FIFTH WEEK-MONDAY.

HUMAN FOOD.-MILK.

THERE is a provision in Nature for the support of every young animal that comes into existence. The various tribes of the snail, or caterpillar, are ushered into being on the leaves of the plants best suited to the supply of their wants; and some of the insects that fill the air with their joyous hum, have spent the first period of their lives in the element of water, which at once protected them from outward injury, and furnished the nutriment that was to mature their frames for future exertion. No preparation, however, that has been made for the support of infant existence, is more wonderful, than that fluid, from which the human race, in common with all the brute creation, and some even of the inhabitants of the ocean, derive their earliest nourishment.

Milk is neither a vegetable nor an animal substance, but a compound of both; and in this, it differs from all other food. It consists of oil, curd, and sugar, compounded in different proportions, according to the nature of the animal from which it proceeds. Thus, the milk of the cow and sheep contains a greater proportion of the caseous and more nutritive matter, and that of the ass and mare more of the oily and saccharine.

It is delightful to observe, in this sweet and nutritious beverage, the care which has been taken, by Him who "tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," to provide for the helplessness of the young, both of man and beast. Who can behold the eagerness with which a child, newly born, applies its little lips to the breast, without raising his thoughts in wonder and admiration to the "Parent of all," by whose wisdom and tenderness it has been taught thus to support itself in life! Nothing can perfectly supply the place of the mother's milk. Mark the instinct which actuates the young of the lion, the tiger, and other beasts of prey. They do not roam at large, like their

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harmless compeers; but, their eyes being at first unopened, they remain in dens till they become sufficiently strong to combat their enemies, and find food for themselves. So long as they are too feeble to join in the chase, Providence has inclined them to be stationary, and to await the return of their dams, for the satisfaction of their hunger. Nor is it unworthy of remark, that, as the carnivorous animals have a much smaller quantity of milk than the other mammalia, they bring home their prey alive, that their young may suck its blood. Look, again, at the lambkin, or the calf. When it begins to feel the pangs of hunger, it is not left to make a painful and fruitless search among the vegetable tribes, till it finds a pasture sufficiently tender for its delicate organization; but its most grateful food is close at hand; it goes to it at once, and without fail; it receives it as instinctively as it is offered by its dam. Thence it derives its strength, until its continually unfolding powers become strong enough to bear the food common to the species in more advanced life.

Observe the young of cows, and other graminivorous animals, how they follow their mothers in the pastures where they feed, gradually learning to crop the young clover, or the tender grass. In the safe and pleasant fields, nothing can injure them, defenceless though they be. The sunny slope, and smooth enclosure, afford them ample space for the exercise of their limbs; and there are few fairer pictures of innocent enjoyment, than their graceful gambols in the meadow, drawing vigor, as they leap and run, from the soft spring-breezes, or basking in the most perfect repose beneath the genial beams of the Many beautiful emblems of the Christian life have been furnished by such scenes as these. The happy pastures prepared by "the Good Shepherd" for his flock; the calm delight they experience while resting in the sunshine of his smile; their growth in spiritual strength and beauty beneath the breezes of the "heavenly wind" that bloweth where it listeth, even the influences of the quickening Spirit;-all these are shadowed forth in the fatherly provision which He has made for a feeble and short-lived race, destined for the use of man.

sun.

All quadrupeds, from the majestic elephant to the light squirrel and the humble mole, are mammalia; and widely though the habits of their being in many respects differ, the property of sustaining their offspring, by their own milk, is common to them all.* There are few instances in which contrivance for a kind and benevolent purpose is more distinctly to be perceived, than in the formation of the reservoirs from which the young of mammalia derive their sustenance. The breasts are what are called by anatomists, conglomerate glandules,-composed of a vast number of little knots or kernels, each of which has its secretory vessel, in which the milk is formed. By a very beautiful process, these are made to unite into many small separate trunks, with cellular substance lying between, which, joining, constitute a vessel of sufficient capacity to contain a considerable quantity of the delicious fluid, thus gradually distilled. From this, it has, of course, a constant tendency to flow forth, by which it might have been lost, or the young, in applying their mouths to the breast, might have been in danger of choking from the copiousness of the supply. To prevent this, however, the vessel, before being attached to the nipple, is contracted to such a degree, as to render suction necessary, in order to the extraction of the milk.

From the milk of the cow, several wellknown kinds of nourishment are derived. The principal of these, are, butter, butter-milk, curd, cheese, and whey. Butter is nothing but the oily part of the milk, separated from the other ingredients by means of violent commotion. It is a highly nutritive food, and when moderately used, especially in its fresh state, along with bread, or other similar aliment, it is very wholesome, as well as delicious. ter-milk is the substance that remains after the butter has been taken from the churn. When the best part of the cream alone is used in churning, it forms a very refresh

But

*The whale also belongs to this class. "She generally," says Goldsmith, "produces one young one, and never above two. When she suckles her young, she throws herself on one side, on the surface of the sea. In some, the breasts are white; in others, speckled; in all, filled with a large quantity of milk, resembling that of land animals.”

ing, agreeable, and wholesome beverage. Curd is milk newly coagulated, and, as all the component parts still remain together, it is considered almost as nutritive as milk itself. Cheese is formed by subjecting the curd to strong pressure. Its qualities are different, according to the mode of its preparation, the quantity of oil retained by the curd, and the length of time it has been kept. Though highly nutritious, it is difficult of digestion, and, except by the robust, should be used only as a condiment. Whey is the fluid that remains after the curd and the oily particles have been separated from the milk. As the saccharine and saline ingredients are alone held in solution by it, with the exception of a very small portion. of the animal principles, it cannot be very nutritious. But being cooling, antiseptic, and otherwise medicinal, it is highly recommended by physicians in some cases of disease.

The variety of Creative resources is never exhausted ; and we are frequently surprised by finding productions which we have been accustomed to consider as peculiar to one department of nature, approached in their qualities, if not altogether identical, in another. It would scarcely be suspected that milk was of this number. But so it is. The Indian of the Cordilleras of South America has his supply of milk from a tree growing at a vast height, amid arid mountains where no cattle can pasture. The cow tree, which was first noticed by a Dutch traveller as growing in the province of Cumana, is thus described by Humboldt with his characteristic spirit :-"On the side of a thirsty rock, grows a tree whose leaves are dry and husky. Its large roots penetrate with difficulty through the stony soil. During many months of the year, not a shower waters its foliage; the branches appear withered and dead; but when its trunk is pierced, a sweet and nourishing milk flows from the wound. It is at the rising of the sun that this vegetable aliment is most plenty. The natives and the black slaves then gather together from all parts with large wooden vessels to catch the milk, which, as it flows, becomes yellow, and thickens on the surface. Some make their abundant meal at the foot of the tree

which supplies it; others carry their full vessels home to their children."* One would wish to know more of this curious production, so bountifully provided for the supply of a thirsty land. We are not informed in how many particulars it resembles the animal secretion from which it derives its name, or to how many of the uses of milk, as above enumerated, it may be applied. W. W. D.

FIFTH WEEK-TUESDAY.

HUMAN FOOD.-WINE.

THE juice of the grape was manufactured into wine in the earliest periods of the postdiluvian world. Scripture informs us, that, soon after the flood, Noah "began to be an husbandman, and planted a vineyard, and drank of the wine." The intoxicating effect which it seems to have unexpectedly produced, has led some to conjecture that the process of fermentation by which wine is produced, was then new to the world, and was consequent on a change in the atmosphere, and in the principles of vegetable life, introduced into our globe by the same disruption which occasioned the catastrophe of the flood. I see nothing either absurd or anti-scriptural in this conjecture. It may readily be allowed, that, even in events which, in one important sense, must be considered as miraculous, the Almighty may have sometimes acted by the intervention of second causes, productive of very extensive natural changes; but, whether this be admitted or not, it may be true that it was the will of the Supreme Governor, that, in the new order of things, some principles, before unknown, should make their appearance. The gradual shortening of human life, the phenomenon of the rainbow, the permission to make use of animal food, and the principle of vinous fermentation, may possibly all be connected with such a change in the system of the natural world.

* Voyage aux Regions Equinoxiales, tom. iv. p. 264.