Publisher's Synopsis
Four different modes of life enumerated.There are four several methods by which the various communities into which the human race isdivided obtain their subsistence from the productions of the earth, each of which leads to its ownpeculiar system of social organization, distinct in its leading characteristics from those of all the rest.Each tends to its own peculiar form of government, gives rise to its own manners and customs, andforms, in a word, a distinctive and characteristic type of life.These methods are the following:1. By hunting wild animals in a state of nature.2. By rearing tame animals in pasturages.3. By gathering fruits and vegetables which grow spontaneously in a state of nature.4. By rearing fruits and grains and other vegetables by artificial tillage in cultivated ground.By the two former methods man subsists on animal food. By the two latter on vegetable food.Northern and southern climes.Animal food in arctic regions.As we go north, from the temperate regions toward the poles, man is found to subsist more andmore on animal food. This seems to be the intention of Providence. In the arctic regions scarcelyany vegetables grow that are fit for human food, but animals whose flesh is nutritious and adaptedto the use of man are abundant.As we go south, from temperate regions toward the equator, man is found to subsist more and moreon vegetable food. This, too, seems to be the intention of nature. Within the tropics scarcely anyanimals live that are fit for human food; while fruits, roots, and other vegetable productions whichare nutritious and adapted to the use of man are abundant.In accordance with this difference in the productions of the different regions of the earth, thereseems to be a difference in the constitutions of the races of men formed to inhabit them. The tribesthat inhabit Greenland and Kamtschatka can not preserve their accustomed health and vigor on anyother than animal food. If put upon a diet of vegetables they soon begin to pine away. The reverse istrue of the vegetable-eaters of the tropics.
