The philosophy of eating. By Albert J. Bellows, M.D.

CHANGES WROUGHT BY CULTIVATION.

303

Celery is cultivated from a very disagreeable herb,
called apium. All the delicious varieties of apples
came originally from the crab apple, which grows wild
in every part of England, and in many parts of this
country,- a bitter, sour, disagreeable fruit.
And the peach is a still more remarkable example
of the effects of cultivation and change of climate.
When first introduced into Europe from Persia its
pulp was hard, disagreeable, bitter, and sour, resembling the pulp of a walnut in a green state; and it is
generally supposed that by some change of climate or
culture the green pulp of the fruit, or nut of the almond, the pit or kernel of which it almost exactly resembles in appearance and taste, and the botanical
character of which it also very nearly resembles, was
prevented from drying into a shell or nut, and by continued culture has come to be a delicious fruit. At any
rate, since its history was first known it has changed
from a disagreeable substance, which afforded no nutriment, to a very valuable and delicious fruit.
Rye, barley, wheat, oats, &c., have all the characteristics of the grasses, and the seeds of all our common
grasses, as well as all the grains, contain alike the
nitrates, the carbonates, and the phosphates, and these
elements of food are found in all in nearly the same
proportions, and in nearly the right proportions, to
supply all the wants of the human system in ordinary
temperatures and circumstances. But neither of these
grains is found wild in any part of the world, and the
inference is fair that they were changed from their