tea are equivalent to half a pound of meat; but a repast of dry tea not
being very usual, in fact, being out of the question altogether, it
becomes plain, that the principal value of these foods, used as we must
use them, in very small quantities, is in the warmth and comfort they
give. Also, these weights (except the bread) are of uncooked food. Eight
ounces of meat would, if boiled or roasted, dwindle to five or six, while
the ten ounces of lentils or beans would swell to twice the capacity of
any ordinary stomach. So, ten pounds of potatoes are required to give you
the actual benefit contained in the few ounces of meat; and only the
Irishman fresh from his native cabin can calmly consider a meal of that
magnitude, while, as to carrots, neither Irishman nor German, nor the most
determined and enterprising American, could for a moment face the
spectacle of fifteen pounds served up for his noonday meal.

The inference is plain. Union is strength, here as elsewhere; and the
perfect meal must include as many of these elements as will make it not
too bulky, yet borrowing flavor and substance wherever necessary.

As a rule, the food best adapted to climate and constitution seems to have
been instinctively decided upon by many nations; and a study of national
dishes, and their adaptation to national needs, is curious and
interesting. The Esquimaux or Greenlander finds his most desirable meal in
a lump of raw blubber, the most condensed form of carbonaceous food being
required to preserve life. It is not a perverted taste, but the highest
instinct; for in that cruel cold the body must furnish the food on which
the keen air draws, and the lamp of life there has a very literal supply.

Take now the other extreme of temperature,--the East Indies, China,
Africa, and part even of the West Indies and America,--and you find rice
the universal food. There is very little call, as you may judge, for