CAPT. ROSS, OF THE BRITISH NAVY.
It is sometimes said that animal food is indispensably necessary in the polar regions. We have seen, however, in the testimony of Professor Sweetser, that this view of the case is hardly correct. But we have positive testimony on this subject from Capt. Ross himself.
This navigator, with his company, spent the winter of 1830-31 above 70° of north latitude, without beds, clothing (that is, extra clothing), or animal food, and with no evidence of any suffering from the mere disuse of flesh and fish.
HENRY FRANCISCO.
This individual, who died at Whitehall, N. Y., in the year 1820, at the age of one hundred and twenty-five years, was, during the latter part of his life, quite a Grahamite, as the moderns would call him. His favorite articles of food were tea, bread and butter, and baked apples; and he was even abstemious in the use of these.
PROFESSOR FERGUSON.
Professor Adam Ferguson, an individual not unknown in the literary world, was, till he was fifty years of age, regarded as quite healthy. Brought up in fashionable society, he was very often invited to fashionable dinners and parties, at which he ate heartily and drank wine—sometimes several bottles. Indeed, he habitually ate and drank freely; and, as he had by nature a very strong constitution, he thought nothing which he ate or drank injured him.
Things went on in this manner, as I have already intimated, till he was fifty years of age. One day, about this time, having made a long journey in the cold, he returned very much fatigued, and in this condition went to dine with a party, where he ate and drank in his usual manner. Soon after dinner, he was seized with a fit of apoplexy, followed by palsy; but by bleeding, and other energetic measures, he was partially restored.
He was now, by the direction of his physician, put upon what was called a low diet. It consisted of vegetable food and milk. For nearly forty years he tasted no meat, drank nothing but water and a little weak tea, and took no suppers. If he ventured, at any time, upon more stimulating food or drink, he soon had a full pulse, and hot, restless nights. His bowels, however, seemed to be much affected by the fit of palsy; and not being inclined, so far as I can learn, to the use of fruit and coarse bread, he was sometimes compelled to use laxatives.
When he was about seventy years of age, however, all his paralytic symptoms had disappeared; and his health was so excellent, for a person of his years, as to excite universal admiration. This continued till he was nearly ninety. His mind, up to this time, was almost as entire as in his younger days; none of his bodily functions, except his sight, were much impaired. So perfect, indeed, was the condition of his physical frame, that nobody, who had not known his history, would have suspected he had ever been apoplectic or paralytic.