A letter to Mr. Keate, Surgeon-General to the Forces / [Robert Jackson].

  • Robert Jackson
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Mr. Keate, Surgeon-General to the Forces / [Robert Jackson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/96 page 15
    1 ( 15 ) it appears to me to be a diet, not less full, perhaps more acceptable, as will be seen by a comparison of the dif¬ ferent diet tables annexed, than that which has been since approved and sanctioned by all the members of the Me¬ dical Board, and which is now adopted in all the British military hospitals, general as well as regimental, through¬ out the kingdom. The rate of diet, which you established for British military hospitals when you entered upon your office, was fixed apparently without knowledge of the highest quantity of meat which was allowed to a soldier in barracks ; for had you known this simple fact, (and the Army Medical Board ought not to have been unac¬ quainted with it,) you would, I presume, have spared your reprehension of my alterations, for they are in part adopted in your last regulations. No man of common understanding supposes that a convalescent man, one for instance who is confined within the walls of an hospital, requires more animal food for his support and sustenance than a soldier who is employed in active service in the field; yet the full diet of British military general hos¬ pitals comprehended, in the year 1801, a full pound of beef, while the highest barrack allowance was, as it still is, only three quarters of a pound. This seems an ab¬ surdity; and I suppose it proceeded from ignorance. You have now corrected it; but it is probable that my inno¬ vations led you to consider the case, and to discover the error. The full diet of British hospitals is now reduced to the measure of the barrack allowance ; but, if you compare your hospital diet with that of other military powers on the Continent, you will probably find that you are still too high. The most of these place it lower than the ration of the barracks : This you may see in the table annexed; but setting this aside, I must further add that, if you take the trouble to watch the sick and con¬ valescent
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image