War Notes 237 



instances rather due to the breakdown of the Ger. organiz. than 

 to deliberate malice . . . there is evidence that efforts are being 

 made, in some camps at least, to improve matters. Reports by mem- 

 bers of the staff of the Amer. Embas. at Berlin, published early in 

 Mar., indicate that the conditions at the prisoners-of-war camps at 

 Limburg, Giessen, Darmstadt, Mannheim, and Heidelberg are now 

 satisfactory. The camp at Mannheim, where there are sixty Br. 

 prisoners, is described as a "good example of the specially and 

 scient. constructed camps, and general conditions are of the best." 

 Much of this im.provement is due to the courage and persistency of 

 the Amer. Embassy. Editori al: Brit. Med. Jour., March 18, 19 16, 

 p. 422. 



German " FOOD- PROBLEM." Thcrc has to be some restriction 

 in the use of fat and butter. It goes without saying that every one 

 must practice econ. and exercise good judgment, and even suffer 

 some restriction in the use of all kinds of provisions; and there 

 naturally must be a slight incr. in their price. That starv. is still a 

 remote problem is shown, further, by the food given to prisoners of 

 war. The daily rations, provided for some time ago, have remained 

 unchanged. Every person receives daily 90 gm. of albumin (for- 

 merly 85), 30 gm. of fat (formerly 40), 500 gm. of carbohydrates 

 (formerly 475), and 10 percent is added for persons who are work- 

 ing, or such as are poorly nourished. The gov't purchases the more 

 essential food products and staples outright through the Min. of 

 War, so that each prison camp is placed on the same basis, so far as 

 food is concerned, and there is no misuse of anything sent to them. 

 Ger. is now taking care of about 1,500,000 prisoners of war, and 

 to feed these there are required daily about 600 head of cattle, 900 

 hundredweights of bread, and 30,000 hundredweights of potatoes. 

 The letters sent home by prisoners of war show that very few of 

 them have lost in weight since their capture. Berlin letter : Jour. 

 ^Amer. Med. Assoc, 1916, Ixvi, p. 754. 



Trade war. Capture of the world's trade. Amer. chem- 

 ists have not talked to anything like the same extent as we (British) 

 have done about "capturing Ger. trade." Nevertheless, as recent 

 discussions in the Amer. Sect. of the Soc. of Chem. Indus, unmis- 

 takably indicate, aided by their elastic fiscal policy, they have quietly 



