Читать книгу The Natural Food of Man. Being an attempt to prove from comparative anatomy, physiology, chemistry and hygiene, that the original, best and natural diet of man is fruit and nuts онлайн

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“The canine teeth of the males are long, strong and pointed, but this is not the case with the females. The structure, therefore, of the canine teeth is to be regarded in the light of a sexual peculiarity, and not as having any connection with the nature of the food.”

The teeth of man are inferior in strength to those of the anthropoid apes, but the cause of this is to be sought not so much in their original character as in the fact that they have been weakened and degenerated by the use of cooked food for thousands of years.

It may perhaps be objected that anthropoid apes, which have been cited as typical frugivorous animals, are not so much so as I have contended; that, while their chief food is doubtless fruits and nuts, they do occasionally feed upon all kinds of substances—roots, insects, small animals when they can catch them, etc. Thus Professor Robert Hartmann in his “Anthropoid Apes” p. 255 says:

“Although they are for the most part content with vegetable diet, gibbons sometimes eat animal food, such as lizards; and Bennet saw a siamang seize and devour one of these animals whole.... They do not, however, display the keenness of scent and quickness of sight which distinguish some animals of a lower order; such as canine beasts of prey and ruminants manifest in many different ways.” (p. 256).