5. Animal food. It is observable that such of the creation as feed on vegetables, are of a more rigid, though strong, fibre; witness the Stag, the Bull, &c.; while, on the contrary, carnivorous animals, as the Dog, Cat, Wolf, Lion, &c., are all more flexible. The fact and its cause are both evident. The Laplanders are altogether carnivorous. They have no vegetable food brought to their tables. They now and then indeed eat a raw stalk of Angelica, as we would eat an apple, and occasionally a few leaves of Sorrel; but this, compared with the bulk of their food, is scarcely more than as one to a million. In spring they eat fish, in winter nothing but meat, in summer milk and its various preparations. It may further be remarked, that salted food, which these people do not use, renders the body heavy.
Here I cannot help making a few incidental remarks, on the opinion that man is proved, by his teeth, to be formed to eat all kinds of food. Those who advance this opinion say, his front or cutting-teeth are like those of animals that eat fruits or nuts, as the Hare, Rabbit, Squirrel, &c.; his canine, or eye-teeth, like those of beasts of prey, as the Cat; and his grinders like those of animals that live upon herbage, as the Cow, Horse, &c. But this reasoning is not altogether satisfactory to me. If, in the first place, we examine the human fore-teeth, we shall find them quite different from those of nut-cracking animals of the Squirrel or Hare tribe, which are more prominent, and rather spreading than erect at the angle, whereas ours are perpendicular, with their summits close and level. Hence the fore-teeth of such animals are very long, witness those of the Beaver. Some carnivorous animals have similar fore-teeth to ours, but have we any such canine teeth as theirs? They do not exceed ours in number, but they are much more important. The being furnished with grinders as such, will not, on the other hand, class us with herbivorous animals, although Bulls and Cows have them; for the Dog and Cat, and all other carnivorous ones, have grinders likewise. I have not yet met with any herbivorous animal, with a simple stomach, which is not subject to eructation, nor is the Mouse tribe any exception.