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

OSMAZOME.

307

whose powers of digestion are feeble, rice would be
wholesome, while beans might be distressingly unwholesome, and for a permanent article of diet, to be eaten
alone, both would be unwholesome, as each contains too
little waste for the healthy action of the bowels.
Osmazome.
The taste and appetite are placed as sentinels to
guard the portals of the stomach, and, through the
stomach, the whole system; and, under the direction
of instinct, in all animals in their natural condition,
are absolutely or very nearly infallible, both as to admissions and rejections. Offer an elephant a piece of
tobacco or a glass of whiskey, and he will not only
reject it, but reject you with disdain for the insult; but
give him his natural food, and he will take all that his
appetite demands, and all that would be good for him,
and no more.
The same thing is true of man till his taste is perverted. The little child always relishes its natural
food, and may be safely trusted to take of it all he
wants; but offer him unnatural food, or unnatural
drugs or medicine, and he rejects it. A perverted
appetite, however, cannot be trusted, as it demands
and relishes articles which are positively hurtful.
It is interesting to notice the great variety and exquisite delicacy with which Nature has flavored the
different articles of food, no two articles having the
same flavor, although in other respects almost exactly