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 Alimentary Canal.—“One of the most interesting comparisons,” says Dr Kellogg,[5] “which has been made by comparative anatomists is the length of the alimentary canal. This is very short in the carnivora, and long in the herbivora. When compared to the length of the body of the different classes of animals, the proportion is found to be as follows:—In the carnivora, the alimentary canal is three times the length of the body; in the herbivora, as the sheep, thirty times the length of the body; in the monkey, twelve times; in the omnivora ten times; in man, as in the frugivora, twelve times. Here, as before, we see that anatomy places man strictly in the frugivorous class. Some writers have made the amusing blunder of making the proportionate length of the alimentary canal in man 1 to 6, instead of 1 to 12, by doubling the height through measuring him while standing erect. This measurement is evidently wrong, for it includes the length of the lower extremities, or hind legs, whereas in other animals the measurement is made from the tip of the nose to the end of the backbone. In omnivorous animals, the alimentary canal is shorter than in the apes and in man, thus affiliating this class more nearly with the carnivora than with the herbivora.