1. Man is designed by nature, to subsist on vegetable and animal food.
This is obvious, from the structure of his organs of mastication and
digestion. It does not follow, however, that animal food is, in all
cases, positively required. In some countries, the mass of the people
subsist chiefly or entirely on vegetables. This is especially the case
in the East Indies, where rice and fruits are the chief articles of
food.
2. On the other hand, the people who live in the higher latitudes
subsist principally on the flesh of animals. This is preferred, not
only because it is better suited to brace the system against the
rigours of the climate, but because it is most easily provided. In
temperate climates, a due proportion of both animal and vegetable
substances is consumed.
3. Although the skins of beasts were used for the purpose of clothing,
soon after the fall of man, we have no intimation from the Scriptures,
that their flesh, or that of any other animal, was used, until after
the flood. The Divine permission was then given to Noah and his
posterity, to use, for this purpose, "every moving thing that liveth."
But in the law of Moses, delivered several centuries after this
period, many exceptions are to be found, which were intended to apply
only to the Jewish people. These restrictions were removed, on the
introduction of Christianity. The unbelieving Jews, however, still
adhere to their ancient law.
4. The doctrine of transmigration has had a great influence in
diminishing the consumption of animal food. This absurd notion arose
somewhere in Central Asia, and, at a very early period, it spread into
Egypt, Greece, Italy, and finally among the remote countries of the
ancient world. It is still entertained by the heathen nations of
Eastern Asia, by the tribes in the vicinity of Mount Caucasus, and by
some of the American savages, and African negroes.
5. The leading feature of this doctrine is, that the souls of departed
men reappear on earth in the bodies of animals, both as a punishment
for crimes committed during life, and as a means of purification from
sin. This dogma was adopted by the Pythagoreans, a sect of Grecian
philosophers; and, as a natural consequence, it led them, as it has
ever done the votaries of this opinion, to the veneration of animals,
and to abstinence from their flesh, lest they might devour that of
some of their deceased friends or relatives.
6. People who dwell thinly scattered in the country, rear and
slaughter the animals for the supply of their own tables; but, in
villages, large towns, and cities, the inhabitants depend chiefly on
the butcher for their meat. The animals commonly slaughtered are,
sheep, cattle, and hogs.
7. The butchers obtain their animals from the farmers, or from
drovers, who make it a business to purchase them in the country, and
drive them to market. The farmers near large cities, who have good
grazing farms, are accustomed to buy lean cattle, brought from a
distance, with a view to fatten them for sale. There are also persons
in the cities, who might, with propriety, be called cattle brokers;
since they supply the butchers of small capital with a single animal
at a time, on a credit of a few days.
8. Every butcher who carries on the business, has a house in which he
kills his animals, and prepares them for sale. When it is intended to
slaughter an ox, a rope is thrown about his horns or neck, with which
he is forced into the _slaughter-house_, and brought to the floor by
the aid of a ring. The butcher then knocks him on the head, cuts his
throat, deprives him of his hide, takes out his entrails, washes the
inside of his body with water, and cuts him up into quarters. The beef
is now ready to be conveyed to the market-house. The process of
dressing other quadrupeds varies but little from this in its general
details. The cellular substance of mutton, lamb and veal, is often
inflated with air, that the meat may appear fat and plump.
9. In large cities and towns, the meat is chiefly sold in the
market-house, where each butcher has a stall rented from the
corporation. It is carried there in a cart, and cut into suitable
pieces with a saw, knife, and a broad iron cleaver.
10. In some of the large cities, it is a practice among the butchers,
to employ _runners_ to carry the meat to the houses, of those
customers who may desire this accommodation. In villages, where there
is no market-house, the butcher carries his meats from door to door
in some kind of vehicle.
11. Those who follow this occupation usually enjoy good health, and,
as they advance in years, in most cases, become corpulent. Their good
health arises from exercise in the open air; and their corpulency,
from subsisting principally on fresh meats. It is thought, however,
that their longevity is not so great as that of men in many other
employments.
[Illustration: TOBACCONIST.]