'*776- Now, notwithftanding that there are many families in Jarruary. # u Upper Egypt which live entirely upon dates, (vide 1-Iassel- •quist, p. 501) not to mention feveral other fimilar in- itances, yet I will not look upon them as abfolutely con- clufive with refpeit to M. de Buffon himfelf; as this author, at page 33, I.e. advances, that abftinence from animal food would deftroy the human race; or, at leaft in our climate, would render it unfit for the propagation o f its fpecies, farther fays, “ It is poflible, indeed, that a vegetable diet may be practicable in the fouthern countries, where the fruits are riper, the herbs have more fubftance in them, the roots are more fucculent, and the feeds contain more nourifhment.” Setting afide this gentleman’s may be, I rather choofe, by inftances brought from Europe and our own climate, fully to refute his delufive doCtrines with refpeCt to the abfolute neceflity o f an animal diet. * I cannot, however, help remarking, en pajfant, in contradiction to this author, that he has the lefs reafon to con- iider a vegetable diet as making a man unfit for propagation, as the vegetable kingdom produces the greateft quantity o f fubftances which promote venery. Beiides a great many plants belonging to the clafs gynandria, together with feveral others which might be enumerated, we have chocolate and falep, which are known even by the more ignorant part o f mankind to be pofleiled of aphrodijiac qualities : peas likewife, turnips, cabbage, and other flatulent vegetables, are looked upon as poflefling thefe virtues in fome degree, and that not without foundation nor unwarranted by experience. This philofopher, indeed, who is fo much prejudiced againft vegetable diet, might have learned even even from the moft illiterate, that certain vegetables exalted by fermentation, as in the cafe o f good wine and ale, in proper dofes, augment, in this particular, the inclination as well as the faculty. As to the greater degree o f perfection afcribed by M. de Buffon to the plants of the fouthern countries, in comparilbn with thofe which grow in Europe, it is repugnant to all probability, as Well as to what we know for certain o f the oéconomy o f nature, which brings to as great perfection the. root, item, leaves, and feed o f a plant ihe had intended for the Alps, as of one which ihe has planted under the line itfelf. One cannot in particular help Wondering the moré, that M. d e B u f f o n ihould take it into his head, that the plants which grow in the fouthern climatës, have more fubftance in them than thofe of France; as', according to the teftimoiiyof Q l a f s o n and feveral others, a buihel o f the lichen IJlandkus, or Iceland mofs, a plant produced in the moft northern part of Europe, is adequate to two buihels o f wheat ; and, as M. d e B u f f o n likewife fuppofes, that the roots in the' fouthern countries aré more fucculent than they‘ are in thé north, are we to take it for granted that he did not find the turnips in Burgundy fufficientiy juicy ? But the faCt is, that as far as a' knowledge of phyfiology and botany, and above all mature reflection, joined with a habit of method and arrangement, are requifite in ordër to enable a man to form a right jiidgment concerning the food o f animals, this great naturalift h a s 1 in this place, as well as in rù any others, happened to enter upon a fub- jeCt, of which hé is. entirely ign'Ofarif : o f this we have fufficient proofs, in the detracting afpéríióñs he has thrown V o l . II. h h 0ut 1776. January. O ’Y’O
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