Show VARIETIES OF HUMAN FOOD decidedly odd material sometimes sometime employed for the purpose of providing nourishment it Is interesting to consider some of the more or less odd material which man has been led to choose for the purpose of food environment of course must be a factor in regard to this choice and ne necessity belty also it Is hard to imagine that mat earth would be used as food and yet such has been the case in many countries during famine the Lap lahden mix earth with their bread tho the ft uses a rock flour and the poorer classes in hungary where now nearly every one Is poor are driven Ocas occasionally tonally to eat an earth which contains only a trifling proportion of nourishing principles the use uee of seaweed as food Is an example of the determining factors of both bath necessity elty and environment it Is not a little astonishing to find that a number of seaweeds are really edib edible e and perhaps the best known example Is laver faver which Is a kind of stew made from a weed an algae the laver made on the devonshire von shire coast of england and to be found in some london shops Is said to be excellent esc ellent the sea algae indeed prove on ona analysts lysis to contain a considerable proportion of nitrogenous matter and as they are usually tender they ore are digestible there are also several sea mosses which are esteemed for their esculent properties agar sugar Is another example of 0 a sea vi yielding elding a nutrient jelly it Is supposed that the edible birds nest so BO highly esteemed when prepared in the form of soup by the chinese hns has its origin in the birds feeding on agar sugar on the other hand it Is said that the substance of which the nest Is composed Is secreted from certain glands which are developed during the nest building season but which lose this function afterward |