they will select one or more to be educated as queens ; which, by having a royal cell erected for their habitation, and being fed with royal jelly for not more than two days, when they emerge from the pupa state, (though, if they had remained in the cells which they originally inhabited, they would have turned out workers,) will come forth complete queens, with their form, instincts, and powers of generation entirely different. Thus can a larger and warmer house, (for the royal cells are affirmed to enjoy a higher temperature than those of the bees,) a different and more pungent kind of food, and a vertical instead of a horizontal posture, in the first place, give a bee a differently shaped tongue and mandibles; render the surface of its posterior tibiæ flat instead of concave ; deprive them of the fringe of hairs that forms the basket for carrying the masses of pollen; of the auricle and pecten which enable the workers to use these tibiæ as pincers; and of the brush that lines the inside of the plantæ. They lengthen its abdomen; alter its colour and clothing; give a curve to its sting; deprive it of its wax pockets, and of the vessels for secreting that substance; and render its ovaries more conspicuous, and capable of yielding female as well as male eggs. These seemingly trivial circumstances, just enumerated, altogether alter the instincts of these creatures. They give to one description of animals address and industry; and to the other astonishing fecundity. They change the very tempers, passions, and manners. The very same fœtus, if fed with more pungent food, in a higher temperature and in a vertical position, becomes a female destined to enjoy love, to burn with jealousy and anger, to be incited to vengeance, and to pass her time without labour; whereas this very same fœtus, if fed with more simple food, in a lower temperature, in a more confined and horizontal habitation, comes forth a worker, jealous for the good of the community, a defender of the public rights, enjoying an immunity from the stimulus of sexual appetite;-laborious, industrious, patient, ingenious, skilful; -incessantly engaged in the nurture of the young; in collecting honey and pollen; in elaborating wax; in constructing cells and the like; paying the most respectful and assiduous attention to objects which, had its ovaries been developed, it would have hated, and pursued with the most vindictive fury till it had destroyed them!" 402. The organs connected with digestion, are the most readily influenced by a change of food; but all the other organs and functions are, more or less, affected by it. According to Sir Everard Home, * the digastric muscle in birds of prey is so small, as not to be easily detected; but if a bird of this kind be compelled to live on grain, the muscle becomes so large, that it would not be recognised as belonging to a bird of prey. Mr. Hunter kept a seagull for a year upon grain; and found the strength of the muscle very much augmented. The South American ostrich, is the native of a more productive soil than the African ostrich: the consequence is, that the gastric glands of the former are less complex and numerous, than those of the latter; and the triturating organ is less developed.† "LECTURES ON COMPARATIVE ANATOMY." Vol. I. P. 271. 403. We have also many accounts of remarkable changes produced upon other animals, as well as upon human beings, by a change of diet; for in proportion as the food is more or less nutritious, and more or less stimulating, in the same proportion will each organ of the body, as well as each particle of that organ, vary. If sufficiently nutritious diet be not given to the young, normal development is arrested, and if food of too stimulating a nature be supplied, all the processes of assimilation and growth are hurried on too rapidly; certain portions of the body receive prematurely their full growth, while others are retarded; the body, therefore, as a whole, is either imperfect or deformed. "Animal food-possessing a greater proportion of stimulating power to its quantity of nutrient matter-more rapidly exhausts the vital properties, and wastes the substance of the organs: it accelerates all the functions of the system; and renders the vital changes less complete, and the general results of the vital economy less perfect. There is no law of organic life, extending over the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms, which is more general and more certain than this. The slower the growth of organic bodies, consistently with the perfectly healthy and vigorous condition and action of the vital powers, the more complete are the vital processes, and the more perfect and symmetrical is the general development. Indeed, this law, or one very analogous to it, extends throughout the material world, and governs the formation of all material bodies. Even those crystals of the mineral kingdom which are formed most slowly, and (as it were) in the undisturbed tranquillity and serenity of nature, are the most perfect and the most beautiful. In the vital economy of the human body, all the changes concerned in the nourishment and development of the system, are the most healthfully slow and complete, when the food is purely vegetable; and it therefore must follow, from every known physiological principle in the human constitution, that-all other things being equal-a pure and well-chosen vegetable diet is most conducive to completeness of bodily development and perfectness of symmetry and beauty. * 404. When I contend that vegetable food is most conducive to this end, I do not assert that marked effects will be the immediate consequence of a change from an animal to a vegetable diet; for (as already said) the processes of decay and reproduction, though constant, are necessarily slow; nor yet do I affirm that, upon a wellchosen vegetable diet, a plain child may become an Apollo Belvidere, or a Venus de Medicis; but that a certain amelioration of form and feature will be the consequence, there is not the least reason to doubt. 405. The effects of fruit and farinacea on the bulk and weight of the human body, vary according to circumstances; such as the kind of vegetables used; the stimulants that may be taken with them; the health of the individual; the comparative energy of the assimilating and excreting functions; the degree of bodily exercise; &c. Dr. Cheyne is said to have been reduced, by this diet, from the enormous weight of thirty-two stones to ten (370). Others who have been thin and emaciated, have become much * GRAHAM'S LECTURES. Vol. II. P. 148. stouter by adopting it; and some have experienced no change at all. When I first commenced an exclusively vegetable diet, my weight was 12st. 84tbs. ; and, during eighteen months, the only variations were one or two pounds more, and occasionally one or two pounds less. During the time here stated, my occupation, exercise, and mode of living, were the same as before;-usually taking a moderate portion of ale, porter, wine, or other stimulants. Afterwards, all diffusible stimulants were discontinued; in consequence of which my weight was reduced (in the course of eighteen months) to 11st. 7lbs. Other instances which have come to my knowledge might be here introduced; and they all appear to prove, that (when an excess of fluids is not taken) a natural diet has a tendency to produce and maintain that due admixture of muscular tissue and fat, which is the most consistent with normal development, and the best suited to mental and bodily activity. There is therefore no inconsistency in stating, that upon a well regulated vegetable diet, the corpulent may become thinner and more agile, easier in their breathing, and less exposed to the numerous dangers which daily threaten and frequently destroy them; while a shattered and emaciated frame may, under the same mild and nutritious diet, be restored to a healthy and natural state. The following facts may serve to confirm these remarks; but they are introduced to prove the perJect consistency of symmetry and beauty with a vegetable diet, rather than to show the necessity for such a diet to produce such effects; for it is equally true that many, upon a diet chiefly animal, are noted for similar qualities. |