34: ALIMENTATION. 



nutrition. Under these circumstances, the amount of food 

 which is taken diminishes, more or less, the proportionate 

 daily loss of weight, and thus retards the fatal result. 



The effects of insufficient alimentation in man have often 

 "been observed in times of famine ; the sad details of which 

 have been given in graphic accounts by various European 

 writers. The history of our own country during the late civil 

 war affords an example, the most appalling on record in any 

 country and in any age, of the sufferings of thirty thousand 

 men exposed within an area of twenty-seven acres to the ef- 

 fects of insufficient diet, conjoined with exposure, without 

 protection, to the vicissitudes of the weather, and the frightful 

 filth and other inevitable results of such excessive crowding. 



In a report by Prof. Ellerslie Wallace, of Philadelphia, 

 to Prof. Valentine Mott, the chairman of a committee ap- 

 pointed by the United States Sanitary Commission to in- 

 quire into the condition of United States officers and soldiers, 

 prisoners of war, the following is given as the average diet 

 in Southern prisons : 



" The meat was irregularly given ; not often daily, and 

 to some only at intervals of days, or even several weeks, and 

 when meat was served, the bread was, in many instances, 

 diminished. 



" About half a pint of soup, containing sweet potatoes, or 

 generally beans or peas, in amount about two ounces, was 

 sometimes given, with or without meat in different cases. 

 The beans and peas were occasionally given raw and dry. 



" The maximum amount of solid food for one day, de- 

 scribed, was 10 oz. bread. 



6 oz. beef. 



" "With half a pint of soup made of the wa- 

 ter in which the beef was boiled, and contain- 

 ing about two ounces of beans or peas, and 

 therefore representing . . . . 2 oz. 



"Total, . . 18 oz. 



