employed for the same purpose by certain primitive races of the present day.

To a limited extent the life of the North American Indian may be cited as an example of the manner in which our homosimian ancestors lived. When the homosimian became an expert hunter his diet became more animalized and, perhaps, he ate more flesh than vegetable food; the North American Indian before the coming of the white man was a hunter and largely a meat eater.

Although the dietetic and other customs of the Indian have been greatly changed by contact with the white man and his so-called civilization, yet he is by heredity a nomad and a hunter. The capture of animals devolved upon the man; the preparation of food upon the woman. She often added vegetables to the diet. When the precibicultural cookery period is discussed the diet of the Indians will be considered at length.

DIET OF THE HOMOSIMIAN.-To proceed with the discussion of the diet of the homosimian in the early hunting period: it is assumed on sufficiently clear evidence that the homosimian was more carnivorous than vegetarian. His intelligence and the pressure of circumstances impelled him to invent appliances to procure animal food in large quantities. The present-day precibiculturist, as the North American Indian for example, eats about equal parts of animal and vegetable food. But if he did not know how to cook, and thus make the vegetable world contribute largely to his sustenance, he would perforce be more carnivorous. With this analogy before us, it is fair to conclude that the homosimian of the early hunting period was more a flesh eater than a vegetarian.

LATER HUNTING PERIOD.-Many of our early ancestors were "mighty hunters before the Lord." They esteemed delicacies when they could obtain them, as has been proved by the fact that in the Grotto of the Rhinoceros near Schwarzfeld, about 1,000 bones of the cave bear have been found. These were split to extract the marrow, and also showed the marks of fire. At San Ciro near Palermo, there is evidence that they feasted habitually on hippopotami as is shown by the remains of some 2,000 of these animals (Scott Elliott).

The weapons of the homosimian continued to improve and his skill to increase, so that he was able to migrate to other lands-a necessity, in fact, as the supply of wild animals in the regions he had long occupied was insufficient to provide him with food. The hunting instincts together with the need for food gave the stimulus to our homosimian forefathers to travel and were potent factors in the population of the earth. The question of the food supply rather than the climate was the cause of man's

spreading himself over the earth. But for many thousand years he could be no more than a lonely hunter as the Fuegan, the Tasmanian, the Bushman or the Veddah. Purely hunting savages can increase in numbers to a very slight extent only. Lord Avebury, better known as Sir John Lubbock, gave 6,471 acres as the area required for a single red Indian living almost wholly on wild animals.

PRECIBICULTURAL COOKERY PERIOD

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The discovery of cookery, by means of which the supply of vegetable food was immensely augmented and bettered, was a long step forward. The domestication of animals and the cultivation of plants were also very important advances. With these steps taken, man rapidly increased, multiplied and inhabited the earth. Cooking preceded the cultivation of vegetable plants, and its effect was to increase and improve the supply of vegetable food. Before the invention of cookery man had to laboriously masticate his food to obtain all the nutriment contained therein. sequently our ancestors in the precookery period were compelled to use their jaws and teeth in the most strenuous manner, with the result that the starch taken into the stomach was thoroughly masticated. Further, as the starch content of the coarse vegetables, eaten before cookery was invented or plants cultivated, was small most of it was digested in the form of dextrin and maltose in the mouth, and little passed into the stomach as crude dextrin. Campbell has drawn attention to this important point that, until the invention of cookery the stomach of evolving man had but little acquaintance with undigested starch.

Early Preparation of Food.-Before the era of cookery, it appears probable that other means were used to prepare his vegetable food and render it more palatable and digestible-by sun drying, grinding, burying and maceration-all methods used by primitive races of the present time.

PRESERVATIVE METHODS.-Among the Iroquois and other eastern tribes vegetable foodstuffs were preserved by drying; among the less sedentary tribes, they were strung or tied in bundles for facility of transportation or storage. The preservation of maize, mesquite beans, acorns, etc., gave rise to granaries and other storage devices. In order to preserve animal food it was often dried or frozen. Dried meat was sometimes pulverized and mixed with berries. Fruits were pulped and dried for preservation. Tubers were frequently stored in the ground. The Virginian tribes preserved tubers for winter use in this way.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF COOKERY

The Systematic Use of Fire.-The aid of artificial heat opened up a new vista, so that many vegetables which in their raw state were unpalatable and highly indigestible were, by the agency of fire, converted into nutritious articles of diet. How to make a fire was one of the greatest discoveries made by our simian ancestors. The various ways in which fire may be made have been described by other authors, perhaps most fully in Mason's "Origin of Invention." Wood friction was the most common mode. The use of fire in cooking food was indeed epoch-making, for, as the art of cookery improved, man was less dependent on hunting for his food. The supply of vegetables increased in proportion to the advances in the art of cookery, and the hunter was able to release himself, to some extent, from the chase, and devote a considerable part of his time to other pursuits. In the course of time one-half or more of his dietary consisted of vegetable food.

The Discovery of Cooking.-Cookery is the art which has rendered the most important service to humanity, for it has brought into play the application of fire, by the use of which man has subjugated nature. In all probability cookery is nearly as old as fire. It is almost certain that one of the earliest uses to which man put heat by fire was to cook his food. The antiquity of fire-making, of cookery, are matters of conjecture. At first, the cooking of food was done in a haphazard fashion. Cookery could not be termed an art nor could a period be referred to as the cookery period until it was applied systematically to both flesh and vegetables.

Cooking rendered the indigestible cellulose content of raw vegetables more digestible, and improved the digestibility of the starch. At the same time, less mastication was required, and gradually the power of digesting the more indigestible and unpalatable raw vegetables was lost entirely. The most backward peoples now living cook their food, and that they have done so for ages, seems to be demonstrated by the fact that although widely separated by race and distance, the means they employ for this purpose are very similar. All evidence points to the fact that the methods of cooking now practiced by the most primitive races, as the native Australians, Californians, Pygmies and Andamanese, were handed down from the earliest times, probably from those times when cookery was first practiced, and began to take its place as one of the arts.

The Evolution of Cookery.-It may be assumed that as soon as man discovered how to make a fire, instinct impelled him to apply it to food, first to dry it, then to cook it by placing it on hot embers.

Fire Applied to Meat.-Flesh thus prepared was found to taste better; it was more wholesome, and was more easily masticated. The essence of the meat becoming fluid gave a savory flavor which rendered it more gratifying to the palate. It was quickly discovered that this method possessed some disagreeable drawbacks. Meat grilled on hot embers both burns and soils, while vegetable food will burn too readily. Meat was then in all likelihood stuck on skewers, which were placed on stones raised to a sufficient height to prevent contact with the embers. Thus was the gridiron evolved.

EVIDENCES OF COOKING OF MEAT AMONG PRIMITIVE MEN.-Reference has been made to the discovery of the remains of hippopotami at San Ciro near Palermo, which had been killed and eaten by the Neanderthal race a race which probably included the later stages of the River Drift man and the early stages of the Cave Man of English anthropologists.(1) Judging from the remains found at San Ciro, "it seems likely that they grilled their meat over a fire, and sometimes boiled it, for certain stones found in some caves seem to have been used as pot boilers. Perhaps a hollow was dug in the cave, or near it, and a skin, filled with the flesh and water, placed over the hollow. Then stones heated red-hot were dropped into the water to make it boil. This theory is uncertain, for it involves the assumption that they possessed a vessel in which water could be carried. It is true that water might have been carried in skins, but it would have been difficult; therefore it is unlikely that they boiled their game. Moreover, it is not a usual form of cooking among races who live in much the same manner at present.' It appears certain that this Neanderthal race used iron pyrites and flint to strike a light. It was no doubt the custom of all primitive people, to whom it was a task of infinite patience and toil, and who were dependent upon the fire continually burning in their caves for protection from wild beasts, for warmth and for cooking. The Neanderthal race were essentially meat eaters and big game eaters, for no small bones were in their caves, only those of the mammoth, rhinoceros, cave bear, the urus, deer and bison.

It is important always to bear in mind that, although animal food is not so difficult to cook, raw meat was and is often used. In this form it is not unpalatable, and is more easily digested. While the connective tissue is softened by cooking and muscular fibers loosened, proteins are coagulated and, on the whole, most cooked meat tries the organs of digestion as much or more than meat in a raw state. Perhaps the warmth imparted to food by the process of cooking is a slight aid to digestion, and man at the present time has become accustomed by genera

tions of use to cooked meat, which is a point in its favor. Early man was carnivorous by heredity and had not acquired the taste for cooked meat. Raw meat is assimilable and is eaten nowadays with gusto by some savage tribes. Some raw meats are even more palatable than cooked, and many highly civilized persons, notably the Germans and other European peoples, eat considerable quantities of raw meat, especially pork.

Raw oysters and other shellfish are esteemed delicacies by the most civilized of people. Raw ham is largely consumed by Germans and other European peoples. Raw meat is given to consumptives as a part of treatment and is eaten by them with avidity. It is not the intention to argue that raw meat is better adapted, from the point of view of health, to civilized people than cooked meat, but rather to show that raw meat was in the precibicultural period the common diet of man, and that even after the discovery of cooking, meat was for a long time eaten raw.

COOKING OF VEGETABLES.-The point on which it is intended to lay stress is that whereas animal food may be consumed in a raw state, vegetable food almost invariably requires the agency of fire to render it fit for human digestion. This is a truth of great significance in the evolution of man and in the evolution of man's diet. By the aid of cooking, the stiff cellulose content of vegetables is rendered easily digestible, and the starch is more accessible to the salivary and other digestive fluids. Hence the use of cooked foods has altered man's organs of digestion and has played a part in his evolution.

THE UNDERGROUND OVEN.-While it was a comparatively simple matter to devise means to cook meat, it was altogether different when the cooking of vegetables was in question. This was solved by the invention of the underground oven. A hole was dug in the ground into which the food was placed and a fire was then made over or around it. The principle of this method is applied in various ways at the present time in out of the way parts of the world, and it can be asserted with emphasis that it is a most excellent way of preparing food for human consumption.

The most advanced mode of underground oven-cooking is by heated stones. Alternate layers of hot stones and food are placed in the oven, and covered with matting, leaves or grass. This is a baking system. More frequently, the oven is lined with some vegetable substance, which may also be employed to separate the layers of food and stones. Steam is generated, and the eatables are most efficiently steamed. Both of these methods are admirable, and better in some respects than any of the modern civilized ways. Most of those who have eaten food prepared after this fashion are loud in its praise, and declare that it is superior in its