The natural tendency is to greater use of pork in the more northern than in the Southern States, since the climate would seem to call for it; but we have shown its use at the South to be the result of circumstances more than of original preference and probable inclination, since all peoples of low latitudes, of a high standard of civilization, elect a lighter diet than those of cooler climates.

There are some who declaim against the use of any and all kinds of meat for food, and advocate a purely vegetable diet.  There is much that can be said in its favor, and it ought, with fruits, to form at least two of the three daily meals.  The system would be in better tone, and the mind as well.  But there are extremes in all things, and these sometimes govern the conduct of men.  A happy medium is usually the best, and for our climate, we believe the use of the right kinds of meat to be not only healthful but eminently proper.  The natural law aids to this conclusion.  We see the people of the tropics indulging largely in fruit, which an allwise Providence has placed there and adapted to their wants; again, at the poles the inhabitants live almost wholly on the fat of animals—­a half-dozen tallow candles being eaten at a meal, when supplied by strangers.  The intense cold requires this heavy fuel to supply the needed heat and comfort.  What would an exclusive vegetable diet be worth to them, exposed as they are?  With us, lying between the two extremes, with a climate and country abounding in both fruits and animals, with seasons of cold and heat in nearly equal extremes, it seems quite rational that a mixed diet, regulated by common-sense rules, is the best.  Certainly the highest civilization to which man has yet attained is found in the temperate zones, where neither the one nor the other extreme in diet has obtained.

A manifest advantage and improvement in general health can, however, be effected by paying a more enlightened regard to those things whereof we dine.  People with gluttonish inclinations can easily and do make themselves sick while subsisting on an entirely fruit diet; hence, if discretion is needed in the use of the simplest articles of food, of course it cannot be dispensed with while indulging in other sorts.

But, in a volume of this character, we cannot amplify the details of this very interesting and important topic to that extent we could wish.  Suffice it to say, that so far as pork is concerned, we abjure all to leave it severely alone.  There is a variety of other meats great enough, from which all may choose, and there are no good elements inherent in pork which cannot be supplied in other meats, or by the free use of good fresh butter, which is at all times a much better fuel for the system than pork.

Regularity in eating is highly essential, and too much stress cannot be placed upon this injunction to the sick.  It is quite as important to those in health who would remain so; but then, few in health believe that, or if they do, their habits do not conform to their belief.  The duties of life should conform to the laws of health, and where there is any conflict, shove duties overboard always.