his
Comparative Anatomy.

"Man resembles no carnivorous animal. There is no exception, unless man
be one, to the rule of herbivorous animals having cellulated colons.

"The ourang-outang perfectly resembles man, both in the order and number
of his teeth. The ourang-outang is the most anthropomorphous of the ape
tribe, all of which are strictly frugivorous. There is no other species
of animals, which live on different food, in which this analogy exists.
In many frugivorous animals, the canine teeth are more pointed and
distinct than those of man. The resemblance also of the human stomach to
that of the ourang-outang, is greater than to that of any other animal.

"The intestines are also identical with those of herbivorous animals,
which present a large surface for absorption, and have ample and
cellulated colons. The coecum also, though short, is larger than that
of carnivorous animals; and even here the ourang-outang retains its
accustomed similarity.

"The structure of the human frame, then, is that of one fitted to a pure
vegetable diet, in every essential particular. It is true, that the
reluctance to abstain from animal food, in those who have been long
accustomed to its stimulus, is so great in some persons of weak minds,
as to be scarcely overcome; but this is far from being any argument in
its favor. A lamb, which was fed for some time on flesh by a ship's
crew, refused its natural diet at the end of the voyage. There are
numerous instances of horses, sheep, oxen, and even wood-pigeons, having
been taught to live upon flesh, until they have loathed their natural
aliment."

No one will deny that Baron Cuvier was in favor of flesh eating; but it
was not because he ever believed, for one moment, that man was
_naturally_ a flesh-eating animal. Man is a reasoning animal (he
argues), and intended to be so. If left to the guidance of his
instincts, the same yielding to the law