How strange isn't it ? What a coincidence ! Written just a couple of years before the Nestor of instincto made up his own mind.
Cleave's remarks seem to come from nowhere, except from the back of his head. No pertinent quotes allow the reader to understand his intellectual path, which , by his own confession, took a quarter of a century. Could it be that the idea that men are endowed with a fully operational food instinct belong to some unknown (heretical) medical tradition in the western world ? A tradition so "underground" as to consistently evade attempts to unearth consistent parts of the story , not to mention the whole story (except for the privileged few )
Now reading between the lines....... Why would a Royal Navy physician get interested in this matter ? What 's the relationship with Cleave's carreer in the military and his interest for this matter ? What's the relationship with the British Colonial Empire ? Is there an historical link between shipwrecking, lost soldiers, and the recognition of one's omnivorous food instinct by heretical physicians ?
Finding the answer to these questions will probably lead you to realize that we, instinctos, are nothing but voluntary castaways of a civilization struggling against its own demise.
