upper classes.

With a little millet boiled into a pudding or "pasta," some goat's milk, cheese, and onions, and a goblet of "vin du pays," even the chiefs are quite contented, while their retainers make good cheer over cake of Indian corn flour, some curds, a piece of dried fish, or a strip of tough beef among half-a-dozen. The Russian soldier is happy with his lump of black bread and glass of whisky or tumbler of weak tea, with, in the evening, perhaps, a basin of weak soup, something like the "black broth" of the Spartans.'1

NORWAY.-The general food of the Norwegians is rye-bread, milk, and cheese. As a particular luxury, peasants eat sharke, which are thin slices of salt hungmeat, dried in the wind, but this indulgence in animal food is very rare indeed. A common treat on high days and holy days consists of a thick hasty-pudding or porridge of oatmeal or ryemeal, seasoned by two or three pickled herrings or salted mackerel. All the travellers I have consulted agree in representing the people as thriving on this fare, and in no part of the world are there more instances of extreme longevity than in Norway.'

'Notwithstanding the poor fare of the inhabitants, they are remarkably robust and healthy. Though in many parts of Norway animal food is quite unknown, they are generally tall and good-looking, with a manly openness of manner and countenance, which increased the farther north I proceeded. From this hardy way of living, and being daily accustomed to climb the mountains, they may be said to be in a constant state of training, and their activity is so great that they keep up with ease by the side of your carriage at full speed for the distance of ten or twelve miles.'2

1 War Correspondent of the Daily News, 1878.

2 Dr. Capell Brooke and Mr. Twining.

SPAIN. With respect to the Moorish porters in Spain, I have witnessed the exceedingly large loads they are in the habit of carrying, and have been struck with astonishment at their muscular powers. Others of the labouring class, particularly those who are in the habit of working on board of ships, and called "stevedores," are also very powerful men. I have seen two of these men stow off a full cargo of wine in casks, after it was hoisted on board and lowered into the hold, with ease. They brought their food on board with them; it consisted of coarse, brown wheat bread and grapes.'1

'Those who have penetrated into Spain have probably witnessed to what a distance a Spanish attendant will accompany on foot a traveller's mule or carriage, doing forty or fifty miles a day on his fare of only raw onions and bread.' 2

FRANCE. The way of living in a French peasant's house is this: In the morning the men eat soup, that soup which Cobden praised as the source of French prosperity. It is cheap enough to make. For twelve people two handfuls of dry beans or peas, a few potatoes, a few ounces of fried bacon to give it a taste, a good deal of hot water. The twelve basins are then filled with thin slices of brown bread, and the soup is poured on it. Boiled rice, with a little milk, is sometimes taken instead of soup. If the soup is insufficient, the peasant finishes his meal with a piece of dry bread. . . . The meal at noon is composed invariably of potatoes, followed by a second. dish, which is either a pancake made with a great deal of flour and water and few eggs, or a salad, or clotted milk. No wine or meat is allowed except during the great labours of haymaking and harvest. At these times a 1 Capt. C. F. Chase.

2 Smith's Fruits and Farinacea.

little wine is given round with the water drunk at dinner, and a little piece of salted pork.'1

It is stated in a work published by Bertillon in 1874 that the vine gatherers of the department of Nièvre, of Burgundy, etc., only eat meat once a year, the agricultural labourers of the Maine department eat it twice a year, the weavers of Sarthe on fête days only, and the Auvergnese about six times a year. The Breton labourers never eat it, and even rich people in this province take it only on fête days.

SWITZERLAND.--' The fare of the Swiss workmen is very frugal. They rarely taste flesh, their food being principally bread, cheese, potatoes, vegetables, and fruit ; though in the towns the consumption of meat is somewhat greater. The middle classes fare pretty much as the working classes, all consuming large quantities of milk, and drinking coffee mixed with chicory and milk twice a day.'

A report upon the alimentation of agricultural labourers in Europe, taken by the order of the English Government, and cited in the 'Anthropological Review' for 1872, gives the following table of dietaries in use among the working populations of various countries :

BELGIUM.-Coffee, brown bread, vegetables, salted bacon. A great number live on potatoes, bread, and chicory plant.

POMERANIA.-Meat (flesh) three times a week.

PRUSSIA (Rhenish.)-Milk, soup, dry peas, potatoes, meat on fête days.

SAXONY.-Bread, butter, cheese, soup, vegetables, coffee, meat on fête days.

BAVARIA. Soup made of flour and butter, milk, cabbage, potatoes.

ITALY.-Macaroni, bread, fruit, vegetables, wine. Low COUNTRIES.-Black bread, butter, vegetables, fish, coffee.

RUSSIA.-Rye-bread, cabbage, mushroom soup, buckwheat baked with milk, oil.

SPAIN.-Bread, vegetables, chick peas; meat is a

luxury.

SWEDEN.-Potatoes, rye, oats, barley, abundance of milk, salted herrings, beer; never any meat.

SWITZERLAND.-Cheese, milk, coffee, vegetables, soups, wine, rarely any meat. They work about thirteen hours a day.

SCOTLAND.-Oatmeal bread, potatoes, milk, butter, coffee, tea, bacon, rarely other meat.

IRELAND.-Oatmeal, potatoes, milk, a little lard. A little whisky is also taken.

ENGLAND.-Beef, pork, bacon, potatoes, vegetables, cheese, tea, beer, cider.

1

We see, then, by these examples, that even in our own quarter of the globe, the peasantry and the agriculturists are almost wholly vegetarians in practice, if not by profession and principle. In fact, it is only in England that we find animal food forming part of the regular ali

1 Add to the above, that many religious communities in all climates systematically abstain from flesh-meats. For instance, S. Benedict's rule prohibits the flesh of quadrupeds to all except the feeble and sick. The rule of S. Francis of Paula is severely vegetarian, forbidding even eggs and milk. The Trappist monks, the religious of S. Dominic's order (friar preachers), and of S. Basil's order, are all vegetarian; and among the orders of women, the rule of life of the Poor Clares is similar. Apart from religion, there exist also numerous bodies professing Pythagoreanism. To instance one or two of these only, the Vegetarian Society of England, established in 1846, numbers over 3,000 members; the Food Reform Society of London has a large following, and there are several vegetarian restaurants in the metropolis. Vegetarian societies exist also in Paris, Switzerland, Germany, America, etc., etc.

mentation of the lower classes. It must not, however, be thought that, even in England, the common use of a mixed diet is equally prevalent in all counties. Mr. Brindley, canal engineer in this country, informs us that ' in the various works in which he has been engaged― where the workmen, being paid by the piece, exerted themselves to earn as much as possible-men from the north of Lancashire and Yorkshire, who adhered to their customary diet of oat-cake and hasty-pudding, with water for their drink, sustained more labour and made larger wages than those who lived on bacon, cheese, and beer— the general diet of labourers in the south.' We are, however, aware that the superiority of the English navvies over their French comrades is frequently cited as evidence of the sustaining value of the beef and beer diet of the former, a more meagre fare being, it is said, in use among the Frenchmen. But, supposing the statement to be in all respects correct, it does not appear to involve any anomaly in natural law, for its explanation lies in the fact that the Saxon workmen belong to a sturdier, a hardier, and a more staying race than the Celts whose most remarkable exploits are generally accomplished under the influence of passing emotion or enthusiasm. The Frenchman excels, not in physical power or muscular development, but in agility and élan; he is concentrated in performance but quickly exhausted; the Englishman, on the contrary, is dogged, tenacious, and enduring. It is much more likely that the English navvy owes his superior working power to the hereditary gifts of his race than to an accidental use of certain comestibles to which, by the bye, his forefathers were strangers. But it is not contended that stimulating substances, such as alcohol and flesh, may not temporarily give rise to a display of ex

1 Smith's Fruits and Farinacea.