66

His Life was written by Michelangiolo Zorzi, in his Biography of Illustrious Arcadians, vol. 6;" likewise, by Fabrori, in his "Lives of Italians, vol. 4;" and by Tirabosch, Biblioteca Moderna, vol. 4.

NOTE 50. Page 146.

A mode of treatment, consisting in the application of Natural remedies.

NOTE 51. Page 152.

This reprint of the Treatises of Cornaro is accompanied with Notes, which enter at length into the merits of his system. These have been prepared by Mr. JOHN BURDELL, a gentleman well known to be conversant with the subject upon which he has undertaken to comment. For the inferences drawn from them, he alone is responsible; my design being merely to collect and arrange such materials to form an authentic Biography of Cornaro, as I could obtain. This task I have performed, to the best of my ability.

New-York, Dec 27th, 1841.

PIERO MARONC EI LI

INTRODUCTION TO THE APPENDIX.

HAVING, at different times, reduced to writing cer tain suggestions to young persons, upon the subject of DIETETICS, which seemed to me worthy to be preserved; and finding no portion of the Works of Cornaro, to which a reference, in the form of a Note, would be particularly pertinent, I have thought it best tc throw them together, at the close of this volume, as an Appendix.

New-York, January, 1842.

JOHN BURDELL.

Now give you the Bible doctrine on this subject, as understand it. In Gen. i. 29, God says: "I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat," and adds, " and it was so."

We here see the original intention of our Maker as to the kind of food we should eat; and this food was easily procured, for it was only necessary, on man's part, to put forth his hand and his wants were all supplied by bi beneficent Creator, as we read in Gen. ii. 8. ".And

the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." And of all that was good, might he freely eat, with but one exception, and that was to test his obedience. We also read in this chapter, God brought the beasts and fowls to Adam, not to kill and eat them, but to name them; and it is not at all probable that Adam ever entertained the thought, that they would ever become the food of his posterity, innocent as himself, formed from the same earth, breathing the same atmosphere, and subject to the same physical laws, especially when the direction was so plain as to what should be the food of man. After our first parents sinned, and were expelled from the garden of Eden, they were compelled to till the ground for a subsistence, for still the command was, "thou shalt eat the herb of the field."

The lovers of flesh-meat, are, no doubt, very anxious I should get to Noah's history; as there, they think, that I must grant them indulgence; but a permission from the Almighty, does not abolish any command which he has given; the first command is still in force, and plainly shows our Creator's intention, as he cannot deny himself. And if it was intended we should eat vegetable food, our stomachs of course would be adapted to it; and although we may get along with a mixed diet, that does not prove that it is best. I would ask my flesh-eating friends, what they think is the cause of man's life being so much shorter since Noah's time than before? whether they suppose fesh-eating has anything to do with it?

No. II

IN passing along the page containing he h story of man's degeneracy, after the fall, we meet with the account of the flood, with which the Lord visited his iniquity, and of the preservation of Noah and his family, with the beasts, foyvls, and creeping things which God commanded him to preserve alive with him in the ark. And here we have, as it were, to begin man's history anew, at least, so far as it concerns repeopling the earth. We commence with Noah's egress from the ark. And here we find the first permission to eat flesh. Gen. ix 1. "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you: even as the green herb have I given you all things."

Some of my readers may say, "Well, I wonder what he will say to that, for this is as plain a direction as the first?" True, so it is, and I have no wish to deny it; all I want is to find out which is best for man, an animal or vegetable diet; and when I have ascertained this, it is my duty to follow the right, that is the best.

Now, I do not dispute the fact, that man can receive nourishment from animal food; on the contrary, I say, wery living thing that

he can and may be nourished

moveth for we read of some nations who support life from the most disgusting creatures and substances, such