e hunter or shepherd state were ever
known there. The inhabitants at present subsist upon vegetable food,
and probably did so from the beginning."

In speaking of particular nations or tribes of this zone, he tells us
that "the inhabitants of Biledulgerid and the desert of Sahara, have but
two meals a day--one in the morning and one in the evening;" and "being
temperate," he adds, "and strangers to the diseases of luxury and
idleness, they generally live to a great age."[19] Sixty, with them, is
the prime of life, as thirty is in Europe. "Some of the inland tribes of
Africa," he says, "make but one meal a day, which is in the evening."
And yet "their diet is plain, consisting mostly of rice, fruits, and
roots. An inhabitant of Madagascar will travel two or three days without
any other food than a sugar-cane." So also, he might have added, will
the Arab travel many days, and at almost incredible speed, with nothing
but a little gum-arabic; and the Peruvians and other inhabitants of
South America, with a little parched corn. But I have one more extract
from Lord Kaims:

"The island of Otaheite is healthy, the people tall and well made; and
by temperance--vegetables and fish being their chief nourishment--they
live to a good old age, with scarcely an ailment. There is no such thing
known among them as rotten teeth; the very smell of wine or spirits is
disagreeable; and they never deal in tobacco or spiceries. In many
places Indian corn is the chief nourishment, which every man plants for
himself."

DR. THOMAS DICK.

Dr. Dick, author of the "Philosophy of Religion," and several other
works deservedly popular, gives this remarkable testimony:

"To take the life of any sensitive being, and to feed on its flesh,
appears incompatible with a state of innocence, and therefore no such
grant was given to Adam in paradise, nor to the antediluvians. It
appears to have been a grant suited only to the degraded state of man,
after the deluge; and it is probable that, as he advances in the scale
of moral perfection in the future ages of the world, the use of animal
food will be gradually laid aside, and he will return again to the
productions of the vegetable kingdom, as the original food of man--as
that which is best suited to the rank of rational and moral
intelligence. And perhaps it may have an influence, in combination with
other favorable circumstances, in promoting health and longevity."

PROFESSOR GEORGE BUSH.

Profe