an epithet applied to those animals which naturally seek and feed on flesh.

It has been a dispute among naturalists whether man is naturally carnivorous. Those who take the negative side of the question insist chiefly on the structure of our teeth, which are mostly incisors or molares; not such as carnivorous animals are furnished with, and which are proper to tear flesh in pieces, and to this it may be added, that, even when we do feed on flesh, it is not without a preparatory alteration by boiling, roasting, or the like, and even then it is the hardest of digestion of all foods. To these arguments Dr Wallis subjoins another, which is, that all quadrupeds which feed on herbs or plants have a long colon, with a cæcum at the upper end of it, or somewhat equivalent, which conveys the food by a long and large progress from the stomach downwards, in order to its slower passage and longer stay in the intestines; but that, in carnivorous animals, such cæcum is wanting, and instead of it there is a shorter and more slender gut, and a quicker passage through the intestines. Now, in man the cæcum is very visible; a strong presumption that nature, which is still consistent with herself, did not intend him for a carnivorous animal. It is true, the cæcum is but small in adults, and seems of little or no use; but in a fetus it is much larger in proportion; and it is probable that our customary change of diet, as we grow up, may occasion this shrinking. But to these arguments Dr Tyson replies, that if man had been designed by nature to be not carnivorous, there would doubtless have been found, somewhere on the globe, people who do not feed on flesh; which is not the case. Neither are carnivorous animals always without a colon and cæcum; nor are all animals carnivorous which have these parts. The opossum, for instance, has both a colon and cæcum, and yet feeds on poultry and other flesh; whereas the hedgehog, which has neither colon nor cæcum, and so ought to be carnivorous, feeds only on vegetables. Add to this, that hogs, which have both, will feed upon flesh when they can get it; and rats and mice, which have large cæcums, will feed on bacon as well as bread and cheese. Lastly, the human race are furnished with teeth necessary for the preparation of all kinds of food; from which it would seem that nature intended we should live on all. And as the alimentary duct in the human body is fitted for digesting all kinds of food, ought we not rather to conclude that nature did not intend to deny us any?

It is not less disputed whether mankind were carnivorous before the flood. St Jerome, Chrysostom, Theodore, and other ancients, maintain that all animal food was then forbidden; which opinion is also strenuously supported among the moderns by Curcellaeus, and refuted by Heidegger, Danzius, Bochart, and others.