Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: [Report on the Army ration]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![contentment and the health of the soldier and combine to retain him in the service. They are contingencies which are very material to him, though they are (independent of governmental influence,) the fruit of his own hands. Fortunately, in some respects, the soldier's duties are chiefly out-door rather than in-door. He experiences, however, great vicissitudes, as when he walks his post under the blazing sun near the tropics, or ex- posed to the pitiless storm wind of a Northern winter. With these extremes, to preserve a proper temperature of the blood and of the bod\T, almost as great regard should be paid to diet as to clothing. The Esqui- maux consumes fat, blubber and train oil, as they maintain best his bodily heat. The tropic native, or the African, is equally attracted to cooling acescent fruits as refrigerants Returning to Dr. Smith's Report, ( p ige 227,) on the food of the lowest fed classes, and particularly the stocking and glove weavers in England: '• In no family was bread bought in quantities to supply the wants of the family, but only in small quantities to supplement that which they had baked. Hence the purchasing of flour and the making of bread at home were universal. The quality known us seconds. Oat-meal was ealeu in three-fourths of the cases, but only in quantity sufficient to make (oat- meal) gruel. The rice was used to make puddings, and the peas to make soup. The total average quantity of breadstuff's reckoned as bread was 11.9 lbs. per adult weekly. [1 lb. 14 oz. per adult daily.] This, I remark, is compared with the U. S. Ration, a large one, but even at that rate the families could not afford to give 33 per cent flour to the baker as the soldier does to g<» to the post fund. They had to find time for baking their own bread. A majority of the persons referred to had small gardens or plots of potato ground in 'cottage gardens,' and hence the use of fresh vege- '' tables was universal. The average quantity of potatoes then in use was 4 lbs. per week for each adult. [9 1-7 oz. daily per adult.] Butter was procured by every family in weekly quantities varying from 5 tb. to 3j lbs. Lard or dripping was consumed by 9-21 and suet by 15-21 families. The total average quantity of fats eaten was 181 oz. per family, or 3 j oz. per adult daily. * * The total average (butcher's meat or •' bacon) of meat was nearly 3^ lbs. per family, or I lb. per adult weekly. * * Cheese was used in every family, except one, at the rate of 1 B). per week. Eggs were procured in more than half the cases, and in many instances from their own fowls. The cost was (of the food) 2 shillings 64 pence per adult on the aver- age, and the quantity of carbon and nitrogen obtained for each shilling, 13.296 grs. and 522 grains. Four meals a day were usually eaten. Among the farm laborers in England onions are used very extensively, and give a savory relish when bread is the chief article of which the meal is composed, as well as when a little meat is cooked. They have the advantage over other kinds of green vegetables, that they may be eat- en whilst growing, and also preserved for use in the winter. * • «](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21140121_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
