1776. January. A V O Y A G E t o t h e with thofe of vegetables. According to the accounts given me by die Engliih, many of the poor people in Ireland live on potatoes only, with now and then a little m ilk ; and a perfon who ieveral years ago refided for a long time in Ruf- fia allured me, that the common people in fome places there lived entirely upon four-crout and groats; and like- wife upon four bread, raw cucumbers, onions, fait, quafs, and tradakna, a diih coniifting of oatmeal dried in the oven, and mixed up with water: fo that out o f thirty thoufand peafants belonging to a certain nobleman who lived on the borders of Mufcovy, there were very few who had the opportunity of tailing either fleih or fiih four times a year. M. de Buffon may fee, moreover, in Haller, Tom. VI. Lib. XIX. a long lift o f fuch authors as have produced proofs and inftances that mankind in Europe muft necef- iarily be able, .and actually are able to go without animal food: and indeed, why fhould it not be fo, as the fame glutinous matter which is fo peculiarly nouriihing in the animal creation, is likewife found in vegetables ? efpeci- ally as, to omit mentioning many other inftances, it is well known, that the people who are condemned to work in the gallies, as well as many others, can make fhift with a certain portion o f bread and water only; and likewife, that the inhabitants of the Apennine Mountains live almoft entirely upon chefnuts. The utility o f a diet coniifting entirely of vegetables in the hypochondriafis, obftinate gouts, and other ftubborn and pertinacious diforders, has, moreover, o f late been placed in a very clear light by Dr. W . G r a n .Tj in his Ef- fay on the Atrabilious Conjlitution, p. 399, and feq. in which inftances . Iff 1 mi inftances are given of its having not only greatly improved the patients’ health, and given them freih ftrength and vigour, but likewife made them younger than before. In the fame book too we are informed, that this diet may be fafely had recourfe to by perfons far advanced in years;- and that it needs to be continued for the fpace of fix weeks only, or two years at the fartheff. The Camelopardalis is, as I have faid above at p. 149 of this volume, the talleftof all quadrupeds when meafured in front; and though it is only found in thofe parts of theCape colonies that lie fartheft towards the north-weft, merits, however, an accurate defcription, efpecially in this place* along with the other animals of Africa. The lateft and beft accounts concerning the real form and other properties of this beaft have been given to the public by the prefent Commandant at the Cape, Major G o r d o n , who ihot one of thefe creatures in the diftrift of Anamaquas; in confequence o f 1776. January. which, the public has been gratified with a very good: drawing and defcription of it by M. A l l a m a n d , in his edition of M. d e B u f f o n ’s Hiftory of Animals,. Suppl. d e -. l a G i r a f f e , p. 4 6 . Of this defcription I lhall here prefent my reader with an abftract. The height of this animal, when it holds its neck ftrait and ereft, is, from the crown of the head to the g rou i^ ,. fifteen feet two inches; the length of it, from the cheft to the anus, five feet feven inches; from.the top of the ■ ihoulders to the ground about ten feet; but from the loins s only eight feet two inches; a difference which proceeds - partly from the length of the ihoulder-blades, which are two feet long, and partly from a iharp procefs of the firft: 4 / ' ' vertebra: J |IIiH Ii 1 1 1 1 M i l ft i' JIMR I jfl Ml WM
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