For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off. Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh - Independently of the moral reasons given above, we may add,
1. That blood, being highly alkalescent, especially in hot climates, is subject to speedy putrefaction.
2. That it affords a gross nutriment, being very difficult of digestion, so much so that bull's blood was used in ancient times as poison, "Its extreme viscidity rendering it totally indigestible by the powers of the human stomach."
3. It is allowed that when blood was used in this country in great quantities, the scurvy was more frequent than at other times.
4. It appears from history that those nations who lived most on it were very fierce, savage, and barbarous, such as the Scythians, Tartars, Arabs of the desert, the Scandinavians, etc., etc., some of whom drank the blood of their enemies, making cups of their sculls!