126 OF FOOD, AND THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 



ative mortality of the French and English contingents in the Crimean war. 

 During the first winter (1855) the English army lost 5.79 per cent, of its 

 effective force, whilst the French only lost 2.31 per cent. Great changes 

 were immediately introduced into the diet and general regimen of the 

 English army, with the result that in the following winter, only 441 soldiers 

 succumbed to disease, out of an effective of 50,000, whilst the French troops, 

 badly fed and badly clothed, had no less than 10(3,000 sick, of whom 20,000 

 died, out of a total force of 130,000 men. The effects of insufficient alimen- 

 tation were also exhibited on a large scale during the siege of Paris. The 

 mortality among the feebler members of the community old people and 

 children being very great. Besides the soldiers killed in action, upwards 

 of 42,000 persons died in the course of the five mouths of siege, in excess of 

 the number dying in the corresponding period of the preceding year. 1 The 

 proportion steadily rose week by week as the supply of food decreased, with 

 only one or two exceptions, from the number 1272, who died in the week 

 ending 24th September, 1870, to the number of 4671, who died in the week 

 ending the 3d February, 1871, the numbers in the three subsequent weeks 

 being rather less. 2 



82. It is a curious effect of insufficient nutriment, as shown by the inquiries 

 of Chossat (Op. cit.), that it produces an incapability of digesting even the 

 small amount consumed. He found that when turtle doves were supplied 

 with limited quantities of corn, but with water at discretion, the whole 

 amount of food taken was scarcely ever actually digested ; a part of it being 

 rejected by vomiting, or passing off by diarrhoea, or accumulating in the 

 crop. It seems as if the vital powers were not sufficient to furnish the 

 requisite supply of gastric fluid, w^heu the body began to be enfeebled by 

 insufficient nutrition ; or perhaps we might well say, the materials of the 

 gastric fluid are wanting. Hence the loathing of food, which is often mani- 

 fested by those who have been subjected to the influence of an insufficient 

 diet scale in our prisons and poor-houses, and which has been set down to 

 caprice or obstinacy, and punished accordingly, may be actually a proof of 

 the deficiency of the supply which we might expect to have been voraciously 

 devoured, if really less than the wants of the system require. 



83. It is extremely important that the Medical Practitioner should be 

 aware, that many of the phenomena above described may be induced by the 

 adoption of a system of too rigid abstinence in the treatment of various 

 diseases ; and that they have been frequently confounded with the symptoms 

 of the malady itself, and have led to an entirely erroneous method of treating 

 it, " Many cases," says Dr. Copland, 3 " have occurred to me in practice, where 

 the antiphlogistic regimen, which had been too rigidly pursued, was itself the 

 cause of the very symptoms which it was employed to remove. Of these 

 symptoms, the affection of the head and delirium are the most remarkable, 

 and the most readily mistaken for an actual disease- requiring abstinence for 

 its removal." The experience of those, especially, who are largely engaged 

 in consulting practice, must have furnished mini TOUS illustrations of the 

 above statement. Dr. Copland mentions the following : " A professional 

 man has been seized with fever, for which a too rigid abstinence was enforced, 

 not only during its continuance, but also during convalescence. Delirium 

 had been present at the height of the fever, and recurred when the patient 

 was convalescent. A physician of eminence in maniacal cast's was called to 



1 I,.- Hun, L;i Vie, etc., Paris, 1874, p. 71. From IStli Sept. ISC!), to 24th Feb. 

 1870, 21,078 per-un- died ; whilst from 18th Sept. 1870, to 24th Feb. 1871 (period of 

 sic^i-i, the number of deaths \v:is fi4,l~>4. 



2 See, M. Le Bon, La Vie, etc., 1874. 



3 Dictionary of Practical Medicine, vol. i. p. 26. 





