various disgusting things. The Greenlanders will eat with the keenest
appetite, the half-frozen, half-putrid head and fins of the seal, after
it has been preserved under the grass of summer. In Burmah and Sumatra a
mess is made by pounding together prawns, shrimps, or any cheap fish; this
is frequently allowed to become partially putrid. It is largely used as a
condiment for mixing with their rice. Numerous examples of this sort could
be given. There is scarcely anything that it is possible to eat, but has
been consumed with relish by some tribe or other. The strongest flavoured,
and to our minds most disgusting foods are eaten by the least intelligent
and most brutal races. It is hunger that compels the poor African bushman
to eat anything he can get, and the Hottentot not only the flesh, but the
entrails of cattle which die naturally, and this last he has come to think
exquisite when boiled in beast-blood. All this shows a wonderful range of
adaptability in the human body, but it would not be right to say that all
such food is equally wholesome. The most advanced and civilised races,
especially the more delicately organised of them are the most fastidious,
whilst it is the most brutal, that take the most rank and strongly
flavoured foods. Even amongst the civilised there are great differences.
The assimilative and nervous systems can be trained to tolerate injurious
influences to a remarkable degree. A striking example is seen in the
nausea commonly produced by the first pipe of tobacco, and the way the
body may in time be persuaded, not only to tolerate many times such a
quantity without manifesting any unpleasant feelings, but to receive
pleasure from the drug. Opium or laudanum may be taken in gradually
increasing quantities, until such a dose is taken as would at first have
produced death, yet now without causing any immediate or very apparent
harm. Nearly all drugs loose much of their first effect on continued use.
Not only is this so, but a sudden discontinuance of a drug may cause
distress, as the body, when free from the artificial stimulation to which
it has become habituated, falls into a sluggish or torpid condition. For